Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - MINNESOTA VIKINGS DRAFT COVERAGE, DAY 2

Episode Date: April 25, 2026

Matthew Coller is live breaking down the NFL Draft pick by pick and then giving a deep dive into the Minnesota Vikings' selections. We will have a check in from TCO Performance Center and Jonathan Harrison standing by to cover the draft buzz. The Purple Insider podcast is brought to you by FanDuel. Also, check out our sponsor HIMS at https://hims.com/purpleinsider Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hey, everybody, welcome to evening two of the NFL draft. Matthew Collar here covering all things Minnesota Vikings, breaking down every pick, getting your reaction, and we'll also have Will Raggots popping in here for a discussion about Caleb Banks, some of the reaction, and we'll have a look at the best players available, lead you up to the second round pick, take you all the way through the rest of the night into the two, or maybe more picks that the Minnesota Vikings. have imagine us here on night two where there are actual draft picks it feels like it's been a while for the minnesota vikings but i'm ready i got the died dr pepper ready the show is always presented

by our friends at fanduel and i feel like that's a good place to start as we are only a couple of minutes away from the start of round two of the nfl draft let's take a real quick look at who some of the favorites are to be taken here high and we'll look at the best players available who the Vikings might want to drop to them. So over on Fandul, the favorites to be the 33rd overall pick and presumably go in some sort of order like this, Denzel Boston, who I was very surprised last night, did not make his way into the first round.

Omar Cooper Jr. was always connected with the Jets, so I guess that made sense. But I thought somebody would take Boston, but he is a good target for day number two. Emmanuel McNeill Warren, we discussed him, a lot leading up to the draft and is his stock as high as a lot of people talked about I wasn't convinced going into the draft that he was going to be a first rounder as many people had mocked him to be but is there a chance at 49 or does he go very quickly here in the second

round chase bassantis is an offensive guard probably not a target for the viking t j parker though edge rusher from clemson a lot of mock drafts had him in the first round kaden McDonald and Zion Young. That's your list. The favorite Denzel Boston to go 33rd at plus 150 and Emmanuel McNeil Warren at plus 420. And just to take a look at some of the other players and the draft order that we're looking at as the draft will resume in a moment here.

Jermad McCoy and his story with the knee injury, how far is he going to drop? And the Vikings are already taking one risk with an injury. Will it be two with Jermad McCoy if he makes. it to the middle of the second round cornerback is very much in my view here tonight avion terrell was a first round pick in a lot of people's eyes but dropped to the second round will he go quickly will he fade into the 40s uh kaden mcdonald very interesting defensive tackle obviously the vikings already took one it would be pretty shocking if they took two but i am curious about where he goes colton hood a potential target for the viking's physical corner there seems to be too

interesting corners in the second not to potentially grab one. Cassius Howell as an edge rusher that was highly productive, but has that short arm issue, linebacker also becomes very intriguing for the Minnesota Vikings. C.J. Allen, a consistent first round pick in a lot of people's eyes dropped into the second. Zion Young edge rusher from Missouri as I think one of the more powerful players in the draft at that position.

Brandon Cise, a high ceiling, very physically gifted cornerback. If they're shooting for the stars with some of these draft picks, then Brandon Cese might make sense. And DiAngelo Pons on the board at 49. I saw some mock drafts connecting the Vikings and Pons. If you've listened to the show leading up to the NFL draft, I think that you know how much I appreciate DeAngelo Pons. And I thought that he actually might be a first round draft pick

and ended up sliding into the second. Anthony Hill Jr. A, if we're talking about guys that have blue chip traits, then Anthony Hill Jr. could be the pick tonight for the Minnesota Vikings. Emmanuel Pregnan, an offensive lineman that is possibly a center. And I say that with big old question marks, but some people have tossed it out there that he could make the move into the middle from guard. Our Mason Thomas, edge rusher from Oklahoma, highly productive, undersized, super quick. one of my favorite players in the draft is the next guy,

Jacob Rodriguez, if the Vikings could get their hand on him, that would be the next Eric Kendricks for this team, a little bit undersized, super instinctual. And then we start getting to some players that, you know, I think the Vikings will be happy for with some interesting fits. Someone like Jeremy Bernard, wide receiver, who is viewed as one of the safer wide receiver prospects in this draft, Jake Golda, who I love the fit for the Vikings as a,

guy who's played in the slot. He's played outside linebacker. He's played traditional linebacker and been productive all over the field. I'm interested in where Chris Brazel goes from Tennessee. 43740 at 6 foot 4. A.J. Halsey, safety. If they want a starting safety, today is the day. Now, if they were interested in Kenyon Sadeek, would they also be interested in Eli Stowers, who is another one of the freaks of the draft? He's basically built like Mike Evans. Could he be someone they look at? Chris Taurus ACL, clearly injuries are not that big of a deal for the Minnesota Vikings. So he would be maybe on their target list. He is a hulking guy.

Like, think kind of Debo Samuel-ish, but taller in terms of like the big giant strength, kind of look, trade in Stukes was hyped up as maybe even a first round draft pick by some people. Highly productive Arizona, nickel, like a big nickel potential slot. Derek Moore, outside linebacker for. Michigan, kind of a good fit potentially for the Vikings. I mean, look how far I'm going down the list and how many guys that you could see as being potentially good fits for the Vikings. Kianti Scott might be one to keep an eye on.

Josiah Trotter, linebacker from Missouri is a little more of a thumper, but they might kind of want that. A very intriguing name maybe for the third round is Kyle Lewis. Super, super productive player, undersized, maybe presents a little bit more as a safety, but he's kind of a Josh Mattelis. Dominique Orange, another defensive tackle. I'll be interested to see where he goes. Probably isn't the Vikings.

But even if we get into the third round, there's some project players here. Danny Dennis Sutton has insane athletic traits. You want to talk about a guy who is built like the DeNeal Hunter of this draft? That's probably him. Elijah Surratt, wide receiver who catches everything. We get into the center discussions. Connor Liu, Jake Slaughter,

Sam Hect, those guys could all potentially be available. So even as I'm scrolling down and down and down the list, I'm seeing a lot of guys, Skyler Bell. I'm very high on Skylar Bell, wide receiver from Connecticut who caught a ton of passes. Zaki Wheatley, a safety from Penn State that projects is someone who could jump right into the fray. So there are guys all over the place in this draft that I think have the potential

to be starting players. Malik Muhammad, a corner from Texas, a very solid prospect, doesn't have a crazy high ceiling, but could be one of those plug-in-play type guys. I will be very interested to see where Bryce Lance goes. Logan Jones is an interesting center prospect. And then we start to have the running back conversation. Emmett Johnson, Jonah Coleman, Mike Washington.

Tonight is very interesting, folks. And maybe you've forgotten since it hasn't happened recently what it's like to be in the fray for, the second round and where you're looking at potential starting players for the Vikings that could be taken. Three of these guys will go at least tonight, maybe potentially even more than that. So it is an exciting night two here as the San Francisco 49ers are on the clock with the 33rd pick. We'll give you updates on each pick and also have a good conversation about the Minnesota Vikings as we do so. And we're going to bring in here in just a second.

Will Raggots from Vikings on SI To talk a little bit more about the Caleb Banks pick And what to expect tonight. Will welcome into day two coverage. It's been a while for Purple Insider. I was doing some vocal exercises today To keep the pipes going. I've got the Diet Dr. Pepper here.

I am ready for this. How are you, my friend? I'm good. I mean, I knew it, but I don't know if I had fully processed that the Vikings haven't made a second round pick since 2022. too. That just seems absurd.

So here we are. This is a really fun night. The first round gets all the hype and the headlines. And it's very important, especially interesting too. When the Vikings make a pick like they did, but this is where they really have to find some building blocks, some starters, address some of their many needs. So I'm looking forward to seeing what they do. I did see a lot of people say last night, like bring back Quasi because as I'm sure you

notice the internet's response to drafting Caleb Banks was, I would say shifted pretty heavily toward not positive. And yet, Quasi didn't have second and third round picks ever. So at least Rob Brzezinski has that going for him. But what did you make? Why don't we do reaction to the reaction first? And then we'll talk a little more about what we think the path is for Caleb Banks. What did you think about the way that Vikings fans and the media analysis universe at

large how they responded to the Vikings taking the big swing of the draft at number 18. Yeah, I guess I wasn't really surprised by some of the reaction. I mean, people look at these draft rankings and the consensus board and people spend a lot of time familiarizing themselves with these prospects. And I just think the fact that this came out of nowhere. Like, Kayla Banks going back early in the process, like coming out of the senior bowl with somebody who I thought made a ton of sense for the Vikings at 18, filling in need and having a really high ceiling.

And then this injury happens and everybody's kind of like, all right, he's not going to go in the first round. He's going to fall to the second where some team's going to have to take that risk on his foot. So for it to happen at 18, just being kind of a shock, I think was the first thing. And then, yeah, like I understand the frustration or maybe the disappointment or why. a lot of people weren't thrilled by it and thought it was a reach. I think the risk thing is the obvious one, but then also just like the value. I think that's a fair question to ask.

Were there all of these other teams who were prepared to take banks shortly after the Vikings pick at 18? Could they not have found a way to move down a little bit? Of course, we don't know what the options were there if they had any sort of option like that. You can't just kind of magically make that happen. But yeah, I guess I wasn't shocked by the reaction. I'm a little surprised it's maybe been as negative as it has been, just because I think, and I and I do this a lot, and I think a lot of people do this.

Like the fun thing about the draft is just talking yourself into it. And with banks, if you can talk yourself into it, like the ceiling is immense. The upside is crazy. So I've seen some people who have kind of gotten on that side of things and are like, all right, if this works, watch out. But yeah, it's been a lot of a lot of negative. So that'll be interesting to to kind of follow moving forward. This feels like if it was 14 years ago that Caleb Banks was

drafted by the Minnesota Vikings that the fans would have said, oh my God, we just got the freakiest freak in the draft that he dropped us because of a foot injury. And I'm not saying that 14 years ago people didn't understand foot injuries. So that would have been a concern. But in terms of the height, weight, and where he went to college, that was a lot of the knowledge that you had going in. And then you would have listened to, well, this analyst liked him or that analyst, but it probably would have just been like Mel Kiper and one or two other people that had the biggest voices in that space and then some draft magazines. And that's all we had. But now every one of us becomes a draft analyst, a draft evaluator throughout the process because of the amount of

information. And I don't mean that in a sarcastic way. I mean that in a, fans have a more educated response to something like this than ever before. And I think what fans can see here, Will, is all of the potential pitfalls. I don't think anybody who says they know how this is going to play out can be taken seriously because we never know this. We've seen projects turn into stars. We've seen sure things turn into absolutely nothing. So we know that until they get on that NFL field and in that NFL, building. No one really knows. Not Brian Flores, not me, you, nobody. So we, we know that. But also through the years, if you reach, your risk is higher. If a guy has injuries, your risk is higher. And my biggest

concern is production. If a defensive tackle who's taken in the first round doesn't have top notch production, then the chances of them turning out to be a elite starter, a top notch starter, Pro Bowl, or even somebody that plays seven to 800 snaps in the league effectively is not really that high. But that doesn't mean that those chances go to zero because there's pitfalls. And I think people should understand that part of it, that it's not like just because this guy, this guy and this guy in the draft previously didn't have successful results. doesn't mean that this other person, Caleb Banks can't succeed.

And we talked to Brian Flores for about 20 minutes today about Caleb Banks. And one thing that I took away, Will, is that there is a very clear path for them in development. Like, they have an idea of what he needs to do to get there. And they have identified those things. Can he get there? I have no idea. But I think in terms of an organization that gives Caleb Banks a chance to make it because of who's working with him, the Vikings probably give him the best shot.

Yeah, I would agree with that. This is a, I don't know if cocky is the right word, but this is like a pick that the Vikings are making a big bet on themselves. They're making a big bet on Caleb Banks too and how hard he's going to work to get to where he needs to be. But they're betting on their doctors, who they say are the best in the world, which is kind of funny. and maybe true to some degree, I don't know.

And they're betting on their coaching staff. Ryan Nielsen and Brian Flores and everybody else, Pat Hill, who's going to be working with Kayla Banks, being able to get him to a point of being a starter and they hope a star in the NFL. Because, yeah, you make a good point. Like, it's not just the medicals that make this a risk. It's also he had one productive season.

I mean, he had two fairly productive seasons. If you look at the snaps play in PFF grades, only one where he really got on the stat sheet, which was in 2024 when he had four and a half sacks, seven total TFLs, a couple force fumbles. So, like, it's not a glowing production profile, but you see the flashes. And that's what Banks has talked about,

and Kevin O'Connell's talked about, if they can unlock those flashes and get him some more consistency, like you can see what's, the upside is. Now, teams say that about a lot of players if you can just become more consistent. So when you pair that need to develop on a snap to snap basis and become more consistent with the medical concern, like I understand that there are risks involved. For me, it's just the reason I can get behind it is like at 18, there are no sure things. I mean, there's no sure

things anywhere, but in the top five, sometimes you feel pretty confident about a floor and a ceiling of a guy. At 18, like, there's going to be something you're sacrificing, ceiling floor, there's going to be some risk. For a team that's never won the Super Bowl and wants to get to that point to become a legitimate contender, having watched the past five Super Bowl winners all have these freak defensive tackles, Aaron Donald, and Chris Jones, and Byron Murphy and Leonard Williams, and Jalen Carter and Jordan David, like, these guys are all drafted in the first round. They don't fall out of the first round when they have traits like that. Now, the banks, the medicals are their own thing. But like you draft those guys in the first round, you can't

find them on, you know, day two or day three, certainly, outside of maybe very rare instances. So I don't hate the home run swing. Even though it has a low floor and maybe won't pay off, I can get behind the idea of taking a shot on a guy who has a chance to be special because frankly, I don't think that like Caden McDonald, for example, has a chance to be a special, special player. He might be an instant day one starter, a good run defender, a Harrison Phillips type of guy, but I don't think he has the upside anywhere near the upside of Caleb Banks. So that is why I can understand what the Vikings are doing, even if in an ideal world, maybe they trade back and are able to do it in the mid-20s.

Okay, first two picks of the second round, Deson Stribling, the wide receiver from Ole Miss, talking about high ceiling players, goes to the San Francisco 49ers. So they are, once again, they are at it getting wide receivers that maybe people thought were a little lower on the board, but I'm sure fit them in whatever way they see. And we'll probably be effective if they're going to San Francisco.

And now the Cardinals go with a guard, Chase Besantis from Texas A&M. So those are the first two players off, board in the second round. And I thought the Vikings might, I didn't, a few weeks ago, I wrote about some receivers. And I thought, I thought, I thought scribbling was like maybe an 82 candidate, if not a 49. And he goes 33. He's 99 on a reef's consensus board.

So shout out to the 49. I like DeJohn Stribling. That is a lot earlier than I thought he would go. But, you know, what? If you have conviction and if you're Kyle Shannon, I'm going to trust the process there. It's a little bit like we have to believe that Brian. Flores knows stuff. And that doesn't make him perfect.

And it doesn't help a foot. If the foot keeps being an issue, there's nothing that anybody can do to develop Caleb Banks. And I think that when you have, you remember when we used to talk about how we'd go into a season and we go, well, what are the chances of the Vikings could be a serious contender? And we would say,

well, this, this, this, and this have to happen. And each one of those are a coin flip. But any mathematician knows that five coin flips, not a very high percentage for all of them coming up head. it feels a little bit of the same way with Caleb Banks,

where it's like he has to have a very specific development plan and patience, and he has to really dig in with that. And he's got a master technique. It seems from the scouting reports that I've read, the technique is a pretty serious issue with Caleb Banks, where he's getting pushed off by double teams. He's letting linemen get into his chest, like stuff that you can't have in the NFL.

And he's six, six. And like sometimes when you're six, six, it's hard to have your pad level be down. And NFL offensive linemen, if you're not on your technique, are going to fully take advantage of that. Absolutely. So you play top offensive linemen, and they're going to have better technique because they're 28 or something.

So that's something that he has to learn. So that's like one potential coin flip of whether he gets it or not. And then there's the production being low, which makes it less than a coin flip that it works out if the production isn't high. And then there's the red flag medical wise, at least from the outside world, not from the Vikings, but, you know, we've just heard them use this a lot of, no, no, no, we know better when it comes to predicting injuries.

And I guess sometimes they've been right like Hargrave and Allen last year, but sometimes Aaron Jones, Ryan Kelly, etc. They have not been right with taking risk after risk after risk. The whole roster is an injury risk at this point. And that is certainly, I think, pretty concerning when they maybe lean on this too much. I believe that they have, they should have said in the league. You should have just said in the league. shouldn't have said in the world.

Some brain surgeon in Tokyo was probably like, come on, man, I'm the best in the world. Like, they fly people to Tokyo for me. But anyway, I just thought like that one is going to stick with Rob Brzezinski if this does not end up going the right way. But the point being that if those things click, then Caleb Banks has a chance to not just be okay. He has a chance to be phenomenal, which I think you can make an argument for the source. I think more than anything, though, because, yeah, big swings in the draft, sometimes you do it. I think it's the shock of it also that that's the way they decided to go because Pram Brzezinski said to a question, I asked him just this week.

He said, well, you don't want to talk yourself into the glass being half full just because it's a position of need and a player you like. He's like, what's this? So I think that, I think that risk scares everybody and the potential potholes scare everybody. but I also think though we're only talking about the ceiling for Caleb Banks. Even if he gets to 90% 80% of his projection, what's that? Like a guy that plays 500 snaps and is really hard to block for some people, but isn't a superstar? Is that like a Shelby Harris?

I know this is, I don't know if everyone knows Shelby Harris. But Shelby Harris was a guy that, well, he's still in the league, kind of. He's played for Denver. He gets like four or five sacks a year. 30-something pressures, and he's very helpful. So I think that even if you go down one notch, you're still talking about a player that might be worth 15 million. It's just that the negative here would be if he gets hurt again,

doesn't develop at all. You could be talking about an enormous, enormous bust. But let's move forward to day two here as we're just getting going on the clock in round 2. 49. Give me an idea, Will, of what is on your mind, because I think everything is open, corner, receiver, maybe offensive line if they want to reach for a potential starting center.

What would you be targeting here today? Yeah, the fun thing is that there's like six positions that I think make a lot of sense. You could go offense after using your first pick on defense. I don't know if you want to do the center just yet. I think you'll be able to get one of these guys in the third round. But a wide receiver, I think, could make a lot of sense, especially if the 49ers are going to start a run on them here, and you think that there's maybe a tier break between the guys you could get at 49

and the guys you could get in the third round. I don't think you're not going to do a running back quite yet. So then you look at defensively. I put out a tweet on Super Bowl Sunday where it was like, should the Vikings just draft Caleb Banks at 18 and draft a defensive back at 49 and go full juggernaut mode on defense? And that was granted before the conference. Combine and Banks' latest injury.

But that first part of that has come true. So maybe they'll go defensive back here. And there's a lot of guys, cornerbacks, safeties. If DeAngelo Pons, the Indiana corner, I don't know if he's, if Brian Flores is okay with the size there. But he is such a fun player to watch. Trade and Stukes, the kind of versatile corner slash safety from Arizona is a guy I really, really like. There's a bunch of them. So that would really intrigue me.

but I think you could see them take a linebacker. I think you could, we can't completely rule out like an edge rusher. What's going to happen with Jonathan Grenard? So it's really fascinating. And I hope they just go with the best player available approach and maybe minimize the risk a little bit more on this one. Yeah, that's the thing about Caleb Banks is best potential football player available. They definitely took that. He was the best potential football player available.

But if you don't weigh into the chances of that point, player success at all and just say, well, he's got the best potential. That kind of feels like what they did a little bit. So I understand the pushback for it because of that. So, but I think people also forgot as they're analyzing this is that they have other picks. And you can make other safer picks or guys with higher production or guys who are a little more ready to play in the NFL in day two of this draft in particular.

And you named a bunch of those guys. I'm really curious how far Emmanuel McNeill Warren goes on the draft. because down the draft board because he was talked up by so many draft analysts, I got to be honest, I just never really saw it. I watched him a little bit and you looked at the data and you're like, okay, six foot three, 200 pound. He's probably not a box safety. So he's going to, I mean, he's presented that way,

but I don't know how many six three, 200 pound box safeties there are. It's a little bit of an odd guy that got way, way, way hyped up in the draft process. Is he going quick here? Or could he be there at 49? Because if he's there at 49, I'll put my takeaway a little bit with, I don't know, like I don't really see it because that would be great value in this draft. And I think no matter what happens in these first handful of picks, there's going to be somebody at 49 where we go,

that guy tumbled down the draft board because there's just too many good players here. So why don't you, before you check out here, Will, and then go back to cover in the draft for Vikings on SS. why don't you give me two, two predictions? I know they got three picks. Give me two players that you think they'll go after this evening. Okay. Yeah, McNeil Warren would be awesome.

I don't know if he's going to make it there. I'll just go, a name I already said, Trayden Stukes from Arizona. He just seems like such a Brian Flores defensive back to me with his versatility, his ability to play multiple spots, his playmaking. He can play. man to man in the slot or even out wide and he can line up as a deep safety or as a box safety and

just there's just a lot to like he's an older prospect um but really experienced he i think that there's a a a real chance if he's there at 49 that that fit uh makes a lot of sense for the viking uh and then i don't know there's um offensively there's a lot of wide receivers that we could talk about there's the running backs Mike Washington and Emma Johnson on day three or in in round three. I think they're going to draft a center because I think that for as much as they've talked about, ooh, BPA, this team like most in the NFL does draft for need sometimes. They did it in the first round yesterday. They did it in the first round last year with Donovan Jackson. I don't think that they want to go into this thing with Blake Brandel kind of unquestioned as their center. So I think

they're going to take one of these guys in the third round. I really liked Logan Jones from Iowa, another older prospect, but he was the best center in the country last year. He won the Remington Award, really experienced a little undersized, but there's a lot to like there. Sam Heck out of Kansas State is another one. I guess I realize I'm not giving you a prediction. So I'll go Logan Jones from Iowa.

That'll be my prediction. Trade and Stoaks and Logan Jones. If I get either one of those right, that's pretty good. I'll buy you a milkshake if you nail either. one of those for the Minnesota Vikings. Will Raggitz, Vikings on SI. Always appreciate your coverage, man. People can go check that out.

And thanks for popping in, dude. Really appreciate it. Yep. Have a good stream. All right. This will be fun. So, uh, Katie McDonald is off the board now. So the big giant defensive tackle goes to the Houston Texans.

The Houston Texans definitely needed more defensive linemen, right? I mean that they have built one way and one way only. all the defensive linemen and all the most giant and physical and aggressive defensive linemen. That is a great fit. It is a truly great fit, uh, Caden McDonald to the Houston Texans. So that was the 36th overall pick. We're working our way to the Minnesota Vikings.

So I'm curious for you guys in the chat here to answer the same question. Who would you like to see the Vikings land here tonight? We'll go over, uh, what's happened real quick. Dezon Strambling is, uh, the first. first guy off the board to San Francisco, and then you have Chase Basantis was Arizona's pick and now here with Caden McDonald's. So there's, we'll keep an eye on, you know, what's available on the draft board and, you know, moves and trades and things that come up. But I'm very curious what you'd like to see the Vikings do. I think there's probably about 10 different combinations

that I could say would get much better responses from everybody. than what happened yesterday, for example, with the reaction. But I think cornerback feels like something that they have to come up with. And I also think wide receiver today. Center, I'm a little less sold on that needing to happen because I think Blake Brandl and Michael Juergens holding down that position can survive for another year. If they have to, if they don't love any of these center prospects, and there might be some guys that drop into even day three that could

potentially be starting centers eventually, depending on just how the draft falls and things like that. But man, I really think that the wide receiver position is something that they need to come away with in this draft. And then everything else, like linebacker, offensive line depth is they could look at that into the third round. We were just talking about center, but even offensive tackle. If there's a project tackle player that they like, looking forward and looking at the depth that they have a tackle. If they did that, I think it wouldn't get a good response, but it also wouldn't be insane in my mind if they ended up doing it.

So I think if I had to, if I had to settle on if they only end up with three picks tonight, DeAngelo Pons is somebody, a lot of you guys are mentioning absolutely. Safety could be another one, A.J. Halsy. So how about something for the secondary and then a wide receiver running back? I'm not sure on. There's some running backs I like. Josh, should we get Colton Hood? Yes, Colton Hood is a very good defensive prospect, physical player.

He's not the biggest guy, but in terms of the way that he plays, extremely aggressive, doesn't have huge interception production, but has a lot of like passes, past breakups and very little success throwing into his coverage. So that might be somebody that they could look at potentially there. And even, you know, linebacker is a position that right now, they have yeah okay Ivan Pace is still under contract but they really have two guys that are on the older side and Cashman is still under contract so there's going to be some linebackers there how many linebackers were taken last night outside of Sunny Stiles and Arvel Reese and was it

zero so that everybody else who plays linebacker in the draft here is in a good place um not going to spoil picks again today I know the broadcast does get a little bit behind uh when it compares to social media. Last night, I understand it was way behind, but I'm going to continue to do it that way is when I see the pick on television. That's when I'm going to talk about it for us. It just kind of makes it easier that way so you can line it up. But the New York Giants are here taking Colton Hood from Tennessee, the cornerback

we were just talking about as somebody that I liked, potentially for the Minnesota Vikings. There could be a run-on corners that comes up so far. there hasn't really been a run on anything to speak of, but there could be a run on corners where Jermad McCoy is still on the board. And who knows exactly what the issue is for McCoy. Like, is it, gosh, is it possible that, oh, yeah, I can run through who's been picked so far. But is it possible that Jermad McCoy just doesn't even get drafted today either and ends up being a day three pick?

like if his knee issue is so bad, then we might see him just continue to slide down the board, even if he has all the talent in the world. But yeah, let's take a look at the board right now. So here's what we've got so far. And then I'll take a look at some of the best players available. We can run through that leading up to 49. So far, Chase Bessantis, oh, wait, that's 34.

Hold on. 33 was Dazon Stribling to the San Francisco 49ers. And Chase Basantis goes number 34 to the Arizona Cardinals. T.J. Parker was picked by the Buffalo Bills, and they made a trade there. Caden McDonald goes to the Houston Texans and now Colton Hood to the New York Giants. And if we slide over here to look at the best players available, I got to scroll all the way back up. Jermad McCoy is the best on the board. If you're looking at this on the right side is where I have,

and the order is not exactly right here, which is why I have two different screens. so because some of the trades this is actually the Raiders at 38. They made a trade with Houston. So I'll switch back and forth to make sure we get the order right. But Avionturel, Denzel Boston. I mean, Denzel Boston, I think hurt himself a lot

by not running the 40. And that might be showing up here. This would make a lot of sense for the Raiders to go Denzel Boston and add another wide receiver. But that may be one of the reasons he fell. His tape is very good. His production's very good. But sometimes when,

you don't do some of those drills, teams will hold it against you. Emmanuel McNeil Warren safety from Toledo would be great to fall down the board to the Vikings. But there's some linebackers and edge players that I really like potentially a 49. Cassius Howell, super productive, really quick, tiny arms. What are you going to do? C.J. Allen is more of a very athletic player. By the way, Will Raggitz is going to be wrong here already.

for predicting traded Stoaks going to the Raiders now and not the Minnesota Vikings. That was somebody that a lot of analysts said was going to go higher than expected, and he's going to go here to the Las Vegas Raiders. But back to our list of guys available, I am really intrigued by Zion Young of Missouri. Great production, great strength. Maybe it doesn't have the fastest quick twitch, if you will. But I think power is winning a lot in the NFL. DeAngelo Pons, we mentioned lineback.

Anthony Hill is a potential here and Jacob Rodriguez. Those are the positions that are really strong right now, linebacker, edge rusher, and then there's a, I think a break based on, you know, this is consensus board, but there is a break based on consensus. Oh, they updated it. That's good. They updated it here to say the Raiders. But, you know, there is a little bit of a gap, I think, with wide receivers to

where the third round might be the place to go with receivers. Like, if we look at the best receivers on the. board. Jeremy Bernard, I'm not as high on. It seems like a fairly safe pick. I don't know where the league is with Chris Brazzle and Chris Brown. Chris Brazzle from Tennessee is a freak, but does he have enough polish to step into the NFL right away and be successful? Zachariah Branch, I don't think the arrest is going to have any impact there, but the way that he plays might as an undersized guy, very explosive. So there's all these wide receivers. Where are they going to and how is it going to work out?

Will there be a run-on receivers or will some of these guys have to wait? So now that we know this is updated correctly, I'll use this because the names are bigger and you guys can see it better. So let me go back to your thoughts here. Let's see. Evans says all of our guys are coming off the board. Do we trade back? I mean, I don't know if I would describe the guys who came off the board as being Vikings

targets, as Stoaks for sure. but Caden McDonald definitely was not and Chase Besantis was definitely not and we haven't seen a wide receiver other than stribling and I don't know if with the wide receiver position I think I counted up 17 guys that I would be comfortable with which I know there's not 17 players that are going to be really good in this draft but I did come up with 17 players that I thought had some reason that they would be good fits for the Minnesota Vikings just when it comes to day two. Mr. Mayor, what remaining players have the best combine measurables, ignore everything else about the process and just their physical testing? Well, let's go back to the list and see what we got for that. I think just in terms of physical ability, well, every one of these guys has some reason to kind of go, uh, Brandon Cese, the corner from South Carolina would be one of them.

Anthony Hill is definitely, if they're going that direction, if they're going, hey, let's get freaks who need to be developed. Anthony Hill Jr. from Texas, I don't think he's a great football player yet, but he absolutely has all of the traits of someone who could be great, especially in this defense. You're right about that might be the tip off based on yesterday. Chris Brasel would be another one. The guy is enormous. He ran a sub 4-4. Chris Bell is a freak. those are probably the guys that stand out the most to me for athletic, just madness.

And Danny Dennis Sutton is someone to watch as an edge rusher who crushed the NFL Combine. Does it have his combine numbers here? Yeah, he was 6'56 pounds and ran a 463. So, yeah, here's a, oh, this is cool. I actually didn't even know that I could click on these players and get all their metrics. Shout out to stick to the model.com is what I'm using here. So if you look at Danny Dennis Sutton's metrics, I mean, just elite on a lot of the things that matter to an edge rusher.

But the actual stats were only okay. Decent stats peaked at eight and a half sacks in a season. So, you know, I mean, not bad by any means. But in terms of his combine and his height and his ability to rush the passer, his RAS was listed there as 10. So there's some freaks. Ted Hurst, well, we should use this more. His RAS was 9.5. That's relative athletic score, which weighs the performance versus position.

Ted Hurst from Georgia State just, oh, and kind of the, there's a lot here to work with. The 40 was a 4-42 explosive with the broad jump, big hands. Like, there's something there. And then I think we talked a lot about Mike Washington, Jr., who has, really, really impressive NFL Combine numbers, just tremendous when it comes to his speed numbers, his 10-yard split, his vertical, his broad, like everything just screams explosiveness for Mike Washington Jr. So those are kind of the guys that have the outstanding NFL Combine performances. I know I kind of threw a lot at you there. Looks like, okay, the Cleveland Browns

here are headed up to make their selection. they I really wonder if they had any conversation in Cleveland about the Rams taking a quarterback and them not taking a quarterback yesterday. I mean, maybe have some conversation. How long till the Vikings pick from now? I mean, I would say maybe 20 minutes, but I don't know for sure. These go fairly quickly in the second third round, 20, 30 minutes. We're only nine picks away or 10 picks away. Denzel Boston, oh no.

Oh, no, Denzel. not Cleveland. Oh, no. Oh, gosh. Poor Denzel Boston. Why did he have to go to the Cleveland Browns? I really like Denzel. If you listen to the show leading up to the draft,

I thought he was one of the better receivers in this draft, but was maybe underappreciated because people were too obsessed with 40 times and things like that. And he is just such a good ball tracker. he is so, so strong when it comes to his hands. But going to Cleveland, I wish him the best of luck. Oh, man. Well, he is used to it.

He didn't have very good quarterback play in Washington. They kind of threw the ball all over the place. But that's rough. That is rough for him. I agree that Cleveland is doing a great job. Spencer Fanow, Denzel, Boston. Yes, very funny, Russell, he's getting to play with a Pro Bowl quarterback. It's true.

You speak nothing but the facts. I don't know what Cleveland picked yesterday, but if they picked back-to-back wide receivers, they'd be doing a good job. You're right. I think they're doing a good job, but they need a quarterback. DLM says, feels odd saying the Giants, Jets,

and Browns are having good drafts. Well, what do they have in common? Hmm. All the picks. Usually that's how it works. And that's the way the league is set up is to help the bad teams. Maybe it'll work for them this time.

any news a little bug jug any news on jonathan granard not a peep not a peep haven't seen anything today did any of you see anything in terms of the rumor mill because i have not the last thing that was out there was from jeremy fowler before the draft he said that the vikings were comfortable keeping jonathan gernard but then ali connelly who's been on the show before his podcaster. He's pretty well dialed in in the NFL. I think he used to work for somebody. I'd have to ask him. But he mentioned that there was a trade. The way he talked about it was that it was already happening with Grenard in Philadelphia. But I don't know that that's true, because Philadelphia also made some moves in the first round and that might throw something off.

We've got at 40, the Kansas City Chiefs taking a player. I was intrigued by R. Mason Thomas, a very productive outside linebacker type that I thought would be a pretty good fit for the Vikings 6-2-240 so he doesn't have the exact profile that you would expect from a pass rusher, but he is super, super quick off the edge. I just thought this is like if you gave Eric Wilson another 10 pounds, and I mean that as a plus, not that he's a linebacker, but in the way that he's built and his quickness. I know he's more of a pass rusher than Eric Wilson,

but that size with the quickness of someone like Eric Wilson, that's what R. Mason Thomas kind of reminded me of. Had six and a half sacks this year, third team all SEC. They're shown on TV, but he was a nasty player. I think if you saw him a lot. And I wonder about a run on edge rushers going into where the Vikings pick here. We go back to our board. So coming up here is Cincinnati, New Orleans, Miami, and the Jets.

And the edge rushers are a pretty good group here. Cassius Howell, Zion Young, Gabe Jocquez from Illinois, another very productive guy. I really like the fit of Derek Moore from Michigan. He doesn't exactly fit all the perfect specs, which I guess if they're doing that now, then, you know, maybe that's not a fit.

But he had nine and a half sacks last year was a very much an outside linebacker type. I thought based on watching him, he could be a potential good fit. So, looking at the board, I'm very intrigued about where these edge rushers are going to end up going. And if the Vikings will have a chance to get one or if somebody at the cornerback position will still be there, Avion Terrell has not been taken yet. I guess the NFL was maybe a little put off by his four, six performance at his pro day. even if that's not how he played,

and even if there was a hamstring issue that may have caused that, still something like that can cause a player to drop down the board. I think that Terrell is a really good fit, and a lot of people have said that he's kind of like a Byron Murphy. All right, we've got Cassius Howell has been taken. I was just talking about him, another highly, highly productive guy with great speed, ran a 4-9 if 253 pounds,

but has insanely short arms. the zero-eth percentile arms he has 30 inches. I've never tried to measure my arm, but it's got to be 30 inches, right? I feel like the average adult male has a 30-inch arm or something. But in terms of his production, 12 and a half sacks for Texas A&M for Cassius Howl, that is pretty, pretty good.

So I am interested to see where it goes for Cassius Howell with Cincinnati, but that is a team that has totally revamped their defensive line in their front now with Howell and Dexter Lawrence there. So now just a couple picks before the Vikings, New Orleans coming up on the board here next and looking at the players available. I'm still, I've still got my eyes on Emmanuel McNeill Warren and where he's going to land because if that's somebody who was projected to go as high as the top half of the first round by some of the analysts and he's drops to 49, that would be a huge, huge win. And that's why, you know, with someone like Caleb Banks, if you flip around, there's some of these players that if you flipped around and Banks was

at 49 and they took the other guy in the first round, some of these prospects, you'd be like, okay. And I'm curious if it ends up working out that way here in this draft. So we'll keep an eye on that. Just T-Rex out there. I mean, that's crazy. That's crazy. That is crazy to have 30-inch arms. I can't believe it. Scamping around, sure hope they draft well so I could feel better about the Banks pick. The one thing about the Banks pick is I've just seen so much reaction today and I understand maybe confusion. The Saints are going with Christian Miller here, a favorite of mine in the second round, a very strong, violent player, 6 foot 4, 320 pounds. I like Christian Miller a lot. There's some issues there with injuries.

I think, which may have caused him to drop, but in terms of an actual player, I thought there was a chance he could even go in the first round. That guy is a beast. And I know that, you know, Caleb Banks is 6-4 and 330, and that's hard to replace size. This guy is 6-4, or Caleb Banks is 6-6. This guy is 6-4 and 330. So that's like a tank. Not quite Vita Vaya size, but he's kind of like that.

But another defensive lineman, and there's more edge-tailing out there, which means Emmanuel McNeill-Warran, is continuing to fall. But just going back to the Caleb Bank stuff, I thought that it went a little too far with the reaction. It was such a surprise to everyone. And then when the first thing you hear is, he's got injuries,

it hits hard, I think, because the recent past of the Vikings taking guys with injury histories or signing guys with injury histories has not been great. And they clearly believe in their medical staff a lot, which is wonderful and the investment from the Wilf's is terrific that they put into everything medical-wise, but it doesn't mean that you can solve every single problem if someone, you know, has a lingering foot injury that continues to come up. So I think it's a lot of just fear that you're not even going to end up seeing the guy

because of the number of injuries. And I think it just, I think it probably tipped a little too far. It tipped to this is the worst draft pick and this guy will never make it and everything. I was like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, one thing we know, even if the data is not friendly to this pick, even if the data is tipping the scales with the production, the injury, and some of the other stuff, just the amount he played in college, even if that's tipping the scales in the wrong way. And then you have on the other side his traits and his size and his quickness that tip the scales the other way, it's maybe a little less than a coin flip in terms of the chances that it works out.

the coin flip really lands right, if you can, then it could work out insanely well for the Minnesota Vikings. So I don't think that it's quite a pick that you should be saying, fire Rob Brzynski, you know, whatever else is the worst draft pick of all time. I don't, I don't think that we should go there. That to me is just classic overconfidence from all of us that we think, well, we read the reports, and we saw what Daniel Jeremiah said, and we know all this information, and so we know the right answer and you don't. That's a little bit too far.

And I was on with Chad Hartman earlier today, and he kind of compared it to the reaction to when the wolves traded for Rudy Gobert, that analysts hated it. I don't think fans liked it very much. And I know that, you know, Rudy Gobert was already a great NBA player when the wolves traded for him,

but it still was viewed as a pretty big risk because they gave up so much draft capital and so forth. And that's worked out brilliantly for the wolves, especially last night. So we don't really, truly ever know on the day that these things happen. Now, I was out there for Caleb Banks today. Seems like he has a great attitude toward life. Seems like a curious fellow, but also has at least it looked like, felt like from the way he talked, a lot of support from his family and a development plan from the organization.

and then we just see what happens. And that's all we can ever do, right? There have been guys, and Lewesne is one to use as an example here because Lewesine checked every single box. He had a 4-3-7 at 6-foot-4, played for a great team, had no injury issues whatsoever. He played in the back end. He looked like the perfect Harrison Smith partner.

He could fly upfield to make big hits. He could pick off passes in the deep middle of the field and it just didn't work out. But then there are other guys that, you know, felt risky that have worked out. Brian O'Neill is probably my favorite example of that. Brian O'Neill felt like a huge risk when they drafted him. A 270-pound guy. Like, really?

You know, that's what you're taking here. So you never know. And I think in terms of the Caleb Banks reaction, it probably went too far. Like, I'm on your side of this is very risky. And this is a surprising home run. swing. But I also thought that it went a little bit, a little bit toward the, wow, they made the worst draft pick of all time. I don't think that that's a fair assessment when you're talking about someone who has this much size and power. So I think you can fall into the category of being

very concerned that that was the pick and very concerned that it won't work out because of the red flags. Well, also recognizing that we don't actually know on draft night how it's going to work out. It's just kind of a reminder that, you know, there's a lot of, oh, we got to trade here, huh? The lions are trading up with the jets. So I'm interested to see what the lions are going to do there. But it's just, you know, it's always worth a reminder. So they're moving up from 50 to 44. They trade up six spots.

So that's going to come up after Miami. Interesting. That'll be the Detroit Lions. Miami is on the clock right now at number 43, by the way. But just, you know, to put a bow on. that and then we could get back to the second round. It's just, we never really know how it's going to work out. Draft grades historically have been a terrible predictor of the actual outcomes of the NFL

draft. And this might not be determined. And that was kind of circling back to my question to Brian Flores. This might be determined in several years. Jacob Rodriguez off the board. Oh, to the Miami Dolphids with 43, truly one of my. favorite players in the draft now I'm starting to think that there will be several guys that I really like for the Vikings that are going to be there that can tumble down the board but

Jacob Rodriguez was one that I had circled as go get this guy because he is a playmaker he is instinctual he is a leader he's tough he can do it all and because I got to watch a few of his games and he's one of those guys so I don't usually watch college football to try to like scout. I just to try to enjoy the madness of college football. But there were a few guys watching this last year that you could just, yeah, draft that person. I don't know what his 40 is. I don't know, whatever, but he is a dominant player. And that was Jacob Rodriguez for me. And then it also turned out that he had a gray 40 and a great combine and everything else. So he ends up going to the Miami Dolphins. And now we will find out

who the Detroit Lions are trading up together. get. Well, let's circle back to our draft board here. As Jacob Rodriguez goes to the Dolphins, this isn't updated yet to have Detroit here at 44 with the trade. But as we start to project out to 49, we're 44, so it's Baltimore, Tampa Bay, Indianapolis, Atlanta, and then of course, Minnesota, and Detroit has jumped up to 44. You have Aviontorell, you have Emmanuel McNeill Warren on the board. you have edge rushers and linebackers here still available. C.J. Allen and Anthony Hill Jr. if they want that. And the other corner is Brandon Cise and D'Angelo Ponce.

So if they want a corner, I mean, I doubt all three of these guys are going to go before they get to 49 with the Vikings. So they should be able to get a corner if they want to get one. And another guy that I have my eyes on for the edge rushers is Zion Young from Missouri. Let's take a closer look at him. Zion Young of 47540 at 262 pounds. That is pretty rare. And statistically speaking, six and a half sacks, but had 15 and a half TFLs productive there.

And an experienced player at Michigan State, he's gotten better and better 6 foot six, 262 pounds, and is just a lot of strength when you watch him play. So it doesn't have the highest ever RAS, but he is a strong, strong player created a lot of pressure as well. So they are, the Lions are trading up to get Derek Moore. And Derek Moore was a target of mine. He was one of those that I liked a lot as a potential fit for the Minnesota Vikings as an outside linebacker.

But he ends up going to Detroit at number 44. He is a little bit. Now, he was very, very productive this year. A lot of highlights, 10 sacks. He's got quickness to him off the edge. He's very good when it comes to running stunts and kind of slipping his way through and getting to the quarterback. He's been a very, very interesting player to watch at Michigan. And someone that I thought could even potentially drop into the, or I'm sorry, be taken in the first round, like very late in the first round.

If teams weren't as sold on like Messador or Kendrick Falk, then I had Derek Moore as someone. as someone that they could potentially go after. So let's take a closer look at him. By the metrics, he was not an athletic freak. He only had a 30-inch vertical is not the biggest guy. That's why I thought that he might be a Brian Flores potential target because he looked like somebody that was on the athletic side, but much more of like a, this guy's a great football player.

Let me just make this so you can see everything there. There you go. So you can see the whole profile. So, but he was much more of great stats guy. Nine and a half sacks. They listed it there, I think is 10, 20 and a half sacks for his career. Derek Moore, a good pickup overall for the Detroit Lions. So well, well done by Detroit, trading up to get Derek Moore.

I think he should be a good fit there. And they need pressure. They have Aiden Hutchinson, but they haven't had a whole heck of a lot else. That is where we are at right now. um, uh, Billy. Yeah, I know that, uh, people, like doctors, including Skoldock, who is a long time listener to this show and, uh, he's talked to me before about certain injuries. I mean, the way that even Caleb Banks described his last foot injury was, uh, the metatarsal, which usually if that breaks, then it just heals and you're okay. but I think when it comes to Caleb Banks, it's not that there's a massive concern about the most

recent injury. It's the accumulation of injuries where you go, all right, well, you know, certainly, and the other thing too about, and this is no disrespect to any doctor who comments on this because everything that I've heard about this metatarsal, if it breaks or whatever, usually just heals and the guy is okay eventually. But six foot six, three hundred and 30 pounds, don't know how many doctors have dealt with a six foot six three hundred thirty pound guy and the amount of pressure and force that you are putting on your feet and if you've had multiple injuries there all it is is a red flag none of us can really say or at least it's a red flag in our minds obviously not for the vikings none of us can really say how it's going to play out we can only say

we've kind of heard this song before of we know better it's not a big deal it's okay it'll be fine and sometimes it is and sometimes it isn't but you would much prefer the guy not have a very concerning foot injury than have had multiple injuries on it and another part of it too not just with the injuries and and you're right d lm it sounds like he kept coming back too soon but it that's also a thing too i mean if you're coming back too soon you're playing through it you're not developing and you're not turning into the player that they need you to be he missed all of last year. He played 96 snaps. So he basically didn't even play. Now you're starting from square one, but you're not starting from rookie minicamp. You're starting a training camp, which is installing and

getting your defense going, not necessarily slowly developing a player throughout the summer. There's just those types of pitfalls that could make it kind of tricky for him. So it's not that I think, oh, man, he's going to just break his foot instantly. It's just whenever that comes up, You raise an eyebrow and you go, are you sure? And the same thing goes for production. There's no guarantee that Caleb Banks won't be way better in the NFL than college, but it doesn't happen that often. DeNeal Hunter, of course, is the best example.

I believe Sheree Floyd wasn't that productive in college and ended up being a good NFL player until he got hurt. There's examples you could give, but they're much more of the outlier than they are the norm. So that's where it comes to, I don't think, anyone saying that Kayla Banks can't be great. It's just that there's a lot of risk that goes along with it. Mr. Mayor, if he didn't produce at the college level,

despite having such big physical advantage against future car salesman, will he produce against his opponents? That is the question. That is not bared out very well, borne out very well. It hasn't worked out very well when it comes to guys who didn't produce in college across every position and then turning out to be. good NFL players, but I'll give you a weird example that you could almost compare Caleb Banks to would be Josh Allen because Josh Allen had bad production in college and then became great because

he's a physical freak. And I would guess that the only guys who have ever done that, the only players who have ever had bad production in college then become great in the NFL are probably physical freaks. So at least you took one that has a chance to do that. Feline master, I will say that banks highlights are some of the most preposterous things I've ever seen. That's right. Then that's why he's drafted is because the highlight reel and the raw ability is just irreplaceable when it's somebody that size. I mean, call it ability or just call it traits or whatever you want. You just cannot make it up anywhere else. You can't find it in free agency. You can't trade for it.

So that's why they're going after him. Dumer says the Vikings have the best coaches of the country, if not the world. So they can teach him to be productive. They do have a good coaching staff. That's what I mean by being fair, by being measured about this draft pick and not just deciding today that it's not going to work out. Because for every one of these things, like, yeah, the foot doctor guy does say that this injury shouldn't be a massive problem.

Okay, well, you know, we'll see. It's a concern, though, and it's a reasonable concern. But there are clearly medical professionals who have studied his actual foot and said, this should be okay. Now, that doesn't mean you can't be concerned about it. And the production is the same thing. You can absolutely be concerned about the production. And DeNeal Hunter is the ultimate example.

But the problem is DeNeal Hunter was drafted 11 years ago and we're still using DeNeal Hunter as the example. That's the problem. It's like every one of these things are, they're bad omens for a pick being a hit. But it doesn't mean for sure it's not going to work out. Zion Young to the Ravens. Oof. That's a player that I really, really liked. And they're highlighting his ability to set the edge.

I mean, that's, it's just so, so good. So strong. I tend to tune into Missouri sometimes just because Alec Lewis went there. so just to see what they're doing. But I watched him and highlight reels and a little bit more of him because I thought it was a realistic possibility for the Vikings. And he isn't the most blazing fast quick Twitch guy, but he's just so strong.

And it reminded me a little bit of a guy that we don't mention on the show, Jared Verse. People get too mad. But it reminded me a bit of him, like that overpowering force. You could see what a big duty is. Thank you so much, scamping around for the super chat. Really appreciate that.

My friend says level-headed analysis, one of the reasons you've been listening for years. Well, thank you. Thank you. Would like to watch the Williams Wall again with Redmond and Banks, Wolves and Five. I think Wolves and Five is very realistic. But to your point,

the interior of the defensive line, and I know that, oh, thank you so much, Julian as well for the Super Chat. Do you think that we should draft our next pick? personally, I think cornerback. Oh, what, who do I think? Yeah, let's take a look at the board here real quick. Thank you again for the super chat.

Now that we have another player off the board, let's go take a look. Josiah Trotter is going to the Tampa Bay Bucks here. That's being announced right now by Ronde Barber. So the board is looking kind of great. I would, if Emmanuel McNeil Warren is everything that he's thought to be by a lot of draft analysts, which now I'm wondering if he's a real person

with the fact that some people had him all the way up in the top 15, and now he's dropped this far. But personally, I'm a little bit, you know, I think that that would be great in terms of where he was expected, where he is on consensus boards versus where he is now. That's great value to get a starting safety in the second round. So good with that. Some of these corners, though, Avion Terrell,

Brandon Cise, DeAngelo Pons. And if, look, if they're going all home runs, swings, you might as well draft Anthony Hill Jr. Let's take a look, 6 foot 2, 238 pounds and a 451, which is in the 95th percentile, 37-inch vert, 125 broad jump in the 95th percentile. His actual statistics are pretty good. He had a crazy year, two years ago, with 17 TFLs. Last year, he had less, but has been overall a good player, has 98th percentile.

relative athletic score. I didn't love watching him. I thought that he was a lot of like decide on something and then go a thousand miles an hour at it or would be a little too hesitant. Just maybe identification is a little bit of an issue with him, but he's a physical freak. There's a lot here. There is a lot here. There's also Jake Olday, who I'm very interested in as a versatile 64 240 pound linebacker.

A lot of green here on his profile. in terms of his speed, the three cone. This guy is an Andrew Van Ginkle kind of prototype who also had a lot of, I mean, he doesn't have the, the TFLs and sacks, because he wasn't a pure edge rusher, but tons of tackle production graded extremely well by PFF. So there's a lot, there's a lot there.

There's a lot of talent here. The Vikings could decide because of that to drop down a little bit in the draft if they want to, as we have, let's see, the Steelers, did they move up? Did the Steelers move up with Indianapolis? Did I miss that? Because they are on the clock now at 47.

They must have moved up with Indianapolis. It's hard to keep up sometimes with all of the trades. Yeah, Steel, okay, the Steelers traded up. So who are they trading up to get? We're going to find out right here. Gunnard, very funny. Who cares about Jermad McCoy and best doctors in the world? Pizza Gary.

Pizza, Love you Pizza Gary, but not all of my favorite guys are gone. DeAngelo Ponds. Are they getting him? No, they're not. The Steelers are getting Jeremy Bernard, which is really cool to have John Stalworth announce another wide receiver. I think Jeremy Bernard is as easy of a projection of a B to B plus wide receiver as

there is in the league. Not a superstar. The traits aren't there. But just a solid route runner, the quarterback play, even though he was a first round quarterback, was not as good this year in the second half of the season. But this guy's good. He's just a good football player.

Doesn't run a crazy 40 or doesn't have insane high jump. But I think you'll see from these highlights. Like there's a lot of good route detail, tracks the ball well. I like Jeremy Bernard. So that's, I think, a good pick for the Steelers who have no quarterback. But DeAngelo Ponds is still there, Pizza Gary, which means that I think the Vikings should just go for it. I also, the Dragons Joccas from Illinois. Very good, very good.

Steven, great to have you there. Really appreciate that. Thank you. I'm glad you liked the sign in the background. Yeah, that was, I used the internet to order it. I think, what did I use to get it? Whatever website it is, Etsy. Etsy.

Somebody on Etsy did that for me, so that was nice. All right. So we're getting closer and closer here. Atlanta is on the board and at number 48. So we're one away from the Minnesota Vikings. Let's take a look at what we got here as Jeremy Bernard goes off to the Pittsburgh Steelers. And you can see from his numbers, very fast, very fast. I don't know if 448 is actually, yeah, I guess it is 95th percentile.

Quickness had pretty good numbers, but, you know, maybe not the best wide receiver in the draft. Pittsburgh needed more talent, though, and there's no quarterback for them to draft, so they might as well. But there's going to be a lot here, a lot of talent on the board for the Vikings. And there is one guy who's on the board that I think if you're in the chat, you might be rolling your eyes a little bit. And that's Lee Hunter. I really liked Lee Hunter's fit in the second for the Vikings. You want Mike Washington? Okay.

Mike Washington would be an interesting pick. I mean, hey, if they went all in for the most athletic running back, then whatever. That's fine. I was not the biggest fan of watching him play, but I also was blown away by his NFL combine, and I know that they need way more explosiveness. Brandon Cesey, yeah, he could also be a potential pick here. That's at that's traits. Cise is more of a traits guy.

Pons versus C-Saysay versus Emmanuel McNeil Warren. What you just said right there is maybe a reason to trade down a little bit. If they can, move down a couple spots and get one of those guys. Avion Terrell is still a guy who was a first round projection by a lot. This board is falling very, very nicely. Jay Suffolk, don't care who we drafted as long as it's a cornerback. Draft is a crapshoot at some point. You need to grab for a need just as much as the best available.

Yeah. I mean, I understand where you're coming from there. Cornerback, though, there's guys that are both best available and a potential need. Just not a guy coming off an injury. Right. They don't have enough doctors for two draft picks. I mean, if you have the best in the world, I know. I'm not going to make fun of Rob too much.

Is his first, is his first draft? He was very excited. If he had just said in the league, then everyone would have agreed. They do. They have great medical professionals. Pepper, is there a playmaker you like here? or do we take one of the defensive sliders? So there are receivers, yes, someone like Chris Bell, who I know is coming off an injury.

I don't know. There's a lot of guys who get hurt. It's football. But Chris Bell is one that's thought to have a very high ceiling, extremely explosive. He's like 225, 230 pounds. That might be somebody you put the ball in his hands and he can make plays. As Rogers coming back, maybe a second round draft pick wide receiver is a little bit of a nudge. It's kind of felt like that.

They made no effort whatsoever to get a quarterback. It's kind of felt like they know, right? Javier, if they take someone that's a nobody is projected in the fourth, I'm going to lose it. Well, I will say of Caleb Banks, the only reason that Caleb Banks was projected, if you go back and you look at big boards, maybe we can do this. Go back and look at Caleb Banks big boards where he was in February before the injury. A lot of them had him as a first round pick. So I think that the injury stuff moved him down and down and down the board,

that that was a concern from a lot of the draft analysts and why he wasn't as high. And they might have been hearing that some teams were not high on Caleb Banks. And that's why they moved them down draft boards. But if you go back and look, he truly was considered like a top 25 prospect when the draft analysis began back in February. That's the best I can do. Pizza Gary, Rob's first pick felt a lot like fantasy when someone picks a guy with a red cross but didn't realize it. Yeah. Yeah.

Right. And then like, we got the best doctors in the world. Yeah, I know. I mean, it was a little bit like, can you imagine, can you imagine, though, for Rob, who has been such a great guy. He's worked so hard for this organization for so many years. He gets his first shot, his first draft. And then people are like, hey, your guy's injured. Like, what's your problem?

I mean, I'm sure you want to be like, whatever, man, this guy's great, you know, so what are we getting here? Here comes Atlanta. Roll the dice on McCoy. Maybe, maybe. It just seems like no one's drafting Jamon McCoy. It seems like that knee is just too much of an issue. There are so many players, so many players on the board right now for the Vikings to look at as Atlanta is up and they're making their pick. for me it's probably DeAngelo Ponds,

but if it's Emmanuel McNeil Warren, that will be a big steal. Oh, Avion Terrell goes to Atlanta. That's A.J. Terrell, Avion Terrell, maybe the obvious decision here for them to go with A.J. Terrell's brother and just pair those guys up. Okay. But Terrell was a guy who was ranked in the top.

So it's just a good pick, just a smart decision for the Atlanta Falcons to start rebuilding their defense. That's really cool for them. is very cool for them to be paired up with the Atlanta Falcons. The unfortunate part is that they have to play for the Atlanta Falcons, but those are two very good players. All right, there's a lot on the board for the Minnesota Vikings. Emmanuel McNeil Warren is probably my favorite pick here, but DeAngelo Pons, Brandon Cise,

two really good corners. Pons is a ball player, which is why I like him, but Cicay's got the traits. I would not be shocked if it's Anthony Hill Jr. talk about physical traits through the roof. Jake Golda, Chris Brazel, if they want a wide receiver, AJ Halsey, Eli Stowers, Eli Stowers has dropped into the second, absolute physical freak tight end, haven't even brought him up, but he was just as much of a freak as Kenyon Sadiq.

It's just that he really didn't block a whole heck of a lot. But there's a lot of talent here on the board for the Vikings. And there it is. They are trading back to get number, wait, wait, wait, now, come on. they're trading back with the Panthers, a couple of positions, but my update from Adam Schaeffer, okay, here's the trade. The Vikings are moving from 49 to 51, and they are, let's see, receiving pick 159, and they are giving up one, oh, and 196.

Okay. So they are getting, all right. let me get this right carolina's trade up to 49 well receiving pick 159 okay so they are getting 49 and fifth and 159 for 51 and 196 if that makes sense so the vikings are geez this is confusing adam schaefter trading up to 49 while receiving pick 159 from the vikings for 51 and 196 okay all right so they move back two spots that's the the bottom line moving back to two spots. I'm kind of not fully understanding the swap of picks because I feel like shouldn't the hikings be getting the higher shouldn't they be getting the higher pick? I think you might have that like

slightly off. But anyway, I'm sure they'll maybe Jonathan who's watching can. Yeah, okay, they got 159. Right. That's what I thought. Because the way that it's written is like the Vikings like moved back twice was the way it was there was written. But anyway, so they get 59 and 159. 51. 51. and 159 and then move back. Sorry for the confusion. But we'll have to wait a couple of more minutes. This makes a ton of sense, though, for the Vikings to make this trade. They also get 196.

So, okay, so they get, yeah. I think that's right, Evan, that they are moving up. Yes, we've got it right. I'm sorry. Oh, man, the Schefter tweet just was backward, I think. and they move from 150, 196 to 159. So they move back two spots, but move up 40 spots later.

If you've got all that resolved and, hey, I've been, I haven't even open. This is a, I'm open to the Diet Dr. Pepper here. I'm curious to see who the Panthers trade it up to get. This is the first diet Dr. Pepper. We need a deep breath. Lee Hunter. They move up to get.

Lee Hunter. Good, good player. Good player that now we know would have been on the board for the Vikings to get a defensive tackle at 49, which makes the Caleb Banks decision a little bit tougher. I think Hunter is much more of a right-away type of guy if you watch him play. He should be step in, make an impact. He's quick. He can get to the backfield. He would have been a safer for pick, but the fact that they could have gotten a top DT at 49 is a little bit of a tough, a little bit of a tough move. Yeah, yeah. Okay.

So thank you. Thank you, Russell, that it wasn't just me. It was actually Schafter kind of had it squirly where the Vikings moved back two spots, but then they move up later from 196 to 150 something. So the one, 196 to 150 was it three or whatever? Yeah. So now you've got it. moving up later to move back two spots now.

That makes a lot of sense here, especially with Carolina wanting a defensive tackle and the Vikings already drafting a defensive tackle. And it allows the Vikings to still get, if we go back to our board here, the Vikings to still get Emmanuel McNeil Warren or DeAngelo Pons or Anthony Hill Jr. Or Gabe Joccas or Jake Golda, any one of those guys that they want, they could actually move back a little bit more if they actually wanted to do that. So here is Detroit on the clock. And we'll have to see if they decide to move back.

Why do I think McNeil Warren is falling? I don't, I didn't understand it. I just never understood why. And I think this was actually, wasn't this one of my predictions? I believe it was. One of my pre-draft predictions was that Emmanuel McNillan, Warren was not be a first round pick, that he would definitely not be a first round pick. Because he doesn't have crazy athletic ability.

He didn't have a million interceptions in college, which when you play at Toledo, you kind of expect that the person would. And there were some things on his tape that were just a little bit odd, like laid on plays and things like that, that I thought, I understand why this guy's getting drafted, because his range is great. his instincts are great but he's not all that polished and it's going to take some work for him i think it's more about this one particular tool of kind of having a natural baller nature to him and he can cover a lot of ground very fast like like a long stride kind of thing and maybe there was just too much

oh he's he's going to be nicky minuaree because he's tall i think that that's it that was a that was a mock drafter creation, truly, a mock drafter creation. And I was going over today, I was going over some of the reports. My favorite report pre-draft was that there was buzz that no defensive tackles would be taken in the first from one of the top draft insiders. And I was like, guess not. Guess you didn't check with the Vikings. Anyway, maybe I shouldn't make fun of those people.

They're fighting an uphill battle that everybody wants. draft rumors and no teams actually give you what they're doing. So what are you supposed to do other than beat the bushes for whatever you can get? But it's fun to compare draft night with this is going to happen. This team loves this guy. This team's going to take that guy. And then it's all blown up as soon as we arrive. And maybe Emmanuel McNill Warren was just never a great prospect.

But I think that he's actually in his right slot here. I don't think the people that had him in the top 15 were. looking at him through the lens of where someone will draft him, they just really liked his talent. Mel Kill is Banks a two to three year project? I think so. I think so. My expectation for Caleb Banks this year is to play like 400 snaps and show flashes and

get a couple sacks and get excited about him a few times. And that's probably it for 2006. They definitely didn't draft for 2006 right away. If it's more than that, that would be wonderful for them. But it's just hard to see that gap getting closed so quickly between what he was in college to then superstar in the NFL or even quality starter in the NFL. I think they're going to rotate him into positions that they want to rotate him into that they feel comfortable with with where he's at with his development. And he's not going to hit his peak until probably year three. That would be my guess.

Not a twerk. I agree. McNeil Warren is played against weaker competition, which means a lot more now than it used to mean to me. Oh, man. Oh, the Jets. Of course it would be the Jets who end up drafting DeAngelo Pons. One of my favorite players in the draft.

And now some of my, did all the worst teams watch Purple Insider? Is that a bad thing? If all the worst teams drafted all of my favorite players in the draft. Denzel Boston goes to the Cleveland Browns. Now DeAngelo Ponds ends up as a New York Jet. Thank you so much, Leonard, for the Super Chat and happy birthday to you on the draft here. Well, now on the board, though, I mean, no downside at all to taking Emmanuel McNeil Warren if they decide to go with him. But there's Jake Golda, Anthony Hill Jr., ton of players on the

board any wide receiver you want really the only two receivers that are gone the second round was supposed to be receiver crazy early in the second round but the only two receivers that are gone are jeremy bernard and uh dison stribling those are the only two guys that are gone if they want eli stowers he's a freak they could do it they could go with a guy who is essentially the next kind of T.J. Hawkinson-like player. That's how Stowers looks at it. So McNeil Warren is, I think, a really... Okay, you guys are funny.

Myth Neil Warren is good. Methneal Warren. That's pretty good. Not a twerk wanted stribling. Apparently he was one of those guys that more people wanted than was expected. The Vikings moved back. yeah, they moved back the two spots and they just swapped a fifth for a sixth to make it simpler. So Ted Hurst is a good option here.

I also agree with you that DeAngel Pons at 49 would have been good. But getting a little bit of extra draft capital, not a bad thing. So here you go. The pick is in for the Minnesota Vikings. No spoilers, guys. Wait till it shows up on TV. I'm actually going to, I'm not going to scroll the chat. Last night there were a lot of Adam Schaefters in the chat breaking the pick.

So let's see who the Vikings go with. I think this board has fallen great to them. They have as many options they want. And if they had wanted to trade down five more spots, they could have and still had a ton of talent. This is, when I looked at this draft going into this, every time my conclusion was exactly the same, which is there is a lot of talent in the second round. And that doesn't mean that it's superstar talent, but it means starter talent. It means playmaker talent potentially. And I felt like they should be able to come out in the second round with a very, very good

prospect. And if they take somebody who is, I mean, it would be so ironic here to take somebody who is mocked way higher. It would be so ironic if they did that. And then you get, well, a steal and a reach. So I guess it evens out. Brian O'Neill here announcing the draft pick and the Minnesota Vikings select Jake Golday. I feel like this is a big victory for Purple Insider who I've been banging the Jake

Gold Day drum over and over again leading up to this draft. This is when I tell you, Andrew Van Ginkle part two. watch the highlights here, look up his numbers, look up his height, weight. He plays so much like Andrew Van Ginkle. I am a enormous fan of this draft pick. It's somebody that we've been talking about for probably a couple of weeks as a versatile type of player, outside linebacker, can play edge, can rush the passer, but also is very, very good in coverage, plays with his hair on.

on fire. This right here is a Brian Flores draft pick. And let's take a look at his profile here because Gold Day is, I think you'll see a very, very athletic player, super athletic player. He ran a 4-6-2 at 239 pounds. And if this looks familiar, it's very like Andrew Van Giggle. It's almost weird because almost a 40 inch vertical, top in the three cone, top in the broad. And from a statistical perspective, he didn't have tons of sacks because he didn't always rush the passer, but he was very, very good in coverage. He could drop back. He could get after the passer.

If they asked him to, he could blitz. He could play middle linebacker. This guy was all over the field for the, uh, Cincinnati Bearcats. And I just think that this right here is something that you can put in for a more versatile type of front seven. You can have him kind of learn to be Andrew Van Ginkle over the next year. So because Van Ginkle is in his 30s and Van Ginkle has some injuries.

And he also ended up, you know, being, um, uh, uh, let's see, uh, somebody that for them was on the IR last year, was he, I'm trying to remember if he was on injured reserve. Maybe he wasn't on injured reserve, but he was somebody that was banged up for them last year. And as great as Van Ginkle has been over the, um, over his time with Minnesota, like all things come to an end at some point. And they have a guy that plays very much like him. And this right here now is a draft.

that is focusing on stocking up on the defense. And Golda can help them right away, for sure. As a rotational player, he has a multiple level of skills where you could work him in to be outside linebacker, to be inside linebacker, to put his hand in the dirt and rush if you need, to have him rush up the middle on third down if you need, even if he's not in the game to play special teams, which is kind of important these days with the kickoff as well. So yes, Julian, I did talk about him as a Van Ginkle type of player, but not just because of that, because he is, it's weird. Like, look up his height, weight, his performances in the combine and even the college production is kind of, it's almost spooky.

Like, this is, are we living in a flat circle because the universe just produced another Andrew Van Ginkle, but I could see why the Vikings would really. like him. Uh, Evan, thanks so much for the super chat. You're right. Time to grow out his hair, time to wear number 44. And so far as I know, Bruno, he does not have any injuries. Uh, Patrick, I think with McNeil Warren, uh, the next pick is going to be not until 82 unless they trade up.

So now everything is on the board. We'll talk about that in just a moment because we're going to have quite a while before the Vikings are up next. So, uh, let's, Let's talk about McNeil Warren, though. That would have been another potential option for the Vikings here. In my opinion with McNeil Warren, now, I don't interview him at the combine or have him in for a 30 visit or know his injury history. So all those things could play into it.

But just from a viewing of Emmanuel McNeill Warren, if a guy is going to be a first or second round, early second round draft pick at the safety position, and he's much. more of a free safety. He played in the box in college, but I don't know if he can play in the box in the NFL. It's a little bit, if you're going to be a box, and also that's not that much of a role in the NFL now, but Harrison Smith does it. If you're going to play up toward the line of scrimmage a ton, I'm sure they'll do it with Caleb Downs, you've got to have a violence to your game. You got to have usually a little more weight behind you, but you've got to have some Josh Mattelis, some aggressiveness, some violence. I never saw that from Emmanuel McNeil Warren.

He kind of perused the secondary and he forced some fumbles and he had some past breakups. But it wasn't a dominance that you would expect from someone that was at Toledo. And once he went to the combine, I think I remember talking about this with Chris Trappaso at the Combine, he just didn't blow everybody away. He was supposed to be the McNeil Warren as the Packers take Brandon Cise. So they get a corner here. They badly needed a cornerback. But he went to the combine.

It was just okay. So I think that people wanted McNeil Warren to be the next Nickyman Warren. It's just not there. He might end up in the third round and he might end up being a good steal in the third round eventually. I also wonder about Mac players and the draft. because if you're a good player in the Mac or some of the other lower level college teams, you're probably taking the bag and going to Alabama or Georgia or Florida or something, right?

Like, aren't you trying to work your way up to those top teams where you could get money? And the fact that McNeil Warren didn't do that makes it really hard to compare him with all the players that did. And we haven't seen, have we seen, I mean, hardly any players. that are drafted from schools that are not at the very top. But still could end up in the third round for the Vikings, which I think would be a good pick. Last Samurai is KOC going to get offensive players? LMAO.

I think the third round has a lot of potential for center and wide receiver. Could still be some good corner prospects. Haven't seen a lot of linebackers. Jake Rodriguez went and that was it so far. we've seen some corners start to come off the board now with C-Say and Pons going. Now the pick is in for the Indianapolis Colts. But if I were to look and project forward to the third round, I would probably say that the offensive players will be there,

that it's center and wide receiver would be my picks there. But it is exciting. I don't want to get too far away from Jake Golda, because it is exciting to see a player that you kind of circle and identify. This is what makes the draft great. And you go, that's, that's a Flores. That is a, that is a Brian Flores type of player.

And he was in my article where I wrote 10 Brian Flores fits. And, you know, there was Jake Gold Day. So, you know, I've kind of looked at him as someone being versatile and a good fit to line up in a lot of different places. But also he has a motor to him. He has, I think, range to him, like sideline to sideline and legit size at 6,4 and 240 pounds to play on the outside.

It's a little bit like if Anthony Barr played for Brian Flores, Barr was heavier. I think he was like 255. He was heavier and Golda might be a little bit faster. But this makes so much sense for the Vikings to have a bit of a plug-in play type player to rotate in and just give them. them more depth in the front seven. And then look, when we talk about Banks and Gold Day now, loading up in the front seven as the Colts takes C.J. Allen, and there's another linebacker, someone who dropped way farther than I thought, but makes a lot of sense as a run-stopping

linebacker for the Colts. With Banks and Golda, I don't know what Banks is going to be right away. None of us really have any sense for what he's going to be from the start. But if you look at a long-term plan for the Vikings of trying to find a replacement for Van Ginkle, Dallas Turner is a replacement for Jonathan Grenard, though all of that Jonathan Grenard buzz has just gone poof into the atmosphere. I haven't heard a thing about Jonathan Grenard being traded. Maybe we'll be surprised here at some point. But I also wondered if the Eagles trading yesterday, if they used any of the capital that maybe was talked about for the Vikings. I suppose that, you know, that's possible as well that maybe they had something cooking with the Vikings.

And that's why calling anything definitive is not a good idea. Maybe they had something cooking with the Vikings. Then went, no, actually, we got to use this draft capital to go get McKayleman. Maybe that happened. But when you start to look, you go, all right, well, you have this, this B6 foot six guy that you're really hoping. Jalen Redmond, very, very good player on the interior. I think he's a top 25 defensive tackle in the league. And outside linebacker, Andrew Van Ginkle,

but for the future Jake Golda, Dallas Turner for Jonathan Grenard, but also, as you mentioned, Evan, Cashman has an injury history. Wilson is over 30 years old. Golda could end up playing in the middle at some point, too. Kevin, I don't think that this pick means that Grenard is gone because Goldae is not really a Grenard type edge rusher. He is much more of a Van Ginkle. He is much more of a guy where you could just see the wheels spinning for Brian Flores.

Watch and play and go, yep, that's a Minnesota Viking defensive player. And he makes so much sense for all the things he could do. But he's a great athlete. And he's got great range. That was what stood out to me the most when I watched him because I ended up kind of being a bit captivated by Jake Gold Day throughout this draft time. And finally, a bad team didn't draft one of the players that I had on my, like my guys, as the Eagles get Eli Stowers.

So that's kind of their replacement for Dallas Goddard. Eli Stowers is actually kind of just like Dallas Goddard. Goes to the Philadelphia Eagles. These teams, they have, they have their vision, these teams. That's why when I said earlier this week that team, only have draft boards that are like 100 people or whatever. They have the guys that fit what they want to do and then they go with them. But to your question, Kevin, I don't think it guarantees that Jonathan Grinard is gone.

And then also Philadelphia just used their second round pick. So are they doing it for third rounders? Maybe. But I don't think that that would go over particularly well, trading a great player for third round picks just to not have to give him a bit of a pay bump. So I don't know. And yeah, he's, he's huge. He's like 6, 4, 65 Gold Day and 240 pounds and runs extremely well.

And that's what I was talking about is why he's not, he's not like a Grenard. This is not a put your hand in the dirt, go chase the pat. That's not Gold Day. He is much more of a stand up. Oh, why is he over there? Look at his usage. He actually lined up in the slot like 200 times or something. Like, oh, he's over there.

Oh, he's right over the quarterback. Oh, he's got his hand in the dirt. Like, he did a lot of different stuff there. And it makes a ton of sense. Dave wants the package 82 and 97 together to move up. Yeah, I'd rather just have two players. I mean, the way the board is going, and I know we're a long way away from this,

but there's a lot of wide receivers. No centers have been taken so far. and a lot of wide receivers that are still on the board, a lot. Aaron, KOC starting to get the shakes with two defenders taken. But I like where they are with just their overall front seven. The secondary has its questions. But one thing I wondered about in the secondary is, A, can you get one in the third if you want to?

But also, I mean, Jay Ward and Theo Jackson are, guys that they've developed. Josh Mattelis is someone they trust to do just about anything. Could they just be okay with that with the safety position? Because they had a chance there to take A.J. Halsey, if they didn't want Emmanuel McNeil Warren, they could have taken McNeil Warren. And they decided, no, we're going to go with the versatile front seven player. I also view it as when you do look at the Seahawks and you do look at the Eagles over the last

couple years, teams that had freakish front sevens with big rotations and a lot of talent coming off the bench, staying fresh, they did well. So I think that they kind of had their eye on, hey, like if you can build the biggest and baddest front seven there is, then you can have some success. Let's go back to our board here. So you've got C.J. Allen, Stowers, J.Mod McCoy, man, I just feel bad for him. Anthony Hill Jr. I thought was another, what did you say? Emmanuel Mith Neil Warren.

Can we work Mith into Anthony Hill Jr.? I know that he's not dropping too far beyond where the expectation was, but he was one that I just had trouble seeing as a top pick when some folks had him really, really high. I just thought he didn't play well enough on the actual field. But looking down the board a little, let's take a look at the office. players that we could project forward. Connor Lou, the center from Auburn, Logan Jones, center from Iowa, Jake Slaughter

Center from Florida and Sam Hacked Center from Kansas State. All of those guys are solid prospects. I like Jake Slaughter the most, but I don't disparage anyone who likes Logan Jones. I just see a little too much Garrett Bradbury and Logan Jones. And I shouldn't do that, but I kind of do. He's under 300 pounds. Slaughter is bigger and also had a great combine. I felt like it wasn't talked about enough that Slaughter is six foot five

and was in the 80th or better percentile in most of the the workout stuff in the 40, the 10-yard split, the vertical, the broad. According to Brandon Thorne, who does trench warfare and covers offensive line, he thinks Sam Hect is the best player here. Those guys all being on the board, midway through the second. Doesn't guarantee that they'll get there to the Vikings at 82, but it gives it a chance.

Here's my favorite position right now and the way things are playing out. Oh, oh, oh, whoa, oh, we got a trade. Okay, the Vikings are trading Jonathan Grenard. Wow, here we go. The Vikings are trading Jonathan Grenard to the Philadelphia Eagles for a third round pick number 98 overall and a third round pick next year in 2007. So Jonathan Grenard is traded. Reactions, everyone.

Jonathan Granard is traded to the Philadelphia Eagles. And the Eagles have signed Grenard to a four-year, $100 million extension that includes $50 million fully guaranteed. Wow. Right after picking Jake Golda. So there, guess I was wrong, Kevin, who asked if he was a replacement for Jonathan Granard. I don't think he necessarily is.

I think that it's actually Dallas Turner. I think he's there. But the compensation, so the reaction from you guys on the compensation, I think that when you start to add this up, when you start to put it all together, well, why wasn't Jonathan Grenard worth more than this? And you look at the money that they just had to spend on Jonathan Grenard in terms of his new contract where it's going to be $25 million a year, $50 million extra dollars guaranteed, and he's coming off an injury and he's coming off a year where he didn't sack the quarterback.

And so all of those things are going to bring down the overall value of someone in the trade market. And I think it's clear when they put Jonathan Grinard out on the block that having to have Adam Schaefter put it out there for them. Like, hey, knock, knock. Anybody want Jonathan Grenard told you that teams around the NFL were just not willing to go very high in their compensation for Grenard? And I had heard from another team that fourth round picks were thrown around a lot for Granard because everybody knew once you get them, you have to give him a huge amount of money,

which the Philadelphia Eagles did. I'll give you the two sides of this. I think in terms of the compensation, considering that the offers were not good, and considering that all of those things knocked down injury, lack of production last year, things like that, wanting a new contract, getting two-thirds is not a disaster for the Vikings. But losing a player like Jonathan Grinard is pretty tough in terms of the pill to swallow because Grinard has become such a big player for the Vikings in their locker room, in their pass rush.

He brought a motor that was ridiculous. He brought drive, intelligence, intensity to their locker room that they needed. He was a tremendous, tremendous culture player for the Vikings, but not just culture as in he's a great guy, culture as in a driving force to the, defense, somebody who's going to give you everything he's got. I'm remembering him chasing Caleb Williams around in 2024. And I think they had to call a timeout because he was so gas, but they needed him on the field.

And then he goes and gets a big sack. He's a great player. And being around someone like Jonathan Grenard, there were times where I would ask him like, hey, teach me a pass rush move. And then he would take me through the long arm technique or the swim or something, just, you know, messing around in the locker room. but a really intelligent guy was a pleasure to be around for the last couple years and to watch him play football.

It is not good when you lose a player of that caliber. It is, it's hard to lose a player of that caliber. And I think with Kyler Murray being a Viking and the fact that you could actually compete and you could actually win this year, win the NFC North, trading Grenard doesn't feel great. and I started to not like the idea very much after they signed Kyler Murray because I think like, dude, you could get a, you can have a top 12 offense. And with Grenard and everything else that they have, you could also have a top five, top seven type of defense. And there you are. You're a serious contender.

And all you get back is two third round picks. It is hard to get starters in the third round. Next year, it is supposed to be a little bit of a stronger draft. but third round might not apply to that. Thank you so much Willie. Appreciate that. He was a fun watch and he was also just a really, really good player. But I think that a part of this that has to be brought up is that Dallas Turner last

year when he was put into Jonathan Grenard's role, he was a beast. He played his best football. He ended up leading the team in Saxon. most of those sacks came when Dallas Turner was replacing Jonathan Grenard. So they traded the farm for Dallas Turner and doing that to have him sit behind Jonathan Granard on an extension. That just doesn't really fit, right? If you had Dallas Turner just trying to fit in somewhere, hey, this guy's injured,

play over there. This guy's injured play over there. Well, that's what his last year was. I mean, they didn't trade all that stuff up to get Dallas Turner to have him be a fill-in player. They traded for him to be a star. And now we're going to find out what Dallas Turner can do and whether he can be a star. That has to be factored in in the conversation about Jonathan Grenard. Now, the return is not great.

But when every other team in the league was saying day three picks for Grenard, and the league was not excited to pay Grinard $100 million. I mean, this also, by the way, this is important too, that this opens up, and I think Schafter just tweeted, let me take a look, that this opens up a bunch of cap space for the Vikings, if I can find this tweet that he just threw out there, because I think he just tweeted about how much cap space they have. So he mentions, yeah, Schaefter mentions Dallas Turner.

Yes, wow. this trade, this is actually kind of crazy, saves the Vikings $34 million in cap space? What? Is that true? Or does he mean like total over the next two years? He probably means total over the next two years. But nonetheless, when they talked about keeping the powder dry, that is got to be part of it, right? of they could go out now into free agency and get more talent,

that there's still free agents who are out there. There's wide receivers who are out there in free agency. There's still some skilled players that they can now spend some of their money and they can maybe, you know, give extensions to players they want to extend to. But, you know, that cap space matters too. So the Vikings, the Vikings don't just get two thirds. What they get is a pretty big chunk of cap space. and a lot of opportunity for Dallas Turner.

And I also think that just the way that this is going for the draft and the talent that they are projecting forward into the later part of the draft because now they're going to draft three times in the third round, I mean, this makes five, right, five top 100 picks. How crazy is this, guys, that the, the Vikings drafted eight times in the top 100 during Quasi Adolph-O-Menz's time here, eight. They're going to draft five times in the top 100 this year.

This is how you build for the longer term. And this off-season has really been how you build for the now and the later, because they've set up certain players' contracts to not hurt them later, like T.J. Hawkinson or Aaron Jones. And they have also, found a way to get a lot of extra now cap space that they didn't have before and they have kept you know, their, their players that they can win with and gotten a lot more draft capital. So this is splitting the difference.

And maybe you could call it a competitive rebate. No, this isn't a competitive rebuild. This is splitting the difference, though. This is not not going into tear it all down mode, but also not going all in mode on 2006, especially since you get more of a development project in the first round and trading away Jonathan Grinard, which I think is a really, really hard thing to do, just looking at his resume and what he's meant to the Vikings over the last couple years. But it does have a lot of benefits to it.

And a third round pick in this draft where maybe you use it to move up. I mean, the Vikings could still try to use 97 and 90s. to move up. They could also move 82 and 98 to move up. So getting that draft pick this year and a third for next year just allows them to do a little bit more. And this, especially on the offensive side as we go into the third round here eventually, I mean, the third round could have starting center, wide receiver, running back. As somebody mentioned Mike Washington.

It's competitive rejuvenation. I like that. Competitive rejuvenation. What it really is is something I've said quite a bit over the last, how long, I don't know, since Rob Brzezinski took over, is that Rob Brzezinski has a sense for this franchise continuing to exist after the year 2006. And he has protected that. That is one thing that is clear.

Now, I didn't think that they would take the big swing for K. But Caleb Banks is not necessarily a pick for 2026. He's a long-term pick. And trading Grenard is a long-term move. And I think it's a hard one to swallow for Vikings fans because he has been a fan favorite. He's become a great player here. Whoa, wow. I guess the bears are not totally sold on Garrett Bradbury being the guy as they just drafted Logan Jones. So we've got the first center off the board as Logan Jones is taken by the Chicago. Bears. Interesting. That's, that would be a reach right there. That would be a reach, but that is the first center off the board in this draft. Interesting. That's a Ben Johnson player, if I have ever seen one. He is lightning quick out of his stance. He's actually kind of a Drew Dalman clone. Lightning out of his

stance. Great in terms of the zone blocking, getting to the next level. Like that's Logan Jones. so he goes to the Chicago Bears. Infinite Nova, Granard is a great player, but great move. Seems like they never move off players, not in the long-term plans, while they still have values.

This is a great point, Infinite Nova, that the Vikings so often in their previous iteration and even pretty similarly recently, have most often held on to their assets too long. And I'll give you a really good example when those guys weren't going to be long-term. the best example of that in recent history is DeNeal Hunter.

DeNeil Hunter, Kurt Cousins gets hurt. They're going into the trade deadline. Teams are offering, I don't know, call it a second round pick. And the Vikings are saying, no, no, no, we need to try to make the playoffs. We'll get that pick back as a comp pick, which I don't know that they ever got because they signed a bunch of free agents. But the potential was right there to trade a player while you're not. in a Super Bowl mode. I think that this Vikings team is in a win the division type of mode,

that that's what their aim is to do. But they're also really believing in Dallas Turner taking a big step forward. And they get now the Browns go with McNeil Warren here at number 58. So, but I think that they are really buying the idea of Dallas Turner, Andrew Van Ginkle, Jake Golda, who is much more of a Van Ginkle type player, but they could still get another edge rusher at some point in this draft and they could still also sign somebody. They could also trade for someone. Like now the options for what to do after the draft and after June 1st, they all just

come alive because they actually have the cap space to do it. And, you know, we talked about that Dexter Lawrence potential deal. One of the reasons why Dexter Lawrence would have been a really tough deal is they just didn't have the cap space to do it. Thank you, Evan, for the super chat. did the Bears take Jones because we took Banks? Could be, I think he's a guy that's going to get run over by Caleb Banks in the best case scenario, terms of the size differential.

But I think they took him because of Drew Dalman. If the center run starts, yeah, then that's going to be tough for the Vikings here. Brad is Emmett Johnson still a possibility? I think he is very much. Third round, well, that's the thing. It's like, if you are Kevin O'Connell and you're looking at the third round going, there's going to be some offensive players there, receivers, centers, running backs. They're all going to be there at the back end of the third round.

Why don't we load up on those guys and use all the draft capital there for role players on offense or guys who could step in right away and then eventually develop? But when it comes to trading a player like Jonathan Grenard, if you have the best player, one of your best players walk out the door, that's always really tough. but now with a path there for Dallas Turner, you get to find out, and this is really important too in year three with the first round draft pick, you get to find out where Dallas Turner really is

because he's had two years to develop. And last year, the second half was very strong for Dallas Turner. But is he really a finished product? Probably not. There's still more room that they, have to go and they need to find out was he worth that draft pick you don't spend that much on a draft pick like Dallas Turner to have him sit and watch Jonathan Grenard play and then try to just rotate in when someone gets injured we saw them try to play that that middle with Turner the last

two years and it didn't work out so I think that if you're just looking at this from kind of a broad perspective of like wait a minute you traded a really good player for a couple thirds You're missing like a lot of the layers to this thing. And this comes from someone myself that very much enjoys talking to Jonathan Grinard and watching the man play football. And I think he's, I think he's very, very good. I think he's very, very good as a football player. But age is an issue.

Injuries are an issue. Recent production is an issue. New contract is an issue. all those things that you would have to, as the Vikings, overlook to then keep Dallas Turner behind him. So this is why something like this happens because you have Dallas Turner needing that path to be able to play and to find out what he is going to be

into the future. But also, I think that they were really impressed. And I also, it hit them last year. It really did hit them last year. that Dallas Turner is a pass rusher. He is not Andrew Van Ginkle or what maybe Jake Golda will be. He's not a guy who's going to line up in the slot. He's not a guy who should be really in coverage very often.

He needs to line up on the edge and get after the darn quarterback. And I agree, Aaron, that the 2027 third rounder is pretty good. So overall, when it comes to this trade, the saving of a ton of cap space, multiple draft picks including a day two pick this year, giving Dallas Turner a chance. I think this is the best you could do. I think this is the best you could do because I didn't get any sense at any point leading up to this draft

that the Vikings were getting a ton of attention for Jonathan Grenard. So it would have been nice had they been able to keep him because it is a year where they can, you know, potentially win the division. but I think that trading him doesn't preclude you from potentially winning the division still if Dallas Turner takes that step. And if he does, then it could be very good. I mean, you might get the same type of production out of him that you got from Jonathan

Grenard. And then you know you have a foundational player. And if you don't, then you know you have to replace him in the future and that you blew it. What are the edge options in the third round? Let's take a look. Let's take a look. Also, I wanted to peek over at Fandul here, what we got. I don't think any of the odds.

Let me reload and see if we got some draft stuff there or, uh, or what? Some rookie, some rookie numbers. Interesting. Okay. I would assume the Vikings numbers have not changed from eight and a half wins. That's right. They're eight and a half wins on Fandul. Well, I guess that's a Fandul question of the day.

We haven't had one of those for the draft coverage, but without Jonathan Grenard, is your win total different? So if you're very angry about the, that, that was. be a good test, right? A good, uh, a litmus test would be if you're very angry about the Vikings trading Jonathan Grenard for a couple thirds and cap space, would you change the over under number? Because I wouldn't just with that trade. But let's look at the board. So we're at number 60 now. That means we're 22 picks away from the Vikings unless they trade up. The best players on the board, Jermad McCoy. Oh, man. He is the guy. Oh, that's tough.

tough for Jamad McCoy, just to not be drafted yet. But let's take a look at the edge rushers. So Joshua Joseph's is a productive, I think, no, I guess not. I guess he was not a productive player, but maybe he's more of a, yeah, okay, he was, Joshua Joseph's is more of a ceiling projection, more of an athletic freak type of player at 632, good numbers in the NFL Combine. but not necessarily huge numbers in terms of production. Danny Dennis Sutton is one to watch.

He is kind of built a little bit like DeNeil Hunter. I know that that's like a weird thing to say, but his numbers in the combine are similar. And he did have sacks the last two years. A lot of them. Eight and a half, two years ago, seven and a half last year. That's somebody that I'd be looking at. Also, Ramello height, again, very productive player,

nine and a half sacks. year from Texas Tech. And he ran a 4-6-4 super fast, a little bit undersized at 239 pounds. I really like J. Sean Barham for the Vikings as a very physical player, maybe a little bit more of a run defender, but he's versatile like Jake Golda, not the exact type of player, but he could kind of be linebacker or outside linebacker. And Kieran Crawford is a guy that I'm surprised was not ranked a little higher. maybe it's because he didn't do the combine stuff,

but had a good number of sacks, kind of exploded on the scene this year, Kieran Crawford. There's options, and I'll give you a deep cut that I don't know where he's going to go, but Nadami Tucker had crazy numbers, 14 and a half sacks for Western Michigan. I don't think he's going to go super high,

but I think Danny Dennis Sutton, Ramello Heights, Kiron Crawford, and J. Sean Barham are the guys to look at. finally off the board we have anthony hill junior going to the tennessee titans so now the rams are on the clock and maybe they'll surprise their head coach again with a pick so let me get back to your reactions so how are you guys feeling about the grenard trade i think that there is probably a mixed reaction of if you are like think about it this way if you are somebody that really really studies team building element and you think in terms of cap space and you think in terms of draft capital

and those types of things, then I think a trade like this is for you because you're going to look at two draft picks, 2027 third. I mean, heck, you got that. You could trade that at some point for somebody, right? If you're having a trade conversation after June 1st and, hey, I want that third thrown in there so you can get it. well, that might help you. Or even next year, moving up, moving down,

it's another player that you could potentially build with. And the cap space, when you go to the free agent list and you see guys that are available that could help the Vikings still, I don't know, D'Andre Hopkins is the first one that comes to mind. Then you could see where, well, you could spend some of this money that you just got for Grenard. So you don't just get a third and another third. You also get cap space that you can use now,

and next year, and you didn't have to sign him to a big contract extension. So you get a lot in return for Jonathan Grenard that is not just, oh, we traded him for a third. Well, then not exactly. You also traded him for $34 million in cap space, which is very helpful. And they signed him to a deal that upped his pay quite a bit, 50 million more guaranteed. So you really traded for actually more cap space than you even got over the next two years. that's a lot to have to explain though if you're not in that camp of looking at all these things in a in a in a really like front officey way in a mathematical way and you look at it as in

in grignard's a great player they don't have a lot of depth at that position they drafted jake old a who i know is more of a van ginkle but okay that's great they now have only those guys Bo Richter, Chas Chambliss, I don't know how much those guys will play other than special teams. So where are you going to get an edge player like him? And you could say, well, they've got Dallas Turner. Well, what if somebody gets banged up? And then what have you got? Not much, not much.

And this is a team that's been dealing with a talented but thin roster for several years. So those are kind of the two ways to look at it is that wait a minute. There is a wait a minute you just got Kyler Murray to help you get back. back in action as an offense and win with defense and then you give away defense. So, you know, I think that Jonathan Grenard was a really good player. And if you look at it that way of, hey, you just gave away the best player, then I can see where it would be pretty disappointing, especially if you are a huge fan of Grenards in general. And a lot of times there's the old saying, if you gave up the best player you lost,

and they gave up the best player. I'm just going to go with hands here, Hans, hands, uh, in that camp, but we did not need to extend him just because the player wants more money. That is true. And, and I understand where you're coming from with that. Yeah, if you wanted to fight it out with him, normally though you try not to, you try not to when it comes to a player like that

of get into a big battle where you go into camp and then they're not going to show up at camp until they get their money. and then, okay, if you're going to hold out, he's forced to play, but he didn't have any training camp, and then, oh, my hamstring hurts in week two. And a lot of times with that, it just gets ugly. And why let it get ugly if you could get draft capital for him and get Dallas Turner into his rightful position? Evan, what would it cost from 82 to the late 60, early 70 range?

I would guess, since they don't have a fourth that they'd have to give up the two-thirds to move up. I don't know if a fifth gets that done. I don't have my Jimmy Johnson trade chart. Maybe I should have that open. Jim had to trade him. Turner is coming up for a payday. Well, I mean, not. I mean, yeah, I guess. Like not super soon for Dallas Turner, but you have to know what you have in Dallas Turner. You have to try to play Turner 750 snaps or more. And what does that look like. Is that 10 sacks? Is that 12 sacks? Or is that five? Is in a full-time role, would he get shut down? I thought in a full-time role playing in exchange for Grenard when Grenard was hurt, that Dallas Turner was terrific. And that was the only time he's been terrific in the NFL

is when he was playing in that role. That has to weigh into the decision for the Vikings is that your valuable piece that you gave up so much in the draft now has a clear a clear path to the field where you can start, yeah, finding out is important, but also, you know, just making sure he gets to play. 34 million means some extensions coming soon. It could, but a lot of times extension will lower someone's cap hit right away. A lot of times. What are you using the cap space on?

A free agency, trades, like those things don't. end and Rob Brzezinski said that at the owner's meetings. We don't, he said we don't kick off till September. Like there's a lot of time to potentially do that. Jeff, yes, the downside for this and something that I was a little bit out on and I'm not going to change my mind now if I said it three days ago. I don't like the idea of helping the Philadelphia Eagles. It feels to me like the Philadelphia Eagles are a little down and you're kind of lending him a hand.

Would have preferred him go to Arizona or Cleveland or who cares. Someone in the AFC who's not good, the Jets, trading him to Philadelphia, an organization that has consistently found a way to bounce back, put together a lot of talent. they've got a ton of good players still on their team. They're in your conference. I know that you don't play them next year, but they're in your conference and they just signed a four-year extension. So you're going to run into Jonathan Grenard again at some point.

Don't love that. Definitely do not love that. Kurt says I feel like I'm starting to see their vision, but I'm skeptically optimistic. That's totally fair. Yeah, I mean, the vision, the vision is there. The benefits are there, especially in a draft right now where I can look down the board.

and see, especially on the offensive side, running back, wide receiver, center, those positions are strong into the back end of the third round. If you end up with Mike Washington, Sam Hect, and, I don't know, Bryce Lance, wow, that's a lot of talent to come away with it. And that's not unrealistic. I mean, we're talking about 20 picks away for the Vikings. There's a lot of offensive talent. There's the only center off the board is Logan Jones.

So there's three potential third round centers still there. I think there's three or four running backs. Emmett Johnson, Jonah Coleman, and Mike Washington. Those guys could go there. And just allow me to show you the wide receivers. The wide receivers who are still on the board right now. Chris Brazel runs a 437. Chris Bell is an athletic freak from Louisville.

Zachariah Branch crazy quickness. Antonio Williams, outrunner. Hold on. Mixed with edge rushers. Okay. Elijah Serat contested catch guy. Melichai Fields is 6-4.

Ted Hurst, crazy fast. Skyler Bell, crazy productive. Bryce Lance crazy fast. Brandon Thompson crazy fast. There's dudes. There's plenty. There's only 20 picks till they select next. And here there are probably eight or nine wide receivers that would make sense for them.

And in the running back room, all the guys, that are not the top running backs. Mike Washington, Jonah Coleman, Emmett Johnson, K. Tron Allen, they're all there. And even if we go over to like the cornerback position or safety, I mean, the Vikings want a safety, they could potentially look into that as well because A.J. Halsey has not gone off the board. Keith Abney has not gone off the board. He's listed here as a corner.

It might be a, well, maybe I guess he's a corner, but, oh, Kianti Scott is more from Miami is more of a safety. There's a Kyle Lewis is another guy who could potentially play safety. There is a lot of talent here that is left on the board that if the Vikings end up with three second round or three third round draft picks and five top one hundreds is how you build a team for the long term. So yeah, the vision is there. And if they ended up with, think about it this way.

I know Banks is like the big pick, big in many ways. ways, but that's like the big, big pick is the number one guy. But if they ended up with, I don't know, four of the five players that have production, good numbers in the combine, make a good fit for the Vikings like Jake Gold Day, how much can we complain about the one pick that was a reach if all the other picks end up being, you know, pretty darn solid? Lots of talent left to avoid. The second pick for them was great, I think.

Jake Golday, I think it was a great pick for the Vikings. So, uh, phenom Viking fanboys crying about JJ. I don't think that you can criticize anybody for not liking the idea of moving on from Jonathan Grenard. Because I going into this draft talked about it and said, maybe you should just keep him. Maybe you should just give them a little extension. but four years and 50 mil guaranteed.

That's, that's rich. That's very rich for my blood with Jonathan Grenard, knowing that he's got an injury history. The Vikings got the most out of him injury-wise, but in Houston he had some injury problems. And then he gets hurt again this year. So the actual contract they gave him was a lot. But I don't blame, oh, there's Jake Slaughter off the board.

Oh, if there's a center run here, this could be tough for the Vikings. This is what I was talking about earlier is. like Jake Slaughter, to me, was a round two level prospect. Six foot five, tremendous NFL combine, outside zone type guy. That's a good pick for the Los Angeles Chargers of Los Angeles. But now that's two centers off the board. Sam Hect is still there. Connor Liu is still there.

Lou as the injury, ACL. Sam Hect is some people's favorite prospect at the center position in the draft. But if you're the type of person, who's looking at Jonathan Grinard and saying, man, how can you give up that guy? That's pretty tough. I don't blame you. And I'm not going to lecture you about how you need to understand

the $34 million of caps based a huge, like, that's pretty tough. It is the explanation because they have to do that. This is how if you're in the front office, you have to operate with these assets. sets, cap space and draft picks are gold. And this guy who's really productive when we like him wants more money. So this is the best way to even it out. That's economics NFL.

But if you look at it from, yeah, I mean, who was anybody to criticize a fan reaction to one of their favorite players being sent out to one of their least favorite teams? I can't blame anybody for that. I'm not going to criticize any fan who's like, whoa, wait, what? So, yeah, I mean, that's, when you're talking about, like, giving him to Philadelphia, that's not, I don't think that's anybody's favorite. So I'm not going to criticize anyone for it. It just on paper, in a spreadsheet, it makes a lot of sense. On the actual field, they need Dallas Turner to make it make sense.

And had Dallas Turner not performed at the level that he did at the end of last year, we probably wouldn't see this trade. I think that this shows, so as upset as some people are going to be, that Granard it here, there should be on the other side of that, they must have a very, very high belief in Dallas Turner in order to feel comfortable doing this. Not a twerk. Brandel is our center, had a decent chance of beating out any rookie.

I think that, I mean, Brandel is really, in my mind, a one-year solution at center. I thought that some of these guys would make it to the third, but clearly it's become a valuable position in the draft. I would say if they're high on one of the other guys, they should still. take him. Brandel is a long-term center. Don't love that idea. Just for 2026? Sure. But if you were to take a guy, develop him for a year, then, you know, move the ball over to Conorloo or whatever, that I would be down with. Are there any good tackle prospects still on the board? Let's go have a look. Offensive tackle is usually gone now. Yeah, that's going to be a no. I don't, I'm not familiar with Caleb Tire

in. Markell Bell is an interesting one. I think the Vikings met with Markell Bell. Gigantic, dude, six foot nine, six foot nine and three hundred and forty six pounds. Holy cow, Markle Bell. Enormous fella. But no, the answer is definitely no. If you want one in the fourth, fifth round, I guess you could take a project, but that's the thing about tackles.

you better get him fast at the top of the draft because they don't they don't fall down the board. And we saw it with someone like Spencer Fanow getting drafted as high as he was and Kate and Proctor. They get drafted very high every year. Yes, Bruno. Okay. Is Lou injured? That sounds good to me. Yes.

It's just, it's an ACL. So he should be coming back just fine. But I understand where you're going with the snark on that one. if they drafted Connor Lou, it might have been like last October that he got hurt so he would come back in time to develop for a year. But it wouldn't be a right now type of pick. Dumer says probably could have got 68 from the Eagles. If it wasn't so obvious, Grinard wanted out, I don't think that's true. I don't think that's true.

I think that what happened was, and this is some putting it together and some hearing, that the Vikings were pretty much settled on trading Jonathan Grenard, and the offers that they got were not good. And that's when Schaefter puts it out there to potentially drum up any other offers. And what Philadelphia gave them was the highest that I had heard from anybody else. I mean, day three was mostly the conversation. Bud Clark goes to the Seahawks. That was a guy that I had pinned for the Vikings,

potentially, but he goes 64 to the Seahawks. Yeah, a phenom, if only the Vikings had a 23-year-old ready to replace Jonathan Grenard. And that's why you can do it. If they did not have Dallas Turner, then you would not be doing it. Definitely not be doing it. Evan says, J.G. really good, but I don't think irreplaceable. His replacement has been developing for two years, waiting for his opportunity. Might as well give it to him after investing a lot.

And when you also know that, Dallas Turner is just not a guy who's going to play Andrew Van Ginkle's role. They just drafted that guy, Jake Olday. But he's not a guy who's going to play this crazy, versatile lineup anywhere, drop back into coverage, stuff the run. It's just not who he is. At Alabama, mostly, Dallas Turner lined up on the edge and he won. And that's what he did last year. His first step is lightning.

He is not the biggest. He's strong, but he's not the, he's not Jared Verst, but he's strong, but he's not the strongest. He wins with quickness off the edge. And he's been developing his pass rush moves and they've been working with him. The schematic stuff and edge rusher setting the edges has been a big deal for Dallas Turner. His progress last year made this possible. George injuries, pay raise and social media antics, hard to hitch the wagon when we go when we're going through growing pains.

I liked watching JG but felt it was the right thing to do. I'm not sure I would go as far as antics with the, he would tweet something every once in a while, but I'm not sure I'd go antics. I think that's maybe a little too far. But in terms of the injuries, pay raise, and I think can we replace antics on social media? It wasn't much.

I would replace that with just sack production. If someone hasn't gotten a lot of sacks, it matters. Sometimes I'll hear this. and it's one of those galaxy brain things where people like, actually pressures are more important than sacks. Like, actually, that's not true. Actually, sacks are the most important. Pressure is wonderful.

And pressure is a better predictor. So if somebody has 50 pressures one year and 20 sacks, and then 50 pressures the next year and 10 sacks, they didn't get way worse. They were getting after the quarterback. But if you are talking trades, and someone has a humongous drop-off in sacks, you're not giving up second round or first-round picks for them,

which is exactly what happened with this situation in Jonathan Grenard. Carl says, yesterday you said with Dane that you trust Rob to make good decisions. How do you feel he's done? So far, well, the Caleb Banks thing, it's going to be a long time before we know how that works out. I personally as someone who puts a lot of work into the data and historical research to kind of guide my opinions, it's impossible for me to like the Caleb Banks big swing because there's so much history that goes against it. Reaching on the consensus board, even if the doctors like the injury recovery injuries in the past are predictive.

I think of injuries into the future when you're in college. They also hurt your development. He hasn't had a lot of, not just production. He hasn't had a lot of play. Actual on the field playing football. The PFF numbers have been super good with defensive tackles at predicting them and their success. That is not very good for Caleb Banks. So that decision feels very risky and not necessarily the big swing that I would have expected

or that I would have done in this scenario. But it has a chance to click. and we shouldn't decide that it's a failure just because of that. So that's a, I'm in big time wait and C mode. I'm surprised at that. That's the way I would describe it best of my feeling on what Rob Brzezinski did with Caleb Banks is I'm a little bit taken aback by it because it's kind of the thing that it sounded like they weren't going to do.

The second round pick I think is tremendous. Jake Goulde could not fit better, productive, athletic, great motor, great range. great versatility to fit with Flores. It's like they created a player for Brian Flores. And that's Jake Golda. Love that draft pick. Love the position. The trade of Jonathan Grenard to me is a, it is taking your medicine.

It's good for you, but you don't really want to do it. That's how I would look at it. It's your cough medicine doesn't taste good. But you know if you want to stop cough and you better take it. If you know you need cap space, if you know you need cap space, if you know you need top 100 draft picks. If you know you need to see what Dallas Turner really is, then you trade Jonathan Grenard.

But it doesn't feel good and you don't like doing it. Is that? Oh, okay. Carson Beck. To the Cardinals. Third round draft pick. Not a Carson Beck guy myself, but the Cardinals taking a third round quarterback. Makes sense for them much more than I thought of first round running back in the top three.

But Ben, you know, Beck's played a lot of football. He's won some games. I don't know. Kind of Colt McCoy-ish for me. That's kind of my favorite, my favorite third round type prospect where you like the guy and he wins games, but you just can't see how he would ever be a really great quarterback. Like, that's another Colt McCoy.

And that's what I think Carson Beck is. But, you know, maybe he makes things a little interesting. Or he gives Arizona when they are two and 13 somebody to put in the game. Congrats to them. Julian says, I understand. but a second round pick for JG would have been better. Yes, but getting two thirds, I'm not saying it necessarily adds up to a second

because there are, you know, good players in the second that won't get there to the third. But getting the additional third is a win for next season in a draft that is supposed to be good and deep. I know it's a little too far out to tell what the third round of next year is going to be, but third round picks can still be starters. Bruno, I would keep those picks, choose a corner, wide receiver, and a center of running back.

Corner or safety, maybe? Bud Clark is gone, really liked him. A.J. Halsey is not. Zaki Wheatley is not. Kamari Ramsey is not off the board yet. So that's a lot of safety talent as we get closer and closer to 82. We are right now at number 66. Hopefully you guys are enjoying the coverage here presented by Fandul, if you all.

maybe, you know, like, subscribe. Check out the newsletter at purple insider dot football. If you have a chance, I wrote yesterday about Caleb Banks and the big swing, if you want to check that out. So I appreciate the big crowd here again tonight. It's been already quite eventful with the Vikings getting an outside linebacker, perfect floor is fit, and then trading Jonathan Grenard. So we have not been shortchanged.

Is Brian Parker still available? so far as I can see he is. I look at him as a day three guy, tackle the center project from Duke. Evan says, think of that Dallas Turner's shoulder dip against the bears before I go to bed and sleep like a rock.

Okay, well, that was his first year. I mean, I thought, yeah, last year, he was much more developed. His first year was kind of a little flash here, a little flash there, but those last, and I know it's hard. to do this where you go, hey, those last five games were awesome, but they were a totally different role and job that he was doing. And his pass rush win rate was good. And his sack production

was good. His pressure production was good. He looked like a real starter. The Broncos take a DT here. Tyler Odenitem. Oh, Nidum, didn't really study him going into the draft. So there's kind of a pick. keeping an eye on every time there's a non-viking position pick to see what's available here. Every time there's a non-viking position pick, it's a win for them. So the Broncos taking a DT pushes somebody else down the board. Kings of the North says,

what do you think the Vikings will get its safety now? Let's take a look at what's on the board at safety. Do this? Does that screw stuff up a little bit? let's see safety position is a j halsey is the top guy there halsey is a very productive um he's pretty fast and this seems to show up everybody is like 95th percentile i don't know if that's actually true uh on this website but four five two fast safety 220 pounds like halsey is he's he's he's uh should i say it he's a hall uh but he's also a playmaker he had eight interceptions over the last

two years, 11 past breakups, 10 career picks, tons of actual football played. He's gone from New Mexico to Houston, LSU, but a real playmaker. I like him a lot. Genesis Smith was another guy from Arizona, a great relative athletic score, fairly productive in terms of breaking up passes and being on the field for Arizona, ran well with a 4-50, vertical 42 inches. There's a lot here. Camari Ramsey was like the solid player of the draft.

Yeah, it seems like everybody's 40 shows up at 95th percentile for some reason. But fast, maybe not necessarily the best athlete, Camari Ramsey, but has played a lot of football. Not that productive, but kind of a solid player is a key Wheatley. You have from Penn State and Jalen Kilgore. So there's a lot there at the safety position. If the Vikings want to go there, they should probably wait even deeper into the third round. Okay, Kieran Crawford was somebody I looked at for the Vikings as an edge rusher, and he is off the board now to the Raiders as we get closer and closer to the Vikings pick.

Number 68 Philadelphia is coming up next. But a lot still on the board, and poor Jermod McCoy, man. You know, the reporting was that he was in tough shape, but I didn't think he would drop this far. So, well, we got plenty of room for, excuse me. Get my chair, right? Plenty of room for more discussion about the Grenard trade, where they should go next, because we'll have another, what do we got, 14 picks until the Vikings are back on the board. So the question that was posed to me just a few minutes ago was how do I think Rob Brzezinski has handled this thing so far?

And let me toss that out to you guys. How do you guys think now that we have the trade, now that we have the gold day, pick. How do you guys think that Rob Brzezinski has handled this, uh, thus far? Last night, I'm surprised that when I got to TCO Performance Center, there weren't picketers the way that people acted about the Caleb Banks pick. And I know I'm concerned about it myself, but there was a, little bit of on the overreaction side, I think. Hunter said, hate the banks pick, but that doesn't make him bound to fail. That's all we can do when it comes to these drafts. is we can look at what history says about these players.

We can look at what the guy's data says, what the downsides might be, what the upsides might be. And we can form an opinion right after draft day. But I think one thing we always have to keep in mind is the value of all that stuff can only tell you so much. It doesn't tell you how the guy is going to respond to coaching. it doesn't tell you if he's going to stay healthy in the NFL because truly,

I mean, Lewis Seen was healthy and then broke his leg. Who would have ever expected? It was over in London and that crazy turf. And I don't know if that had anything to do with it, but he breaks his leg. How was anybody in the world supposed to predict that? And there have been other players that were injured coming out.

And somebody mentioned, I think it was Sefer and not that, not that Adrian Peterson is a similar level of prospect of Caleb Banks, but I think Sefer mentioned Adrian Peterson and how the collarbone is supposed to be an issue, the upright running style was supposed to be an issue, and Adrian only dropped to seven, so it's not the same as dropping to 18 and being overdrafted by 30 spots. But there have been lots of players who've come out in draft over the years that had red flags, injuries, lack of production, whatever it might be.

And they've worked out. So it doesn't guarantee anything. It's really more of a wait and see. If they had drafted Dylan Thineman, I think I very easily could have said, this is what Dylan Thineman's going to be. But with Caleb Banks, I don't know. If you told me two years from now that he had eight sacks

and he was on the verge of getting, I don't know, like a $30 million per year contract, I would not be surprised. If you told me three years from now that they were, talking about him like Jerry Tillerie as somebody who was really big and tall and just didn't work out, I guess I wouldn't be shocked either. If you told me that he just never progressed because of injuries, I wouldn't be shocked. If any of those outcomes happen, but at least there are with this

player outcomes that go beyond what most players in the middle of the first round in this particular draft. I think that I just got the sense from listening to them talk that that was a major factor look around this draft, look who's on the board. How do we project these players? Do you see anybody who could become a pro bowler? And I think their answer was basically no. Curtis, let one of those Penn State running backs. Let's get one of them, Nick Singleton or Catron Allen.

Ketron Allen, wow, this is a surprise. And I guess it's not because tackles go high. The Eagles getting Markle Bell, the 6'9 offensive linemen for Miami. huge human being. But another guy that was projected like day three and ends up going day two because he is an offensive tackle and they are hard to find. So he goes to the Eagles. But in terms of Ketron Allen and Nick Singleton, there's reasons to like them and there's reasons not to. Ketron Allen was very productive.

Average over six yards per carry. But there's maybe some limitations there physically. Can you really be that the NFL? level. And with Singleton, he has great physical traits. But when you watch him, he runs into his lineman and looks like he reminded me actually of Ty Chandler because there were just times where Ty Chandler didn't know where to run. And that's what Singleton looked like. But he's got explosion. And that's what they're looking for that those guys could both be in the back end of the third. Yeah, George, you're right. Maybe at some point I can, uh,

get a conversation. Caleb Banks was really fun today. However you feel about our draft, the Cardinals are doing worse. Well, that's everything. The Cardinals are doing worse on everything. The Cardinals, guys, I hate to break it to you,

are a bad organization. And that's why if you're high on the idea of Kyler Murray, one of the reasons that you're high on that idea is your belief that the Arizona Cardinals are a bad organization, and a third round quarterback is often a waste of a pick, not what you want to do when you're fully rebuilding. Running back number three overall sounds great, but, you know,

I've seen some people say, well, hey, look, it worked out for Bejohn, it worked out for this running back, worked out for that running back. It's like, can we,

can we just check that first real quick? Because, well, it didn't work out for Leonard Fournet, who was supposed to be like the one. I actually don't think it worked out for Bijan. Bejan became a good player, a very good player. And boy, if Bejon was a Minnesota Viking, how great would that be?

But how many playoff games have they played in as a team, which is not a reflection of Bejan Robinson? He's awesome. But his team has had no success with him there. So they spent this incredibly high draft pick to get a guy who has a limited window, not like a 10-year player for your team to be elite and has not made the playoffs with him. So you did this win now type of final piece thing when he wasn't the final piece. Oh, he's going to be a receiver and a running back. Yeah, he's as good as it gets there, but he's not a receiver.

None of these running backs are receivers. Neither is Jeremiah Love. The idea of calling these guys, playmakers, not running backs is totally bogus. We don't see anybody except for Christian McCaffrey do that. so I just think when you're drafting a running back, if you're awesome, you should. But if you're not there yet as a team, don't build a round one.

That's how you end up like the Arizona Cardinals. And then Carson Beck is probably just a waste of a draft pick. Third round quarterbacks very rarely hit, especially when their team stink. They need to draft wide receivers, right? Like, don't they need to wrap? Their guy that they spent a fourth round, why, I'm sorry, fourth overall pick wide receiver on has not worked out.

Hunter Beck is an Arizona quarterback if I've ever seen one. Neb better to trade. I assume you mean Grenard now than pay him when he's declining. That has to be a factor. Edge rushers do have pretty darn good age curves. They can go, I think, much longer than your normal position. there's a lot of positions in the NFL where 27, 26 is going to, you're going to start, not 26, but like 28, you're going to start fading out.

Edge rushers we see all the time go into their 30s. So I don't want to be like too down on Jonathan Grenard as Mr. Buddy, the dog, makes an appearance with his favorite toy. I've been waiting for this to happen on the show. And he hadn't come down here with his toys yet. And of course, he's got the squeaky one. So that's what that is in the background. As the 49ers get Ramello height, he is a really productive pass rusher,

10 sacks this year, a guy that I wondered if the Vikings would look at. So now kind of some talent starting to, the last bit of talent in certain spots coming off the board here. But the point with Grenard is he'll probably do pretty well for the Philadelphia Eagles. Like he wasn't about to fall off the edge of the earth. I think it has a lot to do with the expense. and a desire for a new contract and a commitment. I think what he was looking for is,

hey, commit guaranteed dollars to me. Make me your guy. Because you got Dallas Turner here and what are you doing with him? And from his perspective, it's the right thing to do. He wants some certainty. He had run out of guaranteed money. And that's how in the NFL, you kind of just end up at these impasses sometimes,

where the team needs X. They need flexibility. they need to not be locked into you and Grenard wants stability. And when you get two teams at odds, that's when you get a trade. And that's what they have. Russell, like the Gold Day pick, concerned about the banks pick, not thrilled or pissed at the Grenard trade. I think that's a really fair way to put it about the Grenard trade.

I think if you're thrilled by it, like, well, okay, I mean, it's two third round. like let's not throw a party here. But if you're not irritated by it and think that it's insane, well, that's probably right too. It is a, okay, get it kind of trade. It's not a I have a crazy insane hot take kind of trade, at least the way I look at it. Steven says after last night wasn't confident the front office knew what they were doing,

but after today changing my tune a bit, well, I think it's going to turn out to be a dream. draft that at very least gives them a chance to get guys that are going to be here for a long time. And this is something they just have not done at all. Look across the roster. There's just nobody. I mean, Addison, Turner, Donovan Jackson, the high draft picks. But the guys that are your developing second or third rounder who's on the charge for the next wave, that guy has just not existed in the Quasi Adafelmenza era. And tonight begins that guy existing again.

The, hey, this guy they drafted in the third and what kind of progress is he making? In fact, I have missed over the last couple years, how does he look in camp? How does he look in camp has been like undrafted free agents? We get some draft picks now. Gunnard says, or Gunnard, think the Gold Day pick is a premium position at lunch. linebacker if he's used like Van Ginkle, not a typical off ball linebacker. I agree with you. I look at him as more of a Van Ginkle dynamic edge.

Can we call it that? They used Eric Wilson in the, I'm going to, can I coin it? I got to ask Cody Alexander, my defensive guru at match quarters. If you haven't heard of him, he's phenomenal when it comes to defense, if dynamic edge is something that I can maybe coin for players that can play in at linebacker. regular linebacker positions, but also even then second round, middle second round linebacker, even if he ends up playing Blake Cashman's position. If that's what Jake Olday becomes and not Van Ginkle and he becomes Cashman or Wilson,

okay, you would take that in the second round. I was into the idea of Jacob Rodriguez, or even if they decided to kind of make a big swing with Anthony Hill, linebacker is a position they need, but this guy does more, which I like. um acm for all why has uh pregnon fallen so much of the guard from organ uh i think one would be he's a guard and unless you're an amazing guard teams aren't running to get you his production was good and his size is really good so i don't know i mean it could just be that there's other players that they've just valued higher which i guess that's obvious they have because they've drafted them but i think that third round is probably the right spot for

him. I think that's where he was mostly mocked and then some people had him a little bit higher. But I'm not, I'm not really sure. It might just be that he does not have like a mobility element to him, like a quickness element and a lot of teams are doing outside zone stuff. Eric says who we looking at for third rounders. We could start to have that conversation. Eric, let's go over, take a look here for who might be available within, the next 10 picks. So Pregnon, Emmanuel Pregnon,

the guard from Oregon is on the board still. As if you wanted to play center, that makes it more interesting. But I don't love the idea of you've never played center before. So play center. It's like a thing. It's you kind of grow up a center. There are some guys who move from tackle into the middle.

But I feel like there's a center mentality. There's a way of thinking about the game, seeing the game at the center position that you would want. someone who's played there for their entire career. I don't have data, though, on how often it works out where guys move. Wide receiver safety are some positions that I really like here, especially wide receiver. There must be a receiver run coming, but the wide receivers are crazy right now. Guys who are predicted to go in the 50s and 60s, there's a bunch of them that are available.

Chris Brazel, Chris Bell, Zachariah Branch, Antonio Williams, Elijah Surat, Melchai Fields, Ted Hurst, Skyler Bell. And for all the Ted Hurst hype, everybody knows he's probably going to be more of a project over a couple of years. Not that I dislike the idea, but at some point it became almost a little silly. Like, yeah, teams aren't going to draft the Georgia State guy, like early in the second round. That's just too much of a big swing. But we've only seen Stribling and Bernard come off the board.

If I'm not mistaken, there's no other wide receivers. this is a deep receiver draft. Yeah, there are no other wide receivers who have gone except those too. The receivers right now are, unless they're going to go on a run here, a really good position to take a look at. But otherwise,

corner and safety are still fairly strong. Keon Scott makes a lot of sense. Oh, there goes Antonio Williams. Another purple insider favorite Antonio Williams, really good route runner. He goes to Washington. That'll work out really well. for them, I think.

Williams and Jane Daniels. So is this the run-on receivers? Should the Vikings try to move up? Knowing that they have all these top 100 picks, should they try to move up to potentially get one of these wide receivers if they're worried that they're going to start flying off the board? Cincinnati probably won't take one. Maybe New Orleans.

Well, maybe not because New Orleans, Cleveland. I could see Miami. I could definitely see Miami taking a wide receiver. These next couple teams aren't really wide receiver teams. A.J. Halsey still being on the board is interesting to me. So is Genesis Smith, the safety from Arizona. J. Sean Barham from Michigan. I like as a Flores-type player, but I think you're going to start looking off.

Oh, Malik Mohamed is a third round type cornerback. He ran a 4-4-2, very high relative athletic score. I think that he would be an interesting one if they wanted to look. at cornerback. So now the Bengals are on the board at 72, 10 picks away from the Minnesota Vikings. Let's get back to the chat. So I think there's a, there's a lot,

a lot of talent there. I agree with you, P3T. There are a lot of good players left. A lot of players that were projected higher, and that's the interesting part. On the third down, or on the, in the third round,

then you do start talking about whether Jermad McCoy is just worth it. Okay, corner goes off the board here. Takario Davis, which I know Chris Tripasso was higher on. We didn't even mention his name just now. Chris Tripasso was much higher on him than a lot of other people. So that's a good call by Chris. But you do get to some point if you got, and I know people will make a lot of jokes.

If the Vikings draft Caleb Banks and Jermad McCoy, there will be jokes. But if you're taking them in the 80s, in the 90s, a top 15 player, even if he's got a knee problem. I mean, my gosh, if you're swinging for the fences, then that would make sense. Mike Washington is 6-2. Mike, Mike Washington's crazy. He's crazy athletic and hasn't gone off the board yet

because I don't think he's a great running back. He's like, I've compared him to Michael Bennett. That was in the article that I did leading up to the draft, I did Vikings comparisons of former Vikings. and who in the draft reminded me of them. And I came up with Michael Bennett for Mike Washington. Not a great running back, but crazy speed if you have a good offensive line. Thank you, Bruno, for the compliment.

Appreciate that. Do you believe the Stafford extension rumor or is he the Vikings' 2027 quarterback? If I'm Matthew Stafford, I'm pretty ticked, I think. Just, I mean, is it a little like, when the Broncos had Brock Osweiler or something, like, they didn't, I don't remember the draft order from when they got Brock Osweiler, but is it really worth drafting a 13th overall quarterback when you have a year or two left of Matthew Stafford? I personally do not think that it was worth drafting a quarterback. Oh, sorry. That's a accidental look behind the scenes here. as I'm trying to bring Jonathan Harrison in, because I'm curious about reaction to the Jonathan Grinard trade.

Jonathan, with your extreme Jonathan bias, try to put that aside. So Jonathan is producing and manning social media, keeping an eye on it for what people have been talking about here with Jonathan Grenard. What is the main reaction from folks to the JG trade? There's a lot of, I would say, consternation, if you will, about the trade, giving up Jonathan Gernard just for a couple third round picks, but you say just, and it's still third round picks,

considering you get one this year, you get one next year, and next year's draft, as you've alluded to, is considered a little bit deeper. Looking at some grades from experts out there, Seth Walder gave the Eagles in A-minus, the Vikings, a C, for the trade, because you're only getting the picks back. You're not getting a player, but you are getting rid of you're opening up cap space.

And that brings me to the point. Ben Gessling pointed it out or tweeted it out earlier. The Vikings will save $12.25 million in salary cap this year and $22.3 million in cap space next year. So that opens up space considering you have guys, you have to figure out Jordan Addison, who's probably on the fifth year deal next year. What about Kyler Murray?

If you want to stick with him, you're going to have to sign a big contract for him. You're going to need cap space. There's a lot of questions next year that the Vikings will need cap space for. And getting rid of Jonathan, Jonathan Gernard does that for you. I will note that Courtney Cronin was a little upset with you on Twitter because you did not jump in when the bears were on the clock at 69. So there is that. I can't. I can only look at so much.

I can only look at as the Giants take Malachi feels. This is the receiver run, by the way, if the Vikings want to jump up here. They might want to do it. Melkai Fields, Notre Dame 6-4 receiver. Great hands. Kind of had a down year last year, though. Contested catch monster. He's got some good quickness.

But I was not high on him for a Vikings pick. Just doesn't have separation ability. Seems like that huge guy that can't get away. Every single catch that they show is like a spectacular catch. And that was all of his catches this year. I just didn't look at him as quite their type. Well, I apologize to Courtney. I can't look at Twitter.

at the same time as looking at the TV, the big board, the fan chat, and seeing if you're calling me for something. The other note about this with Jonathan Renard, and I don't know, I don't, I was popping in and getting everything set up as the trade was going down, so I didn't hear everything, but maybe you've mentioned this, maybe not, but giving Dallas Turner this time this year is important because you have to decide on the fifth year option at the end or next off season. So you need to start figuring out. You need to get them those snaps. to figure out if he's your guy going forward.

If you want to use that fifth year option, if you want to extend him, and this gives you that opportunity better than trying to workshop him in and figuring out what you got there. So that's my only other take on that. There is a note from Dan Gratiano about Joe, or about Jamad McCoy and his injury. And how in this, now that we're into the third round,

it becomes a little bit easier for teams to take that risk financially because the only guaranteed money in a rookie contract is the signing bonus. Also after pick 65, which were already passed. The salary gets split between the number of weeks. You're on the 53-man roster and a lower number when he isn't. So teams will find it a little bit easier to take a guy with that big of an injury risk now because the salary cap implications are far less severe than they would be if they picked him earlier.

The way I look at it with Jermad McCoy and the Vikings, and this thing might be so bad that people think he can't even play in the NFL. I don't really know. The reporting was that he might be able to play this year and then would probably have to have a surgery and there might be some concern about whether that would work long-term and obviously there's huge, huge concern for him and his long-term outlook.

So I don't know. I mean, maybe the, we're going to be calling him the best doctors in the world forever, aren't we? But maybe the best doctors in the world are going, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. Caleb Banks, foot's probably fine, but stay away from this guy.

But with this many third rounders, is there a point where is the Vikings you go? We kind of have to. It's a top 15 talent. Some people thought he might have been the best corner in the draft if he had been 100% healthy for an entire year. If you take him at number 98, what is the harm in that?

And hey, if he never ends up turning out because he has this injury, then okay, well, it was a third round pick. You drafted Alexander Madison in the third round. Like it's just not or at the back end. You drafted Ty Felton. You drafted Jalen Holmes. Like it's there's when you talk about the big swing,

this was probably one of the issues that people had about the big swing for Caleb Banks. Is that you're doing it at 18. Like that is a big risk, big swing in the middle of the first round where you could get a lot of starting caliber talent. And you don't have to take on the risk with all the other guys that were first round graded. In the third round, I kind of don't care what you do. I mean, yes, I'd like to see them get a running back. I'd like to see them get a receiver.

They don't get a receiver. I may flip a table at the end of this draft just because of how much I studied this group and talked about all these third round wide receivers to be locked in because I was fully convinced that they were doing it. So they need that center. there's a couple of centers that have gone off the board already, and they may feel a desperation to do that. So I don't really mean it means nothing, a third round draft pick,

but how many opportunities do you ever get to draft someone who might have some greatness in there? And even if the guy played two years and is awesome and then his knee imploded, oh, well, like, is that worth a third round pick for someone to play awesome for two years? Yes, because I know, they're looking for foundational players. You just find a lot of role players and fringe starters in the third round. But I would have to know how bad is it really? If they feel like this guy can't even play in the NFL, who was the running back? Remember what I'm talking about?

There was a running back that got a knee injury. And somebody picked him in like the sixth. I think it was the Raiders. I'm trying to think of who this was. Someone in the chat will remember this. But there was a running back. Who was it? I don't.

I don't, I don't, I, it's not coming to my mind, but to your point, I think if you take him at 98, if you take him at 97 or 98, I think Vikings fans can, you know, swallow that pill of drafting the injured guy a little bit easier than if you had taken him in the second or you taking him with the 82nd pick here in the third round because there's still plenty of good players on the board. But if you wait until, uh, if you wait until the end of this third round with the pick that you got in the John Therranard trade or that, that 97 pick, I think that's a little bit. easier to swallow considering what you did last night with taking the injury prone talent at defensive tackle at 18. So Miami went with Caleb Douglas, who I just did not have, he was the consensus 230th play. What in the world? Now, he runs a 439 and had 800 yards receiving, but this guy was on nobody's radar at all. I had never heard of this player. Talk, you got, we talked about bad organizations doing bad things. Miami Dolphins continuing to do that. Just out of nowhere.

Douglas. This is like the Isaac Tesla pick where everyone's like, who? And sometimes that player works out because they, you know, they slip through the cracks and the team has a plan for them or whatever. The Dolphins draft overall. I really like Jacob Rodriguez. I really like Chris Johnson. Caden Proctor's reach, but you have to.

I don't think it's bad. I think it's the right position. But if you're the Vikings, you've got to feel. feel good about that if you want to draft a receiver at 82 because that's a guy that no one was picking here, at least by any of the projections. Excuse me. That's, that was an odd one. Here's what I'd like to know too, Jonathan, is Jake Goulday.

As you know, Purple Insider was endorsing Jake Gold Day as one of my guys before the draft. And he ends up going to the Vikings just kind of identified him midway through the process. going through players and putting together with you, the draft guide. And as we started to look through guys, I was like, why did he play in the slot? Because he's 240 pounds. So then I turn on, I'm going to say turn on the tape. I went to YouTube. I look, I don't have that's the tape at this point.

Well, because the, this is a complicated thing. But it's hard to get your hands on all 22 with college. The NFL, we just get all of it. So at NFL.com, anyone can have it. But in college, you have to like, know somebody who knows somebody and i don't so i watch tape breakdowns and then i watch youtube games and then just look for the guy and i started watching him on a couple of games on youtube i was like this guy moves exactly like van ginkle like he's the size and he kind of has that that ranginess to

him and so i was not surprised but i'm curious about what people were saying about the gold day pick there was at the time there was a lot of disappointment because they didn't choose uh emmanuel mcneal Warner, you didn't go a cornerback at that position because of the needs. But now after the Grinard trade, it makes a little bit more sense in everybody's eyes because I think there was a lot of questions about the depth elsewhere on the roster and you're adding to a position when you had Grinard when we all thought Grinard was still in the roster at the time. You're adding to a position you already have an adequate amount of depth that where the rest of the defensive roster, you're looking at it, you're looking at the defensive line and you understand why they take

Caleb Banks in the first round because of the lack of overall talent at that position. And I think there was a little disappointment at the time, but that makes, that makes more sense now. And I think there's a little bit, a little bit easing of the worry of why they made that pick in the second round now. I also just think Jay Ward was a fourth round draft pick that they loved. And they've developed him over several years. We've heard this story before. they wanted to play Josh Mattelis or they did play Josh Mattelis at the traditional safety spot last year when Harrison Smith was out. It's not the same exact story, but the guy can play safety. And they also paid Josh Mattelis a lot of money. So if you, and this was a part of, and

I probably didn't bring this up enough when all the Dylan Thineman stuff was going on. Like, do you guys realize they paid a safety, a lot of money probably with the projection that that person would take over some of Harrison Smith's? if not all of his duties when Harrison Smith was not here. And if you look at Theo Jackson and how much they've loved him, it was up and down for him last year and Jay Ward took some of his shine. But I didn't feel the same desperation for safety that other people did. And there's even probably a couple guys in free agency that could still,

uh, end up with the Vikings as, as veteran backups. They've been able to find those at times like Bobby McCain came in here, the Fabian Morrow at cornerback. like I think they believe in themselves with stuff with that position at being able to find veterans to take those spots. I also just didn't think McNeil Warren was a very good prospect. I predicted that he wouldn't be a first round draft pick and I'm wrong as much as anybody else with predictions.

But I just didn't see it. They would show his highlights and I'd be like, okay, I mean, it's playing in the Mac and it's got two interceptions or something. It's just I'm not, tell me what I'm missing here. Dylan Thieneman, I could totally get it. He had six picks a couple of years ago with Purdue. That's a good competition. He had eight, I think eight interceptions overall for his career. And it was ran a four three, but McNeil Warren ran a four, five.

It's not anything all that impressive. So I think when you start to dig into Gold Day and his physical attributes and his size, his versatility, this is a guy that could do a lot of good things for them and probably gets to develop. but somebody asked in the chat right after it happened like does this mean that granard's getting traded and i was like well not necessarily and then like two seconds later it's just like okay kevin you got me you're right it was uh but i don't think that that position is necessarily as much to do with granard as it does another piece on the board for brian flores and i don't know if you've seen much for people's reaction but going defense defense this draft.

You get Kyler Murray in here. The offense is largely set, but not entirely. I think that their projection must be that with the late third round picks here, that there's going to be a lot of offense on the board is the Packers take Chris McClellan. I kind of like him. Big defensive tackle. I won't get into the whole defensive tackle thing.

But the fact that, the fact that Lee Hunter was still there when the Vikings picked, like, that guy could have been maybe a little. little safer version of what you were looking for. But the, the, the Packers, they needed interior D-line with some of the guys that they had go out. And especially Kenny Clark over the last couple of years. So there you go. Chris McClellan to the Green Bay Packers and the Vikings are five picks away. But what's the, what do you think the thought is on that of just the fact that they've, they've gone a Brian Flores direction?

I think you, the feeling is that there should be, and I was texting you with you about this that Kevin O'Connell now maybe having a little bit more influence after the departure of Coiscied off omenza going defense defense would be a little bit surprising but they've done it now and you understand why now after the trade now I would imagine with the wide receivers that are still on the board kind of in this range where they're going to pick here in a couple picks do they go wide receiver there's been a bit of a run as you said on that wide receiver position over the last handful of picks so there might be a feeling inside TCO Performance Center that they need to grab a wide receiver now.

Otherwise, some of those guys may not be available at 97 and 98 when they're back up on the clock. And then you can kind of gauge who's who's left available at the end of the third round. But it feels like this should be a spot where you get that third, that third wide receiver for the Vikings here. I totally agree, especially since there's been a little bit of a run on wide receiver. And the offense, if you look a year down the road, The defense needs like the foundation, the kitchen, the living room, a big screen TV. If you look at year down the road for the offense, assuming that they're going to extend Brian O'Neill, the fact that they didn't invest in a tackle here to me says that extension is likely on the way for O'Neill.

You have almost everything still in place. You've got the fifth year option for Addison. You've got Jefferson under contract, Darrasaw. Depends on Will Fries, how it goes this year could still be. Donovan Jackson. We'll see on the center position in Blake Brandl. The running back is a little bit open. That's a little bit more of a sprucing than it is.

And it depends on where it goes with Kyler Murray. That's going to dictate what happens next year in the draft. But we don't know that yet. Like they're thinking, I think right now they're thinking that Kyler Murray has a good chance of playing well and being there Daniel Jones and then getting extended. And you're not drafting quarterbacks in this draft anyway. So they're looking at it like, let's try a third round running back.

Let's try a third round receiver. Let's try a third round, maybe center or offensive linemen and see what happens with those positions. But a year down the road on defense is like everything is on fire. The interior defensive line is totally shot. The edge rusher position before the Grenard trade, you still look at a year down the road and went, who's going to be here? Linebacker, it's not 100% that Cashman will be here long term.

Safety and corners still need addressing too. Um, that's all the positions, Jonathan. So they needed they needed to add players who could potentially be not just pieces of a defense, but big pieces. So I can absolutely make sense of that. The Caleb Banks thing is so hard. Jonathan, you saw it last night. I mean, people are just losing their minds about Caleb Banks. I thought that the reaction deserved some concern and maybe some shock. And all the people who are good at this stuff on the internet, and I mean fans too,

all the arguments are reasoned. It's the consensus board and it's the injury history. And it's like you don't even have to be a front office freak to see that Caleb Banks is very risky. But I also think acting like, you know, Rob Brissinsky should resign on the spot is maybe a little bit much, you know, considering that if it works out, the guy could be a freak monster. And we probably didn't even say it enough times last night. Their number one position of need by a mile was defensive tackle.

Like they needed help there. And also it's a position that is killing people in the NFL with lighter interior offensive lines. How many teams need a center? 14 that don't have an above average center. So, you know, I think that it should have been maybe a little more balanced than it was, even though they were bucking history by drafting Caleb Banks. I think that's the part that's confused me throughout the entire draft process with everybody

picking Dylan Thineman or insert safety here as their pick at number 18. You looked at the needs and everybody said safety first. Like they've got, and you pointed this out, they've got the talent there. they've got guys that they believe in in Theo Jackson and Jay Ward and obviously Josh Mattel is there. And if Harrison Smith comes back, then you have that all settled for at least next year. But when you look at the defensive line, it is thin, thin, thin beyond Jalen Redmond. That is not a deep group. That is a group.

That is a part of the defense that needed help the most and you would have expected a high pick. And I think when you choose the guy who has the injury history and the injury risk that he does, I think that's the reason why there's the concern and the outrage. But, and you look at the production and everything else kind of screams, this was a bit of a reach. The consensus, as you said, showed it a bit of reach. I think maybe a lot of the outrage is a little bit much, but there's a part of obviously this fan base that has been burned by the draft over the past couple of years that was seeping out. And that came out last night and you got an acting GM making his first ever pick as that position. so and it being a risky one that doesn't scream a whole lot of confidence in the guy who may be

the front runner for the position after the draft we'll see how that news all breaks out but I think the reaction was a little bit much but I get it I I really do get it I also think that there are things we don't know we certainly don't know as medical reports but I don't even no one knows who's going to get hurt in the NFL and if you've already been hurt multiple times you cannot convince me that that's just fine. Like it's not. And there's some sort of like, it's not a great visual,

but it's like every time they cut you open, it gets worse. Like, well, that's true, right? Every time you have a surgery, your odds of a longer career go down. But the one thing that we really don't know that it sounds like the Vikings did a ton of work on is the guy,

the actual person, Caleb Banks. You saw today that he's got a very, interesting personality as AJ Halsey goes off the board. That is a very big personality on Caleb Banks. It is. Yes. Once we got him rolling, he kind of forgot he was up there. And then he just started playing rock paper scissors with Dane Mizatani.

And he's talking about his animals or whatever. Zachariah Branch goes to the Atlanta Falcons with the 79th pick. So he gets to, he was at Georgia already. So he gets to stay home. I think that's a good pick for them. the Falcons have done a good job Avion Terrell, Zachariah Branch. These are two guys that were mocked a little bit higher. That's a new leadership there.

And, you know, obviously, if you read the details of Zachariah Branch's recent arrest, it was just idiotic. He was standing in the sidewalk and someone told him the move and he didn't and then got arrested, which, okay, that's a law, I guess. But, you know, he's a very dynamic player that I think when they add to, everything that they have offensively with Bijon Robinson, that they can get yards after catch out of screen game. And he's probably,

I think that their quarterback, Gunner Stockton for Georgia is terrible. So I feel like a lot of the reason that they did all the stuff with him for the screens was because their quarterback was bad. But, you know, maybe that's just an excuse. Either way,

here comes the wide receivers and they're coming off the board. But the point that I was getting to on Banks is just, you don't know the person. You don't know how he's going to learn. You don't know how he's going to adapt. You don't know how he gels with the coaching staff, the D-line coach, Flores. And they do a lot of work on something like that when they're going to take a big risk on a player. So at very least, what you could say with the Vikings and picking Caleb Banks.

And this is where you have to give them some credit. If you're going to buck history in four different areas in production, in consensus, board in injury and it's I guess I could say production run and pass like if you're going to buck the history there then you better do a lot of research and they obviously did that with the medical people and they had their defensive line coach go down to meet him in Florida and he was here on a 30 visit they spent a lot of time with this guy so they didn't just wake up on draft day and pull up a magazine and be like, this guy's huge. We should draft him.

I mean, they put so much effort into this. And historically speaking, reaches don't always do great. But usually when they pay off, and this has been a consensus board thing for a while, if they pay off, they pay off big. That is often how it has worked with reaches. Okay, receiver run is happening. Jacoby Lane from USC. All right.

You got to grab a receiver here. Yeah, I think so. The Vikings two picks away. So thank you, Jonathan, for that. We'll check in a little later with you for more reaction. Yep. All right, good stuff. Jonathan Harrison producing the last two nights here.

And Jonathan, if anything, pops up, jump in my ear as well. Oops, that's the wrong thing I'm looking at. And there we go. Another wide receiver. Yep. Yep. It's time. Let's go look at the wide receiver group now.

What's left? Chris Brasel, the most overhyped prospect. I think in the draft. He is tall and he is fast, but I didn't think that he was going to go as high as some people had him, maybe second round. Chris Bell coming off the ACL. He is 6-1 and 222.

This guy is a freaking tank. And he's listed as having a 4-4-40. Did he run the 40? Maybe at a pro day? I don't know. But he's getting, he, well, that's just not a, that's kind of broken.

But he was an ACL guy that had, good production, not great, but his physical traits are awesome. Elijah Surat is a contested catch monster. I really like Skyler Bell from Connecticut. Skyler Bell is not insanely fast for four. I guess actually he has a better RAS than I expected, but crazy production for, let me go back and see if the production is there. Okay, it's not.

But he had something like 111, 111. 11 catches or something like that, 106 catches at Connecticut. And he's one of those guys where when you watch him, wide open all the time, route running, contested catch. He's faster than everybody on the field, but he's also quicker. I like Skyler Bell here a lot for the Vikings. If they decide to go wide receiver, they're going to be on the clock very shortly. If they do not go wide receiver, if they took a shot at McCoy here,

I'm not going to be down on that decision. There's some other defensive backs. Keith Abney the second from Arizona State, Keante Scott from Miami. I really like Keante Scott's mentality. He's a guy that is a quick, tough, slot guy, but could also potentially play safety as well. I like Keante Scott a ton.

Kyle Lewis is a really intriguing player. You could also go Connor Lou if you wanted to go center. If you want to go edge, So a defensive tackle, this is good for the Vikings. Albert Regis goes to the Jaguars. So the Vikings now have their pick of any of these guys we've been talking about. Let's just see what they decide to do. But there's a lot of different options here.

I feel like wide receiver is a good place to start. But there are a couple guys, Joshua Joseph's, Danny Dennis Sutton, who are edge rushers if they wanted to go that direction and keep loading up on that. J. Sean Barham, they could go Mike Washington here. They could go with, I mean, how many running backs, how many running backs have been taken? I mean, none, is it none, have been taken in the second or third round? Am I, am I crazy? I feel like there hasn't been any running backs at all.

No, yeah, there's not. There has been no running back. So you get your pick of the litter if you want them here. If you want to go with the running back position, then you can go with the running back position here. I would not be against that at all. So the Vikings on the clock here. They've gone defense twice. Feels like a time to go to the offensive side.

Wide receiver, running back, if they want one. Trade down again. Connor Liu, I think that there's a lot of different options here. I think this board has fallen quite nicely to the Vikings. So the pick is in. That means they are going to make the selection. Personally, Skyler Bell would be my favorite player to take here. but we will see what direction they decide to go.

It feels like offense, the fact that they have now three third round draft picks still en route gives them options as well to, you know, take a different angle if they want to. If they decide to go, Jermad McCoy, I would endorse it even if it's very risky to decide to do that. because of the injuries. But this is a pick where it feels like you can just have whatever wide receiver you want. Zachariah Branch goes, Lane goes. It might be time to do this before all the wide receivers start flying off the board. I'm not as big Evan on Mike Washington either, but man, a guy runs a 4-3.

So at very least, you'd be getting a running back with crazy speed. I mean, there's defensive players I like here too. This, this draft, in my opinion, has gone quite deep into the second round with players that I think can be starters. Maybe not necessarily superstars. But when everybody talked about it as this horrible atrocity of a draft, it was like, okay, maybe at the top. But in terms of the entirety of the draft, I'm not, I'm not seeing that. I'm not seeing it as being this horrible draft with almost no talent where nobody you ever

get is going to be any good. I'm not feeling that. I feel like there's a lot of depth into this draft with players that, no, are they superstars? Probably not. But you might get starters and starters have a lot of worth. Having an average starter at a position is very valuable in the NFL. We're in commercial, so we wait for the Vikings pick. But I do appreciate you guys not spoiling today if you're seeing them on social media. How about Claiborne? Yeah, Damon Claybourne.

Or is it Demon? Demand Claiborne? Yeah. I don't know if I would do it here. It might be a little early. Crazy fast player though. Running back. Crazy fast running back.

Very explosive. Great quickness. So I think that running back would be a pick that I might take a little later. It doesn't seem like there's a lot of appetite for that. in this draft, they could probably wait. I mean, they're picking again two more times in the next, you know, 15 picks.

So you could probably wait a little bit in order to get one of those running backs. Okay, here we go. Pick is in for the Minnesota Vikings at number 82. Where will they go? Five wide receivers drafted in the last 11 picks. That speaks to the. the run. All right, Brian O'Neill, a man who will most certainly be getting a contract extension very

soon. He can buy an even better suit. They are going to go with, well, okay, wow, this I did not see coming at all. Dominique Orange defensive tackle from Iowa State, the big citrus. We did discuss the big citrus as a player that they could go with. I mean, this is a massive. We are talking about a true zero technique nose tackle with some unique movement skill and some serious power. But I got to say, I'm pretty shocked that they're going with another defensive tackle after drafting Caleb Banks.

They are completely leaning into building the defense. and it feels like a little bit of trying to fill these positions for right now because they did have a serious need with two defensive tackles coming off of the board as KOC and witness protection is very funny. I'm pretty surprised. This was of all the players that we just went through. And I think other than the Jake Golda thing, most things that have happened here have been kind of surprising.

Dominique Orange is the defensive tackle that the Vikings have not had since Brian Flores got here. He is the Pat Williams type, the big giant bowling ball, the fire hydrant of a guy who has some unique athleticism for his size and is great strength. So from a run-stopping perspective and from a plays-right-away perspective, this is a guy who plays right away, Dominic Orange. You're going to plug him in as a run-stuffer for you and say, all right, here we go. You're going to put him right over the center and have him be a situational player as the Panthers take Chris Brasel.

So they're looking for the 6-foot-4 speedster. Good pick for the Panthers, but not a good pick for the Vikings, because that makes six of the last 13 picks for wide receivers. The Vikings are letting a lot of them go off the board. In terms of liking or not liking the pick for Dominic Orange, this is a position that we talked about a lot of the Vikings 100% needing. And Dominic Orange, I did see quite a bit of him play this year watching Iowa State. He is very powerful and he is very big.

and he can stick the center stick guards in place for linebackers to knife in and make plays. They did not have this last year and they really could have used it. So I can see why. I mean, he's a good prospect. He's picked about where he was expected to go for a guy that doesn't have much pass rush upside, but is a freaky type of size and is going to be very difficult to play against for offensive linemen. but to not go wide receiver or running back is a little bit surprising or maybe even center or defensive back positions that I felt like they needed a little bit more.

Dominic Orange's ceiling is, I mean, saying Pat Williams is a little unfair to anyone because Pat Williams is so good. Pat Williams was insanely good. So yeah, it's probably, that's a little much. and for whatever reason, Gilbert Brown comes to mind as someone who was like gigantic. You can envision this player as he's not ever going to be a pass rusher, but he can completely eat the middle of an offensive line.

I think if you remember Casey Hampton, thank you, Evan, for the super chat. Bears are playing Garrett Bradbury and Logan Jones. Yeah. if you remember Casey Hampton in Pittsburgh, that classic nose tackle that just pushed into people and held the line and made it very difficult to run around, then that's kind of what I see Dominique Orange trying to be. He has great strength, great power. And yeah, I mean, that's exactly what I'm getting at Purple Coulee, that Casey Hampton is the prototype for this. And if you look who, like, they just hired as a defensive assistant, a guy from Pittsburgh.

And Brian Flores was in Pittsburgh with Mike Tomlin. So there may be some influence there of the players that they're kind of looking to emulate. And we were just discussing this with the defensive side where what did I say? They need a foundation. They need windows. They need a living room. It's everything. It's not sprucing up.

it's not a little bit of, let's add a little new coat of paint. It's like they need everything. But I'm the run stuffing DT, it's not overdrafted here, but after you already draft another defensive tackle, it's not what I expected to happen. I think Dominique Orange could become a very important player for them. And I've always been a believer that defensive tackle is huge. And the reason I bring up Casey Hampton is because Casey Hampton was amazing. and he was a big difference maker on all of those Pittsburgh defenses,

just the way that Gilbert Brown was, just the way the Pat Williams was. I am a very big believer in the giant man in the middle because I think teams hate to play against it. The other teams in the Vikings division, this might have to be considered as well. Oh, Jerry Ball, great pull. Yeah, I mean, look, throw out your Ted Washington's, all the names you could come up with that played for the Vikings are in the division. I like this type of player.

Darrell Jackson was another one I was looking at throughout the process. This is a type of player that I think has an underrated impact on teams. Bill Belichick always had this guy. He had Danny Shelton. He had Alan Branch. I've mentioned those guys throughout the years. And it always surprised me a little bit that the Vikings did not have with Brian Flores this kind of defensive tackle because the three, four, which is where this is where

this is rooted, I mean, usually that guy is there. And Harrison Phillips was not that guy. Neither was Jonathan Bullard. And Dominique Orange does have unique traits, unique size, unique power. And they got run over a lot. This does allow Kayla Banks long term as who was asking that, Andrew, to be moved around. And Redmond to be moved around. overall, I like the player.

I thought he was a little overrated going into the draft season because I saw him like second round pick and I just didn't think that people do that very often. If you're telling me that your main strategy here is to rebuild the front seven and try to dominate that way, it's really hard to say I hate that because look around. Is this your, is this your shorter Jordan Davis, Vince Will Fork? Yeah, that's the best example. Well, of this type of defense, it's really hard to say that you hate a pick for a guy that can take up blocks and can totally overhaul the interior of a defensive line that's been pushed around quite a bit. Ted Hurst goes to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, but this is the concern is that all these receivers, there goes Brazel, there goes Hurst. who are you going to get in the third round here with these picks at the wide receiver position as these picks are going off the board.

But I don't want to say, and Zimbardo, thank you so much for the super chat, Front 7. It's very hard for me to say that it's a bad idea to stockpile interior defensive linemen who have unique elements to their game. just like with Golda, it's very hard for me to say that it's a bad idea for Jake Golda to be drafted where he can be a dynamic player and play inside, outside linebacker, you know, cover a lot of ground, blitz, rush off the edge. Like, these things are really good for Brian Flores. So I'm not going to be down on the Dominique Orange pick.

I'm just a little surprised by it. And now, Aaron, you say Bryce Lance, Brendan Thompson, these are guys. who are potentially still wide receivers on the board. And that might be something for them that influenced them to wait is we're going to be coming up very shortly on more Vikings draft picks here within the next 15 picks or so is they may have looked at it and said, yeah, sure, we could get Elijah Surad or whatever and take him now. But maybe you want to wait and those guys will still be on the board after this mini run here.

Or maybe they see a secondary guy or I don't know, they've got multiple picks coming up. So I'm not sure what the strategy is going to be. You'd think that they would not walk out of the evening with no offensive players. But now it's kind of that way. Oh, Michael Pierce, these guys that were naming. And I looked this up when I was doing my research on defensive tackles. A lot of them who were the best in the league at run stopping were. third and fourth round draft picks because teams are not looking for, you know, third round or

run stuffers normally in the first round. So they were third and fourth round picks. So I guess I don't have any issue with it because this is something they need. Last year, they got pushed around and bullied a lot up front as the Steelers take Dailen Everett, cornerback. That position is on my radar now. Cornerback. Yeah, just go.

go, well, you know, that's an interesting idea. The cap space, Joanne Jennings, is still out there for wide receiver three. And that's what we don't know either is what are the Vikings options in free agency that might influence where they decide to go. But yeah, Vince Wilfork, Michael Pierce, these guys are difference makers in the three, four defense. Last year, when they played Pittsburgh, they could run wherever they wanted. When they played the chargers, they could run wherever they wanted. This is a division that's going to run the ball. Jamir Gibbs, Josh Jacobs,

Ben Johnson in his run scheme. So I can't say that I'm super down on a third round defensive tackle like this. This was kind of what I expected them to do. I just didn't expect them to do it after they had already drafted a DT, but they lost two DTs in free agency. It feels, the one thing is it feels a little bit like go through the league, and every time we hear draft for BPA, draft for BPA, and what do they do?

They draft for need. Everybody drafts for need. It's just how it goes. Let me get Jonathan Harrison in here and just give me an idea of what the reaction is to Dominique Orange. I cannot, I don't think I can hear you, Jonathan. Are you muted? There we go. I had my mic.

Put out a poll in the chat and through 156 votes. It is a B with 45% The vote coming in as a B 38% coming as an A. This feels like the most positive reaction to a pick we've had so far for the Vikings. I mean, we all watched last year as the interior

the D-line got shoved around and we all know that if they're leaning into this 3-4, then you need a zero tech who can handle centers and it also allows someone mentioned in the chat sorry I missed who said this about like their linebackers are undersized. So if you have undersized

linebackers and you don't have a lot of beef as a defensive tackle. And Jalen Redmond's not huge. He's like 290 pounds. He's not a guy that's just, hey, Jalen, take up three dudes. He's much better beating someone one on one. So if you get your push from Dominique Orange, I think it'll matter a lot. In terms of social media, what everyone else is saying about, I'm just curious because this is another one that takes us by surprise. I thought with the receivers falling down the board, this is the time to do it. You and I were just talking about this five minutes ago. Gotta go wide receiver. Got to go wide receiver.

And the fact that they didn't and then see a couple more wide receivers, including Chris Brazzle, including Ted Hurst, come off of the board. I'm a little, I'm not flummoxed. I'm more like, oh, okay, you decided to go with the beastly fat man. Okay. Does that, does that give you the feeling that they may just be looking if they don't get one here at at 97 or 98 that they may just be looking maybe at the later round so as just a flyer or as someone as the chat has already pointed out there's free agency

options you got dea jondrey hopkins john jennings they now have cap space to go sign those guys granting you may not want to give either those guys big long-term deals but you can offer them deals to come in and on one-year flyers and one-year prove-it deals in joan jennings case that are worth it now for those guys to come think of because you have have the cap space. It kind of has that feeling that if they get to 97, there's no wide receivers that they feel are worth that value, that they could just go that route now with the open cap space. And as we pointed out, there's still no running backs off the board yet from from day or after

since day one. So if there's no wide receivers, running back may be the option at 97. I'm sorry. I'm making faces because the dolphins just took a blocking tight end in the third round. Will Kachmerich. I mean, he has caught passes, but not at the highest level. He was just a straight up blocker. Their draft overall is kind of bizarre.

Caleb Douglas and then Will Kack Merrick. I mean, I saw him play in Ohio State games, but that looks like a seventh round draft pick to me and not a third. Some odd, odd decisions by a team that is in need of rebuilding everything and they're taking a blocking tight end. You need to do, you need everything if you're Miami, literally every single position. and you take a blocking tight end?

Now that's odd. Defensive tackle after the Vikings got run over is not odd, taking two of them, not a shock. In fact, there were some questions before going into the draft by fans. And I remember answering one where somebody said, hey, if they were going to take two players at the same position, what would it be?

And I think I said defensive tackle has to make the most sense because they are, they lost two DTs and they kind of have everything else. I just think if you go through the teams though mostly everyone is drafting for need they they can say BPA all they want and maybe that is the case with Caleb Banks but just so happen to line up with their biggest need on the board teams are going to do that no matter how much you push back against it they're going to pick for where they have empty spaces in the roster but this one I think orange is going to be a very popular player in part because his name is Dominique orange but also like this is a type of player that Vikings.

Kings fans have seen really work for their defense before in Pat Williams. And now if you create a D line and you start to workshop this in your head of let's say it works out. And your front seven is Dallas Turner, young ascending player. Let's say Caleb Banks even works out to 75% of what they think he could be. Quality starting player really hard to handle for defenses. Dominique Orange, I think is a very safe pick for what he could be. Stuff's the run. Just plugs hold. then you have Jake Golda, who you just drafted and Andrew Van Ginkle. I mean, that looks pretty darn good with Cashman

and then Wilson under contract. There's just a lot there for Brian Flores to work with. And this gives a new element to where if another team runs up the middle a lot and you're trying to get that or even to the outside with a run stuff for like this, if you could just pound them backward, this allows them to do some more stuff, I think, where teams can't just say, we're going to run on first down against the Vikings.

And I think that's what happened last year. The Vikings faced the fewest number of passes in the entire NFL last year. Teams were saying, we can run on this team. And at the end of the year, they had good stats against the run overall, but early in the year, it was a big problem. So run stuffing in a league that's running more in a conference

or in a division that runs, a lot. I don't have an issue with that, but you should really get a wide receiver here at some point pretty darn soon. Okay, Jonathan, great, great stuff. Anything else you want to toss out there? No, it just feels like when you look at this pick and you look at the picks that they've had, this feels like maybe they're just trying to have insurance. They're trying to hedge their bets, considering the injury history of Caleb Banks at that defensive tackle pick in the first round. So getting another guy at that position kind of helps them. If banks can't go right away, you're not completely, uh, left out at that position.

Also, where does he line up? Big Citrus as the best nickname on the team. I'm voting first. Yeah, I mean, uh, well, um, Rip Van Ginkle is pretty good. Rip, yeah. Rip Van Gingle is pretty good. But if he doesn't come back. Yeah, yeah.

Big citrus has got to be up there. Hitman for Harrison Smith is an all timer. So yeah, big, but big citrus is great. I don't know how many. I probably said every single time I talked about run guys during the draft process. I was always bringing up mostly for the nickname. But now for the fit with the Minnesota Vikings. Emmanuel pregnon off the board for the Jaguars. Thank you, Jonathan. We'll check back in after the next two picks. Appreciate you, my friend. All right. So what's the, what's the reaction? What's the reaction? It does seem like you're right, KMC. it really feels like Jermad McCoy is probably day three.

Caleb is this bad for a Jalen Redman extension? I don't think so. When I was going through the front seven, I left Jalen Redmond out. Sorry about that. He should have been in the conversation that we were talking about. Because if it's a three, four defense, you can either rotate guys depending on the situation,

or if it all works out, you can have Redmond Banks and Orange. and Redmond and Banks are playing basically like the five techs in a very much three, four defense. This is something we haven't seen a lot in the NFL in recent years of teams really playing an actual base defense. But Flores did it last year where he was using Eric Wilson as an outside linebacker sometimes. And they were putting Redmond, Hargrave, and Allen on the field all at the same time. and Banks is quick enough to where he could play against tackles and potentially beat them. And then you have outside linebackers.

Gold Day can cover and Van Ginkle, of course, can cover. And then you have Dallas Turner who's going to be rushing the passer. So you can play like a three, four type of defense because that Golda slash Andrew Van Ginkle position gives you flexibility to treat that like a linebacker or even kind of a giant safety because Golda has. so much coverage there. If the Vikings plan, as another wide receiver goes off the board, Zavian Thomas, another one that I didn't really have on my radar is going this high. But the wide receiver run has been crazy here in the back end of the third round. Thomas just, he didn't have big numbers.

He's not a big guy. I'm a little, I'm just a real, really surprised by this that they would go. Is he a returner? Could they be considering that? Not sure. Interesting pick for the Chicago Bears to go with Zavian Thomas. But if the plan is to build a front seven that is really nasty, and I don't know that if it has an impact or not on a Jalen Redmond extension,

I would not think so because they just created a bunch of cap space for themselves. I think they want to extend Jalen Redman. I think they really, really like him. So I'm going to guess that the cap space is going to help them do something like that with Jalen Redman. my guess is what they want to say is look, we've got the premier defensive coordinator in the NFL, give him some talent to work with that is younger to build for the future and not just throw a bunch of more free agent talent at it.

DeAndre Hopkins certainly could be in the conversation. Evan, do we take Jermad McCoy? I mean, at this point, it feels like Jermad McCoy's not going to get taken until day three. But if they do, I think it'll be a good pick because you're taking the risk with almost no downside. It just feels like if we've gotten to this point, no one's taking him, then the risk must be enormous. Danny says, been asking for D-tackles for a while now and finally taking them seriously.

This is a great point, Danny, that it's hard to be too upset when last year they spent stupid amounts of money on the defensive tackle position. I've been talking about for weeks leading up to this draft how hard these guys are to find in free agency. Now, run stuffers are available. Run stuffers that are, I don't know what he's listed at. Is it 330 pounds? Guys that are 330 pounds are not the easiest to find in free agency. Like elite run stuffers usually get signed and extended.

I mean, that, from that perspective, as running back Kalin Black goes to the 49ers here. So are we going to see some running backs come off the board? I like Kalin Black. I thought he was kind of the most underrated player on Indiana. Went under the radar because Mendoza and the receivers got so much attention. He's a good player. 49ers getting stribling and black along with Ramello Heights. That's pretty good for San Francisco.

But just, you know, going back to the defensive tackle position, it is a hard position to fill with top-notch talent through free agency. And loading up on that spot, remember, when they had Linval Joseph stuff in gaps and Tom Johnson getting after it or Sheldon Richardson, that was really hard to deal with for the opposition. So I like that. KMC running back is in a dire need. I would agree it's not dire.

Taking a shot on one if you like them might be a good idea, but dire, I would not describe it as dire. Why haven't we gotten a safety yet, though? now maybe some of the safeties that they would have been targeting came off the board a j halsey bud clark there's a few that are still there like zaki weatley or kamari ramsie that they could take coming up here with their next two picks that's possible i think that that's on the radar but there are so many left the way that you manage these middle rounds is well how many are left and if there's three or four that you like well you're not taking one at 82 you're just going to kind of roll the dice.

And most of the safety prospects at this point are just okay. There's not a lot of difference. Once Halsey went, there's not difference making defensive safeties at this point. Kachmarik was Chris Trappaso's tight end 14. That's a, it's a weird pick. Teams do weird picks here. Poor Malik Willis. Dolph is doing weird things.

Val Sung, big citrus will keep banks from getting, being an ever. down guy, which will reduce the injury risk. No, I'm not sure that's quite it. I think they want to play him together. I don't think they want to play Caleb Banks less, ultimately. I think they want them together with different skill sets. One guy at zero tech right over the center. The other guy probably at the, like an inside shade to the tackle.

So like a four eye or a five eye. Is that a five eye? Inside the tackle, right? Something like that. I mean, loading up on DT talent is not something I'm going to be too upset about. It just said a little bit of a surprise when there was talent on the board at some of the skill positions. Hunter, hard to hate the overall philosophy of building the trenches.

That's what they're trying to do here. They are trying to build the trenches. Bryce Lance and Sam Hect are still there. Yeah, Hect could be an option here as we go down the stretch toward the Vikings. Hey, how interesting is it for the Vikings to have picks? Isn't it? Let's take a look at the board here. Let's also take a quick look at Friends of Fan Duel.

The show, of course, is presented by Fanduel. And if they've got anything for the draft right now, let's see. Okay, not at this moment. So let's go over to the rookies, what their expectations are for rookies, top players. I'm curious about what they think, Jeremiah, love or Kenyon Sadiq. Kenyan Sadiq's over under for receiving is 4.50.5. That's interesting.

I wonder if anyone's line has moved for wins and losses. The Vikings wouldn't move today, but over under eight and a half is interesting. That was the sort of fan duel question of the day was, did Jonathan Grenard being traded moved the needle for you? Did it change your expectation for 2020? was the Fanduel question of the day because I've checked several times. The Vikings line didn't move at eight and a half with the Jonathan Grenard trade. Not that I expected it to, but it didn't.

So on the board right now, some defensive backs. Kianti Scott is very interesting to me. Chris Bell, at this point, Chris Bell, very talented wide receiver who's kind of built like a house at 6.1 and 220 would be interested in that. Kyle Lewis from Pittsburgh would be, it would be, it would be. be like, did Brian Flores take over TCO Performance Center lock himself in the draft room and no one is allowed in? Is that what's happening? Conor Liu, you got some edge rush talent, still some receivers on the board that I like. Bell, Surat, and Skyler Bell. So the Raiders going with a center here,

Trey Zune, who actually played tackle, I think. He's going to move into center. So there goes one. How much talent we got left at center. Sam Hecht is still on the board along with Connor Lou and Brian Parker. That's three guys that they could look after at center. Cornerback, Malik Muhammad is probably my favorite here. Chandler Rivers I like is a nickel guy. Julian Neal has the specs, 6 foot 2, 203 pounds, 449 40 yard dash, 40 yard vertical. That wouldn't be a shocking pick if they were to take Julianneal.

just fits with the size for the Vikings. What other D-Linmen are still around? Oh, Grace and Halton, who I like to still around. I'm just joking, but for edge rushers, they actually do have two guys that I think are great fits for them, J. Sean Barham and Danny Dennis Sutton. The linebacker spot, they already took one. Don't love what's on the board for them right there.

Let's see what is happening. It's safety. At the safety spot, Genesis Smith is the top guy. at safety playmaker from Arizona. He's the one that was kind of a top 100 projection. Him, Kamari Ramsey, and Zaki Wheatley are the top 100 projections. And in terms of where everybody ranks versus the consensus board here on Stick to the Model, Keith Abney, the second cornerback from Arizona State, Chris Bell, Keante Scott,

Jennings Dunker, the offensive lineman, Caleb Tiernan, another offensive lineman, Kyle Lewis from Pitt. all these guys were considered top 75 prospects that haven't gone yet so there's a lot on the board there of interests for the minnesota vikings oh what did i do oh wow i i totally screwed this up sorry guys okay there we go that should be fixed all right all right dallas at number 92 oh they go j sean barram i thought he was a really good fit for the vikings he is an edge rusher but also could play linebacker. He plays with a lot of violence, quickness, really good against the run. Like, he's somebody that because he plays with so much violence, that he could be an impact run defender. I think the Cowboys have done a good job in their draft. They get Caleb Downs. They didn't have to

move up too much. They get Jay Sean Barham here. Dallas is a team that you can never quite figure out, right? Like the minute they do something absolutely insane, then they do something smart the next minute. And that's the Dallas Cowboys for you. Hunter on board with McCoy must be some serious concerns late in the third. Evan likes Julian Neal. I think with Jermad McCoy, we may have reached like the point of no return where, I mean, if no one has decided that late in the third round was the time. to do it. And if you're going to do it, then do it with the pick that you got in a trade,

but you've gone really far into the draft. And this is a top 15 ranked player in terms of talent. And I also say, oh, yeah, Melchai Lawrence. So they got Caleb Downs, Melichai Lawrence and Jashon Barham. That's a good trade for, or a good draft for the Dallas Cowboys. Well done by Dallas. only a couple picks away now from the Vikings at 97 with certainly more than four or five good players on the board. The Rams coming up right now. But Dallas, I think they did a good job here. Kenny Moore.

Oh, you're talking about the real player, the Colts player, not a draft pick. They could do something like that. Keegan Troast. I do not know that person that's an offensive lineman from. Missouri goes to the Rams. Everyone expected them to pick a tackle last night. Yeah, I feel bad for, for McCoy as well. Sky, I mean, through the 2024 season,

you would have expected him to have his name read in the top 10. And now he's not even picked in the first two days so far. Gosh, that must have been a terrible, terrible injury that must have not healed correctly. Just, yeah, back-to-back injured players, would be funny. Will the Vikings trade for Kenny Moore? I don't think so. I mean, a day three pick, I guess. Trayzon is a tackle who's moving to center. That's, uh, that's who he is. We didn't talk about him much, but he was kind of out there. If they go, if they go Jermad McCoy now, then I, I can't

have a whole heck of a lot of complaints. Because even with the injuries, if you fail on a draft pick like that, I mean, just shrugged your shoulders. Oh, well. I mean, it's, But if it works out for even a year or two, then that's, then that's great. Call the next Vikings pick. Oh, I mean, I'm old for, well, Gold Day, you know, I liked him. But I, I'm old for the other two pretty badly. I will go, I will go. Genesis Smith.

No, no, we got to go offense. Don't we have to go offense? Let's take a look. Let's go back to the board. call the next pick let me take a shot at it chris bell he is coming off an injury so he makes complete sense i have to be like you guys sometimes with the snark um center makes sense here i'll just go i'll just go with my favorite guy i'll just go skyler bell i'm going my favorite guy that's going to be my that's going to be my guess because i think that he is the best player on the board there's a lot of guys

that they could go with but skyler bell wide receiver from kiel Connecticut is a really purely good football player. Last year they went with Ty Felton and no offense keep the hammer down. That's funny. They went with Ty Felton who was a project. And the fact that they didn't invest huge in the wide receiver position, I think says that maybe there's some belief there that Ty Felton can be wide receiver three. And I had heard good things.

I also, Patrick agree on Emmett Johnson. and I had heard good things about Ty Felton last year from inside the locker room and coaching that they were impressed with the way he handled that a position on special teams. And I know that from the outside perspective, we're like, yeah, who cares, whatever, special teams. But when you're actually out there and you're beating NFL players down the field to make plays, they're going to take notice of that. The coaches are. And I also think that Ty is a very smart guy who has a really good attitude.

I had a conversation with Tavier Thomas about that last year. He was like, dude, he's learning things on the fly that took me longer to get. So I think they are high on Ty Felton. But why not more? Why not more rolls at the dice there? Center is certainly a position that they could go after. But if they just go defense, defense, defense, defense, it's going to be hard to be too upset about it right now. So we'll see if they decide to go that direction.

There's still good wide receiver prospects on the board. and there's some guys that I just did not see coming. So we have gotten to the point where they might draft someone that we haven't really looked very closely at. And they could surprise us. How is Felton going to play? Well, I mean, Jalen Naylor played and so did KJ Osborne. So Ty Felton would be the latest version of that of someone that they've developed and then takes on a certain role. I think he's certainly a deep threat, but also could be more of a yak guy.

They like what he brought to the table. They like his IQ. They like his speed. It's just, hey, route running and stuff like that. I think needed some work and, you know, playmaking on the football. Evan, Xavier and Thomas was 25th wide receiver picked. And some of our favorite guys, the 25th, really? That's crazy.

There's been that many wide receiver. Or are you just, does that hyperbole? It feels like it. It feels like it. Maybe that is just hyperbole. Another receiver is coming off the board here. Chris Bell to Miami. This is where I like the Dominique Orange pick.

I really do. He is a beast. Just a giant, strong guy who can move bodies and stuff gaps. And you're going to like him. There's almost no doubt about it. When he's on the field, Vikings fans who watch tape, Vikings fans who are observant and know the X's and O's, you're going to go do this Dominique Orange guy is,

he's making a difference. But, I mean, some of these wide receivers, Chris Bell going to the Dolphins, the Dolphins like giveeth and taketh away. The Dolphins with the weirdest draft, uh, because the last pick made no sense whatsoever. And this pick makes complete sense. Big yards after catch guy, Chris Bell, but he's not the bell that I wanted. I want Skyler Bell. That's the one that I wanted. There was no ESPN graphic.

That is a crazy bizarre draft. Caleb Douglas, who I also had no idea on my radar, and he was ranked consensus like 230 or something. Crazy. A very odd draft. Everyone had Chris Bell as like a second round pick, and he ends up being their second wide receiver taken right after a blocking tight end. The draft, everyone.

I don't know. But we're closing in here. Two more picks. The pick is in for the New England Patriots. And now we just sort of wait and see. And it's been an exciting night. I've really enjoyed it, my friends, this second round. It's been very eventful for us and a lot to discuss.

So we didn't have to spend the entire time arguing about, you know, Caleb Banks or whatever. It was a lot of movement here. Jonathan Grinard gone, Dominique Orange in. And now chances to get more. And just don't trade out of it, Vikings. Trading out of a late. third rounder after it's been like a really long night is so deflating.

So don't do that. All right, Dion Branch here. Is that him? Is that who's announcing this? This pick for the Patriots. Two more. Safety is a position they could certainly look at. I think everything's on the table except defensive tackle.

If they take a third one, then something screwy's going on. Eli Rarden. Is it Rairden? Rairden. for a Notre Dame, he goes to the Patriots. This is about where he was expected to be picked. And now Seattle at 96. And then the Vikings.

And then it'll be the Vikings again. Sam Hect is there. Connor Lou is there. Kings of the North, they have to grab Sam Hect. Sam Hect makes total sense to me. You bring him in, develop him behind Blake Brandel, give him the job for next year. at worst, he's depth.

Maybe he just wins the job. Surat would be good with me. Great ball tracker. Contested catch guy. I know he doesn't create a lot of separation. But the thing is, with wide receivers in this system, there's so much attention on Justin Jefferson. I don't know if you have to just absolutely torch the one-on-one.

You kind of just have to make the plays that are there for you. Mike Washington could certainly be a guy. I can't say that I'm very surprised that Mike, Washington was not someone the NFL was that interested in. He just have, okay, so the Steelers jumping up to make the pick at 96. They trade with Seattle. So they must have thought that the Vikings were going to do something here that they wanted to do. So they trade up.

Center and wide receiver makes sense to me. I don't disagree with anybody saying that. Offense, offense. And here's Caleb Banks, aka Cam Hayward. Maybe. Maybe someday. I'm curious who they thought was important, because then that would tell us who they think the Vikings are going to go after.

By the way, tomorrow, I will also be live, but not during the entire day three. That is insane. So I will be doing a recap, though. As soon as day three is over and we've spoken with the players and the brass, then, so they're getting Jennings Dunker. I don't know if the Vikings, maybe the Vikings would have taken Jennings Dunker It's a great pick for the Steelers.

Athletic player. Oh, but that's too bad, though, because he talked about how much he loves Culvers, and I don't think they have Culvers in Pittsburgh. That stinks for him. Man, I didn't know what I was missing until I moved out here and got Culvers. My TV probably is a little behind some people's, but, you know, we did a good job of not spoiling picks and stuff today, so let's keep doing that for these next two if your television is ahead of mine.

But, man, Jennings Dunker can't have his culvers anymore. So the Vikings are on the clock here. And it says, well, maybe the pick is in, but two picks in a row. And we'll see what happens for the Vikings. I think there's a, I think there's a ton of options. Yeah, that is a football playing man right there. red-haired, mustached, loves culvers. He would have been perfect here.

He definitely would have been perfect here. All right, Vikings pick is in. Let's go. We've waited four hours and two minutes for the second pick. And now they're showing Mel Kuyper's hair next to Jennings Dunker. Let's get to these Vikings selections, my friend. Throwing hay bales. Yeah, that's funny.

R-IP, no Culver. Yeah, I mean, no Culver. That's tough. I ate there today. Yeah, it is, yeah, I agree with you. It is scamping around a lot more fun having picks. And now they're going to commercial. Come on, man.

Let's get the, let's get the pick in here. Let's go. Just at least it's in. At least they're not trading down. Then I might need another Diet Dr. Pepper. But you're right. It does feel like every time. the Vikings are on the board.

They go to a commercial. Everything's up in the air with a draft that we haven't been able to predict for the Vikings. You can't say that it hasn't been fun. You can't say that it hasn't been a good time. It's been interesting. And I don't know that we've been able to really totally figure them out, except for they clearly want a young defensive foundation to build on.

And it's hard to be upset with that. The Banks thing is so risky that you can't not consistently go back to that and go, yeah, but that's a really dangerous thing to do to take Caleb Banks at number 18. But I can't wait to see how they use Jake Golda just from the first day of training camp. Where is he lining up? He'll be with the second team, but is he playing like a Van Ginkle role?

Is he more of a regular linebacker? Are they moving him around? That pick is exciting. And Dominic Orange, well, I can't wait to see him in person just to see how big he is. But I'm curious about how the defense is going to be different now that they're drafting someone who is a traditional nose tackle as high as they did here. Because if they picked a nose tackle in the seventh, I'd be like, well, you know, they're not drafting for current situation.

But in the third, you still kind of are drafting for your current situation. So if you're investing a third with all those receivers and safeties and stuff on the board, then you're thinking that you're going to use him. So there's a little bit of a shift there. And the Vikings, when Flores got here, they had Kyris Tonga. They let him go. He ended up playing very well for the Patriots and just got a pretty big contract. He was that kind of guy.

And I wonder if Flores, after this year, reassessed and said, we really want that. Or, you know, maybe that's something Kevin O'Connell wanted. as well. Okay, let's get to it NFL draft. Let's get to it. The pick has been in for a while. Tell us the pick, ESPN. It's three more defensive tackles.

O-line wouldn't be bad. Definitely wouldn't be down on offensive line. I am curious to see what it ends up meaning to get another third round pick out of the Jonathan Grenard deal. This will be kind of one of those, hey, this was the guy they got for Jonathan Grenard and also a third next year. Other than cap space, that will matter as well. Technically, they can hold it for 10 more minutes.

Well, don't do that. Please don't do that. All right, here we go. The Vikings go with an offensive lineman. Okay. Caleb Tiernan, offensive lineman from Northwestern, 6 foot 7, almost 6 foot 8, and 323 pounds. the developmental offensive tackle, hard to complain about that when there is uncertainty in the future at offensive line.

Now, when you pick one in the third, that's pretty high. It's not the same as picking Monroe Freeling, which they could have done last night. So once again, they don't pick the positions that we expected. And, yeah, Brian O'Neill didn't announce his replacement. but this clearly is someone at 6 foot 8 and 320 pounds that you're thinking is an offensive tackle. I'm going to have to now read up. Let's get to because this was, this is a player. Now this is one. I remember I just said like, hey, there's probably something coming that I have not prepared for.

And Caleb Tiernan is a guy that I did not prepare for. So let's go to the beast with Dane Bruegler here at the Ether. athletic and let's read up on Caleb Tiernan, 23 years old, fifth year senior, Dane Bruegler's takeaway. Tiernan relies on refinement to compensate for his average length and redirect skills using his discipline hands and poise to execute assignments. He'll have swing tackle ability, although his best position long term, oh, here we go. His best position long term might be guard.

And now it makes a little bit more sense. Okay, now the Vikings take a safety, Jacoby Thomas. Another one that was not so much on the radar. Boy, they just threw the mock drafters for an absolute headspin here with this draft. So let's talk a little more about Tiernan and then we'll get to Jacoby Thomas, the safety from Florida. So Tiernan, thinking that he has maybe a potential at Guard, didn't do much in terms of the combine or really his pro day under his strengths this is all from dane brugler because this is a player i didn't expect them to take is tall broadshouldered frame with a smooth bulk throughout same

efficient pass blocker with enough range to reach landmarks making it tough for him to get around obviously he's humongous a level work ethic here quick to sniff out stunts and pass off pass off stunts in games, that's pretty good. In terms of his weaknesses, shorter arms for his size, susceptible to long arm moves, inconsistent knee bend, and his balance is too easily disrupted as a run blocker, needs more consistent hitting target at the second level. And he has some experience at right tackle, but almost all of his snaps at left tackle. Let's get over here to the PFF data and see what we can find there about how he graded

last year. So it looks like in 2024, it graded extremely well last year in terms of being a pass protector, very good pass blocking grade, very poor run blocking grade in 2000. And wow, his gap run blocking grade was quite poor. All right. So there you go. They draft a guy, Caleb Tiernan, who is a tackle with certainly tackle size and has the potential to maybe be a Will Fry's replacement or even depth. I'll throw this out there. Obviously, surprised by both. I didn't have either one of these players on our radar.

But safety makes sense for the draft pick. Offensive line, it just didn't feel like they were going to do it now. It was almost like if you didn't do it already, why would you be doing it now? It's valuable. and depth is valuable. The Vikings have been burned now multiple times by not having offensive line depth. Last year they got crushed by it. 2004, it hurt them.

So, hey, look, it's Chris Trappaso's guy, Jalen Husky, going above the consensus. That's nice. But so they've been burned on offensive line depth. And if you are, now it kind of looks like, doesn't it, with they go get Ryan Vandemark, who's a younger player. and now they draft one in the third round that they're at least preparing for trying to develop somebody at offensive tackle over the next year and then have depth. Certainly not a win now type of play or a fill in immediate need.

I guess wide receiver is going to be saved for yesterday. I spent a lot of time preparing for guys they didn't get. All right. Here is Jacoby Thomas. This we did prepare for, but not necessarily, excuse me, not necessarily. this guy from Miami. There were other guys who were kind of pushed ahead of him. He was a one-year starter at Miami and moved up from Middle Tennessee State to Tennessee

before 2024, so this is third team. The takeaway here, a passionate competitor, which can lead to missteps, but will also put him in position to play fast and make plays. He has a floor of a special teamer with the potential to earn a starting role in terms of his pro day. Didn't, looks like 4, 5, 740 is pretty unimpressive. Doesn't look like he's got great numbers there. Big hands, though.

Terms of strengths from Dane Bruegler, adequate frame for the position with no room to add, with room to add more bulk, fast and physical attacking gaps in the run game, runs to the alley with conviction and fearless throwing his body around. This sounds like a Flores guy, sticks his hat into the midsection of targets and drives through. So we've got a physical aggressive player and not surprising here described as coachable, someone who wants to be great in terms of his weaknesses, mediocre recovery speed. This actually sounds a lot like a Josh Mattelis, doesn't it? Average hip fluidity can be manipulated by veteran quarterbacks, too willing to leave his feet and launch as a tackler.

And, oh, he was the one right. He was the one that hit Fernando Mendoza in the national championship game. I remember that. Brings Pop as a tackler, but average strength will complicate his finish and only one season of high-level production. All right, let's go take a look at the PFF for Jacobi Thomas. I mean, this is, this is fine. His consensus is not great, but, oh, it's great. 89.1 coverage grade for this year, run defense was solid, played 774 snaps.

shocker here, right? Played deep safety, played in the box, played in the slot a little bit. And in terms of passer rating allowed, only a 55.8 passer rating allowed five interceptions to only two touchdowns. This, this guy just seems like there's a lot of Josh Mattelis there. That's, that's the takeaway. So another little wrinkle with a third round offensive lineman. that I did not expect. But Jacoby Thomas, not someone that I put a lot of effort into pre-drafts

because he was not projected to go by the third round, but he clicks a lot of boxes for Brian Flores. And now we get four out of five defensive players as they continue to build the foundation defensively. And maybe we can get Jonathan Harrison in here to give some reaction. And then we can get your reaction. Whoops, that's the wrong button. There we go.

Jonathan Harrison, who's watching social media and reading the reports on the Vikings draft. Offensive line. Jonathan, not something that I thought was going to happen today. No, and you go back to the pick before. The Vikings picked at 97 where the Steelers jump up and take Jennings Dunker. Clearly, they got intel that the Vikings were going offensive line. Probably didn't know who, but they wanted their guy in Jennings. Dunker, which me is a massive Jennings Dunker fan. I am disappointed. We didn't get the guy with

the greatest mullet of all time and the big Culvers fan. I did check his nearest culvers is in Canton, Ohio, which is just across the border. So it's a little bit away, a little bit away from Pittsburgh there. But yeah, it's a bit surprising. I asked the chat. I put it in the poll, instant grade on both of these picks. It's been shifting between B and C. So the fans kind of, it feels like a B minus C plus pick or a pair of picks for the fans and the and the viewers in the chat right now. So, uh, interesting pick for the Viking or a couple of picks for the Vikings. Well, I'm looking just at different places on Caleb Tiernan because he's not a guy that I spent much time with, but in terms of he had a very impressive vertical jump, which I know is like,

who cares, but that's like an explosive kind of thing. His performance and athleticism scores by the NFL. dot com metrics put him in the top 10 combine offensive tackles. So he does have good grades there. He kind of is a little bit like a more explosive Blake Brandel where he's being talked about for his mental capacities, but doesn't have the arm length to be starting NFL tackle more likely than not. At 6 foot 8 though, is arm length, this might be a stupid detail, but it does matter.

like the width versus arm length. Your arm measurement starting here does not measure your chest. So wingspan would matter for an offensive tackle more because you're reaching out with your body, whatever, it doesn't matter. But he has very, very short arms for an offensive tackle at 32 inches and 9 inch hands, which is kind of like a normal person almost. So that's not an offensive tackle. But guard potential, I just think Jonathan that in terms of taking a.

tackle with potential to be a guard. They're saying, A, we obviously just like this guy. B, that they're looking at Brian O'Neill and Will Fries and going, one of you might not be here. We don't know which one because we don't know what the conversation's going to be like. But if they want for their run system, these huge towering linemen, they got to be one of the tallest offensive lines in the league. Will Fries is 6'7, 6, 8.

You know, Blake Brandel is that big too. I don't know if this guy has any potential to play center. It's almost 6 foot 8, but their center is already 6 foot 7. So maybe they do. A little surprise, though. A short quarterback who people make fun of all the time. Yeah, yeah. He can throw over the offensive line, folks.

Don't worry about that. But I just feel like we had a lot of targets that we had put, stars next to Sam Hecht from Kansas State made so much sense here if they were going offensive line and then they go guard tackle. So you're more like, okay. Now, I have never been concerned about this is sort of like a half win for me because I was talking about Spencer Fanow and then he went way early off the board. And he's like, okay, well, that, that dream is dead. But offensive tackle has been on my radar the entire time of you just look at the uncertainty. on the right side of that line and go, well, that's somewhere where somebody's probably

not going to be here. Somebody's probably going to get hurt. And now you have Van der Mark and Tiernan of two guys who could be development players or just solid depth. And with the amount of injuries that happen on offensive lines across the NFL, it is so hard to survive two injuries even on the offensive line without collapsing. Now they have two offensive tackles that could, I mean, I don't know if Tiernan could start, but one, Vandemar could start if you need them to. And this guy, you want to develop to be at that level or potentially even a replacement for Will Fries at right guard.

So it's another one that's a surprise and is not exactly who we were thinking, but makes a lot of sense. I feel the same way about Dominique Orange where I'm like, okay, well, I didn't really think you would go with Dominique Orange, but okay, I get it. I see the vision. Jacoby Thomas, what's the thought, what's your feeling on him? Well, before we get to him, I want to add to your point, I feel like when you look at, especially when you look at the Gold Day pick adding to this, you look at kind of the uncertainty on the defense as well. I mean, Van Ginkle signed the deal this offseason, correct me,

if I were wrong, that only goes through next year. They got a bunch of void years. So clearly there's maybe some conversations about, extending that long term. But if he's not back, you have the guy who can replace him in Gold Day. You have now Tiernan, you have Vandemark on the offensive line. It feels like these day two picks are insurance, as I said before, insurance for maybe the future going forward in the future, not necessarily win now guys, but they're looking forward at their roster at pieces and places that they may need guys in the future and

they're getting them now. Yeah, and I think that that's okay in the third round where you have question marks. And I mean, the second rally, Golda could play. So you're right about that. But Gold day can also mix in right away. Right. It is interesting, though, that foundationally, they were looking into the future. So even though Rob Brzezinski did some stuff in the first round that went a little

against the way that he presented filling for need, this is a lot of 2027 type stuff. offensive line uncertainty, Gold A and Van Ginkle that you pointed out. The safety position is a little more immediate need. And as I look into Jacoby Thomas, I actually really like this pick, even though it's another consensus reach. I think if there's an issue there with the draft, this is a pretty big reach. But it's in the third round. It's the last pick of the third. This guy, though, it's funny.

You watch these college games. And then if you didn't look into the scouting report, you're like, oh, Yeah, I remember that guy. This is a, oh, I remember that guy with Jacoby Thomas. He was the MVP of the semi-final against Ole Miss. Remember, their defense was great against Ole Miss in that game to get them to the college football final talking about Miami. And he was like that dude in that game against the very explosive Ole Miss offense.

He had two pass breakups, five tackles, five interceptions overall. started 16 games, three and a half sacks, six past breakups, tied for seventh in interceptions. Like, this dude just plays football. And this is the productive type of player that I talk about all the time, is like, look for the production, even if the specs don't work out. That's Jacobi Thomas. Most people had him as a fourth rounder or beyond, which is why I really didn't go to the 170th pick or whatever.

So you can miss some of these guys. but he was drafted a little bit earlier than expected, but I like that as it feels like Mattelis, it feels like the type of safety that's worked for them in recent years is this guy was a, Anthony Harris, this guy was a playmaker in college, bring him in, it's not a speed position necessarily. Cam Bynum was a playmaker in college. I like this for safety a lot as someone who can compete for a role right away.

And if not, special teams, rotational player. So I think that overall, Jonathan, because I want to get to the chat here, go ahead, chat, fire away. Your grade. What's your grade for the Vikings drafts for the first two days? Mine is like, noises. Oh, well, there's the emoji face, the emoji reaction you're giving to it. Yeah. Like what, what grade do you give a draft?

that has nothing sexy about it at all outside of the first pick, but a day two that had nothing sexy about it at all, nothing that fantasy football people will be writing about, nothing that you're going to get CBS sports gives Vikings A plus, like that's not going to happen. They're going to get B minuses for most of the graders. And yet, when we talk about building through trenches,

defensive tackle, offensive line. I totally get it. And I like that. They got one position of need with a playmaker who's very productive safety. I like that. They got a versatile made for Brian Flores defensive player in Jake Goulde, who I think is very unique. I don't think there was another one.

I really don't. Like when you go through this draft, I don't think there was another Jake Goulday who fit as well into this defense. I kind of want to go like B plus. And even this is, this is, you could see my soul collapsing with no wide receiver taken. But it actually does,

somebody brought this up that it does maybe speak well of Ty Felton or they might use this cap space for Joanne Jennings. Because the whole thing with Joanne Jennings was he wants too much money. So if they could sign Joanne Jennings to like a, I don't know, $14 million contract or something, that would be great. Yeah, absolutely.

I think the thing that I want to compare it to, not totally, but like you look at how they've focused on the trenches, the defensive tackles, defensive line. Isn't that what the Eagles always get praise for is hitting on those defensive line picks and going after that? And they're competitive every year. They've won the Super Bowl a couple times in the past five years. That's a team that you, that's a team in front office.

You want to try and emulate as best as you can and hitting on these defensive, going after these defensive line picks and take, making swings at these guys seems to be the right path. On Jacobi Thomas, I would like to point out that he played for former gophers defensive, a defensive coordinator, Corey Hedman, who plays an ultra-aggressive system. So coming from that system to Brian Flores' aggressive system that likes to blitz, that likes to fly around their safeties all over the place.

Coy Perich had a great freshman season in that same defense. So it's not really, it doesn't feel like a big difference for him. going from Miami's aggressive system where he had big production in his final season there. So I think for me, I would give it around that B, B, B minus B plus range for what we've seen because of the similarities to what the Eagles like to do every year. I think you could grade like different parts of this. And I'll get to your guys grades in just a second. And we'll talk about them until my voice completely falls apart because we've been

live streaming for four. Those people who live stream for like eight hours a day, I don't know how they do. it. Um, maybe they're not talking about the draft the entire time. But it's, it's like if you view it through a certain lens of did you address a lot of stuff on the defensive side that you needed to address, then you get a high grade. You did. If you look at it through the lens of did you do stuff that hit on your clear offensive needs, then the answer is absolutely not. And we went into this saying, hey, running back, hey, center. But the thing about it is, when Rob Berzinski says you can't manufacture stuff,

I was hearing running back. Like, guys, these running backs are bad. Mike Washington is bad. There were people who are mocking. I know that Mel Kuiper did this at one point. Sorry, Mel, you're wonderful. But like, Mike Washington in the second, and I was like, what? Like, I must be taking crazy pills because that guy's not a good running back prospect.

Emmett Johnson, Jonah Coleman, they're middling type prospects. I like them, but they're middling. That's where you're trying to squint and make it work. And it is very possible that they were going to take Jennings Dunker, who might have had a little more center potential than Tiernan, but the centers very clearly, they just weren't sold. Because if they were sold on a third round center, then they would have gone with one, but they just weren't.

They were right there to be taken. And Sam hacked Connor Lou, they must have thought, we just don't see it with either one of those guys for fit reasons. They have Frank Smith now here running a certain type of system, whether it was fit or specs or whatever it was. They were not impressed or they just didn't have them that high on their board. So they decide not to take them. That's where I would agree that you can't force it. I think they would have loved to have taken a starting center if one was there. But if we're talking about it, number 98, that's where you get like Pat Elfline.

That's where you get a like replacement level type player. Logan Jones clearly was the guy in Jake Slaughter. Those were the guys that were top center prospects. They went in the second. The rest of the guys are probably day three projects. That's just how the league is viewing them. And other people might have different opinions, but Jones and Slaughter were athletes.

And I think that's maybe the difference between the other guys. So I could see that. And the wide receivers, it's such a deep class. like my favorite wide receiver for day two, Skylar Bell's not even off the board yet. Bryce Lance is not even off the board yet. They may have viewed it as so deep that they could potentially trade into the fourth. So like keep your eyes open tomorrow morning, my friends.

They might trade into the fourth and take a wide receiver that they just thought, why do it now when there's five that we like? So it's a little bit navigating the board. I think Jacoby Thomas is someone that we look at as maybe a reach, but also just a really good football player. So multiple different lenses to look at it through. Jonathan, I'm going to get the reaction here from fans.

I have one final thing for you that I found. You know how ready Jonathan Grenard was for this trade today? He was at the 76 or Celtics game in Philadelphia after performing his physical. So he was ready to go. He was in Philadelphia today, ready to go. Look, he got $50 million guaranteed. This is, and I mean this, this is a great, a great person, Jonathan Grenard. He is a great, great person who I know is going to, unfortunately for Vikings fans,

bring a lot to that locker room in Philadelphia. And that's the part of that trade that scares me. So I think we have to factor the trade into it. And that's where I guess, I guess B feels like such a cop out. It's just like, but that's where I'm at with it. Because I get it. I get it. Trading Jonathan Grenard to the Philadelphia Eagles on its face is kind of bad.

But you get cap space and you get draft cap. and you get an opportunity for Dallas Turner. It's just like drafting a nose tackle who's a zero technique is probably not the overall best who doesn't rush the passer, but also this could be a great fit for them with what they have on their team and how they want to play. And drafting a backup offensive lineman seems kind of odd in the third round. But if we look one year down the road, it makes total sense because there's two guys

on this offensive line where it's completely unclear. what they're going to be. So this is a, this is a draft. The way I want to like encapsulate this before I just read fan reaction is it's a, you, you kind of got to put on your, uh,

or get out your like research tools. And you're looking to the future and your front office. Let's use over the cap.com. And like also you have to put some trust. in Brian Flores for this and the medical staff for this, it's a little bit like leap of faith type draft where you got to believe in them, the front office and Brian Flores. You got to believe in what their plan is with Dallas Turner.

How about that is it's a, it's a, it's a, how do I want to put this? Like leap of faith type of draft where you've got to kind of take a leap of on a lot of things, that Caleb Banks will become what he's supposed to become, that Dallas Turner will be what he's supposed to be, that this offensive lineman will become relevant at some point, which I think is a very strong possibility, but we don't know that as of right now, that a safety who has middling athleticism and one year of production will be able to step right in and make a difference, that you didn't pass on an awesome wide receiver to take a nose tackle, right? There's a lot of you got to buy it.

How about we put it that way? Like you like a buy in. You have to buy in type of draft rather than a, this is obvious. It's not a this is obvious draft. We can't just sit back and go, well, duh, they drafted a wide receiver running back, center and safety. And there you go. There's your draft.

They just filled all your obvious positions. This is one where you got to like get your microscope out a little more. You got to put your lab code on and get. really researched to come to, okay, I think I understand it. But I don't know how well that's going to go over with a lot of people because I saw, I saw a lot of mocks that were like four round mocks, three round mocks from leading into this where I was like, oh yeah, that makes sense, total sense. This draft doesn't really make total sense.

No, it's not the same way that the expectation was. It's not, it certainly doesn't scream a, we're in a win now mode draft. when you look at the rest of the roster, it feels like they are, but this is more of a draft where they're preparing for the long term. They're preparing for the future. And maybe that has something to say about the heat level on Kevin O'Connell's seat that he may feel more a little bit more comfortable being able to draft with a more long-term view

rather than drafting for the immediate need. Okay, I got 20 minutes left of voice. So let's do that. Thank you so much for Jonathan for your contributions tonight. I really appreciate it. Okay, you guys got 20 minutes left. That's all I can do. Otherwise, my vocal cords are going to implode.

So, all right. Truth bombs. Hope that Turner Van Ginkle don't get injured. We have no edge rush. I would expect that this cap space is going to be used for something, maybe depth there, but it's a fair point. As of right now,

it's three guys, and one of them's never played before. So that was kind of where they were at last year. with their depth and they survived it, but they can't do that again. So maybe there's another free agent out there. There are several positions that after this draft are left very, very light. Although they also do use Eric Wilson as an edge rusher. So that might matter too.

Evan, the DTs were obvious in terms of position. The players were surprises. Agree. Agree. 51 picks before our next pick. We'll see. we'll see if that's how they do it. Hunter says not buying it,

not because of the positions, but the players. The players were a surprise. Dumer, not buying it. Marauder thought that Rob could redeem himself tonight, B minus. Dave said, I wonder if B-Flo was given assurances when he signed

that they would spend a bunch of high picks on the defense, or even if you're just looking to the future, they kind of had to spend on the defense. Purple faithful. Flores knows what he wants and his safety. No doubt on that. That I agree with. I think that the safety is,

I like that pick a lot, even though it wasn't as high on mock drafts. I like that pick a lot for the production and Brian Flores. I mean, it just seems like his type of player. Stephen has the front office deserved our leap of faith. What evidence have they provided that we should feel great about that leap? Fair point. Not going to argue on that one.

I'm going to try to get his. many of your responses I can, just because you guys have been awesome in the chat. And I've been trying to just jump in and out. But I'm going to leave this up to you. So I won't talk for 10 minutes about one comment like I tend to do too often here. Y'all just submit resumes for the GM job. Hey, I mean, it's, it is open. Hunter says with three of the top 100 picks, they reach pretty heavily.

That's very bad odds for me. I definitely understand that perspective and as someone who has long believed in the data and what the consensus tells us, my question is, why is that still happening? And if they're going to change general managers, I'd like the next person. This is harsh. It's four and a half hours in. I'd like the next person to care about what the consensus board says about success. I'd like the next person to have some sense for what the data has told us about the draft

and us to be able to pick up on it because they hired a draft, a data-driven GM who never did that, who never seemed to use the data. And now they've done another draft with a different GM that never seems to use the data. So I don't know. Like it doesn't mean they're going to be wrong, but it is a little bit like, History isn't on your side here as you're doing this. And going against the numbers work sometimes if you punt rather than going for it on fourth down. But there's a reason why everyone goes for it on fourth down now is because this stuff has been looked into.

So yeah, I get that perspective. Definitely get that perspective. Scoliosis, big, big S-K-O-L. Love how many people in the comments know what a reach looks like. No, there is a definition. for a reach. That's, that's the point about the consensus board.

These, these consensus boards have been created by all sorts of, I know I say it so much, I don't explain it. All sorts of like hundreds of the best draft analysts. And you could say, well, those draft analysts, they've got Chedur Sanders wrong.

They don't know what they're talking about. But there's a, it's been studied over different subjects, not just the draft of wisdom of crowds. Like there is wisdom in crowds. If you take 100 experts versus, is one team. The Vikings have been outperformed in recent years by the consensus board.

If you just draft the highest player available with no regard for any other factors, it would outperform the Minnesota Vikings in recent drafts. Not only that, but it outperforms a lot of teams. So it's been shown that if you reach versus the consensus board, your chance of a bust is higher than if a player drops or if you draft them in the same range. And when you're doing that on most of your picks, you're just not really playing the odds very well.

If you go to a casino and you've got a 15 or a 16 on the board playing blackjack and you say hit me, I'm not a blackjack expert, but just hang with me. And you say hit me, well, okay, you might win. But a lot more often than not, you're going to go over and you're going to bust there. So there's probably better blackjack players who could explain that better. But you're just sort of going against what the numbers have. have said many times. And that from a person that wrote a book on the data revolution in the NFL, it's very

hard to get on board with when you're doing that repeatedly, not just with one player you love, but almost every player. Let's see. Matt says reach pretty big on the safety with the Grenard pick. I like the production and the performance that I've seen from him, but it is versus where he was expected to go a huge reach. that's one where you wonder if you could have gotten that maybe in the fourth or fifth, but maybe the league was higher on him.

Hunter says a bee is too nice for you. Toll House, wonder, worried about what they're going to do at center. I'm very curious. I mean, Blake Brandel's going to be the center. This is something that was made clear to us at the owner's meetings a few weeks ago. Blake Brandel is the center. But I thought that they might look at guys to be an eventual replacement. Logan Jones and Jake Slaughter were just drafted really high.

high. So the Vikings would have had to do that in the second, and I really like where they took Jake Gold Day. John, I like big citrus and the linebacker, not sure about the others, but a, well, we're all armchair quarterbacks in some ways, but I like, I like the concept of Dominique Orange. This is where I'm a little back and forth. Like, is it a, is it a reach for him?

Maybe it is. But this, having a nose tackle in there is important. for them, that they have not had this and teams have had an ability to run on them in certain situations where Dominique Orange gives them something different. He definitely doesn't give you some sort of deep threat wide receiver or star running back that you might have liked, but it's very clear that the running back class is just total garbage. And no one was interested there.

Toll House going with a B in Brando we trust from Phenom. Still want Jonah Coleman. I do too. Yeah, Purple Payne. I still like Emma Johnson and Jonah Coleman. Luke can't depend on players who are over 30 and hurt consistently. Love Jones, but he's not too. And, yeah, no, I mean, he's not.

You're right, Aaron Jones. But that's where you can't just invent a running back prospect. No one drafting these running backs means that there's really bad, really, really bad. Truth bombs as I thought Brian Parker would have been good at center. Maybe that's a day three guy. maybe that's more of a day three prospect toll house i like the citrus pick kind of like vita vea not sexy but disruptive vea is a different type of beast as a top 10 overall draft pick but i get what you're saying he's just he's more of like a like a very traditional nose tackle type the michael pierce

comp was pretty good but the viking's play like the three four that the ravens did back in the day uh joe is there any shot that tierning could play center at almost six eight i don't know That seems a little far-fetched that he could play center, but they're having Blake Brandl do it. Maybe. I think they like him because there's like a quick, there's like a little bit of explosiveness there and seems like he's really good with stunts and twists,

which would be a factor. Purple Rain got to wonder if we got D-Hop waiting and the wings with a deal could be. Casey, the Vikings still need, well, they took a tackle, but center, running back, wide receiver, cornerback. not taking a corner there. Malik Muhammad was there and they don't go that direction either. They did get the safety. Scamping around, big orange flip the mood.

There's no one who cannot be happy around a giant nose tackle. Everyone should be happy with that. I was big on drafting defensive tackle overall and doing that. It's very hard for me to say, how dare you? After the whole time I talked about this guy and defensive tackle and the position and everything else. Penny says fun draft overall. The theme is trade. There has been a lot of trades in this draft.

Absolutely. Emmett Johnson is an explosive at all. Sean says, I agree with you. I mean, I think that he's just a quality prospect at running back, but he's not one that's going to be a game breaker. Magic scientists, overall B plus is fair,

would be an A minus if Banks wasn't so risky. Ron is still concerned with the running back position. That's probably for day three. Take a swing. Take two. take two swings there. John, our running back room needs help. Is the Nebraska, is Emmett Johnson.

You're talking about Emmett Johnson. John, I would not say, don't say Felton isn't it. I mean, they just didn't draft a wide receiver. You don't know what Felton's going to be. And if you said, well, KJ. Osborne isn't anything because he didn't perform in his first year. And then he had 50 catches. The book is not written at all on Ty Felton. But in terms of Emmett Johnson, I think he's obviously just a day three guy that they might be able to get in the fifth round.

And if they did, I would be happy with it. Matt, cornerback and wide receivers should have been the picks at the end. It's hard to disagree with that with some of the guys on the board. Vikings might be moving to a bigger offensive system. They have used two tight ends quite a bit. Too much reaching. Agree with that. Truth bombs.

They must be concerned with Darrisaw's knee or O'Neill's health. Both of them, but also O'Neill's not under contract after this year. This seems like kind of a half measure. but if this guy can also play guard, then that has to be part of the discussion as well. Purple Rain maybe not drafting a wide receiver implies this is the year KOC runs the ball. Probably not, but it might imply that they are high on Ty Felton or that they have another wide receiver who's a veteran lined up to go after they get the cap space to make a signing. I would love to see them get Joanne Jennings.

I think he's a really excellent player. Joanne Jennings, free agent who apparently has been asking for too much money, well you got some money give it to them Sean Gold Day and Big Citrus made my day but wish we snagged one of the top running backs no one snagged the top running backs that's the thing C minus or C ish John says

don't love the reach Matt's going with B minus six shooter nation because they didn't take wide receiver they might just play 12 personnel packages that's true that or they might have somebody else coming in. I'm sure they will. Slurms, aside from one guy, whose contribution will depend on health, they drafted guys

who are going to contribute unlike previous drafts we had. Well, they had draft picks. That would be a difference. I mean, they're not drafting guys in the second or third round to contribute if they didn't have draft picks, but Orange should contribute and maybe Thomas? Maybe. Gold Day definitely should. But it wasn't a big draft contributors' draft, though. That's the thing. Purple Payne finally addressed the trenches.

Impostors says you're supposed to be a better team by adding players in the draft. I think so far the Vikings got worse. That's not true. Is Germant McCoy going to be a UDFA? I could see that. The way it's gone, I could definitely see that. It just means, I think it just means what happened to Germant McCoy that no one believes he's even going to have a career.

Because otherwise, someone would do it. Haynes or Hans. If you draft a tackle, draft him in the first round, you could have gotten a wide receiver. I mean, if they see him as a guard, then it makes more sense, but generally, I agree,

there's not many tackles that become starters. Maybe, I think seeing him as a potential guard makes much more sense. When I read that, it was like, okay, I get it. Because his arms are short and his hands are small, and that's not going to be a starting offensive tackle

in the league more often than not. There's almost nobody, with short arms and tiny hands that's playing offensive tackle as a starter. But guard, Will Fries will be a free agent after this year. Or not, he won't be a free agent, but they can cut him if they want. And his contract goes way up in terms of expense. So maybe there's a plan there. And then just a swing player does feel a little odd to take a swing player in the third

when you could get a potential impact receiver. I'd agree with that. um kenneth why did we trade granard if we have the money it's not that you don't have it it's that you don't want to spend new money on him 50 million guaranteed is what he got from the philadelphia eagles that's a lot four year hundred million dollar contract extension is enormous for jonathan granard and they didn't want to do that when they have dallas turner there waiting in the wings who they spent a first round draft pick plus on um jones of Coleman would be good in my eyes.

DeAndre Hopkins could be here. Yeah, take Skyler Bell, figure out the rest. Could see that. They might just see this being so deep with wide receivers, like one hunt review mentioning Lance. They could be so deep on receivers that they decide like they're going to wait till the fifth, but it feels like you're sacrificing a lot there. Is Joey Bosa possibility?

I don't know if he is, but somebody out there maybe as a defensive tackle. Matt liked Muhammad and like, yeah, Keante Scott, that was somebody, that was somebody I had had targeted. Dumer K.O. has been very Dumer. C plus grade, mediocre forever. That's tough. Yeah, I mean, there's, there would have been, there would have been a different approach to this that I would be curious about

maybe studying in the future of like, if we did tiny hand. No, everyone's an expert. No, literally, see, some of you don't understand. There's actual data on this stuff. The stuff that you're like, no one knows, like, no, we actually literally do. We literally do. We actually know that his hands are in the second percentile on offensive tackles. We actually have this data. This isn't me just saying it. Like, I literally looked it up. that if you have nine inch hands as an offensive tackle, that's like what you'd expect from a running back or a safety or something. So that's,

it's a huge deal for offensive tackle to have long arms and big hands. What do they use to block people with? It matters. It's not that nobody can do it, but it's not everyone's an expert. It's just the fact. It's a fact what his arm length is. That's not even like some sort of random guess.

That's, it's an actual number. Uh, Purple Payne Banks was the only risk. It depends on your definition of risk. I mean, taking a nose tackle where they did might be looked at that way. I wouldn't say it's crazy risky. So, I mean, we'll just, we'll just have to see how, you know, it works out eventually, but it's not a draft. Let's put a cap on it.

Because I don't, I literally can't talk anymore after this. this, which I greatly thank all of you for your enthusiasm in the chat. It's been great. You guys have been awesome today. It's made this a lot of fun. It's made it go by quickly. It's been super entertaining and fascinating. But at the bottom line, I think the bottom line is that we just don't have an obvious way to feel about this. Had they gone with the most blatant plan, which would have been center, wide receiver, and maybe a safety earlier that we had heard of. then it would have been so easy to just write in, A, good job, thumbs up, well done, Minnesota Vikings. You did the draft you were supposed to do that everyone expected from you and everyone liked that idea.

And they didn't do that. I remember saying there's so many different combinations of ways that I would give the Vikings an A in this draft. And this is just honestly not one of them. The way that they have handled this one. it takes a lot of head cocking and eyebrow raising and microscope using and you need a whiteboard and a chalkboard next to each other and write down formulas and everything else and go, well, this guy, if this happens and that happens, that makes it a little bit harder. One thing we know is that it's not a guarantee that it's bad just because we can't fully see

how things are going to play out in the future. I think with Goldawe, we do, with Dominique Orange we do. And definitely we see their plan with Caleb Banks. some of the other picks and what they passed up on, it does make you wonder, could there have been a weapon that's your one extra guy? Could there have been a safety a little earlier that may have brought you a starter potential as opposed to, you know, Thomas, who might be more of a special teamer? Is there ceilings on these players that are like Caleb Banks or were these kind of safe in some ways for the Vikings to take? And where does this backup offensive linemen fit into things? So I think each question sort of has its own questions. Did they really get the best return for Jonathan Grenard? Is it worth it if they got a safety who turns into a special teamer and a third rounder from next year?

That doesn't feel great if that's what the projections are for Jacoby Thomas. So I think it's hard to look at this draft and go obvious A, great job, well done. Shake hands, everybody celebrate. And on we go. You much more have to go, how is this going to look in two years? and where are these guys ultimately going to fit in? Because I think there's good prospects there, but I also think that there are question marks as well

about all of these picks and the approach that they took. So it wouldn't be the Minnesota Vikings if we didn't leave this draft going, huh, okay. I also think that if it's hard to hate because stacking up trenches, hard to hate stacking up trenches. when you go interior defensive line and a guy who has tackle potential but also might move into guard eventually, I mean, those are things that are needed for this team. But there's not a whole lot of flash to this one. And even, you know, Jake Golda is a little flashy because we know what Andrew Van Ginkle does, but it's a linebacker.

So there's not a whole lot of fireworks for the Vikings. And I'm very curious to see how the draft world. responds to what happened here tonight for the Vikings. Wow, what a night. What a long night. There will be another live stream. I promise. I'm going to rest up.

I'm not going to speak to anybody. It's not going to be the whole day tomorrow. It'll be a reaction to day three where we break down each pick and then start getting the sense for the UDFAs, but that'll be its own podcast as well. So again, thank you so much, everybody for joining the breakdown here of the Vikings draft day two, it was a lot more fun to have a lot of picks than in previous years where they didn't. So I, and again, subscribe, like, go check out the newsletter, Purple Insider. Football.

But you guys have been amazing. And I can't thank you enough for all the support and the time that you put into watching and listening to Purple Insider. So I'm just feeling very appreciative tonight and thankful that we had picks and interesting things happen to break down. So take care, everyone. do your research, look up your hand sizes, percentiles. I mean, come on, why isn't everybody doing that?

And we will talk to you tomorrow. Football.