Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Most interesting NFL Draft prospects to visit the Minnesota Vikings (Part 1)

Episode Date: April 4, 2026

Matthew Coller talks with Vikings fans about NFL Draft prospects who have visited the Minnesota Vikings. Several running backs that stood out, a deep sleeper wide receiver and more. Plus Vikings fans questions on the draft approach and what's next this offseason for the Vikings. 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 another episode of Purple Insider, Matthew Collar here. The show, as always presented by Fandul. And, you know, it's a Friday night. And there is not a lot of huge news involving the Minnesota Vikings. I'll give you a little insight to the pre-show prep. Normally, I will go through and Google search just to make sure go through social media that I didn't miss anything before I do the show. Like, hey, is there something that people are talking about? Did anybody write anything interesting?

And so I googled Minnesota Vikings as I do every single day. And the main top story was that OTA and mini camp dates were announced by the Vikings. So dates, calendar was a top story of something that's not going to happen for quite a while into May. And there's what's going on in Vikings land. But we like to take advantage of that here on the show by giving you plenty of space for questions, comments, thoughts, feelings. ideas and reactions to whatever we've got as a discussion point for that evening. And so here's what I decided to do with a little bit of research was hunt down everyone that I could find who had visited the Minnesota Vikings in any capacity, whether it was

a reported 30 visit or if it was somebody that the Vikings met with at the combine or met with at their pro day. And I want to give a little shout out to the reporters who put this stuff out there. First, I made the list. I'll show you the list in a minute of the most interesting guys that I could hunt down. But the reports come from a few different reporters. Tony Pauline is one of them. Field Yates, Ryan Fowler, Cody Carpenter, and Irie Pooley are the people who have made these reports on one player or another. So they deserve credit, obviously, for their reporting. Hunting through, looking for anybody who's come by the Vikings. And I do want to say,

as a little bit of an asterisk here that someone visiting the Vikings does not necessarily mean they're going to draft them. Someone coming on a 30 visit may be that they have a very specific question or they want to know what is this guy's personality really like and maybe they might not even be considering drafting them but hey if we really love you then maybe you could sell us

or something like that it doesn't always mean hey they are targeting this person they absolutely want to draft them at the same time, historically speaking, there have been quite a few players that have visited with the Minnesota Vikings in one capacity, another, that they have eventually gone on to draft. So it's worth taking at least a peak and trying to get a slight window into their thinking. So I'm going to run down the list. Then we're going to talk about it.

We're going to get to your questions, comments, and let me know, are there players on this list that you are very interested in? Players on this list that you would say buyer beware and whatever other things are on your mind. It doesn't have to be draft related. It certainly can be. But the Vikings are going to go into a GM search. They have other free agency things to do. So your thoughts and feelings, throw them in the comment section and I'll answer them after the list. So let's get to it.

All right. I came up with three, six, nine players that are the most interesting player visits in some capacity or another. We'll start with Emmett Johnson running back from Nebraska. And of course, I've done a little research on each of these players and have a thought or two on them. Emmett Johnson is not very fast.

The knock on him is that his explosiveness is just not at the same level as a lot of the other top running backs. And when we go and look at the NFL Combine results, Emmett Johnson, it stands out that he had the slowest 40 of anybody who ran with a 4-5-6. Now, I have made the argument that in order to be explosive in the NFL, you don't necessarily have to run a 4-2. That you can be explosive by reading blocks, by hitting gaps, by, you know, accelerating quickly with your feet doesn't have to mean that you run 40 yards super fast. it can also mean that you're really quick in the 10-yard split. And Emmett Johnson actually was, and this is what is fascinating about the NFL

Combine trying to pick it apart. How often does a running back get 30 yards out and is running away from people? And that's definitely not like a combine where you're just running straight like this. Usually you're breaking tackles and finding into space and stuff. So what might tell us more about getting into that? space is your 10-yard split. Running backs run 10 yards all the time. And interestingly enough,

Demon Claiborne, who is one of the fastest running backs in the draft in the 40, had the same exact 10-yard split as Emmett Johnson. And Seth McGowan blew away Emmett Johnson in the 40, but in the 10-yard split, he was actually slower. And here's something that's real crazy. Jeremiah Love had a 1.5-5.5. 10-yard split and Emmett Johnson was 1.59. He was the next player down and Johnson was actually quicker than Jedarian Price from Notre Dame.

And it was only by a hair, but he was ever so slightly quicker than Judarian Price. So there might be something there when it comes to the explosiveness of Emmett Johnson where he doesn't have the longer speed. But the foot quickness when he first gets the ball may be there. his numbers are good he uh overall is from what i can see in watching him and i you know he's in the big 10 so you end up seeing a lot of the players from nebraska uh around here with big 10 network and so forth and i thought that he was the guy that had the best feel for running the football the best vision the best patience not in the entire draft jeremiah love just blows away everybody else but when we're talking about all the other running backs so maybe someone who

could develop as well as a pass protector, someone who has good hands out of the backfield. It's just that question of how fast are you really. But then I went back and I poked around Delvin Cook, who I think we would all agree was pretty darn explosive. And Delvin Cook only ran a 4-49. Explosiveness and quickness are not exactly the same thing. But here's the other side of that. So I don't want that to just be, hey, Emmett Johnson's totally fine.

the 40 means nothing. I did go look up from last year. And well, let me throw one other thing. If you look at 10 plus yard runs for Emmett Johnson, he had nearly as many as Jeremiah love last year for two guys that were workhorse backs. But on the other side of it, I looked up in the NFL, the guys who led the NFL in 10 plus yard runs last year. And it's a lot of fast 40s.

I mean, it's your Jemir Gibbs. It's your Devon A. Chan. there are a lot of players who are either first round draft picks or are some of the fastest players in the NFL. So there's a little back and forth there. But I think his quickness might be like there is a seeing in scouting quicker than fast. I think that that's Emmett Johnson. And if you were to add him to a backfield with two other really good players and try to develop him to be maybe a 1B with Jordan Mason into the future, would not be against that. but it might depend on where it is because you're not talking about someone who has special freakish abilities or freakish statistics either.

So is that going to be like a number two running back that's pretty solid? Are you going to take that in the second round? Probably not. It's probably a third round type of draft pick for Emmett Johnson if that's someone that the Vikings are interested in. So he's at the top of the list for most interesting player visits because I think we can all agree that the Vikings, need to draft a running back. It's just kind of a matter of where. Ted Hurst is the next on the list. Ted Hurst went to Georgia State and has kind of become one of those guys where someone discovers a sleeper and then everyone else discovers a sleeper and then they are no longer a sleeper.

And that seems to be exactly the case for Ted Hurst where there was nobody talking about him. and I had first heard his name from Chris Trappaso, who does the draft show for us. And then all of a sudden, everybody started tweeting out his highlights and making comparisons and all those sorts of things. In terms of his statistics, Hearst at Georgia State caught 71 passes for 999 yards, 14 yards of catch, six touchdowns, and graded extremely well by PFF, 82.1 receiving grades, 60% contested catch rate, All of that stuff is very, very good for Hearst. But I'm sure if you're the Vikings, what you're looking for is, well, you know, is this guy really a good enough athlete?

Is he mentally fit enough, having gone to Georgia State? I only mean in terms of the offense that he would have played in, were their limitations. It's not like when someone goes to Alabama, where you know exactly the type of offense that they're playing in. So what does he know? How far would he have to go? What type of development curve might there be on someone like Ted Hurst?

And if we look at his NFL Combine performance, he ran a 4-4-2, which is right up there with Omar Cooper, Antonio Williams. I mean, he certainly held his own when it came to running the 40. Let's see. I'm going to look for his 10-yard split here. I think that was maybe a little bit of a knock on him. Let me check on that. Yeah, well, no, it was. fine. Yeah, his, it was fine. His 10-yard split was actually 0.01 behind Brennan Thompson, who was one of

the fastest in the entire combine, right there with Omar Cooper, right there with Antonio Williams. There are plenty of receivers who are being talked up that were not as athletic as Ted Hurst. So that's somebody that I'm sure the Vikings wanted to find more about. And it also, if we're reaching a little bit to have takeaways about these player visits, Hearst is expected to go around the third round. Let me see on PFF where they have him going. The average draft position is 91 for Ted Hurst, which the Vikings are drafting, what, 97? So right in that ballpark of that third round would make a lot of sense for wide receiver

if they're not going to make an enormous investment in wide receiver. So Ted Hurst is on the list for the most interesting. next down is Jonah Coleman. This is somebody that I've talked about a little similarly to Emmett Johnson. Now, we don't have numbers on Coleman because he did not participate in the combine due to an injury. But he has some things that I really, really like about him in regards to the Vikings needs. One is that he's a great pass protector. That is something that you do not see a whole heck of a lot in college is guys where you can legitimately say, yeah, this dude.

was good at pass protection in college. But that is Jonah Coleman. Also, great hands, caught 31 passes at Washington. The thing about Coleman is he was dealing with an injury throughout the season, and it may have hurt his production a little bit. Two years ago, 2023, he averaged almost seven yards of carry. Then in 2024, it was five and a half yards of carry. And he caught a lot of passes and played really well in those two years.

And then this year, if he was dealing with, with the injury, it kind of shows because his yards per carry dropped under five. He did have 15 touchdowns. So it's not like he wasn't productive. He played a lot of football. But if they're looking for someone who is able to do it all, kind of an Aaron Jones clone, that would be Jonah Coleman, but not a Devon A Chan clone. I mean, this is not somebody who's expected if he would run the 40, you know, he wasn't able to,

to have crazy big runs or, you know, mega, highlight reel type of stuff. That's not Jonah Coleman. He's much more along the solid lines. But if you have a good run scheme and you can have the guy play all three downs, I think that there's a lot of benefit there. It just, we're getting a very clear picture of, you know, they want to meet with some of these guys who are third round type of running backs. And that's Johnson and that is Coleman. Now, Anthony Hill Jr., he's been kind of all over the place in terms of his draft stock. I saw going into the draft season, Anthony Hill Jr. was ranked really, really high by some people. And now, I'll give you these guys average draft position for each

guy. So let me pull that up. Anthony Hill's average draft position, this is going by the PFF, big board is 81. So that's more of a like ballpark, late second, early third round type of draft pick. He ran a 4-5-1 at the Combine. Pretty darn good for Anthony Hill Jr. He was another player, though, that was a little bit better in 2024 than he was in 2025. Did not have a great coverage grade, but was really, really good in terms of run defense. He's a little bit undersized, but not crazy undersized. And he lined up, interestingly enough, as a slot defender fairly often, as well as a box typical linebacker. And his coverage numbers, I mean, there's only 28 targets against him.

And he had two interceptions. So there's something there. He just didn't grade super well, had an awesome mistackle rate. And clearly the athleticism is through the roof for Anthony Hill. He just brings up the idea of do the Vikings need a linebacker? Linebacker in the second round of this draft, it feels like a gold mine, potentially. I don't think that teams are going to spend first round draft picks on, players like Anthony Hill or players like, I mean, C.J. Allen is ranked extremely high.

I'm just not so sure that teams are going to go crazy high on C.J. Allen from Georgia. But after that, I mean, Rodriguez, Jake Golda from Cincinnati, Josiah Trotter from Missouri. Kyle Lewis is a really interesting one from Pitt, where he's undersized. He's more of a safety. And then you have Anthony Hill. Those are your top projected linebackers. All of those guys are good prospects. They can all play.

So second round linebacker. And when you look at the Vikings where they stand in terms of linebacker, I mean, you have Eric Wilson and Blake Cashman this year. But Wilson is 31 and Cashman is an under contract into the future. And Ivan Pace is more of a backup at this moment. So what do you do? And I think draft one is a very realistic possibility. I've also heard just from the draft world and so forth, a lot of people talking about how, yeah,

there's positions like linebacker that are deep and really, really good, but we'll get underdrafted because of positional value. So Anthony Hill Jr. in the second round could be interesting. Next running back is Dem and Claiborne. You guys have probably heard me mention him a few times on the show. He is another, you know, day two, late day two or early day three type of running back,

depending on who you ask. There's a lot of different opinions on Claiborne. Some like him a lot more than others, but he is fast as heck. His average draft position is 173rd. So he's more of a day three type running back. And for somebody who ran the fastest 40 at the combine, he averaged 5.1 yards per carry, but did not set the world on fire. And that's why I mentioned the explosiveness that it wasn't in terms of a 10-yard split,

a crazy number, but his long speed was crazy. And that's, I mean, something that they definitely need is when you break out into the open to have the ability to go all the way, which I don't think Aaron Jones or Jordan Mason really do. But I also think that we've seen in the past, sometimes teams get really into that 40. Wow, this guy's got lightning in his shoes and, you know, he could be really great if he get and but yet how many runs actually result in you having so much space that you can run away from the rest of the world. But he did run.

Mike Washington had the fastest 40 and then Jeremiah Love and Claiborne was right there at 437. He's intriguing because of that. I guess I'm just less interested in someone that had that type of speed but did not put up actual crazy numbers statistically than I would be at someone that has better quickness at the combine and maybe less long speed. You know, you actually have to play the games out there. So there's a little bit of that. But, you know, I mean, if they're looking for a very particular thing,

then they might find it in someone like Dem and Claiborne. So he's next on the list. Trade and Stukes, who I have drafted a couple times in draft simulations because he's an interesting player with some really, really good data. He lined up a lot in the slot. He is much more of a nickel corner. type of player. He is a little bit on the bigger side.

Maybe you could call box safety. He's on the older side. He's 24 and a half. So he's a hybrid player. But this is somebody that kind of sounds good for a Brian Flores defense. He had a 90 coverage grade. He had an 89.5 zone coverage grade for interceptions, zero touchdowns against him last year at Arizona.

And I know there's a little bit of men versus boys. I am always hesitant when it comes to 24, 25-year-old prospects. But if you were projecting him into maybe the second round or third round, because his average draft position on PFF is 64th, I just don't know that there's players who are hybrid nickel safeties that are going 64th overall. I mean, he had great, great, great performance in college, especially when he's 24.

I think this could be a day three where you might get a steal because of that and someone who fits in Brian Flores defense. So Traydan Stukes, another interesting player who has visited them. If you have never heard of our next guy, Emmanuel Pregnan, I encourage you to just go look at him somewhere. Just find Google search or whatever to go look at this guy because he is absolutely ginormous. Now, this is another 24-year-old prospect, so you have to adjust the data for a men versus boys situation with him. But his data is phenomenal. 88.1 pass block grade, 85.6 run block grade and was awesome in zone run blocking, which sets off a little bit of, you know, alarms there of, oh, okay, because this is what they want to do.

There's no doubt about that when they bring in Frank Smith from Miami that they will. want to master the zone blocking. Now, he is a guard, so you might be saying, well, you have Donovan Jackson, you have Will Fries, do you need another guard? And what I would say, because he is being mocked pretty high. His average draft position is 35, so that's late first round, early second round. The Vikings are not drafting in the early second round. Maybe if he were to drop into the second, if they took a guard in the second, I think a lot

of people would be like, uh, what? You just took a guard last year. Are you moving Donovan Jackson to center? You can only play five guys. But after this year, Will Fries's contract situation sets up for the Vikings to move on. I know when the deal comes out, five years, a gazillion dollars, it's like, wow, this is going to be your guy forever. But it really does kind of present itself by the salary cap for them to move on if they don't love what they saw from Will Fries, and I got the sense that last year they were okay with it, but it didn't really justify the actual contract. This player might also just be too good not to take and then figure out how to play them. And I brought this up a number of times. When it comes to drafting

offensive linemen, they get hurt so often that you need six, seven, eight offensive linemen who can play if you're going to sustain an offensive line. And we've seen it so many times for the Vikings where uh-oh, somebody got hurt and the drop-off to the next guy is ginormous. So if you're drafting someone with a second or third-round draft pick, you're really looking for them to be a part of your team for four seasons, not just, hey, year one. And if you're drafting an offensive lineman, there's a good chance that they will play in year one. So Emmanuel Pregnon, I love this guy on paper.

He's 6.5. He's 320. He was great in the type of system that the Vikings use. just don't know if there's any real chance that that actually happens. Next guy caught my eye watching him play this year, and that was Haynes King. I think if you're making bets, now the kid from Arkansas, I'm going to have to remember his name. The green, I think his name is the guy from Arkansas who went nuts on the NFL combine.

I think that that's trailing green, yeah, who went crazy on the combine with a 4-3-6. I mean, holy cow, right? Like, that's incredible. But when you watch him throw the football in college, you know, it's not, it's not too, too impressive. He's an incredible athlete. And I don't know, we've seen other guys like that turn into a tight end when there's such a freak or a wide receiver, like a Terrell prior. But what was not pointed out very much because Trailing Green went so crazy is that Haynes King ran a 4-4-6. This is a guy who has been a little bit discussed.

as a Taysom Hill type backup quarterback slash playmaker, wide receiver, whatever. And his numbers this year, throwing the football, were really good. From a clean pocket, he had a 91 PFF grade. He only threw 14 touchdowns to six interceptions, but he threw for almost 3,000 yards, 70% completion percentage. If you are going to take, and he is 25, but if you're going to take that sixth or seventh round quarterback. I think Haynes King is kind of interesting.

He's not expected to be anything other than a late round draft pick. So if they were to spend a sixth or something on Haynes King, I would have no complaints about that. And the last guy on our list, Grayson Hulton, who graded extremely well in run defense, very, very well in terms of pass rush win rate for Oklahoma this year. he is undersized 6'2, 292 pounds, but only 22 years old, which is now young in this draft class. It's funny how things have changed.

He had the third fastest 40 time. And you might say, well, come on now. Like 40 time for a defensive tackle wins the last time we saw a defensive tackle run 40 yards. But there has been a fairly decent correlation between defensive tackle 40 times. because, I mean, if you can get that big body moving like that, well, that means a lot of power that you can create too. And he had, uh, Holton had a very high 10 yards split as well. So a guy that's got production, uh, did really well in terms of the combine and his average

draft position is 68, which again, might mean slipping to the third round. So those are the most interesting players that I could find who have, uh, visited the Viking in any capacity. So it might have been on a 30 visit. It might have been, you know, at the Combine, whatever it was from different reports, from the reporters that I mentioned earlier. And those are your most interesting guys.

So I would like to know what you guys think of that list of players. If you're interested in any of those guys for the Vikings, if you think there's anything we can glean from that list. And then any other questions, comments, thoughts, takes that are on your mind. And let me just give you while we're here. a fan dual question the day. So here's your fan dual question the day.

Top wide receiver, Carnell Tate, is the favorite at plus 175 to go sixth overall to the Browns. But there are folks who have made arguments for other wide receivers in the draft being wide receiver one. Who is the most likely top 10 prospect to drop down in the draft? And also want to remind you about our good friends at ZipRecruiter. When I first started Purple Insider, I knew I was going to need help. So I brought on to the team a couple of my friends, Jonathan Harrison,

Mani Hill, Brian Murphy, and they have been huge to what I have done because of their work ethic, their passion, their love for Vikings football talk. If you're hiring, you want candidates like that who are passionate about your role. But you can't get that from just a resume unless you use ZipRecruiter. So now you could try it for free at ZipRecruiter.com slash audio. So many things that ZipRecruiter can do to help you find candidates who really want to take your job. Candidates can tell you in their own words, why they're interested in your job, and ZipRecruiter's powerful matching technology finds quality candidates quickly,

and ZipRecruiter has a new feature that shows you the most interested and qualified candidates first, so you meet the right people faster. Find candidates who really want your job on ZipRecruiter, four out of five employers who post on ZipRecruiter, get a quality candidate in the first, day, try it for free. ZipRecruiter.com slash audio. That is ZipRecruiter.com slash audio and meet your match today on ZipRecruiter. So there you go.

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results may vary based on studies of topical and oral monocidel and finestriide. Feature products include compound drug products, which the FDA does not approve or verify for safety, effectiveness, or quality. Prescription required. See website for details, restrictions, and important safety information. Let's get to your questions and comments. I've tried to make the comment section on the screen a little bit bigger than it was before because I felt like the when I looked, the words were too small for people to actually made out make out.

So I've changed it a little bit. And whoops, nope, that was not what I meant to do. And I immediately screwed up. Hang on. We'll get it back. Oh, no. Did I just lose all the comments? Shoot, I just lost all the comments.

Okay, we're going to do this manually because I lost all the comments by accidentally Xing out. So now I'm going to read them off my phone. All right. Here we go. Bryson says in the past day they brought in people to gather information on other players like teammates. I didn't see. Oh, I see what you mean. Yeah.

Yeah. You're right about that. Yes, I know what you mean. So even when it's kind of funny, right? Like even when they were drafting Will Reichard, they brought every guy from Alabama that they brought in, they were asking them, hey, so what do you think about this kicker? Like, what do you think about Will Reichard? And, you know, a lot of the players were like, yeah, dude, Will Reichard's the man. He was a great teammate and so forth.

So you're right. That's why I said a little PSA that it's not necessarily always the case that they bring somebody in just to find out if they want to draft them. But the reason that I picked that list was those are all guys that would be day one or day two that I could actually see them selecting and having a good reason to pick those guys. So, I mean, you're right that, hey, they might have brought in the Washington guy to find out some about somebody in Washington. But if they drafted Emmett Johnson in Nebraska or Jonah Coleman, would that surprise you? Like, I think it's pretty clear that they have been looking at that position of running back. since they didn't do anything else in free agency. Steve says you could get a sense for what positions they might be targeting in certain

positions in the draft. For example, they've brought in day two, day three running backs. Yes. So I totally agree with you that in this particular case, I think that there's signal there. Now, does that mean that they are going to draft Claiborne or they're going to draft Johnson or Coleman? It does not. But I think we should take those guys a little bit more.

under the microscope as we do our draft sims and analyze like, okay, well, these are the people that they wanted to bring in for a reason to have a look at. They also kind of match up with day two, third round draft picks. You've got two picks. You've got some interesting running backs there. Claiborne is more of a day three guy. So you could see those conversations of do you take a doubles and singles hitter like Jonah Coleman that also can do a lot of different stuff?

or do you just aim for the big home run hitter in Claiborne? For me, I prefer the all-around running back who has young legs. Like, Aaron Jones did not have, he had a good 40, but he doesn't have crazy, crazy NFL combine numbers, but he was explosive in his day. I think explosiveness in the NFL is a little bit different than college where you can find tons of space. You get out there, you run away from everybody else.

It doesn't really work like that in the NFL. Well, Stephen says Emmett Johnson also from the Twin Cities. So one of us is always a benefit. Third and nerdy says, I like the idea of Emmett Johnson. He's pretty good laterally. Yeah, I mean, I think the, let me take a look here. Because I don't want to say this and then have it not be true. So I think that he graded really well in the zone system.

Because, I mean, we have to, yeah, no, he was actually a better gap runner. So he was a better gap runner. That's something that they might have to factor in also is how does somebody fit? He's still graded well running zone. But if they want to lean heavily into that, which I think that they might because of who they hired from Miami, and that's the whole Shanahan tree. Mike McDaniel was involved in the run game in San Francisco. And he brings it to Miami.

They were great at running the football with the dolphins the last couple of years. if they had just had maybe some decent and healthy quarterback play. So you want to bring in somebody who's going to fit with that system. How well Emmett Johnson fits if he is more of a north and south type of runner? That would be a question that I would have. Is it somebody who's a little more like Jonah Coleman is close to the ground? Is he a little more shifty when it comes to that zone running? But the zone is so much about, it's so much about patience.

Like there's a lot of zone runs where the running back is not going. anywhere near full speed and then accelerates through a gap. And you've got to have good vision and good balance. But you're not just like getting the ball and screaming upfield. So I don't know how well that's going to fit with Emmett Johnson. But Stephen says Emmett has good hands, good receiving back. But his past protection stinks. It's so hard with college guys to project.

Like Jonah Coleman is better in past protection than most prospects that I can remember watching. Most of the time I wasn't even looking for it to tell you the truth because I just assumed that college guys weren't going to be any good at it. And then I'm watching Jonah Coleman going like, okay, okay. Like this guy is really picking up some blocks there and getting involved. So that might be a factor for them. It might also depend. Can you teach the guy to be good in past protection or not? In Ty Chandler's case, they felt like they couldn't. But in Emma Johnson's case, maybe they feel like they can. Third and nerdy says, first time I saw Emmett Johnson play without knowing who he was,

said that guy could play in the NFL. Absolutely, there's numbers there that say that he can. It's where is he going to be picked? If he's picked in the second round, that's just too high for me, for somebody who doesn't have those crazy four three type of numbers. And his rushing statistics were good. They weren't like, holy cow, this is the best running back ever. He did carry the load, though,

Nebraska and had a lot of explosive runs. So his data is good, but I don't know that that's a second round draft pick. When I'm looking at second round, I still think you're in the ballpark of trying to pick really valuable positions unless it's someone like Jonathan Taylor. Okay, that guy's a freak that dropped to the second or Delvin Cook. You've got to take him there. Sean says 40 speed acceleration. Also, Jefferson's 443.

Sorry, his four, Jefferson's 443 speed. but his acceleration and cuts at high speed are deceptive. Yeah, that's the problem with the 40 in general. The 40 will definitely tell you something, but it doesn't tell you everything. For a running back, it probably does tell you about their overall speed, explosiveness,

and can they run away from people? I'm sure it does, because when I looked up the most explosive runs in the NFL this year, most of the guys ran in the four-threes. It's just a reality. It's a super fast league. wide receivers so much is about your footwork and your ability to get in and out of cuts with really, you know, and most receivers, it's short steps chopping their feet and then, you know, quickly going one way or the other.

In Jefferson's case, it's full speed and he's able to do it with these long strides. Every receiver, every player has a little bit of a different way of doing things, but the 40 is not going to tell you a ton. Jefferson runs a 4-4-3, so it's not a 4-2, but it certainly is fast, though. If he had run a 4-5-7, that might have given some people some pause about somebody like Justin Jefferson. Steven says Addison's 40-time was slow by top wide receiver standards, but in terms of wide receiver catching the ball and getting open, right? And so does that apply to the running back position is really the question? I think receiver has been long proven that John Ross is just not a good football.

player, but he's a crazy fast dude. I think it applies a little bit more to the running back position than it does to wide receiver. And Alexander Madison might be a good example of this where he could be a fine running back, but he was never going to break huge runs when he was running in the four sixes. Sean says after listening to Flores KOC show how key it is to have the visits, even if they don't come to fruition three or four years. Right.

Yeah, those guys have talked about that, right? Getting to know players, even if you don't draft them, you might be a free agent someday and they might go get you because your first impression was good or maybe it even goes into game planning against a certain player. What they know, what they don't know might be a factor as well. Skull Shadow says the fact NFL teams have to announce 30 visit goes against the whole cloak and dagger. They do? I don't know that they do. the ones that I was pulling up were from different reports. I don't know that they have to announce their 30 visits.

If they do, show me where that is. I know a lot of times it just gets out because the player's agent or whatever or the player will put it on Instagram or somebody will report it. Maybe I'm wrong and I've just never been putting a lot of emphasis on it. But it would be great if they just announce the list. Here's everybody we've talked to. But you have to kind of pick it up from different reports. Stephen, the linebacker class is so deep.

They have to come away with at least one of them. Totally agree. Where do you take it? A second round does make a lot of sense because, and I've thought this for all the non-premium positions, second round for a tight end, second round for a running back, second round for a linebacker. It's almost like getting it in the first round because you're probably getting, if you take Anthony Hill, you are probably getting the third best. linebacker in the entire draft. So Arvel Reese and Sunny Stiles are going to go in the top 10.

But after that, who's taking one of these linebackers in the first round? It doesn't seem very likely that anybody would. So you might be getting the third or fourth best player in the draft, whereas maybe seven wide receivers and six tackles have already gone off already. Devin says rather not with Emmett Johnson. He's well-rounded, but nothing special. I'm with you on that. analysis that when you look through his numbers, when you look through his

Combine performances, when you watch him play, there is no holy cow, look at that guy, he's a freak, he's a monster, it's Bejohn Robinson, it's Jemir Gibbs, it's, you know, whatever, Sequin Barclay. If you're taking that type of player who's just good, but isn't necessarily great in the third round, I don't feel too bad about that. If it's somebody who can average, so I'm working on this story and when I, it's not a story, but it's more of just a fun little piece on purple insider dot football, where I'm comparing older Viking players to the current draft picks.

And the guy I came up with for Emmett Johnson was Chester Taylor. If you got Chester Taylor in the draft in the third round, I think you feel pretty good about that. Stephen points out that Anthony Hill Jr. is very young. so you could develop him for next year, but also be able to play him right away in some sort of rotational role. And we know this. I mean, depth is going to be really important. It's something that the Vikings have not had a whole heck of a lot of recently.

So that might be a good idea. And you're never drafting, you're never really drafting for the, just for that year, right? Like, you're always drafting for two. three years down the road. And with linebackers, that's a position that you have to develop. Jack says linebacker, Kyle Lewis, Brian Flores box linebacker. So with somebody like Kyle Lewis, maybe this is just because Brian Osamwa did not work out for the Vikings.

I'm a little bit on the hesitant side there because of that. I've seen Lewis Riddick from ESPN really loves Kyle Lewis. He's a pick guy. So he might have some knowledge and insight. into Kyle Lewis. The worry that I would have is, I mean, is he Josh Mattelis? Maybe he's Josh Mattelis. Maybe there is a hybrid box safety type of position that can play there undersized.

But with Ivan Pace and with Brian Osamwa, undersized, often is meant pushed around, unless you're Josh Mattelis, who's playing with two other linebackers out there and you kind of have this totally unique role. But even when Mattelis was asked to play linebacker due to some Indians, injuries in 2024. It didn't always go the best. So he's much more of a nickel. I think a big nickel than he is. And that might be the case for Kyle Lewis. But where do you draft a player like that? Do you draft a player like that in the third round? I think that you should. I mean, that's where they took Awesome. And it didn't work out. It doesn't mean this guy is awesome. But when you watch his college

tape, you're like, wow, like sideline to sideline. He's explosive. He's so quick. And when he actually got out there in games, guards just ran them over. That would be my concern. Jack says, I'm calling you Jack because it's a long name. If Rodriguez is 49, that'd be good doubt he'll be there. Right. Rodriguez is probably my favorite from Texas Tech, probably my favorite linebacker in the class that's not one of the freaks because I did have a chance to see him play a couple of times. and he just does everything really, really well. He is really good against the run. He basically does not miss tackles.

He made plays in coverage. He had four interceptions at a 92 coverage grade. He's big enough. I don't mind that he's close to the ground. We've seen that before, but he's 235 pounds. He had a lot, just a lot, a lot of experience over the last couple of years. So there's a lot to like. And then his combine was very, very, very.

good. So I am a big fan as well of Jacob Rodriguez and we'll see if he gets a chance to be there in the second round. But that's where if Hill Jr. Rodriguez are there, depending on what you've done in the first round, those are interesting players. Seal trains as Nicholas Singleton is somebody for a day three running back. I've seen a lot of talk about him from both Penn State running backs, but Singleton is the one that I've seen a lot more. He says pass catcher, fast explosive, just didn't run the ball very well, fifth round. Yeah, I mean, that's like a project, right? But that's sort of, it's, well, it doesn't quite sound like a Thai Chandler, but a little bit.

Do you want a project who's really explosive or do you want someone who is going to be able to contribute right away and maybe doesn't have the ceiling? Because Jonah Coleman and Emmett Johnson look like running backs who could be helpful right out of the box. And they could have 112 carries and average. 4.3 yards per carry and they could pass block and if someone gets hurt, which is kind of inevitable with these two running backs, then they could take on a bigger role. Or are you looking day three, Dem and Claiborne, Nicholas Singleton, hey, let's just shoot for the moon. I would probably prefer to have the third rounder who has a better chance of success. But I mean, I can't complain about the idea of drafting a fifth rounder that might have exceptional physical abilities. I just think the odds

of that working out are not that super high. Stephen, the Vikings can't afford to trade up. They need a bunch of key depth players on the cheap rookie scale contract going forward. I agree with you 100% there that trading down is the way to go. It's just how do you decide how far to trade down? If you leave the first round, someone asked me this yesterday, I think of the Friday mailbag about, well, if this is a draft where the difference between 18, and 100 is not that different.

Like, well, it always is that different. I mean, historically speaking, every draft, the middle of the first round is still rich with good prospects who become stars, as we've seen from Addison, Jefferson, Darrasaw. It happens a lot at the number 18 spot. It doesn't happen much at the number 97 spot. So you got to be careful about how far you trade down if you're the Vikings. But trading up is kind of a non-starter for me unless you went,

if it was two spots to pick up someone you, really love, okay, I'm not going to complain there. But if you're trading up to the top 10 or something, then you're having to give up significant capital. I don't think that's a good idea. Stephen Trayden Stukes is your favorite prospect on the list, has the football IQ. I don't think that Flores minds, if the guy's a little bit on the older side, in fact, that might be a benefit.

They, and obviously it didn't work out for very sad reasons, but they drafted Kyrie Jackson, an older prospect. They drafted Mackay Blackman, who was an older prospect. And that didn't work out seemingly for injury-related reasons. But he looked like he was on a good trajectory before he got hurt. And that was an older player that seemed to come in and understand the game pretty well. That might be the same thing with someone like Trade and Stukes, where they come in at 24. They're a little more mature.

They're a little more developed than someone that's 20 or 21 that maybe would take a long time for Brian Flores to develop. Stephen has that Preggnon is the second base best guard in the draft. Him coming in for a visit, it does kind of intrigue me, but maybe what you're talking about with, hey, well, they might want to find out if Dylan Thineman is, you know, X, Y, or Z from one of his teammates, that could be, you know, some intel potentially there.

But when you look at the guy's profile of size and his performance, it's pretty darn impressive. It does make you start going, well, how could they fit another guard into this offensive line? And you always need more offensive linemen. I know Zimmer would say that about corners. I would say that about offensive linemen. You always need more.

VXL Palma says I don't see it with Thineman. You know, what I see when I watch Dylan Thineman, because naturally since the entire world is mock drafting. him. I have taken the time to watch a few of his games and I'm not the best at this. This is why with college watching tape with college because it all looks so foreign to me. It's so much of a different game than the NFL. Like, is that a good player? Is that just something that every college safety who's destined for the NFL should make, right? That's where Chris Trappaso is so valuable to this. But Trappaso absolutely loves him because he is a great athlete. He may not be the

hugest guy, but he's certainly big enough. And he covers a ton of ground. He is a playmaker. He had a lot of interceptions in college, past breakups. He's a good enough downhill tackler. My concern with Dylan Thineman is that, and I know it's a tough comparison because Cam Bynum was not as athletic as Dylan Thineman, but if he only becomes Cam Bynum, did you spend a first round draft pick on something that maybe you could have developed over a

couple of years. He has to be great. And I think a safety position is a little hard to figure out greatness from the college tape. And he does play a little nickel. He does play a little bit strong safety, but he's a little more in college of a free safety. Based on what he was talked about, I thought, oh, he must play all the positions. Then you watch the game, like, no, he's, he's a free safety. And free safety is one of the easier positions to find in free agency. And honestly, one of the easier positions to develop from drafting a Cambine him in the fourth round or drafting somebody in the second or third. That's my hesitation.

I think the player is very, very good. It's just if he doesn't hit the peak upside, which is a player who's picking off multiple passes every year, a guy who is a mastermind of the defense, the orchestra leader, you know, all that sort of stuff that Harrison Smith is. And it's really not a good comparison to say, well, you know, he could just be like Harrison Smith, there's not too many human beings who could be like Harrison Smith. But I think if they draft him, I will assume that Brian Flores has done that evaluation and feels great about where he is.

So I'm not going to be down on it. I just have some questions there, I think. Tony says taking a corner would make sense. Could always convert one to free safety. I mean, Cam Bynum was a converted free safety. That's what with Stukes, he's like a safety slash. nickel corner, so maybe like a big nickel, which they have with Josh Mattelis, but if you're moving Josh Mattelis back to a more traditional safety spot, that might be a position that you're

trying to get. I have settled on at the moment. And I'll make a ranking for a different show where I'll try to rank like every single position, one to whatever, how many other positions there are, one to punter, put it that way. I think corner is going to be number one for me, though. Spoiler alert, I think corner is going to be number one for positions that I think they should take in order. And I know for the bit, I should say wide receiver. But corner is probably up there at the very top.

Devin says Emmett Johnson is basically Amir Abdullah. Did Amir go to Nebraska? Is that it? I think he could be better than that. Emmett Johnson had a lot of explosive runs as a college running back. And that's where I'm saying, are we getting too caught up when he has the 10 yard split that is above Judarian price that is equal with Dem and Claiborne? Are we getting too caught up in a 40 time with Emmett Johnson? And just the idea that he's not that explosive, but he had, I think it was 30 runs of 10 plus yards last year in college.

Is there too much of an emphasis on, well, he doesn't have that top speed if he has the quickness. I don't know. I actually, that's just a question. I actually don't know the answer to that because if he's Amir Abdullah, well, a young Amir Abdullah as a third round draft pick's pretty good for you. I mean, the Vikings version of Amir Abdullah was not that great,

but if it was, if it's their second third round draft pick and he turns into a young Amir Abdullah, who is a role player that can help you out quite a bit. And if somebody gets hurt, you really trust, I don't know, maybe. Maybe it's worth it. Um, Stevens says, uh, Haynes King doesn't throw a good football.

He's a pure gamer, uh, mad rad, Taysom Hill comp. He might have a Taysom Hill comp, even though it seems a little bit on the cheesy side to say that someone who, you know, is a very athletic, white quarterback, like, is he like Tasem Hill. And that's something I generally don't like to do is to say, hey, this complete outlier, Dibo Samuel, who's built like a running back, but turned into an all pro receiver. So every guy who's built like a running back can be an all pro receiver just catch and run, right? You don't factor in that he played for Shanahan or that he's just a special kind of guy. Tassam Hills probably the same type of thing. But if there's someone who could do it, it is Haynes King. And I've seen, you're right, I've seen the games, several games that he played in.

It didn't look like a pro quarterback throwing the football to me. And he is 25. So it's not a project that you're looking at as someone to be a, star, but if there was intrigue there of this guy is an amazing athlete, he's a gamer, maybe he could be an excellent backup quarterback and a rotational type of player that drops in for, I don't know, 100 snaps a year as an offensive player in the backfield, in the slot, I don't know, like maybe. If you take a player like that in the sixth or seventh round, I'm kind of going to shrug.

Like, okay, sure, do it, do whatever you want. This is sort of like the Jaron Hall thing from a few years ago, where, when they took Jaron Hall, I said, yeah, you know, the odds of somebody passed the third round or even the second round becoming a franchise quarterback are basically zero, but you know, do what you want. If you like Jaron Hall, okay, great. And I've actually started to think of this in a little bit of a different way because someone brought up Jack Strand the other day. And I'm very high on that idea. Like, see if you could get the diamond in the rough. And if you spend a fifth round draft pick on a backup quarterback who could win some games and who was a five hundred,

type quarterback. How much money is that worth? That is now becoming worth a lot more money in the NFL when backup quarterbacks are getting paid, you know, $10 million. Also, I should mention yesterday, I misunderstood a little bit on the Kirk contract that his next year, I just wanted to offer this correction, that his next year bonus is guaranteed. So he's going to make 20. I think I said 10, it's going to make 20. If you were, if you were listening to yesterday's show and we're like, hey, man, that's a little bit off.

Um, you know, it's Kirk. He was going to get more money. Stephen, Grayson Halton is another Jalen Redmond, a gap shooter. Um, Jack says don't like Hulton. I think I like a lot of these guys in the right spot. So let me go back and see where Hulton is average draft position is. Because that's what it comes down to for me. I don't think that Grayson Halton has much of a chance at his size with middling production over the last two years.

It's good production. It's not crazy good production. I don't think he has much of a chance of becoming a superstar type player, but could he become a starter who, you know, like Jalen Redmond, who is undersized and a lot of defensive tackles are undersized and have success. His average draft position is 68. So that is early in the third round. I mean, that's not a bad spot if it was in the third round.

And he's got some explosiveness. and he did well in the combine, his production is good. And if he turned out to be like a Jalen Redmond, I mean, that's pretty darn good. That's a starter who's playing six or seven hundred snaps for you. If he's even a solid rotational player, it's worth a third round pick. That's what this all comes down to with these players. And I feel like that was a theme of the list, which is every one of these guys on this list. At the right position, you should be very interested in.

but a lot of the average draft positions for mocks are suggesting that some of these guys are going to go higher than I would take them. I don't know that, well, Anthony Hill wasn't that high, but I don't know that I would take some of these guys. I'm just trying to think of a good example. I guess maybe Emmett Johnson in the second, like I wouldn't do that. I wouldn't do Halton in the second, but in the third you would do it, you know, that kind of thing.