Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - NFL cut candidaites the Vikings could target (Part 1)

Episode Date: August 22, 2025

Matthew Coller made a list from 3 different outlets of "cut candidates" ...plus he grades the Vikings' offseason moves post-camp and the fantasy round table with Mike Schopp and Ian Hartitz. The Purple Insider podcast is brought to you by FanDuel.

Hey, everybody, welcome to another episode of Purple Insider, Matthew Collar, here. And I don't wear a watch. I don't have a clock down here to stare at. So I guess I'll just look at my phone until the Vikings make a trade. Let's just all do that. Let's just all stare at our phones. Scroll, Adam Schaefter, Pelliserra, are you in there? it's going on so far no trade i got to tell you after the harrison phillips trade yesterday it seemed

like we would be showing up to this here live stream tonight with another trade to talk about and after last night's stream was so much fun getting all the reaction and running through all the options and naming old viking's wide receivers there was great energy in the room and here we are tonight going come on do something again that was a lot of fun uh i don't know if the vikings are going to get to the finish line with an adam deal and trade i do know the carolina panthers are playing right now on tv and just just real quick i was looking at that game carolina pittsburgh it's preseason football whatever and then i see a guy go down and then i see a guy get carded off and i'm like oh man you know that's that's just terrible a guy that might be

his last chance at ever playing football. That's too bad. And they're like, oh, Derek Harmon is down. Derek Harmon, Pittsburgh is playing their first round draft pick in the preseason. And he gets seriously injured in this game and is carted off. And I was just reminded of when that happened to Irv Smith and how Kevin O'Connell has had the right approach to the preseason to never play the starters. So that's kind of what I've been doing. waiting for this trade to happen. But put it under the we'll see category. Sometimes we have been lucky enough to have big news happen before the podcast or during the podcast. So we kind of broke our streak of finishing shows and then having big news break. Maybe we'll have that again.

I've got the alerts going on. I know you guys are keeping an eye on social media for me as well. If something were to go down. But maybe that's kind of a Friday news thing to happen for the Vikings tomorrow. I don't know. Or maybe it won't happen at all. Maybe Carolina and the Vikings can't get on the same page with an Adam Thielen trade and they decide they're going to keep him or however they feel about their wide receiving unit. They may go over it and have meetings and make different decisions. It's hard to say. But the list otherwise, we're going to go over some cut candidates and the list otherwise is not super sexy, but there's some names out there that might be of interest to the Vikings who could possibly get cut so we'll dive into that i've also got some things

for you guys today so i gathered what i did was gather the cut candidates um from cbs bleacher report usa today uh all of these articles that are who are the guys most likely to get cut so i gathered a bunch of names that could be of interest for the minnesota vikings also uh for tonight i decided to grade the off season we won't really know about the Minnesota Vikings offseason until, oh, I don't know, October, November, but we have a lot more information now than we did just a couple of weeks ago when training camp started about how some of these offseason decisions ended up working out. So I have made some grades one out of ten for all the different things that they did this

off season. But I wanted to start out with some trade reaction to the reaction of Harrison Phillips getting dealt. So I'm reacting to the reactors. Last night we tried to break it down with a bunch of different reasons and a bunch of different options, the depth, the scheme, the cap, the potential need for a receiver

and all the different reasons that maybe Harrison Phillips got traded since we won't hear from the general manager until Thursday, then we can get a little bit more detail on what went down with Harrison Phillips and all the other moves that they have on the way. But my thing about the reaction was it kind of fell into three different categories.

The first was, yippie, we're getting a receiver. That's what that means, which was kind of us yesterday. Like, this must be coming with something else, right? The other reaction was a little bit strange, which was this means the Vikings aren't serious about winning. And then the other reaction was this means that their depth is really good. And, you know, for me, it's a little bit telling, like, how close do you pay attention if you think that them moving Harrison Phillips was some sort of they don't believe in J.J. McCarthy

move or whatever else. I think that the reaction a lot was based on the people who were against it. Oh, the other one, the fourth category was, how did we only get a sixth from, I guess, people who've never seen a late season or late offseason NFL trade before, because late off season NFL trades for role-playing defensive tackles, just don't usually draw you a first or a second round draft pick. Every once in a while, someone at this time of year is a fairly big name and gets moved Khalil Mack, for example.

Harrison Phillips is not Khalil Mack. And when you have a $9 million cap hit for next year for a run stuffing defensive tackle, that's not a guy that's going to bring in a whole heck of a lot in return. but you also do get some cap space there. You do get one extra draft pick and you get cap space for next year for a guy that I think based on the way Redmond was playing

was probably only going to get 400 or so snaps. So now you move Levi Drake Rodriguez, Tyrian Ingram Dawkins, whoever else into that role. Takitai Mani potentially and you feel pretty good about filling that spot. But I think another part of it was that Phillips had really ingratiated himself with Minnesota.

that he had brought Harrison's heroes, I think it was what was called. He was the Walter Payton Man of the Year nomination from two years ago and brought his thing here to Minnesota and was a great ambassador for the team. Great speaker. I mean, whenever you talk to Harrison Phillips or he's in front of a microphone, you could feel his energy, you could feel that he went to Stanford, the intelligence, the leadership, he was a captain on the team, just one of the more likable guys from the last, I don't know, five years if you were making a likable

ranking. And I think also the surprise. Anytime that something comes out of nowhere, you're like, wait a minute, is something going on here for why they traded Harrison Phillips? And I don't think any of us have really pinned it down to one thing. It's really, I think, multiple factors. You can't discount the idea that they might need one extra sixth round draft pick. to make a trade. You can't discount the idea that next year, you know, they would rather have have someone else have his cap hit than have his cap hit next year and have to cut him or pay him $9 million for somebody who may have gotten passed on the depth chart. You can't discount that Jalen Redman. I was looking this up today. Jalen Redman was a guy that a lot of draft analysts really

liked. And if you're a big fan of the show and you've heard Chris Trapasso talk about him, Chris Tripasso, formerly of CBS Sports, their draft analyst, and now does the trap sheet newsletter, he loved Jalen Redmond and thought he was a third round talent or second round talent, and he went undrafted in part because of, I think he didn't fit exactly the size specs, but also had this blood clot issue. But this is somebody who, I was looking this up on NFL.com, they have this score for athleticism. It's very similar to the relative athletic scores, but it's out of 100. and Jalen Redman in his draft was the fourth highest score

based on what he did at the Combine. So this is not just a complete rando who came out of nowhere. Like he's supposed to be good. He's supposed to be a good athlete. And if he fits those roles, we also talk about sometimes how they try to create carbon copies for backups so they don't have to change how the guy plays. Well, Jalen Redman is much more of a Javon Hargrave or a Jonathan Allen

than Harrison Phillips. So a lot of these things when you start to add it up, even though it did catch us by surprise, you can make a lot of sense of it. But, you know, I saw Mike Rand at Star Tribune,

friend of mine, he wrote that if they don't use that sixth to get a receiver, then it doesn't make sense. I think it still does, but just less. I think it does on the level that Jalen Redmond was really a monster

every single day in training camp. And if he was going to take the job anyway from Harrison Phillips, then you were going to have Phillips playing 300 snaps as a guy who's the captain. A lot of times under those circumstances, they move guys. In fact, it's kind of par for the course for what they've done for some other moves, where you could make an argument that it would have been a good idea to have, say,

Garrett Bradbury on the team still as a backup center. But they said, you're going to get a job somewhere else. Why don't we move you and go ahead and do that? The same thing with Brian Osama, where he's been a good special teamer for this team, but, hey, we would rather move you and slide. Kobe King into that role. And so now it feels kind of the same way where if Harrison Phillips wasn't going to have the snap count that he was supposed to have or he's had the last couple years, then it does

make a lot of sense for them to move on from him. Even if they aren't using that draft pick for a receiver, they could be using the draft pick for something next year, like a player to draft on day three, which they don't really do. So, you know, this was one where you have to peel back the layers. of it and try to work your way through it logically on a couple of different levels rather than just a, oh, my God, a good player for a sixth. Like, what is crazy doing?

Like, they don't do stuff thoughtlessly. This is where I think that if you were really paying close attention to the front office five years ago when Rick Spielman and Mike Zimmer were panicking, this is always my kind of reference point for like, do you make? make sense with what you do. Does it seem panic? Does it seem like they're freaked out and they're making some crazy move like trading a fifth for a kicker slash punter or trading a fourth for a tight end? Like those things are not what this is. This has been a deliberate front office and coaching staff that usually has reasoning for their approaches. And so there must be reasoning

here, but I think it's probably not just one thing. And maybe Brian Flores even hinted at this the other day when he said that he walked into that defensive tackle room and said a lot of you guys have earned jobs here. You know, a lot of, a lot of you should be on this team. Elijah Williams is another one. And Ingram Dawkins, you can't move on from somebody like that. You can't cut a fifth round draft pick. We talk about how poaching doesn't happen that much. It probably would for a fifth round draft pick if, you know, Ingram Dawkins ended up having to be the guy. So they would rather just keep those guys, develop them, and then have this deep room of young players behind those veterans. And, you know, sometimes I hear this from you guys of, oh, we don't have

young depth. And you're like, well, at that position you sure do, at that position, they've got too many guys and move on from Harrison Phillips. So I think if there was any major reaction to Harrison Phillips trade, if it's the comment section, screaming, how dare you, Quasi, or whatever, I mean, I think you can be disappointed that he won't get to stay around with this team where he's kind of been through the entire arc from getting here as part of an older group trying to win and then going through the reset year, going through the 14 win season to be at this point where they're really truly ready to compete over the next couple of seasons and he's not going to be a part of it. That is life in the national football league. But I think that if you were

very, or if you were very for it, then I mean, if you said it was a great trade, I don't know you can't really say it's a great trade except for, well, they got some draft capital out of someone who looks like they had fallen behind somebody else on the roster, and that's a fairly good thing. Now, where they could regret it, let's say that they don't pull off the Thielen trade or any other trade. I'm just going to call it Thielen trade, but it could be anything. If they don't pull off a trade and they end up having injuries and two guys get heard on the D-line and all of a sudden you're feeling like you're lacking in depth, then we might go back to this moment in the Harrison Phillips trade.

So I do want to leave that door open because I think yesterday, most of the podcasts and live stream, et cetera, was basically just trying to figure this out. Like, wow, okay, they just did what? Let's work through this. My brain was like spinning with different ideas. Is it this? Is it this? Am I going to have another emergency podcast the minute that I stop?

but then, you know, as we've gone through it a day later, it does come to my mind that if you have one or two injuries at that spot, then you are asking potentially a seventh rounder who's never really played. Redmond has 200 snaps. Ingram Dawkins is a rookie. Elijah Williams is a rookie. You are without proven depth. That just has never seemed to scare Brian Flores, though.

And somebody pointed out in the comments after the show yesterday, I thought it was a good point, that the Florida, as sort of school of thinking is all rooted in New England, that he comes from New England, he went to the school of Bill Belichick, Scott Pioli, all those guys from the Patriot Way era. And one of the things that they always preached was moving on from a player a little bit too soon rather than too late. And that may have been the feeling with Harrison Phillips is move on too early right now. And they did that with Delvin Cook. And it worked out. They did it with even Adam Thielen, although he continued to play fairly well, but he wasn't the same

receiver that he had been in the past. So they've had that theory here where like, let's move on from Eric Hendricks after a fairly good season because the next one might be a falloff. And that could be the case with Harrison Phillips. So it was an interesting day to see everybody kind of working through that of what happened here and why did they make this trade. And I think all of us thought that something else was on the way. I set my alarm early this morning because I thought I better get up and be ready

for an emergency podcast and there was no emergency podcast and here we are at our usual time this evening. So I want to get to some other things here that I have prepared for you guys and then I'll answer questions. Also, we have a fantasy roundtable tonight and even if you are not

a fantasy freak, it's a great football discussion. Ian Hartett's from fantasy life is one of the best out there. He is part the round table. So that is coming up in hour two of the show. But for the first hour, uh, got some things for you. And one of the things that I want to run through is this list of cut candidates. And let me screen share here, my list. This is what my notes look like, by the way. I've also got a, I might as well get this out of the way. Oh, that's right. I wrote myself a huge note because I forgot to mention this last night. This is, this is what my notes look like.

I just yell at myself sometimes that my reporter friend in Washington, D.C., Ben Standig, he texted me back about K.J. Osborne. If you were watching late last night, I was texting him trying to get an answer on like, hey, you know, what's going on, you know, with K.J. Osborne, like is K.J. Maybe I can make this a little bigger. Can I make this a little bigger? Yeah. That's okay. I'll just put it in the middle there. But I was texting with him last. night about K.J. Osborne, he said that it would be surprising if K.J. Osborne made the team because he said maybe he could stay as a kick returner, but it's unlikely that he makes the team. So the Vikings may just end up waiting around for KJ. Osborne to get cut and then

bring him back. You know, he has a very good history with Keenan McCardo. Also, the fan duel question of the day, if the Vikings trade for Adam Thielen, how many receptions will he have this season? And would he be a daily fantasy pick for you in the first three weeks? Because obviously you play the daily fantasy now for just one week at a time with fantasy. But how about that first part? For Adam Thielen, if he were to come here, how many total receptions would he have on the season? I think I would probably put it around the 30 to 35 range is where I would start. but I'm very curious about your answers.

So you answer that question. Keep rolling with the comment section and I will go through these cut candidates from around a couple of different outlets. I went through USA Today, CBS, NFL.com, and Bleacher Report. And here were the ones that were the most interesting to me. So all Patriots wide receivers, Jalen Polk, Javon Baker, and Kendrick Bourne.

Kendrick Bourne is is a little bit of history rooted in, I think, San Francisco, right? And is played in, at least there's enough of, I was going to pull this up. I forgot I'm screen sharing, but you all can look at my PFF together. Okay, let's go find, let's go find Kendrick Bourne and see what he's done. Because it seems he's the name that comes up the most for the New England Patriots. What has he done recently? Because sometimes if a guy has a history, yeah, San Francisco is where he kind of made his bones. And last year, 28 receptions, 305 yards, the year before, 37 catches, 406.

I mean, a guy like this is very feelingy. How old is he? Not the fastest for sure. Let's see, 30 years old. Okay, he was a former undrafted free agent, 30 years old. I'm intrigued by Kendrick Bourne if they want to go with all younger guys. It's a very similar situation to what we're talking about with Adam Thielen. And I mean, Polk, I don't know, probably less so.

Baker, probably less so. I'd rather have the veteran in this situation. I get messages all the time. Like, are there any young players out there? Like, yeah, there are. But if they're getting rid of them, remember how the Vikings didn't keep Laquan treadwell? Like, there's a reason for that. Kyle Dugger, just because doesn't that sound like a Brian Flores guy?

hasn't really worked out in their current system, but was a good player at times, Kyle Dugger. And he was the big talking point for New England reporters when they were here is, did he not play? When is the last time he played? I guess it's my PFF's not working right now. So Kyle, oh, that's receiving. That's why.

There we go. Okay. So, yeah, 2022, Kyle Dugger had a, 78 pf f grade even 2023 he played over a thousand snaps and then fell off the face of the earth last year but he's not that old and he's very talented second second rounder i mean i don't know he just seems like a brian flores type of player so i put him on the list and also a receiver from the new york jets melichai corley who was known as for you draft nuts he was a fairly high pick i think a third round pick he was known as kind of a yards after catch guy

and he seems to be on the bubble there. That's what they wanted in Rondale Moore. Rondale Moore ends up getting hurt. Maybe there's a poor man's type of situation with Melokai Corley. I think that's how it's, isn't that how it's pronounced? Okay, so that was USA Today's list of guys that would make sense for the Vikings. From CBS, Eli Ricks and Adori Jackson cornerbacks, when I saw Jeff Okuda wander off with a little bit of a limp the other day, it certainly made me think about corners for the Vikings.

I mean, you go behind Mackay Blackman on the depth chart who has not played well and you have undrafted free agents. So maybe if there is a corner who gets cut, that is the one position where I feel like sometimes a guy just needs to be in a different place and ends up having more success with a different team, a different scheme or whatever it might be. So those are two names to keep an eye on from CBS. Also, Tyler Johnson, I had to include it.

The gopher had to include Tyler Johnson. Nicole Hardman for the Packers looks like he's going to get cut. A couple backup quarterbacks who I think would be upgrades from Sam Howell, Taylor Heineke. And I don't know if Tommy DeVito would actually be an upgrade, but it's just hasn't really been a fun experience with Sam Howell. So maybe, maybe they think that he came in and was a lot of fun, at least for the Giants a couple years ago. And here's a guy who's come up a few times Tennessee could cut Van Jefferson.

So that's the list of CBS potential cutdowns. And you can let me know if you're interested in any of those. But there's a few here that I'm interested in. Heineke is definitely one of them, a proven backup quarterback who's been around. Tyler Johnson has been on a Super Bowl team. Van Jefferson would be familiar with Kevin O'Connell. From NFL.com, three guys that I'm interested in, Kenny Pickett as a backup. I think he would be a great, great option.

Kenny Pickett as a backup plays backup quarterback. type football, I think. Tim Patrick from Detroit was pretty good for them last year, but it seems that their rookie, is it Tesla, the guy's name, has been good for them. I keep seeing reports about him, which may push Tim Patrick out, veteran, who's been a good receiver before. And then a former third round draft pick, Denver corner, Damari Mathis, they just got a deep room. They drafted Jade Barron. So he was on Eric Ed Holmes list over at NFL.com. And three more from Bleacher report. Yes, I wrote down Jalen Rager. Yes, I did as a returner and only as a returner. But right now, what are we talking about for the punt return situation? Silas

Bolden and Miles Price. I mean, at least Jalen Rager has done a lot of it in his career and actually been really good at times. So maybe, maybe Jalen Rager. Trey Brown corner from San Francisco might be an odd man out there. And Trey Palmer, wide receiver from Tampa Bay, who was good in 23, but it's kind of been pushed down their depth charts. So that is the list of potential cut candidates. If I'm ranking which ones I'm most interested in for the Vikings, I would say Kendrick Bourne is at the top of that list. Kyle Dugger really does intrigue me because he's still young and the Vikings love that

kind of player. I know there's no room at the end, really, but maybe he would have a lot of other interests from other teams and might not want to come to a place that already has multiple safeties. But still, when you get into that safety depth, it's like, Kalef Halasi was out there yesterday doing a lot of work for them. It's not like there's a ton behind Theo Jackson. You know, Jay Ward has come along, but it's, it hasn't looked like, okay, now he's suddenly a starter. And that role that Mattelis plays, if he were to get banged up, which he has a couple times in camp, I think you're playing nickel all the time. And then it's a

fundamental change. So that's got my interest. Bourne is probably not. number one. I like the Tyler Johnson idea. I've always thought he was a good receiver. Van Jefferson. I'm a little less excited about. I do think Tim Patrick falls into that same quality veteran category. And Jalen Rager is a returner, definitely Taylor Heineke, and then I'm a little less enthused about Trey Palmer. But some other names on that list that we haven't brought up a whole lot. John is out on Kyle Dugger. I don't know, man. I mean, Kyle Dugger, we're talking about just a couple of years ago was a real impact player. And here's, here's where it stands out is that he has,

he had two seasons where he had double digit quarterback pressures as a pass rusher. And I don't think that he is a great raw defender as in, oh, he's going to, you know, play the deep third and he's going to read, react to everything. And I'm looking at his numbers. He played almost exclusively as a box safety. And then the last two years where he,

hasn't played as well. That's where he's had lower PFF grades. It's where he's been attacked more. But the Vikings have a guy like this in Josh Mattelis. And if Mattelis has to go back and play a regular safety position because something happens to them, they would be short there. That's more of just a, hey, this is a Brian Flores type player, kind of catches my eye. I mean, most of the guys who you're going to name on a cut down list, you're going to say,

like, yeah, that guy hasn't done this or that. or the other thing like yes of course but you're kind of you know picking up guys that you know would be of some type of interest for some type of reason this is really what you're looking for cut down candidates uh william you are correct taylor heinecke was an undrafted free agent and somebody's going to mention him kicking a door that happened uh so he injured his foot and he may have been he might have been on track to be the quarterback when teddy Bridgewater got hurt had he not kicked the door, but that happened. As far as, you know, I, I've seen every night like about Terry McLaurin. And I mean, I just, it's hard to see that as a

realistic possibility. If you were going to give up a second round draft pick for McLaren, that would be crazy. And if they were able to do it, I would be all for it because the door started. It is very funny. Thank you. I would be all for scary. Terry being a Minnesota Viking and trying to recreate three deep around J.J. McCarthy. Of course I would. It just doesn't seem very realistic because his main issue is a contract. So how are you going to go and pay him? That's impossible to be able to pay him unless you're planning on not paying someday Jordan Addison and you're going to cut other people and I just don't see how that's going to happen. Also, if I'm Washington and I'm trading Terry,

McCloran. I'm not trading him to a team that I'm playing and is in my conference that I could play in the playoffs. I am trading him to the Jaguars. That's, that's where I would be, uh, trading him. So I would not be looking for, you know, him to go join the Minnesota Vikings, uh, call the Ravens about Bateman. Is there any type of steam for that because, or is that just a gopher thing? Because I feel like that's been brought up a few times by the chat. I haven't seen anything suggesting that Rashad Bateman would get traded, but maybe I've missed it. Quentin Johnston was a guy that I liked coming out of college. You know, I mean, Quinn Johnson is not a terrible idea

because we're talking about the Rondale Moore position is the one that got hurt, the main, that main position. It depends a little bit on what Jalen Naylor's health situation is, right? If Naylor is seriously hurt, well, then, you know, you're going to have someone who can really run routes and know the entire offense. If you're trying to replace more of the Rondell Moore position, which is supposed to be the playmaker,

then maybe Quentin Johnston is somebody who could be on their list. DJ Chark, I mean, the fact that he got cut is really concerning to where he's at. He was never the quickest. What don't I like about Trey Palmer? You know, I'm not against Trey Palmer. I guess I was just less enthused about that because he's a younger player who's on the block to get traded as opposed to or to get cut as opposed to some of the veteran players. But you know, I mean, this is like where we go back and forth about it.

Like everybody loves younger players, but I'm in a thinking in a mindset of getting a Tim Patrick or an Adam Thielen or a Kendrick Bourne who can actually play and has proven it. But, you know, looking at Palmer's numbers, he was a Rondale Moore two years ago. 39 catches, 9.9 yards per reception, three touchdowns for them. lot of underneath stuff. Apparently, they threw him a lot of contested catches that he didn't catch. But he's much more of a speedster, right? So, okay, you know what?

Trey Palmer's not a bad idea. I take it back. I take it back. You make a good case for Trey Palmer, if he is on the outs there, that he could be that type of Rondale Moore role that they carved out. NBA Summer League, Alec Pierce. I brought up Alec Pierce last night, and I was looking at some indie reporters. that just doesn't seem like it's realistic that he is actually going to get traded,

but maybe if they came in with a good enough offer, you know, I don't really know. Never Played Madden says the problem with waiting for cuts is that we are low on the waiver claim priority. That's true. Yeah, that's true. Lots of other teams will have shots before us. The Vikings may need to arrange. Yeah, and those cut candidates, every single one of them is, we're, having a conversation about making a trade, right? Yeah, Corley is kind of interesting as someone who came out as a yards after catch guy. You liked Javon Baker. Okay. I mean, I don't

know a ton about him. I just know that he's kind of fallen off with that team. So over under offensive line receptions is funny. That is not an acceptable answer to the Fandul question of the day. Cornerback is appealing. Right. There are a couple cornerbacks on that list. even someone like a Dory Jackson who's been around and has played a lot in the NFL that he might be a guy that if you go out and get can at very least at very least fill in a spot as a veteran the same way that someone like Shaq Griffin did last year that's if you know maybe if uh Jeff Okuda is banged up a little bit more than it looked like yesterday didn't look super serious uh treadwell yes a lot of you Lequine, hey, I give Lequan all the credit in the world for still being out there, still being in the NFL, still fighting for it. I mean, I'm, I'm impressed with that. See Bakes, if they're Thomas or Lucky Jackson start across from Jefferson week one,

we might see the league's first quadruple coverage. Well, there was that time where, who was it? Maybe Atlanta put two guys on Julio Jones right at the line of scrimmage, could definitely see that I mean with those guys they know where to run they know that they can get the ball to them if they absolutely have to underneath they're just not going to really beat anybody and it's a one-on-one type of situation for those guys in this offense when Jefferson is getting so much attention can they really beat people and get open and make plays that would really be the question and you know i agree far rider that oliver is a good receiver but it's not it's not the same right

i mean they build a lot of this offense to be an 11 personnel uh they run more than 50 percent of their plays with three wide receivers and now you're talking about two of them are undrafted free agents i mean you got to you got to do something uh would the jags be good with scary terry hunter and brian thomas junior yeah i think they actually would i think they actually would yes um So anyway, there are your cut down candidates and I realized that I made a little thing for it and I forgot to put it on the screen. But anyway, there it was. You got to see it. But I made another one for something else, which was now that we're looking at the entire picture of the Minnesota Vikings, we've got other than this wide receiver thing, other than kick return or pot returner, other than the punting battle, maybe.

backup quarterback like this is the Minnesota Vikings though that you saw throughout this training camp that's going to take week one like we've got the team 98% figured out it's just these final little pieces and look wide receiver is a pretty big deal for any team that position when you're talking about who's going to play across from Justin Jefferson so there is still this big thing looming to be figured out but everything else we've got a picture now on this team So what I decided to do was to create grades for all the moves that they made this offseason. You guys can tell me if you agree or disagree with my different grades. Okay, so I went through all the moves that the Vikings made and I graded them out of 10

because I graded yesterday the different positions with the ABC school system. So I decided that I was going to use a different metric. So let me know if you agree, disagree in how you feel about these. So starting out with the decision to stick with J.J. McCarthy, I gave that right now an eight out of ten. And the reason I gave an eight out of ten is because nothing I saw would make me think that they're having regrets. But I also didn't see so much that there's no chance it fails. I saw a quarterback who's in control, in command. confident confident is the leader communicating with everybody being coached well

Addison's catching passes so he's working into his number one receiver I saw him grow I saw him develop I saw all the things that we saw from last year and it's a 10 I agree Tom it's a 10 out of 10 long term decision I totally agree as of right now though I think it was still the right call and I liked a lot from J.J. McCarthy but there is that little little pang in the back of my mind of, well, what if it doesn't work the way that we think it's going to? Or what if it just doesn't work right away and they end up falling behind in the season and not being able to fight back because McCarthy's still learning and, you know, things like that. So put it through for like 2025. For 2025, long term, you're right,

10 out of 10, right decision would do it 100 times out of 100. For 2025, I'm still giving it an eight out of 10 for J.J. McCarthy based on the way he played in training camp, I think he can win games right away in the NFL with this team. Even if he's got Thayer Thomas as his slot wide receiver, I still think that I mean, he threw the ball to Thayer Thomas in practice and was able to handle a lot of pressure, able to work his way through some ups and downs. And even when he got into the preseason game and Houston threw some things at him, I thought that he looked pretty good in that game. And there was a great breakdown by JTO Sullivan over at the QB school that I felt better about his performance in the preseason game that I did originally

walking out of the stadium. So I think that they're in a very good spot to win games with J.J. McCarthy. It will not be perfect. It will have some ups and downs. There's no question about that with a young quarterback, but they can be in the playoffs with this guy. At least this is from the camp assessment. If it goes horribly wrong, Well, then I misread the, than what I saw at training camp. But from watching training camp, I'll give it an 8 out of 10 for the 20, 25 season. I think they have still the same odds that I thought before in the best case scenario are close to it to win the division. And if he had his full bevy of wide receivers for the first three games, I think I'd feel even more confident about that.

Trading for Jordan Mason, I gave a 10 out of 10. I'll give you guys the highest to the lowest. 10 out of 10 trading for Jordan Mason. This guy's looked like a beast. It's looked like a star running back. And him and Aaron Jones in the scrimmage playing off of each other, catching screens, running the football, pounding the ball in from the goal line.

I mean, it all looks good. It all looks good with Jordan Mason. And I still don't really understand it from San Francisco's perspective, but I definitely understand it from the Vikings. That was a great trade. 10 out of 10. The other 10 out of 10 I gave, I gave two more 10.

10 out of 10s. Alan and Hargrave to this point, 10 out of 10. Just absolute beasts allowing them to be able to trade Harrison Phillips. That's how they feel about these two guys. They dominated this camp. Hargrave just looks great to me. I mean, not that Alan doesn't, but Hargrave, I think was even bigger in person than I thought he was. Very intimidating. That could be a special interior for this year if those guys are at 100% so 10 out of 10 through camp because they seem to be at 100% through camp and the other 10 out of 10 is a guy who doesn't get a lot of shine doesn't get a lot of media attention or anything like that but uh i will go with byron murphy as a 10 out because had they moved on from byron murphy and signed somebody else me who knows how

that might have worked out but having him gives you confidence that at very least if there's other things happening as there were last year, Fabian Morrow had to come in and play a little bit. Shack Griffin had to play a lot more than they wanted him to. And Stefan Gilmore was 100 years old. I mean, who is the consistent? That was Byron Murphy. And remember when he went out in 2023, that's when their defense started to fall off. He's led the league in picks.

He has looked great in this training camp, Byron Murphy, 10 out of 10, resigning. And now it feels even more important that. there's still questions about the secondary. So going back to the next highest graded things, Aaron Jones, I gave eight out of ten. I think that it was a little bit on the money side high for a guy who might be it, I mean, might ultimately be a one B to Jordan Mason. So there's a lot of money for the next two years for Aaron Jones.

But it's still, that's the only tiny small thing is that if he only gets 800 yards rushing, then you're going to go, well, that was kind of a lot for eight. hundred yards rushing, but his receiving is enormous for J.J. McCarthy. He hasn't played a ton in camp because he doesn't at this age. So I can't tell you, well, does he have his same burst? Like, it looks good to me. Certainly has the same hands to catch the ball. And those two connected quite a few times, even sometimes down the field. So still, still high on that deal. I just think that the way Mason has looked, he's not going to make Aaron Jones irrelevant, but maybe a little less necessary to pay at that price but just that's a nitpick that is a nitpick and the prices don't

matter that much um signing the Aussie punter is clearly another 10 out of 10 just kidding there drafting donovan jackson right now is a six out of 10 for me and the reason why it is a six out of 10 for me right now is because i still don't have a great handle on what that's going to look like i think that he's a fighter uh in past protection where he's going to get pushed back but He's not going to let guys just walk right by him like we've seen in years past. I think he's very intelligent. I think he's going to work for it. But I know that's going to be hard for him to transition into the NFL as a starter

in a very difficult and complicated league. I think that he'll make a lot of a difference. And this is why it's a six. I'll get to the downside of it, the good side of it that gets it to a six is that I think he's going to run, block well, and I think he's going to be good in the screen game. And that's going to help them be more. dynamic for sure in the screen game where they haven't been good the last couple years. So that was the good side of it.

The downside of it is that I was thinking about how there were some other guards available and there were some other players available in the draft. They take him in the late first, Jaden Higgins, Luther Burden, in the light of day, when you now look at the receiving group and how banged up it is, And look, I know that was always something that I was over the top on with drafting another wide receiver in the first round. But Jaden Higgins and Luther Burden, you know, they were here, especially Jaden Higgins, who I think has looked pretty good. I mean, that might change the dynamic a little bit from how you feel about the wide receiver group because Ty Felton has not worked out to this point. And again, these are for 2025 grades.

These aren't long term. I think that Felton is a good pick long term. But Jaden Higgins and then also, you know, Melchai Starks, Nickyman Warray, like there's reason to talk about those guys as well as more dynamic pieces on defense as part of a secondary that's got questions. I'm not down on Donovan Jackson, just to make it clear. But if we're doing out of 10, I can't quite go 10 out of 10 if there's some wide receivers who are making a difference in their camps and,

especially Higgins might have been an immediate difference maker for this team with Jalen Naylor not expected to be here long term with the lack of depth like all that sort of stuff and it might also just take Donovan Jackson some time and they need somebody to be really good right away. So that's that's the only reason is that there's been some up and downs in camp. I couldn't quite get that to eight or nine out of 10. will fry's signing right now is also a six out of ten because he was just coming back and I don't have a good feel for what he's going to be the nastiness element's going to be there the past protection I think is going to have more miscues than you think when you

pay someone as much as they did the prices for offensive linemen are just high if there's a guy that a bunch of different teams are after so I think he's going to pay off in the things you want him to pay off in, which is he's going to push dudes and he's going to plow for Jordan Mason and for Aaron Jones. And I think he's going to have to survive in the past protection game. But there were a lot of pressures in this training camp. And that was one of the main stories is how many times that J.J. McCarthy got pressured. So I gave Will Fries a six out of ten with much more potential down the road from there. Letting Cam Bynum go, I'm at a five out of 10. That was a move that I threw out there as well as kind of like they could have brought him

back because I like where Theo Jackson's at, but are they going to have to play Josh Mattelis more at deep safety? I still have questions about how that's exactly going to work. And there's a ton of confidence Theo Jackson. I think he's earned that. But after camp, I still don't know exactly how it's going to play out. Whereas with Cambinam, and the price was too high and can bind him, but I'm not so confident how I feel about where the safety position is, where if it was Bynum and Mattelis and Jackson and Harrison, I think I would feel more confident. I wouldn't have paid Bynum that price either, just to be clear, but I included that in this list. The Rogers and Okuda signing, I gave a six out of ten. I've really liked where

Isaiah Rogers is at. I think that he can play. He's at a very good camp. Okuda's had a solid camp, but has left some to desire at times with his coverage and has just been so wildly physical that my question is, is he going to get away with being that wildly physical during the season? He's also got an injury history. And then, you know, not getting someone with a little bit better of a background than Okuda, I think you thought that Mackay Blackman would be that guy and it would be fine. But the fact that Mackay Blackman has not been fine, that kind of takes off of this. Okuda's been a good story. He's played pretty well in camp. Rogers has played well in camp. That cornerback position has still got some questions, though. And the lowest grade

that I gave was the handling of the depth wide receivers that got a two. Ty Felton hasn't done almost anything other than be a returner. And Rondale Moore got hurt. And here you are with practice squad guys. They didn't really paint by numbers there at that position. That got the lowest grade. In depth signings, I gave a five out of ten. Justin's school. I like Eric Wilson a lot, Tim Jones, not bringing back Trent Sherfield, and my overall offseason grade was a B plus so far. And the, I mean, the draft class, I saw, you know, asking about the draft class, so much to be determined. And so much of it is just on Donovan Jackson. It was such a small draft class. Ingram Dawkins has been good. Kobe King has been good. But it's really

about that first round pick. Felton can develop in the coming years, but it's really so much. about that first round pick. So these are the things we're doing until the Vikings trade for a wide receiver. Do you agree with the grades? Would you do anything different there? Would you make any changes to where my grades are? Jackson is at least a 7 out of 10.

Well, you know, I mean, look, I was very happy with the way that he took steps forward at the end of camp, because that's what you want to see. Like, that's where we start the conversation. We know it's going to look bad at first for a rookie and is, you know, is he going to ramp up? And I thought it did ramp up. But he still, as we go into the season, leaves me with questions about how he's going to perform against the interior D-lines that get really nasty as the season goes along.

Luckily for him, you start out with kind of a washed Grady Jared and, you know, Chicago's not that impressive and then Atlanta's not that impressive and you go from there. But once you get into the middle of the season, you're facing. a lot of very good, uh, defensive tackles. And he's going to have to be ready for that. Um, and, you know, I mean, look, we can always, always, we can always go back and debate draft picks and you should have taken this guy or shouldn't take you that guy. I'm not criticizing the draft pick. I gave it better than 50%. So still a passing grade on my one out of 10 system I invented an hour ago. But, uh, I've got questions still. I, I didn't watch.

Donovan Jackson in this camp and think, oh, my gosh, that is Steve Hutchinson, folks. I did think that's way better than Ed Ingram. So there's that. I was asked a few times, like, how does it compare to Ed Ingram? And it's a hard comparison to make. But the biggest thing is that he doesn't lose instantly all that often and continues to fight for his spot. So, you know, even if he's getting pushed back. But that one's going to take some time.

It's going to take some time. Evan says a couple weeks ago he would have graded the wide receivers eight out of ten well not the not the depth though that was really about they signed Rondale Moore and they drafted Ty Felton

and Moore wasn't taking first team reps and Felton wasn't either those were the second team wide receivers the fact that they still have not had Ty Felton taking first team reps and they're having Lucky Jackson and Thayer Thomas

you can't give that a very high grade yeah you just can't but it doesn't mean that can't change for Ty Felton in the future. I think it will. I mean, Osborne had zero catches his first year and then jump to 50 in year two. I think that Felton will get there. But the fact that he really should be that guy if you draft him in the third and he's not that guy and it's undrafted free agents, that's where you get into, you can't give it a very high grade.

But overall B plus, what would you give, what would you give overall so far? uh j a g it's fine to rate b plus when you have to rate move by move like that but overall vision i'd say a oh i agree with that yeah no i agree with that the biggest thing look the off season was an a the minute they didn't get erin rogers that's when it was an a and the rest of the stuff can be debated the allen and hardgrave signings look great right now if those guys get hurt you know what everyone's going to say you overpaid they were too old they had injury histories you know it's going to happen. The overall grade will be determined by the results as we go forward. The overall vision, though, as you're stating, to have McCarthy on this contract and trust him in this

preseason and say, we know what we saw last year, just do that again, keep growing, keep developing, keep leading. You can be that guy. The trust in him to get to that point is an A. That decision is, as of this moment, it's an A. I think eight out of 10 for 2020. because I think it can still be good. I was not knocked off that, but I also have for sure the same questions as the entire rest of the world about J.J. McCarthy and what it's really going to look like.

So, yeah, I think an A for the overall vision, but a B plus, and getting an A in an offseason, that would be last year. That would be Grenard, Van Ginkle, Cashman. And I didn't even really fully realize how good those guys were until we got to the joint practices and they just ate alive. The Cleveland Browns was like, okay, that's an A.

That is an A. Aaron says they knew about as in suspension and the cap space to sign wide receiver three and didn't, yeah, that's, that's right. That gets a two out of ten. If you are right here right now making panicked phone calls for Tray Palmer or Adam Thielen or whoever, or you're calling Amari Cooper's agent and saying, hey, does Amari want to still play? That's a two.

You don't get high grades for that. And this is a position that I feel like I've just continually banged the drum. Maybe they thought that Felton was going to be a little more ready. Maybe they thought that Rondell Moore was going to be a guy for them. And then it didn't work out because of the injury. And they do get credit for that. And maybe they thought it'll be fine with Naylor. I just go back to when they used the example of San Francisco in Houston about last year

to say, oh, it's fine with Naylor. We won those games, remember? And the Jets game. Well, Sam Darnel played terribly in the Jets game. And they were way ahead in those other games right from the outset. I mean, okay, yeah, it'll all be fine if Justin Jefferson catches another 97-yard touchdown, or you pick off CJ Stroud and then kind of embarrass him right from the beginning of that game. Like those games played out really in their favor, big time, without Jordan Addison last year.

There's no guarantee you get to week three and play Cincinnati. and that's going to happen again. And this is why I've been, you know, so you're cleaning up that mess. That is the, the only thing that I would say, you know, there are other ones that I have a little questions about. Is the Okuda thing really going to work? Is Jackson going to be fully ready? You know, but the receiver one, you needed another guy.

It's very clear that you needed another guy. And it's true that Addison wasn't suspended yet. But when was it? Who was the, what was the date where someone said three game suspension for? Adam Thielen. What was the first date that we knew that was going to happen? I mean, it was 2024, probably about 10 minutes after he got arrested or that it made its way out. We knew a three game suspension was going to come on the way. And you're right, Oak Dog, that Rondale was always just a roll of the dice anyway. So they didn't really go out and get another proven wide receiver

as a backup, even someone who had just sort of bounced around. That's the one thing that I think they're really regretting today, and you can tell because they're making phone calls to try to get other players. So, you know, dystopian utopia when it comes to Felton, he was the last pick of the third round and saying he should contribute significantly right away. That's just too high of a bar for that guy. I mean, just go through the wide receivers in the league or third round draft picks. I'm sure we can do this. I'm sure we can do this. How often those guys are huge contributors right away. I mean, he should be more ready than he is, I suppose. But he always seemed like kind of a project to me because he didn't have a ton of experience in college outside

of his one big season for Maryland last year. But I'm looking at wide receivers. Just let's go to last year. Was there any third rounders who contributed big time right away? Okay, Luke McCaffrey, so there's one. But the other guys from the third round last year, Corley, who we were just talking about could be a trade candidate. Jermaine Burton didn't do anything. Roman Wilson, Jalen McMillan, the Bucks drafted another receiver. Early fourth round, right around where he, right around where Felton is,

Troy Franklin, who is just starting to break out. Javon Baker from Central Florida, like he's given no time, obviously, since they're thinking about getting rid of him. DeVantes Walker, I swear I saw his name on the trade block too. I mean, none of those guys just stepped right into the limelight except for one guy, and that was Ladd McConkey, but that was, or I'm sorry, no, wait, no, I was thinking Ladd McConkey. He was a second.

He was a second rounder. So Luke McCaffrey didn't really either. So, I mean, right, there's your draft picks in the same ballpark. Jalen Polk was a late second. Donnie Mitchell was a late second. Like, there's a lot of guys from last year who were in this same position. You get the point that did not just. show up on the scene and become stars, it's going to take, it's going to take time.

Let's see. I don't, I don't agree with you, Brian, that if McCarthy was healthy, he would have played after the Jacksonville game. That wasn't going to happen. That wasn't going to happen. They were seven, seven and two at that point. They weren't going to bench their starting quarterback at seven and two. Let's see.

Dillon says, how did they not realize that Naler is a wide receiver three at best? He's so inconsistent. every time he's had a chance he's been below average. I think that they do realize that, but they also felt like they had so many options otherwise from Aaron Jones to Josh Oliver to maybe thinking that Felton would step up or Rondale Moore. Like they thought that they had so many other options

that they could just kind of piecemeal it together, which is really what they did last year. They piecemealed it with Brandon Powell and with Trent Sherfield and those guys kind of came in there. I mean, it was only, it was only, it was only going to be three games, which, you know, you always assume that at some point someone will get hurt and everyone's not playing 17 games, right? So, yeah, I mean, you know, I just think that they know that about Jalen Naylor, although you could argue, you could

argue that they've overrated him for a while. Like, they've always loved him. KOC's always loved him. And he was okay at times last year. And then he was not okay at times. last year and that's kind of been his career where it's some occasional flashes and that's really about it. So, you know, yeah, you're right. I mean, that's my point. That's why they get a two out of ten for that because they just, I think, maybe trusted in that a little bit too much. And then Naylor ends up getting hurt. Say hi to buddy everybody. He's down here. Buddy the dog down here for another live stream. And every so often he's got to stick his snoot up on the video. Dylan says Felton was the 13th wide receiver drafted.

No way we should expect him to come right in and contribute. Yeah, I agree with that. I agree with that. Like you're barking up the exact tree that I'm talking about, where Rondale Moore is a total guess. I mean, he had a horrible knee injury last year. Felton is the 13th wide receiver taken. Addison was bound to get suspended.

I think that they could have foreseen that you would be in this spot. And they've, they've liked Lucky Jackson. They've liked Thayer Thomas. and O'Connell did say that, like, hey, guys, remember I did this for a reason. Tim Jones did catch some passes before. DeVantes Walker had a strong preseason game this week, and Polk is out for the season. Yeah, yeah. So, I mean, Walker, there you go.

Like, Walker, that's a middle round guy who might be just emerging. Like, that's how it usually goes. Carl words. I miss K.J. Hasmore. Well, he might be back soon. We'll see. We will see. Dante Thornton, fourth rounder for the Raiders looking like wide receiver two for them,

Trey Harris and third rounder, Beckt, not that Felton can't be a guy, but well, look, I mean, when you drafted Ty Felton, sure, we could always do that. We can always look and say, well, this one guy, we went through that with Michael Thomas for years. This one guy was successful, remember? I mean, yeah, okay, you're right. that happens, but with Felton, it was always about next year for Felton because they are aware that Jalen Naylor is probably not going to be here after this year and that Ty Felton was very likely going to develop for a year and then be that guy. Work with Keena McCartle, as we've seen

other receivers do take the step forward. That's, that's fine. Brant says every time I see Tim Jones as mentioned is a viable option, I see eight and nine flash in my mind. Yeah. Michael Thomas, what's he up to? I don't know if he's ready to play these days. I'm not sure. Is that Clancy? How much do you think we could expect from Felton, a few snaps a game? I think they should.

Yeah, I think that he should get in there for an end around. He should get in there for a screen or something. I mean, they talk endlessly about how good he is with the ball in his hands and how fast he is and all that. Then they should just take that role that they carved out for Rondale Moore and put it in for him. him. Yes. Those of you who are watching a couple weeks ago when Buddy unhooked all the wires, we've put measures in for that. But he's also, I mean, he's only a few weeks removed from being a

race dog in West Virginia, just to give you the background on Buddy the Greyhound, that there's only one state that still does Greyhound racing. And that's West Virginia. So there's a group in Minnesota that adopts Greyhounds, actually from all over the world. Australia still does it. So they get some in from Australia and they find homes for them. But he's not far removed from being a race dog. So the one day, I don't think he really understood live streaming or wires and how all that works and unhooked it all. But he's gotten really good, really well behaved these days. Comes up, gives me a sniff every once in a while. And then he's right over here with his blanket and his little bed that I've brought down here. It's also cooler where I'm at here than it is upstairs, which I think

he likes a lot. Aaron, how worried are you about Van Ginkle and Harrison Smith's injuries?