Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - NFL Draft names you need to know with CBS Sports's Chris Trapasso

Episode Date: December 31, 2020

Matthew Coller and CBS Sports's Chris Trapasso talk about whether the Vikings should keep an eye on Trey Lance and whether the offensive and defensive line classes are strong this year. Plus they look at wide receiver and why the Yannick Ngakoue trade was so harmful to their draft stock. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Go to bwhustle.com slash join. Check out the description box to find out more. That's bwhustle.com slash join. Hello, welcome to another episode of Purple Insider. Matthew Collar here and joining me from CBS Sports is Chris Trapasto and also the Prospect podcast of which I am a regular guest. So what is up, Chris? Well, it feels pretty good to be able to return the favor to you that you come on, you team me up, we talk draft, my area of expertise, and then now to come on to the vikings podcast you're a purple insider um it's good to get super specific and we'll do this on the prospect podcast as we get closer to the draft in april talk about team specific needs and prospects and players and

for vikings fans to get a little jump on that right now or who are some possibilities who should i be watching youtube highlights of as they get close to picking somewhere around pick 13 in april it's a lot of fun to come onto your podcast so if uh you are a draft nick if you enjoy the draft as i would say 98 of the nation does but we talk about all the teams all the needs all the positions and everything like that um and every once in a while a vik Vikings take sneaks its way in there because of. Every time. Every time.

I try to avoid it, but it's hard not to make the comparisons when we're talking about drafting certain positions. And I say, maybe you shouldn't take a center in the first round. I'm not referring to anyone specific. And especially, we've been talking so much early on as we relaunched the podcast about quarterbacks and you have this like baseline quarterback of Kirk Cousins that can be really good if things are perfect around him but not great when things aren't and then Justin Jefferson having a fantastic rookie season I think will get some votes I don't know if he's going to win offensive rookie of the year because of Justin Herbert but it's been easy to kind of get in some Viking stuff,

and that allows you, it tees you up to be able to speak to what you've seen and what you report on in Minnesota about Justin Jefferson and Garrett Bradbury and Kirk Cousins and how it pertains to the NFL draft. Well, and you, Chris, are an incredible wealth of knowledge when it comes to the draft. And so if you're interested, just go find it wherever you get your podcasts, type in The Prospect, and you will interested just go find it wherever you get your podcast type in the prospect and you will be able to find chris and i talk at all things draft which we are going to do on this episode but specifically aimed toward the minnesota vikings what i want chris is just a primer here

most people who even watch college football on saturdays ors or Tuesdays or whenever college football gets played now. You know, they're not looking for every single draft prospect. You know, the quarterbacks stick out. I think everyone knows the quarterbacks. But beyond that, the Vikings have a lot of needs. Still, though, I want to ask you about a quarterback first. Because just before we went on, I decided, you know, I should do a little draft sim here.

And the first guy that pops up in a draft sim who is still available on the board for the Vikings is Trey Lance. And I think Trey Lance is the source of a ton of intrigue going into official draft season. And I don't know what to do with Trey Lance. He played one game and it was against what? Central Arkansas? I mean, what are we supposed to do with a guy Lance? He played one game and it was against what, Central Arkansas? I mean, what are we supposed to do with a guy who has not played for quite some time, but was considered the last time he played as a potential high first round draft pick? Yeah, he will be the X factor, the dark horse, whatever word you want to use at the quarterback position. It's a very hyped quarterback class because of Trevor Lawrence, Justin Fields.

You have Zach Wilson that's really inserted himself into the top five overall pick conversation. He might, based on what Justin Fields does in the college football playoff, Zach Wilson has a good chance to be the second quarterback off the board. After that, there's a lot of intrigue. Is it Kyle Trask? Is it Mac Jones from Alabama? And then you have this one-year full starter at North Dakota State, Trey Lance, sitting there, who got to play one game, and you're right,

it was against Central Arkansas, kind of this exhibition game, really for him. I think his coaches there said, let's get this star quarterback one opportunity to show himself. But that's all we got from him this season. He will probably be available when the Vikings go on the clock. Talking to you about this right before we started recording, I think a lot of these players who decided to opt out, not that anyone's blaming them and not that NFL teams and GMs are going to be

upset that they opted out or say it questions their leadership or their football character. But we just haven't seen them. And there's bowl game bias. There's recency bias. There's all that that factors into where these players are ultimately picked. To not have seen really anything from Trey Lance this year, I think that's going to cause him to drop down the board for almost every team. That if he would have put up ridiculous stats at North Dakota State, they're a powerhouse at the FCS level, we would probably be talking about him as a top 10 lock because

in terms of his raw talent, both with his arm and his legs, he's a top half of the first round pick just on those two criteria alone. And I think it would make a lot of sense for the Vikings. You can't really move on from Kirk Cousins. You have this raw quarterback. And what I think, and me being a Buffalo guy, I've seen this happen. The Bills backup to Josh Allen is Matt Barkley, the opposite quarterback of him. And Josh Allen and Matt Barkley have both said that Josh Allen being in the quarterback room

with a quarterback that has to win with anticipation and accuracy and knowing where to go with the football, someone like Trey Lance landing in Minnesota with a cerebral quarterback in Kirk Cousins that's not going to really extend a lot of plays, knows where to go with the football, great with the X's and O's, that would be a great mentorship for one season for Trey Lance. And then you could really unleash him in 2022. I think that there would be huge disappointment if Trey Lance was on the board and the Vikings decided to go any other position just because everybody knows the formula by now. I don't think anyone watched Kirk Cousins and said, oh, he's trash, you have to get rid of him or whatever.

But everyone knows the formula and what it means to have a quarterback on a rookie contract and how valuable that can be. I mean, Carson Wentz was on an unbelievable team in 2017 in part because they were able to bring in all these free agents, guys like Torrey Smith and Elshon Jeffrey and Patrick Robinson, they were just stacking up guys off the free agent waiver wire. And then, you know, they were also able to, you know, draft and develop some other guys and, you know, sign Jason Peters to a huge contract and make sure they kept all their high price superstars as well. I mean, that's how you get there. It's usually not by having the 10th best

quarterback in the league on the biggest contract in the league, which Kirk Cousins will be very close next year. And then in 2022, it's absolutely massive. It's a 40-something million, which needs to be renegotiated, extended, whatever. And so you need to make your decision now, I think, on whether you want to keep Cousins long term or if you want to draft someone else and not wait until the next draft, especially, Chris, because this is a great quarterback draft, I think, at the top, where you have three or four guys who have elite skills or the potential to be great quarterbacks in the NFL, and Trey Lance is one of them. Yeah, and I think one thing that we talk about on the prospects

and will remain a theme over the next few months as we get closer to the 2021 draft, that I'm a firm believer that even if you are picking number 13 overall, it's not a premium pick, not top five, that you need to aim high at the quarterback position. That I think Vikings fans understand, like you said, no one thinks Kirk Cousins is a terrible quarterback, but we've probably already seen his ceiling individually and what that ceiling from the quarterback spot will lead the team ceiling to be.

Maybe you win one playoff game, but then you just looked overmatched in the second round. That's what I think the Vikings fans and the Vikings organization need to move away from. And what's interesting about and what makes Trey Lance such a captivating option there at number 13 overall is that he has that elite upside. Like he can be in this young wave of very athletic quarterbacks that have very strong arms that, and again, we talked about this on the prospect, that might come into the league a little bit rough.

Patrick Mahomes sat his first 15 games. He got that late start as a rookie. That was huge for him. And Josh Allen has really sharpened a lot of his rough edges in the NFL as he's progressed into an MVP candidate in year three. That's kind of the book on Trey Lance. If you're going to speak about it generally, he's raw. He has a huge arm, can flick it down the football field 50, 60 yards, intermediate level, a lot of velocity, and he's so athletic. He reminds me of a better version of Colin Kaepernick stylistically. And Colin Kaepernick went in the second round, played in the Super Bowl. So I think if you have that,

you're aiming higher. You're saying, we're picking this player. We're not hoping in three years we're nine and seven with him. You could be having an MVP caliber type quarterback. And then usually when that happens, your team is winning 12 or 13 games in the type quarterback. And then usually when that happens, your team is winning 12 or 13 games in the regular season. And the funny thing is, I think that Vikings fans would initially react when we talk about drafting a quarterback to, well, do you really want to bring him in with Mike Zimmer, with Gary Kubiak?

They want the run first type of thing. But I also think that a system like this has proven to help quarterbacks for the most part. I think they just need to tweak the sliders when it comes to the run-pass ratio and lean it a little more toward Justin Jefferson and a little less toward Delvin Cook, or at least use Delvin Cook differently out of the backfield in the passing game, but that's a different rant. But if you're a young quarterback, we even see this with Mitch Trubisky, where all of

a sudden Chicago goes to this Kubiak style. They kind of switch the light switch on to play action and outside zone and rollouts and things like that. And then all of a sudden Trubisky, who's not good and hasn't gotten better, is all of a sudden putting up better numbers. He's still doing the stupid things that he does, throwing interceptions in the end zone, but he can use his athleticism on those rollouts,

and he can throw to open receivers with crossing routes and things like that. I mean, if you start a young quarterback in that position, I think they actually have a really good spot. And if it's someone like Trey Lance that they want to run more often with and then look for big shots, I think that that's not a bad fit. I mean, I think it's a little pie in the sky, but I also wouldn't count it out because I wonder if they're thinking the same thing that we're thinking about kind of where this roster is, and it's not, hey,

draft a defensive lineman the first round, you're all set, Super Bowl. I don't think that anyone should look at this roster and feel that way. Yeah, and to that point about how quarterback friendly the Kubiak-Shanahan system is, it's not just the Vikings. I mean, look around the league. There's a lot of other teams running this now, and it is very quarterback friendly. What me, just being a football fan, wants to see, I want to see someone that is very athletic and has a gigantic arm in this system. Because all around the league, like in San Francisco,

you have Jimmy Garoppolo. In Minnesota, you have Kirk Cousins. There have been so many of these quarterbacks in this system that are these game managers that have weaker arms that run the system well, but we see this cap on how good they can be and how good their teams can be. I want to see, I mean, the only one that's really close of late is Matt Ryan being in this system when he won the MVP and the Falcons went to the Super Bowl. I want to see a transcendent talent in this system because we know you can get 67% completion,

you can get close to eight yards per attempt, but then when you're facing a tough defense or your left tack friendly system. I think it's a great offense to land in initially, where you're not having to make a ton of full field reads in a split second, right when you're trying to get acclimated to the speed of the NFL. But I'm just really looking forward to, and it would be fun if Trey Lance landed in Minnesota Minnesota because he really has the skill set to take this quarterback-friendly system and maybe raise it up another peg, and we can finally see what it looks like if it's not Nick Mullins or C.J. Beathard or Jimmy Garoppolo or Kirk Cousins running in this system. Yeah, that's a great point that it's usually a system that works to kind of protect quarterbacks from themselves a little. But, I mean, the name that comes to mind for me is John Elway.

Like it really took, you know, John Elway, along with a great roster, of course, and an all-time great running back. But if you want to see what a guy with elite skills does with it, well, that's, you know, that's what happened. And even when Kubiak was with Joe Flacco, he put together some of his better numbers, and that's a guy with no athleticism but the big arm that you're talking about, and he had some of his best career numbers. So it does help quarterbacks, and I think it would be a system you could drop someone into. I put the odds still very low that the Vikings take him if he's on the board, but I don't want to count it out because it makes a lot of sense with where they

are in their trajectory. So let's, sorry, go ahead. One last point that I want to make on this. He, to me, Trey Lance, if you're a Vikings fan, if you're listening to this and thinking, well, who, like what quarterbacks could they pick? It needs to be Trey Lance or no one else in that second tier. Kyle Trask, we saw the other night in that bowl game. He does not have the arm. He would be kind of a taller version of Kirk Cousins. And Mac Jones, I think, is the same thing. He's been ridiculously productive at Alabama. Limited athlete, limited arm. If you're going to pick one with a long view, if you're the Vikings and you're going to say, listen, you are not going to play a snap

until at least 2022. Kirk Cousins is our guy and contractually and just with the finances, that's probably going to be the case regardless of who the backup is. Trey Lance has to be the guy because of what I said earlier. The sky is really the limit for him because he has the athleticism and the arm talent that those other quarterbacks after Lawrence, Fields, and Wilson do not have. My concern is with the way that they look at quarterbacks that they might have a type, and Kyle Trask or Mac Jones might be more the type, which I think would make everyone go, ugh. Especially at 13 overall. Right, yeah, and I don't think that they would do that at 13 overall.

Lance is the only guy, like you said, that they should do. But, you know, them drafting Nate Stanley last year, as opposed to, I'm not saying there were superstars in the seventh, but there were some other guys like Tyler Huntley or whatever his name was. You know, there were guys like that that I remember going, hey, that guy might be interesting or that guy might be interesting because he's a good athlete or had really good accuracy or something, and they went with Nate Stanley. And you're just like, why? Why don't you just take that pick and put it in your bonfire? I mean,

there's just no reason whatsoever to take a seventh-round quarterback with no upside whatsoever. Anyway, their drafting could be, and will be, other podcasts to analyze some of the strange decisions that they've made. How are the how's that long snapper working out for you? So anyway, but let's talk about some of the other names that Vikings fans need to know to start to get ready for the first round. I think it begins, Chris, with the defensive line, because everyone watched Christmas Day, right? Like, they just got steamrolled on Christmas Day. And pick a position. You know, a defensive tackle, Michael Pierce, is going to be there. And, of course, you know, Daniel Hunter is expected to return

unless there's a surprise trade or something like that. But the three-technique position since Tom Johnson left and really since Sheree Floyd had his career ending surgery, it's just been in flux. And so that position is needed and certainly an edge rusher when, and I'm sorry, I bring this up so often on the podcast, but it just really blows my mind that Yannick Ngakwe still leads the team in

sacks. And so when that happens, you need edge rushers more than one, probably. So give me, what do we got for strength of defensive linemen who might be available in the first round? Well, splitting this up into those two positions that you talked about, the three technique spot is not very good in this draft class. I don't really think at this point, and I'm not going to say I've watched and evaluated all the defensive tackles. I don't think though right now there's

someone that would be worth picking number 13 overall. There's been the last couple draft classes have been really good on the defensive line. If I were the Vikings, I would go edge rusher. I think the edge rusher class, both in terms of its top end talent and its depth, like even into the second and third rounds, I think there's going to be multiple like really quality edge rushers picked early top, say 50, 60 picks in the 2021 draft. The player to me, and if we're kind of segwaying off Trey Lance, Gregory Rousseau from Miami that before the season, having the 15 and a half sacks at Miami as a redshirt freshman in 2019, like every mock draft, including mine, it was like, okay, he's going to be a top five pick. He's six, seven, two 60,

really good athlete. I think speaking to Danelle Hunter as well, that, you know, he was kind of this raw player that Mike Zimmer really coached up and turned him into an elite edge rusher. Gregory Rousseau, that would be more of a long view because I do think he is pretty raw. And a lot of what he did in 2019 with those 15.5 sacks was on stunts and twists. And some of them were covered sacks. Not a lot of just one-on-one victories. But 6'7", 265 at 19 years old.

That's very enticing for someone like Mike Zimmer. It's kind of hard to peg who will be there. His teammate, Jalen Phillips, who was at UCLA, transferred to Miami, was the number one recruit in the entire nation, regardless of position, just a few years ago. Had some concussions at UCLA and to me is more pro-ready. He is pass rushing moves, swim move to the inside, ball rush, speed around the corner, bend. Like I think right now he's a better player.

I think Rousseau, because he's a little taller and can play a lot of different positions on the defensive line, has higher upside or more potential. Those two names are trying to kind of zero in on who's going to be available in the middle of the draft. Those two are the most intriguing to me. And one more player, not getting a lot of buzz right now, Patrick Jones from Pittsburgh has increased his statistics every year, tackles for loss, sacks, pressures at Pittsburgh.

And you watch him, he's listed at 6'5", 260. I think he could add more weight to his frame, or maybe that's a little bit exaggerated by a team's website. But similar to Jalen Phillips, knows how to use his hands, and there's great burst off his snap. He just looks to me maybe like he doesn't have a true trump card where he's going to come in and dominate with one skill but good burst pretty good bend high motor a nice arsenal of pass rushing moves I think with a strong combine

he'll be someone that will really rise up boards and would look really good opposite to Nell Hunter with the Vikings want to remind you to go tootastick.com to get your original Minnesota sports-inspired goods. There are many great designs. Someone on Twitter recently sent their John Randall shirt, and there's the Can't Stop the Feeling hats, the Tecmo Bowl throwback shirt, and much more. All of their apparel is screen printed here in Minnesota on super soft, super comfy shirts and hoodies. You will love it.

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Once we're talking about high motors, it's draft season, everybody. Yeah. Unless you're really excited about Lions and Vikings on Sunday. Probably not. What about Quiddy Paye? Is that the correct pronunciation? I mean, a lot of people have him very high. And in this draft simulation that I did, he ended up going fourth. Is that a possibility? Because I've seen other ones

and mock drafts where he is around where the Vikings are picking. Yeah, I didn't talk about Quidipe because I don't think he's going to be there at 13. He's kind of moved into the presumptive first edge rusher off the board. I said it on the Prospect podcast that, you know, he got a lot of notoriety when Bruce Feldman put him number one on his freaks list over the summer. Like it's a top 40 list of the most athletic players in college football. Like some past winners were Tristan Wirfs,

who's had a fantastic rookie season at right tackle for the Buccaneers, Saquon Barkley, Miles Garrett. There've been a lot of players that have gone really, really, really early in the draft. And then at Michigan this year, he only played in four games. Michigan season kind of got derailed due to COVID. But he showed in those four games, I think he had 22 pressures, like he showed that he got better using his hands more effective using a variety of pass rushing moves. So

you say this guy's the most athletic player pound for pound in college football, Bruce Feldman's very well sourced around the nation. And oh, now he's showing that he knows how to win with more than just his speed and bend and power around the edge, he can he's showing that he knows how to win with more than just his speed and bend and power around the edge. He can win to the inside and knows how to beat blockers with his hand. So I think to get all the way to 13 and not have an edge rusher picked, and I can't really think of anyone, there isn't anyone who's going to go in front of him. I think the Vikings would actually have to trade up if they were to want to pick Quidipe, who's a really good prospect. Okay, that makes sense that this is why it doesn't really help you

to have beaten Jacksonville in overtime. That now you have to rely on other guys that you were talking about that all have at least some sort of knock on them, and that's what you get in the middle of the first round. I know that there's someone listening right now who is saying if you guys don't talk about guards and tackles I'm going to come to your house because I mean Vikings fans are so exhausted of the offensive line talk and every team has their offensive line issues for the most part but this team in particular every third down and five six seven is a stunt or a

twist up the middle that is a pressure on Kirk Cousins it's been that way for years I've covered a different left guard every single year of my Vikings coverage career which is amazing it is amazing like that not not two years in a row would you have a guy play that position as the starter and, you know, carry that over to the next season. So is there, other than Pinesul, who will obviously go top three, top four, depending on how things work out, other than him, which the Vikings are out of that conversation, is there somebody in that middle of the first round who you would say

would be the target on the offensive line? Yeah, I'll say this, that for as excited as I am about the edge rusher class, a lot of those players that I brought up, Gregory Rousseau is a little raw. Patrick Jones probably has to show that he's a great athlete at the combine. Jalen Phillips only has one season of production. I'm more excited about the offensive line class especially and Vikings any of those listeners that want to hear about the offensive line will be ecstatic the two players that I believe the Vikings should really be focused in on if they don't want to go quarterback which obviously the most valuable position on the field and they do want to fortify

the offensive line to give you some stability at the left guard spot for your coverage, the both players can play tackle or guard equally as well. Elijah Vera Tucker from USC and Rashawn Slater from Northwestern. Both players have played guard in the past, finished their final seasons at their respective schools at left tackle and were completely lights out. I actually just finished up grading Elijah Vera Tucker last night and his film completely blew me away because I remember watching him over the summer at left guard and I said this and I wrote going into the season, if you are in a zone blocking scheme, you want to draft Elijah Veritaker because he's a supreme athlete, pretty powerful, not crazy long, but he was playing guard. And then when I heard in late August that USC was moving him to left tackle, I was like,

that's intriguing. And what you have said on some prospect podcasts that it speaks to what the coaching staff, how they view the athleticism of that player to say, hey, you were really good at left guard. Let's try you at left tackle. Wasn't sure what to expect, but in terms of his burst off the snap, how well balanced he is, no inside counter moves phase him whatsoever because he can slide his feet so quickly. He has kind of that run game mentality as a left tackle that he gets up and under, whether it be a defensive tackle, a linebacker on a combo block, very, very clean film. There was one play where a speed rush kind of got to him and he held the outside edge rusher and got called for a hole. Beyond that, I don't think I would have

downgraded any play that I saw from Elijah Vera Tucker this season. Very, very good prospect, and he has positional flexibility. A lot of what I just said about Elijah Vera Tucker from USC applies to Rashawn Slater at Northwestern. The only difference, Rashawn Slater opted out before the season, so we didn't get to see him this year but famously he was the player last year that did the best job against Chase Young and to me what was beyond just saying okay he did a pretty good job against Chase Young Chase Young is like 6'5 almost 6'6 270 with long arms Rashawn Slater a former guard who's maybe 6'4", maybe 310 or 15 pounds, was able to stymie Chase Young on a lot of their one-on-one battles, despite not having the reach

to get into his frame and not having the power. He was not that much heavier than Chase Young last season. But another one, zone blocking scheme. That's why I think it's perfectly teed up for the Vikings. Zone blocking scheme and someone that you want to get out on the move in the screen game, Rashawn Slater and Elijah Vera Tucker. I think if you change their helmets and their uniforms, you wouldn't really be able to tell a difference between the two players. What I tweeted last night, that they're both twitchy technicians.

Like they're so quick off the snap. They're not going to be beat around the corner against those 6'3", 6'4", 240-pound stand-up edge rushers. And then at the second level, they're going to find linebackers and be very compact and under control in the run game. So those two players, I think the value would be there and the positional need is there. They're two blue chip prospects. Whether you want to play them at left tackle to replace Riley Reif or you want to get some stability at left guard

and then maybe move them out or move them out and then move them back in, whatever you want to do, those two players need to be firmly on the Vikings radar and for all the listeners of this podcast because they would be really good selections at number 13 overall. And I've been critical of the Vikings handling of Ezra Cleveland, putting him at right guard when he was a left tackle. But in this case, I was not a fan of that. Agree. I mean, just come on.

The guy plays left tackle his whole career at Boise State, and then you move him to the other side, not to right tackle, but to right guard. And then, no surprise, lots of tough moments there in pass protection. But if you're talking about someone who has played left guard and then could start there and kick out eventually, that sounds like a plan. It sounds like an actual plan to have, maybe it ends up being Riley Reif or Ezra Cleveland at left tackle, and then, you know, your draft pick, Garrett Bradbury, and then, you know, Brian O'Neill locking it down on the right side. I mean, then all of a sudden you feel like at least

you've invested a lot, and if it doesn't work out, it doesn't work out. But at very least, you've tried your best to rebuild it in a way that makes some sense. And what you just said, like that presumed starting lineup for 2021, they will have finally come to fruition an offensive line that is really athletic and ready to not just be plugged in and be average, that can really excel in this Kubiak scheme that I loved Ezra Cleveland at left tackle Brian O'Neill coming out I remember coming on one of your shows and saying hey this

guy's super athletic he just needs to get bigger and stronger if and when he does that he can be a really good tackle in the NFL we saw that this season if you throw in Elijah Vera Tucker or Rashawn Slater at left guard obviously obviously Garrett Bradbury, which would be entering year three, you would have so many quality athletes up front in that Kubiak system. And it could be a line that would go from, oh, this is a weakness. It's a liability. It's average to this is the type of line that Gary Kubiak has wanted his entire coaching career. So there's other positions we could make a case for touching on. Safety is one of them if Anthony Harris goes or corner probably.

But let's just do one more since we talked a lot about Trey Lance, and I'm sure we will in the future as well. But let's just talk about wide receiver because the Vikings have Justin Jefferson and Adam Thielen and Irv Smith Jr. and Delvin Cook. What a group of weapons here. But to me, it's like pizza. You can just always have one more slice.

You can always have one more weapon. And you know what? I've never, and you're from Buffalo, so you know great pizza as well. I have never gone back to the box of pizza and had one more slice and thought, I regret that. Never. Not a single time in my entire life. Nope. Nope. It always is great. And so goes for having great wide receivers. And the Vikings once upon a time had Randy Moss, Chris Carter, and Jake Reed and went 15 and one and had a historic offense and Robert Smith deserves credit as well. I mean, do it again.

There's a pretty good case to say do it again. And I think looking at this group in the first round, there is a strong argument for looking at this group of receivers and saying, can you imagine Justin Jefferson, one of these guys who's available, and Adam Thielen and Irv Smith and Delvin Cook? I think it makes for one of the best groups of weapons in the NFL instantly if you draft a wide receiver in the first round and what's crazy too is that Randy Moss uh Jake Reed Chris Carter team that was like 1998 right so that was before we are where we are today in that we've seen over the last really only year or

two and I wrote about this after last year's draft, where teams are understanding, hey, we don't need just a number one. We don't maybe even just need a number one and then a good number two. We need a number three. Like, look what the Buffalo Bills have done. Look what, I know their season has kind of gone haywire, but what the Cowboys have with Michael Gallup, Amari Cooper, and then they pick CeeDee Lamb out of nowhere. I think the league is shifting toward, like what you said, to go back

to that box of pizza and get another slice, get another wide receiver. And if you're saying that you're skeptical that the Vikings would actually pick a quarterback in the first round and they're going to ride Kirk Cousins out, why not get Kirk Cousins another weapon? It is a very good receiver class and I think it is actually how the season has transpired is beneficial to the Vikings. That Jalen Waddell, super explosive wide receiver from Alabama that plays a lot bigger than his 5'11 frame, great in contested catch situations. I think he's like a 40-inch vertical guy at the combine. Gets hurt on a pretty simple tackle on a kick return early in the season. That will probably push him down the board a little bit.

And the fact that Devonta Smith, his teammate, is setting all these Alabama records will probably be a Heisman candidate. Could win the Heisman he's 6-1-1-75 I think a team picking him despite all the route smoothness and how good he is in contested situations and speed is he gonna go top five top seven at 6-1-1-78 or something like that I don't know and then you have Jamar Chase that was the number one in terms of getting down the field to Justin Jefferson last year in that epic LSU offense opted out. So like we said earlier, are these opt-outs beyond Penny Sewell still going to go super early? So I think from like pick six to maybe pick 15 or 16, that's when those three receivers are most likely going to go off the board. And even if a team just fell in love with Jamar Chase and said,

all right, we're done, we're picking him wherever we ultimately select, that still leaves Jalen Waddell and Devonta Smith most likely. At least one of them will be available at number 13 overall, and I think that could take the Vikings to a new level on offense. It would actually force this team to stop running the football so much and throw it to Jamar Chase and Justin Jefferson and their other complementary targets. Yeah, and I think Mike Zimmer just hung up the phone on you,

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That's BlueWire, all one word, BetOnline, your online sportsbook experts. There's even an argument to, and like, I know we're not anywhere close to draft season. We're just kind of laying the foundation here, but trade down potentially and look at someone like Rondale Moore and try to pick up playmakers and more draft capital and things like that. So their options are going to be numerous, I would say. And I think that, you know, when we talk it over, one of the things to think about just is how much they need and how much not having a second round pick hurt them. I mean, I will let it go eventually, but it's

somebody on the website commented, because I went back and graded every offseason move from last year, and I gave it a D-, the Ngakwe trade, and the only reason I didn't give it an F was because they bailed at the right time. And that's, I mean, that's like a weird sort of passive-aggressive way of, you know, looking at it. But somebody commented that it should be an F-, because of how much it hurts and how much second-round picks have actually helped the Vikings in recent years. Irv Smith Jr. and Brian O'Neill and Delvin Cook, their key players have come from the second round. You traded that away for a guy who helped you go 1-5 to start the season.

So they're now suddenly in a spot where they have way more needs, and they can be a best-player-av available team if they're not drafting a quarterback yeah they certainly could do that and I do think trying to get back that second round pick should be one of the top priorities I certainly you know always say that if you have a chance to get a quarterback you do that but if they're going to say look we're sticking with Kirk Cousins we're not going to pick a quarterback getting that second round pick is vital because of the team's history, that this GM, this regime has done a good job identifying quality players in round two, and that they could move back just a couple of picks to get that second rounder. One other name at the receiver spot that I want to bring up, and I will send your listeners to YouTube to watch him, Amon Ross St.

Brown from USC. You can watch Elijah Vera Tucker on the offensive line, Amon Ross St. Brown from USC. You can watch Elijah Vera Tucker on the offensive line. Amon Ross St. Brown. I watched him recently. He reminds me of Stephon Diggs. He is so elusive after the catch, and the one knock on him going into this season, he's only a junior, was at around 6'1", 190 pounds, which is right around where Stephon Diggs is, can he win in those contested catch situations?

Is he too much of a body catcher? And I literally think this offseason he put in the work to improve that weakness because in terms of plucking the football over his head, whether he was hit or whether a safety or a linebacker was running underneath the route, he showed the ability. He showed the ability. There were some drops, but to make those contested catches, he's super twitchy, knows how to beat press coverage at the line. That's someone you're at 13, you trade back even to 18 or 19 or 20, pick Aminra St. Brown, and you get that second round selection. I think he's

someone that as more people start to watch film and we start to really ramp up draft season, that after the big three of Jamar Chase, Jalen Waddell, and Devonta Smith, Aminra St. Brown will firmly be in that second tier. And certainly Vikings fans know that you can pick a receiver, he could be the fifth guy off the board, and you can still get a high-quality wide receiver in Justin Jefferson this past season. Aminra St. Brown, he'll give you a double dip. You can watch the left tackle, Elijah Vera Tucker. Watch number eight for USC. He's a really

talented and polished wide receiver prospect. Go follow Chris Trapasso on Twitter. That is T-R-A-P-A-S-S-O. And listen to the Prospect podcast. If you enjoyed this draft back and forth, there is much more where that came from with me and Chris. So the first, what, three episodes? We have four episodes or three episodes are up now? Three episodes out, yep. Three episodes are up, so go check those out. The Prospect Podcast, part of the old Blue Wire Network,

as this podcast is as well. So, Chris, great catching up with you again. We just talked like yesterday or two days ago for the Prospect podcast, but I wanted to let all of our listeners know what we're doing over there and to get a glimpse of your excellent draft coverage. So thanks for coming on, man. Thanks for having me, Matt.