Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - NFL Execs split on Sam Darnold, Vikings put Risner on IR

Episode Date: August 27, 2024

Matthew Coller talks about The Athletic's NFL QB Tier's article and what people around the league told Mike Sando about Sam Darnold. Some think he could be good, others not so much. Plus the Vikings made a couple early cutdown moves, including putting Risner on IR. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hey everybody, welcome to another episode of Purple Insider. Matthew Collar here and slightly out out of breath just ran back from outside the whistles blowing for the tornado thing outside so there's also reports that hail thunder lightning could be coming my way so i had to go out put the cars in the garage and didn't have a chance to put on a nicer shirt or catch my breath, but we're here. Wanted to make sure I was on time for all of you. And if there's a tornado, well, I'm in my basement anyway. So if you see me flying away with some cows or something, then you know exactly what happened. But otherwise, I'm sure it'll be just fine.

So happy to see everybody here tonight. A lot going on in the NFL. We have cut down day tomorrow, but the Vikings already did start with some cuts today. We'll talk about some other things that happened in the NFL, but where I wanted to begin was with the athletic and their quarterback tears article that they put out every single year. It's one of my favorite reads. I think it's really insightful. Mike Sando of the NFL, I'm sorry, of the athletic has talked to NFL executives over the years many times, and he talks to coaches and people in front offices and gets them to put quarterbacks in different tiers

and then writes the huge article right before the start of the season and normally with Kirk Cousins we knew exactly where to find him which was right around that third tier or second tier was it late second tier early third tier kind of depended on what he had done the previous season if he had a decent year then he was a little higher if he had a tough year he was a little lower but it was Kirk Cousins. So he was always going to be somewhere between 10th and 15th in the quarterback tier ranking. So I was usually looking for the rest of the league and what everybody thought, especially for young quarterbacks. But in this case, I immediately opened the article and scrolled as fast as I could down. I knew I'd have to go a little ways to get to Sam Darnold because I was really curious

to see what NFL executives thought about Sam Darnold. And really, I'm always trying to cross my check, cross check myself a little bit here on the show and say, like, am I crazy for thinking this could work? Let me go see what other people are saying. And I'm working on an article right now, talking to draft analysts to see if any of them are still hanging on to their old Sam Darnold takes and, and things like that. Like, am I, am I just being a local guy who talking to, well, maybe there's a chance or whatever, or do I have a point here?

Uh, the people who evaluate quarterbacks they think that it might not be crazy that sam darnold could be good so i have the write-up about sam darnold and the quotes from nfl executives so i'm going to read a couple to you and i i think it's really fascinating how this ended up turning out for Mike Sandoe when he asked people about Sam Darnold. So one head coach in the league said he played before he was ready in New York and then Carolina was a rough deal. He got himself back on course with the 49ers. That was healthy for him, which I agree with. Another coach or the same head coach says says i don't want to be one

of those guys who holds on to the draft grade but i would not be surprised if he holds off mccarthy for a while of course this was said before mccarthy got hurt uh he said darnold has the ability to play to a two which meaning a second tier quarterback. So this head coach in the league told Mike Sandoe that he believes that Sam Darnold had the ability to play as well as a second tier quarterback. Now that is maybe a little higher than I would have even gone with Sam Darnold. And Mike Sandoe writes, all would agree that the infrastructure in Minnesota is better for Darnold than situations with the Jets or Panthers quote sometimes I think he's a three in the right situation an NFL executive said it would not surprise me if he had a decent year with Kevin O'Connell I'm teetering between three and

five I'll go out on a limb and say he's a three this year so an NFL executive factoring in Kevin O'Connell to the mix which I think tells you a little bit about what people around the league think about O'Connell's offense. And then Mike Sandoe writes this. Darnold got as many votes in Tier 5 as he got in Tier 3. So it's a stretch to say these optimistic takes were representative of the group. He has never started more than 13 games in a season. And then another quote, the last quote from the article, he has been with multiple teams and we're still waiting for the guy.

A defensive coordinator said he's just jittery, man. So there you go. There is what the NFL thinks about Sam Darnold. And what I thought was pretty fascinating was that he got as many votes in tier five as he did in tier three. Now, if I scroll back up, I can give you, because he's in tier four in this article, and I can give you an idea of who is in tier three, who the NFL would, I got to scroll up a little bit because guys like Justin Fields and Daniel Jones are in tier four. So somebody like Gino Smith is in tier three in this article, Derek Carr, Baker Mayfield,

Deshaun Watson, like this sounds pretty right. And Kyler Murray is the highest end of tier three. And if Sam Darnold were to have a very good year for the Vikings, it's not irrational to think that he could play as well or a little bit better even than some of those quarterbacks than someone like Derek Carr. Derek Carr at his best, if Sam Darnold played something like that to that level, not exactly stylistically, that would be pretty good for the Vikings. You can make a playoffs with a guy like that. You can make the playoffs with Gino Smith. You can make the playoffs with Baker Mayfield. But if I go to tier five and I'm going to have to do some, some real scrolling here.

So give me a second. If I go to tier five of what the league thinks he could be, that's like out of the article. Actually, that's, I mean, as far as their rankings, onlyacoby brissett was lower so there wasn't even a tier five listed of the quarterbacks in the article which means all the

guys that they think are straight up backups which is how sam darnold played for the majority of his time in carolina and with the new york jets which would be tier five. That's out of being a starting quarterback in the NFL. I found this to be very interesting because I think every time I talk about Sam Darnold, the comment sections go back and forth with each other, where some people think Sam Darnold is going to be the guy who was drafted number three overall, and it's all going to come together and be just this whirlwind of excellence. Maybe the, the tornado siren is not for a tornado,

but it's Sam Darnold coming back to be number three, a sound the alarms, but that's really not likely that even though he does have the talent of a number three overall draft pick that all this way into his career he's suddenly going to become the height of what they expected him to be coming out and to tell you how high the expectations were for sam darnold i was doing a little research today and i went to nfl.com and i typed in you know nfl.com draft profile for Sam Darnold and the comparative quarterback because, you know, Lance Zerline, and I give him credit for doing this because these always

get owned much later if they don't turn out. But I always liked his NFL comparisons. He compared Sam Darnold to Andrew Luck coming out of the draft. That's how high some people were on Sam Darnall. But I think we could pretty definitively say at this point, okay, that's not ever going to be the case. He's never going to be Andrew Luck and the superstar quarterback, but at least by these executives looking at the different tiers saying, could he be Gino Smith? Could he be Baker Mayfield? You're not insane for thinking that he could be and thinking he could win nine games and take the Vikings to the playoffs. But there are

people around the league who calling him jittery, I think is a pretty good description of how he's played, who think that his performance under pressure is so bad that he's never going to even be at that level. And based on his history, I looked up his PFF grade under pressures, average PFF grade in any season where he started, uh, you know, a decent amount of games was something like a 46. Like this has been his real killer for Sam Darnold is he does get jittery under pressure and he tries to pull the hero trigger way too often. And it results in a lot of mistakes, interceptions, things like that. So there you go. That these debates that you're having, that you're talking with people at work about leading up to the season that I'm talking about on a nightly basis with Sam Darnold,

can he do it? Can he not do it the nfl executives in mike sandoz piece feel exactly the same way and coaches and talking to other coaches they feel exactly the same way that it's you have to factor what he had before how bad it was and i was talking to somebody today and i said has sam darnold ever had a good coach? I mean, ever like Clay Helton didn't have a great history at USC. I mean, aside from Kyle Shanahan. Okay. Put him aside, but he didn't really play a lot for Kyle Shanahan. Put Kyle Shanahan aside.

I mean, the Todd Bowles was the head coach, but they had a guy at offensive coordinator who I don't believe ever was an offensive coordinator again after he coached Sam Darnold in New York. And then Adam Gase comes in. We know what a mess that was. That was a mess for Ryan Tannehill. And you even have then him going to the Carolina Panthers with Matt rule and Matt rule, not understanding that the NFL is a lot different from the college football. And they really struggled to adjust after a hot start there, where it seemed like opposing teams. And this happened when Teddy was the quarterback as well.

The first couple of weeks were good. Then opposing teams figured out everything they were doing. They didn't change. And the numbers just went to all heck and then he goes out to san francisco and doesn't play a whole lot this could be the first time that sam darnold actually has a good scheme and a good coach and is getting a chance to play and i think it's fair to look at it the way that those guys did to say all right well we're not going to go crazy and say that he could be a top quarterback. Although the one coach saying he could be tier two if everything went right. I think that's even too far.

That's exaggerating a bit. But can he lead them to the playoffs? Can he play at a fairly high level with the things he's got around him? At least you know that if you've been making this argument, trying to get yourself hyped for September 8th against the New York Giants, you're not a crazy person. And that's why we always have to cross-check our opinions with other people. You ask somebody, am I nuts for thinking this? And hopefully you have friends or NFL executives in anonymous articles that will tell you the truth that you either are or are not a crazy person. So there you go. There's the, uh, Sam Darnold, uh, splitting executives opinions.

And I should have included coaches as well, uh, on, uh, him, but anywhere between tier three and backup level play sounds about right. Actually a couple more quick things. Dalton Reisner was put on IR. Uh, I did think it was possible that they would cut Dalton Reisner straight up, but this allows him to come back after four weeks. And that means that they think that he's a reasonable backup for their interior line. And they don't want to just bail on that situation because it hasn't worked out so far in training camp. It must mean whatever has

kept him out has not been too serious. And it allows them to either look outside of the building at other potential linemen who got cut or potentially just keep someone like Tyrese Robinson, who I think has been very good so far, especially with a pass blocking. Um, so I, you know, I, I think that opens the door for a younger player to get an opportunity. And then you see a couple of weeks down, uh, how that's, that's going to end up play out with a Dalton Reisner as a backup. So, um, it seems, uh, like we've got some weather must be going on outside because my lights just flickered in here and my internet is tweaking out. And my wife came downstairs because she's scared of a tornado.

So we'll just see how this goes. We've had worse things happen on the live stream. My internet might be tweaking out a little. I'll try my best. Uh, and if we get hit by a tornado then i guess we'll talk to you tomorrow but we'll just keep going until then um my lady would you like to hear more about dalton reisner on ir that's that's what she really came down for she heard tyrese robinson is gonna get a chance. I got to come down and listen.

Or she says, be safe. Seek shelter if you're outside. And my gosh, the people at the fair, the animals, I hope everyone's okay. But I'm down here and hopefully safe. Anyway, we carry on. Malik Willis is a Packer, everybody. Does that interest you? I mean, I guess the Packers had a pretty bad situation to back up quarterback so they acquire malik willis maybe he could be a bad

copy of jordan love if he has to be looked like he played pretty well during preseason but lost out that job in tennessee and there you have it the only interesting thing would have been a little bit to me if the vikings had been in on this since they were trying to get rid of Malik Willis. So the Vikings have reached out and tried to get Malik Willis themselves. I don't think it's costing the Packers a whole lot to acquire him with Nick Mullins as your backup quarterback. They're not really looking for guys that have a lot of upside or anything else like that. But still, I mean, I guess you could always just make this argument that if there's a quarterback available that you should go out and get them if they're young, just because.

And if they have any talent and Malik Willis definitely has more upside and could be a longer term backup than someone like Nick Mullins. Again, I'm not advocating for it or criticizing the Vikings for not doing it, just saying that maybe that would have been someone that they could be interested in. Now, here is the one where I'm sure all of you were very excited. Delvin Cook to the Cowboys. Mike Zimmer loved Delvin cook more than anybody else. And I guess I'm not shocked to see Tom Pellicero report that Delvin cook was

going, I think for a workout, someone correct me if that's wrong for a workout with the Cowboys. And there was a video of him like doing workouts and looking real strong and such. Uh, I don't have a lot of confidence that Delvin Cook could ever get back to what he was before. But Dallas does know how to run the football. They have good offensive line. They have good run schemes that we've seen a lot of guys succeed in.

And I just, I don't know if the same level of burst that he used to have is even required to run well for the Cowboys. If you can hit holes, if you could break tackles, but I mean, when we're talking about Delvin cook starting at this point in the season, the way that he looked last year and Tom Belisario in his tweet mentioned a long run that cook had at the end of the game for Baltimore in the playoffs, when they had already secured the victory. If we're talking about one successful run from last year, you know, it didn't go very well. It really didn't for Delvin cook last year, but I guess I'll be curious to see how it ends up working out, uh, for Delvin

cook. If he does indeed sign with Dallas and they will have the most ancient backfield with Ezekiel Elliott and Delvin Cook back there. But I mean, maybe they can run the ball just good enough to set up the pass. I don't know. Dak Prescott's going to be the reason. I'm going to ride this. I believe the Cowboys will be good take until I can't ride it anymore, which might be through four or five weeks based on some of their stuff. But they did sign CeeDee Lamb.

That was the bigger news today. And I believe it's 34, is it 34.5 or something like that, just behind in the average annual value for Justin Jefferson. But when you look at the deals that other wide receivers signed this offseason, Justin Jefferson, who is at the top of the heap in the entire NFL, signed a deal that's very competitive with the rest of the top of the heap wide receivers, not way up above, not some outrageous contract that's going to destroy the Vikings' chances in the future, but instead just slightly ahead of someone like CeeDee Lamb,

slightly ahead of Tyreek Hill restructuring his contract. So I thought that that was at least notable as well, probably more notable than Delvin Cook, but we'll see. I wanted to answer a couple of questions that I've gotten from emails before I get to all your guys' comments. And if you've got tornado puns, feel free to drop them in. As we're talking about cut down day and Sam Darnold and so forth. Boy, this season could be a real twister for us if things go wrong. Am I right? I can't believe you're still watching after that. But I did want to answer some DMs and some questions that I get from people who don't have time to join on the live stream.

And I want to make sure that they get their voices in as well. So you can always shoot me a DM at Matthew collar. Uh, you can shoot me an email, um, at purple insider.com if you want. So let me get to a couple of those and then, uh, we'll get to all of your questions, comments, and so forth. And hopefully, I don't think that the sun went down yet. It just looks really, really black outside. So we'll just keep praying as we're talking football. Hey, if I go out talking football, then that's appropriate, right? That's like someone who loves to skydive going that way. Anyway, J.H. Thomas or J.T. J. Thomas must be J. Thomas. Sorry, says sent me a DM and said, who do you see is the most improved player from last year?

The obvious answer would be Tristan Jackson. But Blake Brandel seems to be the one who has played himself into a starting spot. Blake Brandel, they seem to have identified last year as someone who could play guard. They moved him inside, had him as a backup guard, and then repeatedly talked about him and mentioned him. And they kept saying, oh, we like where Blake Brandel is at. And when the coaches bring up someone random, usually that's a sign that there's something happening there, that they're seeing something in practice that they like and that player is impressing them.

But during the season, we can't watch practice. So he must have done a lot to impress them and make them think throughout even last year that he could do this because when he was brought back and I didn't originally think that he was brought back on a starters contract. Like if you look at the numbers, it looks more like a backup lineman type of contract, but the fact that there was never any competition, I also am not a hundred percent sure if that was because Brandel was so good or if just because dalton reisner didn't look great

to start training camp and then got injured and we've also seen dan feeney banged up a little bit as well and he was never really competing for a spot i'm assuming that blake brandle will be one of the most improved players it's also difficult to evaluate an offensive lineman based on a couple of snaps in preseason that you could go back and look. And if I could videotape all training camp practice and then go back and look at the tape, I would be able to tell you better how he played during practice. But it's just hard to say. I mean, there's only so many padded practices.

The run plays, you can't tackle the guy. So they kind of end pretty fast. It's more about just being in the right spot. He looked okay during the preseason game that he was in there for 12 snaps. This is more of a hold on to your butt situation than it is me saying, yeah, man, he took this huge step forward. Tristan is the obvious answer. But another guy that I would bring up that I'm really interested to see how

they fit him in is also Theo Jackson. Theo Jackson had an unbelievable training camp. He was all over the place, making plays. They talked about him nonstop. I wrote an article about him and how he has risen up in this depth chart to force his way onto the field. So I would nominate him.

I mean, last year he came in and made a play and appeared a handful of times in games. But for him to go from that to looking like a legit weapon that they could potentially use in the regular season, that's a pretty big gain for him. So I think I would pick him. I'm trying to think if there's anybody else that we've seen make a huge jump. I really liked what I've seen from Ivan pace, but he was already good. Uh, I don't know if there's going to be a huge jump or just, he looks pretty good to me. Looked like bigger than he was. And I don't mean taller. I mean like thicker than he was last year. And he seemed to be in the right places,

rocketing himself toward other human beings, but we'll see how it goes when we get to the regular season. But I would say the two Jacksons, Theo Jackson and Tristan Jackson, were at the top of that list. Let's see. Jason sent me a note and asked, how's Dallas Turner looking? I keep forgetting that we picked him with two or picked up two first rounders this year. Right. Because so much of the discussion has been about J.J. McCarthy that Dallas Turner has flown under the radar a bit. But I think what you saw in the first preseason game, the quickness, the bendiness that he has has shown up on a daily basis. And, you know, that I always watch for not only what I see, but also how somebody is used. That gives me hints and what they say about him.

That gives me hints. And then I put together the collection rather than just trying to figure it all out myself. Try to get to play a little Sherlock Holmes and them talking about how much he could handle mentally is really important for Brian Flores. And that's always the, the Brian Flores compliment that you know is something you're looking for is the, he can handle a lot mentally. He can do a lot. We're really happy with his intelligence.

That's where you know that Flores kind of likes a guy. And, I mean, with Dallas Turner, the reps have also matched up that he took a ton of first and second team reps. He was rotating in with Andrew Van Ginkle and Jonathan Grenard, playing mostly on the right defensive end, but a little bit on the other side, a little bit in the middle, just getting a lot of work all over the place. All those signs are exactly what you wanted to see from Dallas Turner.

We also know that draft status doesn't mean a whole heck of a lot to Brian Flores. So if he didn't think that Dallas Turner was deserving of those reps, he wouldn't give them to him. And so I would say that the way that it's worked out for him so far in training camp is pretty good. I also see, though, now this is going off my own eyeballs. I also see a need for development and he's going up against Christian Derrissaw. That's going to make you look worse. to the point where he doesn't have to think about them and can play at his full speed. Because right now, I think he has a few things he does really well. He can get it. He's so quick. He could get into the chest of a tackle and he's strong for his size and push them back.

I saw this in Cleveland. He had a really great pass rush rep in Cleveland where he really showed his strength. But there's got to be moves and counter moves off of that to the point where he's getting around the edge more consistently. I'm thinking from Dallas Turner, you're going to see a lot of flashes and not a complete player yet. And then by next year, and remember, he's pretty young as well. I think 21 years old.

Then by next year, it'll be different with Dallas Turner. But this year, I think that we should have modest expectations because he's rotating in and we'll see where it goes from there. But all the tools are there. The ability, the smarts, how he fits his work ethic seems to be there. Floris mentioned how he is interactive in meetings and understand stuff at a high level. Like I think anything that you wanted to hear from Dallas Turner, you probably heard during training camp. A couple more things as now I am hearing maybe hail hitting the house.

We'll keep grinding. We don't stop. We don't stop during football. It may end up stopping for us. If the energy goes out, I'm just warning everybody, but that's not what I wanted to hear outside. Uh, anyway, Stanthony Edwards sent me a note says, do you agree with a growth as an ownership

group, uh, from the Wilfs? It really seems like they have no willingness to accept less than 500 ball anymore, no matter what the circumstances are that is growth from the ownership group and stanthony sent me a longer note where he was kind of saying that they have maybe turned culture around or put more emphasis in culture with kevin o'connell and just how the building is operating and i think they've been more hands-on with quweisi Adafomensa and Kevin O'Connell because things got out of control with the Zimmer and Spielman relationship. And it sounded like by the end, they were not even aware that the GM and head coach

weren't talking to each other, which is not good from the owners. So they've been really hands-on and more involved. It seems like during Kevin O'Connell and Kweisi Adafo Mensah, that may be a plus side. But as far as the 500 point and wanting to have competitive football, I always go back and forth on this because I think that it is good for an ownership group to want to win all the time, that that's not a bad thing. If your ownership group doesn't care whether you win or lose and you just sell tickets and whatever, as long as they keep buying the merch, we don't care.

Teams that try to sell false hope to you as opposed to putting in all the resources, they put in all the resources, and I think what they want back is entertaining and winning football no matter what. And how are you supposed to say that's terrible right that's got to be a good thing overall but at the same time i don't know that they fully conceptualize all the time like windows and rosters rising and falling that's that's a

like a high level thing to get and i think that quesia da fomenta has this is his expertise this is why you hire him is because he gets this and this is a really analytical concept i think is trying to make the moves at the right times not just make the moves to get good players we see teams doing this all the time. They sign a couple guys where they're kind of an average team and they go, yeah, hope this works. And maybe they make the playoffs. Maybe they don't.

We've seen that from the Vikings in the past at times. They bring in Delvin Tomlinson. They bring back Sheldon Richardson. Like, yeah, guys, they'll help us. They'll help us win. Are you really winning here like the 2020 2021 those two seasons are the ones I would point to where they just didn't really understand that the time was over and they needed to do a competitive rebuild or a full-on

rebuild and move on from your expensive quarterback they just didn't seem to get that they extended kirk quickly uh in 2020 and it's like what uh for a team that's got to rebuild and that never made a lot of sense and that does start at the top with the overall plan but since they at least agreed to taking the team apart last offseason in 2022 to 2023 that was where i would say there was a growth as far as getting it, getting that you can't just keep bringing back Delvin Cook and Adam Thielen and hoping. And the fact that they bought into that was the turning point for this thing, feeling like it's going in the right direction. So I do think that there's been a growth in that and more of a focus on that. Uh, last one from the

questions that I got, and then I'll look at what you guys got in the comments and hopefully, hopefully, uh, it's, uh, still coming through pretty well here. Internet wise. Let me know if we're having any audio issues. Doesn't seem like it. Uh, Javier sent me a note, said at Colorado Dion is refusing to answer a Denver Post writer's questions. Curious to hear your thoughts on this. And if you've ever been in a situation like this. Yes. Well, not me personally. I've never been the reporter on the other side of this. But I was in a situation with a head coach who would not answer the questions of one particular reporter. And when we found out why it was extremely petty and nothing that the reporter had really done other than just had a headline that the coach

didn't like and asked questions in a way that the coach didn't like. And maybe some of you know what I'm talking about because some of you pay a lot of attention to press conferences and things like that. I thought that in that situation, the head coach was just being a bully and was being petty and made himself look demonstrably worse than he would have if he had just politely answered the questions, even in a short type of manner, but made him made a fool of himself a number of times through trying to bully this reporter. And to the reporter's credit, he just continued to ask the questions because that was his job and there was that was what he was going to do.

And eventually the head coach, you guys know I'm talking about Zimmer. Eventually Zimmer relented a bit and still continued his occasional bullying, but mostly he kind of backed off and just answered the questions. I don't know about this situation in Colorado, but one thing I think is if a coach ever did this to me, what I would do, I probably wouldn't keep asking questions. I would just ask other reporters to ask them for me so I could get what I needed for my articles.

But the other thing is too, that I think sometimes people misunderstand like what we're doing there. What I'm trying to do at TCO Performance Center is to gather as much information as I possibly can and present it accurately to Minnesota Vikings fans. That's the job fundamentally. It's what I believe my goal is here in doing this. We try to have fun and do it in an entertaining way and sometimes a very opinionated way, but I'm trying to have every fact and every amount of information that I can. The less information that you're willing to share, the more I'm just going to try to figure it out myself. And I'll give you an example about this. So there was a punt

that Adam Thielen fumbled in 2016, my first year covering the team. And I remember Thielen stood at his locker for like 15 minutes answering questions after that. Now you could look at that and go, Hey, that's accountability. And other players respect that when you are accountable. But how I looked at it as feel and explained exactly what happened. So I could tell my listeners and readers what happened. And that made it so much easier to understand than just saying, screw this guy, what the heck was he doing? Which is what we all would have said at first glance. And I don't remember the explanation, but there was some reason that he had tried to do that and something that had

gone wrong for him to fumble it. And just having the full explanation was so much easier to comprehend why it had gone wrong. And that's what you're looking to do. So if Dion is not going to let somebody ask their questions and get your explanations for whatever decisions you're making, then to me, it's just free reign from that reporter. He can write whatever he wants. He could say whatever he wants because you're not correcting him. You're not giving him context. So if he wants to rip you on something, he should,

because he's not going to include your side and, you know, give a complete look. You're right that the reporter is now in Denver. And he's a very good reporter, by the way. He didn't do anything that deserved that. It was wrong. And it embarrassed Mike Zimmer many times, but it didn't embarrass the reporter anyway. So I think that Dion is just making himself look a heck of a lot worse. He's looking really petty and silly, as Dion is just making himself look a heck of a lot worse. He's looking

really petty and silly as Dion has done to himself many times. And trust me, I did Dion Sanders dance in the, in the backyard. You know, I was going into the end zone like this myself being Dion, but, and I, and I think Shadur Sanders is a heck of a quarterback and I wish he played somewhere else because that's just turning into a clown show. So hopefully they kind of get that figured out at some point and they can work it out. Oftentimes I will say this, and it wasn't the case with Zimmer, but it's been the case with me before. When there are disagreements with the coach, a lot of times, just away from the cameras, you can talk about it with them and just say,

hey, why did you guys report this? That wasn't what was going on. And we could say, Oh, well we misunderstood or whatever it might be. Or this was our perspective. And sometimes you're defending yourself. Sometimes you're saying, Oh man, I screwed that up. Sorry about that. That's the better relationships with head coaches and reporters is to have communication. But I think, and the thing was Zimmer, I got along with Zimmer very well. Just his treatment of that one reporter was, it was uncalled for. Um, so I've, yeah, I do know what this person is going through there in Denver, but he should

just keep writing whatever he wants to write. That's all you can really do. You can't, you can't change the way you do the job just because somebody in charge doesn't like it. Um, that's not how journalism works. So anyway, let me scroll all the way back to the top here, work my way through your questions and comments, and hopefully tornado puns as we're dealing with some weather outside, but shout out to my internet. That seems to continue to be working well here. I shot you 99 jumping in 20 minutes before the stream started. This is a dedicated person. What position on the roster do you think will be a continued battle for players

to move up the depth chart throughout the season? Oh, that's a good question. Defensive tackle comes right to mind. I think the cornerback is now out the window for that a little bit with Stefan Gilmore here. That would have been my answer previously, but, and you kind of hope that it isn't guard. They're really hoping it isn't guard because that means something went wrong with the starting guards, but defensive tackle.

You could see, uh, Levi Drake Rodriguez is not there yet. And he was exciting to watch in preseason and training camp. The guy's got some serious motor and some athleticism for that size that's unique, but he needs development. And through the season, if it starts to improve and increase, then he could get more time out there depending on what they see. And I don't know who the backups are going to be yet. We're going to find that out on cut down day, which by the way,

podcast immediately after the 53 is announced, we'll go through every single position on the show. Very excited. It's one of my favorite podcasts every year. And then on Thursday, Kweisi and Kevin are going to talk. I'll be out there. Dane Mizutani and I will break it down from TCO Performance Center.

So excited about that. But defensive tackle, I think, is the answer to your question, where you could see guys rising and falling. If someone like James Lynch makes the roster or whoever it might be behind Jonathan Bullard and Jerry Tillery, those guys are not locked into those positions. Maybe Jonah Williams. Just not sure how that's going to play out.

Evan, deep in the weeds here. was sammy's reyes cut uh thought international players don't count against the 53 that is true but that doesn't mean that you want to keep them around i think sammy's reyes just probably isn't good enough for the nfl, didn't see a lot of reps from him, had some drop passes. It kind of reminded me of Moritz Bollringer where you went like, Oh, physically this dude is an insane freak. And I could see why they would take a shot because tight end is a position where occasionally it ends up working out where Tony

Gonzalez didn't play football or whatever it was right. Antonio Gates. But it's just not going to be the case with Reyes. So I think they may have just bailed, or maybe there is a list that they could put him on for the international, but you have to cut him first. That could also be. I haven't thought too much about this.

It just, there was no flashes at all during training camp or preseason. Topaz says, what's a realistic, perfect realistic scenario this year for how far up the list Darnold can go? I think that if he is above or on the same plane as Baker Mayfield, who was a tier three quarterback, that you're in good shape there.

The top tier three quarterback was Kyler Murray. It would be hard for Sam Darnold to be as good as Kyler Murray. I mean, Murray's had stretches in his career where he's played like an MVP, not just pretty good, but 2021, he was fantastic. I think he was a PFF top five, top seven quarterback in 2021. I don't see Sam Darnold getting that high but last year uh where was baker mayfield in quarterback rating offensive production maybe 15 to 20 i think that's a i mean as far as perfect but also realistic i think that's probably both if he gave them play good enough play at like that and got them into the playoff race. That's a very good season for Sam Darnold. A horse feather says the shirt looks good. I appreciate that. Um, usually I try

to class it up a little with a polo or something, but, uh, not today. And it looks like it was justified because if I had tried to move the cars like five minutes later, all hell would have broken loose outside still looking pretty nasty out there uh evan says for reference what tier his cousins uh he was tier two yeah so he's been uh bouncing back and forth over the history of this thing between tier two and tier three just always like at the edge of tier two, tier three. I believe Sando wrote that this was his highest rating. So people really liked the way that he played last year. And no surprise, just in time for him to be playing some of his best ball, he gets hurt.

Not a story you guys have ever heard before in Vikings history, right? That's a little too high for me. And I think someone said in the article, an executive was quoted saying that they think Pennix will be playing by next year. That also stuck out to me. And I think someone said in the article, an executive was quoted saying that they think Pennix will be playing by next year. That also stuck out to me. So there's a wide range of opinions when you guys are arguing or we're arguing about quarterbacks. So are people in NFL buildings that have a lot of different opinions on these guys. Uh, but I think cousins is securely in the right spot. with these quarterback tiers i forget exactly what number he was but somewhere between 8 and 15 every year and that's right he's a very good

quarterback who has never really been into been able to break into that top tier uh jp could tyrese robinson make the 53 because of dalton's injury? Or do you think they'll keep Juergens because of his guard center versatility? They might try to keep both. I had them on my 53, I believe. You'll have to go back and listen to that entire podcast now to find out. But I believe that they could keep both. I like the way Tyrese Robinson has looked in the games, especially he is a mammoth dude.

And he was very good at pass protection, which they could really use. I didn't look like a difference maker to me in the run game. That's hard to figure out. Cause a lot of that of course is, you know, scheme and stuff like that. But Juergens had a little bit of a tough time with the physical nature of some of the players he was going up against.

And I think that he just needs to get bigger, stronger, develop for a year because they talk about him as being a technician, but I think probably keeping both of them is a good way to, to go about it. How many made tier one? Let me see if it's still on my phone here. If I've still got this called up, I can tell you that it wasn't that many at the very top. You'll never believe. This was Patrick Holmes.

He was the number one quarterback, Joe Burrow, also up there, Josh Allen, number one tier. And was that it? Oh yeah, that was that it oh yeah that was it yep that was it lamar jackson was the top of tier two and then it went stafford herbert aaron rogers cj stroud which i might have pushed a little higher myself, but I think they wanted to prove it. Dak Prescott, Jared Goff, Jalen hurts Brock Purdy, and then Kirk cousins. So Kirk cousins, as always sort of at the back

end of tier two and Jordan love right there with Kirk cousins as the last guy in tier two. So at least, uh, maybe you could take this away that not everybody fully buying the Jordan love. They want to see him do it a little bit more. Um, let's see. Ryan says, uh, what are they looking at placing them in a tier? Just curious, not a huge Darnold guy, but dude had no supporting cast for the tears. What executives and coaches are weighing would be what they think of their physical talent versus their production. So if you have someone like Josh Allen or Patrick Mahomes, who has all the physical talent to be the greatest quarterback on earth, and also has the production to back it up MVP caliber seasons, or in Mahomes' case, multiple Super Bowls, et cetera, then it's the convergence of that. I mean, I kind of think of

it as for opposing teams when they evaluate, we're going to play this guy. How scared are we? How scared are we of my homes a lot? How scared of we are we of, uh, you know, Josh Allen and Joe burrow getting higher than Lamar Jackson is interesting. That's probably going to happen to Lamar. Uh, as long as he's in the league, It's, you know, I think that Lamar always brings weird takes out of people, which is, you know, there's the people who never want to let it go that they can't, they think he can't throw. And then the people who will not admit that he has any shortcomings and he does have some shortcomings and he tried to prove to the world that he could just sit in the pocket and win a playoff game from the pocket. And I don't know why he should just run. It's okay.

But his running has gotten a little bit less over the years. And I've been curious about that after some injuries, he's a great thrower. I think has good touch on the ball down the field, throws it over the middle. Well, but he's not somebody who's thrown for 4,500 yards. And that is probably what kept him from being tier one as opposed to tier two. But there's a lot of good quarterbacks there in tier two. Hamza says, Matt, watching Sam over his career, he has a tendency to try to do too much,

which leads to a lot of turnovers. Can KOC help reign that in, given the offense wants much which leads to a lot of turnovers can koc help reign uh that in given the offense wants to throw down field a lot personally i don't think so i just don't i just don't think that changes i used to cover hockey when i was coming up as a younger reporter and covered some really really nice coaches to me that helped me along. By the way, we're talking about that. And one of the things that I learned was that defensemen turn the puck over a lot. And the ones who don't have this calmness to them. That for whatever reason, they just don't freak out. And they don't do stupid stuff with the puck.

And I think, I forget, they have a name for it. It's pressure point or something like that. Where it's like, how high is the guy's pressure point or how at what point does he freak out and turn the puck over? And with Darnold, I think that when there's chaos around him, that he's just like a defenseman who throws the puck away. I don't know if you could change it. But what I do know is that you could try to catch the higher end of it. Kirk threw a lot of interceptions with KOC, by the way,

and Nick Mullins threw an ungodly amount of interceptions with KOC. But the high end of both of them was either just winning games or at very least with Nick Mullins, they were in those games because the high end was very good. And I was thinking about Jameis Winston and how he won seven games while throwing 30 interceptions. And if Darnold were to throw even, and how about Matthew Stafford? Who's very much the same way with throwing interceptions when they won the Superbowl.

I think he led the league in picks. Like that's probably what you're going to have to live with is this high variance lots of great plays lots of bad plays and you hope that you're on the right side of that just enough to be in the playoffs so you know i i think um i think that we're going to ride that wave and there will be some weeks where it's very exciting but if they're going to try to get him to like play point guard i just don't think that's who he is. I think he wants to air it out and he's probably going to do that. And so, uh, Justin says, Sam Darnold doesn't seem hyped at all and follows up with, he seems like he wouldn't mind being a career backup.

I don't know that I can really psychoanalyze Sam Darnold when it comes to this. He doesn't say a lot. And I'm guessing that's because he started his career in New York and he tries to keep it pretty, you know, just pretty, uh, tight when it comes to his answers. He's not going on and on telling you a bunch of anecdotes, sharing his feelings. You know, Kirk cousins used to overshare his feelings. I think sometimes at the podium, especially at the end, uh, and you'd kind of be thinking like, okay, Kirk, maybe you, you went a little too far there and said a little too much. And I know some people in the organization felt that way at times with him, but, uh, it was useful for reporters for

sure. I mean, I'm all about, if you can share the more you can share is great, but with Darnold, I think he tries to keep it close to the best. So I don't know if like hyped is who he is. I think he's more of a calm guy. I also think that if he was a high and low personality, he would be done in this league because of the number of lows that he's had. So I think it actually probably helps him a little bit, um, to kind of be that way. Uh, Derek says, uh, be more interested in Mike White, who the dolphins cut Mike White, Viking killer almost came back to beat the Vikings in 2022. One of many successful quarterbacks against the 2022 defense uh yeah that went through my mind that they could go out and get another backup quarterback mike white is someone i thought about for sure uh rob says well just real quick because if mullins plays this thing is dunzo right i mean

all respect to nick mullins and how he plays and how aggressive he is, but you can't really survive a long stretch of Nick Mullins playing where I'm not sure you could survive a long Mike White stretch, but if you're looking for someone else's a backup quarterback, that would be why is because you think that maybe they could give you enough to win two out of four games or something. If you needed that in the middle of the season uh rob says is hockinson going to be ready by week five i don't know but i think so but i don't know i just it's hard to predict when it comes to somebody's injury recovery just based on what an acl how long it usually takes that's about the time that i'm looking for somewhere in the ballpark of week five, week six. I think after London would make a lot of sense here,

but the fact that he hasn't done anything at all in practice to this point, to all the open practices we saw, he was always working out on the side. He was always working in the trainer's room, just rehabbing makes me think that he will not be back very soon.

And it's going to be Johnny month season. And they're very happy with Johnny month. Uh, is that Cardo says how we feel about Jordan Edison being suspended for six games this season. I won't be six. No, it definitely won't be six. Um, the, the past history of DUIs is three. So I would not expect anything more than three. And I have no idea when that is going to show up. This suspension could come quickly after a ruling from a court. But if you're on Edison's side, maybe you're trying to move back the, uh, when it's going to be that, uh, they, uh, have the court case and so forth. Like I'm not a legal expert

by any means, but I know that this is the type of thing that happens. They try to move back dates and, uh, kind of drag it out a little bit. Uh, or, you know, maybe there's a deal that ends up getting made and it comes out that he's not charged with something, but it ends up being something else and it's community service. I don't know. There's a lot of different things that could play out before or during that October court date. And then after that, if it's just a normal, they have a court date, there's a trial or whatever, there's a ruling and it ends up being i don't know what whatever it is community service and it's dui remains the charge then the

nfl will probably go with three games i just don't know when it's going to be it might not even be until next year and you can tell that i didn't take many law classes and also haven't really dealt with this too often since covering the Vikings I mean the reporters from years ago my friend Brian Murphy Chip Scoggins Judd Zolgad the back in the day guys Kevin Seifert they became legal experts all the time I haven't seen too many suspensions for the Vikings in recent years I'm trying to think how many or if there have been off field suspensions recently, but we haven't seen something like this just based on fairly recent history in the NFL DUI.

They wait until the court case is resolved normally. And then it's a three game suspension. If it plays out that way. None of you so far have reminded me to get to the ad reads, but you know what? I remembered. So I'm going to do that right now. US Cellular, our sponsor, noticed that the way we use our phones has gotten ironic. We try to put our phones down for dinner, but the menu is on a QR code. That is ironic. We hit like on social media posts that we don't actually like. Also ironic, which is why us cellular created us mode to help us reconnect with each other and use our phones less ironically a phone company wanting people to use their phones less is ironic let's find us again with us mode

from us cellular visit uscellular.com built for us to get started. There you go. And they will change up that copy throughout the season. Don't worry, folks. Okay, let me scroll down here. Zoomer Kev, what old NFL games have you been watching recently? Ooh, I have not been getting around to it as much recently. I had, you know, the preseason and training camp

and the joint practices, then the Vegas trip. So I have not been watching a lot recently. I did save one the other day from, I think it was maybe 1996. One of the regular season battles between the 49ers and Cowboys I like to go back and watch those all the time just some of the best talent out there and what I do plan to watch a little bit more because now my schedule changes where I'm not going out and spending all this time at practice so there's a little more free time mixed in. I want to watch back all the Jeff George games and look for evidence of Sam Darnold and Jeff

George. And if anyone knows Jeff George, I would love to talk to him, but I haven't seen him do any media in a long time. But if anybody knows him, pass him my way. Cause I think that there's a comparison there of a guy who has a freaky arm who just decided he was going to wing it and go for it. And, uh, ended up having a pretty darn good 1999 season there. I there's a comparison there for those of you who are a millennial generation that saw that, uh, Joker nation says, I think

Jaron Hall should be QB two instead of Nick Mullins. Uh, what I, the thing about that is when it comes to the preseason and i see new orleans saints fans anointing spencer rattler is a great quarterback or something those preseason results just don't tell you what real football is like nick mullins has a long history of being able to come into games throw for 400 yards, give his team a chance to win. He should have won the Cincinnati game. He should have won the Detroit game. The first one, uh, he's won games with San Francisco.

He's had big games, big numbers. He knows the scheme inside and out. He can play in the league with Jaron Hall in the preseason. He was pretty good. And I think if they want to keep them, they should. But as far as playing actual games, the sample sizes, he got injured the first time and then it would really bad the second time. I think Nick Mullins is so much more knowledgeable about what it's like to be implementing an offense and playing and getting the ball to Justin Jefferson and what he's got to do in real games that I would prefer him to be the backup quarterback instead of Jaron

Hall. And maybe by next year, uh, Jaron Hall will be, um, the backup quarterback, but I still think they'll look for another veteran. Uh, Evan says someone tell Matthew a tornado joke. That'll blow him away. There you go. That's'll blow him away there you go that's good yeah there you go i think we're okay it's still very dark out there and i think the sun should still be out at this time of night and i hear a little rumbling but i think we i think we survived it um zoomer kev says dn dion has worked in media he should know that if reporters don't like you they'll probably write worse things about you that's the funny thing about now columnists are different columnists are opinionated but

there's people that i have not liked that i covered and i don't bring it up because i just talk about them in an objective manner which is what reporters are supposed to do i'm not saying that every reporter of all time does this but generally if there's a criticism it's not personal it's just because dion won four games last year and didn't seem to really improve his team that much and just keeps arguing that it's vibes is the reason that they're going to be really good and i'm not buying it. I enjoyed the Dion experience for a minute there, but you had to know when you could barely escape Colorado state that this team probably wasn't all that good. So if the Denver post is writing, this team probably isn't all that good. And Dion is just being a bully who's all talk and no action. I mean, that's just objectively fair to say. Um, so there's,

there are times where, uh, reporters don't like how they're being treated or whatever, but a lot of times most reporters, if they're doing what they're supposed to do, that's why they're reporters because they're there to be unbiased and give their objective view. That's kind of been thrown out the window a little bit on debate shows and stuff like that. But for people from the Denver Post, they're still going to hold to a standard where it's not going to be, I don't like Dion,

so I'm going to write worse stuff about him. They have editors and stuff like that. That's not what you're supposed to be doing. It's probably just fair criticism. I mean, CBS website ranked them lower than some team and dion wouldn't answer questions from the local cbs affiliate which has nothing to do with it for the same reason i think we're talking about someone who's way way way over sensitive and if he was trying to treat that like that's some sort of motivating factor for him and his team. I think it just makes him look silly instead. Uh, Romaine, is there a time tomorrow? Yes, there is. There are 24 hours.

I'm just kidding. Yeah. Uh, I believe it's three central, uh, and four Eastern is when the cutdowns happen. So right after that, well, we don't get the 53 for that. That's the cutoff. So I'm not going to set up the live stream to go there. Usually we get the 53 from that that's the cutoff so i'm not gonna set up the live stream to go there usually we get the 53 announced like an hour later some teams announce it right away maybe they will i'll be ready for it but oftentimes it's a little bit later and with spielman it would come i mean quite a bit later like an hour and a. I don't remember what it was like last year. So normally we can kind of put things together by the time we get there with reported cuts or agents who tweet out that their guy's getting cut or reporters who call agents to see if their guy's getting cut.

But I would expect central time, maybe five, five 30. By the time we have the 53, as soon as we do, then we'll be live. I've cleared out the entire day. And as long as the storm does not destroy my studio, I will be here. Uh, Alex says is KOC this year's Dave Canalis. I think, uh, if KOC walks out of this year and says it gets, uh, it gets compared to Dave Canalis. If people are saying that, Hey, it's the same way this guy helped Gino Smith and Baker Mayfield and Bryce young, maybe, uh, then that means things went pretty well for Kevin O'Connell. It's a good discussion to have

of how much weight you want to put on this thing of Sam Darnold as it relates to Kevin O'Connell. How much are you evaluating Kevin O'Connell based on Sam Darnold? That's hard for me because Darnold has this thing that triggers in his brain when there's chaos where he makes mistakes and there's no coaching that that just happens same thing hockey a lot of you coach hockey play hockey grew up with hockey you know this you know that those defensemen who turn the puck over they don't stop doing it you also know if you play rec league basketball there's one guy who won't stop taking that three and believing he can make that shot even though he can't or if you play

golf there's the guy who always thinks he can drive it over the pond that takes 260 yards on the fly to get over and he hits it in the water every time there's something about that that i think is hard to get out of someone but it's really the high end can you get the high end part of it if you're kevin o'connell and i think it's it's it's a 50 50 thing like it's we're going to have to really see it and be nuanced about what we're putting on kevin o'connell and what we're putting on sam darnold as we go forward and who we're giving credit to if it works out i mean i think he will get a lot of the credit justin jefferson probably will as well if it works out just like hey Mike Evans probably helped

Baker Mayfield right Joker Nation think Taki Taimani makes the team I think he could stop the run here I don't think he makes the team I think he will be on the practice squad I did like what I saw from him big dude who can really stuff the middle but i don't know that they're going to use a roster spot on him just now he did stand out to me but he was playing fourth quarter late in preseason games so i think that they're going to stick with their veterans and then develop somebody like that um let's see here Preston says it looks like all the top five or so quarterbacks draft in the first round had good pre-seasons uh except for Atlanta's that we didn't see much of him right yeah and I guess Penix played so well that they didn't want to play him anymore in the pre-season which

really tells you how much these teams value the preseason and why we shouldn't overvalue it, that they're going to look at everything they've seen since OTAs and not just how someone looks in a preseason game. Very clear from Gerard Mayo talking that he doesn't want Drake May to play behind that offensive line because he might get smashed and get injured and ruin his first year or something. That's why they want to play Jacoby Brissett, but he can't really say it out loud. I thought Drake May looked really exciting the other night. The high end for Jaden Daniels, there was a little touch of that,

and that was pretty good as well. Bo Nix was the less wowed by, but he completed a lot of passes he won that job straight up over jared stidham and i know that he's the first round pick so they wanted him to win that job but they could have easily sold that as well you know he's still developing and so forth but instead he looked like he was playing with really good rhythm the game that michael pennix played i thought he was terrific that's my only sample size of those things is just a little bit here or there that I saw from each one of those quarterbacks. But it could definitely be a class that turns out, and we're only judging right now, a class

that turns out to be pretty good and where we argued so much about who they should take. And maybe if it was to anybody, it would have worked out. I don't know. I still feel like after this training camp at preseason, the Vikings worked out really well with the fact they didn't have to give up next year's first that we can't forget how important that was that they did not have to give up next year's first round pick and still landed somebody that by the end of the first preseason game i felt like they're going to be in a great spot going forward with jj mccarthy

rob says vikings record predictions going into the buy i think two and three would put us in a good position especially if we take game one over the packers oh yeah i mean that's that's a huge one going to lambeau field, not having to go in January. If you can win that game, you feel like you found money. Week one is one that the Vikings feel like they should win two and three or three and two. If you can get there, then you you're got to feel like you're doing okay at three and two or two and three that you have to feel like you're doing all at three and two or two and three that you have to feel like you're doing all right if it ends up being one and something you know one and four

or they let's see who's um would london would that be the fifth game yeah i mean if they come out of that and they play the lions and they play the rams i mean that's you could get if you only have one going to the bye it could keep going on one and that's really scary those first seven games are pretty tough think even that you want to get through three and four and you still feel like you're in it uh basketball guy with a football question uh what wide receivers you think they'll keep for the practice squad just lucky yeah you know the practice squads are bigger now than they used to be they seem to like thayer thomas he got banged up in those practices against the browns but i think he's okay i saw him out there i think he had like a non-contact jersey on the last time he's out there,

but they may keep him because they seem to like him. Maybe I'm missing somebody. But I mean, aside from, well, if they keep Shurfield and Tristan Jackson, if they don't, then one of those guys would get the nod. But I was trying to think, I mean, just Sean Jones is possible. He had some good practices, didn't do a whole lot in the games, had that one catch. Maybe that's it. Um, but yeah, just Sean Jones, I might keep as a project player,

lucky Jackson and maybe Thayer Thomas, uh, Braun fricking solo says, uh, in a recent interview, Mullins acknowledged that he would be a better quarterback if he could eliminate interceptions. So he's aware and might elevate his game. At this he's not elevating his game like he is who he is he just that's who nick mullins is that's my whole point about sam darnold and and i have the utmost respect for sam for uh nick mullins and the way he plays he's just gonna go out there and let it loose and fire it away i mean playing like jam like Jameis Winston, when you're, I think, what was he was undrafted guy who does not have the physical tools. I mean, that it takes guts and he's got a lot of guts, but I don't think this is something you can change. Like, of course

he's, he knows I need to stop throwing interceptions just like the defenseman knows that they need to stop turning over the puck but i just don't think that that's something that someone can easily do i i don't think that that there's athletes at this level you can just at 20 something years old go you know what i'm going to stop throwing interceptions because the other team's probably full of really good football players who are and the other coaching staff is full of really good coaches and they're going to trick you sometimes, or you're going to throw the ball wildly at times like Nick Mullins,

because he's just not an accurate passer. He throws to the right place, but he doesn't throw it very hard and he certainly doesn't throw it all that accurately, which leads to interceptions. Dave says, who's a better blitzer on the vikes than a healthy lewis scene everyone i i don't know i mean

any anyone can be a good blitzer as a safety because you're usually not blocked there aren't too many safeties in the league who can dodge a blocker uh that are going to throw a running back aside or get past the tight end if you get a body on a safety they're probably going to stop the safety blitz it's usually about becoming an unblocked where anybody can do that and And really the key to that is understanding the offense and the cadence. And I talked to Patrick Peterson about this once about blitzing. Peterson was a good blitzer. And I said, why are you a good blitzer? And he said, I understand the cadence. I listened to the quarterback throughout the game. And then I know their rhythm that they get into and when they snap the ball and I can time it out. And you can also look at the blocking scheme, the formation, how they're

going to block you up on understanding the tendencies of each running back tight end that might be picking you up or where you can get in the quarterback's blind spot and he won't identify you before the snap takes a lot of intelligence and understanding of the game to be a good blitzer as a corner or a safety, which is why Harrison Smith is really good at it. That's not Louis scenes game. Louis, he doesn't have any thing really that he's ever shown that he could do above average, which is why it doesn't play, but definitely identifying stuff is the issue of why he's not playing. If he could do above average, which is why he doesn't play. But definitely identifying stuff is the issue of why he's not playing. If he could identify stuff, he's the freakiest athlete

out there, but he just can't. So no, I don't think that he would be a good blitzer in actual NFL games. I think that Theo Jackson would probably be a better blitzer based on all of those things. There's no reason for them to keep seeing. It was a, it was a very brief thing and there's no reason to keep him on the practice squad. I don't think, I just don't think he can play. And that happens. It happens when someone is draft. It doesn't matter that he was hurt. It truly doesn't.

It truly doesn't matter that he was hurt. It truly doesn't matter that he was hurt. It truly doesn't. It truly doesn't matter that he was hurt. It truly doesn't matter that he was drafted in the first round. At some point after three training camps, you just have to shrug your shoulders and admit it was a bad pick. It didn't work out. The guy can't play. And I'm sorry, but it's like Laquan Treadwell where it did it over and over and over again with Laquan Treadwell. I just don't see any reason to keep going with this thing when it's just not working. I mean, the guy described his own training camp to Mark Craig as being sad. And I would agree with that. Uh, Theo Jackson is ahead of him. I would rather keep Bobby McCain than him. Uh, maybe, maybe they'll keep them around for one more year just

to see, but I think we have all the information we really need. And I also don't think, and I know Treadwell got hurt as well, but he came back and had a great college season. We don't need to make excuses for these guys. They just didn't work out. It happens all the time. Go through first rounds of drafts over and over. It's a hard league to make, it takes really a really really thin and

specific skill set so um did i know that they could have drafted him uh kyle hamilton yes i've heard i've heard but the vikings have the best safety group maybe in the nfl so that's a weird thing too right uh maybe now if jameson williams starts lighting it up, then we're going to have to talk, I guess. Yeah. There's a lot of things that they should have done differently, but also I don't think you could have projected based on the draft reports with Andrew Booth Jr. Lewis scene, Brian Asamoah. I don't think you could have guessed that they were going to be this bad. I really don't. I don't know. When I looked at the reports from those draft picks for across draft analysts, and you look at the consensus board that Arif Hassan puts together and all those things, you still look at that and go, how did they all fail this badly?

People really liked Brian Asamoah and it just hasn't worked out. I'm not sure he's staying on the team through cut down because Kamu Grugier Hill is ahead of him on the depth chart. You look at, I mean, you go back to Mike Hughes and a guy who got hurt and had a lot of talent, couldn't stay healthy. These things happen sometimes. Sometimes guys show flashes, don't end up working out. i know jordan davis is another one you bring up and defensive tackles are valuable uh was jordan davis good last year though i i mean i thought that he kind of got passed a little bit on the depth chart and has sort of been just a guy but um you know i don't know uh mo ibrahim on the practice squad that i'm

not sure we're gonna have to find out i mean he didn't get much of an opportunity to really play he was kind of just a body i think they need to look for better behind the starting two running backs kenny wong has shown something uh but is he trustworthy to pass block probably not um is he trustworthy to be in there a lot i don't think so i think they could use somebody that's a little bit more experienced um rob and he takes on beau richter beau richter is a guy that i would keep on the practice squad um i know that people got excited about him i saw the comment section for my last live show wanted to compare him to brianlacher because he's bald, I guess. Uh, I think that he, he has a really good physical talent and he did well in the preseason games and is not the type of guy that is going to get picked up by another team. I'd be shocked if he was, he's

someone you can easily get to your practice squad and they should, if he makes the team, it'll be great story. I just think it's more likely that they cut him considering the depth of that position and what they have there. Keep Jihad ward, cut Bo Richter, put him on the practice squad. And you've got good depth there. Gabriel Murphy, same kind of deal. He's been banged up, but same thing. Put them on the practice squad, squad develop him and we'll see about

andre carter andre carter is the one i'm most interested in he had good numbers for the preseason but was that enough he does play a lot on special teams which could help his case last year they only kept five edge rushers though so that would be asking them to maybe keep six uh yes a big white ball definitely points to erlacher but if you've driven around chicago he has hair ads where he's got hair i think he got plugs or something and there's like ads on these big uh billboards for erlacher so i guess beau richter has to grow out his hair. Anyway. Yeah. I think that, um, Richter shows some talent and could be someone to give a chance to, but you don't have to use a roster spot on him.

Um, let's see. Surprise roster. Keep Walter asks. Uh, he's got rock. Walter says Robert Tunyon. I'll put that on the screen. Sorry, Walter. I was talking with my hands.

Um, maybe, uh, you know, did Robert Tunyon do enough during the mini camp and a couple of days of training camp to beat out Nick Muse, who played well through the entire camp. That would be a little bit odd if they did that. I think that would tell us about Nick Muse. If they kept Robert Tunyon, that would tell us that they just weren't buying the Nick Muse thing. But I think Robert Tunyon is someone you can also cut and put on the practice squad. And I feel like I'm just saying that over and over again, but that's also the truth is with Tunyon, nobody else was picking him up. He came here in what OTAs to do a workout and they decided to sign him but this wasn't a guy who was highly sought after as a free agent same with bobby mccain they could do the same thing with him same

with fabian morrow with the new rules you can cut these veteran guys and if nobody picks them up you just put them back on your practice squad if they agree to it uh ty says any guesses on what position or even specific player we may grab from another team after cuts i know specific players a long shot well i was looking at some of the players that were reported as a possibility for trades uh tim patrick the wide receiver from denver was one of them people were talking about maybe trail on burks as a potential trade option sort of interested in that but as far as positions i'm not really sure i mean punter comes to mind but in punter uh ryan wright has good chemistry holding the ball for will reichard though so he might as well stay if he's good at holding the

ball uh offensive line is a position that everybody's always looking for if there's any young corner out there that gets cut that they're even slightly interested in, maybe they could go get them. I don't see a ton of movement happening, a ton of guys being shuffled in and out with the waivers. It is always possible, but defensive tackle is a position that is one of weakness. Linebacker, if they cut Asamoah, then they're going to have to look for another linebacker to be that guy after him. Um, that could be another one. Um, sorry, I clicked the wrong one. Bob joking around here. Big storm came through tonight. Possible hail damage call one 800 hail. Yeah. Yes. Yeah, I know. I've had that happen before uh bob where we've had a storm reportedly in the area

but it didn't hit our house and people come to the door and they say what we need to fix your hail damage i'm like didn't even hail here so yes one one eight hundred hail is not what I'll be calling. Um, basketball guy says, uh, cornerback room prediction right now. It seems like Gilmore Murphy, Shaq Fabian, and I'm not calling them nudie Dwight and Dwight McClothern, uh, Evans might be a surprise trade. There's something up. It seems with a Caleb Evans, it looks like they just are not really sold on there being much more there to a Caleb Evans. And the fact that, uh, Evans was playing so much in that last preseason game is a, as a hint there. And I don't disagree with your

room. I don't know if they're going to want Fabian Morrow or not. They brought him in. I don't know how much experience they had with him in the past. There's not too much in that group that you mentioned that can play inside. Fabian Morrow has not played inside corner a long time. Maybe they keep Bobby McCain because they think he can fill into that spot if he needs to or maybe it would just be uh theo jackson who has a history of playing nickel maybe jay ward where jay ward fits in all this i'm not sure either because he was a key special teamer for them last year and i thought he played okay in the preseason but seeing him out there late in the fourth game our third game sorry that me think, are they sold on him either? I mean, that's the position they may be looking around for his corner. Um, most intriguing non-Vikings storylines

headed into the season. Well, I think one of them was mentioned, which is the rookie quarterbacks. Uh, it's not often that we get this many rookie quarterbacks to watch, uh, with. I mean, how many are going to start here? It's going to be Nick's Jaden Daniels, Caleb Williams. I mean, that's at least three. I guarantee we're going to see Drake may pretty quickly. I mean, there's, that's going to be a lot to watch with rookie quarterbacks. So that's one. And I think that are the lions really a Super Bowl contender? Can they run away with this division? Is Jordan Love for real? Can Dallas, who feels like a last shot at this kind of thing for Dallas with Dak Prescott, are they going to be as good as I think that they can be?

I mean, there's a lot. On the AFC side, my gosh, which quarterbacks are going to be great in the AFC and which are going to maybe fall a shade behind that can Trevor Lawrence be great is will Levis. Something is there's, there's a lot it's I'm ready. I'm extremely ready for football. Absolutely. Um, okay. So, uh, let me just, uh, let's see, Nick, I'll answer two more and then I'm going to go check outside to make sure that the rest of the house is still here. Nick says, will Grenard we'll see all three on the field at the same time. And you can rush someone like Van Ginkle from anywhere. Turner has rushed over the center before. They could have Patrick Jones or Jahad Ward on the field.

That's when we'll see it. Not on first down. It'll be some sort of rotation. And Grenard, I think, only played 600-something snaps last year. So he's been a rotational type player. Um, he's full time, but he's not always playing 70 snaps that would allow him and Dallas Turner to, um, kind of work in and out. Uh, Rob says Jalen Naylor breakout season. It's going to have to be, it's going to have to be because they don't have Hawkinson. I wouldn't be surprised if Jordan Addison is out a little bit, uh, then, uh, you know,

with, with the ankle issue. So that makes Jalen Naylor potentially wide receiver two to start the season. They're going to need a lot from him a lot more than he's ever given them before. And he's going to have to stay healthy. He is a key swing player for maybe even the season for how good the offense could be, because if he's as good as he was in preseason and camp, then they've got something. If he gets banged up or he's not as good, then they're going to feel like they're missing KJ Osborne a lot. Uh, no, I will not, uh, call him a nudie in any situation other than when you guys

bring it up, it's going to be Dwight McClothercglother i don't i don't usually do the the nickname thing with guys especially not one that's as awkward as that so uh i did mention at some point because i've talked about playing guitar before at some point jamming on the guitar on a live session maybe maybe i will i have to bring all the stuff from downstairs maybe maybe i'll bring out the guitar and play a little bit at some point. We've been through a lot together to get to football finally again. So maybe the day before the season starts. All right. One more from Trent.

Trent sliding in here right at the end. Kwesi having an accounting background is very interesting. Do you know how, why he decided to pivot and how he got his foot in the door? I'm an engineer, but I have a real passion for football. Yeah. It's a, I don't, it wasn't accounting. It was, um, uh, wall street, wall street was the background for him or Casey. Yeah.

Casey went to a, what was it? Maybe the combine or owner's meetings or something and met with some teams and got to know some people from San Francisco. But then he got his foot in the door that way and took a job on the lowest level of just being a researcher, I believe was his first job. He had gone to Princeton and Stanford, I believe, and was buying and selling commodities, whatever the heck that is. I truly do not understand it, but that's what he was doing beforehand. And I think he just started researching football.

And he told me for my book, that's right over there. Football is a numbers game. There's an interview with Casey where he told me that he used PFF data for the draft to catch the eye of John Lynch and other people there in the 49ers organization that helped him move up the ladder. So he was able to innovate a little bit and that's how he got to know those people and then worked his way up and up and up and ended up here. So it's something that you always got to start at the bottom if you're going to try to break in to a place like football market manager yeah i honestly

don't really understand i just know the word commodities wall street i read it when he got hired but i i don't remember it all that well um basketball guy says isn't it weird the vikings are trying to get rid of the 2023 guys like uh 2022 you mean uh evans awesome was seen and already got rid of booth defensive scouting bad before flores it's it's a it's a number of things that went into that draft the number one is that they drafted at least seen booth and awesome law with something in mind for Ed Donatello. That is a factor because Brian Flores just plays a completely different type

of defense than Ed Donatello one where you actually cover people. Am I right? So, but it's a completely different defense. The corners play a lot differently. The corners play much more of an off type of coverage. They are supposed to read and react. They're supposed to mirror wide receivers.

And I think Flores likes his corners better at tackling coming downhill, playing often in zone, but then flying up to try to make plays and keep things in front of them and be aggressive. And so if Booth was not a good tackler, then that would be a reason that they, they wouldn't have been sold on him. And with scene, I don't think he would have worked out for anybody. I don't, I don't think Lewis scene would have worked out if he got put on the 1995 Pittsburgh Steelers. I just, that's not a scheme issue. That's a, this guy can't see things

that he needs to see and read and react and play aggressively with confidence. It's just not something he's been able to do. And that is the hard part about the NFL is that processing applies to every single position. And if you can't process quickly, then you're going to, you know, you're just not going to be able to do it. They can't put quickly then you're gonna you know you're just not gonna be able to do it they can't put you out there theo jackson processes quickly he's a sixth round pick who the titans cut i have no idea why so it makes football so darn fascinating um just didn't work out that way and awesome wa the the size was painted coming out as if it was supposed to be something that wasn't that big of a deal. And it was like a modern thing, but you can't be that small. I don't think. And he looked like there might be some potential there, but it just never came to fruition. It's, it's going to be

a draft class. We go back to and go, I just don't even know. But one thing I do know when it comes to just scouting is how hard it is. If you go through every team's scouting over the last 10 years and you start looking through, they hit on this player, they missed on that player. This is what they thought in their evaluations. You're going to find a ton of them that you laugh at and a ton of them that you go, oh, wow, they nailed that. That's just how it works sometimes. So anyway, well, I appreciate it.

Ty, if you want to learn more about PFF, there's a book. There's a book about it. Football is a numbers game. It's on Amazon. Check it out. Anyway, so thanks, for joining. And tomorrow, as I mentioned, as soon as that list comes out, 53-man roster, I expect it somewhere around five o'clock hour of central time. We'll be back here, live show.

Well, if you read the book, then you understand with all the grades and everything else. And I appreciate that with you reading the book. So anyway, we'll be back tomorrow after the cut down to break down the entire 53, all of your questions will be answered. So I'm going to go make sure my house is still here. We'll see a football.