Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Nolan Teasley's hire official and the Vikings now have cap space (Part 1)

Episode Date: June 2, 2026

Matthew Coller talks with Minnesota Vikings fans about an interesting note from the announcement of Nolan Teasley officially becoming the Vikings general manager. Rob Brzezinski's role seems to be increased even if he has the same title. Plus, it's June 1 so the Vikings have cap space. What are they going to do with it? The Purple Insider podcast is brought to you by FanDuel. Also, check out our sponsor HIMS at https://hims.com/purpleinsider Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hey, everybody, welcome to another episode of Purple Insider, presented by Fanduil. Matthew Collar here. And what a day in the National Football League? Who knew that June 1st would suddenly turn into an NFL holiday? But it seems like now that there's trades all the time. Adam Schaefter pointed this out just how many pro bowlers have been traded in recent years. And now the teams use that June 1st designation pretty often. I guess it is.

We're going to have to make sure that I don't have any plans for June 1st for the rest of the existence of the NFL. Because what a day in the league. There's an emergency podcast you could go watch breaking down Miles Garrett to the Rams. We could talk about it here tonight in the comment section as well. And also, A.J. Brown, the trade that everybody knew was coming for a very long time became official. And the Vikings made their general manager hire official. And they got some money to work with. and we're going to look at how the Vikings might distribute their salary cap space and also how much more they are capable of creating if they want to do that or if they are maybe deterred at all by some of today's news with the Los Angeles Rams being insanely stacked with Miles Garrett so we can get into that.

Before we dive into the Vikings, Nolan Teasley's hire becoming official and so forth, I do want to start out the show by saying some news has just come out. Within the last few hours that Larry Fitzgerald Sr., who is Larry Fitzgerald Jr's father and has been an institution in the Minnesota media has passed away at the age of 71. And oh, for let's see, the last, I don't know, 10 years or so, Larry has been there all the time in the Minnesota Vikings media room. He's been road games, home games. I've seen and been around Larry all the time for the last. last decade. And it's very sad that he passed away. I know that he had been dealing with some health issues for the last couple of years. And Larry always wanted to talk sports with anybody who was there, very enthusiastic about the NFL Minnesota Sports and somebody whose coverage of Minnesota Sports

went back almost 50 years, which is really incredible to think about. There's a photo of him in the press conference room interviewing Denny Green. His son tweeted out a photo. of him interviewing Randy Moss. So those of you who have followed Minnesota sports know Larry Fitzgerald, Sr. And I'm really heartbroken for his family and for especially, you know, Larry who's going into the Hall of Fame, but at least his father got to see him be named to the Hall of Fame, but not in order to see him go into Canton.

So very sad that he will be doing that with a heavy heart later on this year. but, you know, Larry was always there, always wanted to talk about football, sports, but my favorite thing about Larry Fitzgerald was that one time a few years back, my wife was working for WCCO Radio before she went into doing full-time play-by-play. And so she was covering a Vikings game, even though she doesn't cover a lot of Minnesota Vikings, it didn't with CCL, but she did that one day. And she sat next to Larry. And throughout the game, they chatted for the entire game.

And Larry was so nice to my wife. And then every time I would see him anywhere, if I was at a different game, if I was in a press box, whatever, Larry would ask me, what's your wife doing? What game is she calling? He would see her doing gopher games. So always very, very kind to me during our time together. So I'm extremely sad for his family for Larry Fitzgerald.

And he will be greatly missed by the Minnesota sports. scene of which he covered for decades and decades and decades. So my best and condolences to his family. So we'll get into it here. Lots of things to talk about, but the comment section wide open for whatever you would like to discuss here tonight on this NFL holiday June 1st. But I want to begin with Nolan Teasley's higher becoming official. Of course, we knew about this on Saturday when Tom Pelliserro and others broke the news that the Seattle Seahawks assistant general manager would become the next general manager of the Minnesota Vikings. And the Vikings release statements today. And he will be officially announced to us and hold his first ever press conference with the Minnesota media at 10 o'clock on Wednesday.

So I'm sure some of you will tune into that. But of course, I will be there and we'll do a post press conference. podcast breaking down everything that Nolan Teasley had to say. So make sure you look forward to that on Wednesday. And I'm not sure which day is going to be open to OTAs. It wasn't today. But we'll see. But of course we'll be at the next OTA practice as well.

But there was something that stood out from the official press release about Nolan Teasley's hire, which is the sentence that I have pulled here on the screen. Putting Nolan together with Kevin O'Connell and Rob Brzezinski gives us. three strong leaders with complementary skill sets is what Mark Wilf said in the release. And the other day when I was doing the Breaking News podcast, I didn't know what they were going to do with Rob Prasinski yet at that point. So that was one of the questions that we were all asking is, okay, well, is Rob going going to be changing title or is he going to go back to his old title or is he going to, I don't

know, take his abacus and go home and do the salary cap by himself? I, we didn't really know what Rob was going to do. So then it was shortly after the podcast was over that I think Jonathan Jones of CBS reported that Rob Brzezinski was going to stay with the same title that he had before, which was executive vice president football operations. But previously it seemed like his main focus was the salary cap and contract negotiations. And with something like this, it feels like, and it will be a question I'm sure to Nolan Teasley or whoever talks,

I'm not sure if Mark Wilf is going to take any questions, but maybe Nolan Teasley about, is this going to be a triangle of authority with Rob Brzezinski because this statement, and I'll show you another one that kind of hints at this, feels like it is kind of a triangle of authority type situation. Now, that gets made fun of because of its past for the Vikings. but if this does turn out to be kind of the case, and we may not ever really know. They don't have to come out and release a flow chart and say,

this is how the power structure is working, just in case anybody wants to know it is this guy's fault. If this happens, it's that guy's fault. This guy has final, they never got into that with Kwayze Adolfo Menza and they're not going to get into it with us. But I think that the suggestion here is that Rob Brzeen's, is very, very strong on the asset management side, the salary cap side and did a really good

job of setting them up for the salary cap future. And then you have Nolan Teasley, whose player evaluation, not just his own, but he was in a management position in Seattle where he was overseeing a lot of different stuff when it came to the player evaluation, including all the research and the data and analytic stuff. he was overseeing that as well as all of the scouting stuff as well. And John Schneider is at the top of the food chain there. But he was doing a lot of that stuff in Seattle. So the player evaluation side, the salary cap and asset management side,

together with the coach, it does seem like the three of them are being asked by ownership to work very closely together. And while it may not be a president of football operations and it is probably, if I had to guess, I would say the general manager, is going to have final say because Mark Wilf did tell me and the other five reporters who were there at the owner's meetings, Kevin Seifert, Emily Liker, Dane Mizatani, Alec Lewis, all of us when we sat with Mark Wilf, he did say that we're not going to add new titles, like we're not going to add a new structure.

And in the past, the structure has always been that the GM has the final say. But Nolan Teasley is part of his job is to work with. Kevin O'Connell and Brian Flores closely. You could say maybe rectangle of authority. I don't know how much Matt Daniels has to say. Maybe it's a quadrilateral. I have no idea. But when it comes to O'Connell, it's very important that someone who has established

their culture, their way of playing, Brian Flores, his defensive culture, his way of playing, that they have a very close relationship with the GM. But it's also important that at the end of the day, we're able to say, this was Nolan Teasley's plan and it was executed in his way. And I think that Brzezinski being there with his experience and his ability with the salary cap and with asset management is very good for the Vikings. And I think that Vikings fans and us got a look at Rob and that being his superpower and the way he handled things this offseason.

So here is what both Kevin O'Connell and Rob Brzezinski had to say about the hiring of Nolan Teasley. I'll start with O'Connell, who said, throughout this process, it became clear. Nolan is a strong leader with a great vision for building and sustaining a winning football team. He carries himself with humility but can confidently articulate the impressive depth of his football knowledge. We share a belief in the importance of culture, consensus building, and putting people in positions to become the best versions of themselves. I look forward to working alongside Nolan and Rob as we continue building on the foundation that we've

established and strive to achieve our goal of bringing a Super Bowl to Vikings fans. So once again, another mention of Rob Brzezinski is part of a trio. Maybe that's what they'll go with. The authority tricycle is what we have here. And maybe Tisley is the front wheel that steers it. I don't know if that metaphor actually works. But Rob Brzezinski said in his statement, this organization means so much to me and my family and I take tremendous pride of being a part of the Minnesota Vikings.

I have a great deal of respect for Nolan and look forward to partnering with him, Kevin and our entire football operation to build the best team possible. I will continue to do everything I can to help this organization achieve its ultimate goal of bringing a championship to Minnesota. So once again, it's I look forward to partnering with Nolan and Kevin and Kevin. And Kevin also mentioning Nolan and Rob, are you getting the hint here that it seems like the three of them working together? But to me, this is a bold.

bunch of very good skill sets that combined together to have a little bit more of a unique leadership than they've had in the recent past. With Quasi Adolfo Mensa, it was kind of hard to figure out exactly who was making the calls because, I mean, every time I hear it said that the Vikings previously had an analytical front office, I go, I can much easier point to the things that the Seattle Seahawks did way easier and say, that's analytics than I can the of the last five years. Easily, because you could look at the draft picks and the production from the draft picks, the athletic markers from the draft picks, how many draft picks they accumulated.

That's all stuff that usually connects back to data, how they drafted versus consensus boards. It hasn't always been right dead on. It's not like the computers and AI are doing the drafting, but you can see where there's a connection and you can also see from their spending like how they were able to create cap space for themselves despite the fact that they were paying a quarterback and how they were able to turn over rosters and their pro personnel decisions were well i'm sure they didn't say let's do the analytics but they bought low on some really talented players which would be a concept that would go back to hey this is a good chance to work that

That's, well, I mean, maybe a little bit of Sam Darnold. But it's DeMarcus Lawrence. It's Leonard Williams. They were able to find guys like that. And I think another thing is finding middle and later round draft picks who worked out. They did a really good job of that. So maybe you could point at that. If that was Kasi Adafo Menza's draft and you would have said,

look how the analytics are working. I can check off every box. But instead, the guy's a scout. So, you know, it doesn't get viewed the same way. But anyhow, that's a side rant. because we always got to have everything that was the opposite of the last guy. But if the last guy knew every analytic in the book and couldn't get consensus and couldn't get buy-in from the coach and the front office and didn't build the credibility with

ownership to win certain battles or whatever it might have been, to get people behind him and agreeing on certain directions, well, then it's not, doesn't mean a thing if you know how to code or if you know how to build a model. It really doesn't. So I think with Nolan Teasley, he's seen this work really well. He is taking the long road to the position he's in. And now is in a spot where he has some people around him that he's going to have to work closely with. But I think in Brzezinski's case, you really saw the talent that he has for understanding the assets, the cap space and the draft picks.

And I think it's all going to come together with them putting a much more emphasis on protecting those things. because those are your dollars and cents, right? That's your money to go out and spend is cap space and draft picks. So doing it in free agency all the time, not having one form of capital and only having the other. It's hard to build a team long term with that. So I like that idea. I advocated for Rob to have a continued position of power because I think he brings

a lot of credibility and a lot of respect in the building. And then I also think that sometimes the scout folks and the coaches, they want to push for stuff. They want to push for moves. They want to push for the win now stuff. And you need someone to be able to say, this is the best long-term approach for how we can compete every year. And it was remarkable when I was looking back at the Seattle Seahawks and the success that they had over many, many years. I mean, this is what the Wilf's want, right? It's never really a tear down.

they did manage themselves into a couple of top 10 draft picks, one in a Russell Wilson trade. Smart asset management, though, moving on from a depreciating asset and getting top dollar for it in Seattle, but they also were competitive even when their teams were not the best, nine or 10 wins, and then when it all came together, they won a Super Bowl.

So I like the idea of the triangle structure, even though it's going to be probably made fun of. and I'm super interested to hear what Nolan Teasley has to say about it, about working with Kevin O'Connell about his journey to the highest position that you can get in the NFL and general manager. So be very fascinated to hear what he has to say on Wednesday. Folks, if you find yourself hunting search engines for different hairstyles that might cover up your receding hairline,

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prescription required, see website for full details, restrictions, and important safety information. All right, if you guys haven't celebrated yet in the streets, feel free to run outside right now. Keep your phone and keep watching or listening. The Vikings have cap space. We, they have not had a whole heck of a lot of it in quite some time. And finally, the Jonathan Allen and actually Harrison Smith's contract come off of the books in the post-June 1st designations. And the Vikings are up to $12.5 million in cap space, which is still 21st in the league. And there are other teams who have a lot more cap space than the Vikings to make big moves.

But I do have some takeaways from the Vikings finally having some dollar, dollar bills in their pocket to potentially spend. post June 1st. Number one is if Harrison Smith was going to return because we've talked about this a lot. Hey, is Harry coming back? What's going to happen there? We haven't heard from him. Nobody knows. Well, if he's going to come back, you need to be able to sign him to a contract and you need cap space in order to do that. Now, yes, he could have announced, hey, I'll be back in mini camp or something else like that. But why would you ruin the fun? I do wonder, though, from Harrison Smith perspective if it matters how much the Vikings would be able to pay him now i know you might say no who cares he's made his money or whatever but i don't know i'm more motivated by things that pay me

more money uh i think with the the amount of money that they would pay harrison smith if he came back it is a little bit complicated when you base it on comparable players so i was looking today most of the top safeties in the nfl that are not the derwin james because i think he's Harrison even himself would say, hey, that's the, you know, that's the cream of the crop in 2026, not 2017, but, you know, Harrison still is a very good safety. I mean, even if you go PFF route and look at what their numbers say about his performance in recent years, easily top half of the league safety. And then we know about the things that you can't calculate, which is the communication, the leadership out there, the, you know, defensive coordinator on the field, all that stuff. And is

meaning to the younger players in the locker room and et cetera, et cetera. We know all that. But how much is that really worth? And the answer that I came to is one that I'm not sure Harrison would come back for, which is Kevin Byard, who had a great season last year at age 33, got $7 million from the New England Patriots. And, I mean, I don't know how you could go much higher than like 10, which is where Harrison Smith was.

And then, because it's going to be a one-year contract, are you putting voids on it? Are you kicking money down the road? So even though we just sort of think of, well, if Harry wants to come back, he'll come back. And this is great. It will probably take up a chunk of this cap space. So if they don't spend it on Harrison Smith's return, where else might they spend it? Free agent outside linebacker depth is the number one pick for me. I've mentioned on the show that Leonard Floyd would be the guy I would be trying to go after

because he was still effective last year for the Atlanta Falcons. and I do wonder if the Vikings, I know they don't play the Rams this year, but if you look at kind of the arms race and go, you know, maybe another veteran at the outside linebacker position if they weren't already headed that direction is going to be necessary if you're going to go into the playoffs and beat some of these teams that are very strong top to bottom. And Floyd would be my pick there.

Somebody mentioned to me that Omar Kelly, I think of the, uh, covers the Miami Dolphins that he said that Kyle Van Nuoy and Brian Flores kind of ended on some bad terms. But, you know, maybe that won't matter years later. I really don't know. He's also a free agent. Those are the two names that I've been looking at the most.

There's a couple other experienced guys out there that the Vikings could look at. But also, if they didn't, backup offensive guard, interior offensive line, Graham Glasgow is out there who played for the Detroit Lions over the last couple years. not great, but was a serviceable starter. Greg Van Rotten is another guy who kind of is a free agent every single year and somebody picks him up, but maybe there's something there for the depth if they don't love what they see going forward. But I also think they could wait and see, which is just watch how training camp plays out.

And what we know is that players will become available again at the end of training camp. If they're beaten out by younger players or teams are just cutting someone to, keep somebody that they think can grow and develop or whatever it may be. Somebody is unhappy with their contract and it goes into the summer, hard to say. But if Harrison doesn't return and they don't run to the free agent market for an outside linebacker and they maybe rather say, let's see how this works out. And there was a small hint. I didn't really mention this because we were so deep into the JJ McCarthy stuff.

There was a little bit of a hint. And I don't know if it's just because who was available for practice or not of Ty Ingram Dawkins playing outside linebacker. So that could be interesting if you had, you know, Tyler Baddy and Ty Engram Dawkins kind of playing that outside. Bo Richter has established himself as a special teamer. Is there something else there? Chas Chambliss, like maybe just throwing like in the Batman where you just break the

pool stick and throw it and say whatever outside linebacker emerges, you got the job. I mean, I don't love that for right now. I think they could use one more veteran. but wait and see is a potential option to just not spend any of this cap space when Nolan Tisley arrives, let him evaluate the entire roster first and then make your decision. And I started looking into how much more salary cap space they could create if they absolutely needed to. And I came up with, and this would be every restructure that they could still do, an extra $35 million

if they needed to. So were there a big trade? that they wanted to do, then they could probably make it happen. They would just have to restructure a couple of more players. So the Vikings now have cash and we will see what they do with it, which of course, you could jump in the comment section. What should they do? Should they wait and see?

Should they jump to free agency? If Nolan Teasley was asking you, what would you tell him to do with the cap space right now? A couple other notes. One, I wanted to point this out. Albert Breer was on the Dan Patrick Show. I'm always paying a lot of attention to Elber Breer. I think of all the national people around the NFL. Breer is among the most dialed into the Minnesota Vikings,

the one who kind of gets it right as much as anybody. And he said this of the quarterback competition. He said on the Dan Patrick show, The roster needs to win now. It's no one's on scholarship anymore. His being McCarthy's draft status doesn't matter. Whoever is the best player for us to win right now is who Kevin. O'Connell is going to pick.

And I wanted to mention that there was some very fascinating fallout from the analysis of all of us coming out of OTAs because if you Googled Minnesota Vikings, which I tend to do every day just to see if I missed anything or for topics or whatever else, there was this person addresses McCarthy's comments. That person addresses McCarthy's comments. And I think that a lot of our critique for the way that McCarthy approached his press conference the other day was kind of based on that, right? It was something that didn't have to be a story. It didn't have to be all eyes are now talking about this situation because of the way you

handle the press conference. And he made it about that. And he made it clear how unhappy he is to be in that competition when that just didn't have to rock the boat from day one. And it turned into, hey, a late May topic that kind of has some juice to it because the backup course, is not too happy or the young quarterback's not too happy with the new quarterback being here. And it was a feast over the following days of every ex-player that they could dig up, every reporter they could dig up. And if he had just said, I'm going to do the best for the team and happy that Kyler's here, it would not have made that kind of noise really at all.

Now, does that matter? Maybe if you say no, that then, okay, well, then maybe it doesn't. But it could have been avoided that discussion. But then I saw that Kevin Sefer called it not close with the practice between the two and how they performed, which also kind of lit up the internet as well. Now, I would agree with Kevin's assessment of the actual practice. We only saw one. It's only one OTA practice. So the competition is not all completely resolved just yet after that practice.

But I would agree. And we'll have to see just how we'll have to see just how. we come out of this next week of OTAs and really minicamp is where I've in my time covering the team put a little more emphasis on how it looks like they've had a couple of weeks to install. They do a little more 11 on 11, a little more full speed stuff in minicamp. So I'll be interested to see how the distribution goes for that. And I don't know that we're going to hear from the quarterbacks again, maybe at the very end. I think we usually do that at the very end, OTA's mini camp that we may hear from them again

and what that sounds like. But just kind of interesting to gauge the reaction from the national side is basically a lot of the same stuff that we've been saying. But this in particular was pointing to it doesn't matter about who has potential. It is time to win football games. And that is what they're going to do with whoever it takes to do it. The next thing I wanted to bring up is if you guys have reaction to the Jared versus Miles Garrett trade.

I did an entire podcast with Sam Brookhouse, which I really enjoyed earlier today, breaking it down the minute it happened. I got to say, it feels very even to me. And I've been fascinated from a numbers perspective because we really didn't dive super, super deep into this, but from a numbers perspective of Jared verse as a guy who can pressure the quarterback but doesn't get a heck of a lot of sacks versus Miles Garrett, who gets an ungodly amount of sacks. I'm interested to know what you guys think.

because the line moved to plus 550 for the Rams to win the Super Bowl. And I made a little milkshake bet with Sam Brookhouse at the end of our show. I said, you know, hey, Rams are the field. So that's a fan dual question of the day for today. They're plus 550 to now win the Super Bowl. That's way ahead of Buffalo at plus 1,000, Baltimore at plus 1,000. Rams are the field to win the Super Bowl. Which way would you go on that after this trade?

I honestly think that the Browns made out pretty darn well, a young pass rusher, three draft picks over the next three years. And, you know, you don't really want to think too much about this from a Vikings perspective because Justin Jefferson seems perfectly happy in Minnesota right now as we speak. And he's got a quarterback that is accurate. And we're going to see where that goes. And, you know, he's not a guy that you would think about trading because he's one of the best in the entire league. but we would have said that for Miles Garrett.

It just feels like players are getting traded more often than ever based on timelines. And I am a little bit curious to see if there are more of these. I mean, I'm not saying Jefferson would be that. But there is a scenario. The absolute disaster, everything goes wrong for the Minnesota Vikings and Jefferson decides that he wants out that is real. And if you look at the way his contract is set up, it's set up. to redo his deal after this year, to give him an extension.

And if he doesn't want to do that, then things get very, very interesting. And it came to mind today. If the Cleveland Browns are going to trade one of their all-time great players, you never know who could be the next man out in the NFL. And the next man out, A.J. Brown, a very unhappy camper over the last couple of years. And A.J. Brown finally traded in what we can call the, I'm going to call it the Racine. trade because this was one broken by a former NFL insider for reasons that we all know by now many weeks ago and yet it finally came to fruition but the price tag here was what I was thinking

about just with these are huge name players foundational players a Super Bowl winning wide receiver and he goes for a first round pick uh in 2008 and a 2007 fifth round pick over to the New England Patriots. So a first and a fifth for A.J. Brown. And what we see here is that the teams that were trading the disgruntled players, they ultimately did very well in their traits. So read into that, you know, what you will. But now Philadelphia will lean on Mackay Lemon, which is ironic because McKay

Lemon is the guy that the Rams probably should have drafted if they were doing this all in chips to the middle of the table. And I did want to say that moves like that. this are absolutely great for entertainment. And I respect the teams. Now, we've talked about this of understanding your moment. Like, was last year really the Vikings moment when they knew nothing about J.J. McCarthy? Probably not, right? It proved out to be not. But even then, from a logic perspective, yes, you can understand it. Rookie quarterback contract. You're taking full advantage. But I think in hindsight, they clearly missed the mark on when they really should have been

pushing the chips to the middle of the table in their Super Bowl window. So what these teams have done well, Philadelphia historically and the Rams incredibly well, is when they have since the moment, they have really, really gone for it. And I do respect that Quasi did and that, you know, Kevin O'Connell and whoever else was involved in moving on from Sam Darnold. I do respect that last year the Vikings attempted to sort of do this with all of the money that they spent and all the guys that they retained and everything else because as often as it comes up with the Wilf's.

They're not willing to tank. They always want to be competitive and everything else. You can never say that they're not the team at the front of the line trying to do something like this, that they're trying as best they can to win. But picking the right moment, Nolan Teasley, it will be an enormous thing for him that likely determines success is picking the moment to get a player. like this because now they're coming available all the time. And the other thing that it made me think was there might be other quarterbacks available next year other than Kyler Murray. And I'm

interested to see that because it just seems that quarterbacks are available every offseason and the stars are available every off season. So picking that moment, when is it right to spend first round draft picks? I can tell you this, it's not 2027 for the Minnesota Vikings. It wasn't right now for the Vikings. But it will be someday if they build correctly. And that's the idea with Tisley is can you put yourself in a position at some point within the next couple years to be the team that trades for AJ Brown or be the team that trades for Miles Garrett and pushes the chips to the middle of the table.

So a fascinating, fascinating day in the National Football League. Now let's get into the chat. And let's have a fun conversation. My wife is calling Lynx and Phoenix Mercury at nine. So guess what? Got until nine. Plenty of time for all of you with your questions and your comments. So let's dive right in.

Jude says, do you think Verse is worth the draft picks, a first, third, and a fifth maybe? Jared Verse is a very, very good player. I don't think that he's going to get much better because he is an older player, but he is still inexperienced. And the Browns did really well in this. If you have to get rid of Miles Garrett, who is outside of quarterbacks, a top three player of a generation,

top five player of a generation, if you have to get rid of that player, getting back someone who's young, powerful, creates a lot of pressure, might have some more sacks in there, and then three draft picks is about as good as you could get. It's also why the Rams were likely the only team that could make this happen because, I mean, were the Vikings getting Miles Garrett

for Dallas Turner or Jonathan Grinard and a couple of draft picks? Like, probably not, right? You needed someone who had been excellent when it came to creating pressure, a starter, someone who was healthy. I mean, they had to check a lot of boxes and still give up a first round draft pick. I mean, this is one where it's an even trade. This is Jefferson for digs. This feels very even. It feels like perfect for both teams. And, you know, Joker says, I don't know what verse is supposed to do for the Browns. How does he fit in their timeline? Well, their plan is to build the best young team through the draft that they can, which I think

they've been drafting fairly well around a absolute garbage fire of a quarterback situation. And then presumably draft Arch Manning or, I mean, whoever it might be. I don't know the 2027 draft class. inside and out yet. But whoever emerges to draft the quarterback, then have a young Jared verse, and even if you pay verse, they're probably looking to have a quarterback on the rookie contract. So you have the rookie quarterback, then Jared Verse. You've built a lot of different draft picks.

Mason Graham is another top draft pick. They traded down with Jacksonville, which that trade now looks kind of insane for Jacksonville. If Travis Hunter's more of a one-dimensional player, and then you build from there, And what we've seen from tanking teams is that if you hit the nail on the head, it doesn't take that long to bounce back up to the top, which is the Chicago Bears, the Detroit Lions right here in the division. So I think it works out extremely well from a timeline perspective.

Because verse could be good for another seven years. So you start there and then you get more draft capital. And you're trying to build and hopes that, I mean, truly the best thing for them would be that Deshaun Watson and. and Shudor Sanders just are terrible. And they end up drafting at the very top again and then building from there. And you could say, well, haven't the Browns done that many times? The answer would be yes.

So I get your point. But what other direction would they possibly have? They could also be in a spot where if someone else's quarterback became available, then they could acquire that player with a bunch of guys on rookie contracts. It's just getting someone to go to Cleveland is not always the easiest. thing in the entire universe. Purple Kool-Aid's Adverse is Young and they're rebuilding him and Mason Graham and Lee Collins on their line.

Plus they shed a huge amount of money. They nailed that trade. Totally agree. I think that the Browns, the thing is that their organization has been such a bus fire and their quarterback situation has been so hysterical for all of its history that even when they do smart things, you're like, oh, stop it, Browns, you silly goose. you're never going to win. But I think we have to evaluate it objectively with each move.

And in this case, this is good for them. This is good. Because Miles Garrett, Miles Garrett fits within the Rams timeline. They're trying to win today and tomorrow and that's it. But someday, not that long from now, Miles Garrett will decline. And it's not that long from now where he probably will over the next couple of seasons, right? I mean, that's just how it works historically. So from the Brown's perspective, you'd rather have someone fairly comparable.

I mean, no one's really comparable to Garrett, but at least in his range, at least he's in the stadium with Miles Garrett. And then several draft picks to build around over a number of years rather than wasting away an unhappy Miles Garrett this year. And then we'll see about next year. Like they're really looking at like a 2008, which they'll have to pay vers, but still, you're looking at that guy to be on your team for a very long time. uh, joker said, is this roster good enough to go full Rams? Are we aiming for ethical, humiliating divisional round loss if we don't go full Rams? Uh, what in what way could the Vikings go full Rams that would make any amount of sense? If they traded Dallas Turner and a first and a second and a third for Miles Garrett,

that would be amazing. And maybe at that point, they would have. some chance to be better, but are they complete enough to do it? There would have to be a little bit more there. I think what the Vikings are looking to do this year is to see where this goes. And then maybe there is a full Rams moment. I mean, okay, the Rams, there's no guarantee here. If they, what if they start the first five weeks of the season?

They're 5 and O. And then Matthew Stafford breaks his hand. And it's Ty Simpson's show. And they're kind of out of the running to be. the Super Bowl champion, everybody else is pretty flat, pretty close to each other, right? The Seattle Seahawks are good, but they're, I mean, they're going to have the Rams of the division. That's not a happy thing, I'm sure for Sam Darnold, is seeing ghosts just getting hit by

Miles Garrett this year. But when it comes to Seattle, they're really good. It's very hard to repeat. And San Francisco, they're very good. They've got flaws. They're aged. They have a lot of guys coming off injuries. Detroit is good.

They're not perfect. Green Bay is perfect. Green Bay is not perfect. They're going to be good. They're going to get Micah Parsons back, but they're not perfect. And Chicago is probably going to regress a little. And even if Caleb Williams is better, they still have some shortcomings. Dallas, Philadelphia.

Philly is probably the third strongest team in the NFC. But, you know, last year they struggled offensively. And now you're asking a rookie to go be AJ Brown. And you can't always do it. So I think with the Vikings, you have to see where it goes. If Kyler Murray is 6 and 2 and you've outscored your opponents by 70 points over the first eight weeks of the season, then maybe there is a moment where you say, you know what, let's just go for it. But if you're going to build longer term through the draft, it's not something you should probably do. I mean, trading for T.J. Hawkinson overall, I think worked out pretty well for the Vikings.

But that was out of this roster's coming apart. We've got to take our shot at it. We got to make this big trade for him. And then it ends up costing you not only the draft capital, but the cap space as well. I think with Brzezinski where he's at and with Nolan Teasley and the desire to build through the draft. And he was a pro personnel person too, but building through the draft is really the focus here that I don't think going full Rams is appropriate at this moment. And someday after you've built through the draft, it will be. but maybe like we haven't seen it yet when we actually see it i mean imagine that

kela banks is like amazing right away and he's got seven sacks through the first i don't know like whatever it might be right and their defense is just nasty and jefferson's crushing it there might be a situation where you decide all right you know what we're going to take a swing at it as opposed to uh doing it right now where i think there's still so much that's uncertain and around. I don't like the Garrett trade. Not great for us, except the other NFC North team team that plays. Are there two teams that play them or just one? Is it just shik, no? Who would it be? Is it just Green Bay? Is Green Bay the only team that plays the Rams? I mean, it's not great for the Vikings, no, because if you play them in the playoffs,

and it's Miles Garrett and it's Byron Young and it's Kobe Turner and McDuffie, and oh my gosh. Like they have just put so much talent together on the defensive side. And I really feel like this is where the NFC is being won a lot of the times with a lot of good quarterbacks. It's can you block for them and can you give them a defense? And the teams that have been able to block for their quarterbacks and have a run game to support them have won the Super Bowl. The last two years, Philadelphia and the Seattle Seahawks. So, you know, can the Vikings run?

Can they block for Kyler Mur? Can they play elite defense? Well, I think we know that the Rams and Kyron Williams and Blake Quorum really ran exceptionally well last year. I think we know that they can check all of those boxes. It really comes down to do all of these players come together or is there injuries or is the maybe Stafford regression because the guy is very old now at this point. You know, he's coming off an MVP season, but we saw Rogers go from MVP in 2021.

to, oh, what's happening with Aaron Rogers in 2022, from, you know, 21 to 22 MVP to, oh, it's not that great. So you don't know when it comes to older quarterbacks when it's going to fall off. But if you're doing this today and you're looking at the fan dual odds going plus 550 to win the Super Bowl is kind of crazy. Yeah, they are the favorite going into the season by far. Purple Kool-Aid, Howie Roseman traded a first for Brown, got him for his prime, then flipped him for a first and a fifth. I wonder how other GMs even pick up the phone. He is playing a different game than everybody else. You are absolutely right.

And replacing him with a really good prospect that dropped in the draft in Mackay Lemon, but is very talented. You're right. Philadelphia. And this is these two teams, like what a great day to make this point, right? Like those two teams in the NFC are the teams that you can clearly point to and say best front offices in the NFL, Philadelphia and Los Angeles. Their management of what they have as you're talking about, a declining asset, but a desperate team in New England. So, hey, New England let go with Stefan Diggs. We better go trade for A.J. Brown.

And we're going to give you a first round draft pick for it. Seems very desperate of a New England Patriots team that got. to the Super Bowl last year, but then moved on from Stefan Diggs for, I don't know, Stefan Diggs related reasons. So you end up with giving up a first rounder. You're replacing someone who might, I mean, at this point in their careers, Diggs was really good. A.J. Brown might be that good.

If he's better, I'd be a little surprised than Diggs was last year. And the AFC, I mean, Mahomes is coming back. Lamar's got a new coach. You have Josh Allen still in the mix. the Houston Texans. The AFC is pretty freaking nasty. So it doesn't feel the best for New England to have to give up that much. I mean, when you break this down, it feels a little crazy how if you just compare,

and I'm not saying this is fair at all because A.J. Brown's had a great career. But Joanne Jennings production over the last two years for $9 million versus A.J. Brown for a first round draft pick and his salary. I don't know. It's not even really close from those two, from the production that Joanne has given. And I'm not saying they're the same receiver. But nothing is done in a bubble in the NFL. It's always this is the worth of the asset that you have.

And I know they're human beings and we talk about them that way. But at the end of the day, that's the economics play for front offices. So for Howie Roseman, yes, to make a trade for Brown and his prime, bring him in, use up all of his prime, swing him for a first round draft pick and replace him with somebody that is way, way cheaper is a hell of a job. And what you want people to say about Nolan Teasley, like this is your goal, Nolan Teasley. Your goal is to have people like us talking about the team going, I don't know how he did it.

He did it again. He managed the heck out of that situation again. Did you feel like that during Kwecci da Fu Mensa? Maybe a couple times. Did you feel like that with Rick Spielman? Maybe a couple times. With Philadelphia and Los Angeles, you feel that way all the time. Yeah, I don't, I definitely do not think that A.J. Brown was worth a first round draft pick.

Purple Kool-Aid, do you think another team may look at Brasinski next year if there's an opening? I can't see that. I think Rob Brzezinski's a Viking for life. That's how, I mean, if I'm another team and maybe over the years he's had this opportunity, I would love to have Rob Brzezinski in my front office. but in terms of do I think he's going to leave for another position? No, I would be, I would be really, really shocked if that happened. Steve says, Mr. Collar might ask Tisley on Wednesday during the press conference about

who has finals say over the 53 man roster. Someone will. Someone will. I'm not probably going to waste my question if I get the opportunity on that. But you know what? I'll probably ask. and you guys are going to be shocked by this, but I probably will ask about the management and overseeing

of the research and analytics department as well as scouting and how they utilized all those things together. Well, probably no one can prepare for that now that if Purple Insider asked the question, and there's a lot of media at these things. So sometimes I do, sometimes I don't. But if that happens, that'll likely be my question. Someone will ask about the 53 and the final say,

you know what they'll respond with is Well, you know, we're all working together and collaborating. So if I'm getting one, I'm probably not asking that one. But you never know. That's fair enough. The Pentagon of power. The Rombus of Rightness. I like that.

That's good. Stevens says Seattle got worse over the last couple of days losing Tisley and having to deal with Miles Garrett. That's, you know, the thing about winning the Super Bowl is it's so crazy. And it's why I love football so much. But it also, if you think about it too much, have you ever had a, word gets stuck in your head and you say it a couple times and then you don't know if it's a word anymore. That's like when you try to figure out how to win the Super Bowl, where you just end up getting

completely mind boggled by the Seattle Seahawks last year were this close to not having home field advantage, but then they did. And they probably would have less wanted to play the Philadelphia Eagles, who I think were a stronger defense to go out and face them. But they end up with the 49ers who had just lost George. Kiddled to an Achilles and played a nightmarishly physical game all the way across the country. And then in the NFC championship, which was really the Super Bowl, Sam Darnold, of course, played like a maniac in that game.

It was peak Sam Darnold. He never has to apologize for that. But they are one Matthew Stafford pass away from maybe the Rams winning that Super Bowl. And if they don't win it, if the Seahawks don't win it and the Rams go win it and then they trade for Miles Garrett, You'd be sitting there going, we lost our offensive coordinator, we lost our AGM, we lost defensive talent, and now the Rams are better. So that's why it's so hard to do two times in a row. It's also why those Vikings losses in the past are so devastated because you guys know

this as much as anyone is every single thing has to come together and it usually doesn't have lightning strike twice. Axston says I found it interesting that Mark Wilf did not include Brian Flores. Yeah, I guess a little bit, me too. The head coach, though, is in a, no matter who it is over the entire NFL, is in the, like, that's the front door of your franchise person is the head coach. So it would be very, very rare if you looped in a defensive coordinator into the decision-making, process in terms of giving them a level of power.

But, I mean, this team has done that. And Brian Flores has had that. That his say is really important and it should be. But in terms of the actual decision making, I think what they're making clear here and maybe we will get more details on how the interactions, maybe not the final say, but how the interactions are supposed to go is it's not going to be a defensive coordinator. Like, there's no team in the league where you would have a defensive coordinator or offensive coordinator

that are officially in on the decision-making process. That is because Brian Flores works for Kevin O'Connell. Kevin O'Connell is at the top. Flores is his defensive coordinator. And if he wants Flores to not be his defensive coordinator, he can do that, right? So not that he would, but, like, that's his authority, his power. If you're making some sort of flow chart, it's you're going to have the general manager at the very top. and I assume that Rob Brissonsky is answering to him in the way that this has worked before,

and Kevin O'Connell is answering directly to ownership. Teasley is answering directly to ownership, and the three of them are supposed to work together. Now, it means a lot to Kevin O'Connell what Brian Flores has to say, but it also, for Nolan Teasley, if Brian Flores comes in and says, I want Jonathan Allen on a $20 million contract, you're supposed to be the one that can say no and have the credibility in the room for everyone to say, all right, well, that's his call and he's making it. That's how it would usually work there.

Triumvirate, trapezoid, tripod. I like that. Hexagon of heroic football strategies a little much. Triangles are a tripping hazard. Okay. The Eiffel Tower of Effectiveness. So you guys really got into your bag here in the comment section. um,

Stephen says today was the most exciting June 1st of the recent past. Garrett and A.J. Brown trades. Oh, that's right. I mean, I didn't even mention that OBJ is back as a New York giant. Great point, Stephen and Juju Smith Schuster as well. So that kind of tells you again about, you know, getting Joanne Jennings and why it was a good thing.

Because Smith Schuster has been not great for a while. OBJ. I'm good. No thanks on that. So. You're right, though, all sorts of movement going on. And let's not forget, Stephen, $12.5 million of cap space dropped into the Vikings. A joker, who is delegating Rob's responsibilities, the Wilf's or Tisley?

This makes it sound like the Wilf's. I would guess that it would be the Wilf's who would be saying, these are your jobs and this is your level of authority for Rob Brzezinski. I mean, I don't know how it's going to work in terms of if there is a massive disagreement, I want to sign Kyler. You don't want to sign Kyler. Who ends up winning out? I tend to think, though, and I've said this before, because I stole it from Sam Monson,

who's going to come on the show tomorrow, by the way. Sam Monson of Check the Mike podcast, formerly PFF. He one time said on his podcast that players number two through 53 are the GM and the head coach. And player number one, the ownership is involved. and that's the quarterback. So what they do next to quarterback, the ownership will definitely be involved. But the way that it is generally worked, the way it was explained to me, and I assume it's going to be similar to this, is the GM and coach answer to the owners.

And when there are different directions and decisions that have to be made, and this is why I will always say, I don't care, who said keep Darnold, who said get rid of Darnold at the end of the day, the franchise let go of Darnold. and he embarrassed them by winning the Super Bowl and J.J. McCarthy is fighting for QB2. So at the end of the day, I don't know who said what and who wanted what, but they're all responsible. Everyone who was there, everyone, even if you were against letting Darno go, you didn't make a good enough case. So anyway, but from what I've understood is that when there are big decisions to be made,

directions to be laid out, the general manager and the coach are going to present their ideas and what the franchise wants to do from the front office and from everyone having all their meetings and everything else. I guess the question is when they have those meetings, when they get on Zoom, is it, it sounds like it's Rob and Kevin and Nolan, all having those conversations with ownership, which overall I like. They believe in Rob Brzeinski.

They know what he's done for this franchise over many, many years. They trust him. Having his voice in those discussions, I think overall is a good thing. The Lance says, I hope there's not too many cooks in the kitchen. Yeah, I mean, like there's three. Not like 37. But, you know, these three.

But they're in very different spots, though. You know, Tisley's the new general manager. So it's new ideas that he's bringing in. Kevin O'Connell has known ownership for a good amount of time. They know how he operates. And of course, they trust Brzezinski. So they're in a little bit of, you know, different spots. there. Stephen, are Grigsins days numbered as assistant GM? You got to think Tisley may have other

people in mind to bring in as his right-hand man. I would expect that he will bring in his own assistant general manager. It would be very, very surprising to me because even Quasi had his own assistant general managers with Ryan Grigsley and Demetrius Washington. So my expectation is that he will get to select his own assistant general managers and they will answer to him the way that he answered to John Schneider and they will manage a lot of different elements of the front office the way that Nolan Teasley was. So those hires, well, we have a tough time figuring them out like what they do on a day-to-day basis from the outside. They're usually considered to be very important. I definitely think if you're hired as a GM, a big part of the conversation with the owners

is who do you want to bring with you? Who are you taking from Seattle? And there's a couple folks who have been considered risers in their front office that might end up in Minnesota. And I'd like to see that as well, that, you know, bring in people who have a fresh perspective on this front office and want to run things the way that Seattle has. That has been a very successful model out there for a very long time.

Joker, ideally Nolan strongly listens to Rob for his asset management. skills and Nolan delegates any non-team building nonsense to Rob or others. Yeah, when you're talking, I was telling the story about Rick Spielman and the, the ad sign on the training case. Every GM has to deal with that stuff, man. Like, that's just not, you know, that's not uncommon at all because you're managing an entire building. Did you guys ever see the show?

Was it called Las Vegas? Many years ago, there was a show called Las Vegas, which I think did a really good job of showing how much stuff happens in a single casino that the management has to deal with every day, that's like a football franchise. Every single day, there's fires to put out. There's people that you have to talk with. There's vendors that you have to talk with. There's, and not just like advertising with you, but, you know, your, your pro football focus and

your data and you're all sorts of different things that you have to deal with. There's coaches. There's all. I mean, it's not just sitting in a room. when we all think we could do it, we all think we could do it with a PFF subscription and RAS scores and stuff like that. And you know what?

You could get really far with that stuff. But it doesn't work that way. And of course, I've always wondered to myself, like, what if it did? What if a team was entirely run, an NFL team in terms of all of its roster decisions by one guy? What if it was just Nolan Tisley,

himself alone in a room with a computer, and he could watch as much tape as he wants, wanted, but he had no other responsibilities. It was just you make every single roster move. Like, how would he do? Uh, I think in terms of the logistics of actually signing players and everything else, getting players on boarded, bringing them into the franchise, all that a person couldn't do. But a really sharp person, I wouldn't be shocked if they would do just as well as a, a huge group. But there's also an idea in, you know, like wisdom in crowds, right? If you have a group of people who are very good at what they do and they're all working together that they'll come to

the right answers. So that's a lot of the idea and it's really much more corporate structure than people understand. Purple Kool-Aid Vaughn Miller keeps insisting he wants to play. I'm not, not into that, not into that idea. Okay, that's one, AJ Epinessa. Yep, he had some flashes, purple Kool-aid. He had some flashes in Buffalo. I don't know if it fits with the outside linebacker or, you know, maybe it does if they were looking for someone to be the pure rusher. Hassan Reddick, I don't know if does it, I mean, it's felt like at times, maybe he was just the Jets. Maybe the Jets people make you crazy. But that Hassan Reddick has been a little bit erratic at times.

I might still have something in the tank. Didn't love what I saw from him from a numbers perspective as much as I liked Leonard Floyd. But maybe he's the kind of guy. So they're out there. Mama, love you some Bo Richter. I did a story on Bo Richter a couple years ago. Very interesting guy and a way better athlete than people understand. There might be something there, but I think if you're relying on that,

then that's where it could be tough if he has to play a lot. Purple Kool-Aid, if you could trade for anyone who would it be realistically, like anyone in the entire league, I think the guy was just acquired today. I mean, that's the thing about this trade is truly this is one of those. These people never get traded. Miles Garrett and actually Max Crosby also got traded. Miles Garrett is on a totally different Hall of Fame all time great player.

I think for me it would probably be Patrick Sartan. Not that that's that realistic, but the number one freak corner does not exist that much in the NFL. Maybe it never did, but I, but maybe guys just got interceptions and got labeled that in the past when I was growing up. but maybe it's also because teams play so much zone coverage now that there's less of this.

I'm going to be the shutdown. Receivers are moving all the time. But that guy is so freaking valuable to the Denver Broncos. If you could just sort of pluck one guy off another team, it might be him. It also might be like whoever we're considered. Well, now Jason Kelsey's not in the league anymore. Landon Dickerson, whoever the best center in the league is, Landon Dickerson, I'll also take him because I think center is the most underappreciated position in the NFL,

very, very hard to replace. Matt wins the next camp available to the media. I do not know that yet. I'll have to, let me check my email to see. Usually find out a couple of days before. Oh, well, look at that. I'm not, I am not kidding. I did not even see this email.

And now I just did. So we're going to find out together. That would be, let's see, Thursday. Thursday at 10.35 in the morning. That's unusual, a little earlier in the morning than you, than normal. So there you go. On Thursday at 1035 in the morning, I'll be out there at TCO Performance Center to watch a practice. And then I'll have a write-up.

And obviously, we will have a podcast breaking it down as well. Matt Verick, with the cap space, I would wait until closer to training camp to sign a veteran pass rusher, then hold on to the rest and see what else is needed during training camp. I like that idea. I like the wait and see. I have no issue whatsoever with that. They waited and seed on weighted and saw on Stefan Gilmore. And that turned out to be great for them.

Because sometimes somebody does just wait, wait, wait, because they don't really feel like coming to training camp, some veteran players. That might be Kyle Van Nuoy. It might be Leonard Floyd, where they figure I've played. so much football I could just sort of pop in and it worked for Gilmore. He played almost every snap in week one.

Or sometimes you get into a training camp and there's just a situation where a team maybe didn't expect a certain player to emerge or there's a disagreement on a situation with their contract or whatever it might be and they just go, you know what, all right, we're just going to trade you. And then, you know, maybe the Vikings are sitting there because. they have cap space at that point. We do see that type of stuff every once in a while where players who are not maybe even necessarily expected on the market or kind of out there for a long time suddenly get traded at the end of training camp. And for whatever reason, the one that's coming to

mind is Chris Herndon. I know that didn't work out, but it's that kind of trade where Chris Herndon had been a proven player for the Jets and they had a younger guy that they wanted to give the job. they were kind of rebuilding. So the Vikings trade for Chris Herndon, and it turns out to be one of the worst trades they've ever made. So don't make that again.