Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Notes from the first padded practice -- Irv Smith Jr. leaves, Harrison Phillips wins

Episode Date: August 2, 2022

Matthew Coller breaks down the Vikings' first padded practice by analyzing press conference clips regarding Eric Kendricks and Jordan Hicks' relationship and Matt Daniels' wild analogy with Greg Joseph. Then he answers questions on KJ Osborn, DeShaun Watson's suspension, the most plausible insane season and much more.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Welcome to another episode of Purple Insider, Matthew Collar here. And friends, we have a padded practice to break down. And that is exactly what we're going to do. We've got press conference clips. We have fan questions. And we have practice notes. I am telling you, it is so hard when they're running around in shorts to make actual observations. But now, oh, now we can do this. And you may think that I'm kind of messing with you a little, but I'm really not. I've got a notebook worth of things that actually happened today,

starting with our injury issues or absences, because they don't have to put out an injury report. So if someone is sitting out, they might just tell us it's load management. Even if it's not, it could be an injury. We don't know. And the fact that it's Kevin O'Connell and that we haven't worked with him like we did with the Mike Zimmer and we knew with Zimmer that some injuries he was going to tell us and some injuries he wasn't going to tell us. And you never really knew how honest he was going to tell us and some injuries he wasn't going to tell us. And you never really knew how honest he was going to be or forthright.

But in training camp, the teams don't have to do it. So I'm just saying that to tell you that Kenny Wong will was not practicing today. And Irv Smith Jr. started the practice and then left and went off the field with a trainer. He returned, but he did not practice. So remember when I said on just the last episode, things will change quickly. This could be a thing that changes. This could be nothing. It could be an actual tweak or it could be more.

That's where we're going to find out as we go forward and get updates from Kevin O'Connell and so forth. But it's among the list of things that you absolutely don't want to see is Irv Smith walking off with a trainer. Again, I'm not trying to fear monger about Irv Smith's knee. There may be just things that he has to go through as he recovers from his knee injury there could be precautions that are taken still very early in camp but when you see him go back to the locker room in the middle of a practice the alarm bells immediately go off because of who has to come in after the reps that took place right after Irv Smith left the field, it was Johnny Munt and Ben Ellefson.

And those are two guys that are more known as blockers. Now, later in the practice, there was an interesting development because they were playing situational drills and Zach Davidson made two very good catches in this situation, like a last minute drive. Very good throws by Kirk Cousins, but good catches by Zach Davidson. And I think the reason he was out in the field is because instead of Johnny Munt or Ben Ellefson is because he is the receiving tight end.

So if you're going to have somebody out there to take Irv Smith's place in a pure passing situation, it is Zach Davidson, which might lean toward him having a chance to get a job on this roster if he continues to make catches like that. And this is one of those, I try not to say we'll see about stuff because we'll see isn't like a report or an opinion. It's just the sort of shrug of the shoulders but as it comes to kenny wong woo and irv smith's health we'll see uh all right so some other things that i noticed we were in a great position to watch one-on-ones i was standing there with

arif hassan a couple other people and we were watching Harrison Phillips go up against Garrett Bradbury and it was a smashing of the face of Garrett Bradbury the two reps that I watched those two go at it one of them Garrett Bradbury ended up on his back and another one Harrison Phillips went right through him which you can look at one of two ways you could say Harrison Phillips is off to a good start and I think Phillips is just a good player in the league that at one of two ways. You could say Harrison Phillips is off to a good start, and I think Phillips is just a good player in the league. That was one of the signings that when we questioned veterans, that wasn't one that goes in that category because Phillips is young

and he's sort of an ascending player who could be here for years as opposed to, say, like a one-year type of signing but some great reps to watch right up close from Harrison Phillips but if you're thinking that Garrett Bradbury is going to change a lot about him I'm not sure that there's a whole lot of reason to have that confidence and one-on-one with a more powerful interior defensive lineman with great strength like Harrison Phillips. Harrison Phillips is one of those guys when you meet, you go, okay, so you play in the NFL.

He's a big, giant dude. And it's just not ever going to be a thing that Garrett Bradbury is going to be able to stop big, giant, violent dudes one-on-one. And that couple of reps was a reminder of that. Uh, BC Johnson and Amir Smith-Marset, they were taking the second team reps at wide receiver, almost all of them, Albert Wilson in there as well. And then they mix and match at times, but a lot of BC Johnson and Amir Smith-Marset, which would make you think that if you're talking about the top five wide receivers, there might be space for an Albert Wilson or BC Johnson or Amir Smith-Marset to all fit in there at once. But if you're doing it right now, it's Jefferson, Thielen, and then KJ Osborne, who is just having a really, really

great start to camp. I mean, he had a diving catch in the end zone uh today he's just off to a really good start and we'll talk about that a little later when i take fan questions but but it's what you wanted to see from kj osborne so you've got those three starters bc johnson amir smith marset albert wilson and then everybody else trying to uh win a job or trying to get on the practice squad. That's kind of how it looks right now. But would they keep six receivers? Would they keep Dan Chisna, the special teamer to make it seven receivers? Then you have to take from somewhere else.

So that's a question that we're going to be watching. But I think that the second team receivers have made some plays and looked okay so far. That's one that will, you know, they'll have ebbs and looked okay so far that's one that will you know they'll have ebbs and flows to it as it goes along but all of these guys have played in the league before that kind of looks like the depth chart at the moment there were some ups and downs for the offense it was highs and lows for sure like I mentioned the great situational drive with Zach Davidson but also Kirk C Kirk cousins through two interceptions. This may or may not matter to you.

I'm just telling you what happened. I know on a daily basis, there are some groups of reporters. If you follow on Twitter, where they will track how many completions or incompletions, interceptions, touchdowns, all those things.

I think it's worth talking about that it was up and down because what you want to see over the training camp is that days like today are much more up than down as opposed to more of 50-50. And usually that's what happens as the offense comes along throughout a training camp. But there were bumps in the road in the first padded practice.

Kellen Mond took the first second team reps, but Sean Mannion seemed to take just as many in total. So I guess that's where we stand is that that battle is going to continue as Mond and Mannion getting equal reps. What I want to know though, is who would start a preseason game if it started today. And I didn't think either quarterback really stood out if i were to if i had to pick and i could be wrong about this i thought kellen mon played a

little better than sean manion in this practice but that's one where it's going to be an accumulation day after day and then whoever starts the preseason game they will tell us oh you know that doesn't mean anything. And maybe the next guy will start whatever, but it will mean something. Whoever gets to start the preseason game, if cousins isn't playing or whoever is the first to come off the bench. If cousins does get some work in, in that first preseason game, a lot of you ask Jalen Twyman questions and I totally get your intrigue. And he justified it by getting second team reps along with T.Y. McGill and T.J. Smith and if you don't know who those guys are that's

okay because we'll wait to see if we need to know but Jalen Twyman getting second team reps is a very good sign for him because he's making a first impression to this coaching staff. He has not played football in a long time. That means they like something that they see to give him that chance to start. Also, uh, Brian Asamoah and Troy die where the second team linebacker combo, it's kind of been that way, but just to kind of circle back to that third round draft pick Troy die is a little bit more experienced than some of the other linebackers and we're just getting a sense for someone like Chaz Surratt maybe a ways behind here if Brian Asamoah is already getting those reps as the rookie with the second team and somebody's probably not going to make it in my initial 53 I had six linebackers it could be four it could be five

maybe they like somebody on special teams to make it six. That's how I plotted it out is that, you know, they like maybe Surratt on special teams they're trying to kind of give him a lot of reps with the second team to decide, is this someone that we actually want or not? You know, sometimes we think, oh, well, this guy must be ahead in a battle, but it's really trying to give him more difficult reps to see how he handles it. I don't know which one is the case with Troy Dye. Caleb Evans and Andrew Booth Jr. both got the second team cornerback reps. So Harrison Hand, who had gotten some with Andrew Booth Jr.

out for practice, he goes back down to the third team. So it kind of looks like they want the rookies to be their depth guys. And then how they play will determine whether they have that. And I'm just going to throw one name out there for a deep in the weeds player who might make some noise, and I'm not saying necessarily even make the team, but Tristan Jackson, who is a 2020 UDFA of the Los Angeles Rams, and I just discovered upon a Google search,

is the cousin of Braylon Edwards. He's had some plays. I'm not, I'm not saying he's going to beat out anybody for a job necessarily, but he's had some plays. He's kind of caught my eye. I also thought Jalen Naylor had a really good catch at one point during practice as well. So there's your full breakdown of padded practices, lots of other things to come i'm gonna get the other beat guys on i wanted to kind of hesitate to get every other beat reporter on the show with until we could really get a look at them and then get everybody else's opinions about what they think but that will come this week andrew kramer kevin seifert you know we're going to hear from some other voices on the

vikings as we go along but speaking of voices, let us begin our run through the press conferences before rapid fire questions and some fans only. Uh, let's begin with the Jordan Hicks and Eric Hendricks relationship. I wrote about this a little bit. It is a major change for Eric Hendricks. He has been with the same player next to him. I looked this up and I think it's right. I could be wrong, but I think this number is right. That 86 out of Eric Kendricks, 100 games were played with Anthony Barr. That is crazy to be this far into your career and have next to you another guy for 86 of the games that you play and now he's working with jordan hicks so how are they coming along here is jordan hicks we see a lot of things the same way um which is exciting you don't often get to play next to

somebody who has the experience the talent and the ability to see things the same way so to have all three for both of us is a lot of fun. And like I've been saying, you know, every day is a new day and we're trying to get better, feel each other, you know, how we play, how, you know, our instincts play a role in what we see. And, you know, I think as the season comes, you know, it'll be, it'll be good. Now it might be a little annoying with that background sound, but I can tell you that there was a guy hitting a sled right behind Jordan Hicks as he was talking to the media. So like, I mean, it's just football sounds that were going on. Eric Hendricks also talked and I think he brought up a really interesting

point about trying to learn from the mistakes that they make and having communication between he and Jordan Hicks, making sure they're seeing the same things, learning what went wrong, understanding that and adjusting. And another point that was made before I play Kendricks in his comments was that going up against this offense is actually very helpful. And because a lot of teams are playing this type of offense where motion is increasing, play action is increasing, the use of different formations that have like bunched wide receivers and that have the intent to throw off the linebackers and create confusion in the middle of the field

for easy completions to their quarterbacks. Like this is what the Vikings are doing. And so they're getting to learn against a modern offense that was being used in Los Angeles. And that's helpful. So here's Eric Hendricks on the mistakes, learning from them and getting closer with Jordan Hicks. It's good because, you know, maybe we get beat on something, but we both know at the same time why we got beat. And then we get another chance and we get a different look at it.

And then we're like, OK, let's talk about that now. And each day we're out here. We're getting beat, but we're also making plays. And they're all things to talk about regardless. And that communication off the field as well as the adjustments on the field is very important. And we both kind of have the same lingo. We both were eight years in the league, So we both really know what's going on. So we can call this portion of our press conference analysis,

the new besties part, because Harrison Phillips talked with the media as well. And he discussed learning some of the nuances of this defense from Delvin Tomlinson, who played in it, even going back to college. And these are two really bright guys. I mean, Delvin Tomlinson who played in it even going back to college and these are two really bright guys I mean Delvin Tomlinson there's a story from way back that he was originally recruited from Harvard and Harrison Phillips went to Stanford so they've got some bright guys in the middle which I remember Rick Spielman saying that he felt defensive tackle was a very high iq position and i agree with him from the different defensive tackles that i've covered even here i mean with linval joseph tom johnson

shamar stefan you usually need bright guys to be doing this job and so the vikings have two of them so harrison phillips explained how he's learning things from Delvin Tomlinson. Delvin has been very, very instrumental. I mean, he's been doing this in the NFL at a very high level, probably one of the best to do it at the defensive tackle position. So learning from him. And again, we're different players, although we have so many similarities, you know, you can only watch, you know, people who kind of are more your body type, more your speed,

more your technique. But Dalvin, just his, you know, veteranship of being in a defense for, what, six years, plus he did it at Bama. So he's been in this for a while. And I'll kind of turn around after seeing something on film and ask him, hey, like, would you have played this this way? Or am I OK if I tighten up here? You know, because I'm more of an attack guy, so I should. And so we have a really good balance between us and vice versa. Sometimes he sees the way I'll see a block and i'll kind of change my hand placement or foot placement he'll

ask me hey what what'd you see on that were you anticipating a certain play and so we can learn off each other okay so you can imagine that a lot of reporters were asking things about the pads coming back on and i mean look we you can only be so original right like the guys are always going to say when it's time to play the first preseason game well you know it's great to hit somebody else out there like it's always going to happen people will always be in the best shapes of their lives cliches are cliches for a reason and so you know when you ask players about getting the pads back on the answer is always oh yeah well this is when camp really begins folks it's not wrong like it's cliche because it's true

uh but in this case harrison phillips actually broke out of the cliche box and talked about how there's a different approach to training camp and pads on and all those things. If you're a young player and you're a rookie, or if you're a veteran player and it caught my ear because I thought, oh my gosh, this might be the first time that I have ever in my time covering football heard anyone say anything interesting about the pads coming on. So congratulations to Harrison Phillips for that. Stanford, folks, like I said.

The reality of it is that there are certain players on this team who have already solidified themselves on this roster and in the NFL. They're Pro Bowl-type players. Their process is going to look different from a guy who already knows they're a bubble player or a 53rd guy on the roster. So Jared Allen talked to us the other day, and he mentioned that. Young guys, you're here, and every single time you go out on that field, it's kind of life or death. You have to prove that you can play in this league. For the older guys, you know, it's more of a progression. Hey, week one, I work on my hands and stance. Week two, I work on my run

progression. Week three, I need to get that pass rush dial up. So it's more of a progression, not saying that you're more lackadaisical in your preparation, but there is a little more wiggle room. So with those young guys, as you see the competition, you see the shove in the back, you see jerseys getting pulled, you know, thank God we didn't have any significant injuries. You don't want that ever. Um, but, but you want that in your team. You want that competitiveness. Okay. Our final one goes to Matt Daniels, special teams coach, who all of you are going to eventually really like, and all of us immediately like because he has a great way of talking about football and he walks to the podium and just started talking

for like three minutes and just coaching us all up about his message to the players is like okay let's go this man loves his football. And I think that was everyone's impression of Matt Daniels right away, but he also has kind of a presence to him that immediately grabs your attention about the Vikings new special teams coach. And of course, the kicking comes up. Now, nobody is asked about whether he thinks there's a curse because this man is not from here and he's just trying to get the best out of his kicker but he did have an extremely football analysis of greg joseph's even keeled personality that i needed to bring you and uh i mean it's it's just fantastic.

So here it is. And, you know, I tell Greg all the time, just from a mindset standpoint, we have to find a way to stay neutral, right? So a lot of the greats, you look at Derek Jeter, Kobe Bryant, the LeBron James, they always talk about the mindset of staying neutral, right? Never getting too high, never getting too low, just kind of keeping that even keel. And that's kind where greg is at and i love it i love it honestly and if that's where he's at uh that's that's that's where you want to be you know when you talk about

the kicker position being you know the man in the arena you know just once if somebody would drop like a hersey hawkins or a wesley person you know maybe maybe, maybe throw a Joe Smith out there. Like that's, I want my kicker to be just like a Mark price. You know, he's just very, very accurate and calm. Like that's what I really want my guy to be. Now it's, then he goes with LeBron and Jordan and Kobe as his comparison throws in a Derek Jeter in the mix there. But I mean, honestly, Greg Joseph, I think what makes him a good kicker is that he had one go wrong and he got over it. And then what was it a week later, two weeks later, he ends up with a game winner and then was really good after that, that he did not under the pressure of Mike Zimmer, allow himself to collapse and fade throughout the season

after missing that kick against Arizona. Said a lot about Greg Joseph as a kicker, and I think one of the major reasons that they did not try to replace him. And Matt Daniels even made a guarantee that Greg Joseph is going to have his best season yet. So, I mean, that is, you talk about playing with Viking fire. This man is playing with Viking fire. But I love that.

I love that analysis. I think that is football. My kicker has got to have the same mentality as Kobe. Let's go. So, of course, if any of you yell Kobe at his first miss, well, you know, there you have it. But Matt Daniels is going to be a fun guy to talk to on a weekly basis. So let's get to your questions. We've got plenty more of those from training camp.

And then, as I said, we'll get into more stuff as we go down the road with different guests. I'll have a few guests that are mixing it up a little bit. Ian Harditz of Pro Football Focus does their fantasy. We'll talk a little bit about, you know, just we're going to go off the path of just hardcore, super insane training camp analysis from time to time with pods. So we're going to mix it up. But for now, super hardcore training camp analysis.

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So let's start with the first question. This comes from JokerMan5000. Quick fans only question. Seems we're hearing a lot of chatter early on in training camp about KJ Osborne reports of great catches, big plays. What are you seeing from young Mr. Osborne? Do you feel as though he's ready to take a step forward or is it typical

training camp hype? You know what he looks like to me is the same guy as last year. And we've talked about that with Justin Jefferson and how important that is that if you are good in the NFL, the key is to stay good in the NFL. And this kind of relates to Cam Dantzler from last year, right? Where as a rookie, you saw some things from Cam Dantzler that were really good. And you went into last year's camp thinking, all right, well, this guy should take the next step. And then he just didn't. And so far in this camp, there have been some good plays by Cam Dantzler.

I don't have a real feeling yet of where that's going. If they're going to go into the season looking at him like okay he should be good and solid or not but that's not the question the question is about kj osborne my point is just that you can have a breakout season and then the next year come back and not be as good because you either thought that you made it or they're playing better against you or there's an injury or like there's a lot of different things and kj osborne has come back doing exactly what he did in training camp last year, which was make a lot of great catches and plays. And that's how he ended up earning the wide receiver three job. I think where you feel a very early bit of confidence is that

he's come back just playing well, and he was banged up a little bit in mini camp, but that doesn't seem to be any sort of problem at the moment. I don't think there's another step because when you try to figure out, and that doesn't mean fantasy wise, it just means skillset wise. So if they throw more to the slot, like maybe he gets more catches, I don't know. But, and he had great numbers coming out of the slot last year by the way or maybe his numbers aren't as good and thielen is healthy the whole year or whatever or they're throwing to a fourth

receiver to smith marced or wilson and so his catches are down but he plays just as well like fantasy doesn't always tell you the facts of a player but when i try to figure out, does a guy have upside? What you look at is his athleticism, where he was drafted, what his age is, what his experience is. And though KJ Osborne is not that experience, this is only his third year. He is 25 years old and his athletic profile was pretty average for a player at his position i don't think that there's this other gigantic level for him to jump up it's not like if you're dk meccaf and you flash right away you go wow that could be something else because this guy is a freak kj osborne's not a freak kj osborne has to win with his IQ, his hands. He's just great at tracking and catching the ball.

And then he can make some plays after the catch. Like those are the things that he's got to do. He can improve on maybe his route running and getting off the line of scrimmage as an outside wide receiver. I think you could definitely see that. But as far as, oh, he's going to be like way better, you know, I would be surprised. But I think that if he's your number three wide receiver, who's capable of doing the things I just described, making catches, tracking the ball, making plays after the catch, like

that's pretty good. That's the thing that we were looking for for how many years when they kept running Laquan Treadwell out there. Like he is maybe a better version of the Jarius Wright thing that we talked about for so long that player they were looking for. And I think the early returns are, yes, that's what he's going to be for this offense. And that could be a big difference maker because, you know, they would get to those big situations and not have that guy.

But last year in a lot of big situations those big situations and not have that guy but last year in a lot of big situations kj osborne was that guy it was making the point that everyone tried to tell the previous regime year after year in a big spot other teams can occasionally take away your top receivers you need another guy and kj osborne seems to be that guy. But even going into camp, one of my takes was, Hey, this competition isn't over for wide receiver three. Like this is a new coaching staff and different fits, but right away, KJ Osborne is pretty much said, no, no, no, no, no, there's no competition for wide receiver three. Thank you. Uh, this one comes from jeff via email the browns and deshaun watson's agent foresaw some kind of suspension from the nfl for sexually assaulting some 25 plus women for this

reason nearly all of his money this year is already paid as a signing bonus if the current ruling stands he will forfeit a total of 2,243,534. My question, what is the best way for people like me to show how horribly unfair and misogynistic this ruling is? Yeah, I mean, this is something that we've talked about throughout. And the reason I wanted to include your question, Jeff, other than, of course, your loyalty to the show that I know you're a listener for a long time. And I appreciate you. The reason I want to talk about is because we had discussed it numerous times on the show and talked about how hard this is to deal with. If you're a fan of the NFL, when you knew this was coming, it felt like that it wasn't going to feel good. It wasn't going to feel like justice has been served with

deshaun watson at the end of the day when this finally came down and then it did with the six games and i don't know if they will appeal or if it's they're just going to leave it at six and hope that they can kind of put their fingers in the ears and uh just get through with all the other training camp things going on just get get through the pushback against this ruling, which of course I thought a year and then leave it at indefinite just in case other things come out was justice for this situation. And they did not go there with this ruling. And it's not completely final as of this second when we're talking about

it but it seems like they're going to stick with it that's just my guess is they'll stick with the six games and won't appeal and if that is what he ends up with just six games it does not feel like the punishment fits what he was accused of doing and that he's paid off a lot of people for something that he sort of claimed that he wasn't doing. But there's just like a mountain of evidence that this was going on, including even some on the Houston Texan side. Here's what I would say. There's probably people in your life, right? There's probably women in your life who have dealt with these things. There's a community that you live in. There are people who could use your help in some way or another, whether it's listen to them, help them be there for them, or whether it's donating to something. There are great organizations who help people who have been through things, whether it's just with support or in some cases where people need to get away from a situation, but don't

have resources. I don't think that you should put this on yourself. There are thousands of NFL players and most of them don't have these sort of issues. And the league is never in the history of this league ever come down on players the right way probably i mean i'm sure there are individual instances it's never made sense as i think it's fair to point out kelvin ridley puts down what 60 bucks or something on his team or whatever and he's out for the whole. And this guy does this and he's out for six games. It's never made sense. And they, they ruined Josh Gordon's career over drugs or something.

And that never made sense either. It seemed like they just took it out on him. Uh, you know, somebody else, uh, Kareem hunt kicks somebody on video. He gets eight games, but you know, Delvin cook is not facing any charges himself. And as far as I know, I've heard nothing about a suspension for him. I mean, nothing makes sense. Nothing makes sense with the NFL, but I would say, don't make it about yourself necessarily. Like you can't control this and watching the NFL. I mean, you can certainly root against the Sean Watson and his team watching the NFL and putting it on yourself. Uh, I mean, you can certainly root against Deshaun Watson and his team. Watching the NFL and putting it on yourself, I don't think you have to do that.

But I think we can learn a lesson from everything. Like, if this moves you and this hurts you and this frustrates you, use it as a lesson for your life in general and just how you act. That's what I would say is the best way to go about it. I mean, you can criticize the NFL and be mad at the NFL, but I think that even if you decide I'm not watching the league ever again, that won't change what happens. But maybe there's somebody in your life where you can change what happens.

I don't know, right? Tell, if you have kids, tell them. Tell them about this, right? I'm not the one to give parenting advice because I don't have kids, but it makes sense to me. Like tell them like this is wrong. And there are consequences, even if there aren't in this case, there are in life. So that's the best I can do because if you stop watching, no one will care. It won't change the NFL. Nope. Nobody's going to shut down the Cleveland Browns. If you stop watching, no one will care. It won't change the NFL. Nope. Nobody's going to shut down the Cleveland Browns if you stop watching. Maybe that's the wrong mentality.

I don't know. But they've never got this right. They will probably never get this right. We can learn from things that we see in life without carrying them with us, I guess. So, all right. This one from, we'll just switch gears ridiculously fast and we'll go back to camp stuff but i thought since i had put a lot of discussion into it leading up to this that i wanted to bring it up uh from josh r smith on twitter friend of the show uh what's the craziest prediction about this team

or vikings player that could legitimately come true daniel hunter 22 sacks, JJ, 2000 yards, Kenny Wong Wu, three kick returns for touchdown Kirk cousins, 45 touchdown passes. Well, the 45 touchdown passes would be hard because Delvin Cook's going to score touchdowns. So that's, I mean, the touchdown pass totals are always so wonky with quarterbacks. It's why I started focusing a lot when it comes to quarterbacks with just how you produce as an offense. Because when you look at touchdown totals and you go, wait a minute, they had the top offense, but their quarterback only threw whatever touchdowns. And this offense was worse because people run the ball in the end zone sometimes. And this team will probably do it with Delvin Cook.

That one's a hard one to get to. Justin Jefferson, 2,000 yards is an absolute possibility because of 17 games. If it wasn't 17 games, I would say no way, no chance. If they're playing in a lot of wide open football games, it's possible that you could get there. Daniil Hunter, 22 sacks, I cannot see. It's just so many. I mean, that, that would mean going from his highest total of 14 and a half, which is a marvelous season to jumping up by,

you know, a third or wait, is that how that works? Math wise? I mean, just, you know, yeah, basically his best season would only be two thirds of what you know ridiculous prediction that's that's a lot that i think is way too much the adjusted jefferson ones are probably the closest to accurate that you could get and if you're going like completely off the deep end and totally wild predictions all right next one we'll go rapid fire here so i won't spend forever uh this comes from bob h332 backup center possibilities in case bradbury's extra weights doesn't pan out i haven't seen this extra weight i don't know where that was where that was out there i think he maybe told somebody put on extra weight it's like i don't know it's like that seems like a typical training camp thing like oh yeah i put on this extra weight this off season.

Like, cause I was getting steamrolled last year. And from what we've seen so far, it's just not going to change. Not at 27 years old, not for as much football has been played here, but that's not your question. Your question is about the backup center possibilities. Austin Schlottman is the guy who is behind Garrett Bradbury. That one seems unlikely. Chris Reed, maybe, maybe Chris Reed, maybe.

The JC Treader dream seems to be dead at the moment that I'm not sure he's just going to play in the league this year, even after having a really good and healthy season for the Browns. That one is puzzling. But I was on NewYorkGiants.com's season preview stuff with former punter Jeff Fegels. Okay, so like this story is great already, right? If you guys remember Jeff Fegels, he played in the league forever and he's, and he's real cool.

And so he's, you know, we're talking about, you know, this whole thing about the offensive line. And I asked him, even though he was talking to me about the Vikings, I turned it around and asked him like, do you think that JC Treader doesn't have a job because he's the NFL PA president? And he said that that is a, not a crazy conspiracy theory. Put it that way. Maybe that's the case. But if that is the Vikings, I don't know, like need to not care about that to get past blocking it. This could be a situation

where if it just goes bad at the center position through these padded practices, somebody else is playing center to start week one. I would still be very surprised, but it pinged in my head that it's either Schlottman or Reed, or they just go outside entirely and look for somebody else, maybe a trade, or maybe someone gets cut last minute. I would not entirely dismiss that possibility. All right. This comes from at sky you Miku, which young players are prime for big roles,

deepest and most concerning position groups, deepest slash most concerning. So the two different things, which young players are prime for big roles? Not that many. I mean, it's either going to be Cam Bynum or Louis scene. Brian Asamoah looks like he could have some role, but we're going to have to see whether that actually comes to fruition.

The fact that he's playing with the second team, uh, is part of it. And Andrew Booth jr. So the first three draft picks have a chance, as they so often do on every roster, have a chance to play big roles. And if it isn't Louis Seane, then it will be Cam Bynum. That's another young player. But aside from that, situational rushers, those guys will have their opportunities,

and almost no one else. I mean, it's a really veteran-experienced roster from mostly top to bottom. I mean, it's a really veteran experienced roster from mostly top to bottom. I mean, when we talked to Mark Wilf, he said it was a mix, but the mix is not 50-50. The mix is like 80-20 for players that have a ton of experience

versus players that do not. And as far as the deepest versus most concerning position groups, I think that as far as the deepest versus most concerning position groups i think that as far as depth goes the secondary could have depth it could which would be a first for the last few years but it could i also remember saying this about like holton hill mike hughes cam dantzler it's like uh 2020 well they got a lot of people that it could work out for and it worked out for nobody but if they check the boxes and Andrew Booth Jr. and Louis Scene end up with jobs and roles in some way whether that's starting or just as part of a situational or rotational

package they could look pretty deep there most concerning has got to be the defensive line has to be or linebacker but linebacker is always this way like you lose one guy you're usually down to somebody who can't play that's every team defensive line though a lot of teams do have rotational players so if somebody gets hurt it's next man up the vikings used to have that like think when they were the number one defense b B-Rob is coming off the bench. Like that's a pretty good player coming off the bench. That is not what they have right now. Someone is going to have to prove me wrong about that.

But right now at the moment, the lack of depth aside from say Armond Watts and maybe DJ Wanham, that might be a bit of a stretch there's just nobody you can count on so far and we're going to see them in preseason games there will be tons of opportunities for someone to rise to the challenge but if one person goes down there it looks pretty bleak I think that's probably the most concerning you're always worried about if your top receiver goes down it's a big problem you're always worried about offensive your top receiver goes down it's a big problem you're always worried about offensive line but oddly they even have some players as backups like chris reed is a backup it's a pretty good backup i would say ollie udo as a tackle not as a guard but as a tackle is a

pretty good backup all right on to the next question at the twos tuse on twitter new staff aside zadarius smith has an engaging personality do you see a change in attitude on the defense because of smith is there a difference in attitude more so a new staff uh the attitude is going to depend on how they play truly it will truly depend on how they play that's attitude and everything. If they are good because of Zedaria Smith, nobody will care if Zedaria Smith says nothing, or if he's got the most infectious, wonderful personality in the universe, it depends on winning and losing. I mean, I think that Everson Griffin was a pretty special case, but mostly because of how he played his motor, his energy, and then his personality comes along with that. But it was how he played.

He was the driving force of that defense. They need Zedaria Smith to be the same thing. We know he can be, and we know he has been before, but I don't think that if him and Daniel Hunter were best friends or worst enemies, that it would honestly really matter. I really don't think that at the pro level that stuff like that makes for a good story. And when he was with Preston Smith, they would do their press conferences together. That's great. It's great to have chemistry, but there's lots of teams that

have been at each other's throats that win because they're good. And that's, what's going to matter. Is he in there? Is he healthy? That will help. But Daniil Hunter is the quietest guy. And I mean, think about somebody who's had his production at his age, how little fanfare that he even got when he was healthy before he missed time, because he's just not any sort of self promoter. He's not in commercials. He's not getting interviewed all the time. You got maybe the rare once per year, the Fox pregame show talks about Daniil Hunter.

But aside from that, he's very, very reserved. And yet, you know, he's great. And everyone wants to play with him because he works extremely hard. And to come back from the injury the way he did just was evidence about him and his drive and everything else. Yeah. I mean, I think that the personality stuff is great. And when you have a bunch of guys that gel together on defense, that can help you.

But largely it's look out, look, if this guy's good at football, you know, it's, it's great. If he's, if he smiles in the press conferences, we'll take the quotes, but I'm not sure that it makes a huge difference. And it's great. I'm sure for them to be around him, if he's really fun to be around, there are also some guys who are great in press conferences who you hear later, maybe weren't that fun to be around, but kind of put on a little bit of an act for the media. So we're always parsing through those things. I try to not make too much of that unless I'm kind of sure that somebody's

personality is impacting others. Like when, you know, Terrence Newman was teaching guys the corners on the days off and stuff like that. When you hear those things, uh, the corners on the days off and stuff like that when you hear those things uh that might be impactful if zadaria smith is trying to help the younger players learn like everson griffin did possibly but they will have better energy and better vibes if they come out and sack aaron

rogers five times like that's what's going to make the difference. All right. Let's go to another question here from Gwag0405. I'm always worried that I'm saying some word that means something on the internet that I've never heard of. All right. Not specific to training camp, but have you heard any rumblings of the Vikings bringing back retro jerseys for a game this year with the NFL allowing multiple helmet designs. I see a lot of teams announcing alternate retro jerseys. I have not heard anything though. The teams that did didn't say anything about it and then just dropped it one day. There's options though. There's options. I've seen people trying to design them and things like that. They have options. I liked the person's idea who wanted to add a gray element to it, or maybe a gray helmet or

purple face mask. Like they've got options. You know, I think that when they went color rush, that was a controversial. It's like some people really loved color rush. Some people didn't, but you know, maybe there is a retro style that looks like the jerseys from way back in the day, maybe even put long sleeves on them, uh, that there, there could be an option there. It's, it would be surprising to me if they didn't come up with something just because any opportunity and then not criticizing the business here, but any opportunity to do something that catches people's eyes that might result in jersey sales is usually good for the NFL. So I don't know if they will do it or not.

I feel like it. Why wouldn't you? It can't be that hard to take a classic design that they already have and do something with it. As long as they do not come up with a black version of the jersey and helmet please do not i've had enough of that in the nfl uh okay let's see well at skull doctor asked about irv smith and whether he looks like he's playing with the same intensity i mean not so far no and then with what happened at practice with him leaving uh and not finishing the practice not what you want to see but i am not judging that one i have seen so many

players come from off-season surgeries and things like that at the beginning of camp they usually look like they're just figuring it all out this is one that we're going to have to be patient on and judging and we'll we'll just watch on a day-to-day basis. But if I had to guess, as long as nothing is wrong from yesterday, if I had to guess, I would say that it'll be like three weeks in and we'll see it finally go. Oh, okay. There's there's Irv Smith. But right now, no, I don't think there's quite the same confidence or the same pop.

All right. One last question here. Let's go to at Katie less on Twitter. Looking at training camp so far, do you think Dalvin Cook will continue to be a bell cow featured back or will Kevin O'Connell use more of a running back by committee approach like the Rams do? Do you think the Vikings should? I definitely

think they should and that depends on Kenny Wong Wu's health if they see anything with Ty Chandler but even if it's just Alexander Madison I do think that they should take I don't even know if I would call it like a long-term approach or more of just a like trying to be a little bit more um deliberate about what they do or they like to use the word intentional. Like I like that for this. I don't like that in general, but I like that for this. Like intentional as in, no, we're going to only play him X snaps. And that's what we're going to do because we need them for 17 games.

I wouldn't be surprised if they have a plan in camp. They're mixing Alexander Madison in a lot of reps to go along with, you know, Delvin Cook. Delvin never takes a full workload. He's never the guy out there in training camp ever. So I can't really tell you from just this, that's going to be something that we'll only know in the regular season. I just think that this is a group that thinks about these things more and that that will eventually show up in things like this. They'll realize Madison is good. Wong Wu is good. Or, you know, we'll see again with the health, but can play and use them in more of a rotation, but not one where he's, it's still going to be the bell cow. Like Delvin cook is even after last year where it wasn't quite as good.

One of the best running backs in the NFL. If you're taking bets on all the running backs in the league to lead the league in rushing, he's going to be one of the bets you make still. And it's not like the Rams didn't run the football. I mean, when they had Todd Gurley, they ran like crazy and he had great numbers and they threw a lot of passes

to him and everything else. I expect Delvin cook to be on the field a ton and I expect them to give them, give him the ball a ton like that. They're not going to forget about a Delvin cook with this offense. It's just that you can limit not getting those 25, 30, uh, carry games and not always saying your answer to everything is just run Delvin cook more. So we'll continue as we go along more and more questions that you have more fans, only questions, feel free to keep sending them at Matthew collar on Twitter. I've focused a lot on the training camp questions I've gotten.

I still have, if you sent me recently a different fans only question, I have it. It's in the file, but all of a sudden with camp starting, I've kind of gotten overrun a little and I'm trying to get as many in as I possibly can. So if you haven't heard yours yet, be patient, keep listening. And,

uh, I thank you all for that. Again, I'll just say this maybe at the end of every episode, but go to, uh, those reviews and the five star, if you can,

uh, just the other day, I was looking at the charts and kind of where the show ranks and it's moved up not only just in the football rankings, but into the top 250 sports podcasts overall. So all the sports podcasts were in the top 250 in the universe. So take that water polo podcast. But I think part of that is you guys leaving reviews. So if you haven't done it yet, just leave a little five-star review. You don't have to say anything nice if you don't want to.

Just throw it in there. If you want to, that's fine. Just throw it in there. It really helps hack whatever algorithm is used for other people to find the show. And I've seen the numbers increasing because of camp, but also I think because you guys help the show in that way. So I appreciate you guys so much and big week for us here on the show.

We'll catch you later.