Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Now that OTAs and minicamp are over, what are the odds JJ McCarthy starts Week 1?

Episode Date: June 12, 2024

Matthew Coller and Dane Mizutani of the Pioneer Press talk about JJ McCarthy's conversation with the media on the final day of OTAs and Kevin O'Connell saying that Sam Darnold is the starter. Plus the kicker impresses, so does Dallas Turner Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hey everybody, welcome to another episode of Purple Inside or Inside TCO Performance Center following the final OTA practice of the year. It is summertime. I'm here with Dane Mizzutani of the Pioneer Press as the Vikings will head off to Cabo for some, maybe Europe for others, but not for J.J. McCarthy as he informed us today that he will not be going on vacation. Instead, he said, I'm going to get in a little bit of golf,

but he is going to hang around the facility and continue to try to improve and master the Minnesota Vikings offense, which I think is probably a good sign for him that there's no days off for JJ McCarthy. He's going to stick around, but we're going to talk about his improvement as a whole, where he said that he made the biggest strides and the biggest challenges of course for him as well and then go through some other news items that we learned today but we need to start off with watching will reichard kick inside it was unbelievable i'm not even kidding it really was unbelievable but let's start with jj mccarthy we'll work our way around back to the kicker i think that what you wanted to hear from kevin o'connell and jConnell and JJ McCarthy is everything that you have heard,

that he has been the type of player that they were looking for from the outset, that his work ethic has been there, that there has been improvement. And I think we definitely saw that. But also, Kevin O'Connell confirmed to us today that if he had to start a game today, Sam Darnold would clearly be his quarterback number one. So what is your biggest takeaway from hearing from JJ McCarthy and Kevin O'Connell today here following the final OTA practice of the spring? Yeah, I think it has to be that it's just going to continue to be a growth process for JJ McCarthy. And it doesn't sound like anyone's hiding from that,

which is good because I think if there was this delusion that he was going to start on his end or this beating around the bush that Sam Darnold was not the starter on Kevin O'Connell's end, there could just be an area of gray that could just overtake this entire situation. Everything we've heard from Kevin O'Connell from the jump has been a consistent message of this is going to take some time. We are kind of reteaching his footwork and the way he plays the position. So I think to hear today that it's just continued to be a pathway of growth is probably the biggest thing I'm taking away. I also think when you hear J.J. McCarthy talk about it, he talked about how growth isn't linear. There are days when you feel like you're going up and there's a little dip here and there.

But I think at the end of the day, he talked about just wanting to keep that upward trajectory. And it seems like he has, like for the most part. We've seen in very short snippets, anecdotes, some bad throws, some inaccurate throws. We've also seen some good throws, some accurate throws. I think it's probably amplified for the coaching staff. They've seen all those tenfold. But I think just talking to Kevin O'Connell, talking to JJ McCarthy,

the main takeaway has just been growth. And it does sound like he is at least growing through the process. So that's a good sign. And then I think we'll see even more how far he's taken it in this gap. Some veterans use this time to completely get away. I think it's good that J.J. McCarthy is going to use this to continue to download new information. We'll see what kind of player he looks like at training camp.

That's obviously the next step for him. But overall, generally good things, some ups, some downs, nothing too unexpected. I think the biggest takeaway for me talking with McCarthy is that he just has a real humility about this entire thing where he has not come in with a shred of arrogance. I mean, sometimes you see this from rookies where they will come in and we'll talk to him and say, Hey,

what's it's a standard question. What's the biggest thing you want to learn? Because a lot of times that opens the door to a conversation with them about what techniques they're learning, who they're working with, whatever else. So that was my first question to McCarthy. Like,

Hey, what's the biggest thing you're learning? And he immediately jumped to, I'm trying to get down this footwork. And then he went into detail about how just the playbook is very big here. There's so much more footwork. So maybe in college, it's 25% of the amount of different types of steps and timing and rhythm and all that stuff that you have to go through. But there has never been a moment where we've heard from JJ McCarthy. I got this, guys. I'm good.

Don't worry about me or whatever. I think he's really taken this approach that, and he even talked about having his fiance read him the plays and then having to draw up the play, really taking this approach that this is a mountain that I have to climb. And I know I'm at the bottom and I'm not going to just jump up to the top. I'm not going to just show up in the NFL and win a championship that he has the sense for how hard this is. And I thought it was a nice little detail too, that Sam Darnold has given him some advice. And he said he started working on his dropbacks

in his apartment because Sam Darnold told them, Hey, this is a good idea. And this is something that can help you learn, which by the way, is why you sign Sam Darnold, not only to take pressure off him and have someone who can play, but I've always gotten the sense that Darnold is cool with this whole thing and is good with helping JJ McCarthy along. But if you take the approach,

I am nowhere close. I need to go up every single day, the most that I possibly can. And someday I will get there and feel a hundred percent comfortable. And someday I will start rather than I should be the starter right now. Why is this other guy? Look at his win loss record with the Panthers or something there. And I know you could say, oh, well, he could stand in front of us and fake it, but you'd be surprised how much comes through in those conversations, even with the media, when it comes to, he's not defensive at all about being asked,

where do you need to improve? How do you need to get more accurate? Where does your footwork need to get better? So I guess I could see why you would go into a room with him as a coach and start talking football with him and showing him things. And the way that he responds to coaching just seems to be really, really good. He had a lot of specific things that he was talking about with Josh McCown, with Wes Phillips that he had gone over and stuff like that. And I think you just see an understanding from his point, which is really the first way to get there. Like you can't really improve unless you know where you have to improve

and how much work it's going to take to get there. So from that perspective, that might be the most impressive thing outside of the sheer velocity when he lets it rip. That's number one. But the most impressive thing is just the way that he has taken on this entire thing without any entitlement or any arrogance at all to him and an approach of trying to follow along with exactly what he's asked to do it and that will help him get there faster. Yeah, there also seems to be a self awareness, right? Like he didn't come out today and gaslight the reporters and say like, no, every day has been an upward trajectory. We've taken steps forward. He was very forthcoming with the fact that there have been dips. And I think the fact that you're able to acknowledge that at the age of, I think he's still 21,

acknowledge the fact that there, I think he said, failure is inevitable in sports. It's very coach-speak. But this is a kid who, as we've talked about on draft night, edited his life since he was in fifth grade for this moment in time. I think the fact that he's able to confront failure right now at this point in his career, so early in his career, and not be kind of weighed down by it. Now there's going to be days, I'm sure, where he feels like he had a bad practice and that might eat at him when he's at home. But you didn't really see him, even when we got to see him, dipping his shoulders, you know, hanging his head. He's just, like you said, he understands where he's at. He understands where he needs to go. And it seems like he's really, really invested

in getting to that pinnacle, which also is not insignificant. There are kids that come into the league and you can kind of just tell right away how hard are they going to work like i have no doubt in my mind jj mccarthy's going to work really hard to get to where he wants to be will he reach that there's a lot of there's a million variables that go into that but he's not going to fail because he didn't put the effort in to do it and i think we continue to learn that about him almost every time we get to speak to him or we hear someone else speak about him. And I didn't hear a single excuse. No.

That was another thing that I always listen for when it comes to players in general, but especially young players. He didn't, and I'm sure he's aware that there have been reports from us watching practice that he's struggled with the accuracy and the timing and things like that. And there was a throw today that went 15 yards over Jalen Naylor's head on the deep ball and so forth. And it was actually funny because he said he was going to play golf. So I asked him, what kind of golfer are you? And it was exactly how he's playing football right now.

He said, you know, I can really drive the ball, but can't putt very well. And you're like, that sounds about right. Do you have the problem with the chipping trajectory by any chance? Because that seems to be something you haven't quite figured out yet. But in all seriousness, I mean, I didn't hear a single, well, you know, I had a lot going on in the off season. It was tough for me or anything else like that, where sometimes it could be subtle someone making excuses for whatever,

you know, not performing or whatever it might be and there was really none of that from J.J. McCarthy so we can really take as much out of talking to him today and throughout this process as we could take out of actually watching him throw the football do you think it was wise though and it took prodding from our friend Kevin Seifert of ESPN took a little hey hey Kevin O'Connell tell us who the quarterback is starting training camp uh one of the things I always have thought about Dane at the end of minicamp and OTAs is that we get the starting point like we get the the trial the time trials so to speak you know and then now you have the race which begins at the end of July Sam Darnold without question is the starter at the beginning of the race at the end of July. Sam Darnold without question is the starter at the beginning of the race at the end

of July. And Kevin O'Connell gave a super long answer about how competitive he wants everything to be, but then had to admit that it's Sam Darnold is the starter. And you know, he's not saying QB competition. Again, there was no gaslighting here. He didn't try to pretend like, what, what? No, there's no QB one in this team. Sam Darnold is the starting quarterback, which takes pressure off of JJ McCarthy from the outset. And if he chases him down and he's locked into that offense and he's making plays every day and he beats Sam Darnold, then he's going to start, I think, is the point about calling it competitive, but also not putting the pressure on like, oh yeah, it's going to be 1v1 out there. You know, it's going to be like a tennis match, two guys going at it.

They haven't presented it that way. Yeah, and I think that's very important because anyone who's watched a shred of practice throughout the spring, any of the media members who have been here, and obviously any coach, any player. Sam Darnold's the number one quarterback. He's taken every single rep with the starters. So we don't have to pretend like he's not. But McCarthy admitted that he didn't even throw any passes to Justin Jefferson.

He said, maybe I threw one. I don't know. I'm like, okay, then you're not the starter. Well, I think it's important to come out and just say it rather than pretend like, oh, we're going to go into training camp. It's going to be clean slate, and Sam and J.J. are on the same plane. Like, why I think it's important to just say, like, yes, Sam has won. To your point, yes, about J.J. McCarthy, like, not putting too much pressure on him, being like, I can win this.

I can still win this job. But it's also for Sam Darnold. Like, if you don't think J.J. McCarthy's ready to play quarterback in the NFL over the course of 17 games, which he's not, at least right now at this moment in time, he's not, and you think Sam Darnold gives you the best chance to be competitive and win games, then you need him feeling himself a little bit. You need him to have that confidence. And I think even something as subtle as coming out, if Kevin Seifert asks that question and says like, well, where does Sam stand? And you don't

give him that vote of confidence, even though everything to this point in the spring has been, yes, he's QB1. I think that can just plant little seeds of doubt in a guy like Sam Darnold, who has mentioned in the past he's struggled with consistency, been unable to get out of his own way sometimes. You want that guy feeling as confident as possible going into July. So important twofold for the confidence of Sam Darnold and just for J.J. McCarthy not feeling like every throw is going to be a referendum on will he or won't he be the starter in training camp. So thankful that he said that for our sake,

because sometimes Kevin O'Connell tends to talk in circles and we don't get the full answer. But I think it's overall a good thing, too, to just go out and get ahead of it and not pretend like it's not there. Let me throw out the important question. We are now all the way to the end of minicamp and OTAs. The spring is completed. The learning process is no more. RIP the learning period. What's your percentage chance that JJ McCarthy starts week one for the Minnesota Vikings

in East Rutherford, New Jersey against the New York Giants? Like 5%. I'm not going to say zero because I think there is a chance that he just comes out in training camp. Maybe it just clicks. Or maybe Sam Darnold, there are things that creep in and he can't get out of his own way. So I'm not going to say zero.

But I'm not going much higher than five because, like, if we've just listened to Kevin O'Connell, and I go back to this throughout this whole process, before they drafted J.J. McCarthy even, I think before they even signed Sam Darnold, it was whoever we bring in, and now we know it's J.J. McCarthy, we're not going to rush the process. It's been in total alignment with how Kweisi and Offa Mensah

talked about, you know, the quarterback position as well, the future face of the franchise at that position. They're not going to rush whoever it was. They're not going to rush J.J. McCarthy. So unless he's absolutely lights out for three weeks, four weeks, a month, leading into September 8th or whenever we're in New Jersey. He's not going to start. So 5% because we can't say zero. There is a chance, I guess. What if everyone gets hurt and J.J. McCarthy is the only quarterback left standing? But overall, if things go according to plan,

I think Sam Darnold will be the quarterback week one. I think if things go according to plan, Kevin O'Connell might want Sam Darnold to be the quarterback week 18. I think they would be totally fine sitting JJ the whole year and letting him learn so not to rush him, so not to ruin him. And this was a good day for JJ McCarthy. Some of the veterans weren't here for a voluntary. This is the last day they started their vacations early. So he got a ton of reps today. And I thought had one of his better days overall. Still, of course, you have some throws that aren't perfect,

but looked pretty comfortable out there with a lot of the young receivers and so forth in the operation. But I would agree with you that it's not high. I don't want to go as low as 5%. That feels a little too low to me, but the gap is very big between Sam Darnold and JJ McCarthy right now. And if Kevin O'Connell was talking a little bit more about how excited he was to see these guys go to battle in training camp, then maybe I would say, well, you know, it sounds like if he just outperforms him, then he's got a chance. They are holding him back from feeling like he has to press to try to beat Sam Darnold out,

or he's a bust or whatever. They're not putting that on him. They're more of telling him, you're learning, you're learning, you're learning. Watch this guy, watch everything he does. And if also Sam Darnold plays as well in training camp as he did in minicamp and OTAs, not only will you think you've got your starting quarterback, you'll think your starting quarterback might be pretty good. And we were trying to figure out just today, chatting on the sideline as they're warming up.

If Darnold plays 18 games, 17 games, and a playoff game, 17 games, 18 weeks, then what would his touchdown-to-interception ratio be? What do you think that his touchdown-to-interception ratio would be if he played 17 games for the Vikings this year? Yeah, when you asked that question, my initial thought— You made him the MVP when I first asked. I gave him 30 touchdowns, and I gave him 10 interceptions. It's probably too many touchdowns.

It's probably too few interceptions. It's probably going to sit right around. If he plays the full season, I think he could sniff 30 touchdowns because I think they're going to throw a lot. But 30 is probably too high. It's probably somewhere sitting in that 25 range, give or take. Interceptions, see, that's where – that's a wild card because it could be 15. It could be 17 because he's thrown interceptions in the past.

He's had plays that deserved to be turnovers at a high frequency in the past where you hope that that number goes down is that he's working with quarterback gurus galore with Kevin O'Connell, Josh McCown, everyone loves Grant Yudinsky, the assistant quarterback's coach. You would hope they would almost coach that out of him or try like be able to give him this idea of how he should play the position, maybe insulate him in a way that he doesn't feel like he has to rip the ball all over the field like he might have felt like in New York and in Carolina. But I think I'd probably stand still right around 25 touchdowns, 12 interceptions.

I think it might be more of a 2-1 when you kind of just iron out that ratio. He's going to throw touchdowns, but I think he probably will still throw some interceptions here and there. Hey, U.S. cellular customers, I've got some good news, so do not hit that skip forward button just yet. I'm talking about their special customer event, Us Days. What's Us Days? It means exclusive offers just for their customers

just to say thanks like twelve hundred dollars off any phone plus three hundred dollars off any tablet no i did not misread that they must really like you all us days at us cellular exclusive offers just for you just to say thanks right now us cellular customers get 1200 off any phone plus 300 off any tablet terms apply i had 23 and 13 that's where i settled on because kirk cousins threw a fair number of interceptions in this system it does ask you to push the ball down the field. It does ask you to be aggressive, throw into tight windows, and sometimes just go after throwing the ball up to Justin Jefferson,

which I think Darnold will do more often than Kirk Cousins wanted to do. But I also think it will result in some inaccurate throws, some wild decisions. And Kirk Cousins was extremely good at identifying defenses at the line of scrimmage and post-snap I don't know that Sam Darnold is on the same level as him from what I watched with his time in Carolina and Carolina tried to throw a lot of short passes screens quick stuff and he would just sometimes be like no it's Sam Darnold time and he would just go like let's go and which could be really entertaining to watch. And I think you talked about the development of McCarthy kind of going

up one day back down the other day that it will be like that with Sam Darnold that we called it the Kirk coaster. Sometimes this one could be more violence. This is like the, uh, the, the one that you have to sign a waiver to get on would be if he ends up playing the entire season. But right now, I still think that all things are on the table that McCarthy could win the job. I'd put it at more like 20% still. I'm going to give it a little more time because training camp is long. So if he just starts to have it click, then – but that's still one in five. It's still 80% that Sam Darnold to me will

have the job week one, but with somebody as talented as JJ McCarthy, you could see these quick gains. And once he gets out there with everything moving fast, could look pretty good. So we'll, we'll see how it goes, but nothing at the, the final statement of his entire off season program for me is nothing that I thought about him really changed or where I thought he would be really changed. I, we saw a lot of good. We saw a lot of,

all right, that's going to need a lot of improvement. And so I wouldn't say anyone should put a Superbowl ring or, or make a shirt that says Vikings 2024 Superbowls, JJ McCarthy MVP yet. But I also wouldn't say that anyone should panic or be upset about the quarterback that they drafted. It's just going to take more time than anybody ever wants with starting quarterbacks.

Now, the most important thing is the kicker will eventually get to that. And you want to get to that now? You want to talk about the kicker? Yes. Let's get to the kicker. Come on. Holy hell. Oh my God. That's it. That's the analysis the kicker. Come on. Holy hell. Oh, my God.

That's it. That's the analysis. We watched, and I mean that in a good way, we watched Will Reichert up close, because we haven't gotten to see him really up close a whole lot. Outside, he's kind of on the other field, and then we were in a different place when he was kicking. So today, because there were storms, we got to watch him within.

We were right on the sideline. He's kicking in the middle of the field oh my gosh he just kicks the heck out of the ball he was kicking 55 yarders that were going at the top of the goal posts and then even when they lined up everybody he kicked it from the logo which would be 60 yards and there's two there's like a net behind it so there's the two points you kind of look at to give you an idea of how well he kicked it. There's the goalpost, obviously, and then there's a net behind it. His 60-yard kick cleared everything and still landed in the net that's like five, seven yards behind it,

which means good from 65, potentially. I think so. And the consistency in which, in in practice he just kicked them from deep over and over and over and over through i was very impressed i was very impressed he's like a robot and and i wasn't out there every ota every day of mandatory minicamp tracking kicks um because like you said when we're outdoors a lot of times the specialists just just chill they just hang out you know the three of them and the four of them all together but it did seem and i'd be willing to go out on

this limb and he if i don't know if he missed a kick that i was watching and if he did he didn't miss many sometimes it's hard to say we're like on the sideline but he was booming them very consistently through the middle and and just the the sheer volume of the ball leaving his foot just sounds different. Audio-wise. Yeah, yes, yes. Like the way – the boom you hear when he connects through the football, it sounds different. And I think you can see – like we bring golf up on the show a lot because we all we both wish we were better at the sport but when you hear like someone who can really drive the golf ball it just sounds different than when you step on the tee or when I step on the tee and whack it around out there that's what Will Reichert sounds like

when he kicks the football it just sounds like you did a good story about how he's been this kicking prodigy since he's been 12 well when you watch him and you watch him in action like you can see that yeah there's been a lot of work a lot of time a lot of investment that's gone into him playing this position this specific position because if you walked by him on the street you would not say that's an NFL player but if you watch him kick a football you'd be like holy crap yeah like maybe he should have gone even higher than in the sixth round so it's a kicking competition i guess because kevin o'connell wants competitiveness to kind of rule his training camp but it's not like will reichert is going to be the kicker of minnesota vikings next season um and and we'll see what that looks like when when the live bullets start to fly because

kicking with no pressure and in a practice or indoors can feel a lot different than when okay you need to make this kicker we're going to lose the game um but he kicked at alabama too and and he had some big kicks there so totally impressive um it's you know, the B topic of this podcast because of how impressive he was. Yeah, I don't really have much else to say. You just shake your head and say, like, wow. Like, I think he had every single reporter there, like, kind of stop what they were doing. Like, McCarthy's on one side of the field throwing the ball, and then Will Reichert's on the other side of the field kicking the ball, and everyone kind of starts to turn their head to the right like what's going on over there and and by the end of it we're all fixated on the kicker um speaks to how good he is very talented very very talented for sure and uh you

know as far as his college career and such one thing that is going for him is how much he kicked so you get this humongous sample size of five years of kicking over a hundred field goals and you go, okay, well, he was very successful in a large sample size is quite different. We do know that this regime is going to handle their kicker a lot different than the previous regime. And I had heard from people exactly what you already know about with Daniel Carlson and the way that he was handled and how aggressively he was handled in that training camp. And we never felt like that kid was comfortable in training camp that year in preseason. They played mind games with him.

And the pressure was just getting to everyone of being Super Bowl or bust that year. And that cost Daniel Carlson. And when he got away from here, he became the best kicker in the NFL. And with Will Reichard, he's going to get much more of an atmosphere of them being patient with him because the talent that we were able to see was unlike any kicker they've had here. I mean, Carlson could really boom it, but the consistency of how straight it was every time from deep was something that I haven't seen from any of the kickers. The Vikings have brought in Greg Joseph had a big leg,

but it would kind of waver. Yeah. A little bit like me off the tee. When it, you know, when I hit it, it was great. But when I didn't, not so much, we talked to Dallas Turner as well. I don't have a ton of things to say about Dallas Turner other than one observation about him is that, well, one, he really loves Jonathan Grenard. He's talked about this a couple of times now, but he's seems to be really jazzed up about working with Grenard. We talked to Grenard, great talker. Seems like he's got some leadership already taking a hold of the defense. But the thing that I notice about Dallas Turner is that the veteran players

keep saying, look at this guy, look what we got. And there's only one other rookie that I remember this happening with. And because Justin Jefferson's training camp was weird. They didn't have mini camp. They didn't have OTAs. So, and he had COVID and missed some time. So I'm sure this would have happened with Justin Jefferson had he had a full training camp and had we been able to talk to the players, not on Zooms.

What a nightmare that was. Delvin Cook. It reminds me of the way that guys talked about Delvin Cook where they said, immediately, we knew that Delvin Cook, minicamp, OTAs, this guy's got it. Look at his explosiveness. Look at the way he plays and the veteran players, whether it's Gennard, Christian Darisaw,

everybody seems to be kind of buzzing about Dallas Turner. And I think that that's notable that that's the case because they don't just anoint people. Usually, usually the veterans, you know, he's learning out there or whatever, but usually they're

not going oh look what we've got so that's seems to be the case with him yeah and just turn on his film from alabama you can see probably why they're so awestruck by some of the things he can do i remember it was like a week and a half ago like the thing you were talking about with christian darisaw he said and he didn't name the offensive lineman, and Dallas Turner conveniently forgot which offensive lineman he did it to. But apparently Dallas Turner hit a offensive lineman, unknown, with a nasty spin move that Christian Derrissaw said was faster than I see when Daniil would hit it.

So when he's doing things like that without pads on, it could be two things. Like it's really impressive because he's going to be a force even that much more when he is allowed to actually hit people. But then I think it also adds to like we need to see him with pads on and see if he can still be effective. But the praise he's garnering, and to your point, it's not like cooked up praise where it's like, let's go out there and pump this rookie's tires. It just seems to be genuine, like, yeah, no, he's going to be really good. So until otherwise proven, I'm going to believe that he's going to be really good because everyone's saying it so far.

The tape screams it. I'm excited to see him get pads on and actually get to go head-to-head with Christian DeRusso, with Brian O'Neal, because I think we'll see right away, like, okay, yeah, he's going to be a pretty good player. I think we know now his trajectory is probably going to be pretty upward throughout his rookie year. I'm just curious to see how high he starts, because I think his potential is pretty sky high. I was watching him in front of us, right in front of us where they were throwing the football to the linebackers. So they had to linebackers outside linebackers. They had to

drop back in coverage, go whichever way the football is pointed. And then they throw it at him real hard. And Dallas Turner caught it like a wide receiver. I mean, he just so easily soft hands caught the ball in motion. Just the, there's something different athletically that he has that you just don't see at people, his size that often results in being a superstar edge rusher. So he's got, he has all the physical tools that are there and is a bright guy for my understanding as well. And from talking with him as well. So I think he's got a good chance. And it's always what we see them do, not just say.

He was with the first team the whole time, this entire OTAs minicamp, which means that Brian Flores trusts him because certain other first-round draft picks have not been with the first team or anywhere close to the first team in the last two years so it's not brian flores doesn't care about draft status he's going to care is he getting it and does he belong out there and he was out there the entire time so good signs i think so far from dallas turner i asked kevin o'connell about the wide receiver depth thing that a lot of people have been asking about so i I thought, you know what? I'll be the hero of the people.

Allow me to ask. And I will say that he didn't really name drop anybody. Just Sean Jones has stood out to me, but he hasn't really, he didn't go out of his way. In fact, when I said, how have you felt about the wide receiver depth? He bragged about Jordan Addison looking great. Like, no, that's not depth. That's just a really good football player. But thank you for that information that Jordan Addison looking great. Like, no, that's not depth. That's just a really good football player. But thank you for that information

that Jordan Addison is looking good. I thought so too. I guess I wouldn't entirely rule out that someone else comes in after the way it was talked about. Jalen Naylor was back today after missing mandatory minicamp with the flu. And Kevin O'Connell has this way

of making me think, what if Mike Zimmer said it and Kevin O'Connell has this way of making me think, what if Mike Zimmer said it? Kevin O'Connell said, our challenge to Jalen Naylor is to make sure that he's out there more often or on the field at all times or something like that. And I just thought Mike Zimmer would have said, he's got to play. He's got to, he's got to get out there. He's got to, what, what'd you had a little sniffles? You weren't out there. What are you, what are you doing? You think you've proven, you think you're Michael Irvin or something? Missing it with the flu. I don't want anybody else to get the flu.

So I would suggest people do call into work if they are ill. However, when Jalen Naylor misses anything, we go, is Jalen Naylor missing another thing? I thought he looked good today. Made a couple of few catches. And Brandon Powell has had a very good spring. I agree with that. He's everywhere. As far as the Lucky Jacksons, Trent Shurfields,

Deshaun Jones, et cetera, Thayer Thomas gets brought up every time this discussion happens. Nobody really popped off the screen to me for me to think, oh, wow, this guy is going to be the next guy that we see stand out for them. And they can give it a couple of weeks and then decide if they want to try to add somebody or not. I'm OK with letting it play out, considering where everything is. But it doesn't see it didn't sound to me like, wow, we are juiced up about the depth wide receivers. Like Trent Shurfield got a, and I guess we added Trent Shurfield sort of thing. Like there has been no, you got to see this guy who's really coming up about this OTAs and minicamp.

Yeah. Clearly Kevin O'Connell wants Jalen Naylor to take that number three receiver position and run with it. But in order to do that, three receiver position and run with it. But in order to do that, you need to be on the field. We'll see if, if, if he gets banged up in training camp, I think the Jalen Naylor experiment might be over. Oh, real quick, real quick. He did say it's a competition at wide receiver three. So he didn't say, Hey, it's Brandon Powell's job or anything.

So, but you're right about him wanting to Jalen Naylor to win that. Yeah. And, and I guess the idea of having Brandon Powell on the team is that you trust him. You know he's going to be able to do everything you ask for him and do it kind of anywhere on the field. There is a trust that Brandon Powell has built with Kevin O'Connell that dates back to their time with the Los Angeles Rams. But the way Kevin O'Connell is just effusive in his praise about Jalen Naylor, both this year, last year, any other time his name comes up in conversation, you can tell he just thinks this kid has something. Even when we wouldn't ask about Jalen Naylor last year, it seems like Kevin O'Connell would kind of go out of his way to

mention like, okay, watch out for this kid,alen Naylor he looks good the problem is availability like if he's not going to be able to be on the field then he's not going to win that number three wide receiver position I think it is interesting though like you mentioned he almost talked about all the other guys like in an aggregate like didn't name all of them until like late in his soliloquy about the number three wide receiver competition. And then he started naming Tristan Jackson, Thayer Thomas, Lucky Jackson. That's a position that, like, we've seen through OTAs, mandatory minicamp, training camp, where, like, random guys just pop. Like, you knew Chad Beebe, like throwback. Like you knew Chad Beebe was going to like be someone to keep an eye on in training camp in mandatory minicamp.

Like he was just a guy who he was shifty. He moved different. People were talking about him. There hasn't felt like that from the receiver position this spring. And maybe like we'll see someone kind of rise up the ranks through the summer but yeah it does lead me to believe that that maybe the depth at your receiver position isn't here in minnesota right now maybe he's waiting for a contract or maybe he's going to be one of the final cuts the surprise cuts towards

the end of end of training camp i'm totally fine with them not bringing someone in now like i don't need you to bring in x receiver right now i'm totally fine letting them play out this string throughout training camp but like if it's still like this mid to late July or I guess late July into early to mid-August then you probably do have to kind of canvas the market and say like are there people out there that can help us be better in two weeks when we start the season but yeah no one no one has like totally stood out at receiver which is weird because it is a position that just your eyes tend to gravitate towards on the practice field. And there is generally someone that just looks better than everyone else. Everyone kind of looked the same and not necessarily in

a good way. No, I agree that there was a lot of average going on a lot of, yeah, it looks like you guys can run the routes or whatever and we'll see, but you're right that not only do, does someone usually need to show out by this point, but also if you're going to add someone, I think you have to do it by this point. I can't think of many examples of guys who came in later than this, who actually worked out Aldrick Robinson, Mr. Touchdown, Aldrick Robinson, great bowler,

Aldrick Robinson. He was a good guy. He was, I really enjoyed talking with him, but at the same time, I think he had 17 catches or something like that. And he's the best one they've ever had. The Kendall rights,

the Taji sharps, the Jordan, you know, Jordan Taylor's, those guys were here even before this Tavares King is probably the deepest cut. I can go with that. Michael Floyd did not get the full training camp and so forth because of his legal issues. There's just not a lot of examples of going and grabbing some veteran rando and having

it work out super well. You kind of have to just develop these guys and somebody has to step to the challenge. If it is just the three, I think that's a fine receiving core with the tight ends they have. But if someone gets hurt and it's not Jalen Naylor and he's out or whatever, or he's got the sniffle, I'm sorry. I can't. And there's still I covered Mike Zimmer. I just can't help myself. I don't I don't mean I would hate to practice with the flu and I would hate to make anyone else sick.

But that's it's a three day mini camp. I he's, he's going to have to play, right? Like, come on, man, you got to play. This kind of reminds me of who is the really fast guy. They had a fast guy. He ran in this, uh, this 40 yard dash competition and they never paid him or something. Do you remember this? So I know listeners are remembering who I'm talking about. This guy was insanely fast. And every time they would go to play a game, he had something happen. And they were at Buffalo for the fourth preseason game. It was a big situation for him to try to make the team. And he hurt his finger and warmups and didn't play. I was like, come on, man. It's like, you got to tape this up and play. Someone will remember this.

Leave it in the comments. Cause I can't remember who it was. The point is that some guys don't really want to be out there. It's scary. It's violent. It's dangerous. And we'll see if Naylor finds his way out onto the field, because I do think that he's very, very talented.

So let me end this podcast here where I feel like, you know, this is the time of year. The vibes are good. A lot of things I think went well for them during this period. They got Justin Jefferson signed, but let's do a couple of quick hit kind of questions here for you. I mean, the first one is how good do you think this team could be? If everything went an average way, if there wasn't some insane amount of injuries, insane amount of bad luck or good luck, if it just goes like a normal season, as most Minnesota Vikings seasons do,

nothing ever happens that's strange to this team, how good do you think that they will be? That's hard because I think the North is going to be really good this year. But if it's just average, which would imply that you just get average to above average play from Sam Darnold and not otherworldly, he took the next step and revitalized his career. Because if he does that, I think they could be a playoff team. But if we're just assuming it just plays out like it should

or like we think it might, then I think they're going to flirt with 500. I don't think they're going to be the worst team in the league or in that bottom of the league category where people are saying they shouldn't trade their first round pick this year to move up to Drake May because that pick next year might be in the top five. I don't think they're going to be like top five of the draft bad unless something horrible happens. But I don't think they're going to be like top five of the draft bad unless something horrible happens but i don't think they're going to be a playoff team unless and i think it could just hinge on sam darnold like unless he proves that he is not this up and down roller coaster quarterback that he harnesses all the talent that made him the number three pick in the draft. And he finally channels it into something

consistent and useful. And you can get that every given Sunday. But that would assume excellence. And we're talking about just if things go the way that we think. I think they're probably a 500 football team. 8-9, 9-8. I think they'll be competitive in most games. I also think that first six weeks of the schedule is just going to be like if you get punched in the mouth and you can't recover from that, then maybe things could go sideways. But I think the team as a whole has some talent, obviously. The receiver room, super talented at the top.

Tight ends. TJ Hawkins is going to come back and, you know, if you're a Vikings fan, keep your fingers crossed that he's going to just look like he used to. Good tackles. Christian Dair saw Brian O'Neill. I think the defense is going to be pretty good this year. I think it will be much improved. I like the pieces they added in free agency.

So I don't think they're going to be, like, the worst team in the league, even if things go bad. But I just I find it hard to believe that they're going to be like really, really competing for a playoff spot. I think if they were top 15 in quarterback play, say top 15, whatever you want, PFF grade, quarterback rating, QBR, something. If the aggregate of those things ends up being top 15, that's a playoff team. Yes. Because I look at the defense and last year, I remember us watching mini camp and OTAs and going, I don't know, man, there's a lot of players here who have not proven themselves. There's a lot of players who are maybe aging in Jordan Hicks's case, or who's

playing at this position, or if one guy goes down, are they just calling up people from the street or what's going on here? I think from top to bottom, it's more solid on defense. It could get ripped up pretty bad against Houston. Now it's the fond digs over there. I'm sure he'll be very pleased to play against the Vikings. Uh, you know, green Bay gave them a hard time last year. That's not going to be easy against green Bay. Although Aaron Jones can't average nine yards to carry like he has in games against the Vikings before.

Uh, but still that's not an easy challenge to face when you do have a defense that should flirt with the top 10 over the entire season, that gives you a chance every week to win games. And we haven't really adjusted ourselves to saying that because we always thought that with Zimmer and well, look, I mean, even case Keenum can win games when you have a great defense, this isn't great, but it's good enough to keep them in games and give them a chance. That probably means that you should strap yourself in for more final field goals and final drives and all that stuff. Because I do think games are going to be wild. There's going to be close games. Uh, when you have to rely on your defense, your offense might be way up and

down from hot and cold with Sam Darnold or JJ McCarthy and so forth. But if Darnold starts the majority of the season and plays somewhere in the top 15 in the league, then this could be what the bucks were last year. I don't think that's a crazy thing, except for this is more of an up and coming team where I didn't really look at the bucks that way. I just thought they had some of their great players that are still there. The signs are, I think overall good for their two-year outlook for this team based on what we saw in OTAs and minicamp what would be your biggest buy and biggest sell of OTA and minicamp storylines so we've talked about a lot of things this guy's gonna do this this guy's gonna impact that a lot of different players we

talk to coaches we talk to what's the biggest buy and sell what what do you believe and what do you not so much believe or maybe skeptical of when it comes to those storylines that have been discussed a lot I'm buying Sam Darnold like I'm buying I thought that would be your answer yeah like you know how I feel about Sam Darnold I I'm enamored by the arm talent I really am and look I I wasn't in New York following his trajectory there, in Carolina following his trajectory there. I'm sure if I was a Jets fan or a Panthers fan, I'd have these deep-rooted Sam Darnold cannot succeed in the league feelings.

But when I watch Sam Darnold, I think he has a tremendous arm. I think he's working in an offense that actually sets him up for success in a way that he probably hasn't been set up for success in a while, ever, in the NFL. And he's working with guys that I think understand how he ticks and are going to be able to get the best out of him. Maybe I'm wrong, but watching him throw the football, I'm buying all the Sam Darnold stock. I think they could have found something, a diamond in the rough kind of thing.

I don't know if he's going to win 13 games and go on to be like a super high-paid quarterback, but I think he can play the position. I think he can put them in positions to succeed and win a lot of football games. And I don't think that's necessarily far-fetched to think by watching the way he just has operated through the spring. Now, what am I selling? Like, I guess I'm kind of selling the idea that, like, the defense is just going to be the same. Like, I think that we've into the this hamster wheel almost of like

since the zimmer era where i don't know if people assume that this can be a top level defense again but i guess in a way that's also kind of just buying the defense but i am selling like the idea of like no growth on the defensive side of the ball because I think they've added good pieces. I think there are things there, and I think Flores has gotten people to buy in, pull on the same rope. So I think this defense can be improved. I think there are players in positions across the board

that can kind of take that next step. So maybe that's cheating. Maybe I just bought two things. I think you just bought two. I think you just cheated. I think you need to think of a different one. You just said, I'm selling the idea, but then sort of said you were buying an idea

because the narrative, if you will, has been that the defense is actually improved. I think I just talked about that. So I'm not so sure. You're not letting me off the hook there. You're going to have to think about that for a second. I'll give you what I'm buying, and then we'll go back to you. I am buying Aaron Jones.

I want to buy the Aaron Jones stock. It's not just based on what he did last year. It's based on seeing him interacting with this team and the way that he carries himself and so forth. And I don't know what to do with the age curve. It's difficult. I looked this up since 2016 running backs that are over the age of 29. It's not a great history. There's maybe seven seasons of guys who went over a thousand yards, which I don't even expect from him. I expected for him to be in that 800 range and be efficient,

good yards per carry, catch the ball to the backfield, pass protect, and be the leader of the offense. But that's what I'm buying. I'm not buying that he's going to have some sort of Barry Sanders, 2000 yard season or something like that. But if he can average 4.6 yards per carry, that's pretty good for this team. That's average. That's ranked 27th in rushing per carry since since kevin o'connell took over it's been extremely bad i don't know that o'connell is ever going to figure it out as far as leaning on the running back and trusting him but if he is then aaron jones is going to be a good litmus test for that like do you can you actually trust your running back the thing i'm

selling and i i don't think this has been really a narrative or it's a super hot take, but the guard competition overall, I just want to trade it for other guards that are better. And we'll see with Blake Brandel. I mean, they've developed him. I don't want to jump the gun there. He might end up being a good player at left guard, maybe selling the idea that Reisner is competing at left and right guard. I think he's probably just competing at left or maybe not really competing at all. I think I'm just selling the interior offensive line being any different than it's ever been. It was last year overall, not anywhere near the worst we'd ever seen. Not anywhere near that.

If it's the same as it was last year, it will be meh. Okay. You should be able to work around it and win games. It didn't lose games for them. But as far as do I really think that there's going to be some competition all the time with Reisner and Brandel and going back and forth? I think they've got their guys at left and right guard. And I'm skeptical about whether it's going to be any improvement. That is how you sell.

See, what I wanted to do is actually buy the defense, so I just framed it as selling the defense. Yeah, I noticed. I am selling – this is probably cheating too. I'm selling to kill Harry being a useful tight end. All right, that's the end of the podcast. The caller is walking away. No, I actually have a sell. i do have a cell i wanted i wanted to get that reaction i'm selling that nick nick mullins is going to be the quarter second

quarterback oh okay this year nick mullins qb2 i think i think jj mccarthy will win that qb2 job out right um i think there is like this and i think i probably contributed to it with like they're not going to rush jj mcc like they're not going to rush J.J. McCarthy they're not going to put him in positions where he could fail um so I think you know in a way there are some thought processes that they're just going to have Nick Mullins be like that one play away guy um going into the year they don't want to subject J.J. McCarthy to having to play if if he's not ready um I'm selling that because I think J.J. McCarthy will probably show throughout training camp that he's just better than Nick Mullins,

that he's ahead of him. There's going to be some ups and downs, and if he has to play, there's probably going to be a learning curve that comes along with that. But I think J.J. McCarthy is going to end up giving you more chances to win games, even if he has to play before he's actually ready by Kevin O'Connell standards than Nick Mullins did last year in those areas. Is that a good enough sell for you? It is a sell. You actually did it correctly.

But is it a strong sell that the first-round quarterback will be the backup and not Nick Mullins? I don't think that that's the hottest thing I've ever heard. The other day, Campbell said on the podcast that he didn't think Moss was the all-time franchise receiver. So that like that level of hot, that was insane. I don't know. What did he say?

He said Jefferson already is. No, no, no, it's not. No, I'm selling that. That was nuts. That was one of the craziest things that's ever been said on the show. But from Campbell, from Dave Campbell, like of all people. Anyway, how about, well, I was trying to think of some sort of buy-sell. I mean, but I am buying that they'll be patient with J.J. McCarthy overall.

And if he isn't QB2, I won't say it's time to hit the panic button or anything. But I would expect him to be the backup. I may have a milkshake bet on that in some way, just that I took for the heck of taking it. But I would believe that he is ultimately going to be QB two to start the season behind Sam Darnold. So, well, I'll throw out one if you want to get a real skeptical take here. They've talked a lot about Shaq Griffin, like totally reinvigorating the secondary group, which I do believe is possible.

But if we look at Shaq Griffin's career, he was cut by the Texans last year. He had some really good moments early in his career, but has not really repeated them since. And the times in the past we have heard, hey, if he just gets back to playing like two, three years ago, he'll be great dean lowry marcus davenport hasn't really worked so if i'm going to give a big sell it might be to i'm not sure that suddenly byron murphy jr gets to move into the slot all the time they become way more dynamic that's the idea but i don't know if it can happen until we really see it play out yeah that's fair that's fair. That's how you sell.

We got to work on that. It's a spring. It's OTAs. But the training camp, I'll be selling things left and right. I'll be ready. There you go. We'll work on that in the next coming weeks. And we're going to work on our golf games as well as JJ McCarthy is.

But you don't have to do any more work to continue listening to the show because we'll have a lot more podcasts, especially fan interactive ones. So if you want to send an email purple insider.com, go to the contact us. Great way to do that. Jump on the live streams. I'll continue to do that. Just answer fan questions. So we'll have a lot of fun throughout the next six weeks, talking football preview and

everything, rank at some stuff, whatever. We'll come up with some fun ways to talk about it. But I can't thank you enough for all the OTA and minicamp practices, podcasts, following practices. That will carry on when we get to training camp and, oh, preseason post games from inside US Bank Stadium. I can't wait. All right.

Thanks, everybody, for watching and listening. We'll catch you all next time. Football.