Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Our Senior Bowl Correspondent checks in on Bo Nix and Michael Penix Jr. buzz

Episode Date: January 30, 2024

Purple Insider's official Senior Bowl correspondent Terry Horstman joins the show from Mobile, Alabama, to talk about the first practices of Bo Nix and Michael Penix Jr. and why they are different from previous Senior Bowl QBs and whether there is high first-round buzz around them. Plus other positions the Vikings need to be studying this week at the Senior Bowl Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Purple Insider is presented by PrizePix. Go to prizepix.com and use the code PURPLE for a first deposit match up to $100. prizepix.com, code PURPLE. Hey everybody, welcome to another episode of Purple Insider. Matthew Collar here. And as promised, our Senior Bowl correspondent, Terry Horstman, is here. native he oddly does a podcast covering oregon state called belligerent beeves which is why he is down there uh in alabama for the senior bowl also covers the minnesota links for the next and is acting as our on the scene reporter from the senior bowl so uh what's going on terry why don't you start off by setting the senior bowl scene a little bit. Tell us why this is important for the evaluation process, why it matters that you are at the Senior Bowl. Why it matters that I'm at the Senior Bowl. Wow.

Well, first, thank you for that introduction, I think, having the word Senior Bowl correspondent by my name. It's a dream come true for a 10-year-old Terry who fell in love with the NFL draft and watched every pick of every round. So thank you so much for the opportunity. Today, an exciting day, day one of Senior Bowl practices. And I think to just display the buzz that's happening around Mobile right now, I got to the first practice of today, which was the national team practice, which started at 9.30 a.m. I got there at about 9.30 a.m. and was in line to get my credential for almost an hour. There were 1,100 credentialed media last year at the Senior Bowl,

which I believe was a record, and I'm sure that's been far surpassed already. And of course at that 9 30 AM practice was Michael Penix Jr. And Bo Nix on the field. So we don't always get such compelling quarterbacks at the senior bowl. Last year, you know, all due respect to Max Duggan and Jake Hainer, but they they were not being mocked in the top 10 as at least Bo Nix is right now per your last episode with Manny least Bo Nix is right now, per your last episode with Manny Hill. And Pennix is certainly in that round one conversation.

There's a lot of buzz around many of the other players here as well. I think it's been probably since like 2020 when Jalen Hurts and Justin Herbert were on the same senior bowl team, so they got to go back and forth and practice a little bit. So it's definitely been a few years before we've gotten that, you know, real sort of sexy quarterback matchup. So people are excited. And first day of practice, you know, it's a lot of hype, but it's teams who are playing with teammates for the very first time.

So it is important for the scouts, but you can kind of tell they're getting to know each other out there so there are some great throws today but also you know a couple you know misca you know communications on routes a couple drop passes but i think that's them uh shaking the jitters out and um yeah it was a good practice for both squads though and i think there's going to be a lot of fun players to talk about this week. Additionally, there has been a lot of players who played in the super bowl that the super bowl,

the senior bowl that Minnesota Vikings brass, whether it was the previous regime or the current regime has liked and ended up drafting from that game. And they're down there, of course, with every other team evaluating these guys, but it's certainly a different wrinkle to have two quarterbacks that they could potentially be looking at if indeed they do not bring back kirk cousins and i suppose there is a universe

where they bring back cousins and then draft one of them anyway depending on how it would play out but for the purposes of the show we'll kind of focus on either one of these guys being possibly the next franchise quarterback for the Vikings now I was very impressed by a four second clip that I saw from Bo Nix where someone asked him in his press conference about draft analysts not thinking that he can process defenses or something to that effect and he said that's out of my control and then went to the next question love that right away really really like that why would you be concerned about what a thousand draft analysts think about whether you can read defenses um but how did

bo nix look uh when it came to on the field uh he looked like i thought he'd look you know he looked very very poised. Definitely had a few throws today where his arm strength was on full display and was making, you know, good pushing the ball down the field, connecting with a lot of different receivers. And it was just efficient. And that's, you know, impressive when you consider that he's throwing the ball to, you know, a lot of guys who I'm sure they've, you know, either played against each other at times. Um, Bo is a Alabama product, um, grew up here, played his first few seasons at Auburn. Um, but yeah, I think what's been impressive about him is just sort of how easy he's always made it look and how efficient his offenses have been at Oregon. And that sort

of analysis is kind of just like punishing him for being good in college, where one of the criticisms I've heard is like, well, we don't know how he like would handle like turnover expected plays or like things when like plays when everything goes wrong. And it's I'm like, well, he didn't let things go wrong a lot. And, um, so yeah, I think he looked every bit the part, uh, he's, you know, big and has that NFL arm and is pretty good at making, uh, you know, plays with his legs. I think you mentioned in, uh, your talk with Manny about him rushing for over 500 yards and 14 touchdowns last season. I think both him and Penix are pretty great at making plays when they get under pressure. Both of them had pretty good offensive lines in front of them, but they were both, I think, the best against preventing sacks in all of FBS last year. So considering what the Vikings have at offensive line,

which isn't the worst, but also definitely not the best. Penix's line obviously won the, not obviously, but won the Joe Moore award last year, which has given to the best offensive line unit in college football. So it'd be a little bit of a downgrade, I think, in terms of the pressures they'd see, but both guys plays uh when they're put under pressure and they didn't see any real pressure today because it was practice and uh it wasn't live or allowing hits and they're not going to let them hit the quarterback anyway um but it was a continuation of the incredible regular season that both those guys put together and it was fun to see them like go throw four or five passes a time and then come back and just like be chatting on the sideline and laughing about stuff while Sam Hartman was out there taking the reps for the national team.

So, yeah, it's definitely in round one, day one, round one of practices. They both have lived up to the billing so far. It's interesting you mentioned about that sack rate, which I think is really important. And they have different ways of dealing with it. Pennix gets rid of the ball quickly when he's under pressure and finds his outlets because I think his mind works very fast. And with Bo Nix, he's able to scramble. He's able to make plays off of schedule, which I think is a very, very valuable thing when considering it. It's interesting that you said that he's big because I also thought he was big when I was watching. I was going back, getting kind of ready for this, looking at some games of his.

I'm like, oh, OK, so he's got to be like six, three to twenty five or something. He did not measure that way. Now he measured just fine. It's not going to be a problem. But I think that because he's a really good athlete, he's kind of yoked that he kind of looks like he's maybe a little bit bigger, a little bit taller than he actually is. I guess when you get a chance to see him in person, the athleticism, like how, how does that show up when you get to see him practice? Yeah, I do think it shows up maybe subtly, more subtle than you'd kind of expect. Like you don't really get to, you don't really expect that he's going to take off. Like he is a bit more yoked than some of these other quarterbacks that have been really talented with making plays happen with their feet.

So it's kind of like he'll take off and be like, oh man man didn't realize he had that in his bag and um and i mentioned this when we were chatting but bo nicks is a person who caused a lot of pain for my alma mater of oregon state uh this year uh pennix has as well but you get we've in the two games against oregon state which again i'll say is a pretty good defense i think a thing that's going against both these guys in this draft process is pennix didn't play a good defense until michigan and look what happened and i think that just tell me you weren't watching the pac-12 without telling me you weren't watching the pac-12 because oregon has a pretty fantastic defense i'll give them credit uh utah had a great defense ucla um

who has a lay a two lots who i'm sure we'll talk about, is getting mocked to the Vikings left and right. So we're going to have to talk about him. He's here in Mobile. But Nix, yeah, it's just like you even heard during college that he didn't have the NFL arm necessary to push the ball down the field. And he kind of just uncorks one and, you know, clearly has a cannon that just doesn't quite look like a cannon, I guess. So it's just the type of guy who is making the right reads and making the right throws and just makes it look kind of easy. And it's not necessarily the same firework show that we got with Pennix against Texas in the national semifinal,

where he was just kind of launching darts in between, you know, tiny windows 70 yards downfield. So they are different uh in those ways but i do think they are more similar in in style and uh athleticism and in their big playability than a lot of people realize so i i know that you're only on day one there so you haven't had enough time to like talk to everybody we're going to do another podcast as well well yeah I'm sure you'll have more discussion but I I wonder what you think about the Dane Brugler comment that bone nicks could be in the top 10. and I was just sort of chuckling about that like man this

was the guy that I kind of targeted for hey he should be available and then people were asking oh could they trade down and then Brugler comes out with like a maybe not not so fast um but what what is your what is your feeling for both of these guys in the sort of mock draft community because i see them a little bit all over the board and especially with penix so i want to get into how he looked today but all over the board it's a it's a wide range for both where some people think that pennix is like a third round pick some people think that he's up there in the top 15 some people think that bo nicks is more of a back end of the first kind of quarterback and now you know we're talking about potential buzz of him being toward the top 10 i guess what

what is your sense for what the expectation is for both of these guys in the draft? I think the expectation in the mock draft community for framing the question right now is Nick's high, high end would be top 10 and probably more realistically further down, maybe mid first round. But I think that's just justifying much of the mock draft

community, not listing Bo Nix and Michael Penix in first round mocks, like leading up until the end of the college football season, even more so now. And then that evaluation just always seems to take time. I've followed the draft closely for years and there's this always, quarterback is the premium position. So of course a quarterback is going to have the chance for sometimes it happens where teams fall in love and they're early risers. Sometimes you get Malik Willis being sort of teased as a high riser and then just reverting back to the mean of probably where he should have gone. But I do think both Knicks and Pennix are risers, and there are just a lot of quarterback-needy teams. It's going to be fascinating to see what the Vikings do

because you go through that top 10. What is Atlanta going to do? Are they going to address quarterback? You guys were talking about Daniel Jones and the Giants the other day because I think a lot of guys will have Knicks, Pennix and JJ McCarthy graded pretty high. And like a lot of the, like if you still look like people are catching up,

many mock drafts will still have JJ McCarthy as the fourth quarterback taken at about like 20 or so with both Knicks and Pennix in the second round. But I think when you, people are catching up on tape, both of those guys had probably some of the best tape. I think Pennix had the best tape of anyone. I was screaming for him to win the Heisman Trophy, not to take anything away from Jaden Daniels.

But as more and more people catch up on those aspects of Knicks and Pennix, I think people will be able to talk themselves into seeing it. And it's just going to take one team to fall in love and, or, or panic and think that they need to trade up. Uh, like I don't know if it gets to pick number six or seven and both of them are still there. What would the Vikings do? Uh, We obviously don't know how much they like either guy yet. But that's going to be a fun thing to monitor as we march towards April. But I'd say to actually answer the question, I'm rambling here, but I'd say Knicks is probably consensus around like 15th by like, if you just were to pull a hundred random mockers, he's probably mid first round and Pennix, I think is maybe low end of the first round high into the second. But like I said,

it's very talented quarterback and was our, you can make a good strong argument for him to win the Heisman trophy. He's not going to have a Malik Willis style slide or, or wait, or even what we saw with Will Levis last year, someone, if either the Vikings pass on them, like I think Quase is going to be working the phones pretty hard.

And I think that would be kind of a premium draft day for a lot of Vikings fans. If they were to take someone like a pass rusher corner at the 11 spot and then do the, do the old trade back in a Rick Spielman move that he loved to do so much and have a quarterback. So yeah, I do think they're both moving up and there's a lot of respect for their draft slot

and the draft meeting. I think by the end of it, they will be the four and five quarterbacks taken in this year's draft. What we've seen from the NFL recently is if they're not all in on someone being their potential franchise quarterback, they usually let them slip to the second round. That there is an idea that is totally correct in my mind, analytically, historically, which is to just take a guy

and see what happens, right? Because none of us are very good at predicting them and the NFL is not very good at predicting them, right? But the team still with a guy like Malik Willis or a guy like Will Levis, they were not willing to just say, hey, let's just take a shot on a guy. But I think that the difference is, as you laid out, that Michael Penix and Bo Nix are complete quarterbacks who have played a ton of football. Who could step in right away to the NFL potentially. And even like, think about a Daniel Jones where it didn't work out, but yet he was still a competent quarterback pretty quickly played a ton of football in college. It wasn't a, let's take a swing at a high end total project. These guys are not really project type quarterbacks. And especially with Michael Penix,

he's played a ton. He's got a huge, huge arm, but he also is very accurate. He ran an offense that was pretty complicated. And I want to hear about what you saw from him at practice. But I just think that there's a pretty big difference there between if you take one of those guys, your expectation is these guys should pretty well know how to play football where you're not picking a ball of clay just to take a wild shot on somebody that you may not even believe in but he just has some tools i think there's a big difference there yeah absolutely and i think nicks gets hit with that a little bit too and the people who maybe don't watch a ton of college football like during the college football season may still just be thinking of oregon through like the lens of chip kelly and just like oh it was

just a college offense with all these running backs and like doing the the weird banners that now like everyone does and stuff um under landing it's been a pretty, pretty similar pro style offense. And again, I think he had a great receiver is Troy Franklin, um, was one of them, uh, and a lot of good running backs as well. Again, if you want to punish someone for having good teammates and making their teammates better than go ahead, but it's going to be a hard to find anything substantive there. So there were guys just getting open like crazy because they ran it so efficiently. But I don't think he will come into an NFL team day one and has to have their headspin. And I don't think Penix will either. I think with Penix, he had three incredible receivers and the best offensive line in college football. But if you're thinking about him on the

Vikings, you know, Justin Jefferson's a pretty good receiver too. They obviously like what they have in Jordan Addison and hopefully Hawkinson reaches the same level when he comes back from his injury. So I think there's a lot of reason to believe that they could be successful on day one in an NFL offense, especially if you're thinking of the Vikings offense. And with Penix as well, too, that was a pretty complicated, not very just like, you know, air raid collegey offense that was, you know, relied on gimmicks or anything that like he

wouldn't be asked to do in the pros. And I think another pro for both of them is they ran multiple offenses in multiple places. I think both of them having some adversity where things didn't work out, Knicks at Auburn and Pennix at Indiana, though they did both see some level of success. Pennix led Indiana to their best season in like 53 years or something like that. I think both of those things can be analyzed either way, but I consider that to be more of a positive, that they went through those harder times where they weren't putting up just insane video game level stats

and making all the throws and learn from it. Like it shows that they're capable of growth and sticking to it. So I think both their college football histories, they both played a ton of football, as you mentioned. So I think that there shouldn't be any fear with how they would react to an NFL playbook. So that's not a concern that I have with either guy.

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do that in the nfl by the way yeah it's a good strategy where every wide open but right i mean uh and you know this goes for jared goff too when he was with the rams both of those guys got penalized by people like well there's not enough tight window throws there's not enough wow throws from those guys and look i mean usually it does take wow throws which both these guys are capable of uh but also finding the person who's wide open, understanding where the ball is supposed to go, throwing it accurately to them. Like that's most of the throws in the NFL are not into a little tiny tight window. In fact, if you look at big time throw percentages in the NFL, the highest you're going to find is about 5% of throws that end up being big time throws. And also the turnover worthy plays seem to be a thing that carries over from college. And neither

one of these guys have that problem. So what, what did you see from Penix? Because I'm curious about your reaction to his arm strength on TV. It looks really special and we see him dropping dimes to people deep down the field, but you got a chance to see it up close and personal for sure. And I'll be, I'll be very excited to see how much they let both of them cut loose for the rest of this week. He, they didn't go too crazy with anything today,

but he was hitting guys between the numbers and he was moving around really well, which, you know, he had, I believe it was an ankle he hurt in the national championship so that looks to be like a thing of the past um which is impressed i don't think we often see i haven't gone through the whole senior bowl roster

history but if a guys who play in the national championship game tend not to then turn around and play in a all-star game quote quote unquote, like this quickly. So I think that is a tick in the right direction for his health. Didn't run a ton. I think Knicks only ran, really took off on a couple of plays. And of course, no one's going to hit these guys in this setting. But they both looked good and the ball was getting out of there. You could see the zip on it for both of them. They're a victim of a couple of drops which will of course happen um but yeah there is not no cause for concern with you know any none of them like neither of them looked unprepared or not ready to uh meet the moment but i also might have missed some throws while i was in in the line to

uh be handed our our credentials so um i'll i'll be sure you know i won't have I was in the line to be handed our credentials. So I'll be sure. I won't have to wait in that line again tomorrow or on Thursday. So I'll get there to see their first throws of practice. So if they had to knock off any cobwebs, I'll be able to see. Well, they really do get a ton of attention for this bowl game. So it kind of gives you an idea of the magnitude of what this could mean to the evaluations. I want to ask you about one other quarterback who's there who has kind of caught my attention throughout the years, which is Spencer Rattler. And when I've watched him, there have been times and my wife actually broadcasted a game of his against Tennessee where he went nuts.

It was actually the game where Hendon Hooker tore his ACL, but Spencer Rattler was amazing in that game. And I was like, wow, who is this guy? And he's got arm, he's got athleticism, but his college career is very up and down. And it is harder to convince me, of course, that a guy who had a mediocre career will suddenly be a lot better in the NFL. And yet I still think here he has an opportunity to show something to be that intriguing mid-round quarterback. And not that I am promoting this idea of the intriguing mid-round quarterback versus the first round prospect but it's sort of like spencer's got my attention because he's got some very interesting tools right uh spencer has a lot of people's attention uh down here i think i don't believe you used the word polarizing just now but

i draft drinking game drink every time you hear polarizing and Spencer Rattler in the same sentence. I don't advise that because it's not safe, but you'll hear it a lot over the next few months. And I don't know exactly where it stems from. If it's just a combination of things, there is a lot of mixed public opinion of him after he starred in QB1. I can't remember which season it was that he was on, but it was like after it became popular and didn't have sort of the catch all, you know, resounding success of being on a Netflix show like Kirk Cousins did last year. So it was like almost he got to college and it seemed like there is in the court of public opinion, maybe half of the people observing wanted to see him fail. And he goes to Oklahoma, has some good moments and some not so good moments and ends up losing his job to Caleb Williams, which at the time, even at the time, I don't think was that huge of a red flag. And then we've seen the quarterback that Caleb

Williams has become. He's about to be the number one pick likely to the Chicago Bears. We still need the, there's no, that's not written in pen, but it's what we expect. Jim Nagy, the VP of the Senior Bowl mentioned in, it wasn't in his press conference today, but in a previous podcast appearance, I'm forgetting who he was on with. I think it was the athletic that there's always guys that the NFL is a lot higher on than the media are. And Spencer Adler was the first name out of his mouth in discussing that segment. I think that's probably true of some of the other quarterbacks here like Joe Milton and Michael Pratt as well. Michael Pratt was the first quarterback or the first player who earned an invite to this year's Senior Bowl. They don't

necessarily do it chronologically of who they're the highest on, but that showed at least, you know, some priority on the part of the senior bowl to get Pratt in this game. So Rattler, I think he's got all the tools. He's really athletic and played for an offensive line, played behind an offensive line that doesn't have many fans in the greater college football community. So I think there is a little bit of just throwing the team and maybe the system and maybe even the South Carolina coaching staff under the bus. I'm certainly not doing that here. That's just kind of my reaction to it. So I think he's a compelling flyer. I think if the Vikings ignore quarterback in the first two rounds.

I don't know if he's on the board in the fourth round and they grab him. You know, I think, you know, people are still burned by using the third pick. It was a second round pick, but I think it was a third pick of the draft on Kellen Mond. That it's like, there's no way like picking a guy here works. And it is significantly lower chance that it would work out as opposed to using your number 11 or trading up. But sometimes it happens. You know, Brock Purdy was Mr. Irrelevant and is going to the Super Bowl. So I don't know that I am saying, wait on quarterback. Draft Spencer, Kweisi, for all the Vikings fans listening.

But he is going to be – I think there's some people who think he could go and maybe even the second and maybe some people who have him on their do not draft lists. And those guys are always very compelling and fun to watch. He had an up and down day today, almost a microcosm of his whole college career. But, yeah, I'll be keeping, you know, both eyes on him for the rest of this week. Cause he is maybe the most interesting quarterback prospect in terms of the

range of where he could go. I think I enjoy the intrigue, but would never make the bet on that guy. And even though that went for Kellen Mond that the night the Vikings drafted Kellen Mond, it was an unpopular opinion that I had, which does happen sometimes on the show. I noticed, but for me, it was kind of like, I don't care. Like, I don't care that they picked a guy in the third round. It's probably a waste of a draft pick. And, you know, like he had had a lot of these

things of, well, you know, it's a little inconsistent, but it pro offense and whatever. It's like, if the whole league passes that many times, you can find your Dak Prescott, your Tom Brady or your Brock Purdy. But most of the time you're talking about 95% of those draft picks do not end up working out. Whereas if you take the guy in the first round, I mean, the, the way that it drops off for success is crazy. I mean, it's like in the first round, it's a coin flip. And then by the time you get to the second round, it might be one in eight. And then by the time you get to the third or fourth, it might be one in 20. And so I think that if you're doing that, then that means you probably brought back her cousins, but also wanted to say you drafted a quarterback just to have drafted one.

And, you know, I'm not I'm not really hugely buying the idea that Spencer Rattler can go from this up and down prospect that no one's really sure of to a mid round pick to a star in the NFL, which is really what you're looking for. So I tend to be kind of against the, let's just roll the dice on a, on a random quarterback with a lot of problems. I feel the same way about Joe Milton. It's great that he could throw the ball over the mountains. I don't really care. It doesn't really look like a real quarterback. Maybe I'll be wrong. Let's talk about your impressions of just the other positions, because unfortunately there

are other positions that may get drafted by the Vikings in the first round but I think I think it's very clear what we're talking about though when we say other positions it's edge rusher defensive tackle and it's cornerback they were really uh exposed at the cornerback position Byron Murphy goes down and it's just an abomination in the secondary on the defensive line if daniel hunter goes it's bad actually whether he goes or stays but if he goes it's really bad along the defensive line what what is your sense for what is there at the senior bowl as far as the strength of players that the vikings could be looking at

yeah there's definitely a lot of position groups with a lot of strengths on the Vikings could be looking at? Yeah, there's definitely a lot of position groups with a lot of strengths on the defensive side of the ball here. I think the scouting staff here and people I've spoken to so far are pretty bullish on the defensive players here at all three levels. There's some big questions too. A player who popped me today was NC State linebacker Peyton Wilson, who I don't know will be super, super high up on the priority. But just, you know, a guy who has a ton of speed and was a tackling machine at NC State. I think day three is when it can get fun. That's when it's I believe it's two fourths, two fifths, two sixths, and a seventh that the Vikings currently have.

And depending on how much we see Kwesi Cook, those numbers could multiply here before April. But yeah, there's a lot of different players here. And the Vikings have some of their defensive coaching staff represented on the national team roster. Both Michael Hutchings, who's a defensive backs assistant is here. Amarjay Albury, who's a defensive line assistant is here. He was on the Vikings website. He's credited with the development and production we've seen of DJ Wanham, who is another senior bowl player for out of South Carolina in 2020. Um, I really like, uh, cornerback Quinion Mitchell out of Toledo. Um, I don't know if he'll be in the mix at 11. Uh, he's make making a lot of fans, um, in the, in the draft process, uh, so far, um, you know, not a big time program Toledo,

but it has been, you know, a pretty big, uh, pretty, pretty big star in this draft process for, for a while. Um, I think he was mocked in the first round, like one, I don't know when they start doing mocks. Usually it's the day after the draft in the previous April or so, but, um, I think he's a name certainly keep, uh, an eye on, um, I think, you know, Flores is just is just gonna want to if he was in charge he just draft like five straight cornerbacks which i would actually be in favor of it's kind of like talking about quarterback just keep drafting one until you get one uh cornerbacks you're not gonna you're not gonna feel bad about having too many of them um someone who i think uh you know gopher

fans may be uh familiar with out of the big 10 Rutgers cornerback Max Melton is just a fun player to watch, and I think he could be a fantastic nickel corner in the draft. He's one of the fastest players on the field today. They have this technology where they're all wearing, I think it's a cue collar, and then immediately after practice they say, hey, here's who's the fastest, and we all get to freak out and pretend like that, that absolutely means something. But I like Max Melton a lot as a potential, you know, nickel corner. I'm not totally sure where in the draft he'll go, but I think is a player who, you know, could be there on day three and edge rushers. I think Leia to Latu is, you know, the

one that we got to talk about because he just gets mocked to the vikings kind of everywhere uh watched lots you a lot uh in the in the pac-12 um you know he started at washington transferred to ucla he's had a lot of uh injuries in his history as well but he was fantastic and i think i think it was dane brugler who just his analysis in his uh i think it was Dane Brugler who just his analysis in his, I think it was in his senior bowl primer that he's just said Latu is John Wick, which is my favorite, you know, sentence in a scouting report I've read in this process. So I think we'll know more about him. I think medicals get a little bit more revealed at the combine,

which I believe you will be at in Indianapolis in March. So we'll want to keep a, keep an eye on Lea to Latatu going through this process, but he had a great day today and we'll be, you know, working with some Vikings coaches as well. So whether how much the Vikings fall in love with him, they're not going to tell me that, but they'll certainly get a good read. And I'm sure, you know, with the two coaches we have on officially on the senior bowl staff, and I'm pretty sure the rest of the staff is here already or will be soon if they haven't gotten here yet. Folks, if you've been listening to the show, then you know how much fun we have been having with prize picks this year.

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but somebody that uh alec lewis uh my colleague at the athletic uh brought up uh was a defensive lineman named marshawn neeland and you know i think with the with the Vikings in the interior rush has been such a huge problem for them. And I'd like to see them find players, even if it's not in the first round on that unit. And you don't have to run through a whole scouting report on them or anything. The interior rush has been kind of an obsession for me over the last few years because it blows my mind how little they have put into it since they draft Sheree Floyd in the first round. They had Tom Johnson for a bit as a situational rusher, and he was very good. And then past that, Sheldon Richardson for a single year. They tried to bring Sheldon back. It wasn't the same.

It's been such a massive issue. And then I watch the playoffs and I see someone like Chris Jones and think how do you even play against that like most guards weigh 280 or 290 pounds like how do you find one of these guys and I think that that should be a main focus for them even if it's a second round pick instead of a first round pick yeah I think that will definitely be one of their first picks off the board. I think what's going to happen is one pocket of Vikings fans is going to be left upset and empty handed because they don't have a third round pick. So they're not going to be able to draft a quarterback, edge rusher, cornerback, and interior within the first couple or three rounds. So it'll be interesting to see

what they think they can solve by drafting later. But defensive line is, and the interior defensive line, as you mentioned, it feels like it's been five to 10 years that it's been an issue. It's kind of how I also feel about the interior offensive line. But there is a Marshawn Neyland has a lot of fans here. I haven't gotten to dive into what he can do on the field too much yet, but we'll be paying close attention to him the rest of the week and the rest of the defensive tackles as well, because that's another thing like they could just draft four of them and they all have a pretty clear path to making the roster out of training camp given that the cupboard is a pretty bare so um i definitely think that's

something that if it's addressed in the first round um or the second round um would be pretty likely i'm a little upset that a texas defensive interior defensive lineman, Byron Murphy had to bow out. Cause I wanted to one watch him play a lot, but I think it'd be great if the Vikings just had multiple Byron Murphys on the, on the same defensive unit. So just for a fun little, you know, name pairing there, but yeah, so he's someone, I don't think it's serious, but is definitely a name that I would have was excited to see down here in Mobile, who is sadly not here,

but definitely a pretty intriguing position group with a lot of guys from a lot of different kinds of programs and a variety of play styles that I think, you know, Flores would love to get five of in, in this draft. That's right. Not enough picks and way too many positions is kind of the definition of where it feels like they've been even since Kweisi Adafomensa took over. One last position I want to ask you about is the running back position. It feels like every year at the Senior Bowl, there's some guy who's kind of underrated or isn't really thought a whole lot of.

And then he explodes a little bit in the Senior Bowl. And then when he has good games in the NFL, I see all the people who went to the Senior Bowl be like, we knew it. That guy was great at the senior bowl. The Vikings are not in, they're not in any position to take a running back high. They would be insane to do that because of all the other more important needs at the same time though. Ty Chandler is not somebody who I could say is this dead set RB one. They could pick somebody up in free agency. That's always very risky because usually if they've reached free agency, they're old and no one wants them anymore.

So that's also a risk as well. Fourth, fifth round, you mentioned they have a lot of picks there. That seems like the right spot to start looking for running backs. What do we got at the senior bowl to think about there? Well, if I had to pick a fan favorite from day one it would be a dylan lauby from the university of

new hampshire uh which everyone of course knows that they just turn out you know walter payton's in that backfield um but uh yeah get to know him uh he popped had a number of big plays and had a great college career um playing the Minnesota Golden Gophers new quarterback Max Brosmer over at New Hampshire so he's a guy that I think will be available later on I think Marshall running back Rasheen Ali made a lot of money today and another guy I mean I'm starting to just list list guys and name after name after name of people I've just mostly seen highlights of alike. But out of Troy Kamani Vidal, he kind of reminded me a little bit of Maurice Jones Drew in his tape, which is a wild comparison to make. I'm not saying he'll be Maurice Jones Drew unless he is amazing.

And then I'll be one of those people on Twitter saying, I knew he'd be Maurice Jones drew at the senior bowl, Matthew. So there definitely is. And I think this kind of turns into a running backs, like showcase a little bit, you know, you're, you're got, you have a ton of guys who are all coming from different teams and you need to give them a game plan to allow them to be successful while also,

you know, teaching them more things. So it's just, I think you often see a running game is ahead of a passing game, you know, early and look at high school training camps and college training camps. The running game usually pops up earlier in practice. They're allowed to just kind of run wild and you just get to see them a little bit more, you know, receivers catch the ball and they run 50 yards to the goal line just to finish the play anyway. But running backs, they do that too, but you at least get to see the cut they would make

at the line of scrimmage. So you get a little bit more, even though they're running against Aaron, not going to get lit up by a linebacker or anything like that. But both Lauby and Ali looked really good today. But it's an interesting group for sure from a wide range of uh of programs

as as well more more small school guys that are here in mobile anyway um and which like yeah the vikings aren't going to use even if they had a third round pick i don't think you'd see them use a day one or two pick on a running back but i think it is clear that they do need another horse in that backfield and they will don't have they'll they'll have some money to spend in free agency but i don't think they'd go into the free agency pool for the running back position unless it's a bargain bin acquisition and you know what are the odds on that working out so i think one of these small school guys you could see as a good fit for the vikings and you know round four or later and there's certainly some guys who uh have taped that pop and looked pretty good on the practice field

today yeah absolutely and it's always something to watch for me is the senior bowl running backs because i think as in the game they have a really good chance to emerge as well. And sometimes it's hard to evaluate in the actual senior bowl game, the quarterbacks, because chemistry is such a big deal, learning the offense. But with running backs, it's a lot more of what's their raw skill. Can they dodge tacklers?

Can they make quick cuts? Can they have good vision when things are muddy? So we kind of get a better evaluation there a lot of times on them. It's a position i'll definitely be watching for those day three guys all right before we wrap up terry what is the thing you are most interested in going forward here for the rest of the senior bowl and as i mentioned we're going to talk again for later in the week but as this thing plays out what's kind of at the top of your list uh just how much of a show that pennix and nicks can uh put on um we'll see if they uh really sort of take the reins off a little bit more in these

next couple practices and what they'll allow them to do uh on saturday like i like you said often we don't get these crazy uh passing performances Though the MVP of this game does usually tend to be a quarterback, as most MVPs work. But I do think with those two names, I think there's more interest around this senior bowl than there's maybe ever been, because it seems like interest in the game grows each year. And it's the 75th anniversary of the game here in Mobile. And you have two premium quarterbacks,

and people are arguing about whether they belong in the top 10 or not, which is just something that the draft community can argue about for three months. So I'm just looking forward to more highlight plays out of the two of them and just be thankful that they're not playing against Oregon State ever again. Senior Bull correspondence for Purple Ins terry horseman uh we will talk again yeah there you go it is for everybody uh to be a part of purple insider and they don't tell me that enough so i appreciate it um but uh no great great stuff great analysis and we'll talk again later in the week so have a good time down there man really appreciate your help awesome thank you so much matthew talk soon you you