Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - PFF's Brad Spielberger breaks down how NFL QB situations will play out and looks at Danielle Hunter's contract options

Episode Date: March 3, 2022

Live from the Combine, Pro Football Focus cap guru Brad Spielberger deep dives into all sorts of buzz around the NFL Combine, from the Kirk Cousins situation to whether DeShaun Watson will be starting somewhere else next season to Danielle Hunter's contract to where quarterbacks around the league will land and much more. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Welcome to another episode of Purple Insider from Inside the Indian Convention Center. Matthew Collar here with you as always on day whatever this is supposed to be of the Combine. Joining me here in Indiana in person for the first time ever. I had mentioned that Brad Spielberger was taller than I thought he was. Brad Spielberger, what's up, Brad? How are you? Doing well. Same height I thought I was. But yeah, good week in Indy so far. Isn't it weird though, and if people don't know Pro Football Focus, I'm still calling you the cap guru.

Do you want something else? Like, I know you're getting into other things on Pro Football Focus. They're expanding your role because you've done a tremendous job. But what is your, like, title now? It's not just Cap Dude anymore, right? There's a news element to it, you know, trying to become the Adam Schefter of PFF. No, I'm just kidding but uh yeah no definitely expanding beyond the cap stuff but that'll always be the uh the nucleus

of it all i'm not going to say the joke that everyone on the show knows that i want to make about being that but uh are your shoulders good for carrying water anyway so uh well i'm happy for you though because i i see you out there breaking more news and things like that. And you're very good at, I guess, networking and having a sense for what's going on in the league. Let me put it that way. And I'm glad that we could do this in person as opposed to over Zoom, which we've always done before. So let's just talk about what's going on here this week around the league, just beyond the Vikings. Because trust me, I'm going to ask you what you've heard about Kirk Cousins. talk about what's going on here this week around the league just beyond the Vikings because trust

me I'm going to ask you what you've heard about Kirk Cousins we've talked about what we've heard from Kwesi Adafo Mensah and Kevin O'Connell but I want to begin here so I was moseying around the podiums the way that it's set up is there's three podiums inside of this big room and every person stuffs themselves in front of one podium and you try not to breathe on each other too much and listen and you also try to focus your ears on listening to one person it's like hearing three songs play at once so i was just wandering around waiting for kevin o'connell and i stumbled upon john lynch and someone is asking john lynch naturally about jimmy garoppolo and he says a lot of quarterback needy teams around the league. He did not wink at us, but I thought he maybe should have about Jimmy Garoppolo and a potential trade. to work out and not just as it pertains to Kirk but as it pertains to just like everyone there

are way more teams looking than there are even quarterbacks to fill spots in terms of good quarterbacks how's it going to play out you know I think good news for Minnesota if you're of the opinion they should trade Kirk which I think I'm not breaking news to Purple Insider listeners but I think you would fall into that category I don't think Aaron Rodgers or Russell Wilson are available at all at this point. I think that ship has sailed. And so because of that, I do think Jimmy Garoppolo, like you said, John Lynch was willing to say that he's talked with multiple teams now. We also had Martin Mayhew, who is the GM with Washington now, and he was with the San Francisco 49ers for a while. He was asked if his familiarity with Jimmy G matters and can impact the trade there.

Didn't give us a great answer or anything like that, but I thought it was a well-phrased question that you could tell he had to think a little bit before he answered it, which maybe is the best tell you're going to get this week. But yeah, I do. I think Kirk could become the bell of the ball. He obviously probably thinks he already is, but he could become a better candidate because Russ and rogers it just doesn't and derrick carr i just do not see them getting moved i don't think so either and what that's going to leave is like let's count the teams real quick you have washington is absolutely desperate for quarterback because that's a good football team that could win seven

games with taylor heineke who look like look i'm'm happy for Taylor Heineke that he'll have a long career as a backup, but the guy was playing in the AAF or something and was a backup for the XFL and won seven games on that team when their defense was not even as good as it was supposed to be on paper. And I think that tells you that their team is very strong. And if you're Jimmy Garoppolo, obviously Kirk Cousins is not going to be happy if they trade him to Washington. That would be hilarious. But if you're Jimmy Garoppolo or you're one of those quarterbacks that you think can actually win with a really good team, this is a place you want to go. I think you would say the same thing about Pittsburgh. New Orleans is not going to play Taysom Hill at quarterback.

I mean, I would be really shocked. I mean, that's a couple right there that could be winners if they add a good quarterback right away now new orleans doesn't have the money to afford her cousins more likely than not but like who else who else are missing i feel like there's even more teams there's denver is on this list uh i don't know what houston's doing are they just going to stay with Davis Mills? Like, they seem quirky. Right? I mean, just.

Houston's very quirky, you know. That's for sure. You know, I do. I think there are a handful of teams. Carolina. Yes. Carolina obviously jumps out. You know, Scott Fitterer, their general manager, had his presser today.

Was pressed on quarterback. He honestly emphasized offensive line more. But I think that was almost a pitch to quarterbacks to, you know, please um you know with respect to Kirk going to Houston I do think that's a fit um you know from a philosophical standpoint and also I'll tell you I I know it's it's not a topic everyone loves to hear and I totally understand that um Deshaun Watson conversations I do think are going to creep back up um and I think a team to watch there is the Philadelphia Eagles. Really? Okay. They're not good with Jalen Hurts, huh? You know, I think Hurts made strides last year and took a step. And I think the beauty of that for them is they're not pressed to do something and they don't have to be. They don't have to draft a guy with one of their three first round picks or anything like that. But if they can

have a major upgrade at the position i think they will take that chance i haven't asked you what you thought of even the slightest rumor with the vikings and deshaun watson i just can't make that work in my brain but at the same time if he becomes a free agent because he's cut it's a totally different equation because what I couldn't make work is the guy has a huge cap hit so much danger levels around Deshaun Watson and you're having to give up assets and they're asking for three first round picks and there's just like no formula to make any of that work I'm not even sure if I give up that much for Russell Wilson if I'm a good team much less am I giving it up for somebody who might, I don't know, have criminal charges on the way. But if you're talking about him as a free agent where he can

sign wherever he wants, I'm not saying I would endorse it because I still think that it's putting your life in your hands or in his hands. And that's scary considering what he's accused of, but it's a totally different formula in terms of the risk involved if you're not trading away your future to get him no 100 and i think he has a no trade clause like you said obviously we're talking about a hypothetical free agent deshaun watson which you know i'll tell you i don't know if that plays out i mean houston's not going through the same thing as this past year, where they paid his entire salary this year. But it jumps from, I want to say, about $10 million this past year to about $35 million, just like Kirk. And so, they're obviously not going to pay that

to not play him and have him sit behind Davis Mills. If he does come on the market, I mean, I do think Kevin O'Connell and Kwezi Adolfo Mensah could be potentially attractive people for him to want to work with. But does you know, does he want to go to Minnesota? You know, I'm not sure. And I'll tell you, not to go too into the weeds, but, you know, I did spend time in that Minnesota building. If you told me, you know, the team I would expect least to bring in a guy like Deshaun Watson because of the off-field stuff,

probably Minnesota is my answer. Here's my counterpoint. Delvin Cook was not suspended, was not cut, was not traded. Noted. Right? I mean, the thing is that there are some people who have power inside the Vikings organization who I could guarantee you from knowing who they are would be against Deshaun Watson. I don't know how much power those people really have in a decision like

that. I think that the people who have the power there are Mark and Ziggy Wilf. And when they decide that's going to happen, then that's going to happen if that's the way they want to go. And that would be very conflicting for me. I don't know if you've heard anything just even around here about how other teams feel about that, but just even from a, what it says to sort of your community to bring in someone and of course there's innocent until proven guilty i was once on a jury i know but there's also 22 accusations it's not he said she said it's the she's you know she said she says i've said that before but that that to me just carries a lot of risk and also a lot of just very, very bad look for you to do that.

And I also wonder, though, on the other side of it, how much fans really care about the look. No, fans and also folks that know they're going to lose their job if they don't win. And I know this is a very rare thing to happen, but, you know, Kwezi Adepomense's contract was leaked to the media. It's a four-year deal, which is a shorter deal for a general manager and so look i mean he needs to win and he needs to win pretty soon so yes you look at it from a purely football perspective i'm sure they will kick the tires there um but yeah like you said messages in your community also just the message you send to you know the people in your building that have to interact with a guy like that it would be tough but yeah end of the day you know winning winning cures all as we've heard is there no more disappointing person in

the nfl in the last like i don't know how many years of all my life watching football there's a lot of players who have gotten in trouble where you go like okay all right i guess you know i mean i'm disappointed but i'm not super shocked that someone could have something like that happen to sean watson just being like pillar of the community, ultimate leader and everything else, and having this be a part of his resume is tricky because if it wasn't, because remember, at the end of that season, he was going to go somewhere else probably, and it would have been move heaven and earth, trade all your draft picks. I don't care what you have to do.

He's that great and not so much the case at the moment so let's talk about cousins in that situation the question that i can't answer and i have covered a little ground on this subject already brad you're shocked by that but the question i cannot answer is uh two. What would someone offer and what would the Vikings take? Answer. You know, the issue there is it comes back to the contract where because he only has the one year remaining and there is no threat of a franchise tag, I think the bigger issue than the actual compensation is they would need to negotiate an extension before they actually pull the trigger on the trade. So that's where it gets complicated because technically you're not even allowed to do that. Obviously that does happen. But that's where it really becomes jumbled. And it's, we'll pay X if the contract is this, or we'll pay Y if

the contract is this. So in a hypothetical scenario where there's no contract you're working and you're just inheriting a one-year $35 million fully guaranteed deal with no eligibility to franchise tag so he could walk the following offseason. I struggle to see a team sending a first-round pick. At the end of the day, though, as we're talking about, teams are always going to be desperate for a quarterback. Obviously, Washington is probably not on his list, but a second-round pick still, even if that's the scenario, I do think is possible. Okay, you be Kwesi and I'll be me. no who am i i'm carolina is who i am all right uh hey uh mr adolfo mensa here's what we got we got the sam darnold problem we really need off our hands

because he's terrible and uh we can't give you the sixth overall pick because we're not doing drugs currently what about a second round pick and then we'll work out those void years with cousins to lower the cap hit for this year what do you think about that mr quasey first i would say are you sure you're not doing drugs because i saw the ian thomas extension so you're doing something um no second of all look because i understand six is too high but thankfully your second rounder is a top 40 pick and those those early second round picks are also very valuable teams have talked about this where because you can reset your draft board after the first night and then you know you kind of get a feel for the first you know eight to

ten picks of that second round it's a premium value on those picks so if that was it i would still would strongly consider it um try to you know build around Mond or just do something for a year, just kick that decision down the road and see what you can figure out. Okay, I'm going to be Pittsburgh now. So look, we know our pick isn't as good as Carolina, but you don't have to take a horrible quarterback back. What if we gave you a second and also a fifth, and you give us Kirk,

and then you do the extension. But you don't get anything back. Or how about this? Instead of a second, a third. It's just a straight-up Kirk for a third. And, look, if you want Mason Rudolph, please take him. He's just not any good. You need a backup that's better than Mannion.

Take Mason Rudolph. Mason Rudolph in the third. You do it. So, you know, I'm happy that you're you're an afc team talking to me you know we we try to get guys if we're going to trade them out of our conference um you know whether that makes sure you want that because you could also win all the big games hey oh come on person coming up the escalator you've got to think that was funny they just they just nodded in approval they love that joke okay sorry i interrupted i don't even know where we're at at this point if i'm being honest well you were talking about the afc team and then a third would be tough you know i think at that point if you're a dopamensa you try to convince yourself of look

be honest with ownership say look we're not going to extend him and therefore we know this is kind of a one-year trial let us prove to you that we can install a system and as he said himself as quizzy documents to set himself at his press conference he can make the throws that are easy i know you tweet about this he can make the throws that he should make and yes we can laugh about that and we should but there are also a lot of guys in this league that can't make the throws you're supposed to make oh there most certainly are uh kevin o'connell laughs about how he wasn't one of them. He said, basically, I couldn't throw the football accurate enough. And this is what people do not understand is how big the football is

and how hard it is to throw. Things like what Aaron Rodgers does or what you could do on Madden are so wild. Like, I'm not even sure. I have a decent arm, I think. I don't even know if I could throw a ball like 30 yards. I think you could. You think so? I mean, look at my hand size those are kenny pickett hands yeah that's kenny pickett yeah that's not impressive at all flag yeah it is there's lots of red flags i'm not well i'm six two but i have a mac jones body in terms of the flabbiness the dad buzz back i think i could probably run like a four no not a four a five eight i would guess

what would you run we were discussing this last night i could definitely not go below five seconds there's no shot oh god no we had an over under i think it was of like five three um and i was still right on the fence of whether or not i was over under there now didn't didn't mike renner claim that he could run something like a four six or four seven or something and he came sort of close that sounds exactly like mike renner i'm not sure but i believe it yeah renner is a spectacular athlete and what he ran sort of told you what you could run so renner renner is like my height and can easily dunk uh and yeah so that's like no i i couldn't i think if i got under six i would feel pretty confident about it but don't take me away from this conversation about Kwesi and the trades. Here's what I think is very important. If you're Kwesi

D'Affomensa, this is where the third round pick discussion comes in is if you trade Kirk Cousins, a proven pro bowl quarterback for a third round draft pick, and you don't have another quarterback coming in that you can say will win us football games this year, ownership is going to be like, huh? No. We're not taking a third-round pick back for our quarterback that we paid all this money. We're going to look stupid. We gave the guy the biggest contract, and now we're trading him away for nothing? And, of course, I think on the outside, it's very easy to go like actually this is not a

bad idea because of where you are at as a franchise but if you look like as quesia da fomenta that you got totally gypped in a deal well you know i think that's not how you want to start off your tenure as a general manager you always have to factor no matter how many analytics Kweisi Adafo-Mensa can talk about or process-driven process driving. Because we don't say analytics now. We're just talking about process. It's all information, Brad. But anyway, the point is ego matters. How it looks from the outside matters. How it looks to the ownership matters. And if you make a trade for a third round pick and Colin Cowherd goes on his show and Stephen A. Smith and they go, how are you going to trade that? Like the owners are going to see it and go like, wait, did we get ripped off? Are you a bad GM?

Why did you make a bad trade? These things have to be considered and that's why it still feels like the most or it now feels like to me that until or unless someone gets really desperate which is very possible the the letting it play out just kind of feels like the most likely thing that's my perception as well i originally thought there was a possibility of another salary cap easing short-term extension which you know obviously would not have been received well. The thing is, Kirk is not going to play ball. So for folks that don't know, you're allowed to convert, automatically convert deals where you restructure, but you're not allowed to do that

by adding void years. And because there are no years after 2022 for Kirk, they can't have any cap flexibility. And so they would need his permission if they wanted to just add void years, push money down the line, and have no new cash. And he's not going to do that. Okay, so that's interesting because I always thought that the void—well, I guess you would have to agree to the void years, right? It's a new contract, technically. The thing that's built in is when you convert. Right, but the years that already exist.

Okay, so now why would Kirk care about adding the void years? Just why would he in theory do them a favor if they could give him new money on an extension that's a good point that he can hold that over their head and say why should i help you give me all of the money the only thing i could see from kirk is if they were all on the same page look we're gonna let you hit free agency and i mean you have no other choice if he wants to hit free agency but that's that's what god's telling you to do kirk go hit free agency but you're gonna play here for this year would you like to win some football games i still think that the voiding years thing is a bad

idea i would like you to explain since you are the cap guy explain why that's a bad idea to add void years to someone like kirk to lower his cap hit for this year and so that's the thing is so look if you know you're going to move on after a season regardless all you're doing by adding the void years is you're pushing money down the line let's say they take you know 20 million dollars of his 35 million dollar salary let's say they add four void years So there's five years total on the deal. That $20 million would be spread out over five years. The $16 million pushed into the future would all hit your 2023 salary cap. So Kirk would be gone and you'd have $16 million on your cap for him to be elsewhere, which look, we've seen worse. Carson Wentz almost doubled that number. But if you're going to move on, why not just bite the bullet, take all the cap in the first year, and then have a clean slate the following year?

Right. I mean, wouldn't you only do that if you thought you could win the Super Bowl this year if you added whomever, right? Like, that's like, you're right. If you have Tom Brady, which they basically did, then yeah, then you're willing to just say, look, we'll eat some money in 2023 who cares well let's talk about if that scenario plays out then what should the vikings do because you put together your top 743 free agents list on pff.com and what i am having trouble getting super motivated to talk about is like which free agents they should sign because if the most likely scenario is that they're just sticking with Kirk Cousins on $45 million contract. Then it's pretty hard to spend too much money in free agency. So how should they approach that if that ends up being the case? Like you said, it's a weird dichotomy, too, because then it's like, all right, do you think you can win a Super Bowl this year?

So should you try to spend around that or should you, you know, just be patient? I think what they should do, which still sounds scary at first, but what what nick casario did last year which was he knew the team was not a competitive team and they had a lot of room to grow and they just signed a a record number of just one year deals for mid-tier and lower tier veterans that's probably what i do just to kind of bring in some quote-unquote crazy guys into the building maybe a couple of those guys pan out then you do extend them into the future that's probably the route i go okay here's what i'm going to pass on that i would rather see people that might be bad have a chance to show that they might be good that are development projects then have someone who is a proven nfl player but we know isn't

particularly good so last year they kind of went through this. They tried to sign a whole defense, one-year contracts, Bashad Breeland, Xavier Woods, Patrick Peterson, all these things. Now you would presumably go with higher upside or younger players who had maybe played 400 snaps or something. That's okay. i think that's a fine model to go with i would rather just see i don't know harris in hand you might not even know who that is there's no reason you should but like if he plays and then all of a sudden there's kind of something there when he's on the field last year they missed an opportunity to even learn about anyone that was on their team that wasn't those players that were veterans. So with Cam Dantzler, for example, it's a big L for them that they didn't play him the whole year.

They played him 500 or 600 snaps. Okay, well, that's such a small sample size. He put up some numbers that weren't that bad. He gave up some really horrendous end-of-game touchdowns and things like that. Do I walk out of last year knowing what Cam Dantzler is? No. And what did it get you to play Bashad Breeland instead? Now they were desperate. This group is not desperate. So I think that if you can add someone who's really good and young-ish, like 26, 27, to a five-year contract, I would do that. Like, like okay this player is going to be good

for us for multiple years our plan is to be really good by 2023 so even if he's a good player on an average team for the first year he's going to be a part of the long-term future I'd rather see that and then a bunch of who knows what's then I would see like oh let's just take a bunch of randos and see if anybody can play no I think it's totally fair um and speaking of vikings cornerbacks that maybe should have played and didn't because of desperation uh one of the hotter names uh for free agents uh is mike hughes uh interestingly enough a name come on not knocking i'm not saying he's gonna get a monster deal but hotter name and compared to what you might expect yeah i'll be kidding me a lot of folks were impressed with his year in kansas city um you know that sixth round pick uh you know obviously, Rick loves those sixth-round picks.

But, yeah, I've heard a lot of teams are going to have meetings with him. Again, he's not going to sign some massive deal, but he's probably going to get a decent contract. Matt just cannot stop laughing, which I understand. Okay, we've got to talk about this. Sidebar, sidebar. Remember, I'm very aware of the courts now, so that's all the analogies I make.

When I was, and I still do this, but I had gotten into watching the World Championship of Chess, so everything was a chess analogy. Now everything is the courts, so sidebar, sidebar. What the heck was with the trades that the Vikings made the last two years? Do you have any explanation for this? I mean, Chris Herndon for a fourth. They trade away Mike Hughes for a sixth. For why? What incentive was there to trade away Mike Hughes to begin with? Was it because Mike Zimmer was tired of him being hurt? I don't understand what the benefit was of someone who was still on their rookie contract.

They weren't expensive. It's not like Mike Hughes had done something in public that was horrible he was in a car with jayron curse uh on the inebriated side at one point but it wasn't like he had done something terrible and uh i just don't understand like he seemed to get along with people and was a fine teammate there was sometimes there are things that you don't get the herndon thing the the Yannick and Gakwe trade. It's like, are you just like looking at things and trading them? So just to twist the knife a little bit,

I also think J Ron curse is going to have a strong free agent, uh, interest, but anyway, real quick, we always thought he was good. And I think Mike Zimmer thought he was good and just couldn't stand him as a person because what he did now,

what he did was kind of on the bad side. I mean, drinking and driving with a loaded gun in the car, that's a little red flag right there. Uh, and not only that, he went around a barrier for a closed road. I mean, come on, man, like there's gotta be some intelligence test here. Certainly fair. Certainly fair. Just real quick. The Chris Herndon trade not to be, it was one of the worst trades I've ever seen in my entire life. And that's something that I said at the time because I'm a big believer in hindsight analysis is not fair. You need to assess something at a time it happens. You can, of course, revisit it once and you can be wrong. Why they thought they needed to trade a fourth round pick for a guy who could do nothing with the New York Jets, which, look, I guess it's the Jets.

But yeah, one of the worst trades of the last decade. Completely. And the Yannick Ngakwe one is funny because if this defensive system traded for Yannick Ngakwe with this, you know, quote-unquote 3-4, I think he would have been a really good fit. Yes, as a wide 9 slash wide 11 that he plays. Yeah, probably.

And this is the whole thing about the last couple of years of the Vikings is just so much of it made no sense. And this is where I think Kwezi Adafomensa and Kevin O'Connell have a chance to make it make sense, where when they talk about building with a clear vision, this is my next question for you, is what would that be for you? If you were saying we're going to build with a clear vision and and i'm giving you the interview for to be the gm which maybe someday you'll be

and uh what would you say like we want a clear vision yeah you know i think the issue when you give a head coach and general manager an ultimatum like like mike zimmer and rick spielman probably received is that they're not going to act rational and they're not going to look in the best interest of the long-term health of the club. And so that, for me, is what it is, is that I'm not trying to contend the first year I'm there. You're getting hired as a new GM for a reason. The reason is probably because the team was not good. And so, for me, it's about building that foundation

and establishing a solid roster before you actually then try to add some of those shinier objects, those sexier signings to really push you over the edge. I'm not trying to contend until the third year I'm a general manager in a hypothetical scenario. Right. Yeah. And I think that that's a hard thing and it should be an exciting thing. I think if you're a Vikings fan to think about what a reasonable timeline could be to really try to be great and how much damage it did to this organization to have like this edict or this desperate attempt to try to win now because everything they did was desperation and we were just listening to Kevin O'Connell talk about Garrett Bradbury I don't know if you're standing

there for that one but there were a lot of eyes that were rolled as he was saying how much he loves Garrett Bradbury. Like, OK, come on. He was benched last year. Like, let's not let's not do the thing that the last group did, which was the sky is the sky is red and not blue. But I know you have to say nice things about players you're getting rid of it's just the customary but you know it really did a lot of damage to them because they never thought long term about anything because there was no long term and it was a self-fulfilling prophecy i think it was like well we got to do this because we're gonna get fired

but actually you're doing things that are getting you fired and i mean isn't that amazing and to the point too another thing i wouldn't do look you need to have a system you need to have a philosophy on both sides of the ball but to take a center in the top 20 purely because he can block in the wide zone that's what i was alluding to right is drafting a center right for that right not only that but also because he has one specific skill set and isn't it like look if he's tyler linderbaum it's a different conversation if you want to play tyler linderbaum in wide zone if you want to play him in a power gap scheme you want to play him in a power gap scheme, you want to play him whatever you want to do, he can do it.

So, yeah, that's also the type of picks that I'm avoiding altogether. I'm taking those premium positions early on in my tenure. And then, look, yes, if we're a competitive team going into year three and there is a Quentin Nelson that's not at six but maybe in the teens, whatever, and it's not a quote-unquote premium position but he is a difference-making impact player for a roster that's already close, then you do that. Yeah, for Bradbury, I'm not surprised he said that. He is a fit, but like you said, he got benched,

and he was a fit in the old scheme as well. Right, and he also followed up by saying Mason Cole did a great job too, and you're like, I don't know. Yeah, I mean, maybe. Not really, though. As a backup, backup fine but not as any sort of starter it just makes the point so strong with the garrett bradbury draft pick and even with the jeff gladney draft pick we need a corner we have to draft a corner so let's overdraft one who ends up blowing up in your face the funniest thing that no one look i'm not going to ruin a highlight of Vikings social media,

which is the video when the front office finds out the Eagles are taking Jalen Ragoor. What everyone overlooks is that Zimmer immediately goes, are you sure we're still going to be able to get one of those corners? And Spielman's like, Mike, we're taking Justin Jefferson, relax. And he's like, are you sure we're going to be able to get one of those corners? Imagine if they took Jeff Gladney 22 second overall after jalen rayquard i know and is there ever like a better summation of the vikings than mike zimmer just being like wait what well what about the corners what what about that's in one quote that is mike zimmer yeah no for sure uh okay

two more things that i have for you and you made the mistake of saying that you had lots of time so this is on you uh number one is we need to talk about daniel hunter again and we've been talking about daniel hunter for several years but it's still not reached a resolution and i've gone through a daniel hunter roller coaster of emotions where i think that i felt maybe right at the end of the season there's no way they let this guy leave for the next group who's going to evaluate daniel hunter and there's no evaluation of daniel hunter that doesn't find he's amazing he's an amazing player uh and then you know jason fitzgerald from over the cap who you know very well he wrote or said in an interview that he thought that they would cut daniel hunter

and then there's the internet that thinks that they're getting a first-round pick for Daniil Hunter. And, like, okay, so what do we think? Why don't you rank those scenarios? Like, what is the most likely of those scenarios? This is why I say that folks need to understand that when you make a trade in the NFL, you are trading for the contract as much as you are trading for the on-field talent.

And so the reason Jason said that is because let's say the Vikings want to move on. If they say, all right, we have a deadline of March 20th or whatever the date is, and on that day, he is owed $18 million. Would you like to trade us a first-round pick? No one's doing that. Not because he's not an elite talent and he's still young and deserves an extension and all those things, but back-to-back years, missing a lot of time with injury, was still good when he did play, but no team, again, we're talking about looking silly and all those things. But back-to-back years, missing a lot of time with injury, was still good when he did play, but no team, again,

we're talking about looking silly and stuff like that. That's an egg-on-your-face move where if you trade premier draft capital, pay a guy $20 million in cash the first season, and then he's hurt or whatever happens. So I still don't think getting cut is most likely. I think at that point they probably would just restructure. It's not an ideal scenario, but if they couldn't come to terms on an extension, which is going to be tricky,

maybe you just kick the can down the road and say, look, it's still Daniil Hunter. You also have two nose tackles now, which I guess fits the 3-4 to an extent. But long answer short, I don't see him getting cut, but no. Sorry, there is no first round pick coming for Daniil Hunter, folks. No, of course not. But also, Quase to factor that into that if you trade daniel hunter for a fifth round pick everyone's going to think that you're dope because not everyone does the math on that and that right when you see should the jets trade a second round pick for daniel hunter being written by jets writers and then you get a fourth like wait, what? They were going to give up a second, or that's what their writers said. It becomes difficult to do.

Cutting him goes along with, like you said, less egg on your face. And if it's a fifth, you'd rather cut than take a fifth and look silly. Yeah, because the guy has the potential to have 15-sack season at any moment. So, yeah, you definitely don't want to take that risk. And just, you know, I discuss trades for all three guys we talked about now kirk bradbury and and hunter i would say this if they do want to trade anyone i think looking into future draft capital i mean this is why you hire a guy like a quasi a dope moment so i don't believe that there should be a time value on draft picks and that's something that i would hope he understands as well i'm sure he does um

that's one just kind of general overview comment is 2023 draft picks, it's a better draft class. You'll be closer to contending. That's the one thing I would look for for any of those guys. You mentioned Bradbury trade. Trade Bradbury for a defensive lineman who's good, like Cincinnati did with Billy Price. Find some team that still believes in their draft evaluation.

This is another aside here. Send the jury out of the room we need to have an aside uh that um you know i saw daniel jeremiah say that he still thought something was there with sam darnold because of his evaluation when darnold was coming out of college these nfl people they don't move off those if someone is released like how many teams will taco charlton play for? Taco Charlton's bad. What the hell is he still in the league for? Laquan Treadwell, because they were first-round picks,

and we liked him coming out. So, okay, if there's one team. And with Daniil Hunter, though, I don't think there's a mark. With Garrett Bradbury, there might be, but everybody knows the math there. Kicking it down the road, though, what does that mean? So, you know, you take the $18 million roster bonus, and I want to want to say including void years he has four years left in the deal maybe it's three but nevertheless let's say it's three you just you push 12 million dollars into the future and you basically dictate your future decision on how his season plays out and look he might have

a phenomenal season and then you do negotiate a top of market or near top of market extension at the same time it's a tough spot because, look, I mean, I think Nick Bosa could sign for $30 million a year this offseason. I think Max Crosby could enter that 25-plus-per-year conversation. So it's tough. And like we talked about, you're not contending next year, so would you pay him all that money to not contend? It's a very – look, Rick Spielman and co. didn't want to deal with it,

which was understandable. That left Kwesi basically in an impossible position. Well, yeah. Now. didn't want to deal with it, which was understandable. That left Kwesi basically in an impossible position. Well, yeah. Now they don't have to deal with it. And they certainly earned their way there. All right. Last thing for you. I promise.

There's a draft going on. Not just Vikings rumors and talk. What are the edges in the draft? I thought Kwesi Adafo-Mens mensa i would give him a ton of credit for saying the draft is random and we're just trying to figure out the areas that are less random and more predictable because most gms will say well we've got the you know we've got our scouts we've got our formula and you guys you don't know you don't know our scouts like oh yeah you know okay well you know i bet if i put a bunch of dog bowls out and told my dog go

eat out of one and that's the first pick for the vikings might be just as accurate as them picking it and i know that's insulting to a lot of people's jobs but it is so provably random and i don't really mean that about the dog thing but if if i if i said out of five five players are available that we all agree on at the 12th overall pick, and none of them are a quarterback because they're keeping Kirk. You, me, the dog, anyone, whether that pick works out or not, I think this is like a recognized thing. And so for Kweisi to say that, I think that's a progressive mind about the draft. But I also believe him that there are ways to get advantages.

What, in your mind, is the way to get an advantage yeah so huge credit to him i missed that answer saying that it is random because it is and understanding that is huge and look i know vikings fans will roll their eyes at this but trading down is an edge it is it remains an edge and look i think rick spielman maybe went a little bit too far with it particularly also because trading back to get a bunch of six and sevens is not the same as taking a early second and turning it into two threes. There's differences in how you go about it. But I will say, trading down and also acquiring future capital, as I mentioned, because the NFL, they've kind of agreed that you can devalue a future pick by a round. So a future

second would be equivalent to a third in a trade calculation. So those are two edges. But I also think, especially with where the Vikings are now, you bet on traits. You're looking for younger players. I'm not taking, you know, a name I've heard, Central Michigan tackle Bernard Raymond might be a great player. He's 25 years old. I'm not even, he's not even on my board. So I'm looking at 20, 20, 21 year old players, elite athletes. I mean, guys will stick in the division. I got like a Rashawn Gary, which everyone made fun of that pick, myself included, was not impressed with Michigan. He was playing out of position. He tested absolutely off the charts, whatever position you want to call him. And now a couple of years later, he's one of the better outside linebackers in the NFL. So that's the type of things I'm doing where you're just, you're catering everything to

the context of where you're at. You having fun this week? Having a good time? A hell of a time. What's your best little combine indie story that you could tell? Catch me off guard here. Best indie story I could tell. Shoot, you got me puzzled. I mean, look, my brain is a bit in jumbles.

I got about four hours of sleep last night, which for indie is decent, actually. Anybody who heard my morning podcast, and I'm not a drinker, but that doesn't mean I wasn't out late. It sounds like I was out late. I can imagine. Yeah, I am drawing blanks here. I'm trying to think of anything I could share. How about somebody that walked by you? Because I was with Steve Palazzolo last night when he met Mark Brunel.

It was a big moment in his life. Somebody who walked by you where you went, oh my God, that's that guy. That's a good one. There was actually, it's kind of random, but all I saw was a cameraman and a light specialist walking in front of someone, walking backwards. And it was Ron Rivera on one of the more stoic, just epic journeys through a hallway I think I've ever seen. So I don't know why it's Ron in particular, but it was just, I don't know, it was an impressive moment.

That's funny. I got interviewed by the Houston Texans team media, and they were asking me Wunderlich questions, and I got them all wrong. Well, good for you. They took the Wunderlich out this year, so that's good news. Finally. Finally. Actually, here's a quick one I'll tell you.

I can't say who the player is, but you want to be smart in all aspects of life. But frankly, in the NFL, maybe there is a too smart threshold you could be. I heard a story about a player, an unnamed player, who was basically told to tank the one, not tank it completely, but not to do too well on the wonder lick because it could scare folks off. So he only answered about 35 40 questions and then left and he still got every single question that he answered correct um but yeah like goofy funny stuff like that um all that stuff is real though the zany stories

you hear that those are real stories tank the wonder lick was that the guy who became a surgeon remember that whole thing is myron roll too smart and it was myron roll myron roll and and laurent duvernay tardif i think i got that right um yeah yes are they too smart. And it was a Myron roll. Myron roll and, and Laurent Duvernay Tardif. I think I got that right. Um, yeah, yes. Are they too smart to play in the NFL?

Oh yeah. That's a big problem. They might be, they might be. All right. Brad Spielberger at PFF Brad, I think, uh,

on Twitter and your work at pff.com. You're doing spectacular stuff, man. And I really appreciate you taking all the time to have some fun here at Indy, man. Thank you. Football.