Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - PFF's Brad Spielberger's mock draft has a surprise Vikings trade

Episode Date: March 29, 2024

Matthew Coller and PFF analyst Brad Spielberger talk about his latest mock draft and how he thinks the top of the draft will play out. He has a trade that very few draft analysts have explored. Does he think Jayden Daniels or Drake Maye go No. 2 overall? Plus the exact date he believes Justin Jefferson will sign his extension. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hey everybody, welcome to another episode of Purple Insider. Matthew Collar here and joining the show for the 1000th time. Everybody celebrate PFF Brad, Brad Spielberger of Pro Football Focus. What is going on, Brad? How about this? How many times did you and I talk about, hey, what if Kirk leaves? How will that look? The advantages and the salary cap.

Oh, we had the discussion so many times. Now we are here, and I got to say, going to the owners' meetings, it felt like the Minnesota Vikings were the bell of the ball with everybody talking about, oh, are the Vikings going to trade up? What's it going to cost? Look at us. Who would have thought? Who would have thought? We've, we've, we've pontificated about what it could look like and what it could lead to for, for years. We're ahead of the curve and now we're there. And I love what they did this off season and how everything is shaping up to drop a rookie quarterback into the equation. I think it's going

to be a fun era of Vikings football. Yeah, that's for sure. So before we get into your mock draft, and I've got a, I think, unique way of breaking down your mock. But I just want to know what you thought of the Vikings acquiring the 23rd pick, because there was some varying opinions on that about whether they give up too much or what, you know, what the quality of that move was. But for me, it made perfect sense for them to trade up to be able to have better ammunition than any other team that maybe is trying to reach into their future draft picks. And instead you can say to the Patriots, you can say to the Arizona Cardinals, yeah, I know those future picks are great, but picks now are even better. And so I thought personally, it was a

very crafty and shrewd move from Kweisi Adafomensa and he shouldn't pretend that they don't want to trade up. I mean, there's no secret about it that they would like to have it. And if it doesn't work out, well, then they still end up with two first-round draft picks. But how did you view that on, say, a Spielberger draft value chart, for example? Yeah, no, it would come in as like a bit of a win for the Houston Texans. But I'm with you where this is all about moving up. And like you said, they don't need to be facetious and pretend that's not what they're trying to accomplish.

Frankly, I wouldn't even be surprised if they're talking to, you mentioned New England at three, Arizona at four, the Chargers at five. I think that's the window and almost gauging what they want, right? Like they may have made that trade just because one of those teams said, we want multiple firsts this year. We love the class. We want to, I don't know, tackle, receiver, whatever. Go get an extra first and then come back to us and let's have the conversation.

I wouldn't be surprised if that has happened. So, yeah, I'm waiting for that trade to go down. I think it's going to be Arizona at four. It just feels right. The Jonathan Gannon connection, they moved down last year from three. Maybe they go back up like they did last year as well to get Paris Johnson at four. It just feels right. The Jonathan Gannon connection, they moved down last year from three. Maybe they go back up like they did last year as well to get Paris Johnson at six. Yeah, but no, I'm with you. Like it's the value. And again, the value in all that, when you're acquiring a quarterback, it kind of goes out the window. If the guy is a hit at that position, who cares?

I feel the same way about trading up where if it takes three firsts to go up and get one of the elite prospects that they are in a position to do so. And I will never remember what they gave up. If the guy turns out to be good, that if it's your franchise quarterback four years in and you're talking about signing him to a record breaking contract or something, then I'm not going to go. Oh yeah. They had to give up that one extra draft pick. But you know, they do have those two Lombardi trophies. Of course, maybe that's getting a little ahead of the cart, ahead of the horse there. But so you've done a mock and I, of course, we're talking about every day, how this is going to play out, where they're going to trade up.

But on purpose, I did not look at your mock here's why i want to guess your mock i want to go through these first few picks and of course see how far we get until uh the minnesota vikings are uh picking in your mock because i don't know what you thought of potential trade-ups so i'm going to guess who you mocked and you can tell me right or wrong so let's just start out with the chicago bears i'm gonna go out on the limb of the century and guess that you mocked the chicago bears caleb williams is that correct that is a bullseye one for one okay all right so there's no zero chance right that it's anybody else right they're all set zero it's done you know they probably haven't like told him or anything just yet,

but I mean, the way they're all parties are talking about it. Like it's the NFL has given a mandate to not, you know, we didn't know Trevor Lawrence is going first overall either. It's I think it's a done deal. So for a Chicago, let's just briefly touch on that because they trade Justin Fields for basically nothing. Now they have Caleb Williams here. And I think that Williams suddenly falls into a situation that's pretty good. Whereas I think that if you had asked me six months ago at week eight, I would have said, yeah, good luck, Caleb Williams. But the moves that Ryan Poles has made, if Caleb Williams becomes even 75% of what people think he can be,

Ryan Poles is going to look like a pretty smart general manager, I think. I mean, early on, there were some questions. Kind of the same with Quasey, like maybe some rookie mistakes from Ryan Poles. Training for Chase Claypool, don't try to defend it. It was bad. But since then, though, the way that they've built out the team, the roster is now set for a quarterback to come in and have a pretty decent situation. I guess the only question I have is really about the coaching staff and how quick he can adjust to the NFL, considering that he played kind of like a scattershot type of

football with USC last year so the whether what is the expectation for Caleb Williams right away yeah so first the roster like you know you obviously now have DJ Moore and Keenan Allen I also think Gerald Everett kind of flying under the radar is a very good number two tight end with Cole Komet who was you know a stud last year and I wasn't the biggest Cole Komet advocate never was bad but I was like you know was he a top 50 pick player it looked like one last year and then you have the biggest Cole Komet advocate. Never was bad, but I was like, you know, was he a top 50 pick player? He looked like one last year. And then you have DeAndre Swift and, you know, obviously a stable Khalil Herbert, Roshan Johnson. So the offensive line could get better. It's young. I think Darnell Wright was all you could have asked for in a top 10 pick tackle

last year. Maybe they do that again. They obviously have number nine as well. So you go receiver, you go tackle, you further bolster that offense. What I've been saying, and this is where I truly believe, this should be a 500 football team and they should be a wildcard type of team. Look, I mean, Detroit and Green Bay are going to be very tough to beat out for the NFC North division, but yeah, I think they should be nine and eight-ish and a wildcard competitor in the NFC. All right. So for your number two pick, I am going to guess that you put with the Washington commanders, Jaden Daniels. Is that correct?

You are a one for two as your first miss. I am fading the noise on all that's going around in the NFL. We've now heard, Oh, Jaden Daniels going to, we've heard JJ McCarthy's going to, okay. Who have we not heard is going to probably the guy who, in my opinion, is going number two. I know there's a connection to Minnesota, maybe that confuses or that mixes things up later. But

to me, Drake May is the clear number two pick in this draft. And I get people saying, okay, like there's a stylistic element that works with Jaden Daniels and Cliff Kingsbury. Drake May's offensive coordinator for two years in college was Phil Longo, who is an air raid disciple and has a lot of similarities in what he likes to do to college Cliff Kingsbury. So, you know, I don't see why Drake May isn't a great fit. He also can run and scramble and take off with the football plenty. So to me, I just think we're getting smokescreen of Palooza. Maybe I'm

wrong and he does drop. I wouldn't be surprised if any of Drake, Jaden Daniels, or JJ McCarthy is QB4. Like I really wouldn't. But for now I'm fading the noise and just sticking with Drake May at two. Okay. That's fair enough. I mean, because really Caleb Williams and Drake May have been at the top for so long that we've seen this in the past where we get bored with our mock drafts and so forth. And, you know, people start to leak certain things if they're hoping maybe that that player can drop, but really since the end of the 2022 season, Drake may has been the number two pick. The only thing I've been trying to put together, because I think the Vikings would really like Drake may I've been trying to put together, because I think the Vikings would really like Drake May, I've been trying to kind of put together the like Marcus Mariota and they've

traded away Sam Howell. I guess they're friends with him and Drake May and whatever, trying to put together the puzzle pieces or the guy with everything up on the bulletin board with the yarn connecting the newspaper clippings or something like that. But yeah, yeah, I also would not be shocked if Drake may was the number two overall pick, which then makes things quite interesting at number three, because if you're the new England Patriots and you are truly open for business, are you listening to the Minnesota Vikings? If they wanted to trade up

and get Jaden Daniels, or would they take J.J. McCarthy? Does someone else love J.J. McCarthy that much? I'm trying to now get inside your head of what you think. I'm going to say that you mocked Jaden Daniels to the New England Patriots, sticking at number three and not accepting the Vikings trade offer. Yep, you are correct. And I know, you know, there could be a godfather offer that maybe the Patriots are interested in. And frankly, I think they probably have the least talented roster in the NFL as of today. So like you could talk me into it being not the worst idea in the world, but I think ultimately they're going to say, look, we don't plan on picking this high anytime soon. We like the top three guys or top four guys, even though we agree the roster is not

quite there. Let's just take one because we don't know if we're going to be picking top three again. Next year's quarterback class as of right now is not viewed in a very favorable light. So yeah, I had the Patriots sticking and taking Jaden Daniels. I think that, you know,

it makes sense. Like I I've been trying to talk myself into it. Like what would their argument be for trading out of that position? And the argument would be that they have such a bad roster, but we all know about the hack, the salary cap hack and the money you can spend. And Jaden Daniels is a guy that even if he shows signs of life, they're going to be an attractive place for players. And I also think that, you know, at one time, the reason the Patriots were an attractive spot for players to sign was of course championships and Tom Brady. But I look

at someone like Gerard Mayo and he looks like a former player turned coach who could create a different type of culture than Bill Belichick, where they could attract players to sign and spend some of that free agent money. The Vikings are not the only team that is thinking about this hack with the salary cap. So, yeah, I mean, if you're the Patriots, how long can you take to turn it around? That I don't know. I mean, I think it will take a few years to build a complete roster. But you also have a quarterback here who has a high floor based on his scrambling alone in Jaden Daniels. So I could definitely see them saying, sorry, Vikings, we just can't give you a guy that we're going to

need to compete with Josh Allen. We're going to need to compete with Lamar Jackson and CJ Stroud and so forth. So maybe they're not in a position to even pass up on this, even though Robert Kraft did give us a, Oh, we're open. Like everybody says that though. Now to number four in the Arizona Cardinals. I believe that you mocked JJ McCarthy to the Minnesota Vikings at number four to the Arizona Cardinals. Is that true? Well, this was unfair because I said that earlier. So I did not in this one. I had Arizona staying at four and taking Marvin Harrison Jr.

And then the next pick you could figure out. Yeah, but I do think now this came out at the beginning of the week. I'm now getting the inkling and the suspicion it's going to be Arizona that's going to be the trade-down team. But my initial thought was they already have two first-round picks, Arizona that is, at four and 27. And maybe they look back to last year and be like, well, we could have taken will anderson jr ourselves but instead we gave him to the texans and look paris

johnson looked good last year i don't think they regret what they did but i thought maybe that would be a factor but anyway so i i left it as just take marv and run away with it and whatever um but yeah that was unfair because i said you know, at the top of the show, don't ruin the game here, Brad, this is like, let me continue. This is my game show. I like the game show channel,

like the old match game and stuff like that. So, so let me continue to be a, what's his name? Gosh, now I forget the host. I'll get a bunch of people that'll tweet at me, but all right.

Well, you know, I actually could see Arizona doing this because what they're trying to do is what the Lions did, which was to take a quarterback that everyone knows is good and maybe is debatable about how good he is, but he's good, and build the rest of the roster around him rather than trying to find the next quarterback and trade away Kyler Murray.

And I think a lot of people thought that Detroit was going to only be in on Jared Goff for like a year and then draft a quarterback. And instead they found a different way to do this. And nobody's going to be more helpful to Kyler Murray than either Marvin Harrison, Jr. or Malik neighbors, whoever they decide to take with that top pick. And if they were to trade with the Vikings, they are sacrificing one of those guys, one of those receivers. And those two, I think, are head and shoulders, at least in my opinion, even above Roma Dunze. So it actually does make sense that they wouldn't do it either and that we would just be inventing all these different trades.

Now, number five, though, is this where you traded with the Vikings? Okay. And the Vikings trade up to number five with the Chargers to take J.J. McCarthy there. That is correct. Yep. So that's the trade there. Chargers are obviously pretty far away roster wise. You go down, you still can get a really good offensive lineman because I don't, I know

they need receiver, but you know, Jim Harbaugh probably would address receiver with like Roman Wilson on the third round, but wants to get trenches or what have you. So, yep, this is the J.J. McCarthy to Minnesota pick here at five. Okay, let's break it down hardcore. First of all, the Giants then do not make this move themselves. So are you not buying that the New York Giants want to draft a quarterback? I think it's probably somewhat real that they're exploring it and that they also, on top of exploring it,

also probably know they can't sit at six and accomplish it because I really don't think they can. I think four and five is too much of a threat, and they're going to have to, and they could be more attractive to Arizona or L.A. Because in theory those teams could still get one of marvin harrison and malik neighbors i also agree with you by the way i love romo dunes i hope he's a bear but i think those guys are are better and are a tier

one elite elite talent um so yeah but i just at the end of the day i'm sitting there being like i think they're gonna stand pat they'll try to add a premium player to their spot, and then they'll try to move on from Daniel Jones. All right. My next question is, does Jim Harbaugh hold a beef against the Minnesota Vikings for not hiring him, and does he take a different offer because of that, or does their general manager say, like,

Jimmy, we've got to take this move, my man. Just forget about it. Go off on your boat on draft day. I'll take care of this. I'll get you guys. Just don't think about this move. It's better for us anyway. The best way to screw over the Vikings is to be a better football team than them by taking their draft picks.

That's more of tongue-in-cheek. I don't think that – like, I think he's trying to win. I don't know that he would have a beef and be like, no way. But the other team that I think we have to talk about in this is the Denver Broncos. Do you think that the Vikings clear cut can put together more than the Broncos? Because I think their ace in the hole is probably Patrick Sertan. If they wanted to trade him along with other draft capital,, you know, a current superstar player now is a guarantee on the box as opposed to, you know, with the Vikings just trading draft capital.

So what do you think the Broncos can do to get into this mix? I think they'd have to go to four because I don't think you would do this type of trade in division. Obviously, teams are trading in division. Minnesota's obviously done it multiple times now, even in the first round, obviously in the Jamison Williams-Louis scene trade, but for a quarterback and also for them to be talking about adding an all-pro young corner, you can't do that in division. So yeah, Denver, I think, would have to go to four, and they could. They're desperate. They don't have, though, their own second round pick. Is it either this year or next year for the Sean Payton trade? They don't have.

So that obviously hurts the, you know, draft capital you can use to make this deal. So like you said, it then comes down to are they willing to attach a player? I feel like the Raiders and the Vikings probably have better ammo. Also, I wrote this, you know, back to the whole thing we did in the mock draft. Like the Falcons getting Kirk. It was also this like beautiful little genius thing where it was like your number one competitor for a trade up in your range is now doesn't need to do it anymore. It was kind of a funny little wrinkle to that signing. So how much in this scenario that you mocked, did you have the Vikings giving up?

So I had 1123 and a 2025 third, and that might be a little bit cheap, but to me, yes, you still pay a quarterback premium. Yes. You're going to the top five, but you're taking the fourth quarterback prospect off the board a, and you're getting the current year first round pick, right? So we've, we devalue future picks and yes, it's a brand new regime. So they probably would care less about that. But anyway, two first this year and then a third the following season because it is QB4, and they're only going down six spots. And I like who's still available once we get there.

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much, the package that you just laid out is very much in my mind worth doing for JJ McCarthy, because realistically, I don't think his ceiling is quite as high as some of the other quarterbacks this draft. So if you're going to win with him, you better have a great team, which to me means you can't just give up everything you have for the foreseeable future. So two firsts and then a third to me is totally fine. If you were talking about adding the additional first from 2025, I'd be like, man, I think that you might be crossing some sort of line here. So what, what is your him as a prospect and how much that's worth to move up? Yeah, so look, I do think he is maybe better than some of the huge naysayers who think he stinks. I do not agree in any way, shape, or form that he's bad.

I think he's worthy of it. I mean, in the context of we know quarterbacks go too early, he's worthy of a top 10 or top five pick based on the tools and traits. And that's all you really can look at when you're trying to project guys from college to the next level. I don't care about the intangibles, the winner. It's all nonsense to me. But it does add context to some of his production at times where, look,

I mean, the guy literally never had a second-half deficit in his entire college career going into the second half. Of course, he's not going into the second half, of course, not going to have high volume passing, but I liked the Ohio state game the year, you know, two years ago, he threw the ball a ton and he gets 40 pass attempts and had a good game.

He can throw to all levels of the field. He can throw going to his left and do his right. He is a good athlete. You know, he's a five-star recruit and all that for a reason. My main concern with him is you don't see a lot of touch throws on his tape. It's a lot ofstar recruit and all that for a reason my main concern with him is you don't see a lot of touch throws on his tape it's a lot of like everything's kind of a bullet which is a college thing we see it all the time i'm not saying he can't do it but you would like to see

more of that but yeah i mean i think he could be a starter level player then like you're saying you have two good tackles obviously got to get brian o'neill healthy you got two good receivers got to get tj hawkins but again like you have a good infrastructure in place for where, even if he's not great, you talk about Jared Goff as an example. If J.J. McCarthy can be Rams rookie deal Jared Goff, that team can make a run in the NFC playoffs because of how good everyone else is around him. So, yeah, I like him.

There are some concerns, no question. But I think some people are way too low, and the nfl might be a little bit too high but but yeah he's a top seven picker quarterback and i have no issue with it yeah i think for me the key to the entire thing is with every projection i don't know if uh you used to play well let's see would you what what would be your first video game system for brad spielberger would it have been like ps2 and 64 maybe oh geez you're killing me here you're killing me oh i was the younger younger brother so uh we had a sega we had a sega dreamcast but i guess my like first one that i was truly in the weeds was the n64 yeah okay so n64 you could could have like cheat codes in N64

where you could go like onto the early internet or something and try to find them. Or you could get magazines where you could find different cheat codes. Well, the whole point is just that Kevin O'Connell and Justin Jefferson to me, this duo, and Addison Hawkinson to some extent, but mostly Jefferson and Kevin O'Connell are the cheat code. So you can go and you can plug in whatever code on NBA hang time, and suddenly your guy jumps all

the way to the roof and breaks the backboard every time or whatever. I think that that is really true for the Minnesota Vikings. When you compare all the situations the quarterbacks are going to drop into, I would not want to be Jaden Daniels starting out with the New England Patriots. Even the Washington Commanders have a lot of work to do if they're going to take Drake May. The Vikings have almost no work to do. I know they need a left guard, but almost no work to do in the major, major positions here, including head coach. And the reason that I like McCarthy to the Vikings, even if I'm more skeptical about him as a prospect, is because I think his personality really fits with Kevin O'Connell. And this is from his press conference. This is from watching his interviews. I think he's a great communicator. And if you could take a raw set of skills and

communicate effectively with Kevin O'Connell and take what he teaches and his offense out to the field and throw the ball in the general vicinity of Justin Jefferson. Accuracy can be a shade overrated if you have Justin Jefferson. And that was sure proven by Nick Mullins. I was joking with somebody at the owners meetings that like Justin Jefferson's Mona Lisa was getting Nick Mullins to 400 yards, two games in a row where those throws are just floating up there and he's making plays. I think that JJ McCarthy and the Vikings together as a pair is as perfect of a fit as there is in this draft. And it's probably similar to like Caleb Williams.

We want to debate different things and different paths, but this one just makes the most sense. I see it. I do. And we've talked in the past about how Kevin O'Connell clearly wanted a guy who's mobile. You can scramble with JJ McCarthy. You can also have some design run. He ran zone read. He ran QB counter. He did different things with his legs.

Again, we're talking about a guy we want to be a great passer at the NFL level, but he adds another element and dynamic to this team. Aaron Jones would be a fun compliment as a check down guy and a good runner. I agree with you. I agree with you. The Drake May thing with Luke McCown or Josh McCown, whichever McCown, obviously makes plenty of sense too. And he has a similar skill set in a lot of ways.

But yeah, I'm kind of with you. McCarthy would like, you know, you bring him along slowly. Maybe Donald does play'm kind of with you. McCarthy, you bring him along slowly. Maybe Donald does play some games early, and that's where all the intangibles and all that comes in. Quick learner, smart locker room guy, yada, yada. But I'm with you. I think it does make a lot of sense. Well, I personally think that they should add another McCown at least

and maybe also Cade McNown as well, just to make sure that they touch all the bases. It is, it is memorable. You as a, as a Chicago bears follower, Josh McCown, well, I mean, Cade McNown, of course, but Josh McCown's his run through like, I don't know, six, seven games where he played some of the best football of anybody in the league. And it really shows you how good your journeyman backup quarterback actually is at football, that most of them are capable in a portion of a season, like Case Keenum, right, of just getting hot.

And anyway, that's neither here nor there. But that is a big hire for the Vikings, though, I think, because of his experience, not just as a player who has worked with so many quarterbacks along the way, but also he saw what went wrong for Bryce Young last year in Carolina. And I'm not saying that Carolina's owner forced them to play Bryce Young right away, but maybe I'll just twitch with my eye here as we talk about it, that I don't think that he was ready to go right away and they would have preferred to play Andy Dalton. And instead it was like mandate you're going to play that's just my guess and I think

McCown brings perspective on that having gone through that I don't think it would be a bad thing Brad at all if they started Sam Darnold for half the season even if they started Sam Darnold for the entire season like this is a long-term decision that you're making here and they need to view it that way. And that means everyone needs to view it that way. O'Connell, the Wilfs, Kweisi Rafa Mensah, because if they don't freak out and they handle this patiently, this has a chance to compete with the Jordan Love, compete with the Lions roster, compete with the Caleb Williams. Even if I think McCarthy might not technically have the same level of ceiling as some of those other quarterbacks. I see it the same way. I know it's just like such a,

you know, faux pas. I do not play your top five pick quarterback right away. I mean, look, Andy Dalton was QB one in Chicago for about a month until he wasn't. And frankly, it probably should have stayed that way. And we know Matt Nagy wanted to continue doing that. And a lot of people in the building did. And there pressure i don't know you know ownership whoever and again like i get you want to put the young guy eventually but yeah i think mccarthy i will say this too like he probably could use some seasoning half season maybe even full season depending how donald looks obviously he was a teammate of mccown's too so donald that that being so yeah i'm with you.

You don't have to rush these things. And we've seen it go very poorly where a guy's not ready yet. We've also seen the flip side where a guy gets the seasoning and then comes in and plays great football. So yeah, it's not a one-year investment. It's a ideally 10-year investment.

Okay, so in your mock though, let's say that Trevor Sikama had told you that's the PFF draft analyst. Brad, you can make a mock for pff.com, but buddy, you just can't have those Vikings trading up. You know, he likes the box and I don't know, whatever. Maybe there's some beef there. So he says, you just can't do it.

You got to make them stick and pick at 11. How and 23, how would you have played it out if you had not mocked them as being able to trade up? Or I guess I should have said if Harbaugh does have that grudge and said, I'll trade up with anybody except for the Minnesota Vikings, how would you have had it playing out? I think 11 for me would have been Byron Murphy out of Texas, probably. I think he has a chance to be the first defensive player taken. I think he has a chance to be the first defensive player taken. I think he's a phenomenal, phenomenal player on the interior. I know he measured a little bit smaller,

but you don't see that as an issue against the run at the college level. Of course, there'll be an adjustment at the NFL, but he's so strong in his base and can hold up at the point of attack. And then he's a phenomenal pass rusher. Great first step off the line. Pretty nuanced for his age age especially on the interior so probably go there and then 23 i'm thinking probably like it's a good that one's tougher i mean db probably probably a corner you know is a cooper to gene going to be there at 23

a guy who can play safety and play corner uh that just adds a different element oh they have a bunch of safeties already now i like bynum you know i obviously like metallis and he plays a ton in the slot too but yeah i think i would go gb there i don't think terry and arnold will be there i don't think uh queen on mitchell will be there at 23 um but i think the rest of the dbs will so um i mean i would look in that direction but not bo Bo Nix or Michael Penix there. No, no. I don't think those guys should go in the first round. And frankly, as of today, I don't think they will.

But no, I think it'd be a bad pick. I would take him in the second. Sure. First round, bad pick, in my opinion, at least. Folks, if you don't know what a VPN is, you might actually need one and not even realize it. If you already know the positives, you also might not be using the right product. In either case, you want to check out Surfshark. VPNs keep your information safe and anyone who tries to track what you're doing online will not be able to do so if you

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Get Surfshark VPN at surfshark.deals slash purpleinsider. Enter the promo code purpleinsider for three extra months for free. You heard me right. Three extra months for free. That is surfshark deals slash purple insider. So, I mean, in that case, then the Vikings trading up, I mean, it would be okay for rebuilding their defense, but in my opinion, that would be a disaster for the Vikings if they weren't able to come away with a quarterback. Uh, now I think that what you're saying is,

is not unrealistic, that it could only be a four quarterback draft in the first round, because we have seen this many times before where we talk ourselves into just okay prospects. And normally the NFL is only going to spend a first round pick on somebody if they think they can be the franchise quarterback, right or wrong. That's just how they look at at it that's how Desmond Ritter ends up as a third round draft pick rather than what some of the tape watchers thought he should be because that guy did not have the tools to be a top-notch franchise 10-year quarterback and mostly teams don't look at it as whatever we'll just take a swing like there's way too much. You can't go to your

owner and say, yeah, I don't know. Let's just take a shot where we have, I don't know. Maybe it's fine. You're like, no, you need to, you need to have the PowerPoint presentation ready for why this guy is worth it. And I think that is harder to do with Bo Nix and Michael Penix. But I also think that there would be a lot of pressure on Kweisi Adafo-Mensa to take one of them anyway if they were still there because knowing that they let Kirk walk and only have Sam Darnold as their quarterback, I just think you have to fall there. The scenario where they do go in the first to me is like someone very, very late gets a trade up from a team in the early second. You know, let's say the giants like, you know,

whatever, don't get their guys six that they'd move up from, you know, 47, whatever. 23, I guess. And I would lean bow Knicks.

I don't, I don't really, I'm not a huge fan of either, frankly, but yeah, I guess, I guess. And you're right.

There's certainly, certainly is pressure. You can't move on from Kirk, sign Darnold, frankly. But, yeah, I guess. And you're right. There certainly is pressure. You can't move on from Kirk, sign Darnold, and then not do anything in the draft. And they don't have a second now, right? That was part of the Texans trade. So, you know, my guy Michael Pratt in the third, Tulane, lock it in. No. No. I don't like that.

Or, you know, the Spencer Rattler people. I need the Spencer Rattler people to just step down. Like, just stop. They're digging in. I feel like they're under resurgence right now. They kind of went away for a little bit, and now they're back. Yeah, they saw his combine, and they're like, oh, okay. Well, but let's wait a few weeks, and then we'll bring that take back.

Spencer Rattler has not ever really played good football in college, which makes him him to me, just not like anyone that would be considered toward the top of the draft. But anyway, or even in the first like three rounds, but whatever the Vikings can't be in that spot where they're trying to make a case for the Kellen Mond of this draft. Oh,

well, you know, we had this guy as a first rounder all along and we were just, we had the Intel that he dropped. That can't happen to Kweisi Doppelmense. And I don't think that's just me speaking. I think that's gotta be the Wilf speaking as well, that if you're going to let Kirk Cousins go, and we know that they want to win every single year, you can't come away with a guy who has as many interceptions as touchdowns as the only quarterback you have. And then also Jaron Hall, who's not capable in his two starts of getting to halftime. So like, that's not, it just,

that cannot happen for the Vikings. And to me, they have to complete the circle here, which is you start out at a competitive rebuild type of point where you're trying to win. You tear big parts of it down. You acquire the extra draft capital. You have to bring this all together with a quarterback. And I think that the only thing you'd run into is a fear for 23 is people saying that you reached on Bo Nix or Michael Penix because you were desperate. And I, that would have to probably be true. I mean, that doesn't terrify me maybe as much as you because I think both guys are good prospects, but that's not ideal for them.

I mean, the trade-up is so by far the most ideal scenario. Yeah, and I think that's why I just think it's going to happen. They must have gotten to a point where they were just comfortable enough with all four of the big four names. All right, if we go to four, whoever happens to be there, we're comfortable with, we'll just do that. It almost kind of works in their favor. Like if they said, okay, we only like two of them. We, we hate the, you know, the other two, you're not going to get to two. So it kind of, yeah, it's going to happen. I'd be surprised if it doesn't happen. You're

right. If it doesn't, they're going to have to take one of those guys at 23. I'm not saying I hate them. I just, they're not first rounders in my eyes. And there's been plenty of good guys that go in that 40, you know, talk about Andy Dalton, Derek Carr. There's a lot of Colin Kaepernick. There's a lot of players that go in that range. It's just a scary proposition for kind of the position of where they're at. Like if you're crazy, you don't feel confident going into 2024 that you're, you're on, you know, your job, your seat is cold after that type of draft plays out. No, that's right. Because if they are able to get one of the top four quarterbacks, then patience is going to be the name of the game. And if they end up with Knicks or, or Pennix, those guys are on the older side. There's going to be more expectation.

Like you can sell McCarthy or Drake may as, Hey, like the guy's only 21 years old. Like let's let them develop. Let's give Kevin O'Connell time. But if it's those other guys and they look not great right away, there's going to be much less patience. And I think that that's the right way to approach it. I still don't look at it as, oh my gosh, they blew it, total disaster, if they come away with Knicks or Pennix. But it's certainly not on the same level of being ideal as one of the top four guys. Before we wrap up, though, I got two more things to ask you.

Number one is the accumulation of moves for the Vikings. Anytime I have diverted from quarterbacks, I feel the audience just falling asleep. But there were a lot of moves that the Vikings made here. Grenard, Van Ginkle, and then even just recently a handful of guys to give them a little more depth on the defensive side. How do you feel that they dealt with this roster aside from just the quarterback and having Kirk Cousins leaving? I loved what they did. I mean, you have to at a, when you're going to make this decision, get younger across the board, get more athletic on defense. I know you lose both players, Nwanam and Daniel Hunter.

You know, Hunter obviously a stud, but going to turn 30 years old. Nwanam a solid snap eater, a good player. But you just, you know, K.J. Osborne, I know he's a fan favorite and a beat favorite. It sounds like he's a great guy, but I don't think it's a massive loss necessarily. I really like what they have done, though. I like Blake Cashman, thought he had a phenomenal season. You mentioned the depth, like a Shaq Griffin at corner, solid move, a good player, high floor player. But to me, I just love the Grenard Van Ginkle, obviously the AVG reunion

with Brian Flores. There's a lot to like about what they did and you just get so much younger guys that have been durable, played a lot of football in recent years, and you save money on a lot of those deals as well. So I love their offseason. And, you know, hopefully you can free up that Daniel Hunter third round comp pick again. I think it's currently blocked out again. But obviously you're getting the one for Kirk Cousins. So, yeah, I think they've done a great job. You drop in the rookie quarterback.

And everyone keeps saying it about Chicago, which I agree, they've done a great job. You drop in the rookie quarterback and everyone keeps saying it about Chicago, which I agree they've done a good job. But, man, I mean, Justin Jefferson, Jordan Addison, TJ Hawkinson, Christian Derusaw, Brian O'Neal, and then a defense that should be average with how good Flores is. It doesn't get much better than that for a rookie quarterback either. Yeah, I mean, there's still construction to be done. I think with the depth and offensive line guy in the comments is right.

I mean, the interior is shaky. I still don't trust right guard. They don't have anyone at left guard with any experience. Like these things have to happen or Sam Darnold is going to up those fumble numbers that are pretty high for his career if he's playing, or I wouldn't want JJ McCarthy without good guards to start the season. So, you know, there is still things that they have to do throughout this off season to improve, but overall, considering you were losing your starting quarterback, who's consistently been somewhere between the eighth and 12th best quarterback in the league. And then also, you know, Daniil Hunter and a player of his caliber signing kind of two to three guys with

his money rather than putting it all in his basket, I think is just simply better for Brian Flores to have versatile pieces. Andrew Van Ginkle, I think can't be understated. Like he's, he's already has loved that guy. And I think he's really going to love that guy in this defense where he had two, four, three defensive ends last year. And instead now he's got his, his chest pieces to move around. Last thing is, uh, I want you to give me a date in which Justin Jefferson takes a pen and puts it on a piece of paper and writes his name in cursive to agree to a long-term contract with the Minnesota Vikings. When will that happen? All right. I will give you, I'm doing some research now. I'm looking it up here. I'm

going to get an exact date for you. All right. Let's see here. All right. So the date I'm looking up was when DK Metcalf signed his extension last off season. I use him in particular because he went last because he knew I'm going to get the most if I let A.J. Brown, Debo Samuel, Terry McLaurin, all those guys go first. I'll sit there and wait. And I think the same thing happens here. Look, Brandon Ayuk is represented by the same people as Justin Jefferson. So they are always going to be aware of what's going on in both conversations. And then C.D. Lamb needs to go before him as well um so yeah let's say i'll go august 1st so right after dk we'll wait some things out i think brandon maybe gets traded during the first round of the draft this year um which could be interesting but yeah i'll give you

i'll give you august one or what i say july no yes sorry august 1st justin jeff Jefferson signs a 4-1-40. Let's go big time. Yeah, let's go 4-1-40. Did the Vikings screw this up by not signing him last year and just giving him whatever he wanted because the cap went up because there was another year? I don't think so, but you can tell better than me. No, I don't think so.

It's standard practice to do after four years for non-quarterback first-round picks. You could say, did the Niners screw up Nick Bosa? No, it's just how you do it. And frankly, it's not really going to matter, but Jefferson then happened to have the worst NFL season of his career going into it. And again, not that Minnesota is going to be like, well, your stats last year weren't that great. He still put up 1,000 yards in 10 games.

But no, that's just common practice. They now have all this money off the books for Kirk. And I think as of right now, they're the lowest cash spending team in the NFL right now are one of them. That's all. It's all the budgeting. It's all part of the plan.

And now a massive signing bonus is coming for Justin Jefferson. I've already prepared my rant when he signs about the Jersey swap weirdos who are putting him in arizona cardinals jersey all the people who wanted to trade him and all that sort of like i just uh oh we should trade up because draft picks and so forth i'm preparing it because i i think that that's a fair date to pick it might take a little longer just sort of judging by tj hawkinson where it's stretched out more into the summer but the v Vikings historically, with Rob Brzezinski as their guy, as sort of the point man on things like this, have wanted to get things done early in training camp. Stefan Diggs was done probably around the same date that you're mentioning. And I think

that they've had enough time for everybody to sort of get in their camps, reassess what they did last year. How can we get closer? And this is good for everybody, bad for nobody. And the Vikings can have their guy to pump up and be the cheat code for their quarterback for years to come. So I like it. I'm going to hold you to that. And that means on August 2nd, we'll be podcasting again to break down every detail of Justin Jefferson's contract.

Go to pff.com and check out Brad Spielberger's recent mock. You already know the first five picks. I didn't tell you the rest of them. So check that out there and all of your great offseason analysis. It's been.