Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - PFF's Trevor Sikkema talks 2024 QB class and a Vikings-Bucs game of matchups

Episode Date: September 5, 2023

PFF draft analyst and former Bucs beat reporter Trevor Sikkema joins Matthew Coller to talk about the emergence of a bunch of intriguing quarterbacks in college football and how many might be first-round prospects. Then they talk about how the Bucs' receivers vs. Vikings corners could be a key matchup and where the Bucs stand with Baker Mayfield under center. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hey everybody, welcome to another episode of Purple Insider, Matthew Collar here. Coming up in just a moment, we will have Trevor Sykema for Pro Football Focus. He is not only their draft analyst, but also he is Tampa Bay Trey as well. He formerly was a Tampa Bay Buccaneers reporter. So we're going to break down all things Vikings Bucs. That's just in a second. But first, I wanted to give you a couple notes and answer a couple of questions before we get into that interview. TJ Hawkinson, you'll never believe this guys. He said he's going to be good to go when he talked with the media today. No ailments. He was practicing and he wasn't the only one. Everyone was actually practicing. The Vikings only have one player on IR. That's Kenny Wongwu, and everybody else was out there fully healthy.

We will get our first injury report on Wednesday, but just from our 15 minutes seeing them warm up, which is all we get during the season. It's not full practices anymore. We just get to go out, take attendance, see who's practicing, and then they boot us out because they're doing their game planning and so forth and don't want us watching that. But from what we saw today, everyone out there,

which is why Kevin O'Connell does not play anyone in the preseason. Do you remember the preseason? I already forgot it. No one cares, especially the Vikings. It matters a heck of a lot more that they are healthy. And Jalen Naylor was out there at least taking warmups. We'll see if he is on the injury report or if he is just a full go. And we'll see if he ends up playing this weekend, despite missing the entire training camp outside of the first day. But at least at this moment, a fully healthy Minnesota Vikings

roster will go into week one. And Kevin O'Connell's plan, once again, just like last year, works for them not getting anyone injured. So there you go. Kyle Rudolph, by the way, according to Jordan Schultz, who is a NFL reporter, is going to retire a Viking and be honored in week three. And I would just say for Kyle Rudolph that the 2019 playoff game will always in my mind be his most memorable moment. I mean, that game, the pressure that was on everybody with the team at that point, the super dome, the noise, how insane that was right before the throw got made. I'm sure some people in New Orleans still think he pushed off. That does not matter because he caught the ball and won that game for the Vikings.

But a very, very good career for Kyle Rudolph as Minnesota Vikings tight end. In fact, I thought early in the Kirk Cousins days, maybe he could have leaned on Rudolph even a little bit more, considering how reliable he was. But great numbers, and if we're ranking tight ends, Steve Jordan is an all-timer and will probably remain the number one tight end in Vikings history for now, but Kyle Rudolph not too far away from him.

And I got a note from listener Pete asking where he stands for most likable vikings uh pete said that he would have him high on the list and i mean i think that answer is pretty high i mean since i've covered the team in 2016 and i wouldn't say likable from a media interview perspective uh i just in the like how does the fan base like him although kyle was always available and always a good interview and is is a great talker so not downgrading him at all i just mean not from a reporter perspective players to cover but from the outside from the fan base and how much a player is uh appreciated i think that kyle rud be way, way up there. Not only was he a good

player, a fairly high draft pick for the team, part of that entire journey out of the Les Frazier era into the Mike Zimmer era catches the touchdown in the NFC championship game to start that game and was just a part of so many teams that were right there that were in the playoffs. He caught a ball from Teddy Bridgewater in 2015 to set up what would have been the game winning field goal from 27 yards out. So he was a part of so many moments for them. But I think that his lasting legacy beyond just receptions, I think you guys know what I'm going to say.

I mean, the Walter Payton man of the year nomination, everything he did for children, children's hospital, just a very, very impressive human being. And I think if he's already not on his way to a broadcast career, that Kyle Rudolph will be at some point very soon. So I think fans will really enjoy the team honoring him, him retiring a Viking. He just became part of the Minnesota community, and we see that from a lot of players who retire from the Vikings, and then they just become really part of Minnesota,

even more than just part of the Vikings organization. So congratulations to Kyle on a really, really good career as a Minnesota Viking. Joe asked a question, and you can ask questions, purpleinsider.com, the contact us. That works now. It was broken for a little while. And my DMs on Twitter, always a place as well. So Joe asked a question about Jordan Travis, the Florida state quarterback saying that he doesn't have an elite arm, but has mobility and accuracy. Is there a way to increase arm strength? And apparently there is in baseball that there is a thing that people use or a program

they get into that has helped pitchers increase their velocity. And I think the answer is yes. We even saw this from Joe Burrow, that when Joe Burrow came into the league his first year, there was a good number of ducks his first year where he would throw down the field and it would just seem to lose velocity. And that has not been an issue as he's gone forward. And I think that where it really comes from is mechanics, because if you go back and even watch, and it's a long time ago now, Kirk Cousins, when he was in college, was not

considered to really have a starting caliber NFL arm. But as he went along, he really focused a ton on the mechanics and a lot of your speed for throwing the football. It's just like in baseball. Like a lot of your speed comes from the rest of your body and it comes from technique. And in baseball, there's these biomechanic things that are similar to if you've ever done one of those golf lessons where they video you and then show you the data like that exists for baseball pitching for maximizing everything you can get out of the ball with your technique. And I've got to imagine the same thing exists for throwing a football. And I wouldn't be surprised if players who aren't considered to have the best

arms could increase their arm strength. And I think, you know, arm strength is really important for sure. But I mean, accuracy is probably at the top of the list if you are good at anticipating. So I don't think you always have to throw laser beams if you are good at anticipating, although it doesn't hurt to be Joe Milton and have the most insane arm I've ever seen either. So, yeah, I do think the answer is yes. And if a guy has I think you have to reach a bar though. Like there is a must throw this hard to get on the ride.

And I don't know if Jordan Travis does or not. I think the NFL scouts are good at determining that. It could be because if you don't reach that bar, then you're like Nathan Peterman, who has a lot of actually good elements to his game. And that's why he remains in the NFL, but he doesn't have the arm strength to make those throws and that's why he remains in the NFL but he doesn't have the arm strength to make those throws and ends up getting picked off all the time so they

would know that better than me but I do think there are ways if you meet that threshold to increase arm strength uh John sent me a prediction saying that the Vikings will draft between 8th and 12th this year and still sign cousins to a two-year deal. That's a bold one, John. That's a bold one. They would have to be drafting someone that they felt was nowhere close to being ready to start. And I think if we look at this draft class and you're going to hear Trevor and I talk about it, there's going to be a lot of guys who I think will be ready to start. And also if you're cousins, do you want to sign a lot of guys who I think will be ready to start. But, and also if your cousins, do you want to sign a deal knowing that your team's going to draft a quarterback?

That's the thing. Because part of the prediction here, if I didn't say it is that they're drafting a quarterback and keeping cousins on a short-term deal. I just can't see it. I just can't see it. I feel like cousins is either going to go and sign somewhere else, or he's going to play so well that they make him Viking quarterback for life. That's how it feels for the two potential options. But yeah, I mean, anything is on the table with the quarterback position. So a very bold prediction going into the season, John, I appreciate that. Let's see. Got a question from Lee CVN 72 on Twitter asking about Andy Reed and Frank Reich, both talking about their holdout players, Brian Burns and Chris Jones,

like they were letting down the team versus the way that Kevin O'Connell has handled TJ Hawkinson and Justin Jefferson's contract situations. Yeah, I think that the thing about Kevin O'Connell is that he takes advantage of every element of having been a player. So he is, when you say players coach, sometimes it makes it sound like this dude is soft or, and, and look, you know, I'm sure you could make some arguments about that when they're not going hardcore in preseason, but at the same time, they benefit from not going hardcore in preseason because he was a former player and he understands that players can get out of walkthroughs and maybe less hard physical practices and maybe

don't need those preseason games. Like he would know these things from having been there and been in the locker room and been a player. And I think the same thing goes for this. If Kevin O'Connell was in the locker room himself as a player, and he was negotiating a contract, the last thing in the world he would want is his coach calling him out at the podium. And I think that that just, you know, kind of shows with the way that he handles some of these things with awareness. And you have to consider it's not going to help to go to the podium and say, yeah, TJ Hawkinson, that back pain, that's bogus, man.

Sign your contract, you dweeb. That wouldn't work. That's not going to help the situation. That's only going to make it more tense. And the same thing for Justin Jefferson. If he goes up and says, come on, JJ, just sign, let's go. I think that that's going to make it a little more like, oh, you're going in front of the media and trying to pressure me. And they're going to feel like it's a little bit of dirty pool. You're trying to get the fan base against

me and that kind of stuff. So I think that O'Connell shows a lot of awareness for how his players think and that that benefits the Vikings in a lot of ways. And, you know, sometimes these football dudes, they can have a little bit of psycho to them, a little bit of like, you know, lacking in empathy and so forth. And I think that the Vikings head coach actually has that more than your average coach. And it shows sometimes. One more thing before we get to Trevor Sykema. I've noticed on iTunes that every so often, I think the same person leaves a ridiculous and abusive comment on iTunes and puts one star, which brings down the rating if other

people don't step in and give five star ratings. So if you have a chance, no pressure. If you're listening on iTunes, go there, give a review if you like the show, give it five stars. That ends up sending it out to the world a little bit more and giving other people an opportunity to listen to the show. If there are more reviews and stuff like that, algorithms, I don't really know how it works. But I've kind of noticed this, that a bunch of recent comments are just, you know, downright silly and ridiculous. And they give one star. So maybe we can even that out a little.

If you get a chance, again, no pressure at all. You don't have to compliment me. Just leave the five stars and go from there if you have an opportunity. So thank you for doing that. And now here is Trevor Sykema of Pro Football Focus. Rejoining the show, Trevor Sykema, who was on an episode in the middle of, I don't know, June or something where we had nothing else to talk about. So we started talking about random Viking games. But now it's here, Trevor. You are not only PFF's draft analyst, a podcast host, an all-around wonderful person, but also now you are PFF's NFL draft analyst taking over the longstanding Mike Renner positions.

Congratulations to you on that, man. And also you're the resident B bucks analyst as well having come from the tampa bay bucks beat so uh congratulations on i don't know just being you man what's up i appreciate it man it means a ton uh taking over from mike uh is truly an honor mike one of my favorite draft minds in the entire business uh i can never replicate him or the hair or just the ravishing good looks honestly all around but uh no i'm excited i'm excited to kind of dive into having this draft title and being able to get into the nfl draft a little bit earlier every year but uh we got a long season to go man and so that's why i'm excited

to be here to talk about some buccaneers football as well okay i definitely want to get into that because it's week one but vikings fans also have one eyeball on the quarterback class for this year. It could not have been a better week one for the NFL draft quarterback class 2024. So I want to start off by just asking how much of that is real and how much of that is just, hey, it's week one and it's a little weird and whatever else. And maybe defenses aren't that prepared and i mean right now and and you don't have to be held to this but right now how many first round quarterbacks are there really so when i was looking at things after this weekend i started i was so impressed especially with the quarterback performances, that I went back and I looked up some NFL draft records that we currently have.

Since 1994, which is when the NFL draft officially went to seven rounds instead of a lot more. I think it was 12, 15, 8. And so it eventually went down to seven. It's been seven since 1994. Since then, most quarterbacks drafted in a single draft was 17 in 2004. The most first rounders we've ever had is five, and that's happened twice. And then the most guys in the top 50 quarterbacks in the top 50 have been six, and that's been done three times

before. I genuinely think that this quarterback class could beat all three of those records. Now, I don't know if it's going to beat all three of them. It's not like, oh, if it's one, then it's going to be all of them. But that's what we're talking about here. And I think that there is some overall week one excitement. Maybe you're not playing the best opponents on week one. I totally understand that. But I went into summer scouting this past summer, like in June and July. And I'll often watch, I don't know, eight, nine, 10 quarterbacks when I go through summer scouting and I'll say, okay, once I get to eight, nine or 10, I go, all right, we're pretty much done here. Like we're talking about guys that are day three guys, you know,

not really guys who have a chance to get in the top 50 this year. I watched 18 and all 18. I could go, this dude could get drafted, honestly. So I think that there is a ton of hype for a reason. I don't just think it's all fake. Now we'll see. It's a long season between now and not only the end of November and December, but also a long draft season, a long draft process after that as well. But in terms of what could be for this quarterback class, I really do believe that we could end up with six first round quarterbacks for this class. That is not out of the question at all whatsoever. So with Kirk Cousins not under contract past this year, I mean, everyone is sort of pointing

in that direction. And this is also maybe a Bucs question as well, because Baker Mayfield is not the long term answer for the Tampa Bay Bucs. But give me like two dudes that are not that are not Caleb Williams, which, oh my gosh, again, like every game is just this festival of watching his highlight reel. But also Drake May, super impressive as well. He was making some plays out of structure

the other night as well. But everybody knows those guys so far. Sanders obviously put his name in the mix as well from Colorado. Who else should we be watching? Yeah, I mean, Sanders, you mentioned unbelievable game that he had against TCU. Now, like, TCU was going to be a lot worse

than it seemed like people were ready to admit. I thought that they very much overachieved last year, and then they lost basically all of their best players. So I figured that TCU was going to struggle, but still not taking anything away from Shader Sanders' performance. I mean, he was unbelievable in that game. that tc was going to struggle but still not taking anything away from uh uh shader sanders performance i mean he was unbelievable in that game so was travis hunter as well who's not even draft eligible yet but he's in the mix and jj mccarthy from michigan if he starts to handle

pressure better if he starts to really acclimate to um at what defenses are throwing at him he just didn't have a good internal clock last year i thought he showed a lot of promise when it came to arm talent tools, but he's still growing from the mental processing side of playing the quarterback position, but he had a phenomenal first game there. Bo Nix, crazy enough. I was so out on Bo Nix when he was at Auburn. He goes to Oregon last year and absolutely looks like a completely different player. So he's in that mix for a first round quarterback. I think Michael Penix Jr., if he stays healthy the quarterback from Washington he has an incredible arm to him as well so those are I just rattle off when you throw in Caleb Williams and Drake May I mean that's six that's six right there that I could absolutely see in there and that's not even talking about

Michael Pratt from Tulane Jordan Travis from Florida state, Joe Milton from Tennessee. Like all of these guys are in this conversation. Riley Leonard from Duke. And I'm just, oh, that's off the top of my head. These are players that have first round or top 50 potential. So there's a ton of names. No man,

college football is going to be a lot of fun to watch every single week because of quarterbacks. Folks, we are going all in on prize picks this football season. If you haven't heard of it, prize picks is the easiest and best way to play daily fantasy. Instead of battling against thousands of other players and people who spend their entire life doing fantasy, all you do is pick more or less on between two and six player stat projections. Say a quarterback's number is 250

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That's prizepicks.com slash purple. Use the code purple. PrizePix. Daily fantasy sports made easy. Joe Milton's another one where just, you know, make sure you're refreshing the Twitter because when a new Joe Milton just dropped, uh, when he throws from one hash to the other 50 yards down the field, the flick of the wrist, it's a little throwback to, uh, some Jeff George stuff for me.

Uh, Bo Nix, I don't know, like he's older than I am. So I always worry about that with uh certain guys who have been in college since i was in high school but uh it is it's just a really interesting how all these guys sort of said we're here uh and this is going to be a really interesting year and i think even just that that covet year pushing everybody back another year giving some of these guys more experience um maybe it's a little bit of throwback to when everybody stayed longer in college and things like that. So anyway, well, it should be fascinating for both Vikings and Bucks fans to watch throughout this year, wondering who's going to be their next quarterback. But I was joking around on the show before week one of college,

like somebody's going to emerge. Don't worry. Like it won't just be a two quarterback draft. And then it was like, Oh, I didn't know everyone was going to emerge. Right. But let's get it. Let's get into Vikings bucks here. Where are the bucks? I look at their roster and I recognize everyone almost. I mean, this is a very similar roster from a starting line of perspective to the teams that won with Tom Brady.

But Baker Mayfield is the quarterback. It feels like kind of a purgatory-ish team that is not rebuilding, but is going to have a tough time winning a ton of games with Baker Mayfield, but should also be taken very seriously by the Minnesota Vikings because they have so much talent. Yeah, the Bucs are, the national, I would say, perspective on the Bucs feels wrong. Like, a lot of people think that they're just going to be terrible because Brady's not there, and you're subbing out Brady for Baker Mayfield. And they might be below.500.

I'm not saying that that's not possible, but I also don't think they're going to be this complete pushover, like the Cardinals and maybe the Texans or like the Rams are going to be a lot of people are talking about Tampa and that kind of conversation and I don't see that being the case a lot of people do focus on Mayfield I know we're going to talk about him here on this show because we should he's a starting quarterback but the it's the uncertainty in both trenches that I think matter more to how competitive Tampa is going to be week in and week out and how many

wins they end up getting more so than it is on Baker Mayfield shoulders. Because when you look at this team, yeah, there's a lot of names to know from the Brady era, especially at the beginning when they were winning that super bowl and they were, they were competing for those deep playoff runs, but the trenches look very different, especially along the offensive line. Tristan Wirfs is now the only offensive tackle, or sorry, he's the only offensive lineman that's still there from that Super Bowl team. Ryan Jensen is out for the year, and he's probably going to retire. Donovan Smith is now with the Kansas City Chiefs.

Ali Marpet retired, and Alex Kappa is with the Cincinnati Bengals. And so it's basically Tristan Wirfs and then a lot of new guys who are figuring it out. Now, they like a lot of those new guys, but offensive line, it's all about continuity. It's all about chemistry. So we're going to see how well they're going to be able to gel as an all five unit. I think the same is along with the defensive line. People look and go, oh, yeah, Vita Vea, he's still there. Shaq Barrett, he's still there.

Like, they'll be good to go. Shaq Barrett's coming off a major injury Vita Vea had sort of a down year up and down year last year Kalai Jekansi all right there's hope for him but he is a rookie coming into this year and Joe Tryon Showyinka who again they like a lot but he hasn't really caught fire yet as a full-time edge rusher for them so there's a lot of what could be in the trenches for this Buccaneers team but it's not solidified yet and especially when you're going into a week one game when you have uncertainty in the trenches that's the biggest area to me I think Mayfield is kind of going to be who we've always thought he could be and that could that could even mean at the

highs of Baker Mayfield like I think that he could play well. But if the trenches around him don't play well enough, then a lot of those names that you mentioned that you recognize, I don't know how much that's going to matter. Well, and I feel like it is a big challenge when you redo the offensive line to face a Brian Flores defense right away that is going to send a ton of different looks, a ton of different blitzes.

And with Baker mayfield i always thought with mayfield that if he could set his feet and throw the football he's going to be a really accurate passer and he's got a great arm but when it's thrown off just a little bit he and kirk cousins have this uh similarly it's you're not going to see him just contort his body in some crazy way or drop down and throw sidearm like he's kind of the game manager type. We talk about that needs to have time in the pocket needs to be throwing in rhythm. And if he is, he can have a lot of success. So there is the blitz element that I don't know how well he's going to react to.

But there's also these receivers who are really still good at football. Really good. And you have two outside corners for the Vikings, a Caleb Evans and Makai Blackman, who have essentially never played before. So there's a little bit of a yin and a yang here. It's like I could see the offensive line giving up a bunch of sacks and miscommunications, but I could also see receivers being open all day for the Bucs.

Yeah, look, I don't know how much of a fantasy football player you are i i do fantasy football as well not as much as i did in years past when i was in like 80 leagues but i still obviously play and i have a couple of drafts that happen every year mike evans is going way too low in in all of these fantasy drafts and it makes me feel like the national narrative around Evans is, oh, no more Tom Brady. He's going to be bad. He had over a thousand yards with Josh McCown and Mike Glennon throwing him the ball his rookie season. So it's like this dude's been able to produce no matter what quarterback it is, whether

it was those two, whether it was James Winston, whether it was Ryan Fitzpatrick, whether it was Tom Brady, Blaine Gabbert, like whoever it's been mike evans has been able to produce and i think that that's going to be the same this year as long as he's healthy the same thing for chris godwin who i think is uh just only getting more and more confident as he gets past that knee injury which happened now a year and a half ago so that is definitely the matchup to watch or I should say worry about if you are a Vikings fan. Is those two corners in a corner room that we were already thinking had question marks even going into the offseason for the Vikings. This matchup for them against one of the best wide receiver duos in the NFL. Do not get it twisted.

Is not the ideal week one matchup for uh for evans and blackman yeah i mean i i think so and especially if you're tampa bay i think you want to try to get mike evans on mckay blackman who is not only a rookie but is also undersized as well and you know we know that evans takes advantage of that uh on mayfield though. Like this seems like make or break to me for his career. I mean, maybe he'll just be Ryan Fitzpatrick and play for a different team. That's in transition every single year. But I also think that we have seen some quarterbacks,

but Ryan Tannehill is going to be the go-to example, but it actually kind of makes sense where Ryan Tannehill was with Adam gaze and kind of this disaster situation had some ups and downs, but wasn't that great. And then found his home in Tennessee. They ran a bunch of bootlegs and play actions and he threw the ball successfully downfield. And it turned out pretty good in Tennessee. Is there a belief that it could be that way with Baker Mayfield or is this very much just, okay, just fill the spot, do the job, make sure it's a competitive season and then we move on next year.

No, I think that, I think that there is a lot of belief in the building, whether it's blind confidence or rooted in something that they think that Mayfield could be their starting quarterback, even beyond this season. It's no guarantee that he's just this stopgap guy again I don't think Tampa is going to be bad enough to be picking Caleb Williams or Drake May so at that point are you sticking with one of these other quarterbacks and maybe there's going to be shoot maybe even more than one that would be worth it around that point but getting back to Mayfield I think people are very excited about not only him,

but the offensive coordinator, Dave Canales, who comes over from the Seattle Seahawks. He worked very closely with Geno Smith while he was there. He didn't call plays. So this is his first time calling plays. But even in the preseason, man, I really liked what I saw from him. It felt like he was putting guys in the right position. The offense seemed to be really clicking. I know it's the preseason, so so everybody's gonna say nice things about their coaches but they really did seem to praise Canales and how he was orchestrating the offense throughout training camp and the and and even the quarterback battle it felt like he was putting both Kyle Trask and Baker Mayfield in good positions to succeed individually not not just saying, Hey, here's our game plan. Good luck to both of you.

Like whoever figures it out. No, no, no. It felt like they were really trying to orchestrate things. Well, okay. Here's what it looks like. If we go with Kyle trash drinks. Okay. Here's what it looks like. If we go towards more Baker Mayfield strengths. And I think that's how they evaluated things. And I really liked that approach from them. So they're not, people aren't just excited about what could be with Mayfield, but they are also excited for Canales to be the offensive coordinator with Mayfield going

back to kind of how you set up the question is is this a make or break year I believe it is because I don't know if Mayfield can be a backup quarterback right he's almost he almost has too much notoriety to him he's too famous he's won a Heisman trophy he's been a number one overall pick like he's very emotional and he wears his emotions on his sleeve and he's not afraid to say what is on his mind and like those types of quarterbacks they're not often backups right like even if they're the most talented players they don't always get chosen as those backups because you always then have to have that in the back of your mind, whether it's your coaching staff,

your front office, your fan base, whatever it is. If the guy in front of you struggles, people go like, ah, you know, maybe give Mayfield a shot. Do you want that around the team? So I think this really might be his last crack at getting a full-time, secured starting job in the NFL. So he knows that he has a lot of pressure on him, but I do think it's certainly a good situation with the receivers that he has to throw to.

Yeah, he's not Baker McCown. He's Baker Mayfield. And the one thing is, though, he could always sell his story to Netflix if it doesn't go well. Yeah, apparently everybody's doing that now. So, right, it's free money at this point. Exactly. On the defensive side, you mentioned I'm very interested in Kalijah Canty

because I was intrigued with him throughout the draft process. I wondered if the Vikings would go with the defensive side considering that their defense was a calamity last season. And the Vikings really haven't had interior pressure in several years, but they decide to go with Jordan Addison. I think a good choice going with the wide receiver. But I'm intrigued, though, by Cansey. When you have an undersized player, everyone compares him to Aaron Donald because that's what you do. But especially when they go to Pitt. I wonder what the expectation is.

I feel like when you're playing next to Vita Vea, it's a good situation, but this is one of those determine the outcome of the game type of players because the Vikings interior offensive line is their weakness until proven otherwise. So this matchup of these defensive tackles versus the Vikings interior is one of those where if they can be disruptive, it's going toles versus the Vikings interior is, is one of those where if

they can be disruptive, it's going to mess with the Vikings offense. If they can't, then Kirk cousins, you know what he could do when he stands and throws the ball. Yeah. And I think Tampa needs him to be good in his rookie season. Like they need people to get after the passer. Again, you can have faith that Shaq Barrett's going to be a really nice pass rusher. Cause I think that he always has been, but you come off major injury. There's no guarantee. And with drug try and show Yinka, like I mentioned before, like I've enjoyed what I've seen from him in flashes off the edge, but he hasn't put it together to say, Hey, I'm a force every single week.

He might this year, but it's a bite. It's still an unknown. Well, outside of those two guys William Golsan's not a pass rusher Vitavia is giant and can be a pass rusher because he's forklifting people into the quarterback's last but you know that's not his game he's just big and strong in the middle they also have Greg Gaines who they brought over from the Rams who they want to play that Akeem Hicks role after losing Akeem Hicks. But where's the other pass rush? And I think that that's why they need Cancy to be good right away. And I'm very curious because we don't really know how they're going to deploy him.

Typically in Todd Bull's system, they do a lot of multiple defensive fronts, but its position is a 3-4. So right now it looks like Greg Gaines and Vita Veya are going to be the two guys in the middle. And Kali Jekansi is also going to be the main guy with his hand in the dirt, but is he going to be his hand in the dirt as a three technique? Is he going to be with his hand in the dirt as a four? Is he going to be a five technique? Is he going to play like defensive end?

So it's really to be seen because he had a calf injury during preseason and we didn't get to see him at all so we didn't even get to see like oh they played him inside and outside he didn't play at all whatsoever so wherever they deploy him we're going to get a first look at that truly in game of what they envisioned from him on draft night when they took him in the first round so I really don't know exactly where that's going to be because where he starts in the game may not be where he finishes because that's just how Todd Bowles does things he's very multiple in what he does and guys are going to move around a lot and you know they have Cancy and and Logan Hall

and obviously like Shaq Barrett as well William Golsan somebody who's a guy who could go inside and out so they have a ton of versatility and I'm just very curious to see how they deploy it because like I mentioned, they need a pass rush right now. Even if you have, even if you are expecting the best from trying to show Yinka and Shaq Barrett, they still need more pass rush. And I think Kalijah can't, he's got to be able to, uh's got to be able to step up in game one. Folks, this fall season is an unbelievable time for sports. And I'm always a fan of trying to catch other games when I go on the road to cover football, like baseball, hockey, basketball, just about anything. And that's why I use GameTime, the fast and easy way to buy tickets of any type of event, even music, comedy, whatever you're looking for.

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Again, create an account, redeem code INSIDER for $20 off. Download GameTime today. Last minute tickets, lowest price guaranteed. And I think this is an opportunity for the Vikings not facing. I mean, they're facing a team that has a good defensive tackle and that's always a trouble, but not facing necessarily a team. That's the Philadelphia Eagles who they face in week two that,

you know, kind of a, maybe a little bit of a warmup for that. Now, last year in week one, the green Bay Packers deployed this crazy strategy against Justin Jefferson, where they didn't cover him at all.

And it didn't work. It was incredible. Now they changed that later in the season but week one he was going up against like Quay Walker or something on play okay that's not a good idea how uh is Tampa Bay going to face off with Justin Jefferson would you expect I don't I mean I wish I had a better answer for you. Cause Justin Jefferson's like such a one-of-one player. It's, it's hard to think of how they're going to do it. Right. I think on the surface level, you'd say, all right, Carlton Davis has shadowed receivers before perhaps they just stick Carlton Davis on them for the majority of the game. You know how it goes. Like we don't, it's not mad and you don't just go man coverage every single rep. You know, they're going to mix things in there.

But I think they do have confidence to play Carlton Davis on him in shadow coverage most of the time if they want to do that. But that's an aggressive form of defense, right? Because if you're taking one player and you're saying, hey, you got to follow him everywhere. So whether he's on the outside, whether he's in the inside, the rest of the defense then has to adjust for that. They also brought back Jamel Dean, who they like, but Jamel is pretty much exclusively an outside corner.

Christian Eisen is somebody who's from Rutgers, went undrafted, who earned the starting nickel job. job so I don't think they're gonna want to get him matched up against Jefferson very much which makes me think that they're going to go more towards if they have to shadow him with Carlton Davis that's probably the method that they're going to go with I would say that Antoine Winfield Jr. would get in the mix as well if Jefferson's ever in the slot but Todd Bowles said that he really wants to keep Antoine Winfield Jr. as a free safety this year not as much coverage in the slot I'm sure that they will do it but they want him to play on that back end a little bit more so just kind of given that treetops version of what the Bucs secondary could be I have to think most of the day he's going to get matched up against Carlton Davis.

And it's probably going to be something in man coverage, unless Jefferson's just absolutely cooking him. Then, of course, you've got to go to something that's a little bit softer, a quarters coverage or whatever it is. So that would be my expectation, especially knowing they have an undrafted rookie free agent as they're starting nickel. You're probably not going to want him to get matched up against jefferson very often and i think this is going to be interesting to see the

kind of debut of a new look for the vikings for who else they could get the football to they signed josh oliver so bigger personnel is going to be a part of this and jordan addison's debut he had a tremendous training camp but but how does it translate right over? K.J. Osborne now at the number two, essentially wide receiver, I guess two-ish, with Jordan Addison, and then a running game that's been revamped here with Alexander Madison.

So there's a lot to learn against this Tampa Bay Bucs team. Are you expecting a win for the Tampa Bay Bucs? Damn, nobody's asked me that question yet nobody's actually asked me that question um I'd say I I would say that yeah I I actually do think the Bucks are going to win this game and I I think that it's just because of those names that you mentioned at the very beginning of the episode I think they're just going to matter too much against the Vikings secondary so that's that's kind of where I'm at I wonder if the Vikings have could now like I said at the beginning if Minnesota's dominating both trenches like if it's a terrible day for both the Bucks trench obviously then I think the Vikings are are going to win but if i look at things and say hey there'll be a little

bit of give and take on both sides of the ball both sides of the trenches i feel as though the godwin evans matchup against minnesota's outside corners is going to prove to be a costly one for the vikings and so i do think this one's going to be close, but I'll say that puts it over the edge for me, and I do think that Tampa gets the win. The safest prediction you could ever make is that it'll be a shootout and a one-score game. I mean, that's just who the Minnesota Vikings are

under Kevin O'Connell so far. And I could see both teams having enough firepower on offense to put up a lot of points. And also, you know, the Vikings defense had a really good summer, but defenses that have to revamp so many different pieces. I think early in the season, it can be hard. And as you mentioned, the cornerbacks there, but also, I don't know, like Justin Jefferson is just not stoppable. And if they can't pressure Kirk, like that's the only way is pressuring Kirk cousins. So if they can't pressure him with four, then you can't put extra people on Justin Jefferson.

And then you just get smoked all day by Jefferson. See, it seems like it has shootout written all over it. To me, I'd love to get one, your perspective on the Vikings and just where they stand as a franchise, because as someone who studies the draft as closely as you do, one of the things that the best draft analysts are good at is understanding every team's timeline.

I only have to understand one covering the Vikings. You have to understand 32 as you try to process what every team is going to do. But as you look at what the Vikings did, very unique in taking apart so many pieces in an off season after you win 13 games, you do not see this very often. And yet they still have expectations of being a very good football team. I guess what, what is your feeling about what they decided to do and where they're headed and how good they should be this year? I like a lot of the pieces that Minnesota has added, but I think they're closer.

It's crazy to say this about a team that just won 13 games, but I think they're closer to a decent rebuild than I do actual Super Bowl contention, especially when you look at the roster this year. I love that they've got the offensive tackles in place, like the addition of TJ Hogginson. Obviously, Justin Jefferson's awesome. Him and Jordan Addison should be a really nice one-two combo. But the defense is getting up there in age with some of their best players.

They're still revamping that secondary for sure. And then, of course, there's the Kirk Cousins situation where it's like, okay, is – I mean, do you think this is for sure his last then of course there's the Kirk cousins situation where it's like, okay, is, I mean, do you think this is for sure his last year with the team? Or could you see like, okay, there's a scenario where he could play another two, three years. Cause right now, for example, like I just did a, I just did a mock draft and I didn't have the Vikings taking a QB, even though it's like, all right, they probably would. But at this point in time, we've got a whole season to play. We'll see how it plays out. I had them taking a corner, actually.

But I'm just curious, like, do a lot of people think this is it for sure for Cousins? Because if you do, then yeah, if you're turning the page from Cousins next year, if you're drafting a quarterback in the first round, then a lot of those older defensive guys, they're going to be out of there within the next two years as well. And you're totally revamping that to hitting a winning window, probably two, three years from now. So do you think that Kirk Cousins, what do you think about his situation there? See, I think it's an interesting discussion of what would it take for them to sign him to an extension? Like if they won 11 games and won the NFC North and won a playoff game, like do they come to him? But also you have to consider Kirk's angle on this as well.

Like Kirk hit free agency once and did not care. Like he didn't sign with Washington. He said, I'll go be a free agent and he will do it again. And I, I mean, and he said that to us essentially, like I'll do it,

I'll do it. And he wanted a multi-year deal and the Vikings wanted to keep it short. And he said, OK, fine, I'll just play this out and see what happens. So I think that he's actually fine with ending up on the free agent market because someone is signing Kirk Cousins to a lot of money, especially if he does have a good season. But there's also got to be a point where the Vikings come back and say, okay, Kirk, sorry we didn't believe in you again, but maybe you could just come back. I think that that is a very narrow number of scenarios, though. I think the most likely scenario here is exactly what it looks like,

which is he takes him to the end of the road, he goes and becomes a free agent, and they draft someone with their first pick, and maybe that involves a trade-up depending on who they like or don't. But we talked about all those quarterbacks. I mean, Kevin O'Connell is going to look for somebody smart with some athleticism, but mostly accurate. And what I see this year in college quarterbacks is more accuracy than I can remember seeing

from a lot of these prospects. You know, Penix Jr. and Sanders. I mean, some of these guys are very accurate. And I think that there's some these guys are very accurate and I think that there's some excitement over that idea and I think that Kevin O'Connell wants to pick his own guy and develop his own quarterback as his challenge and I think every regime does like if a regime hasn't won they're going to want to try to take their shot and then I think from Kweisi Adafo-Mensa he knows the advantages of having that rookie contract. He also knows that Jefferson's getting

30, that Darisal is getting 28 per year. I mean, and you just paid Hawkinson a lot of money. Like there's not going to really be room at the end for everybody's cap hit going forward for Kirk cousins. So I think with your mock drafts, you should start putting a quarterback in there. I thought, I just think that that's very realistic, but I wrote about it today. It's weird. It's weird to have to, for, to kind of know going into the season,

you have this very good quarterback. Who's probably in his last year. It's like a strange last dance thing. Yeah, no, it makes a ton of sense. And to get hearing that answer from you that, all right,

door's still open, but most likely he's out of there. That then tells me. And again, it's kind of crazy that we're talking about this from a team that won 13 games last year and sure maybe they overachieved a little bit but to think that a 13 win team going into a season is closer to a rebuild than an actual winning window it's it's it's tough to bring yourself to think that but when I look at the Vikings roster especially if that's going to be their mentality with Cousins,

which does make a lot of sense, right? You're about to sign Jefferson. You're about to sign Derrissaw. Having that rookie contract, especially if you hit it, that's going to be the most important thing. So that to me says that this team's closer to that rebuild than they are to realistic contention, even in the NFC. And I think that the Vegas odds would agree with you.

Eight and a half is the over-under. I believe that there are 15 teams or 14 teams that have higher Super Bowl odds. And so no one's buying them as a Super Bowl contender. But I always go back to the evening out factor here is Justin Jefferson, though. It's that, that yeah they might have this deficiency or that deficiency but you can win a lot of football games i i don't think that all of the one score games are random when justin jefferson goes for 175 yards scores two touchdowns and game winning drive he's the one leaping up over somebody to make the catch like that's

not entirely random that you have that cheat code. All right. Final thing. The creamsicles are back this year and you just love to see it. Everyone's happy about it. The NFL fashion Twitter account lost its mind when they brought the creamsicles back. Here's what I want to know from you. Who is your favorite Tampa Bay buck creamsicle era? And I know that you're not that old. You're not quite as old as me where that was what I grew up,

but having covered the bucks, I'm sure you ran across enough of them. Creamsicle era, Tampa Bay buck who looked the best in that uniform. I mean, does Derek Brooks count? Cause when they were drafted in the mid 1990s, they were still, they were still rocking the creamsicles quite a bit.

And Derrick Brooks is my favorite Tampa Bay Buccaneer of all time. And so the image of him and Sapp getting drafted in the same year, both of them holding up that creamsicle Buccaneer jersey on draft night is one of the most iconic Tampa Bay Buccaneer photos of all time. So if I can say if if I can say Derrick Brooks and I'm gonna say Derrick Brooks but if I can't then I would say Leroy Selman we go back even further to the very beginning when those that was the only jersey option that they had and I'd pick the Hall of Famer because I gotta give him disrespect

okay love that uh yeah I mean Warren Sapp one one of the biggest viking draft blunders not taking warren sapp had they had warren sapp and randy moss on the same team in 1998 uh i don't know if you have to have a field goal that determines going to the super bowl but uh for me chidi oh yeah good player good great player I love it. I love it. Hardy Nickerson. You know, like those dudes, too. You know, man. Von Hebron.

You had. How about Elvin Harper? Elvin Harper. I mean, that's that was a great receiver for them. And, you know, Trent Dilfer before it was cool to be Trent Dilfer with the Bucs. Yeah. And that you're here. People forget.

People forget. People forget. Steve Spurrier. And, I mean, hey, the first black quarterback to ever win a Super Bowl, Doug Williams, ends up in Washington because Tampa Bay wouldn't pay him after he turned around that franchise. But he had a cool look. The story of the Buccaneers for a long time. For a long time, that was the story of the Buccaneers.

He had a cool look because he would just throw bombs a long time. That was the story of the Buccaneers. Speaker 0 7,0 He had a cool look because he, he would just throw bombs all the time. And so he's this big giant athlete with this huge arm, just launching bombs in that ridiculous uniform. So I'm excited to see those come back this season and also excited for all of your coverage of PFF. And I'm going to be paying attention to every mock and any mock that doesn't have a quarterback, but you're going to get a DM for me. Okay. So, but we'll definitely have a lot to talk about when it comes to draft season as well. We'll check in then. Thanks for breaking this all down for me. Trevor Sycamore. What's a, I don't know your Twitter right off hand. What's the Twitter at Tampa Bay tray. It's topical for this very podcast at Tampa Bay tray. I see it's still there.

How could I, I wasn't sure if you changed it to be one of those like underscore weirdos or whatever. No, no, I can't. I, uh, I, I told him, I was like, nah, I can't change the Twitter handle. It's like my alter ego at this point when I got the job at PFF. So, uh, Matthew, I appreciate it, man. I appreciate the kind words and everything. And I'm sure that we'll talk plenty about Vikings and quarterbacks in this upcoming draft, which is going to be exciting. Sounds good. Thanks again, Trevor. Thanks, everybody, for listening to Purple Insider.