Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Pioneer Press Vikings reporter Dane Mizutani talks what he wants to see from Darnold, McCarthy

Episode Date: July 17, 2024

Matthew Coller is joined for this edition of the Porch Podcast by Dane Mizutani of the Pioneer Press to talk about the repercussions for Jordan Addison after his arrest last week for DUI. Plus, what we want to see from QBs Sam Darnold and J.J. McCarthy. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

🎵 Hey everybody, welcome to another episode of Purple Insider. Matthew Collar here on the porch once again with Dane Mizutani. The birds are chirping, the wind is blowing, and what is it whispering, Dane? It's whispering football. That is on the way next week very soon we will have football in our lives again with minnesota vikings training camp but i want to start out on the porch by uh talking about our feelings a little bit here because it's been a tough ride over the last two weeks of minnesota vikings just the organization in general. And as we get ready to

go into training camp, there are so many exciting storylines that we want to talk about. We'll get into the things that are most interesting to me and you and the quarterbacks and all that. But over the last couple of weeks, quite a gut punch here for this team. So how are you feeling about training camp, going into it? Just, I think, weird is probably the best way to describe it because there's so many layers to this. And I guess first I want to talk about Kyrie Jackson and how it feels so weird to be going into training camp and going to be analyzing all these little intricacies of the football team when his loss of life feels so much more important than all that.

And it just almost feels, like I said, weird. That's the word I'm using. When we're going to walk into TCO Performance Center, I'm sure it'll be addressed. I'm sure the Vikings will have Kyrie Jackson on their hearts and minds, and they'll be talked about. And then we're just going to shift to football? And I guess that's just kind of the machine of the NFL,

and the thing just keeps going. But that's kind of where I'm at, is, like, has enough time passed to just be able to just talk about football in a very pragmatic way when the backdrop is this tragedy of this kid who worked his ass off to get here and he won't get to see it through. So it's weird for me there from the starting point. And then you layer in Jordan Addison getting arrested on DUI over the weekend. Layering that with the tragedy of Kyrie Jackson, investigators in Maryland think that it was alcohol-related.

I guess DUI could mean anything for Jordan Addison. It could mean alcohol. It could mean marijuana. The point being, he put himself in harm's way. He put others in harm's way by deciding to get behind the vehicle when he was under the influence of some sort of substance. And I just don't know how you can do that, how your mind can get to go there when your teammate just died two weeks ago. So that adds another layer of weirdness, of tension to this football team right now. And it's just going to feel weird all around to walk into TCO with all these storylines kind of converging and then being like, all right, so how did Sam Darnold and J.J. McCarthy look today? Because there's so many more important things big things happening behind the scenes so

that's where i'm at it's weird i feel very uncomfortable and part of it is that normally with these things well one we are big enjoyers of sports and yeah we get excited about football things that's who we are right and so it's very easy to go into a training camp with a quarterback competition and just a totally fresh organization. It feels like now with Kirk Cousins gone and J.J. McCarthy here and just be maybe more excited for training camp than I've been in any other year going into it. Right. And then have this other thing that is so much real life that like football is not real life. It's this thing that we all enjoy and like. And then real life is someone dying in a car accident. And the implications really trickle down to everyone.

I mean, it's every corner who is in that room that got to know him during this time since he was drafted and the people who scouted him and you meet hr reps in the building when you get drafted and his family and all those things and even reporters like us who got to know him ever so slightly just when he was here and then all of a sudden he's gone and i mean had he been a less interesting player it would still be tragic but he was someone that all of us wanted to see. And we all thought had potential to be a part of this team, to carve out a role and what he had gone through to get here. All those things, they just are going to be worn every single day of this training camp by everyone in the organization. And as you mentioned, I was thinking about this the other day, our first press conference with Kevin O'Connell. Hi, Kevin. Our first question is about the player

who was part of a tragic accident. The second question is about your wide receiver who got arrested. Third question is, so Sam Darnold's still QB1, right? I mean, that is just very uncomfortable and difficult. And I can't imagine what they're going through as an organization and maybe it helps to have a little time between when this happened and when everyone gets together actually on the field unlike tony sperano that was literally like the day before two days before still this is so hard for everyone and it's difficult enough to go through a training camp and build a team and make roster decisions and everything for everyone and it's difficult enough to go through a training camp and build a team and make roster decisions and everything else.

It's enough of a grind throughout the summer that now you have to start it under these circumstances. But let me ask you about Jordan Addison, because someone said the other day on the live stream, they should just move on. They should just get rid of him and cut him. And my initial reaction was, that's way too strong. We're talking about somebody who is only 22 years old and in his second year, and they invested so much with the draft pick. He performed at such a high level, which of course is a factor when we're talking about football. But then another part of

me went, you know what? I don't care if they do. I don't care if they do. Yeah, it's an overreaction probably, but I don't care if they do. If they did and sent the message and also reacted in a way that no one wants to see you here after what just happened and the timing of this and the fact that you didn't get the message last year, Justin Jefferson is the star of this team. Everybody else is the moon circling the sun for Justin Jefferson. Anybody else can move on and you'll be able to replace that player.

And if you felt like every single time you go to a weekend without a game, or, you know, if you play on Thursday night football or a bye week or the off season and you have to think about is this person going to put a black eye on our franchise can we trust him is he going to be suspended by the league whatever they have to assess whether this is something they feel like can be resolved or worked on and never happen again because if it does happen again after this I don't know how you could possibly trust this player on your team. Yeah, and so I don't think they're going to move on from him. I think I would be floored if they just put the hammer down so firmly

after really not putting the hammer down last year. I mean, he went 140 in downtown St. Paul on I-94, and I think the speed limit's 55. Might even be 45, but it's definitely not 70. Right. He's damn near 100 miles an hour over the speed limit. He doesn't get arrested. If you and I did that, we'd be in jail. Somehow he doesn't get arrested, probably because he's an athlete.

And then nothing happens. I mean, maybe there were some internal disciplines behind the scene, but no suspension. I don't know if he was even fined by the team. I guess a fine probably wouldn't come out. A suspension would be obvious. But to do that and then to see this happen, obviously this is more severe.

He was arrested, DUI, the backdrop of the tragedy two weeks ago with Kyrie Jackson. All of it is inherently worse. But to jump from basically no action to putting the hammer down and saying, we're done with you, I would be floored. I think I would probably lean more towards you. Like, if they did it, like, it would be shocking, but I think it would be merited in a way. I think a lot of diehard football fans would say, what are you doing? This guy was a first-round pick. You can't just quit on a guy like that. But I think if they came out and let's go down this rabbit hole.

If they came out, they said we're cutting Jordan Addison, and here's A, B, C, X, Y, Z, Y. Like you said, we can't trust him to not put a black eye on the franchise. We gave him a chance last year, and this is what he did with it. I'd be fine with that. But being realistic, I don't think that's what's going to happen. I think it could be a one strike, two strike. If you get a third strike, then you're out.

I don't love the three strike system because it's just like how many times do guys have to show who they are before you just kind of believe it. But I do get the sense in the NFL that people love a redemptive narrative. They love to say, oh, look how much this guy has grown. I'm inclined to believe Kevin O'Connell probably believes in that thing too. So maybe they're thinking this is a young kid. Again, this is not how I feel, but this is kind of widespread NFL. He's young young let him learn let him learn from this before we make any any harsh reactions to it but yeah I mean you can't do that you can't put yourself in that situation you can't put other members of the public in that situation on this busy highway when you're asleep at the wheel you can't put the organization in that situation. So, frankly, any type of discipline they want to levy is fine with me, as long as they levy some.

If it's Jordan Addison, you know, we're handling it all behind the scene, no suspension, like, then come on, that's a little bit BS. Like, he has to fear repercussion at some point. Well, they could suspend him for three weeks in the offseason, like they did Wes Phillips, right? Is that an option for players? I don't know. I mean, I'm sure when it comes to something like this the NFL will step in or sometimes the league says you do it or we do it you can decide but this player

made us look bad and is going to have to have some sort of punishment where I'm very curious is about the emotional nature following Kyrie Jackson. And timing is everything when it comes to a lot of stuff. Just if there's some sort of world event happening, we all are going to respond differently to what we see in the moment. And so everyone in the organization, if you're Mark Wilf, for example, you're calling Kevin O'Connell, or at least I would expect this is the case, and saying, hey, last year when we didn't do anything to Jordan Addison, when he still played all the reps on the first team in training camp as a rookie

after he went 140 miles an hour and we didn't send the right message, how can we do the same thing again? And not only that, but this makes us look bad in front of the entire world this is what everyone was talking about you just had a player die in an accident that had alcohol related and then now you have a player get a dui it's it's just mind-blowing that this would even be possible that it would be you'd be so thoughtless right after you had this happen to your teammate to get behind the wheel and do the same thing that somebody did involving that crash that killed your teammate that if if i'm the owner

i want to hear answers of how we're going to prevent this from happening again or even if the owners said we just don't want any more of this uh the wilfs kind of became known for that early in their ownership that they had a bunch of off-field things happen and i believe that was part of mike zimmer's thing of bringing in mike zimmer and the discipline and not having uh crazy stuff happen during zimmer but it wasn't one arrest after the next and so forth and having no message shown at any point with anyone so far to this point i think it's time for that to change for them and this is the reason why there are coaches that are very hard when it comes to what their players do off the field because this does have an impact on everybody and also not only that but he could kill himself if he's doing this if you're

driving 140 miles an hour or you're driving impaired he could kill himself if he's doing this if you're driving 140 miles an hour or you're driving impaired he could kill himself as well and what's the last thing anybody wants is that to happen so i want to hear actionables what what is it if you are not cutting him which i again i don't expect then what is it that you are going to do to get the message across and help him resolve this problem with him behind the wheel but when you buy lamborghinis and rolls royces i guess you're going to drive them so they have to get this figured out with jordan addison because this is one of the main reasons we talked about why you can move on from kirk cousins because you have this great duo of wide receivers that's supposed to be moss carter and uh you're gonna need the guy

playing the role of chris carter to be around and not be suspended or worse because of the way that he handles himself off the field yeah just one more thing on on just the unfathomable nature of deciding to get behind the wheel when you're inebriated. Like, there are apps, Uber, Lyft, a million others, probably only two others, they kind of have a monopoly on the whole thing. That's not the point. Capitalism, everyone. And the NFL provides services for their players

that when you can't drive, someone will drive for you. So I don't know if it's just a young guy with not a lot of discipline in his life feeling invincible in these situations. When you're young, you feel like you can do anything. You feel like you can survive anything. But that's the part that almost gets to me more than any of it is that there are so many other options than just you doing it yourself. And, you know, you're a young kid, but at the same time, you're a grown man, like, you know, right from wrong, you know, like, okay, I'm not in a position where I should be driving a car. So yeah, I'm with you, it needs to be actionable, it needs to be something. I want to hear Kevin O'Connell come out and say it in his opening statement.

The statements get long, guys. He'll talk for two, three, four, five minutes sometimes. I want to hear what you're doing to Jordan Addison to change his behavior. I want to hear that right from the jump and not something where we have to ask about it where we have to challenge you on it because it shouldn't be something where you're having to explain yourself after being you know prodded about okay well what about this or like what are you going to do it should be something you're getting ahead of and you've had now it'll be two weeks by the time training camp starts to figure out what message you want to portray publicly but when you talk for five minutes sometimes before a question comes out I want part of those five minutes a large

part of that five minutes to hear like what are you going to do about this because at the end of the day I think Kevin O'Connell is a tremendous coach I think he has the backing of the organization his fellow coaches his players but you're the head coach of the football team, and a lot of times this is the things that you have to deal with as well on top of scheming guys open, on top of getting everyone to buy in. That's part of the job too, and I don't think we can kind of overstate how important this part of the job is now moving forward as we head into training camp

with this thing kind of hanging over their heads. And just one more thing, and then we'll switch into quarterback talk. Because that's what we do here. So far, Kevin O'Connell has created a log cabin for everyone to sing around the fire and play acoustic guitar and be everybody's best friend inside the team we saw a little bit on netflix of him yelling at them about fumbling but that's sort of normal for a coach being upset after a loss outside of that the practices are nowhere near as hard as

we saw in the past players help set the schedule for however they want to set it, communicating with the head coach. They kind of have everything laid out. They have the best facilities in the world for a football team. And O'Connell is the most liked coach in the entire NFL when you look at those NFLPA surveys. And there is a part of me that wondered, do you want to be number one in that because I mean does that mean that the the players run the team uh and they feel like they can kind of do whatever they want now Mike Zimmer was extreme on this being the authoritarian where he didn't turn on the uh what are they the little heater campfire-y things in the locker room

because he thought that was too much. There's a giant TV that always has impractical jokers on it when we're in there for whatever reason, but it was a giant TV that he didn't want them to turn on because he thought it's just too comfortable. It's just too comfortable. So I think that's kind of ludicrous, but his reputation has been the player's coach, the ultimate player's coach, but there also has to be someone in charge and there also has to be someone in charge and that person has to show their authority and rule with an iron fist sometimes. And there was an opportunity, and I know this sounds silly and maybe this is just going too far, but when Ole Udo got arrested for something really dumb and nothing ever came from it in his

first bye week, I thought this is an opportunity to cut this guy and just say that's not acceptable. And I'm not saying that would have prevented Jordan Addison or anything, or even that only Udo would have deserved it based on what actually happened, but just to say someone's in charge. And, uh, I'm not sure that it's felt that way. Like there is that tool in the bag for him. And this is another is another i guess opportunity to show that there is an authority here uh with jordan addison even though he's a star player because what he did was of course unacceptable under any circumstances but under these circumstances i think that everyone in the organization who's watching this decision how they handle it is going to want to see more

than just well we're going to want to see more than just, well, we're going to deal with it internally, and here's your first team reps. So that's one thing we'll be watching going into training camp. Now let's talk about quarterbacks. Because what I want to get into, a lot of my guests over the offseason, I try not to lean too heavy on you, Kevin Seifert,

the typical guest, because I ask a lot of you guys during the year and I appreciate all the effort that you all give to me. So thank you for that. But I've been asking other random guests, hey, you think this Sam Darnold thing could really happen? And there's a wide range of opinions on that from fantasy people who think absolutely not to, you know, others from other markets that maybe have seen him that think actually probably maybe could happen. But I want to talk about very specific things that we are looking for from Sam Darnold and J.J. McCarthy. So why don't we start with Sam Darnold? Give me something really specific that you are looking for for Sam Darnold that would make you think this could work?

I've seen everything I need to see from like air reps in mandatory minicamp OTAs. Like I know he can throw the football when the pads aren't on, when the defense isn't going full go. And I want to see what he can do when the competition gets turned up. That's what I think the joint practice is. I think the trip to Cleveland is going to be the first time we actually are able to glean, like, what is this guy really made of? Because it's going to be cushy. Like, it's been cushy in mandatory minicamp, in OTAs. Like, he has a tremendous arm like he went number three overall for a reason he he can throw the he can throw the hell out of the ball so

i keep a g i was gonna say i wondered what you were going to say there i was gonna say you can throw the piss out of the ball um you can say that he can throw, he has a tremendous arm. The arm talent is there. That pops the moment you walk on the field. Fans will see it. The clips of fans in the stands of him throwing deep balls to Justin Jefferson, those are going to go viral because he has the arm talent. What I need to see in training camp to show that can he do this or can he not do this is when we go to Cleveland when we watch those joint practices how does he look you're uncomfortable you're staying somewhere else you're going against a team that is going to be chomping at the bit trying to you know get after a different you know new blood at that point because we'll be two weeks into training

camp like how does he respond when when the temperature is turned up just a little bit because it's going to be turned up to 11 once the regular season rolls around I'm not saying now if if Sam Darnold looks good in these joint practices against Cleveland that I think the Vikings are going to be a playoff team and in a dark our Super Bowl contender no but I am saying I think we'll have an idea of just how good he actually can be when he's going against someone else when it's not really set up for him to succeed I understand that Brian Flores makes it hard on on quarterbacks and Brian Flores is probably gonna have days where he has Sam Darnold feeling like he has no idea what he's doing.

But overall, when you're at home in your building at the tremendous facilities like you say, I think you're going to just perform a little bit better because it's comfortable. I want to see what it looks like when you're uncomfortable. And then I hope to see it in the preseason. I don't know how kevin o'connell is going to handle that because generally throughout his tenure like starters don't play in the preseason sam donald might be far enough ahead of jj mccarthy at that point that they just say like yeah we don't want to risk it i hope we get to see that too because that would

be like another step forward on okay we see him in these joint practices on an opposing field and then we get to see him in an actual game but I need to see like the competitive fire come out of this guy because the arm talent's all there I've seen enough against there to believe it now just make me believe it that much more well I agree what we saw in minicamp was really really impressive and that is in shorts. And it is a little bit hard to tell early on in training camp while everybody's still learning the offense. Usually the three-week mark is where you start to feel like they're coming together.

But what we do have from covering the team for quite some time is we kind of have a range of outcomes outcomes a spectrum of i don't know were you there in 17 did you go to mankato much maybe pop down but yeah probably not a lot of time in 2017 sam bradford had an unbelievable training camp and you saw it in week one how he performed against the new orleans saints he was just spectacular and by the way with these birds chirping i feel like we're at the Masters here. It's not piped in, folks. Those are real birds going insane right near my house. But Sam Bradford had the best camp that I've seen of anybody since I've been covering the team.

It's not even close. Every single day, he was on point. The night practice was phenomenal, everything. And with Kirk Cousins, there was a very standard baseline from him each year. It was a little rougher when Kevin O'Connell came in and they were learning a new offense. And some other years, I think 2019, they were very good during training camp. But we know what that looks like to see someone who's going to throw to the right places, who's going to operate the offense and look pretty good. And I want to see where on that it is. We've also seen Sean Mannion and Kellen Mond try to run practices, and that was very bad. So where does it exist on that spectrum of Vikings quarterbacks I've seen?

Am I sitting there going, gosh, they are on point, they're scoring in every situational drill, and it looks like the quarterback's in total command with Sam Darnold? Am I sitting there going, gosh, they are on point. They're scoring in every situational drill. And it looks like the quarterback's total command with Sam Darnold because command of an offense is something you can absolutely see in training camp. Getting them lined up. Everybody looks good. The coaches aren't yelling at everybody. No, no, no, no, no. Plays aren't having to be stopped because the quarterback is sacked,

which happened all the time with bad quarterbacks. They drop back. They don't know where to throw it. The timing is way off. because the quarterback is sacked, which happened all the time with bad quarterbacks. They drop back. They don't know where to throw it. The timing is way off. Okay, sacked. But then he eventually throws it, that kind of thing. And the other part would just be turnovers.

Even in training camp, what you'll always hear coaches say is, well, you know, he's seeing what he could get away with. Okay, okay. But he shouldn't be throwing picks, right? So if Sam Darnold is not throwing interceptions and looks in total command of the offense and i really like your point about going to cleveland because that's probably the best defense in football right that you get to go up against which i'm sure was attractive to kevin o'connell in going there and he looks in command throwing to the right places if you do that in this offense

you're gonna be pretty damn good uh that's what i'm looking for if it's a daily struggle some days it's okay some days it's not then i think the door ends up open for mccarthy which same question what specifically do you want to see from jj mccarthy everything i want to see from J.J. McCarthy? Everything I want to see from J.J. McCarthy, like a lot of the things I saw from Sam Darnold in the spring, because I don't have a lot of questions about Sam Darnold's arm talent, his ability to fit into this offense based on what I saw in the spring. I do have questions whether J.J. McCarthy's ready to do that because he was so inconsistent so I think like baseline consistency there were times where J.J. McCarthy and this would be not even just in a day of practice in like a period of practice you can see like wow I think we talked about on the pod when it's good it's really good and then it

looks like he couldn't complete a pass for the rest of the day so it's it's much more simplistic from JJ McCarthy I just want to see that there's been tangible growth from the spring because the riding the roller coaster of well JJ McCarthy didn't have that good of a day oh he looked a little bit better today ah he didn't look that good the next day like I think we're gonna still feel part of that throughout training camp I would be shocked if it's just like total upward trajectory like going towards the sky but I want to see like accuracy I want to see you hit the spots you're supposed to hit I want to see like to your point about Sam Darnold being in command of the offense, I don't need to look like Kirk Cousins is running the offense, but I need it to not look like

Kellen Mond was running the offense. I need you as J.J. McCarthy, the number 10 pick in the 2024 NFL draft, to be able to give the number one defense a look if you happen to be running with the twos that day. I need you to challenge them. You know, if you get some reps with the ones and I just need it to look competent. And that might not be the best barometer for a top 10 pick. Like, just look like you know how to play the position. But there were enough question marks, I think, throughout the spring, throughout OTAs, where it was like, I think he's really far behind the eight ball i think he has a lot to learn still um and i was willing to give him grace there like yeah well like why wouldn't he have a lot to learn they're literally breaking down his mechanics and starting over like a lot

of things they talked about in the spring was footwork. Like the footwork is like the most baseline part of quarterback play. So if you come into a camp and they say like, well, your footwork needs to be changed. Like I think everything else is going to look a little funky because of that. So like I'm okay with the fact that he struggled through the spring with the understanding that it's probably because they were changing a lot of the things that he was used to. But I need to see like tangible growth come the summer, come training camp in a few weeks. And just like a little side note, like if he looks as bad in the summer as he did in the spring,

the fans are going to freak out because, because they have their cameras and they're going to be like, Oh my God, look another, like that's not, that shouldn't be a judgment of success. But it's just another layer in there that like fans are going to freak out if it looks the same. This might be mildly controversial to say. So everybody hold on to your hats.

I don't really care if he's all that accurate during training camp. It matters more to me that he plays with some rhythm, that the ball comes out because the biggest, you don't know what you're doing or you can't play here thing is the ball not coming out. If you watch Justin Fields, for example, the reason nobody wanted Justin Fields is because he gets sacked constantly and the ball doesn't come out. And that's because he can't see where he's supposed to throw it. I fully believe that if you are a great athlete like JJ McCarthy is over a couple of years, you can become much more accurate

than you were when you came into the league. And we saw that from Josh Allen and McCarthy is a five-star who was great at other sports and won a bunch of games at Michigan at a very young age and all those things. So we know he's talented. He had a really good combine. He threw the ball super hard. We saw it. It's a laser beam when he lets it rip. It's all there. And I believe that he can correct the golf balls that go into the woods, which is the problem off the tee. I'm good at driving. I don't have that happen almost ever. But the ball into the woods is a consistency thing,

and it's a technique thing that is going to take a while. And he's going to work with his quarterback coach next off season i mean think about what he went through this year with all the meetings and all the everything else that he had to go through you can't teach somebody to be wildly more accurate right now but if the ball comes out to the right place and with the right timing then all right you threw it too high that's's fine. That will get fixed. But if you can't see anything back there and you're struggling to process and you don't understand what you're supposed to do on a given play when you get a given look, then I'm a little

more concerned. And I do expect that early on, of course, you would expect that from anyone, but as we go along in camp. So that's thing number one. Don't really care if it's not that accurate. That's what people will focus on. But does it come out on time? The other thing is simply reps. What are the reps? What do they look like? Is it that he's got to get the second reps? Because even if Nick Mullins is QB2 on day one,

an opening week in New York, you still need to get him all those reps because he needs to be progressing all the time. But does he start to take first team reps at any point during this training camp? Because if he does, that will either be a really good sign for him or a really bad sign for Sam Darnold or a sign that it's a, it's a legitimate competition. But if he even starts to make it, is there a day where in the pioneer press with the byline of Dane Mizutani, it says, is JJ McCarthy coming for Sam Darnold? Is he getting,

making progress and tracking down Sam Darnold who was far ahead after minicamp? Those are really two, the two things that I'm looking for the most. Yeah. That's a good point. Does he make it a decision? Because coming out of the spring, it wasn't a decision. It was Kevin O'Connell, who likes to keep his cards close to the vest, maybe more than any coach I've covered. It was Kevin O'Connell saying, Sam Darnold is a starter heading into training camp. So yeah, to your point, does J.J. McCarthy at least give them something to think about? Like maybe it isn't he was so good that he will be starting week one against the Giants.

But is it a thing where by middle of August we're saying, wait, wait a minute. Like is this actually a competition now? Because right now it doesn't feel like it, right? Like it still doesn't feel like it's an actual competition. The only people... I'm going to go on a tangent about fantasy football real quick. The only people who think that it's a competition seem to be these AI projections

and certain national people who haven't been paying attention. There's no reason that in my sleeper fantasy app, Sam Darnold should be projected at zero for week one because he's the starter like jj mccarthy shouldn't be projected as like 15.8 or whatever they think he is in week one because he's he's not the starter like there is no competition right now but like to close the loop like does he make it a competition at some point i think that that's probably, now that I've circled back, now that you've talked, that might be the actual thing that we're looking for in training camp. Is it a competition?

If it's even slightly a competition, that would be success for JJ McCarthy. If you are not us and you are not, what, am I getting a package? This would be fun. No, I don't think that's me. Nope. It's my neighbor.

But my garbage still needs to be picked up it's a little more treacherous outside as noise wise than uh it is porch pods man that's why it's a fight in adversity it is it is a beautiful day though uh perfect for the porch pod and for the ac unit to get fixed as it dropped about 15 degrees from the days where my ac unit was broken that's a side note historically there are so few times where someone has actually been patient with a first round quarterback that i think if you are in the projecting universe and you're not us covering the team and seeing it and listening to what they say you just don't believe that a rookie quarterback's not going to play because they almost all do. How many can we think of that didn't play within the first three to four weeks?

Even Justin Fields, Andy Dalton got hurt. He played very quickly. I mean, okay, Mahomes, Rodgers, those are the examples. Aside from that, Jared Goff played maybe halfway into the season where it was Case Keenum and Jeff Fisher and all that, but there's just not that many examples to look back on. But the Vikings have said really from early on, this is something that we might do or that we're actually planning to do,

which is why we spent $10 million on Sam Darnold. That makes me think that they want to set the bar extremely high for jj mccarthy and that was the way kevin o'connell phrased it was he's got to check off all these boxes before i trust him and i think that's the right approach because you can't just pare down we know kevin o'connell doesn't want to pare down we know that he won't even if it's josh dobbs yep and that's fine but you have to then make sure that jj mccarthy doesn't need a pared down offense that he can run the entire thing all the way start to finish and i did think there was a little bit of a hint a little hint that jj mccarthy can do

that from that giants offseason thing did you catch that where there was a little scene with jj mccarthy and he was explaining a play to brian dable from college and dable said why is there so many words for all that and i think that there is something to the way he was coached in college that he can process these huge long play calls and and stuff like that uh and he might be able to show that he's ready for all of that. But the bar is going to be very high because they want to win football games. This isn't a year where they're just going, you know, whatever happens, happens. This is about our rookie. No, they want to be in the playoffs. Yeah, they want to win football games for sure. And I think Kevin

O'Connell also like takes it upon himself, like whether it's failures that he's been a part of at the quarterback position or his own personal, what I think he considers, like, a failure of an NFL career to, like, not microwave a guy's timeline. I think he's very, very in tune with that. And that's why, like you said, the bar is going to be so high. It's because I think Kevin O'Connell, in some ways, everything he's been a part of in his life, of his football life to this point, has kind of set him up in his eyes for this moment, where it's like, I'm not going to do what happened to me with J.J. McCarthy. I'm not going to be a part of another rushing of a quarterback with the guy that will be considered my quarterback moving forward.

So, yeah, it is going to be a high bar, and it should be a high bar because what is the point of rushing a guy? We've seen too many things go wrong. You're right when you say like I don't believe that a rookie quarterback isn't going to start until he's actually on the bench but that's kind of the issue with some of these quarterbacks and how they they just kind of they lose it right away they they start seeing ghosts I'm Sam Darnall was part of that like literally on the sideline I'm seeing ghosts out there it It's because they rushed him.

And I get it. Like the New York Jets, they use the number three overall pick on him. Like he was always going to play. But maybe if he got drafted into another organization where it was more insulated for him and he could kind of go through these growing pains without having to be like front and center, maybe his whole career looks different. So I think actually now that i'm talking and saying it out loud like a good example of what happens when you rush a quarterback exists

right in your quarterback room his name's sam darnold like that guy was as talented as all get out and and you wrote that he was rushed and we saw what happened he's played on four teams now and this is obviously the best situation he's been in but yeah the the bar for my heart for McCarthy to clear is going to be really really high as it should um if he's going to start another thing too is once he plays he has to keep playing you can't yeah 100 you can't go backward and hit reverse because if you start playing your rookie and then you bench him if this was 1987 then everyone would be like oh it's fine quarterbacks this is what teams do they used to do this a lot where somebody'd start seven games somebody'd start six games and tommy kramer and wade wilson would go back and forth and so

forth that's not how the world works anymore that was in your local Pioneer Press and other newspapers in town. It was not this humongous thing that would be Stephen A. Smith screaming at the top of his lungs. They would make it this huge topic on every network and every social media channel and everything else if J.J. McCarthy played and then got benched. Then it's the number one story in football. If you play a rookie quarterback and then he gets benched and then his agent is mad, the player might be hurt, upset, lose trust for your coach.

There's a lot of things that can go sideways there that happened with Mac Jones in New England. He showed that he could play early on, that he can at least be in the NFL, but I think he lost entire confidence in the coach and in the organization, and it never recovered after they brought Matt Patricia in for him. They let some receivers go. It just wasn't the same after that. And then he gets benched sort of for Bailey Zappi.

How can you come back from that after you've been benched and the embarrassment and all that that goes along with it? So you have to be ready to push that button and then keep the button pushed down because you can't really go back unless there's an injury and i also think too that and this is what i've heard is kevin o'connell really buys it with sam darnold he really thinks that this quarterback can be a much better version of what he's ever been. And for Kevin O'Connell, why wouldn't you believe that? He was the office of coordinator for the Los Angeles Rams with a quarterback who was sub 500 with Detroit. Now, Matthew Stafford was way

better than Sam Darnold ever was. But the point just being that the narrative on a quarterback was he's a little too reckless. You can't really win with this guy. He came from a bad organization, though, so maybe it'll be different. And it was different in Los Angeles, even though in that offseason, I didn't buy it. I didn't buy Matt Stafford was going to be different. And then he was. I think Kevin O'Connell truly believes I've got something here and I can turn this guy's career around if we handle it the right way.

Let's talk about some other storylines from other positions. Dealer's Choice on the Porch podcast. You're the guest. Where would you like to start for other storylines that have your interest as we go into training camp? I mean, it's kind of hearkening back to how we started the podcast, but Jordan Addison getting pulled over and potentially being suspended for one two three four you name a number I'll be fine with it as long as it's not zero like I already thought they needed to bring in wide receiver help and that's no disrespect to Brandon Powell I think he showed that like if you need Brandon Powell to

go out there and make a play, he can. He caught the game-winning touchdown from Josh Dobbs in that game against Atlanta. I mean, he's much more than just a punt returner. But I think you need more competition in that room. I think Jalen Naylor, in a perfect world, is probably someone who's competing for reps. But is he going to be healthy? He hasn't been healthy at any point in his career so far. Is Tristan Jackson like, are we sure he's not just like, you know,

like I covered hockey, like you were really good. You were like an American League hockey player, but you weren't good enough to be an NHLer. I think it's, you know, quad A basically in baseball. Like you're good at triple A, but you're not quite good enough to be in the MLB. Like Tristan Jackson gives me a little bit of those vibes. So, yeah, I already thought the number three receiver back in the spring

might not be on the roster. Now I think if you're going to potentially have to suspend your number two receiver, I know Justin Jefferson's really good. He could produce, he could probably go over 1,000 being quadruple team because me and Collar are his two and three receivers. Like, you're going to get the production out of JJ, but, like, the goal of bringing Jordan Addison in was to kind of take a little bit of the pressure off of him.

So now if you're going to suspend the guy, which I think you should, and this is a good example of us just like turning everything back into football. But that's like part of that's the name of the game. Like obviously like Jordan Addison fixing these problems is the most important thing. But how it has a ripple effect on the football team also matters to the Vikings and anyone who follows this organization. So that's what I'm curious about. Is it, I don't think Hunter Renfro is going to do much for you,

but is it a Hunter Renfro type of player who's out there? Is it a surprise cut? I don't know. Is Adam Thielen maybe going to be a surprise cut in Carolina? I'd be shocked. Juju Smith-Schuster in New England? I'm just thinking of guys that if the organization is at one part in their timeline, older guys that might be on the other side of the hill maybe.

That's why those two names come up. But that's why I guess I'm going to be following receivers elsewhere throughout training camp because I think you have to bring someone in at a certain point especially given what happened over the weekend. So I was going through in my mind late signings and cuts of guys who came in. It doesn't work. I'll tell you who the best guy doesn't work very often. Maybe I'm missing somebody. I thought David Questenberry was real good for them last year that was maybe the only one blake bell chris herndon uh we had bashad breeland was the corner who came in i think during mini camp even at that point we had aldrich robinson all he does is catch touchdowns but he never actually caught any other passes that was kind

of a problem for them josh doxon michael floyd the list is not good at all of players that they've brought in to be a fix or somebody that someone else cut because if they're getting cut by another team this is shocking news there there's a reason for that right and with hunter renfro this league is so desperate for wide receivers if hunter renfro somebody who had 100 catches a couple years ago is not getting any interest there's a reason for that he's probably tried out for some teams i mean these guys around this time are going and visiting teams and doing workouts and stuff like that and yet no one has picked him up. Maybe it's a Dalton Reisner situation where his price is too high.

But at this point, he would just take a job. He also never plays anywhere but the slot. He runs about a 4'6", 40. And after some injuries, what's that now? Is that like a 4'7", 40 at this point? I don't have a whole lot of interest in hunter renfro or michael thomas or julio jones or anyone who's still available i think you're just screwed and so you need someone to to step up because you can't spend draft capital trading for someone yeah not unless

it's a multi-year player and it's someone who's good and established already but who's trading a good multi-year established player right before the season probably nobody i believe that the best path is to just roll it out remember in uh batman maybe i've made this reference before he breaks the pool stick and he throws it on the ground and he says all right fight for it like this is throw out a couple of footballs whoever dives on him first gets to keep a job trent surefield are you a guy that could be better because when they signed brandon powell none of us thought this is a wide receiver well this is just a punt returner guy and then he outperformed that surefield has at least one season of doing something.

You mentioned Tristan Jackson. There's also Lucky Jackson. There's a bunch of dudes who are going to have all the opportunity in the world. Somebody be, don't even be great. Just be BC Johnson. Just be BC Johnson and it's going to be okay. Because I don't think anybody's giving you anything or there's any point to signing older free agents who are at, at best just part-time type of players and limited at that.

Then can I ask, did anyone stand out to you throughout the spring that could maybe be that guy? Because I guess the only name that kind of comes to mind, I guess there's two for me and then you can go like Lucky Jackson looked pretty good in the spring I thought he looked good and so did Thayer Thomas like he looked pretty good in the spring too so I guess I could get behind that idea of like I mean this is this is hyperbole right like no one's going to be Adam Thielen but before adam thielen was adam

thielen he was nobody but just be bc johnson that's the point bc johnson was nobody he makes the team and he was yeah he's probably contributed yep so chad bb yeah like he didn't he was always hurt um that he could play but he got yeah he was so small he kept getting hurt but the adam thielen bar is so high that's a pro bowler who's going to be in the ring of honor. I never expect that. But they don't need that. They have that. As long as Jordan Anderson can drive himself to the facility

without getting pulled over, that would be great. But they have the star receivers. They just need contributors. Ja'Sean Jones stuck out to me the guy from maryland he's 24 a little older but i think injuries in college is why he he was available as an undrafted so track the ball well pretty fast uh thayer thomas next wayne kerbet obviously maybe a west welker type could be Julian Edelman. He is, he does have Hunter Renfro slot.

I'm saying this is true. This is actually true as the short area quickness doesn't have long speed, really good hands. And you know what? I'll say it. Maybe a little gritty. She should be like deceptively fast. Oh yeah. Oh, he's definitely deceptively fast yeah coach's kid yeah i do he was a multi-sport athlete i do think he was a really excellent

he was drafted in baseball i think he has hand-eye coordination that's above average but he can't run away from anybody he He could be a slot type of player. Jones is a little bigger. Tristan Jackson is more experienced and maybe he just crushes these mini camps and training camps. Maybe this is the year. Maybe it's the year. Yeah, maybe it is because you're right.

He's always on fire and in practices. But when you talk about any of these guys, and this goes for anyone, even someone like Ivan pace, who was an undrafted player that emerged, we never see it coming now. How would we, we never see mini camp and go,

Oh yeah. I mean, Ivan pace is going to be the highest PFF graded linebacker this year of all rookies. We, I mean, when I arrived here in 2016 and I remember going into the locker room and the media was gathered around adam phelan and i went okay guys come on oh is that like the local thing

that we do here we just that's not a real guy wrong very wrong he was a great player but no one even thought that at that time yeah when i got here in 2016, it wasn't until his breakout game against the Texans when he started to be taken seriously. I would rather just find out if there's, and this goes for a lot of positions, Ed Rusher, another one that I'm watching very closely. Let's find out if Gabriel Murphy is a guy or Bo Richter. Because I was thinking about this. I was going to ask you about the guy who's

number 90, the last guy on the roster, because a couple of years that guy's made it. I mean, you guys made fun of me about Najee Thompson. I told some intern for a TV station, you should go talk to Najee Thompson. Like don't try to talk to the starters, find somebody. And you guys are making the team. Oh, isn't he though yeah who is it this year i've got beau richter what was it air force i don't know maybe it's one of the one of those you're throwing me with insane athlete like 99th percentile athlete telling you i think if if i had then like i have to go back to receiver then like it has to just be someone like Thayer Thomas is making the team. Ty James.

Mercer. Mercer guy. Mercer season. Yeah. But I can't give you a number 90 on the roster because I just don't know who it is right now. It's probably John Parker Romo. Yeah.

He's not making it. He's not. Have you seen Will Riker kick the ball? Unreal. Oh, my God. Yeah, we went semi-viral for saying that so we're just gonna keep saying it but but I think like your bigger point and I think Ivan Pace was a good example like if they would have just said like I don't know we need someone to play alongside Jordan Hicks like let's just bring in washed middle linebacker off the street because we don't know what we have yet then we never would have seen this guy coming so I guess I can get behind that I know like what I said to bring like what I brought up was like yes I think they need

more depth that receiver but maybe it is just worth just figuring out what you have so um i i agree with you like let's see what gabriel murphy has like i'm sure there's other people like across the team like we're there we're gonna probably get there and and this is what we do sometimes in training camp we generally do it with receivers like you pick a guy i'll pick a guy two other reporters will pick a guy and we'll just see. Whoever wins, wins. It's kind of like our own version of Mr. Mankato. But there's probably going to be certain guys that you could just pick a guy across positions. And it's probably worth seeing if they do have anything there.

Training camp is about that in a lot of ways. As much as it's about figuring out who the starters are it's about figuring out who like 40 through 53 on your roster is as well so yeah i think big picture i could actually get behind what we have from the spring is people who understand what's going on people who know what they're doing let's just let let's play out that string rather than throw in a guy who either has no team right now or is getting cut in late August. So yeah, you've convinced me. It giveth and taketh away because sometimes you think Tashaun Bauer is going to be better

than Brian Robison. What? Out of training camp. That is one of the most bizarre moves they've ever made since I've been here, was saying, sorry, B-Rob, you're really good, but we got this guy who's an undrafted free agent who had a decent camp, so we're just going to stick with him. And then Tashaun Bauer did nothing in his entire career, and B-Rob went fishing in a year that they really could have

used them in 2018 that was a strange one uh one more thing that i that i want to bring up with you is players who need this because i think that right now all of us could get 90 or higher on our 53 man rosters but that's not what camp is about to me camp is about mr mancato and the guy who just barely makes it and stuff like that of course but it's more about how do i feel about certain players players can change the narrative i mean josh metellus is one of them i had him on the bubble going into camp last year i don't know maybe they'll keep them maybe they won't they drafted a safety and and all that stuff in lewis scene and then he's a star by the end of even training camp they're giving him a new contract which they kind of he would add a good contract if he would have

just you know not signed but the point just being he played so well in training camp that they said let's just give you some money right now uh in your pocket players change the way you feel about them in the summer who needs to change the way you feel about them in the summer or is even capable of because i don't know if a guard is capable of that yeah um it needs to to me it's a caleb evans like he was a guy who his rookie year people thought he could be somebody who developed into an above average to good cornerback on the outside and man I just think he had the yips last year he dropped that interception against the Chargers that ended up landing in the hands of I think it was Mike Williams or Keenan Allen and it went from being an interception to being a touchdown.

And it seemed like his brain just broke after that. Like he just had no confidence. He had the yips. He was also victim of, I think it was a Caleb. And maybe it was my, no, I think it was a Caleb Evans who T. Higgins just skied over. Yes. And caught it and then just did the craziest reach behind to the pylon. Like, Caleb Evans was once a promising young cornerback rising up the system and just kind of feels like

he's been passed by by Makai Blackman. I still think there's something there. I say Caleb Evans because I can't say Andrew Booth Jr. I don't think – Andrew Booth Jr. plays with tenacity, plays with what you want, but I just don't see him turning into something. It's the same reason I can't say Louis Scene. I just don't see it happening. But I think Caleb Evans both needs it and it could happen if it clicks. I think we saw enough his rookie year where like there's there's things there and I'm not saying a Caleb Evans has to go out there and turn into like Evans Island like lockdown corner on the

outside I just want to know if you can play and I think training camp is a good time for cornerbacks it's the sexy positions in training camp that are going to show in the preseason because like you said like I could pick Blake Brandl. Show me that you're way better than Dalton Reiser. But do I know? No, I don't know. I can't analyze those reps. So I'll go with Caleb Evans. I think he needs to show that he's worthy of a roster spot.

Because if not, I think he could be cut. There are some positions where we purely have to judge off of the reps they're given. First team, second team, because they're so hard and they don't give us the practice tape. I wish they did. That would be great. So I could go back and review the entire practice and say, oh, you know what, I actually didn't see that one the way I thought I did. Or somebody else was at fault for something that happened.

Andre Carter, the second, is one who is on my mind because they did bring in a bunch of interesting competition who are undrafted free agents they didn't bring in a bunch of veterans at the edge rusher group but to have three guys who are starting caliber maybe potential star caliber if dallas turner is good right away where he fits in is a major story not really the make or break but it happens quick with someone like andre carter that if you show big progress in your second year as an undrafted free agent there might be something there and maybe you do become a steal from last year and if you don't then you're likely just a guy because you had the entire offseason to prepare for this to be ready for this moment to reinvent your body which

he needed to do and to be at 100 i didn't notice that at uh minicamp sometimes we do i thought ivan pace looked bigger uh not taller but larger and there are certain guys that you do notice from their rookie year i didn't immediately notice i didn't get that close to him and get a you know magnifying glass out and be like you know i didn't weigh him but he didn't noticeably jump out to me whoa that guy must have had some crazy off season. If he's getting a lot of reps, even alongside or over someone like Patrick Jones who needs this as well. Yeah. I think after a pretty tough year last year,

but just that whole battle of all these different guys that they've picked up that are all fighting for those backup edge rusher spots. And that might be one that you need. I mean, Grenard has not played 700 snaps van ginkle is coming off of a foot injury dallas turner is a rookie you don't have daniel hunter here where you're talking about someone who's going to play 900 snaps they can use other rotational players i think him also andrew booth jr bamoah, it feels over, but it doesn't have to be.

And that's the best I could do is it doesn't have to be. I still want to mildly say Andrew Booth Jr., but with very little confidence. I was talking about this the other day, how many things we say could happen when odds of whatever we're talking about is less than 10%. But we just don't want to say for sure because we don't want to look bad if it does happen. It's probably not going to happen with either one of those 2022 draft picks. And then I'll give you another one that I think is a make or break

sort of subtly because I think we think we know what this is, but it might be more or it might be less. That's Ty Chandler. It might be more or it might be more it might be less that's ty chandler it might be more it might be less ty chandler could be running back duo with aaron jones might be spectacular running back duo could be coming out of training camp going ah aaron jones better be ready to run 300 times his first career i want to see that that's fair because he has all the talent, right? Like the burst is there.

Everything you see out of Ty Chandler, like when it's good, like JJ McCarthy, when it's good, it's good with Ty Chandler. But there's also times where he just doesn't know where to run. He lines up on the wrong side of the ball. Like those are things that you would hope that experience, age, all kind of starts to fix over the course of time but if he's still like someone who I think a large reason he didn't play more right away is because the coaching staff didn't know if they could trust him to like not go the wrong way like when he

has to pick up a blitz or when he has to you know take a carry and he's supposed to go left and he instead goes right like all those things and i think probably pass protection with ty chandler is going to be something that it's not fun to to talk about but like that will show like is he worthy of being a guy who you can say aaron jones you've not played a full season in two years we can actually split carries and make sure that you're going to be healthy or to your point and, Aaron, you better be super healthy this year because Ty Chandler can't see a blitz and he certainly can't pick one up. Which is it going to be? Just running the football, man, Ty Chandler, he's got juice.

And everyone used the term juice when you would talk about him when he seemed late in the season to kind of take over that running back position. But that's a good one. late in the season to kind of take over that running back position. But that's a good one. I think Kenny Nwongwu is probably right in that conversation too. He's not ever going to be a running back in my opinion. But if you're so in love with Ty Chandler that you're convinced that – see, I don't know how the new kickoff rule is going to affect things at all um and i think just because of that unknown kenny nguang would just makes the team because he's so dynamic back there um but ty chandler it's pretty dynamic as a kick

returner too so maybe he becomes someone who's expendable because ty chandler's just risen so much so um yeah i think that's a good question though and it's something that we can probably circle back to in training camp like where do guys stand um because right now the world is everyone's oyster like we're two weeks away from being back at tco performance center and i'm sure the blazing sun the 90 degree heat thank god caller got his air condition fixed at his house behind us um but that's the fun part about right now is that everything's kind of gearing up um and we don't have like preconceived notions yet um except for what we saw in the spring but like everything feels like attainable for most guys on the roster i'll give you the last one my last thought of this wonderful porch podcast i think this worked

out great it's a good idea if it gets hotter it's gonna be harder to do i. It's a good idea. If it gets hotter, it's going to be harder to do. I think it's a huge, huge training camp for Kevin O'Connell. In the past, the team has been very experienced. They had their quarterback who had been a leader and a starting quarterback since 2015, knew exactly what he was doing. They didn't have to rely on anybody else not nick mullins not jaron hall he didn't have to teach the quarterback in the same way also at this time of year and just in general over kevin o'connell's two seasons and he may be getting the regression on this there has not been a lot of drama your quarterback getting hurt is something that happens to teams and it was tough and difficult to go through that and then they had the dobs thing and having that fall apart i'm sure was tough but that's regular football stuff nothing like what

has happened over the last two weeks has happened to kevin o'connell at all. Mike Zimmer maybe had it 10 different times, starting with his first year with Adrian Peterson. But this is something that affects everyone, and everyone looks to you as the leader of the team to guide everyone through this. We saw Tony Sperano's passing impact the team in 2018. It was a very uncomfortable, intense, and difficult training camp that year. And they came out and had problems pretty quickly in that season with the culture and with everybody being on the same page, the offensive coordinator and so forth. This is something that can permeate an entire season and is going to need his leadership.

It's also incredibly valuable with how he manages the quarterback situation there was no managing to the quarterback situation the last two camps you had your 40 million dollar quarterback he's the guy or i guess they wouldn't pay him 40 million which is why he's not here but you understand right franchise quarterback he's the guy veteran player there's nothing to be done there but But now, this is a implement the offense, take your team on the road to Cleveland, manage through a tragedy and off-field issues, and train your quarterback, but also the other quarterback could be good as well. How does everybody feel about that?

You don't want certain players wanting Darnold certain players wanting McCarthy and looking at you going well what are we doing here right this is his biggest challenge yet so far as a head coach I think we're going to learn a lot about him from this training camp in this early part of next season yeah and that goes back to that buzzword that he's just relied on leaned on constantly throughout his his career throughout his tenure is culture like the culture shield like culture culture like culture is good when things are good um culture is tested when things are bad um i'm not i'm not saying like culture can't exist like because i do think think it's an important part of a football team,

even though I think it's probably jumped the shark at some point in the last decade. We just say, oh, they're playing well. They have good culture. Last year, to me, when you talked about the quarterback going down, Justin Jefferson going down, those are normal football things. You're right. So the culture was tested last year but like was it like was it actually or like was it just like sometimes when your starting quarterback gets hurt you're screwed sometimes when the best

receiver in football gets hurt you're screwed there's not really a test of culture because it just is what it is you're right that this is the first time that that buzzword, that thing that he holds so near and dear to his heart, that word, is going to be tested. And how the culture of the team responds will, in a lot of ways, be hinged on how he responds to a lot of these things. So that will be a backdrop. And it's not going to be something as tangible that we can see as,

well, Sam Darnold looked really good today. Or jj mccarthy threw two picks today like it's going to be more in the aggregate over the course of training camp and bleeding into the the rest of the season um and i actually don't know if we're gonna get the answer to like how did he perform in this training camp until like maybe like late fall, early winter. Yeah. But I think we'll know like, wow, he really rose to the moment there when the team needed him and took steps forward as a head coach, or maybe this thing's a little too big right now. So yeah, I think it's, it's certainly a good point that we are going to learn a lot about the man in

charge of the entire operation here in the next few weeks. You never know when you're going to find out because with Zimmer, when the tension of the vaccination stuff came up, the handling of that was not ideal. Coming out, trashing your quarterback right away. You know, maybe he was right, and he eventually was proven right when it came to missing a game in green Bay late in the season, but that doesn't mean you need to say it. And it doesn't mean you need to handle it that way. But what I think is, so the, the, my AC going out is

instructive here because let me tell you when it is 86 degrees inside your house, I see where you're going. There is a tension there that you don't even, you don't even really realize. And I've been sort of joking about this in the house with the wife. Like, remember it's 85 degrees in here. So maybe whatever I said, wasn't that bad. But there is a, but there's a resting tension that you might not even realize that you're, you're, you're, the temperature is turned up.

And I think that a tragedy within the organization and then what happened with Addison, the heat is turned up. And even if you don't think in the moment as you're reacting to things or dealing with separate issues that pop up, it builds on itself and it's there. No matter what you try to do, no matter what you try to do no matter how you try to be aware of it or whatever and navigating that for everyone the the increased emotions of the entire franchise is going to be something that is i don't think very easy to deal with and we're going to see kevin o'connell manage something that is by far the most difficult thing of his career as a head coach here. So that has changed the narrative of training camp to some extent and what I'm paying attention to and trying to be cognizant of in training camp.

But aside from that, so many interesting things roster wise that you and I are going to cover. And I am going to need a lot of sunscreen because there's no shade out there no shade out there folks it's tough but we battle through just for you well anyway this was wonderful in the shade on the porch so dane mizzitani i appreciate you coming by hanging out and having a real good conversation yeah porch pods let's do them let's do them again this summer, but let's judge the temperature because right now this is pleasant. Maybe it would be fun to just do a porch pod when it's 98 degrees. We'd just yell at each other. We would be freaking out.

No! It would turn into first take in a second just because we would be dripping in sweat. No, this is nice. It would turn into something that some crazy YouTuber would do where let's see if these two podcasters can survive 40 minutes without fighting each other when it's 97 degrees. I guess we'll find out when we do that later this summer. But follow Dane's work at the Pioneer Press, and we will talk to you all soon.

Thanks for watching slash listening. Football.