Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Reacting to J.J. McCarthy's press conference

Episode Date: April 30, 2025

Matthew Coller is joined by Dane Mizutani of the Pioneer Press to discuss the comments J.J. McCarthy made at his press conference on Tuesday.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Hey everybody, welcome inside TCO Performance Center. Matthew Coller along with Dane Mizzetani of the Pioneer Press. And guess what? We heard from JJ McCarthy. He's a 215 pounds folks. He walked up there and didn't injure his knee. We actually went inside TCO Performance center in the practice field and watched him throw real passes.

I even took some videos of those passes as did you Dane a very exciting day. No truly it was to hear from him for the first time that we have sat down with him since he had his surgery and he did I think a 15 minute conversation and then it has been behind the scenes since then. Fascinating to listen to JJ McCarthy talk to us about his recovery, everything he learned in the process and so forth. But Dane, if you wanna try to have a takeaway

about him throwing the football, you can, it's allowed. That is totally open if you want to give an observation about what JJ McCarthy looked like on an actual football field, throwing routes on air to a couple of wide receivers. He looked fantastic to me. I mean, ball zipped in there, footwork looked pretty good.

I mean, I'd have to go back and watch every single throw that I filmed to see if there was carryover from what he learned last year and in the Kevin O'Connell quarterback school from the months of April to the months of August when he got hurt but in all seriousness like the ball still jumps out of his hand it gets from point A to point B very quickly and that's really all you can take away from this and he had a couple good throws to Jordan Addison to TJ Hockinson to Lucky Jackson because that's where we're at right now where Justin Jefferson was not

here today but just seeing him throw the ball seeing the velocity with which it still comes out of his hand good we'll see more when we actually see him take snaps from Ryan Kelly and drop back in seven on seven settings here next month. But the most important thing to me is that like you just let off with, we saw him throw a football. He can throw a football still. And that's good. That's where we're at. And then now we're kind of turning the page finally to not talking about his injury to talking about his continued progression in being this team's franchise quarterback which he absolutely is. The only take I could have is that Velocity is in his bag and we saw a little bit of it and I don't know if he was taking note at all as he

was throwing that we were all over there filming the same throw but there was one that was coming directly at us that he threw to Jordan Addison where I thought I think he wanted us all to get a real good look at how fast that football was coming out of his hands and he certainly let it loose so the cannon is still the cannon for JJ McCarthy we We could certainly say that, but there was more takeaways in what he talked about. He was asked about the weight loss that he dealt with during his recovery

and said that he got down to about 185 pounds and basically that when he couldn't work out, the weight just fell off. And he said that he's a guy that in order to keep that weight on, he has to continue working out and within a couple weeks of him actually being able to do the full workouts again he put the weight back on. It was certainly a reason to raise an eyebrow and wonder about when it was that much weight. I mean 185 to 215 is a pretty big jump but he looked like about 215 to us

today. I think there will be more room for him to go physically as he goes throughout the summer and does his off season workouts and all that. But beyond just the weight thing, which became such a discussion point after he was shown on TV looking like he had lost a couple years of his life and gone back in time or something, I think that JJ McCarthy's confidence, whether it's in front of us or on the field, even when you just see him walking around out there, leading the offense, leading the receivers, I think he was saying a couple things to Sam Howell about what it might have been, what route they were running or just something like that.

There is a natural energy to JJ McCarthy, which several of his teammates talked about, and they just said, like, you know it when you see it out there, and to see him on a field, it's a reminder. Oh, that's what it looks like. But the biggest quote really from him was when he was asked, like, are you ready to start? And without any hesitation at all, it was yes, yes I am.

I think I'm ready to go because of the work that he has put in over these last eight months of recovering and being ready To be the Viking starting quarterback I don't see any discussion truly about whether there's a competition or Sam Howell or anything else like that But once again, we just hadn't been around that confidence for a long time And you kind of do the point at the TV meme like there it is there is JJ McCarthy and the reason he was a tenth overall draft pick is because he knows he's the guy and there doesn't seem to be any intimidation factor for him when

it comes to leading a team that has such high expectations and so many veteran players on it. Yeah no not at all He doesn't seem to be afraid of this moment at all, but you mentioned his confidence and the swagger that he carries with him everywhere he goes. It does go back to even last season. We haven't seen him and spoken to him on the record since September when he had just gotten his surgery and he was right in front of his locker. But we did get to see him interact with his teammates last year. And to have swagger when you're scooting around on a scooter is pretty damn hard to do. And he still did. He did have this aura about him where it's like, he's not playing quarterback, but that's still the quarterback of the future. I can't, It's pretty hard to encapsulate that feeling

without just you had to be there. But there was something about whenever he was around the facility, it still felt like that's the guy. Like I know Sam Darnold's playing well, but that's the guy for the future. So now to see him talk to us and stand at the lectern and say all the right things

and say them in a way that feels believable and not you know canned not well before I come up here and talk to you guys I'm gonna write down this is what I want to say no it's just it feels genuine it feels real I thought it was interesting we talked to Jonathan Grenard and Brian O'Neill before we talked to JJ McCarthy and I think Grenard said something along the lines of we're ten toes down for JJ Brian O'Neill before we talked to JJ McCarthy and I think Renard said something along the lines of we're ten toes down for JJ. Brian O'Neill said something along the lines of he's infectious, the energy he brings every day like makes us want to be better. You hear these veterans say that and you can almost say well yeah I

mean they're gonna say that about a young guy but then you watch him come in there and talk and you're like of course they feel this way. It just the way he carries himself is that of a franchise quarterback. You said his best quote was, I know I'm ready to start. I thought his best quote was, when asked about pressure, personally I think the more pressure the better. That's what I thrive off of. Good. Like that's how I want him to approach this situation because there is a lot of pressure the team won 14 games There is no training wheels heading into this Step in your career and he seems ready for the moment with his words now We'll see if he's ready for the moment with his play

All we have to go off of his 15 minutes of him throwing the football around But man everything we know about this kid and we've learned about this kid to this point is that like yeah He's probably going to meet those expectations So there was something that stood out to me from what Jonathan Grinard said where I always listen to the details of Compliments this is something that after you and I have done this for a really long time, one thing you can start to figure out is when you're getting blow off answers or real compliments. And I think it's always the specificity, specificness, is that a word? Specificity?

Could be it. Whatever. How specific the compliment is. What story does it tell? specificness is that a word specificity could be it whatever how specific there it is the compliment is what story does it tell and what Jonathan Grenard was saying is that when he saw JJ McCarthy here in the offseason that he was in when nobody else was really around and we'll talk about Dallas Turner in a bit but he also mentioned Dallas Turner being there but he said when someone walks up and asks you how you're doing, it could be to

just sort of check a box, like how you do a man or whatever. But he said, when JJ McCarthy does, it feels like he genuinely wants to know. And I think what really is a cheat code for JJ McCarthy is being a people person, which will help him lead no matter what age he is. And his background helps as well. When we talk about the pressure, he went to IMG Academy, which will help him lead no matter what age he is. And his background helps as well. When we talk about the pressure, he went to IMG Academy, which has the pressure of a bunch of elite athletes from around the country, trying to win a high school championship, and then goes to one of the biggest programs.

Now I've always said that doesn't mean a thing compared to the national football league, it's totally different when it comes to the pressure, but at least it's in his background. And I also think if you can communicate with players who have been around in a certain type of way, like Jonathan Grenard, guys who are winners, Aaron Jones, Josh Mattelis, we spoke to Brian O'Neill. I think that you can take a lot away from those guys of how you're supposed to be as the leader. And Josh Mattel has said something interesting as well.

He said that, look, this guy doesn't have to be my homes. He doesn't have to come in here and act like I'm the guy. I need to have the last word all the time and be something that he doesn't want to be, or that he's not ready to be yet as a 22 year old. He can be himself in the veteran environment is going to allow him to do that. And I think that part of the confidence overall day and that JJ McCarthy is walking around with is that he knows, look at the guys that he's got around him and you know, he's not a general manager, he's not up there evaluating all their offensive line moves and so forth. But I think he's

pretty well aware that everything they did was to help him this offseason, whether it's improving the running game, the offensive line, even adding another wide receiver in the draft. And I would be pretty confident too, if I was taking over a situation like this, because it really does not an environment where they're saying save our franchise, JJ, you have to be everything here, like Joe Burrow is in Cincinnati. It's really, there is a lot that is around him that he can lean on.

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We heard JJ McCarthy say like he was asked, what do you need to do to kind of earn the respect of the team? and he said I just need to be me and Again could sound like a canned answer, but when he said it I'm like yeah that that makes sense of course That's all they need you to do But then to hear him say that and then hear Josh Mattel us say what you said where we don't need him to Bear the weight of the world on his shoulders and move forward, those two things seem to kind of jive together. And I think they will create a kind of system and kind of culture where he can move forward and not feel that pressure.

Anytime I think about J.J. McCarthy, I can't help but think about Kwesi Adapimensa and Kevin O'Connell's quote, which they seem to live by and they seem to talk to us all the time about where organizations fail quarterbacks long before quarterbacks fail organizations. The Vikings are not going to fail JJ McCarthy. They're not. They're gonna put him in a position to succeed. In fact, they have put him in a position to succeed with when they took him in the timeline of their roster construction. And then after he missed an entire year, everything they did this offseason to make sure everything around him is insulated so he doesn't have

to feel like he has to be Patrick Mahomes out there. There's a lot of quarterbacks that get drafted in the first round where you look at their surroundings and you say what the heck are they gonna do with this? He does not have to feel like that. I don't think he does feel like that and I'm excited to kind of see where he takes this thing because we've been waiting a really long time to see it. But look on paper the Vikings are loaded. The biggest question mark is JJ McCarthy They we won't know the answer to that question for many months now but there's reason to believe because of the infrastructure around him and

Everything we know about him to this point that he's gonna be up for the task There is something that stood out to me that it gets thrown out there all the time about, well, you know, he's kind of a rookie. And I just don't really buy into that, because when you hear him talk about the experience that he was able to have last year, where he was in the headset during games, listening to Kevin O'Connell call a game to Sam Darnold,

that's not something he had at Michigan. And I asked him about his experience just seeing Sam Darnold go through this because the way we can't say it enough and I know people want to move on to JJ McCarthy and the way that the season ended was bitter for everybody. You cannot say enough what a pro that Sam Darnold was last year. Knowing that the team had another quarterback behind him, knowing you're sort of playing for free agency in the future and not necessarily to be the long term quarterback, or at least you're not sure where that's going to go. And for him to buy in the way that he did to Kevin O'Connell, perform the way he did come through in a lot of clutch

moments and all those things. I think that was really good for JJ McCarthy to see. And he said that the biggest thing he saw with Sam Darnold was just that every day he had to be the same guy for his teammates that he had to lead in the exact same way, whether he threw four touchdowns or whether he didn't say the Jacksonville game, but we all thought the Jacksonville game, whether it was that or he was having the best time of his life that Sam Darnold wasn't any different. And so you stack up all this experience. Alec Lewis asked him about the virtual reality.

And so he's got all these moments of watching the tape through the virtual reality thing and through the helmet and listening to how the play call is and saying the play call back to himself. Then being on the headset with Kevin O'Connell. He also said that one of the things he did during the week last year was the defensive scout where he was looking at all the defensive players and analyzing them and writing reports on them. So now he goes into this year with Packers, Lions, Bears, a lot of those players he already has a really good sense for. And I thought Kirk Cousins talked about this a lot, like when he would do the pre-scout

of the other team's players, but that's just a process that he would never done before. So much information has been ingested from him and experiences that it is not just somebody stepping in as a rookie quarterback. That I think it's very different than that. And also his teammates are not saying as he arrives here, well, why don't you just show us what kind of guy you are or saying as he arrives here, well, why

don't you just show us what kind of guy you are or something. They know him, they've been around him, they've seen him in an entire training camp, they know what's there. It is a very different situation from a quarterback who would have just got drafted this weekend, who then goes and shows up and tries to say, well, this is my team. I think everybody on this team prepared themselves for JJ McCarthy to be the quarterback this year. So this is not new, this is not surprising, and it's also not somebody that they have to learn

on the fly. I don't know if there's anything else you have as a takeaway from JJ, but I think that's something that's important to point out when he lays out those experiences, there's a lot there that he took away. Yeah, and nothing to dig into from the actual conversation we had with him, but going off of what you just said, he's not a rookie, so he doesn't have to be treated as such with these expectations.

And I know from the fan base, like they expect this guy to be Joe Montana right away. Josh Mantellis doesn't think he has to be Patrick Mahomes, but the fan base thinks he's going to be Patrick Mahomes. And while part of me wants to come out and say like, guys chill, like this guy hasn't had an NFL snap yet, let alone played in an NFL game, he's not ready to be kind of in that same conversation. No, the expectation should not be tempered because he is not a rookie. He might be a rookie in terms of how Many snaps he's played zero But he's not a rookie in terms of where he's at in his mental progression as a quarterback all those experiences that you mentioned

those matter like those are a Thing he can kind of take with him as he now prepares to be the guy I know he's not been named the starter but listen to everybody talk about him. He's the freaking starter, but he doesn't have to be treated as, well let's hold our horses here and we don't know what to expect. We should expect a lot from him right away because he is not the same as... who the heck got drafted? Cam Ward, Jackson Dart, I should do her Sanders. Like he's not the same as who the heck got drafted. Cam Ward, Jackson Dart, Shadour Sanders. Like he's not the same as these rookies coming in.

He is not played a snap, but he is way further along in his development. And that matters as the Vikings kind of embark on something that they hope is pretty special. The expectations from the team itself certainly not gonna be tempered. And I don't think from JJ McCarthy individually, like he has to temper any expectations either.

So to pick up on that was something else that I really took away from today from the three veteran players that talked, especially Jonathan Grenard and Brian O'Neal. I think you can sense it when guys are in their late 20s or early 30s and they start to understand that there's only so many more cracks at this that you get. And there was a tone about what Grenard was saying and they used the Grenard tweet, which you went back and dug up and found after the playoff game to be their motivational t-shirt

for the year, which is more is required. Is that correct? Is what the t-shirt say? Nailed it. Okay. More is required, uh, because obviously they didn't do enough for last year to get over the hump in the playoffs. But what I really sensed from Jonathan Grenard and from Brian O'Neill, especially is that feeling of this is one of the shots that you get in life. I mean, if you play in the NFL and you don't play for Kansas City and you don't play for whatever team Tom Brady's on,

Patriots or Tampa Bay Bucks, or Josh Allen in Buffalo, there is not a, well, you know, every year we're just gonna be in the mix because of who our quarterback is and so forth. Maybe McCarthy will be that guy. But when you win 14 games and you feel like you are a legitimate contender and you come up short, there is a desperate feeling among these guys to achieve more than they did last year. And I thought more than almost any other year.

Maybe 2018 was like this coming off of losing in the NFC Championship, but it was, you could feel it in their comments of, I mean, Jonathan Grenard is coming off of an incredible season, a top five season at the Edgerusher position in terms of quarterback pressures, double digit sacks, a career year for him, and it did not strike me at all as if Jonathan Grenard was like, hey guys, I'm awesome now, right? if Jonathan Grenard was like hey guys I'm awesome now right it was much more like no I'm actually still really disgusted about

last year and I think we can compete for the Super Bowl this is a new vibe from the last few years where a lot of it was well if some things go right or we think we're going to be better than people think we are that's that's not now. Guys were not saying Super Bowl or bust exactly, but I don't know what other way to interpret it is when Harrison Smith comes back, that was something that guys referenced of he believed in this team enough to come back for another year.

So we need to hold ourselves to that standard. And I think that it also says something about us and how we evaluate JJ McCarthy. Like it's got to work. This team is built for this to work with JJ McCarthy. I 100% agree with the direction and everything else but that's part of the vibe of just even having 30 minutes of conversations today with guys of they really think that they belong in that discussion as a Super Bowl favorite team. Yeah, and I think they should based on the season they just had and the offseason that the front office has put together. They should absolutely believe that they can do something special this year.

And I do think part of that confidence that they're kind of exuding to us, whether they are consciously saying it or subconsciously feeling it, has a lot to do with how they feel about JJ McCarthy already. Like we don't know what he's going to be like on the field. They don't know what he's going to be like on the field. But I think they believe in him. I think they believe that he can take them where they want to go.

You're right. It did not feel like two veterans standing up there being like, well, you know, guys, we have a rookie quarterback, so it might not be, it might not be what we're all thinking. Like, no, I think they think they can win a super bowl and it did not feel like lip service. It did not feel like, well, yeah, what what are they gonna say that we can't win a Super Bowl? You could just feel the belief that this team has. I thought something that stood out with Brian O'Neill that kind

of hammered home like the we just got a win was he was asked about Aaron Jones coming back and he's excited about that. He credited him with the being maybe the most important and he was the most important reason and why the running game took a step. But then somebody asked him like do you want to run the ball more? And Brian O'Neill said like three years ago yeah maybe I would have said I want to run the ball more I want that to be our identity. He said I don't care if we throw the ball 75 times or run the ball 75 times. We just want to win. And I think that perfectly sums up where they're at as a franchise. They don't care how they do it.

They don't care what it looks like. They don't care numbers wise. They just want wins at the end of the day. They want wins in the regular season. They want wins in the playoffs. They need more than they've given so far. That's where they're at. And all of that is said and spoken with the backdrop that yes,

Jason McCarthy is essentially going to be stepping into this fire with a ton of expectations that is back. That's why I go back to the quote, the more pressure, the better. Good, I hope he's feeling that because there will be a lot of pressure coming here with where this team believes it stands in the pantheon of the NFL. We've listened to many of these around this time of year and this one just felt a little different from those players of a tone that we haven't exactly heard in some time instead of last year where it was hey well no one believes in us.

We didn't hear that a single time. People do believe in you. You won 14 games, you spent $300 million in free agency, you drafted a left guard to come in and start right away. That was another thing that Brian O'Neill talked about, just how hard it must have been for Donovan Jackson to step in and play left tackle the way that he did. That's one of those things that when you hear about from the outside, you're like, well, they should be able

to do that. They're all big fat guys and when you ask an offensive lineman, they're like, oh no, no, no, no and he told the story about being asked at one point if he could play left tackle when there was a contract issue in 2020 with Riley Reef and he was like, please don't, please don't let me play another position. But he mentioned going out to eat with Donovan Jackson and his family and you know helping him get integrated quickly and just the new look offensive line is something that we're

gonna be watching throughout this entire offseason because they are implementing not just new people, but new people who have not been here at all and are coming from totally on the outside, but also guys that have done things differently in the past and they're trying to learn from each other. So that process will be something to keep an eye on as well of just how much this offensive line

does things a little bit different from what they've done before, which I don't think is too bad of a thing, but something else really popped, unless you have a take on that, uh, something else really popped to me, which was the commentary on Dallas Turner. And this goes again to let's evaluate the actual compliments and what Jonathan Grenard and Josh Mattel is alluded to with Dallas Turner is if you're going to get better as a rookie

to your second year, you have to be willing to do it. And Grenard said that Turner was in here the same time he was doing off season workouts when he didn't even have to be, just sort of alone in the gym. And he said, you know, sky is the limit for him because he is willing to try to take that next step. And I think Dallas Turner is someone,

and both guys mentioned that, like, look, you're behind Jonathan Grenard and Andrew Van Ginkgoe last year. But Dallas Turner was one of my biggest winners of the offseason altogether, not just because of these quotes, but they match up with the actions of the team. Who else did they bring in at Edgerusher? Nobody. They could have drafted several guys who are on the board, maybe even

in the third round or fourth round, or the end of the third round, I guess they didn't do that. They did not go out and sign a free agent. There's a bunch of free agent situational type of players. They let Patrick Jones go. They could have resigned him. They had the money to do it. They let him go to Carolina. So it's Dallas Turner show. And I think that his behind the scenes stuff now that we've heard that from a couple players separately is probably part of the reason that they're buying Dallas Turner stock. Yeah, I think you mentioned what Jonathan Grenard said. Josh Mattel is phrased it something along the lines of in order for someone

to get better, they have to want to get better. That's not always the case with young players they don't always want to get better and It can seem so simple at its core, but when guys are super talented and they have the tools But they don't have the want It's really freaking hard in the NFL because everyone's good Dallas Turner seems to have that he certainly has the tools just go back and watch the Chicago pass rush against Darnell Wright. He has the tools but he has the want and I think it probably took a little bit of time last year to understand how much you have to

want it. How much goes into being a pro. He's 21 years old coming from Alabama. Not to mention he was really good friends with Kyrie Jackson and I know that weight on him in the early stages of his career. So when you are walking in as a young player, you suffer unspeakable tragedy from a very personal standpoint, it can be hard to find your legs right away. And I think it took him a little bit. But something else Josh Mattel has pointed towards that seemed to click was, I don't know if it was Brian Flores or Matt Daniels or both. But the coaching staff got on Dallas Turner about how he plays special teams, because

that's where he was contributing last year when he wasn't contributing on defense. And he wasn't doing a good enough job. And it clicked to him that like I gotta bust my butt on special teams because that's where my impact is being made right now and I think you saw a steady climb after that it's not too different than how Josh Mattelis grew into the player and leader he is on this team he paid his dues he busted his butt on special teams and then he took a gigantic leap when we didn't think he was going to do it. He signed a bargain contract that he's going to get paid more at some point, and he took

a gigantic leap one year when nobody expected it. Now people are expecting Dallas Turner to take a leap, but I think when you just kind of look at some of the players on this defense and how they've taken jumps over the course of their career and you apply that to Dallas Turner and his mindset and what we're hearing and what we've seen. There is reason to believe he can look like a guy that they traded a lot of draft capital because they coveted him so much. He needs to be that player. He needs to be a guy who can dominate, who can prove, yeah, he was

worth trading effectively. I don't know what the call ends up being, but I think it ends up being about two first round picks when you account everything that they traded to move up to get him. If he ends up working out, who cares? Like he is a premium position player who can make an impact. We've seen glimpses of it. We still need to see the full culmination of it. But when you listen to his teammates talk about him, and I'm sure when we talk to him next month, we're gonna feel that too. It's good news for the Vikings because we have heard the alternative. We've heard when we ask about a guy and they just say like, yeah, he's fine, he's doing good. It wasn't like that at all with Dallas Turner

and anybody we've talked to about him and his progression. Spef-sif-ity. Yeah, yeah, so. That's the key. And when it comes to Josh Metellus, maybe there will be a contract extension for him by the time you listen to this because I got a feeling that that's coming around the Corner pretty darn soon. So I want to take just a couple minutes Dane unless you have anything else you anything else

Okay, that's a lot that we covered there just to get some of your opinions on the draft You were out here at TCO Performance Center while I was live streaming and we were trying to predict how the first round was Going to go and all that So now that the dust has settled, we were joking around today about the draft grades and everything else and how everybody sort of despises them. But also if you go, well, I gave him a C, you're like, why? What happened? Right? Like we all have reactions to draft grades as well. So I don't know. Did you do a draft grade article? Did you grade everything? Did nothing? You graded nothing of this draft? I did not specifically put together a grade because I think draft grades are stupid. I did put together an aggregation of all the grades and everyone seemed

to think it was just kind of like, pretty good but my opinion if I were to put together a grade I'm not giving it a letter grade not gonna do that on the pod but I think they accomplished what they kind of set out to accomplish it was a continuation of how they've approached free agency in a way which is we're gonna fill the areas of need that we feel we need to fill and that starts with Donovan Jackson, right? I think I predicted Derek Harmon, you predicted Derek Harmon, I think Andrew Kramer predicted Derek Harmon, I think everyone predicted Derek Harmon. And if Derek Harmon was on the board,

they might have taken him. But if it was between Derek Harmon and Donovan Jackson, they might have still taken Donovan Jackson because it's very clear, like from the moment they lost to the Los Angeles Rams, the most important thing to Kevin O'Connell. And he's tried to walk back this quote a dozen times since he said it, but he said it. He said, we need to shore up the interior of the pocket. And they've done exactly that. Ryan Kelly, Will Fries. So yeah, it makes a ton of sense that they went out and got Donovan Jackson who's probably gonna start day one

I'm fine with that pick. It's it's not the sexiest pick and sure if you look at the boards Yeah, maybe they could have traded back and get the you know an extra fourth to get to 33 and pick him there like No, I don't care like if you wanted him take him because if they would have traded back and then he goes 25 to the Houston Texans and then you're sitting there like okay well we planned for the 24th pick to be our starting left guard then what are you doing like it's not really I think you did something on this it's not really a reach unless he was like the 80th ranked prospect.

Yeah. Maybe they overdrafted him a little bit by these, these consensus boards, but overall he feels a need. Um, and then I think from there, you just look at everything else they did. We nailed the receiver thing. Absolutely nailed it. Oh, he, they didn't take Luther burden in the first round, but that wasn't actually what we were talking about. We were talking about like you should

probably try and invest in a receiver sooner rather than later when you have to, and that's what they did with Ty Felton. Loved that pick too. We can go down the whole board, but I think overall like the draft played out when you enter with four picks and you walk away with five players and you walk away with probably your starting left guard and you walk away with a receiver that you feel like you can develop. You walk away with a couple other depth pieces, probably about as good as it could have gone given the circumstances and what you started with. So your point about Derek Harman, while he did go off the board, it's hard to say whether they would have picked him or not. We had heard at the Combine about their respect for him, and then when you hear more about his story and his mother's illness, and truly on her deathbed as he's getting drafted, and the way that he used his NIL money, and all those different things, you could see why they would have been so impressed with Derek Harmon.

And I still think that would have been a great draft pick for them. But also when it came to Donovan Jackson, when they made the pick, I thought of me watching House Hunters when the wife and I watch House Hunters. We try to guess. And I don't know if you've seen the show, but they show people three houses and then they pick which one they want. And so we always try to guess like it's got to be number two, it's got to be the first one they say. And what it always comes down to is

what they told you along the way was the most important thing to them. So if the most important thing was a view, the house with the views getting picked every time. That's just a hack for you guys if you play at home with your significant other but It's the same thing here where it's like they told us all along from the moment They came off the field with the Rams We got to get better on the interior of this line and also where I like it the most is That that guy in there who now weighs 215 pounds, there is not a single person in this organization, no coach, no player, no all-pro, nobody else,

who's going to determine more whether they make the playoffs and compete for a Super Bowl than JJ McCarthy. So everything you did to positively move the needle for JJ McCarthy, to me, just gets a thumbs up, just on its face. Now, if you were doing draft hacks 101, here's all the studies that have ever been done, here's all the research, here's all the big picture stuff,

then you should have traded down and you shouldn't have taken a player that's 12 spots above his consensus because as much as people get angry about these things, they get angry at draft value boards. If your team on a draft value pick chart loses a trade, then you say the chart is bogus. If you, it's just a really funny thing,

because if you reach on a consensus board, the board must be bogus. But if you draft someone that was ranked higher, what a genius pick it is, right? We're all gonna do stuff like that. So we can be rational about this and say that if they had wanted to go into a full mode of let's maximize every single percentage point to hit for the success rate for the total value, then they should

have traded down on the pick. I think even quasi Adolfo Mensa would say that because his golf analogy was more or less, let's keep it on the fairway. And that's the way I look at this, is you've built such a good roster, there's no reason to get cute. It's actually what we criticize the most of Kevin O'Connell sometimes when it's third and two

and he throws a 47 yard pass down the field, we go, did you really need to get cute there? And I think they took the approach to this draft to say we're not getting cute we're gonna get this big old guard that we love and he's gonna slot right in there and then off we go but I wanted to ask your opinion before we wrap Mike Clay put out his rankings of every position group for every team in the NFL, which is a hard thing to do. It takes a lot of research, but Mike does it. And I thought that was cool.

I wrote about it yesterday and he had the Vikings as the fourth best offense, not including quarterback, because who knows where to rank this quarterback and the fifth best defense overall. So how do you feel about those rankings and what does it say about this roster? Without seeing the rankings, did not read Mike Clay's piece yet, did not read your piece yet, my bad. That's a mistake. That is a mistake on my part, what am I doing? It's the offseason. Yeah, we're, yeah, the Timberwolves are playing, Wild are playing, you know, but honestly when I hear those rankings they

Make sense to me. I have walked away from this offseason thinking to myself Do they have weaknesses on this team? like what are the weaknesses because all of the weaknesses that I felt that they had walking out of Glendale, Arizona or flying out of Phoenix, Arizona after the playoff game Were addressed in free agency in the draft With everything they've done from that moment in time to now they've

Really in my opinion knocked their offseason out of the park So if you want to put their offense as four and their defense as five like that makes sense to me. If I'm just going through the offense the offensive line is improved. Total revamping of the offensive line and the only things you didn't revamp are the two best bookend tackles in the game assuming Christian Derisaw gets back to full strength. So starting with the offensive line makes a ton of sense. Aaron Jones, Jordan Mason, damn good backfield. Justin Jefferson, like do we forget about him sometimes

that he's the best receiver in the game? I think we do because he's not loud about it. Jordan Addison, Jaylen Naylor, TJ Hockinson, Ty Felton. Everything on offense is there, Assuming and you said these rankings were done without the quarterback in mind. Assuming JJ McCarthy is ready as we've talked at length about at the beginning of this pod. Like there's no reason the offense shouldn't exceed anybody's expectations heading into next season. And then you look at the defense, shirred up the defensive line,

got better in the trenches. Blake Cashman was spectacular last year. Ivan Pace Jr. is a guy who dominates with what he's asked to do. Kobe King, like a guy that they get in the sixth round, projects as someone who probably is going to be able to fight in the field at some point in time with the way Brian Flores calls it.

Maybe the only weakness I see is in the secondary in the depth at cornerback so maybe five feels a little high there but this was top ten defense last year and by all accounts got better so it makes sense that that's where Mike Clay has them ranked and I think that kind of goes back to closing the loop on this entire pod, like where we feel this team can go if Jay-Z McCarthy is the quarterback we think he is. The sky is the limit for the team. If he's the quarterback we think he is

because the pieces are in place. They've set this thing up where, does he have to be Patrick Mahomes? No. But if he is a top 10 quarterback next year, which isn't out of the realm of possibility, we've seen it at times. Like with a young guy stepping into a good situation and flourishing right away. Like if you get above expectation quarterback play from J.J. McCarthy, they could be among the best teams in the league. The schedule's hard.

I'm sure we'll pick the schedule when it comes out in mid-May. That's always a fun episode. But the pieces are in place, and that is really the main takeaway, not only of today listening to the guys talk, but the off season as a whole. Like, we're almost able to put a bow on the offseason because we saw J.J. McCarthy throw a football today. Like we're almost to the point where we

can start talking about the next step which is where are they going to go next season. But everything they've done throughout the offseason, yes like across the board they are one of the best teams in the NFL. The only question mark is that quarterback. But I'm inclined to believe in that guy, too. So in my article, I laid out more questions than just that. Maybe you'll just have to go to purple insider dot football. I was trying to log in, but then I got flustered

because I was going to tell you the lead to the article is basically what I wrote was, sorry to ruin the first paragraph, is that what the Los Angeles Rams did for them was they took a floodlight and they shined it on every single weakness that the Vikings had. They couldn't block on the inside. They couldn't counter with the run game. Even the playmaker, that quick area short, get the ball in his hands guy, they got two of them just in case in Rondale Moore and then Ty Felton in the NFL draft. That

doesn't mean either one of them is going to work, but at least you could see them trying to fill that spot. And then they couldn't rush the passer from the inside. And when you have a guy like Matthew Stafford, he'll just step up in the pocket. He doesn't care. And he'll make his throws anyway. Well, now they've gone out and addressed that. So they addressed every single thing that got them in that playoff game. It was actually a perfect blueprint to then address and write down to the fact that in week 18,

see, I look at the playoff game in week 18 is being conflated, but two different things. Week 18, the biggest moment, the most pressure, they didn't get what they needed from the quarterback. And that could have meant a home playoff game if they had beat Detroit. And Detroit was beatable that day. I think that's what actually makes it the worst

is that they were beatable that day, the way the defense was playing. And now you're looking for a quarterback that is not going to have that happen. Now that's a high bar for him to set, but that's where they have positioned themselves now in the NFL. So purple insider dot football. You want to go check that entire article out. Please do. Uh, Dane Mizzittani, there is definitely a porch podcast on the way.

As soon as the weather starts to heat up here, at some point we get a schedule. We're also going to get rookie mini camp, which I was laughing about the other day because I was like, so five of them are just gonna run around out there. I know there's UDFAs and everything, but it's not the same rookie mini camp as last year when we're getting our first look at JJ McCarthy.

So we'll have to see what we could take away from that, but that's right around the corner. And then a lot of really fun prognosticating, looking forward, we're gonna follow OTAs and mini-campus if these are playoff games to get our first real look at JJ McCarthy running an offense. But the big takeaway from today is, if he's not ready for it, you could have fooled me

by the way he talked and the way everybody else talked about JJ McCarthy and where he stands. So kind of day one at the new job for the Vikings now franchise quarterback and JJ McCarthy who someday they will officially say is QB1. We'll wait for that day. So thanks everybody for listening as always and Dane for your time and we'll talk to y'all later. Football. Football.