Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Reacting to Kevin O'Connell and Kwesi Adofo-Mensah's Combine press conferences

Episode Date: February 27, 2024

Matthew Coller and Dane Mizutani of the Pioneer Press break down everything from Kwesi Adofo-Mensah and Kevin O'Connell's NFL Combine press conferences. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hey everybody, welcome to another episode of Purple Insider. Matthew Collar here along with Dane Mizzutani of the Pioneer Press. And we are inside the Indiana Convention Center where we have just seen Kweisi D'Affomensa and Kevin O'Connell do their podium sessions for the year. Tomorrow, we will have our sit downs with beat reporters. Just a couple of us with Kevin O'Connell, Kweisi D'Affomensa. And of course, we will have a reaction podcast to those as well. But Dane, I think the place we have to start and the topic du jour is Justin Jefferson and his contract. And we will get into what was said about quarterbacks. But there is much more to say about Kweisi Daffo-Mensah's

strong statement that he has never had any interest in trading Justin Jefferson. So now that doesn't mean that that is true because I recall not that long ago that I asked directly Rick Spielman, will you consider trading Stefan Diggs? And he said, no. And then he traded Stefan Diggs. But I think in this case, based on everything we know about the situation, everything we know about Justin Jefferson, where he stands within this organization, how Kwesi Adafo-Mensah and Kevin O'Connell feel about him. It is hard for me to believe that Kwesi was lying up there at the podium. Everybody has a price, but he mentioned early in his discussion, there's Arif Hasan behind us. Someday you'll get on this podcast, Arif. But he mentioned early in his comments about things that he wished he could respond to. And you had a great follow-up to say, are you referring to the rumors of potential trades for Justin Jefferson? And he basically

said, yes, I was referring to that. And no, I have no interest in trading him. So your reaction to what he said about Justin Jefferson, negotiations and trade possibilities. Yeah, I think the initial reaction just has to be that it's not happening. And you are right when you say sometimes not just football general managers, but general managers across sports will say something and then use that as leverage and then go do the complete opposite thing but this does not feel like that this feels like quesia adolfo mensa was given the opportunity to basically put water all over those rumors and reports that have come out saying maybe they will make justin jefferson available via trade and he oftentimes when we talk to him he doesn't give straight answers it's it's a lot of talking around or a lot of words this was a very quick two sentence that's not something i've ever considered when you have players like that you keep them around that's that's good enough for

me and i think that needed to be said at some point this week because the way that things work in this current media landscape and we're a part of it i get it but something gets reported if it's true or if it's not true it doesn't really matter it gets legs it spreads on twitter the aggregators pick it up and all of a sudden it's fact and it felt like last week it was fact that they were going to seriously consider trading Justin Jefferson. And people who don't follow the Vikings or aren't around this team on a daily basis probably thought, well, yeah, maybe that's going to happen. I think me and you and probably our colleagues who are around that building every day looked at that report and said, eh, there's just no way. Like, I can't imagine the Vikings ever letting him go. I can't imagine Kevin O'Connell greenlighting a deal or Kweisi Adafamensa for that matter, greenlighting

a deal to let the best receiver in football go. But when those things start to spread, you need to kind of get ahead of it and say like, that's not true. Sometimes you don't want to respond to every little thing that pops up, But when it's with your best player and the best receiver in the league and you run the risk of maybe he doesn't know that it's not true. So to get out in front of it and just say, like, no, we're not doing it. That was the biggest thing to come out of today because it's not happening. And now we can move forward to talking about, well, how much is it going to cost? He wants to break the bank. We know that he's going to be the highest paid receiver in the league. We know that. And a lot of the things that we heard from Kweisi today is like,

he knows that too. He knows that there's going to be a price to pay, but there is no price. I don't think that someone could pay the Vikings to pry Justin Jefferson away. And that's kind of the biggest takeaway of today. I'm very much inclined to believe Kweisi Rafa Mensah and everything he said about Justin Jefferson really from day one. And I think with Jefferson, what everybody knows is that negotiations like this are unusual. Just like with Nick Bosa, you are talking about the best player at his position in the entire league, which means it doesn't get done easily. And one thing that Kweisi went out of his way to point out today was that last year, even having a negotiation after the third year of a rookie contract is quite unusual. And sometimes you don't even see it with quarterbacks. I mean,

think about Tua, for example, in Miami still doesn't have a contract done yet. I think Dak Prescott played on the franchise tag, and these are really good quarterbacks that have not had that negotiation done. So you usually don't see it unless it's a clear-cut, obvious, all-set, written-in-ink franchise QB, no question about it. And that just speaks to how important Justin Jefferson is, that they would have had that discussion with him even last year about the extension and he did mention and it's i think

that this adds up he said that they were very close last year and i think he said something like i don't think people realize how close we were last year which there were a lot of reports in the final days before the season started that they were getting closer and closer now i don't know how close they were because i think justin jefferson understands his value and he's made it clear every time he's been asked that i understand my value i understand i've done things that no one else in this league has done i've outperformed everybody else which means i deserve to be paid like that. But that's not an unusual statement. And so I think both sides understand that he's going to be the highest paid receiver. He is a centerpiece of this franchise going forward.

If you're going to ever succeed, he's going to be one of the top three reasons why you're ever going to succeed. And it's never made sense to me to even have this discussion about trading him. And you're right that it does tumble into another conversation about how NFL information can spread like wildfire when something like that comes out. One sentence in a column could end up being picked up by a bunch of different people who do not care about the truth, do not care about nuance. They only care about engagement on social media. And what's the best way to get it is to make it as salacious as possible and is without nuance as possible. But I think that he did put this to bed. I'm actually a little surprised that he didn't come out right from the beginning of the press

conference and say, I've seen these rumors. They are bogus. And he also mentioned, I think this is very important that Justin Jefferson told him, and he agreed to this as he should, that they're not going to negotiate through the media, that they're not going to negotiate with rumors. They're not going to put it out there. And from everything I've heard, that's true. And I think that when you hear stuff coming out, oh, well, they're doing this, he wants that, whatever. I'm not saying that everyone is making it up, but I guess I would say is information here is going to be very scarce. So you're just going to have to wait. And this could be a long way. It could be all the way through training

camp. He could get an inner ear issue like t.j hockinson and then who knows what happens but that's my big takeaway here is that he put this to bed for now i'm assuming that this is true what he's telling us and i think we should all just not have this conversation anymore unless we have an actual reason to with should they trade him should they trade him for a quarterback whatever you can play in fantasy land if you like, and you can go on Madden and see what you can get for Justin Jefferson. But if you're, if you're one of those people who wastes your time putting NFL players in other NFL players, jerseys, first of all, I don't understand you try some real art, but anyway you could stop doing that. I think, for now with Justin Jefferson.

At least that's how I feel. Again, you're right. Things have happened. Things have changed where a team gets an offer or whatever and trades a player they said they're not going to trade. But this was as straightforward as you're not doing that as you're ever going to get. Yeah, I think you brought up a good point at the beginning, and Kweisi did too, that it's not normal to do what the Vikings did last offseason. I think you brought up a good point at the beginning, and Kweisi did too, that it's not normal to do what the Vikings did last offseason. I think that's important context to remember. If the Vikings just operated status quo with how a lot of these fifth-year option or heading into your fifth-year option, that's when the negotiation process starts. If no conversations were had last year, they just said, you know what, we're going to table it. We're picking up your said you know what we're going to table it

you're picking up your fifth year and we're going to talk contract next offseason if they didn't have the conversations last offseason no one would be up in arms scared that oh looking over your shoulder is justin jefferson going to leave you just wrote something spot on on purple insider that i think there is like a defense mechanism especially within minnesota sports is like well we have to start talking about is this guy going to leave because they always leave in minnesota or they always trade away the good player or we always get you know the short end of the stick um but i think that i don't want to call it failed negotiation but i guess they didn't come to an agreement last offseason so we can can kind of call it that. That inability to start that conversation and not finishing it last offseason opened the door for all of this.

But I beg people to kind of remember the context here, that that was not normal. So when that door is open and then we get to this off season and we're kind of in that weird little two three week dead period between super bowl and combine starting and free agency down the chute i think people are just bored and i think right now they see a report like that and it's content it's something to latch on to it's something to talk about it's something to to get riled up about and have interest about. But it never felt realistic to us. And then I think it never felt realistic to the people who were close to the team and kind of work in those intermixings every day. And I don't think it ever was realistic to the people actually pulling the strings within the organization, making that decision, whether

it will or won't happen. Yeah, I very much feel the same way that there was never any part that felt real. Now, let me ask you before we move on to a couple other key topics that were hit on by Kevin O'Connell and by Kwesi Adafo-Mensah, just so I can get your opinion on it, because I have railed against this idea and thought like, if you want your next quarterback to succeed and there will be a next quarterback someday, whether it's, you know, Kirk for two more years or whoever, Justin Jefferson is going to be a main reason why I would not give up that player for almost anything unless the Bills called and said, you can have Josh Allen. Then we could talk. But aside from that, what is your opinion on that? No chance.

You talk about people succeeding or putting quarterbacks in positions to succeed. I promise you, having Justin Jefferson on the roster is the best position someone can be in to succeed. I think the only reason we're talking about this as a potential of should they move on is because people are afraid to spend money now. But again, you wrote this yesterday. It's okay to spend on the good players. It's okay to spend on the great players. It's okay to spend on the players that are literally the best players at their position. It's okay to spend on the people that have broken Randy Moss and Chris Carter's records. So if I'm team building, there's no chance I'm letting him walk out that door. I'll pay him whatever he wants. I'll give him a blank check because you are better with Justin Jefferson than you are

without him. And the quarterback, whether it's Kirk Cousins, whether it's Baker Mayfield, whether it's Jacoby Brissett, whether it's any of these rookies, they will be better with Justin Jefferson than without him. So, I mean, it's totally it's totally a non-starter for me. If anyone asks if he can be had, um, and it's also non-starter for me just not bringing him back. So it's only a matter of time before it happens. I've always kind of felt like that, but this is a negotiation and they don't just happen overnight. It's not just here's our offer. Okay. That sounds good. Let's do it. Um, it was always going to be drawn out, especially when we're talking about this much money. That was another notable thing that said is that he said that they would love to get a deal done today, which is obvious. Of course

they would, but that deadlines make deals and they will have a deadline that is going to be the start of the season. And it might mean Justin Jefferson not participating in training camp. He did last year and I gave him a ton of credit for that. But I won't criticize him for sitting out because Nick Bosa sat out, and guess what? He was still Nick Bosa. These guys are going to be ready to play at that level. But that's just the type of timeline we might be talking about. And it did not seem, on the other end, so clearly the headline is he shoots down any sort of rumors.

But the other end of that was he made it sound like it's going to take a while. We're in communication, whatever, and deadlines make deals. He wasn't saying, oh, yeah, guys, keep your phones on and wait for that Adam Schefter tweet to drop because it's happening. There are some times where we do a press conference and then they break news like the next day and you go, i wish we had that yesterday uh i don't think that's going to be the case this time we're going to be waiting a while uh let's get to a real quick note before quarterback which is on daniel hunter that one sounded less hopeful uh that was hey who wouldn't love daniel hunter on your team but i think he said the player has interest too. And that made me think that maybe Daniil Hunter

has interest in getting way more money than the Vikings are willing to give or have to give. And also if I'm Daniil Hunter, I've got to reach the point where I'm looking at the defensive line going, we once had Everson Griffin, Linval Joseph, Tom Johnson, Sharif Floyd. We've had all these great defensive players, Sheldon Richardson, and now we have, oh, there's no one under contract, except for Harrison

Phillips. And last year, he was asked to be the whole pass rush all the time. And so it might be a situation where Daniil just says, I love Minnesota. This is where I want to be. I want to come back. But when you look at the money that some of these teams have, you look at a Houston Texans, a Chicago Bears. I mean, there's teams that are on the rise who could give longer term contracts. I just did not get as much enthusiasm from him about the Daniil thing as it felt like with Justin, where there was some vigor there, there was some bite. Like, we're going to do this.

We're going to get this done. With Daniil, it was, well, you have to understand. And the thing about that is, and so I guess I was never in the camp of believing that they were going to get Hunter back at any sort of discount or at their price. But now I feel farther away from Hunter returning than I did even before. Yeah, it almost felt like, well, you see, guys, we want him, but he's probably not coming back.

And he didn't straight up say that, but just reading between the lines, you could almost get the sense that Kweisi knows it's going to cost too much money. And it's almost like last offseason, right, where there was these veterans, Adam Thielen, Eric Hendricks, Dalvin Cook. Daniil Hunter is more productive than all three of those players at his current level of play. Those guys, you can say, were taking kind of a downward turn in their career. Daniil Hunter might at some point, but he just had like 15 sacks.

So he's, he is better than those players were last year. But what we saw last year was that Casey has a line in the sand that he's not really going to cross and he's not going to compromise on, um, I don't think that line in the sand exists for Justin Jefferson. I think it does exist for certain players and i think it probably exists for a defensive end or edge rusher whatever we're calling daniel hunter nowadays that's going to be 30 and that's going to want tons and tons of money 20 plus million 25 million a year i don't know what

he's going to end up at but i think it's going to be too high for the Vikings. And I think today was almost a way of Casey starting that, that small little snowball down the mountain of like, okay, guys, don't get your hopes up. It's probably not going to happen in a vacuum. The Vikings would love to have Daniel Hunter back in a vacuum. If, if Casey had off immensely could just say yeah we want daniel we're going to get him at the number i want um i think he'd be back with the vikings next year but i think those numbers are going to be so far apart from where the vikings are willing to come in and where the where daniel hunter's team is going to want to end up at

um and daniel deserves the money like he's he's played on these short-term, one-year deals, two-year, non-guaranteed deals pretty much his whole career. So he's going to get the bag. And I don't think he's going to get it from the Vikings. And again, like we said, maybe things can change. Maybe things get said and then they end up doing the opposite. But it seems like if you were reading between the lines today with Daniil, they want him, but they're probably not going to be able to afford him. Folks, have you ever heard of test driving a phone network?

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U.S. Cellular, built for us. Terms apply. Awards based on OpenSignal independent data. Visit uscellular.com for details. It's just a feel thing. Yeah yeah and trying to put the pieces together but i if and maybe it's reading too much into just the body language how long he talked about it or did not for very long kind of moved on in a couple of sentences there when he was asked about rebuilding the defense and hunter and it was just hey know, this guy can roll out of

bed and get 15 sacks, but you know, he's going to want things and we don't have things or we don't want to give them things. And, uh, they might, it just might not fit their timeline, but could you see a world where the Wilfs make the call and say, Hey, you know, why don't we just bring Daniel back and so forth? Like that, that does happen. It happened with anthony bar i mean i was totally convinced that anthony bar was gone and he actually was and then he decided not to be and so things can change but that's just the general sense coming out of it uh let's talk about the quarterbacks and they were also asked about the running back situation so forth so we'll get to a couple other things as well but the quarterbacks was interesting to juxtapose the two where with Kevin O'Connell,

he said a lot of the same things that he's said to us before about his relationship with Kirk Cousins. That was the main thing that was brought up, how they've been on the same page. They've gotten to know each other, their families know each other, and you didn't really even hear him hedge with a, well, you know, but maybe he won't come back or something. There was just a lot of sticking to staying with the, I get along great with Kirk. He's been our quarterback. We've won a lot of games with him and we really love each other. And I thought Kumbaya was going to start playing.

But that's, and then when we got to the general manager, then the quarterback was, well, it's a negotiation. And I talked to Kirk recently and there was just a lot more hedging. But I also thought it was interesting that neither guy really went into, hey, you know, it's a really good quarterback class. Like when we talk about this negotiation through the media or whatever, there wasn't any of the, we'll move on, Kirk, we'll do it. They've kind of seemed to have put out a few things, I think, from behind the scenes that might indicate that. Like Tom Palacero mentioning Sam Darnold's name, a few other insiders talking about, well, they're going to have their line in the sand, which again, is what we've known for a while. And they've always kind of said that, but I thought today they were trying not to make a headline with anything quarterback related.

I just thought, again, the body language, the way that each guy spoke about the quarterback was quite a bit different. And maybe this is just Kevin O'Connell's way more comfortable doing press conferences than Kweisi Adafomensa. And he was really trying to carefully toe the line, but to not give any sort of, oh, yeah, we really want Kirk back. Or, oh, yeah, we're fine with drafting a guy. And I didn't have one big pull quote of GM says this, coach says this. Maybe I missed something. How did you take it away no that

that's that's a good point because I don't walk away from either of those availabilities with the headline in mind and maybe that was by design for them because a lot of the words they said and a lot of like the rhetoric that was kind of spoken in those two availabilities were a lot of what we've heard like from them they like Kirk Kirk knows how I feel about him it's all the buzzwords um but it wasn't a we need Kirk back I want Kirk to be my quarterback until he's ready to retire from Kevin O'Connell and it wasn't from Kwesi I need Kirk um to to lead this competitive rebuild forward. And it wasn't the other either. And if that was their goal of not, there's going to be a lot of headlines to come out of this week.

And there's going to be a lot of conversations to be had. And there's going to be important conversations had between Kweisi, Kevin, and Mike McCartney, Kirk's agent. And if your goal on a Tuesday of the NFL Draft Combine was to not show your hand or not move forward with any sort of narratives that can be kind of construed, then they effectively did that today because you didn't really walk away with that feeling or getting a huge sense on where they're going with this. I think kind of like Daniil, like they're in a perfect

world for kevin o'connell like in a vacuum he'd probably just have kirk cousins back um because he there's less i mean some people would argue there's just as much risk involved but there's less risk involved i think from kevin o'connell standpoint getting a quarterback who's two years into the system and was playing well before he tore his Achilles. So I think if Kevin O'Connell had his way, he'd probably just run it back and see if the offense could keep running rather than bringing a guy off the streets or draft the guy. So I think Kevin probably wants Kirk back, but the fact that he didn't come out and straight up say that today, I think that is something that is maybe part of a negotiation tactic or part of uh let's just let this live right now until the

conversations are had um and then i think we'll get a little bit more clarity here um kind of moving forward i think we'll probably also get a little bit more clarity when when you and i and a few of the other beat writers talk to them on on Wednesday um it's kind of hard to get the context and into the nitty-gritty in these podium settings right because it's a question about Kirk and then it's a question about Gerard Mayo and then it's a question about Shane Steichen so you can't really dig in into um much of the nuance of where things stand um but yeah I think that's a great way of kind of encapsulating today is that no headlines were made probably because they didn't want to make any.

Right. I mean, just to tell you how it works is each coach has a podium set up and general manager and anybody can walk up to any of them and ask a question. So I could go to Andy Reed and be like, Hey, what do you think of the double A get blitz or something? If I want to, I mean, anybody can come up. It's a total free for all. So it's not just your usual press conference with a handful of us, because I want to ask about the trainer. I want to ask about Brian Flores, not getting a job. Like there are things that

we really need to speak with them about that is a better opportunity when we sit down and then we'll, you know, tell you guys the answers to all those questions in our articles and podcasts and so forth. But that's more of a like, let's get into the hardcore details. So it is the one that everybody sees though, podium. So if you have a quote that is real fire, it's going to get picked up pretty quick and it's going to get spread everywhere. And I think they were trying to avoid that. But here's my question for you though. Do you think that they know right now? Because I don't think they do. I did not get any hint of this decision has been made and we're just putting on a little bit of a show for you guys. I got much more of a, like, it seems like they're not there

yet with this decision because they need to know what Kirk side is going to want. And there was some of that indicated with Kweisi Adafo Mensah that he said, it's going to be a negotiation and we're going to have to figure that out. And then the other thing is too, that, and I agree with you that I think Kevin O'Connell wants Kirk Cousins back because it feels safer and he knows what he brings to the table. And if you're Kevin O'Connell and you weren't a great quarterback in your career and you see a guy that operates the offense like this and you believe in your X's and O's and you believe in Justin Jefferson, you think we can have a top five offense with this quarterback, then you're going to think, well, we should have this back because if the next kid can't figure this thing out, then I'm just going to be up a river, right? And so yet at the same time, when Kevin O'Connell talks about the prospects and analyzing them and meeting with them and what he's looking for, which he did talk quite a bit about. And he did drop in a little bit of a nugget. Now, I don't know if

he can actually do this or not, but he was talking about how you try to evaluate the player skills and then work to them. But then he also said, but how would they look in your system? And so, but you see him, you see him light up when he talks about this. I think the man absolutely loves quarterback evaluation. He loves coming to the combine. He loves sitting down with these guys and you could see him getting more sold throughout this week. Cause I think this week is really huge for this decision. That's why I ask if you think they've made it yet, because he's going to meet with these guys. guys they're gonna throw most of them uh the important ones for us are going to throw and then this kirk decision is still looming but they also don't know exactly what his side is going to come to the table with so or i could just be wrong and they may have already decided and they just aren't telling us i don't think they've made it because i don't think i don't think they know right. I don't think they've made it because I don't think they know. I don't think they can effectively make that decision

and saying we're going all in and we're going to make sure we get Kirk back because they don't know the price tag. And I think that's what this week is really big for, is aside from Kevin O'Connell and Kwesi and the entire staff getting to see Michael Penix Jr. throw and Bo Nix throw and JJ McCarthy throw and get to talk to them and do these interviews. And that's what I think a lot of people think of the draft combine as is like face to face interaction with these prospects. This week is

also big on talking to the agents figuring out what the heck it's going to cost to to bring the guy back. And that's it going to cost conversations. I think they have an idea of what it might. I think they definitely have an idea of what they're willing to do. But Kirk's agent, Mike McCartney, might come out and say, I got this big number. I talked to this team. I talked to the Atlanta Falcons, and they're willing to do this. I'd be a horrible negotiator because that's not how it's going to go. But I think this week is big on figuring out where both sides stand. So I don't think they can know possibly, at least with full confidence, which way they want to go yet, because there probably is a number that would make them say no we'll move on um and if that number is out there and that number is uttered um then they probably will move on and

and i think it is a good point about kevin o'connell almost warming up to the idea of like i could mold the quarterback in my system um i think when it's fresh during the season when he's seeing her cousins really grasp it and really sling it and look phenomenal against Green Bay Packers and then he's kind of having to deal with Josh Dobbs and the immediate regression we saw from him and then he's having to deal with Nick Mullins and the thousand interceptions he threw I think it's easy in that moment to say like I need Kirk back but I think when we've had now two months to kind of let the dust settle I think Kevin can probably see a little clearer too that there isn't just one option if it's not like if Kirk's gone I have

to play with with Josh Dobbs it's I'm sorry Josh Dobbs but if he never sees Josh Dobbs again he'd be fine yeah but it I think there was probably that binary way of thinking for a while when when kevin o'connell was at tcl performance center in egan till 2 a.m being like how the hell am i gonna make this work um there is another option if you move on from kirk cousins and it's not one where your offense doesn't function and i he didn't come out and say it because he was effusive in his praise for kirk cousins today but i you could kind of get the sense that like, maybe he would warm to the idea of going somewhere else. So don't think the decision's been made. I think it will probably not be fully made by the end of this week, but I think they will be a lot closer by the time they go back

to Minnesota than by the time they left yesterday. One thing I do know about the NFL in general that makes me wonder about where they stand is usually teams have to fully buy into a guy if they're going to spend a first-round pick on a quarterback. And this group has some real talents, but also some guys that there's a lot of debate over yeah uh if you even follow this is a funny thing about well players know this or players know that you follow former players on twitter and they give their opinions on quarterbacks and things like that there are some who have

watched bo nicks for example and love them and there are others who think that he was a check down artist or something which you know isn't statistically true but it doesn't matter uh because a lot of you know his passes came with screens and uh kevin o'connell not known for his screens at all uh but you know then there's you know someone like mccarthy who is more moldable and that might be intriguing to kevin o'connell and yet at the same time he brought up accuracy and talked about throwing throwing the football and said basically something like i want somebody who can and he didn't say exactly this so it's not a direct quote but it was like i want somebody who can throw it to any person in this room like right now that's not necessarily j.j mccarthy if you

watch his games i think he's pretty erratic sometimes with his accuracy, but Bo Nix isn't the sharpest. He threw to a lot of open receivers. Does Kevin O'Connell think, well, I've got a lot of open receivers, right? I mean, that does he need the processor, but something that was, uh, that did stand out quarterbacks that I want to bring up was Kwesi Duff. Lomento was asked about older players in college and he said it's kind of unprecedented because there's so many older players in college that it's hard to factor right back in the day it was draft a 20 21 or 22 year old now you might be drafting someone 23 or 24. and he discussed the athletic ceiling for a player where if they're 20 and we saw this from daniel hunter he got better he got stronger he was not at his athletic peak at 20 years old but then he added that with

quarterback he views it as different and he said that he viewed those years where the quarterback is older as kind of minor league years he said well we don't have a minor league system but if you're 24 then you got minor league years in a way we don't have a minor league system but if you're 24 then you got minor league years in a way where you could continue your development and that's where someone like michael pennix and someone like beau nix who have played longer it's being used as a real demerit against them but i don't really hear that from uh equestria flamenca and i don't hear that as much from people that i talk to because quarterback requires so much development. Guys don't peak usually a quarterback until like 27, 28 anyway.

And, you know, so maybe that's the way they view it is his third year in the league. He's hitting his peak of, you know, athletic performance and knowledge of the game. But that made me think of those two quarterbacks who have been a little bit critiqued for that that at least what he said did not sound like that is a problem for him yeah and probably for some teams maybe i'm making this up in my head but a 24 year old or a will be 24 year old next season quarterback would put them on their do not draft list or we're not interested because he's too old um so in that sense it is notable that quasey's basically said like that doesn't scare me away at all if anything he it almost helped that person because it in in some ways he he made it seem like that helped with their

development process right because when he talks about the minor leagues that's where certain guys and other leagues hone their skills and get ready for the big leagues they don't have that in in the nfl the only other way to maybe effectively do that at the quarterback position is to do what the packers did with jordan love and bring him in and sit him for two years three years behind a guy and then give him the reins and say go ahead and as we know now that worked out pretty well maybe you wouldn't do that with with a Bo Nix or a Michael Penix where maybe you wouldn't be willing to do the two years of rest because or the two years of waiting because by that time they're 26 so maybe if that's the thing they want to do or that's the route they want to go where they really do want to almost redshirt these guys

maybe then it does make more sense to in their eyes take a jj mccarthy but the way you heard quasey talk about those minor league years or however he actually framed it um it made it seem like bonix and michael pennix jr would be options for the vikings at 11 or maybe even further down the first round trading back in because it almost feels like maybe they'll be ahead of where other guys are just because they've had more reps in certain systems and other systems. With Michael Penix, he's played in two systems. He's played for Indiana and Washington, played very well with Washington last year,

Oregon for Bo Nix in Auburn early in his career. So these guys have seen different ways that offenses function that might help them as they acclimate to a new one in the NFL. So it is interesting because I think old equal bad, like even as soon as two, three, four years ago. And I don't think that's how people feel right now, but they also can't feel that because there are so many older prospects because of the covet years if you were drafting an edge rusher where it's purely athletic yes then that's a major factor if you're drafting a quarterback where it's so much mental i don't think it is um but you know may i mean maybe for some teams it was historically there's just not a lot to work with and quacey mentioned

that as well where there's just not you can't go back in time and go, well, here's all the 24 year old quarterbacks because there's just not that many. The most recent I could think of is Joe Burrow was a little on the older side. And that was a criticism of him. And it turned out that he was just NFL ready, but CJ Stroud was young and he was NFL ready to any, any path you try to take that like gives you the answer about a quarterback. It doesn't because there's always counter examples to just about everything. Uh, last thing I wanted to bring up, that was a main topic, unless you had something else that stuck out to you, Shane Steichen conversation. Sorry, that was a thing. Uh, but, um, the running backs. So

Quasey was asked about the running backs, talked about how he had expected at some point somebody to reset the market with a running back. The NFL has really kept that market down for the price tag this year. Saquon Barkley, Tony Pollard, Josh Jacobs, these guys are available, and Derrick Henry. Normally, that would not be the case. The fact that there's so many of them, and if they bring back Kirk, I think they have to really look into all of these guys as potential options, considering where the running game was. And you talk about not signing off on anybody as giving a big stamp of approval. That was the comment for both running backs. It was, oh, we really liked some of the things Ty Chandler did. And what was the backhand compliment for Madison? I think it was just, really liked some of the things ty chandler did and what was the backhand compliment for madison i think it was just well we like some things and uh but you know this free agent you know it was it was a very quick moving on from talking about madison naturally it was not a good year for him it just felt to me like there was no hey we love our running back room

we are good i also love that matthew berry was the guy who asked like the fantasy guy is just like can i get a little air should i be drafting ty chandler and uh i if i was a fantasy player or following matthew berry maybe i'll look for what he tweets about it or something but i would be like okay i'm not buying Ty Chandler. I'm not buying Alexander Madison. There's a good chance somebody else is this team's running back. That's what the vibe was to me when they were asked about the running game. How'd you feel about it? It seemed if we're just talking about the people in the room currently, there was not a lot of praise for either guy. There was more praise for Ty Chandler, which makes sense the way he closed the year.

Kevin O'Connell mentioned his finish to the year. Kweisi Adafamensa mentioned his finish to the year as well. If the Vikings do nothing at the running back position, Ty Chandler is going to be RB1. That's pretty clear by the way they kind of spoke about it today and just the way the facts played out last season. But I think if you, again, we're trying to analyze what they said today. And what Quasey said was basically that there are a lot of good running backs here and someone's going to reset the market at some point

and maybe it's this year, maybe it's not this year. But it didn't sound like he was opposed to being in those conversations because there's so many good ones right now. And if the running back market many good ones right now. And if the running back market is obviously down right now, these guys aren't getting these big contracts that obviously quarterbacks but that receivers are getting or edge rushers are getting I think Saquon signed for like a $10 million last year. Like that's like

a slot receiver now. it actually could be a good deal yeah if they if you think the guy could still play right so i i think he would entertain and he certainly made it seem like he would entertain the idea of bringing in maybe a saquon barkley and it sounds so crazy when you think about it because like not long ago running backs were viewed as very very valuable and like how the how the heck are the Vikings going to be able to afford Saquon Barkley when they also have to pay Justin Jefferson? Well, you can now because running backs aren't in high demand, at least in the sense where they have the leverage to ask for the moon and the stars. They don't anymore. So that's something I think people need to kind of reframe their thoughts on

is like, you actually might be in the market for a running back. Even if you think this guy's too expensive, he might no longer be. I think we have this thing in our brain that is this how we grew up. The league is, it was so heavy on running backs. These guys get paid. You, you graduate to a certain level and you make X amount of dollars after that sucks. I wouldn't make, if I had a son, I wouldn't make them a running back because they're not going to get the bag, like, like some of these other positions, but it's, it's not out of the realm of possibility for the Vikings to walk out of free agency with Saquon Barkley on the roster, Josh Jacobs on their roster, Derek Henry on the roster, not all three of them, but it is definitely a possibility.

And, and the only reason I think that, or the biggest reason I think that, is because they were not effusive in their praise of the guys they have currently. I don't know how you could be. I thought Chai Chan showed some flashes, and if they don't walk out of free agency with the Saquon Barkley, by no means am I going to say this offense is going to struggle. I think they're still going to be good, but if you can get a guy at a deal that can make you that much more dynamic and can give Kevin O'Connell that much more, you know, weapons in his arsenal, why not?

Um, I'm fascinated to see how this thing plays out. Cause there are so many good running backs this year and they all can't get paid. And maybe none of them will. So many running back contracts went bad that everyone is terrified of them now. But for someone, I mean, Saquon, always a problem is injuries. Yes.

Tony Pollard does not have a lot of mileage on that body, and there might be an opportunity there. And what we saw last year was a team that needed an identity, but also when the running back was more talented, they gained four and a half yards carry. And I don't think that Ty Chandler is the most talented running back in the world just was better than his predecessor. If you added somebody good, you need to be better than where they've stood in the screen game and definitely in the run game. And if they are going

to draft somebody, I mean, you need that either way, but if you are going to draft somebody, those things are really helpful to a young quarterback. It makes it very possible. And it just, it didn't seem like Casey was saying, well, you know, the analytics say don't get a running back, but the analytics have pushed and previous contracts. It's not just the numbers, but they've just pushed these guys down so much that if you sign, if one of them is 26 and usually the peak of a running back is through about 28, I mean, you might get a couple of years where you're in pretty good shape. So this would be a thing people would not expect to hear from Kwesi or me usually. But you just look, I mean, I wouldn't buy a 70 inch television, but if it's like 300 bucks, like, you know, like I might do it. Yeah. So, cause I can see 50 inches, but 70 is not that expensive. I think that makes sense. Anyway. So that's kind of the recap of what we heard at the podiums. Again, it was not

life-changing, but I think there was enough there to have moved the ball forward a bit in how we feel about where the Vikings stand in a bunch of different things. Our sit down with the head coach and GM tomorrow should be even more enlightening and we'll have reactions and some quotes and things that they said from that in another podcast. So thanks everybody for watching

from the Indiana Convention Center, watching slash listening. We'll catch you very soon. Very soon. Lots of soon. Lots of stuff to come. All sorts of football.