Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Reacting to Minnesota Vikings NFL Draft Day 2

Episode Date: April 26, 2025

Matthew Coller reacts to Day 2 of the NFL draft and the Vikings' pick.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

All right, the here we go, the Minnesota Vikings, according to Alec Lewis, are taking Ty Felton, a wide receiver. We did it, folks. We did it. We bullied the Minnesota Vikings into taking a wide receiver. We did it. We convinced them to take the wide receiver Ty Felton of the Maryland Terrapins. How about this? Last year, crazy productive wide receiver, 96 receptions, 1100 yards, nine touchdowns. And the year before he had 15 yards a catch, this guy was getting the football thrown his way.

And yet we did it. We got our wide receiver. We fought the battle. We waved the flag. And we fought the whole time to get the Minnesota Vikings to take a wide receiver. It just took the third round instead of the first. But look, it makes a lot of sense.

And here's why. Well, number one, of course, production is always the best indicator of what is going to transfer over into the NFL. And Ty Felton from Maryland, you don't get much more productive than that. Here's another thing I like about Ty Felton. He played inside and outside.

He played 151 snaps as a slot and 364 as an outside wide receiver. I will read you the PFF report on him in just a moment, but in the context of the entire roster, think about the wide receiver position right now. You have Jefferson under contract longterm, but Jordan Addison has two years left on his deal and it may end up being very, very expensive to keep him someday. So you have a chance to develop a Ty Felton, but also Jalen Naylor is in the final year of his contract.

And what we have seen from the wide receiver position is that even average wide receivers who get 30 to 40 catches a year will make $10 million. And I don't think the Vikings really want to pay three wide receivers an excessive amount. So you have to have the next man up. There is also a potential Jordan Addison suspension. You're looking for more depth there

and players get injured at this position. You can't just have someone go down and have an empty slot there where there's no one to fill in and take the next step. So Felton is as Aaron notes, very, very, very explosive, extremely fast, high relative athletic score, high production. This is somebody who probably deserved even more love

during the draft process as a potential receiver with some upside who can move around a little as well. I mean, naturally, this is an A from the Purple Insider evaluator sitting here. I mean, this is what I was looking for them to do. I didn't think it was realistic that they would spend a first round pick on any of those wide receivers. But I do think that this is a great selection because the gap

between the guys who were taken in the first who are projected as being kind of wide receiver too, and even in the second and third round, I don't think it's that big. Now Birden of course is very, very talented, but aside from him, even a Matthew Golden, a speedster who has some questionable production and the vikings get a speedster with a ton of production in a good conference in the big ten and i saw felton play a couple of times just i've been says that brogler calls me natural field stretcher you know we sounds a lot like is Jalen Naylor. And the fact that he played inside and out, it gives you competition for Naylor, it gives you depth and it gives you a future player

to develop that if he really clicks, you could be talking about maybe not giving an extension to Jordan Addison and saving that money or just having a three deep of three really good wide receivers. And let's take a look at these two draft picks the Vikings have gotten on the first two days. Donovan Jackson.

What's the bottom line on Donovan Jackson? He helps JJ McCarthy. Now Ty Felton. What is the bottom line on Ty Felton? He helps JJ McCarthy. I said at the beginning of the draft that anybody that they pick who helps JJ McCarthy is a great pick by me. And I'm definitely staying with that here that to give him a deep potential option along

with maybe an explosive player who has lined up in the slot before is I think a very, very smart decision. And I see some of you wanted to go on defense while they can do that tomorrow if they want the defensive players, I think versus a wide receiver. When we compare the potential impact, a rotational run stuffing defensive tackle is not that hard versus a wide receiver when we compare the potential impact a

rotational run stuffing defensive tackle is not that hard to find the Vikings had two of them last year in Jerry Tillery and Jonathan Bullard and they got them for like four million bucks total and Then a safety they already have j-ward developing they have Theo Jackson developing Those players are not that hard to find either. Even cornerbacks, the Vikings have gone into free agency. Last year, they got two starters in free agency in Shaq Griffin and Stefan Gilmore. They've already signed Isaiah Rogers and getting a starting corner late in the third

is pretty tough to ask for anyway. That's gonna be a development player that they could try to get later on in this draft. And I think some of the safeties, if you weren't doing, uh, the Xavier Watts thing, because he was already taken, then well, uh, you end up in a position where you're probably not getting a game changing safety at this position either. So all these guys that you're looking at are either lower impact rotational players like

a rotational corner or a developing safety, which you can still get on day three or a run stuffing defensive tackle who are everywhere or a running back that you can find whenever you want to all those players where they differentiate from a wide receiver is that you can put in that wide receiver in any type of role and have him catch if he catches 25 balls this year, that's good contribution from that position. And if he becomes more because he has a higher athletic ceiling and didn't exactly play at the premier passing College in the NCAA, right? I mean this guy

It's not like Maryland was crazy I mean, maybe if you went to Maryland you could tell me if I'm wrong But I don't think they're necessarily thought of as being a premier type of team in passing and he had 96 receptions Another thing too is I really was looking for the yards after catch premier type of team in passing and he had 96 receptions. Another thing too, is I really was looking for the yards after catch. I can, the guy have some explosiveness on quick throws and here is a great stat for Ty Felton. He caught, uh, 31 screen passes and broke 26 tackles. So he was a tackle breaker as kind of a poor man's Luther

burden for Maryland. He was projected at number 75. Okay. Wow. Then they didn't reach and we don't have to have that conversation. I guess do we, but this is the type of role that I think the Vikings were really missing. Somebody that they could just get the football into his hands and make plays and a sub 4-4

and over 1100 yards receiving in college is very enticing to me because you have two wide receivers that are so dynamic down the field in the intermediate areas. Think about the amount of attention that gets drawn to Justin Jefferson on a weekly basis. If Ty Felton can get open underneath with his explosiveness and speed, if he can even do that, and there's no guarantee for anybody that they can play as a third rounder. But even if he has the relative ability to break some tackles and create some yards after catch, he can immediately step in and be a potential weapon for the Vikings. And once again, we are talking about an immediate impact type of player,

which is what the Vikings are looking for. They're looking for that type of guy as they were with Donovan Jackson, who can step in and help JJ McCarthy right away. So the fact that Felton has the athleticism of, as some of you have mentioned, the relative athletic score in the 96 percentile to go along with a depth option when Addison is out for his suspension to potentially down the road if he really hits it as a home run down the road could be a wide

receiver to option. Um, mentioning that his weight may have been somewhat of a concern. I think after Jordan Addison success, we all kind of go, does it really matter what his weight is? And here's another part too. Guys, if you watch the show all the time, you know that I'm a hat guy, but if you're wearing hats to cover up for your hair loss, then I've got something that can help you. It's called HIMS.

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and important safety information. That when it comes to the wide receiver room in general, this doesn't have to mean that Jalen Naylor is out or not a part of this. Jalen Naylor can still be a part of it. It's really that you have more options and that's what I felt like the Vikings were missing last year is options. I don't think that they had a dynamic wide receiver room. They had the best receiver in the NFL who goes downfield a lot. And then they had another

wide receiver in Jordan Addison who was roasting man-to-man coverage and he can go down the field a lot. But then it was the same type of wide receiver in Jalen Naylor. And how often can you think of five times where Jalen Naylor got the ball in his hands and then made a play? Cause I can't, I think of Jalen Naylor as a handful of really good catches down the field, but not going underneath the way that a tie Felton has so far in his career. the way that Ty Felton has so far in his career. So adding a more dynamic element

to the wide receiver room if he works out. And even, and the thing is too, when you are a receiver that can get yards after catch, the barrier to entry of having a role in the offense, and I haven't even mentioned Rondale Moore who could be another part of this as well, but the barrier of entry of just having a type of role mixing in making a play here or there. It's maybe the type of KJ Osborne role at first when he burst down the scene in 2021 where they were throwing a little bit underneath to him and he was making plays with the football in his hands.

And there is a connection. I don't know how much of the Maryland coaching staff is still there from when Keenan McCardell was a coach there, but there is that connection. And you know that they let Keenan McCardell pick his guys when it comes to the wide receiver position. And who is better at this Than Keenan McArdle the guy who is essentially handpicked by Justin Jefferson to stay on the coaching staff

Developed KJ Osborne Developed Jordan Addison develop Jaylen Naylor to the point where he could be a quality receiver if he is Responsible for picking Ty Felton, which I assume he is hugely involved with, then right away there's some benefit of the doubt that goes to a man who has been really really good at developing wide receivers. So it's exciting for this here podcast because we pounded the drum so much through this, draft a wide receiver, get another one of those guys because you have to draft them you Can't go into free agency and look for wide receivers unless you're going bottom barrel The only way to get them is to trade for an angry one

Which usually you don't want to do and look we were having the Cooper Cup conversation should they go get Cooper Cup? Look what that would have cost to go get someone like Cooper Cup. They're not easy to find, but if you get one that is really good, then you're talking about it's worth its weight in gold. So let me take a deep breath real quick. I got a dyed Dr. Pepper over here, and then we'll do some reading, okay?

Now there is a part of me that wants to, because I've been heckling the Vikings over this wide receiver thing, get onto the zoom and ask the first question, but, um, that'll, that'll be okay. But if anybody is, uh, is checking in on that, I'll be interested in what they say about this wide receiver position. Let's do, uh, let's do some light reading here. This is from PFF and their analysis of Ty Felton.

I assume Trevor Sikama of PFF wrote this says, Felton is a former three star recruit who contributed to Maryland's offense from his true freshmen season until his senior campaign has a lot of experience. 2024 was his true freshman season until his senior campaign has a lot of experience, 2024 was his most productive season. Felton has decent length and height for the position, but is on the smaller side at just under 190 pounds. His solid receiving production from 2024 hinged on hitches and screen passes versus off coverage. As a route runner, he lacks nuance to really attack defenders leverage or set them up to create separation at the breakpoint. Felton also seems to lack flexibility and true change of direction ability to be a top tier route runner. His overall

catch and contested catch rates are lower than ideal, which does not bode well for him as a below average separator. He doesn't have a ton of experience versus press and struggles to get free against press man coverage. As a blocker, his lack of weight limits his efficiency. And then they add this, Belton was a featured wide out in Maryland's offense, averaging 2.32 yards per route run, which is good, 63rd percentile, but lacks true difference making qualities to be more than a late round flyer and depth receiver in the NFL.

So PFF analysis, not crazy high on Ty Felton, but what I think, and I agree with you Stanley, that blocking, blocking is not just technique, it's will. Does he actually want to block is usually what it comes down to but I guess so brogler had nicer things to say. So I guess I need to check that out. Thank you so much to Wade here for the super chat really

appreciate that. I get a wide receiver. I learned about Leonardo DiCatio. Yeah, that's right. If you missed that, I did ask Donovan Jackson about his cat today and we learned that its name was Leonardo DiCatio and that is definitely a win for the day.

Should they have gone with the other guys? That, I mean, here's the thing about the other receivers, Jalen Royals, the other receivers, Keenan McCardell would have had his pick, right? And I think I just would like them to go with whichever guy that Keenan McCardell thought would be the best one that they could develop. When I read that, now I'll call up the beast here from Dame Bruegler, if I could get it up, uh, or NFL.com and we'll see what they had to say about it. When I read that now I'll call up the beast here from dame Bruegler if I could get it up

Uh or nfl.com and we'll see what they had to say about it. Maybe we'll go to nfl.com And see what they have to say about Ty Felton But here's what I like about it is the fit In terms of they're not asking Ty Felton to be an unbelievable separator They're going to ask Ty Felton to be an unbelievable separator, they're going to ask Ty Felton to be a playmaker. And that's a difference, right? So here's what Lance Zierlein had to say about Ty Felton. A tall, slender whiteout whose impressive 2024 production appears to be more of a function of target volume

than projectable talent. Felton is a linear route runner who will struggle with tight press and physical man coverage inside the route. He can build speed inside long strides and has proven he can make tacklers miss, creating chunk plays on possession throws. He lacks functional strength and rarely owns the catch space when contested.

He has a backup potential, but could compete for a role as a gunner early on. So what the NFL.com and PFF seems to be similar is they are questioning his ability to separate and to win man coverage and to beat corners in contested catch situations. And the way I look at it for at least the immediate is that doesn't sound like what Felton is going to be asked to do. It sounds like what Felton will be asked to do is similar to what he did in college, where he was one of the leaders in broken tackles. That to me screams, shifteness,

quickness, speed and playmaking ability with the football in his hands. They mentioned a gunner, maybe there's punt return potential that I think that the playmaking is really the key here for Ty Felton. But I will say, see it's really hard with something like this because to question and to rip apart because the difference between one prospect

to the next in the third round, I mean, we're going to be talking about nitpicking here between well, you know, this guy was known as a better blocker and that's the guy from Stanford or, you know, Royals from Utah state. He graded very similarly by PFF. And right away when I read his report, it says, let may lack difference making athleticism. So every guy that you take around this area, you're going to see that, well, it doesn't look like you could be a superstar because he's being drafted at the back end of the third round. But when you already have your megastar player in Justin Jefferson, you're not looking for

Ty Felton to be a megastar type player. Uh, and you guys are talking about gadget guys, but gadget guys are good as, as contributors. And I don't know why this comes to mind, but like somebody I was texting back and forth the other day about David Palmer and I, for whatever reason, remember David Palmer very favorably because I played with him on Madden all the time, but something like a David Palmer role in the offense, and there must have been someone more recent than that, like a Jerry is right or something. Those players, they matter, right? Where did digs great? I don't think it's fair to make a comparison of Stefan digs who went from a

fifth rounder at Maryland to being one of the best wide receivers in the NFL. I think that's a little bit high of a bar, but he was a fifth rounder and we have seen the Vikings develop guys who were drafted later than this. Nobody really knows until the guys get on the field what it's going to look like. But from a process perspective, to me drafting a wide receiver was the right move. And if we, and I like Savion Williams a lot, I would have liked Savion Williams. He ends up going to Green Bay before the Vikings are there. But I just look at it as the right position and the right profile of somebody

who has the speed to potentially be a difference maker, the quickness to break tackles in college football, the production, his grades are good, his yards per route run are good. So the numbers go along with it and then somebody who could fit in so espn had him 77th and that just goes for how it is in the third round where you might have a Pff that doesn't like them at all an nfl.com That's lukewarm and an espn that loves them and and maybe the athletic loves him. That's third round prospects for you So if they decided they looked at all these wide receivers,

they want another weapon for JJ McCarthy, they want some depth for the future. Then this was the guy they landed on with Keenan McCardell, presumably influencing that decision. That's that's great. That's great, because McCardell, I think, has a really great sense for what guys can do and I mean I'm almost sitting here thinking like who didn't work out that they've brought in as long as Keenan McCardell has been here

Because they've been able to develop Everybody with a plan and Ty Felton gets to come into a room that has a lot of terrific wide receivers Just be a guy in the room. They're not drafting somebody to say, well, you have to be this big superstar right away, you've got to take over this team and be wide receiver one. No, no. There we're talking about someone who fits into a role that if they get 30 catches and gain 350 yards,

a couple of touchdowns or something, that's a good start for someone like Ty Felton. And Rondell Moore is a part of this too. Its numbers at that position is a good idea. These are good dice rolls where the run stuffing DT, you can get tomorrow. The safety, you can get tomorrow. Like clearly, that's one thing,

by the way, if we look at just bigger picture, uh, safety is still not valued by the NFL. In fact, safety may be valued last by the NFL among all positions because Malachi Starks barely was taken in the first. Nikki Manwari dropped out of the first into the second round and then Xavier Watts who had what like seven picks or something, he was just taken right before the Vikings. And that means and uh, Mokuba went a little earlier. I think he's got some slot potential, but that means that when you look into tomorrow, there's fifth rounders who can profile as a development

safety as a run stuffing DT as a development corner that are probably not a lot different from this. I think wide receivers are ones that you want to invest a little bit more on. So here we are as the Vikings grab a wide receiver. And now if we look at the entirety of the depth chart where could they go? Running back, Brichard Smith is somebody that you guys are bringing up. I'm actually quite surprised that Jack Sawyer has not been taken anywhere and might just drop so

far that the Vikings have to look at it. Randall, I think you make a good point that guards are valued more now. Seeing three guards go in the first and then a couple of more. That's a good point that even Tate Ratledge was drafted higher than a lot of them are. And Randall, thank you for this work. Grabbing from Dane Bruegler. Felton has the explosive speed to be a weapon in the quick game and downfield, which gives him NFL starting potential as a Z wide receiver.

We don't, we don't slander Chad Bebe is funny. Trapasso giving it an A minus. Well Trapasso and I have talked a lot over the last few weeks on the show just about wide receiver and how important it is. But yet no good point Wade that Billy Bowmanman, Jaylen read these safeties are still available and the undrafted free agent market is going to have some surprises for us. So I could not ask for the Vikings to do anything better than improve their draft capital a little bit from a day three and move up in a trade back and still

grab a wide receiver that they like. And I will just plant the flag always in forever that when you have a quarterback like JJ McCarthy, who you are trying to develop on the fly, as you have a win now roster around him, that you don't want to mess around with the wide receiver position. that you don't want to mess around with the wide receiver position and you don't have to look any farther than the San Francisco 49ers for example the 49ers when Brandon Iuke and Debo Samuel are healthy Man Brock Purdy looks great. But then last year you know some issues with Iuke then the injury and Debo Samuel seem banged up or unhappy and all the sudden the quarterback is not the same and this is not a veteran quarterback who has

been around like Joe burrow or something of course he has the best receivers as well but this is a second year quarterback who needs as many options as he can get but also options that make things easy that's what I like about Felton and his profile. It looks to me like he makes things easy. Get Kang, you said you just watched Felton's highlights. So tell me what you think. I did have him circled somewhere, maybe in the draft guide as somebody

that stuck out to me for the production. I may have even had him as an analytics guy, cause I liked that. So what did you think? Those of you who are going to the highlights, what did you think? Fills the role of, uh, aggressive yards after catch guy. That's what I'm looking for. That's what I'm looking for.

Does not break away from the first tackle or once in his highlights. That doesn't make sense with the numbers where he was one of the top in all of college football when it came to broken tackles, uh, per PFF, he was eighth in all of college football among wide receivers in broken tackles, but he doesn't look like a deep receiver for somebody with his speed. He only had eight deep catches all year. That was 97th, uh, in college football. So he was not a deep wide receiver for them that also could maybe deal with, uh,

just the quarterback play and their offense. But this is a underneath playmaking type wide receiver. And when you talk about all the different things that they can do with a playmaking wide receiver, that space underneath, it was underutilized last year. And I also look at the way that JJ McCarthy, now I'm only judging this, only judging this from training camp last year. So I got to stretch a little because we only saw one preseason game and just training camp. But stretch a little because we only saw one preseason game and just training camp. But what I thought from watching JJ McCarthy and camp last year was that he was

very comfortable on underneath type of throws. So guys coming over the middle, I think he saw the field much better than Sam Darnold in that underneath intermediate area. And if you're looking for deep posts going down the field from, and Jerry's right, might be a really good comparison. If you're talking about deep posts down the field and go routes and things from Justin Jefferson and Jordan Addison,

if there is somebody there who can catch a five yard pass and turn it into 15 because he's quick, maybe goes back and returns punts. I don't know if that's something he did in college or maybe he's a kick returner or maybe he's a gunner or something as a contributor. But if there's potential also, because we are talking about somebody who played at Maryland with not favorable quarterbacks or offenses that maybe there is potential to grow, put on weight, learn a little bit more from these wide receivers that he's going to play with in Justin Jefferson and Jordan Addison.

So I think he's a good fit for the quarterback, for the offense, for the depth chart, all of those things with the potential to catch a handful of passes that make a difference. And then if something happens to another one in front of him, move up in that depth chart, and they have someone that they drafted in the top three rounds.

And for that reason, I like it. I like it a lot. As far as candy catch, let's see, you had eight drops in 143 targets last year. That's a pretty low drop percentage. And that's the best I can do. He graded well as far as his receiving grade 80.2 by PFF. The biggest issue seems to be for Ty Felton

that he's not big and he's probably not your blocker is not your trench sure field and it doesn't look like he's going to be a jump ball artist it looks like if you're going to go down the field to him he better be wide open if he's going to get it because he's not going to moss people this is not randy moss but he is fairly tall i can be block i don think so. I am also not that concerned about whether he can block or not Oh, we got a good wolves and Lakers game going. Hey, yeah, you're right I probably should turn on the game at this point Although I wasn't planning on talking all night about the third round wide receiver So I I was going to keep this live stream a little shorter than yesterday. So how about this? when it comes to going to keep this live stream a little shorter than yesterday. So how about this? Uh, when it comes to Ty Felton and you read everything that we've read here immediately, it looks to me like he fits a certain stereotype of a wide receiver.

That he is not going to be somebody that you're asking to be Jordan Addison or Justin Jefferson. Those guys are players that are taken in the first round. This is more of a type of wide receiver that's a role player, but role playing wide receivers are valuable. And we saw multiple roleplaying wide receivers this year. Josh Palmer, Tutu Atwell, these guys make $10 million. So if you end up getting a 30-catch wide receiver who makes plays with the football in his hands,

it's worth 10 million bucks. And in surplus value, that's pretty good. Maybe he has a cat too. Yeah, we'll have to ask him that. We'll definitely have to good. Maybe he has a cat too. Yeah, we'll have to ask him that. We'll definitely have to find out if he has a cat too. So he said, one of you said that he loves playing special teams. Sorry, who said that? Susan said that he loves playing special teams,

willing to go play Gunner, and they need one of those. They do need one of those with Trent Sherfield signing elsewhere. And he's, he is six foot two. So there might be some room for him to put, he's not like a Brandon Powell. He is six foot two. So he is a little bit on the bigger side than someone like that. But I'm not looking for the next Jordan Addison or a superstar, but if he does develop some of these skills that they say he doesn't have, because he's with an NFL team and a great wide receivers coach and great wide receivers.

That is also possible as well that he has the raw athleticism to grow into something more than expected. And with, uh, also injuries and Jordan Addison, a possible suspension, adding up more wide receivers into this room and taking more shots at it with Rondale Moore and now with Felton, it makes a lot of sense. And then when you go into the next round, you can grab a couple of the type of defensive project players or depth players that you're looking for, but, uh, somebody who can make a difference at a sub four, four, um, you know, Sean calling it a luxury pick.

No, no, I, I don't think, I don't think of it that way. I don't think of a wide receiver as a luxury pick. The big thing that sticks out in my mind with wide receiver is the fact that you just can't get them. You have to get them through the draft. It's not a luxury, it's a must. You have to draft wide receivers. And as we look at the short and long term of it,

go into free agency, who are you going to get that has this kind of profile for cheap that you don't have to spend on because you're spending so much on other positions? Well, I just named some of the wide receiver three types that end up making $10 million. Well, you don't want to pay that for Jalen Naylor in the future.

And I mean, Naylor is a different type of player as well. I mean, Naylor is a pure downfield receiver, not the underneath guy. So there's the options as well. But even your solid role player is actually hard to find when it comes to free agency for any type of reasonable dollar. The only guys that go cheap are ones with serious issues, injuries or problems with their coaches and teammates and quarterbacks.

That's why you have to get them in the draft. And when it comes to certain positions, I think you absolutely have to get them in the first round. Defensive tackle is one of them. Offensive tackle. Good luck finding better guys in the later rounds. But wide receiver is a position that pretty consistently will pop from a second, third or fourth round. We see that all the time. I'm in Ross, St.

Brown and so forth. Uh, he has near a 40 inch vertical. Why they got a heck of an athlete here. It's not like they came short on the athleticism. So I am the one that has been making the argument though. So let me leave it with this with you guys. If you want to throw it in the chat, the argument though. So let me leave it with this with you guys. If you want to throw it in the chat, give me a B C D F for this tie Felton pick and the overall handling of the second round, which they moved down, sorry, the second day where they moved down a little bit and end up still taking a Felton

his 10 yard split. You guys are just digging up every bit of information. You're like my own research team 1.51 10 yard split. I mean the guy is fast as heck, right? So that's that's what I look at is the fact that they could get someone with speed upside athleticism and Can play a role right away, but also potential in the long term and can play a role right away, but also potential in the long term. So here we go with your grades. We got a minus from Aaron B plus from Pannucci. C minus from Stephen, not a big fan of this one from him.

We got an A from Crachos. Sorry if I'm pronouncing any of your names wrong. B from Rain Valor, C from Brian Kay, B plus from Gitt Kang, a couple of A's here from Ken and Jar Blon, C from Casey, A minus from CJ Ham is the man, Lucas Steve given C's. So you guys are a little bit all over the board here.

Edwin an A, Aaron an A, JP North a C minus. It seems like, you know, Stephen, you mentioned that contested catch rate, but here's my thing. This just isn't that type of receiver receivers have types. They have different roles that they play around the NFL. They have the two best or two of the best in the entire NFL wide receivers at going up and getting the football. If you're looking for jump balls and also how many thing also riddle me this when we talk about the contested catch rate and look, if you're talking about Justin Jefferson, he's going to have a high percentage of contested

catches. But how many did Jalen Naylor have last year? How many contested catches do role players usually have for a percentage of their actual receptions? I can get this number for you. I'm gonna guess it's not that many. I'm gonna guess that Jalen Naylor was not asked to make a lot of contested catches. Let's find out. Let's see. Last year, five. Out of 47 targets, five of Jalen Naylor's were contest contested the guy who's making contested catches is the guy who's double-teamed okay lots of a minus is coming in a

couple of bees a from Rob I know Rob is big into the draft we got an a from Gattano's Christmas Channel I mean that's all Merry Christmas to you then for this draft that Carl with the B plus. Joe says the 33rd team had felt in as a third round value. Wouldn't call it a reach. No, I don't think it's a reach. I think it's right around the same. John hates it is giving it a D minus.

So Jacob says I grade all grades under B as an F. OK, I don't really get that. Maybe maybe I needed to go to the same grade school as you for, okay. I don't really get that. Maybe I needed to go to the same grade school as you for that. Nick says it's an A, a B plus from OMG Gerald. So a lot of different types of grades coming in, solid B, A minus.

I think if I took the entire aggregate of all of your grades, it would probably land somewhere in the B area. Now I'm going to like it more. Steven, contested catch rates? No, for a wide receiver three, I really don't think that it's a good way of grading a wide receiver when Jalen Naylor

had five out of his 47 targets. And you know, you mentioned Jerry's right. I can look up what percentage of Jerry's rights catches were contested. I'm gonna guess that it probably wasn't that many. I mean, if we go back and look at Jerry's right, I got these numbers. Here we go.

They started keeping track of this stat in 2017. Six of Jerry's rights targets were contested. Eight when he played the next year with Carolina and had 57 targets. So when he had 33, six of them were contested. I'm not saying it means nothing. I'm saying that I would not grade this wide receiver in this role as being someone where I am thinking about contested catches.

He's much more of a get the football in his hands guy and also can stretch the field with his pure speed. But do you expect him to be shaken and bacon people off the line? Probably not. That's just not who he's likely to be. But, uh, one of you mentioned, let me see who said it, uh, Don or Donnie, sorry, Donnie says, watch this highlights. He is a kick returner too. And when you think about also this year, the fact that, uh, the NFL is really pushing for the kick return to come back. I mean, when now you're talking about kicking out of the back of the end zone, you get the ball at the 35 yard line.

Like teams are going to allow for kick returns. You might need a kick returner too in Ty Felton. So if you got, let's just say, let's just say best case scenario out of Ty Felton. Let's just say he ends up being a kick returner, a punt gunner, and he catches, let's say he has the Jerry's right package, 33 targets, what did he have for catches that year? 24 receptions for 300 yards, a couple of touchdowns, and he is a quick option for JJ McCarthy with potential upside because he's a really good athlete.

Is that worth a third round, 102nd overall pick? I think so. I mean, if you guys see on the board, some superstars that are still there, please let me know. I don't, maybe there will be some that end up surprising us, but I think when you're looking at third round type of picks, late third round comp picks,

you are talking about guys who play different roles and fit into the mix with development potential. So that's why and look, I admit it, I campaigned for this. So if I was the one talking about this entire time, this is what I want the Vikings to do, then of course I'm going to like it but i do like some aspects of his game the underneath part. Add jerry's right was a similar type of pic the underneath part of his game. The explosive part of his game the special teams element. of his game, the special teams element, and the growth potential because of athleticism, that's just going to check a lot of boxes. So that's how I view the Ty Felton pick. I'm going to give

it an A. I can't give it anything less when this position is so important to JJ McCarthy's success. Any player that you add is going to be good with me. So here's what I'm gonna do. Let's go through some options for tomorrow and then probably wrap it up for the night because I want to write about Ty Felton and maybe I can catch the end of this Wolves game. Can somebody give me scores for the Wolves game here? I haven't turned it on because I've just wanted to be focused on what we're talking about but I'm interested in the score if someone will do that for me. So let's take a look at who's going to be there for tomorrow.

And look, this draft overall, you got two picks. You're the Vikings. Would it be better if they had eight guys? Of course. But they used two picks on guys who helped JJ McCarthy be a better version of JJ McCarthy Gonna be pretty hard for me to be upset about that. So let's go through a nine Oh, okay wolves with a 95 to 90 lead. All right heck of a series we got going here So let's go back and take a look at who's going to be on the board for tomorrow and who the

Vikings might be able to pick. So let's go through, okay, let me get the mock draft simulators, the best way to do this, through seven rounds and we'll take a look. 97-90 now, Wolves. Beautiful. And shout out, by the way, to all of you wonderful people who are watching the Wolves game and listening to the analysis of the Vikings draft pick when they had one selection in day two. Yes, Dwayne, that's exactly what I'm doing. I'm running a mock here to take a look at the different scenarios for tomorrow.

Hopefully they've got the picks put in correctly. And let me, why not? We'll just screen share this mock draft simulator so you all can look at it so let's take a look at and we'll bring me into the bottom corner here let's take a look at what positions we might be interested in at 139 so of course you know it's gonna simulate all these picks of these good players still on the board, uh, that are here. All and cam scataboo, uh, Jaylen Royals is one that I thought they might take with this position, but Jack Sawyer, CJ West, Jordan Phillips, we can kind of

expect a lot of these guys to come off the board. Elijah Roberts is an edge rusher from SMU. Lathan Ransom I am still very interested in from Ohio State. Dorian Strong is a corner from Virginia Tech. These are guys that the simulator expects to come off the board. I know you guys love tight end. Gunner Helm I'm somewhat interested in. He looks like he might go in this simulation. RJ Mickens a safety from Clemson is also projected to go. Ty Robinson, defensive tackle from Nebraska, who had a great combine. Billy Bowman was mentioned earlier. Tyler Batty, they had in for a visit. He's the edge rusher from BYU. So these are the,

I'm naming the guys now who are expected to go by the PFF simulator. That doesn't mean they will, but those are just some of the guys that could be off the board so in this version of The simulation let's look at the positions here if we go to corner first Zai Alexander from LSU is the one that jumps out to me first, but Mello Dotson Robert Langerbeam would be an amazing pick just for that name The number longer beam would be an amazing pick just for that name. Also, Quincy Riley stood out at the senior bowl and this is one of my favorite guys, O'Donnell Fortune from South Carolina.

One of my favorite guys has crazy numbers, 90 PFF grade, great man coverage, great in zone. So O'Donnell Fortune, the cornerback from South Carolina, possibly a name to take a look at. So that's some good talent. Interior defensive line. This is just in this simulation. So there are more players that are available on the board right now, but just who's expected to be there in this simulation, Josh Farmer and Aneas Peebles, two interesting defensive

tackles. Uh, also, I don't know how to pronounce his name. The guy from Ole Miss that played running back, is it Pugue's Pugue? I don't know how to name it, but Dion Walker not being drafted yet. Riley Mills also from Notre Dame not being drafted yet. Tonka Hemingway, good defensive tackles. Dion Walker must have made a very poor impression at the NFL Combine because that guy was considered

to be really a top prospect going into this. Let's take a look at running back. Now, in terms of the simulation, Scadaboo goes pretty early, so does Dylan Sampson. I expect a run on running backs here. Tomorrow, pretty early in the fourth round, Devin Neal and the simulator is also thinking that. But even that leaves JarQuest Hunter,

Brishad Smith, Trevor Etienne. They had Kaleel Mullings in for a visit. Jaden Blue, another guy from Texas. I think the bottom line here, guys. And did I click safety safety? Jalen Reed from Penn State. There's is it Melikai Moore from Alabama is another one that I recognize his name.

Some talent on the board there. So I think the bottom line and you could tell me if you've got your your favorite prospect there Whoever you want if you want to throw into the comments, what is it? Pegis Oh Pegis JJ Pegis. Okay. I remember seeing him running the football, but I didn't really think about him as a Vikings option Brian says Walker will be a bust. Well if he's picked in the fifth round and he does anything he's not a bust, right? I mean I think with Walker At what point does it just become worth it? He must have had a bad impression whether it was from a physical

perspective or if it was Something that teams didn't like about his personality. Okay, five minutes left and the Wolves are winning. All right, I may need to about his personality. Okay, five minutes left and the wolves are winning. All right. I may need to check out to go watch the end of that game. Plus there's not a whole heck of a lot left to say about one wide receiver that we haven't said in an hour and 20 minutes. But my point is there's a lot of options. Oh yeah. Casey mentions linebackers. Uh, Danny Stutman is the, is the guy from Iowa taken? Let me see. The guy from, uh, did he get to Jay Higgins? Jay Higgins from Iowa is a favorite target of mine. Really good numbers in coverage. 91.5 coverage grade.

I have my eyes on him. Lots of good options. Lots of good options for tomorrow. CJ West, a very realistic possibility. Pegis could be a run defender, something CJ, he could be the next CJ Ham. That's a good point. And UDF face and you're right, uh, jaker that they will spend big on UDF phase. We know that, that that might be the first time in history that we're actually going to have a An emergency podcast or a reaction to the UDF a class

I've never done that before but it feels like I might actually have to have a serious reaction to that Because they are going to spend big time when it comes to the UDF. So I think the six, seven, three, 40 is a bust. I mean, if he could do anything, I think even just for the upside, you take the swing at somebody like Deion Walker, unless you think that he's gonna have major issues physically, or if there's some red flag there, but this guy can move in a very unique way

that still, uh, should have him as a top five round prospect. But just to put a nice little bow on today. Well, one, I didn't even get a chance to talk about this because we jumped right into the fire here to discuss, uh, Ty Felton and celebrate a wide receiver. But we had a chance to talk with Donovan Jackson today. And I gotta tell ya, everything that I expected from Donovan Jackson,

although I didn't go in thinking I was gonna ask about his cat, but I thought I might as well since it went viral. But everything that we heard or read about Donovan Jackson, about his personality, what a good communicator he is, the attitude that he brings to a team was really on display at today's press conference. And last night there were debates and there always will be, there always should be debates about the, uh, draft pick, no matter who it is.

Like that's what we do here, right? We have fun, we have a conversation and go back and forth and state our cases. So some people felt like the Vikings should have taken a draft compensation trades for another team to move up and they should have dropped back as opposed to taking Jackson. And I fully understand that.

And if they could have gotten a future first from Atlanta, then maybe they should have. Right. But when you stand in front or sit in front of Donovan Jackson and listen to him talk, you really get it because the main thing that we discussed with Donovan Jackson was the fact that he discussed with Donovan Jackson was the fact that he moved from guard to tackle in the middle of the season having never practiced whatsoever at tackle and something that I really didn't realize

that he took us behind the curtain with was that the coaching staff gave him the option not to they went to Don Jackson, Ryan Day and their offensive line coach. They went to Ryan Jackson, Ryan Jackson, Donovan Jackson, and they said, would you be willing to move over to tackle? Well, understand if you don't, because you're a first round potential offensive guard and you could mess up your draft stock. And so he called his parents, he he called his agent he called other people and took one or two days. Because his future was really on the line there or at least he thought it could be if he played really poorly attack all the go tumbling down the draft board.

And what he decided to do was what was best for the team to. was what was best for the team to try to win the national championship, which was move over to tackle. And one thing that I really liked from Donovan Jackson, what I really, really liked was he was asked about his first time playing and he got killed in his first time playing because he had to play Penn State. He had never done it before and it was a really rough outing. PFF gave him a zero for the game.

He gave up five pressures, a couple of sacks. And he said that that game wasn't up to his standard and that he went back and he looked at the tape and he spent every day trying to improve it. There were no excuses that were given for how he played at his first game at left tackle literally ever. And then no excuses. No, Hey, I'd never done it before. Whatever he said, not to my standard, that needs to be better. That's the type of attitude that's going to fit in with veteran players.

And I think he has a really good ability to communicate, but also a humility about him that he talked a lot about his parents and what they've instilled in him. I think that the dynamic inside of an offensive line room and trust me, I'll have Searles on the show to talk about this soon enough is so important. And a young guy coming in looking to learn, looking to soak up as much as he can, holding himself accountable to try to get better. Those are things that don't always happen with top draft picks. And it seems to me that he is going to be a really good personality fit. And that's where a, a draft board,

a consensus, those things cannot capture what someone's personality is like and what their potential is for growth. You can't capture that in the outside because the people who make the draft boards, they don't have an opportunity to sit down with someone and to grill them on their past and to look into who they really are and talk to their teammates. I have people that I know and talk to on a regular basis that work in the NFL that have told me about certain players who are going, they expected drop down the board and i said man that but that guy's really good is a have a talk to him right or look into his past or whatever might be what works the other way to where you sit down with donovan jackson you understand okay this is why it can work for Donovan Jackson. So I was really impressed by him. He had one of the better opening press conferences

that we have seen, great communicator, and that's going to work with the Vikings. So I think we'll probably always wonder about those draft packages. And man, if Atlanta wins five games, we're gonna go, oh, geez, geez. So, you know, that probably will be the case, but otherwise, I think that Jackson will be a good fit.

And as far as, you know, tonight's pick, you're not going to talk me off of a wide receiver who can make plays because I think it's valuable. And I think that there is a potential for Ty Felton to develop into something more than he already is. And, you know, I think, uh, in the chat here talking about passing on Xavier Watts, I, I mean, uh, when was Xavier Watts picked by the way was, uh, Xavier Watts at, uh, at 96, right? So I don't think they actually did pass on Xavier Watts. I think he was picked,

if I'm not mistaken, he was picked before the Vikings would have been on the board, which may have been why they moved down. So they got depth, they got competition, they got potential development, they got potential special teams contribution, and it's just hard to find role playing wide receivers. I cannot say it enough. It is so hard to find role playing quality wide receivers. You have to draft them. They did a great job in drafting one here. No matter what happens. I think, yeah, right. That's right. Xavier Watts was already off the board. So that really wasn't an option. And I would have agreed with Xavier Watts. I think that would have been a good pick, but Atlanta came in and got them.

So, uh, if we're demanding the Vikings trade up, they don't have any capital to trade up, they had to stay where they were. And the fact that they were able to move back and get even some benefit for tomorrow, uh, and still pick up a wide receiver with plenty of options on the board with, with almost no capital is about as good as you can get. So just to check off a few more boxes here, I think where if you're the Vikings you're unhappy about today, it's probably that the Chicago Bears landed Luther Burden as a very high ceiling. It's hard to say what dropped him into the second round

But it wasn't far into the second round and they made up for a strange pick to me in the first of Getting a really good pick in the second I think the Green Bay Packers also did well for them to get Sevillan Williams another playmaker As a wide receiver and so now they have put A lot of investment into the wide receiver position. Again, if you're the Vikings, it's not what you've seen and Detroit now Detroit is an interesting case because I don't think they've had a great draft. Tyleek Williams has limited upside and they really reached on a wide receiver that I'm

going to tell you the truth. I didn't know who he was because I think he was projected to go late in the third round. I hadn't looked at him at all major reach there at some point. Detroit's draft luck might run out for them going so far against consensus time and time again. We'll see about that. And then the biggest thing that comes out of today is should

earth Sanders not getting picked you will hear endlessly about that, but I just think it makes sense. If you're the NFL, you have a $5 billion franchise. Are you going to put it in the hands of somebody that when you met with them, seem disinterested or seem like he had a very poor meetings with teams. Those are important. Kevin O'Connell flew to Oregon. He flew to Washington. He flew to Michigan. He flew. He even met with Jaden Daniels. He met with guys. He wasn't even going to draft last year to do all that research on these quarterbacks. These teams put so much into the quarterback position. And if Chaudhuri blew it all off because he was arrogant and thought that he was just going to get picked at the top.

Then you could see why NFL teams would say, fine, if you're not going to take this seriously, then are you really going to listen to us when it comes time for you to lead a franchise? And if you don't believe someone can lead a franchise, you can't pick them in the first couple rounds, not to mention the circus that has gone along with Chaudhuri Sanders, even just through this draft process and comes along with his dad. So there's a lot of turnoffs to a average prospect that the NFL just said, okay, whatever. We're just not going to pick you.

And they decided to go with Tyler Shuck as a development project for the saints. And then Jalen Milro gets picked later on and that's where we're at. So that's kind of my take on that. I'm just not really that shocked. But tomorrow sets up to be quite interesting. Oh a good point, Aaron, that the Packers didn't draft a corner and a couple of the corners that I really thought might fall got taken off the board in Azaria, Thomas and Trey Amos. Some good picks there. So there's everything.

There's everything. And now we're gonna find out. Yeah, the back issue for Deion Walker might be problematic. So now they've got only a couple of picks for tomorrow, but we'll do the same thing tomorrow. After the Vikings are done, we'll do a little live streaming and we'll break it all down when the draft comes to an end

and they're not gonna make any more picks. And we've done it all down when the draft comes to an end and they're not going to make any more picks. And we've done our zoom calls with the prospects and so forth. And we'll see what they come away with from the UDFA market. It's been a very limited draft for us, but still a lot to discuss. And we, when we look at the overall picture for the Vikings off season, and they have really taken this depth chart and plugged a lot of those spaces where we would have said, Hey, interior pressure is a problem. Interior lines a problem.

Even depth at wide receiver is a problem. Now maybe it's depth at running back. Thank you for the wolves update. Everybody Nas read. That's all I got to say. Nas read. But when you look around, it's like, okay, what's left and what's left is projects. for the Wolves update everybody. Nas read. That's all I got to say. Nas read. But when you look around, it's like, okay, what's left and what's left is projects.

What's left is depth and projects. So we will see where they go tomorrow and I will talk to you all then. But before I go, just can't thank you all enough for jumping in here in the middle of a Wolves game really late at night after the Vikings make this pick and a very, very long day of not having your team select people to come along and talk through the pick and see what we all think and grade it and everything else. It's just been a lot of fun, even though there's only been two picks,

a lot of drama, a lot to discuss. So tomorrow we will do the same thing and we will have a lot of fun then as well, hopefully. Alright, thanks everybody again and take care. Football.