Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Reacting to the Vikings picking Jordan Addison and passing on Will Levis

Episode Date: April 28, 2023

Matthew Coller reacts to the Vikings picking wide receiver Jordan Addison with the 23rd overall pick rather than taking either QB that was on the board. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

and what drama has befallen us here because i i can't say i'm in shock about will levis that some some people had talked about will levis as the possible guy who dropped for quite a while and it was like wait who's drafting him who's going to be that team and now on the clock i mean we are going down to the final minute here are they gonna make a trade are they gonna make this pick are they gonna are they gonna let the clock run out kevin williams style what are we doing yeah exactly uh tick tick tick like chriserman used to say. Don't forget to make the pick, Vikings. At least it can't be worse. Hey, historically, one out of one times they let the clock run out,

the guy turned into a six-time All-Pro. I'm just saying. Maybe they should do that. Make sure you hand in the card on time. There are so many options on the board. I'm still pie charting a corner here as the pick for the Vikings. But if it's, if it is a quarterback,

then wow. Yeah. Well, Kevin Williams sure was some kind of mistake. That is true. Yeah. Kevin Williams. What a great player.

So here we go into the final minute, dropping down. Pick is in. Ready? No trade down. So the thing that we had pie charted at the very beginning does not come to fruition but i understand why because there are so many good players on the board and we're going to get this in just a second something that we have waited for

for uh for how long the vikings come to fruition what do we got jonathan is it happening yep according to albert breer the vikings are taking wide receiver jordan addison wow okay how about that the wide receiver that purple insider has pushed for i don't know how long jordan addison a tremendous route runner out of USC, short area quickness, playmaker, red zone monster, made Kenny Pickett a first round draft pick, then went to USC and helped Caleb Williams become a tremendous quarterback prospect himself. I said at the very beginning of this broadcast that the one thing I would give them an A for was taking Jordan Addison and they have taken Jordan Addison. They get an A from me. Not only do you partner Justin Jefferson with a receiver who can get open versus man coverage and has been very successful

in college, but also you have your long-term guy to fill in next to him with a rookie contract. You have an advantageous situation. You have a pass-first offense for Jordan Addison. I think everything lines up favorably. This is a guy that two years ago caught 100 passes in pit, averaged 16 yards a catch, 17 touchdowns. And then last year, 59 receptions in 11 games, 15 yards a catch, eight more touchdowns. And then last year, 59 receptions in 11 games, 15 yards to catch eight more touchdowns. He was one of the elite players in terms of yards per route run by pro football focus quality yards after catch quick guy, good hands younger as it's brought up by Aaron in the

comments. This to me is nothing short of an a pick. He is also of the height requirement as well. Not that he is super tall or that he is super thick, but I think we've seen it before. 5'11 and a little on the younger side is still a very, very viable wide receiver size. It is not Zay Flowers. It is not somebody who is super small like Josh Downs. I think that this is a excellent pick to set up for your future quarterback. This can help right away. And this can help big time for the next quarterback of the Minnesota Vikings. Here's what this also says. They never believed in Will

Levis and they never believed in Hendon Hooker and no mock drafters know what they're talking about as always. But the Vikings passing on a quarterback here is part two to this conversation. So part one is, and wow, does this gentleman know how to dress? That is some kind of suit. But Jordan Addison can be a long-term option to set up for the next Minnesota Vikings quarterback. Imagine this, 2024, you get drafted as the Vikings quarterback. You have two first round wide receivers. You have two elite offensive tackles. You have a quarterback coach. You have a pass first offense. It's one of the best situations in the NFL. So not only if the Vikings, uh, not only if the, if the Vikings could draft a quarterback, but imagine that you are a team that, or a quarterback

that is looking for a team, or if it's Trey Lance, or if, or if it's an angsty veteran quarterback, who's looking for another spot and he's gotten frustrated with his team, this is a landing spot for you. This is a landing spot for a draft pick to want to go for next year. And also this helps immediately as well, that the Vikings are not trying to just tank next season. They want Jordan Addison to step in. So I can't say enough how much I like this draft pick for the Vikings to take Jordan Addison as also the player that I had kind of thought had the most skills that would transfer over. And look, we learn lessons from what we see. I've seen Stefan Diggs and Adam Thielen become successful receivers from route running separation. That is what Jordan Addison

does the best. He's got the production to go along with it. He did fine at the NFL combine to meet the standards. He has a little bit of everything and I would not be shocked at all if he ends up being the best wide receiver out of this entire class. This reminds me a lot now of AJ Brown and of Devante Smith in Philadelphia. Weapons are winning in the NFL and Jordan Addison is the pick a great job by the Vikings, not to trade down, not to mess around. And you know what? I understand the argument to go defense and that would be that the defense was really bad, but cornerbacks in the back end of the first round. It's to me, it's a much riskier position to take than it is wide receiver that you can put in this super favorable position. And I think that's one of the reasons we see more receivers

succeed than corners because corners, yes, there's zone versus man and everything else. But ultimately it's, if you get beat, like you're just not a good corner. If you have weaknesses as a receiver, you can find lots of ways to work that player in. And I think that the Vikings now with Jordan Addison, who's played all over the field with KJ Osborne, who works inside the slot more often with Justin Jefferson, who can play anywhere. I think that the Vikings have one of the most dangerous and versatile groups of weapons in the NFL. If Jordan Addison makes the jump from USC. But also recently, and again, helmet scouting not allowed, but recently we have seen a lot

of these types, a little bit on the less weight, a little bit undersized, that as long as you create separation and you've got great instincts for the position, you can become a very good wide receiver. So we never know how it's going to play out. That's always something that we will say always in forever that we never know how someone's going to make that transition into the NFL, but boy, I think they picked a really, really good player to drop in. They made a really, really good bet on this player. And it's, we didn't even mention TJ Hawkinson as well, who I think that they will eventually sign to a long-term contract extension. So this is as good of a draft pick

as the Vikings have made probably since Justin Jefferson, in my mind, where it fit positional value, it fit need, it fit the thing that drives success in the NFL, which is throwing the football. So a great pick by the Vikings, a great decision to just stay there and to not pick Will Levis and not go in on a quarterback who is clearly the Vikings and the NFL seeing as too inaccurate, far too flawed, and more of a Paxton Lynch, more of a jimmy clausen than a josh allen so there's the take right off the bat and to help formerly an intern of purple insider now works for pgatour.com but has been paying very close attention to the draft and had to include on this draft broadcast paul hodowanek to break it all down, I needed you here tonight, Paul. This is a Matthew

and Paul Hodowanek moment, like so many big games were this year. So before you officially move away and everything else, you're still a Vikings follower forever. Your opinion, Paul Hodowanek, on Jordan Addison being selected with the number 23 overall pick? I mean, Matt, how many times did we ask for this team to draft a number three wide receiver? Just year after year after year, they wouldn't listen to us. We wanted them to take Jameson Williams last year. We wanted to take them. Just every year we've been shouting from the rooftops for anyone that could hear us,

get another receiver. And so obviously you lose Adam Thielen, but honestly, your number two wide receiver is going to be TJ Hawkinson going into next year. This guy, Jordan Addison is going to be, at least at the beginning, probably your number three target in terms of how many targets are kind of going around between Jefferson, Hawkinson, and now Addison. I love it. I mean, even if Kirk Cousins isn't part of your long-term future, you've now set up this room with Jefferson, Addison, and Hawkinson for whoever takes over from Cousins this next year

from everything I've read and watched of Addison. He's a great route runner. He's quick. He's sudden. He's going to really kind of fake people out and kind of make people miss in terms of both kind of in his routes and then after the catch. Obviously, the weight is a concern. He's very wiry, slim frame,

so they're going to obviously need him to bulk up a little bit, or he just isn't going to be able to hang up as much in run blocking situations. And if he gets kind of pressed at the line of scrimmage. So those are certainly real concerns, but just from a perspective of going all in and putting resources into your offense and into the positions that you need to put the resources into the most. This makes so much sense for them. He's the Bolitnikoff winner from last year, just highly, highly productive at USC. Like it's a lot of markers that it checks off. And so just from a process standpoint,

you never know if these draft picks work out, but from a process standpoint, if you can do it better than most, like every time you're going to end up with, you know, better players more of the time. And so this is a great process pick. They didn't have to go up to get him. They kind of fell in his lap.

I think he was Dane Brugler's second wide receiver. I think he was, yeah, I mean, he was kind of up and down right behind Jackson Smith and Jigba. And I mean, if Zay Flowers was ahead of him, Jordan Addison was usually the third wide receiver right in there. So proper value for them. They got it kind of right in the run of wide receivers. I think they could have traded back if they wanted to. And we can kind of talk

about that. I just don't know if the market was there because it seemed like the Ravens also were trying to trade back a pick before them. And then the Vikings took the clock all the way down to 30 seconds. So clearly they were maneuvering a bit, but to stay at their pick, they got to be pretty happy with who they got. Well, I also think as the Giants take Deontay Banks, I also think the Giants would have taken Jordan Addison. I mean, because the Giants need a wide receiver. And if you are going to have to move back past teams that needed wide receiver, you could miss out on your guy. And I don't think they wanted to do that. Clearly the NFL, not as high on Joey Porter Jr. as we thought. and some other, the edge rushers,

that they're just not interested in some of the pass rushers until the back end here. But as far as staying at 23, taking your pick, when we talk about, I want to explain what surplus value means, because I throw it around all the time, and I think that maybe I don't take the time to kind of like break it down. If you draft a number two wide receiver and he becomes a very good player. Now let's go back and look at the production from Vikings. Number two, wide receivers of past years, many times they have been excellent. I mean, we're talking a hundred catches in 2018 from the Vikings. Number two, wide receiver or 60 or 70 receptions from the

number two. How valuable has that been to Sam Bradford, to Teddy Bridgewater, to Case Keenum, to Kirk Cousins? And the thing is that if you wanted to get the Vikings number two wide receiver, it would cost you 15 to $20 million. This is where surplus value comes in. If you were paying Stefan Diggs, look what he gets paid, $20 million. Look what Adam Thielen still got paid. Look what Christian Kirk got paid. If you want a quality number two wide receiver, you are paying somewhere between 15, 17 and early $20 million. If you draft one that works out well, that means for four years, you get that guy at like what the 23rd overall pick is like $5 million or less. That's where the surplus value is. What would this guy be worth if he works out versus what

you're actually going to have to pay him. And so you start paying Justin Jefferson, presumably pretty soon. And then you will have Jordan Addison be not expensive if he works out. It also will lighten the blow if KJ Osborne gets to the end of this year and doesn't want to remain a Minnesota Viking, which I think after tonight becomes more possible. The reason I like Jordan Addison over the, now I like Quinton Johnston a lot, but the reason I liked, well, Jordan Addison

is the ball tracking is better. I think he's just like, that's a problem for Quinton Johnston. It's kind of a body catcher, more of a yards after catch guy. And Flowers was more of a slot wide receiver. And I don't think that really fits in with you want to move Justin Jefferson to the slot pretty often. They needed an outside guy. Uh, and then that's not all Jordan Addison has done. When I look at

his usage, he's been versatile, but he has played more often in the outside than he has in the slot, which I think the Vikings would look for that as something that they needed. And just reading what it says on PFF, Addison is one of the higher floors among receivers in this class due to his blend of route running chops and all around athleticism, production, route running, success in a big conference against good competition, two different schools. He played extremely well for, it is really hard to make a case against this. Uh, uh, Paul, I, I just feel like it checks every single box except for, except for one, he doesn't play quarterback. So I want your opinion on, but you know what? You missed a little

half rant, but I can go back and do it again about the mock draft community. Why don't I just do it now? What's the deal folks? What's the deal? I was told repeatedly by supposedly the most dialed-in mock drafters in this here universe, in Roger Goodell's America in 2023, the most dialed-in reporters, the smartest mock drafters, the greatest scouts who write all of their brilliant scouting reports because they're so good at scouting, once again have just gone total disaster in trying to pick out who the most

obvious positions to watch are. These people have no idea what they're doing. And every year we get duped and fall for it repeatedly of the like, well, it makes so much sense. And people are saying, and an executive told me, and a scout told me, it's garbage. It's garbage. We can talk about the scenarios, but anybody who pretends that they know how to scout like the NFL, they don't. Okay. Don't believe that. I think the best draft analysts tell you the strengths and weaknesses of a player, but if they're going to tell you where these guys are going to go, they are just lying to you. It's completely fraudulent. So anyway, that's proof again here tonight. And it has been so many times over and over and over and just

ask Malik Willis, that poor guy thought he was going in the first round. And then this poor guy thought he was too based on a bunch of bogus guessing from mock drafters. So the Vikings did not like Will Levis. They did not like Hendon Hooker because if they did, they would have taken him here tonight, but those are not first round quarterbacks. So tell me, Paul, your opinion on the Vikings passing on a quarterback. Yeah. I mean, it certainly would have been better if they picked Will Levis, it would have been better than Hendon Hooker in my my mind um but yeah I think it tells you like look at the teams that picked before the Vikings there were some quarterback needy teams that were there the Seahawks passed twice on a quarterback they have Geno but they're obviously kind of in a similar spot with Kirk Cousins I think they're

only committed to Geno for two years they certainly were interested in Anthony Richardson from all the reports that we had been heard uh Tennessee Titans were in the mix for a quarterback. They passed on him. Washington is very confident apparently in Sam Howell, but I have to imagine if someone was good enough for them to threaten, I don't think Sam Howell's too far of a bar to clear. Like you just go up and down and plenty of teams passed on him and now the Vikings have passed on him. So clearly the NFL is telling you something with that. So I think from the consensus, like big boards, he was around 26. So I definitely had an issue with him going off the board in that top five range.

That talk about him going to the Colts just always felt nonsense to me or just not nonsense in that obviously people felt like they knew what they were talking about, but nonsense and I didn't see the player in an early first round draft pick. Now you get to the back in an early first round draft pick. Now you get to the back end of the first round. I think I would have had a little bit more leeway with it for at this point, just because it isn't, you didn't trade up to do it. You stayed in your spot and you took a shot. And even if he's not great, he's on a rookie quarterback contract. So if the Vikings had gone that route, I don't necessarily, I wouldn't have hated it. It

wouldn't have been my favorite just because as I sit here, like watching quarterbacks, like it wasn't my favorite quarterback out there, but I would trust the Vikings a little bit more than I would trust my eye when it comes to developing quarterbacks. And you certainly would put him in a decent situation with Justin Jefferson, but overall it was a bit of a sigh of relief for me at this point. We talk a lot about wanting to like take advantage of that rookie quarterback contract but if you don't hit it or if you don't like it you shouldn't just take a guy to take a guy so

it's that's that's just how it goes and so I'm happy they didn't go with Will Levis I think it was probably smart to go wide receiver or cornerback they obviously go wide receiver uh we'll see if he kind of is one of these last picks in the in the end of this round we haven't obviously gotten to that point yet. If someone comes and tries to trade up, the Falcons could do it. Several other teams could do it. But yeah, we now have two years of evidence of we're the mock drafters, the prognosticators.

I think, again, everyone just sits here talking about it for months on months on end. And we all hear about how important it is to get a quarterback. And I think we just implicitly bring these guys up the draft board when they're certainly not worth it. And clearly what we're learning tonight is Will Levis is not worth that first drop pick. Yeah, no, that's entirely correct. And that, you know, those very, very poor numbers,

they mattered his poor performance in the pocket. the fact that he took tons of hits, the fact that he made tons of mistakes from clean pockets, did not have even good statistics when playing in a clean pocket. All of these things would be very disturbing. And I think if there is a lesson of the future, it's when PFF gives you a stat that the dude gets sacked a bunch or that he's under pressure all the time and you watch him and he's, and he's not processing it quickly and he's getting hit tons. The NFL is not going to like that. And that was the, that was the Malik Willis problem. And that's the Will Levis problem. And I think that's actually the Hendon Hooker problem as well, as great as he is accurate down the field, because you have to be so good when it comes to in the pocket of

navigating that. And we saw it with Kellen Mond where he just couldn't see it in the practice field and never got on the real field. And even when he did in preseason games, it was miserable because he just could not process what was going on quick enough. There's like 20 dudes in existence at any time in this universe who can do that. And if the NFL thinks you aren't one of them, they are not investing in you. And when he, at his pro day, couldn't even throw accurate passes on intermediate dropbacks against no one, it was a pretty clear sign or in hindsight, I guess we could say a pretty clear sign that the NFL was not going to like that when he didn't have a very good pro day.

I guess what I just tend to rage against is the idea that, you know, people watching TV tape and looking at, you know, whatever, um, taking wild guesses are telling us enough about these players that the NFL is actually going to see with all of their resources. That is kind of what drives me nuts is you have Redditors saying this or whatever, and it's, you know, oh, well, the Vegas line has this or that. Well, the Vegas line doesn't matter because they don't know either. The only people that know are in those buildings. And once again, it is proven, but I don't want to get too far off track because I want to stay on just the general thing of they didn't pick a quarterback.

They picked a receiver that we all like, but that means, Paul, that quarterback is either Trey Lance or next year, unless they pick one in the third, but that's not a future quarterback. That is a total lottery ticket. How do you view what happens at quarterback now that they have decided to create a cocoon of players that are good at football around whatever quarterback they take? I mean, they've really just whoever sits down in that chair, QB1 in 2024 is a golden throne of talent around that player and the situation. But we don't know who it's

going to be. So what is your opinion on who it's going to be? Yeah, I mean, it really is just kind of passing off the risk for another year. Obviously, there's risk involved with Will Levis. There's risk involved with anyone they would have taken this year. And now you're just kind of pushing that back a year. And you're saying we're going to go into next year and we clearly don't feel like her cousins. We don't,

we're not confident her cousins is the solution moving forward. And so it, to me, it's, there's a lot of risk with Will Levis, but there's a lot of risk for waiting. There's a lot of risk on betting on Trey Lance. If they want to go,

go out and trade Trey Lance, there's a lot of risk. If they want to try to extend her cousins Lance. There's a lot of risk if they want to try to extend Kirk Cousins again. There's a lot of risk if they just roll into next year's draft and feel like they need to draft a quarterback. That's not a position you want to be in heading into next year's draft where you feel like your only option is to pick a guy because that's when you end up with a Christian Ponder situation or you end up in a situation where you're trading a ton of draft capital to go up and get someone or you're just dealing in kind of the mediocrity, you're mired in the mediocrity where you're going to get a Marcus Mariota or something like that. So obviously every year we do this with the,

wow, the quarterbacks look a lot better for next year, but I don't know how much different this Vikings roster. I mean, I don't think they're going to win as many games as they did last year. Obviously we know a lot of that was unsustainable and they've lost some players, but in general, we know a Kirk cousins led team, a team with this much talent now on the offensive side of the ball, they're not going to be horrendous. They're going to end up picking in the mid, mid teens, late teens, early twenties. That's just how this goes. And so they had a chance to draft a guy who a lot of people had in the first

round this year, they didn't do it. And so now they're shifting that risk to next year, pushing it off for a year. And while I think that's generally, I think that's the right thought, just based on the prospects that were available to them. It just puts so much pressure on them next year, nailing it and figuring out exactly what they want to do. It really heightens it and it makes us look like fully squarely at that 2024 offseason. They certainly have some flexibility in what they need to do, but it, to me, it's just, they're passing the risk down a year and that could turn out to be a good thing. That could turn out to be a bad thing. One thing is at least they're going to have better, a better situation

around him with Addison now in the building than they would have if they tried to draft someone next or this year and then let him sit. So that's one positive, but really, I think it's just, they're still kind of stuck in that purgatory. I think, you know, I think that's, that is true for right now. And we'll see if that changes. It could even change if they trade into the first to get Hendon hooker or something. Now, if they did that, that was great. Like we're talking about all this stuff and then they trade into the late first and take Will Levis anyway.

I, maybe that's possible or, or Hendon hooker. Um, but, uh, Jonathan, what do you got on, um, uh, from Chris Mortensen? So I've got a couple of things here. Just want to put this out there beforehand, seeing tweets that Kwesi and Kevin O'Connell have delayed post-pick press availability for an hour. So could they be looking, I don't know that they have enough draft capital to do it, but could they be looking to trade back up into the later parts of the first round? That is interesting. But Chris Mortensen saying why Will Levis is dropped is that his left toe that caused him to miss two games last year was, quote, problematic for one team that considered him.

Levis says the toe is healed and good to go. Another team believes Levis could manage it, but thought surgery would need discussion after the season. Levis tends to disagree with that, according to ESPN's Chris Mortensen. OK, so not just the and this is another thing always under the category of stuff we can't know medicals. I mean, the Kobe Dean last year ended up in the third round. Uh, even though, you know, he was probably a better prospect than that. Uh, Dallas taking Maisie Smith here, by the way, the bills took a tight end. Who cares? Uh, I don't know why they

did that a tight end. Like they need other stuff, But that's not the point. We're not going to debate that. So, well, look, if they trade back into the first round and now we really have to wait to the end of the first round to sign off, because if they trade back into the first round and take a quarterback, some things are going to feel a little different from what we were just talking about. But I agree with you, Paul, that you are kind of pushing that decision down the road. At the same time, what's behind door number two or nothing? And that was like this year, it just, there may have been nothing. It may have been, there's too many questions about Will Levis. There's too many questions about Hendon Hooker to pin your futures on them. And with Anthony Richardson going number four, there's no other choice. I like there's who, who would you rather have nothing or, you know, like, or someone you don't want. That was the last thing that I would have ever said the Vikings should do, which would

be, Hey, why don't you just take someone just to take someone? There might be some argument for that. Uh, if you evaluate them as a first round prospect, but there's no argument for saying a former quarterback as your head coach in Kevin O'Connell should be paired with someone he doesn't believe in. I mean, that is not something I ever would have asked him to do. So then what's your other choice? Your other choice is to ask about Trey Lance. Your other choice is to go into next year and like you said let's say you get the 16th pick but next year they might have more draft capital to work with or next year knowing that all these other foundational pieces are set on offense you can trade whatever to get up into the top 10 to take that quarterback. And even if that doesn't happen,

there will be quarterbacks who are disgruntled. There will be free agent veteran quarterbacks. There will be like things happen in the league where guys become available that you did not expect before based on whatever happened. So, uh, you know, I, I guess I just think, um, sorry, this is too funny not to put on the board. Tom Brady takes a year off and then signs with the Vikings. Gosh, you just never know, right? He does have a Minnesota connection is my understanding. So you never know.

But they would have a chance to do a lot of different things then where the options right now are just not favorable unless it was going to be Lamar Jackson, but that ended today. So I think that as, um, as far as like the big takeaways here, Paul, before I let you go and thanks for popping on here. Uh, I know you were just chilling and enjoying the draft, but I think the big takeaway here is they understood that Kevin O'Connell's offense needs three wide receivers that, that even though I know that they signed a backup tight end or whatever, but like they need three receivers. They need as many people getting open as possible. They wanted a replacement for Adam Thielen that might be Adam

Thielen ish. Um, but earlier Adam Thielen, like the route running, the ability to get open, the intelligence, the ball tracking, that's what they're looking for with Jordan Addison. I don't think that Jordan Addison is some sort of crazy burner. I don't think there's anything freakish about him. I think that everything is technical, which we've seen, I think, have more success than freak talent is the technique and he'll be a good fit. And whoever was going to be this pick would be a good fit because Jefferson takes all the pressure anyway. So the big takeaway there is like they're pushing the chips in on offense and they want to have an elite offense next year. They want to have an elite offense going forward with their former quarterback at the head coach position. And

they're trusting Brian Flores here, which I guess is another storyline because we got so focused on the quarterback that we need to talk about before I let you go is just that there were corners on the board, Deontay Banks, Joey Porter Jr., and even Nolan Smith on the board as well. And they said, you know what? We're not going to go with those great defensive prospects. We are going to trust in Brian Flores here and our ability, which they could still do if they trade some people, Delvin Cook, so forth, to add a little bit more on defense and then develop players. And this is something they talked about a lot.

The Josh Metellus's of the world, the Caleb Evans, like guys who are not necessarily top draft picks. They're really going to ask them to develop and become key players. But I think it's a pretty tough, it's a, it's pretty tough defensive setup for them going forward. Not that I thought any of those players would have totally changed it for this year, but even as rebuilding this defense is not easy when you don't take top guys on defense. And I think we've seen that over the years

yeah I would expect it to be pretty defense heavy the rest of the way uh with this draft with the limited picks that they do have and yeah I mean I think it's kind of the age-old question that we talk about a lot here offense defense and which one's more valuable and which positions are more valuable and I think just kind of again the surplus value you can get from a wide receiver just the kind of game-breaking ability you can get from a wide receiver, just the kind of game breaking ability you can get from a wide receiver is just that much greater than a cornerback who could play super well. But if you have a nickel that sucks and just is getting burned, it's not going to matter how great he is out there. And so clearly they need to raise kind of their weakest links on defense. And they certainly still have

some weakest links that they probably want to get out of there with some better players to put in. And that's what I would anticipate over the next few kind of, um, picks in this draft. They try to address some of those things, but I don't, yeah, I mean, I, I think it's going to be obvious. The defense probably isn't going to be great next year and they're going to be relying on their offense. And I think that's probably a better way to go than to try to be marginally better on defense with one pick in the addition of Brian Flores and then your offense being the same. I think your best bet is to just try to have a gangbusters offense that is putting a ton of pressure on the other offense to go score, which then creates turnover opportunities and puts you in a better spot and you're forcing them to pass if you're up on them all the

time. Like, I don't think the Vikings were in a position with this draft to fully solve the defense in any respect so I think kind of leaning into your strengths can be a winning strategy for them moving forward it sets them up better moving forward for whatever quarterback takes over as we said and yeah it puts a lot of pressure on Brian Flores it puts a lot of pressure on the remaining pieces that they still have on that roster but I think both for a long-term perspective and a short-term perspective, like I think just leaning fully and heavily into the offense is the best way to go. Certainly that's going to appease Kevin O'Connell after

they drafted Louis seen in the first round, who's another guy that you're hoping you kind of get back and can, can regain that form. Um, so I think overall, I like it overtaking a cornerback. I just think I'd expect them to hit defense pretty hard the rest of the way. And I think they should just to build up some depth and to build up some of those developmental players. So it doesn't have to be, you know, your sixth, seventh, fifth round picks from previous years. It can still be third round picks, fourth round picks that you can develop. Those are higher caliber guys that you put more trust in. So if we come back here and they've taken a guard and they've taken a tight end the rest of the way, then I'll have some more things to say about the defense.

But right now, nothing bad to say about their process. I would not be surprised if every pick from here on out was defense after this. But I am giving it nothing short of an A. Before you go, Paul. And then we'll get everybody's reaction and read some comments here and we'll stay on until the 32nd pick, just in case something crazy happens. Why don't you grade it? I mean, we love to grading drafts is almost as ridiculous as trying to project where quarterbacks will be taken from year to year, but let's have fun anyway. I'm giving it

an A. What are you giving it? Yeah, I want to get like cheeky and say A minus, but I'm not really sure what I would ding it for, for the minus. In terms of wide receivers, there maybe were one or two that I liked better, but they weren't on the board. So this is the best wide receiver on the board. So I give it an A. I think if they would have taken a corner like joey porter jr or someone like deontay banks i think that would have been an a as well i think they had a ton of great options here i think what they could have done is kind of what the giants did and just moved back one pick i think they did and grabbed a couple extra picks if that was an option for them i think that would have been great uh and still gotten a wide receiver still gotten a cornerback

but uh aside from doing that i think it's kind of the best thing they could have done if they just stayed pat. So I'll give it to me as well. Paul, thanks so much. Thanks for coming on, man. PGAtour.com now, but you are invited for life to all big purple insider events. And I also know how much you love the NFL draft. And so how much every year you study it, you pay attention to it. And you knew that I was going to rant about something by the end of the night. You had to show up for that.

I appreciate your time, sir. Off the clock, no longer intern Paul, no longer professional Paul, but PGA Paul instead. So PGA tour.com is where you can read his work. Very happy for you now getting going on that job and proud of you, buddy.

But thanks for coming on. And I don't know when we'll do it again, but there's always hot routes out there that need to be broken down. So you're always invited. Thanks so much for coming on, man. Thank you. Thank you. We'll make it happen soon.

All right. All right. Take care, Paul. Thanks. Yeah. All right. Jonathan, have you been doing some sort of poll about how people feel about this? Well, you muted yourself, so that's not great.

Well, there we go. Let me pull up the poll again. I asked if people are happy with the Jordan Addison pick. After 129 votes, 90% were happy with the pick. They're excited for Jordan Addison. Plenty of people in the comments saying they can't wait to see this offense of JJ, TJ, KJ, and now Jordan Addison alongside whatever they put in the backfield. I mean, here's the thing. When you look at the two best teams in the NFC, I think we all agree who they are.

San Francisco 49ers and the Philadelphia Eagles. Let's take a look at their offenses. Let's take a look at how they've drafted, where they've spent their draft capital. Weapons. A lot of weapons. I mean, Devontae Smith, A.J. Brown was a draft pick that was sent.

Brandon Ayuk, first round pick, taken right after Justin Jefferson. That poor guy doesn't even get to be the guy that was like the best pick in that draft, but he's very good. And he's developed over the last couple of years to be very good. Debo Samuel was a second round draft pick. And then they found other guys like George Kittle. I think he was in the fifth, but he's become one of the best players in the league. How about Dallas Goddard? I believe that's a second round draft pick for the Philadelphia Eagles, that these teams have stacked up weapons and weapons just make your life easier. The Cincinnati Bengals just picked Miles Murphy, the Cincinnati Bengals. I remember, and look, I think Panay Sewell is a great player, but I remember when a lot of people said, how dare you pick Jamar Chase? You need pass protection. Your quarterback needs pass protection. And while that is still true that Joe Burrow has suffered

from some struggles there, Jamar Chase played a huge role in that team going to the Super Bowl and then having another shot at it this year. I mean, they are within a shoestring of going to the Superbowl and then having another shot at it this year. I mean, they are within a shoestring of going to the Superbowl again this year, and it's driven by offense. It's driven by wide receivers. It's driven by playmakers. And look, I think this is what we wanted this team to be. I'm not saying you can ignore defense. You can't ignore anything. You have to be good at everything to win the Superbowl most of the time, but this is what we want. We wanted a head coach and a front office that we're going to do stuff like this, which is, you know what? Technically speaking, we probably need something else more, but we don't really, because we need the most valuable thing more.

And they replace Adam Thielen as well. Like that is a big loss. Adam Thielen caught well like that is a big loss Adam Thielen caught 70 passes last year I know that we all kind of were like oh well Thielen wasn't the same so whatever he was still a pretty darn good number two wide receiver in the NFL last season uh as a compliment and he you know you add KJ Osborne to this mix, who I would just continue to say, like, don't sleep on KJ Osborne is a good player. It's just that this is the team that had three deep. And this is a team that's had a duo that has been unstoppable over the last how many years. And I really feel like it was the best

move. Also every year, just take a look every year where you have a lot of corners that get picked up in free agency or in a trade. And they turn out to be effective. I mean, last year, uh, Chauncey Gardner, Johnson, James Bradbury, like these guys just got picked up by Philadelphia and San Francisco has kind of done the same thing over the years. So, you know, I, I think, you know, I think that it's a really good strategy to set up also for the future for your next quarterback, but also lean into the thing that is going to win. And, you know, some people that are upset about it. I mean, I guess there's really, there's really only that 10%. There's really only two ways to be unhappy with it. One is if you thought they should have drafted the corner and I'll listen to it. I'll listen to it because look,

the cornerback situation is very shoddy and there were two really good cornerback prospects there. If you wanted to still there of them is still there. Is Porter Jr. still there? He's still there, yeah. Wow. So if they're pushing back their press conference, which we've seen other GMs and head coaches almost come out immediately, the Buffalo Bills, Brandon Bean came out almost immediately

after they picked their tight end and was talking about it with the press. So if they've pushed that back because Joey Porter is still there and you've got three teams left, there's still maybe a deal there to be made to move up back into the first round to take one of the better quarterback cornerbacks in this class. It seems like it would be not that easy to go from 87 all the way up. So if you're doing it, then you really better do it. And if they're going to trade up, then they're not going to trade up, at least in my opinion, for one of those quarterbacks, because the quarterbacks are likely to make it into the second round. There's just no teams like you have right now is new Orleans, Philadelphia chargers. Like these are not teams that need quarterbacks or I'm sorry, Kansas city. Uh, these are not teams that need quarterbacks. Or I'm sorry, Kansas City.

These are not teams that need quarterbacks. They also might be trying to trade a player in this situation too. Kansas City could really use Zedarius Smith. I'm just saying. They lost, I think, Frank Clark in the offseason. So, yeah, there is a chance that they're still moving up, or maybe they're just in, you know, just in general, uh, on the phone, trying to see kind of how things are going to lay out for tomorrow and get things set up for potentially trading up tomorrow. But, um, you know, I think

if you, if you wanted the corner, I am not going to tell you you're a fool by any means, because I think they need the corner. And I think that they need to have that shut down number one guy. And I honestly thought that Joey Porter would get a lot more attention as that player. He was consistently mocked in the top 15 and for him to not get taken, there's some issue with Joey Porter that the league is not enjoying. And I don't know what that is, but I'm not going to tell you that you're wrong for wanting a cornerback. I just look at wide receiver is harder to replace. I look at corner as there are free agent corners every year that are good at their jobs and good

fits, and you can get them in free agency where wide receivers look at what was available for wide receivers in free agency. It was just nothing this year. And I don't think that that's going to change in the future. That's why I would lean toward that. I also think that if you don't have someone to take pressure off of Justin Jefferson, teams will put all of their attention on him and they will not pay for it. And we saw that in some of the key games from last year, I would say even the giants playoff game that they basically said, go ahead and beat us with an old Adam Thielen, TJ Hockinson and KJ Osborne and the Vikings. You know what? Kirk cousins played a good game in that game, but when it came down to it, they needed someone else to make a play and it didn't happen. And I think that you get Jordan

Addison because of that. So that you get Jordan Addison because of that. So I lean toward Jordan Addison as it would have been my pick. I honestly think that it might've been my very first mock pick. We mocked it a bunch of times or we simmed it a bunch of times. And I guess we mocked it into existence with the Vikings, but it just made so much sense from day one. But there are questions here that still remain big questions for this team, including how they are going to build up the rest of this defense. They need interior pass rush. They need edge rushers.

They need corners and they don't have a whole heck of a lot of draft capital to do it. So we're on pick 29, Brian Bricey being taken. So now 30 and 31. And hilariously, Jonathan, there's only 31 because the Miami dolphins decided to take Tom Brady on a yacht with their owner and try to get him to buy some portion of the team and then come back as the quarterback. That's a real thing that happened. just we can never we can never forget that so we're down to the final moments uh can you tell me since you've been keeping your eye on social media and listening to the broadcast what the reaction was from the broadcast and from vikings fans to them not taking will levis not taking hendon hooker and instead going with uh jordan

as there's been some question on social media as to why they picked a wide receiver when you had so many defensive needs, but overall the, the reaction from most, including all the draft experts has been very positive for the Vikings taking a very talented wide receiver to add to their, to their, to their weapons on offense. Because as we've been talking about, that's how you win in this league. Kansas City, the Eagles, San Francisco, they've proven that time and time again over the past couple years that you need multiple weapons.

You can't just rely on one stud guy. And the Vikings adding to their list of weapons on offense is only going to help Kirk Cousins this year and whoever their quarterback is next year. So I think overall the, the reaction to the Vikings taking Jordan Addison at 23 has been overwhelmingly positive for the Vikings this season. Yeah. This is a hard pick to fail with. I mean, I really think it is because it doesn't like last year, let's just think about what happened last year when they traded back and they traded back as far as they did it it was like

okay they must have an idea of who's going to be there at the back of the first round that we're going to take that's a key position and so forth and when they take a safety there was just air that went out of the room of like okay okay, but there are so many other key position needs here. You're taking a safety. Is that the right direction to go? It was immediately questionable and Louis scene was a good prospect, but it was immediately one of those where you went, Oh, where's the analytics on taking a first round safety. I don't really know if that's a good idea. So there was kind of a split there with the fan base and the fact that they also didn't get that first round draft pick

for Detroit moving up as much as they did. Lots of questions there. I don't think that there's many questions here. I think it's very clear that they looked at Will Levis and said, you know what? Nope. This is not the guy that we're going to invest our entire future into. And gosh, they're showing them again. And I just feel dreadful. And okay. So here's the thing they're showing on the, on the screen, ESPN analytics had a 0.01 chance of our 0.1 chance of Will Levis being here. That's not how odds work. There was, it's just not, it's just not, there was a decent chance that a quarterback, including him, who was pretty consistently across the board, thought of as the fourth best prospect of dropping all the way out of the first round. There was decent odds of that just based on mocks. They didn't think so, but based on common sense of what we have seen. And we

started to talk about him as the drew lock of this draft or, uh, you know, the, the Jimmy Clawson of this draft, we started talking about that when like the fifth pick that that was a very realistic possibility. I mean, I, I, I just, when they put up a number like that, it just blows my mind. Like this has happened every single year that one quarterback is not as good of a prospect, uh, as we thought. And I guess Will Levis ends up being that guy. And there's also injury issues. I feel terrible for him. I hate this. I can't stand when they show the guy just agonizing over and over, but here's the reality. He gets past these next two picks, which he will. These are the Super Bowl teams.

The odds of him being a success outside of the first round just plummet. And I guess it just shows us that he was never a legitimate first round prospect. And unfortunately for him, he's misled by a lot of analysts and probably people in his life that thought he was going to be taken much higher. So that's really unfortunate for him. He's misled by a lot of analysts and probably people in his life that thought he was going to be taken much higher. So that's really unfortunate for him. But the fact that he ends up out of the first round and so does Hendon Hooker to me says the Vikings made the right choice. They picked somebody that nobody thought was, or they passed on somebody that nobody thought was a first round pick. And the only other question I think that

remains here is, should they have traded back? Now you need a partner to trade back with, and that it starts right there. So I'll be interested when, uh, we'll probably, we'll probably shut this down by the time I'll be able to hear, you know, later what Casey and Kevin O'Connell have to say about this. And one of the questions, no doubt, will be, hey, did you guys consider trading back? The reason that I would be totally fine with them not trading back is, I mean, one, if nobody's offering anything good, you really can't do it twice. You can't have, if you're Kwesi, another year where everyone goes, dude,

why can't you get anything in your trades? Um, but you know, I, I, I do think that, uh, not trading back is a question, but if the giants were going to take Jordan Addison and that was the guy you really wanted. And there, I think that there was a big drop off from the wide receivers between Zay flowers, Quinton Johnson, Jackson Smith, the Jigba and Jordan Addison. The next group is a pretty big fall off. So if you want to get one of those key guys, then you got to get them there. And if you're not, then, you know, um, that, you know, then, then you're, you can't trade back. If you don't think you're going to be able to get one of those guys and the giants, I think we're, we're pretty dangerous, um, for

them. So we're down to the last couple of picks here, the first round now ESPN is showing Pittsburgh does not pick tonight, right? Do they pick tomorrow? No, Pittsburgh moved up with the Patriots and drafted earlier. Okay. Yeah. But it wasn't, that's supposed to be the second round pick. I'm all confused. Cause Miami lost their pick. No, that was, they, they moved up,

I think two or three spots because they do get to work tonight at 32. No, no. Tomorrow. Okay. Yeah. It'll be tomorrow. Yeah.

Okay. Well, I only asked because ESPN was showing like the last few picks and they had 32 on the screen. Yeah. I was waiting for 31. I want to make sure I'm getting that right. 32 is the first pick tomorrow.

So, all right. We got, is Nolan Smith coming up here? That's an interesting one. Another one that's worth talking about, but some of the guys that went like once Kalijah Cansey went, that was off the table. And if we go back as just kind of in our final moments here of the night broadcasting, got a shout out to the guy who's wearing the Jim McMahon get up for a broadcast, by the way, that's excellent. But as we go back to the very

beginning, I think that this draft was really laid out for what it was going to be after the number four pick was Anthony Richardson. And then for the, for the Vikings, what we knew was that there was going to be one big decision to make. Do they believe in Will Levis or Hendon Hooker, but really Will Levis is the guy who had been thought of highly through this entire prospect, uh, or, you know, this, uh, lead up as a prospect. So that was really the big question because we knew that there were going to be other good prospects on the board like joey porter jr like deontay banks like jordan addison and even potentially kalijah can't see but once he went and once the run on receivers started that was another part of it as well, where it was

like the Vikings really have to take a receiver. Now, I don't think that they can move back too far because that run on receivers has started and teams are going to make sure that they are looking at someone like Jordan Addison. Heck, I mean, the Bill's drafting a tight end. Jordan Addison might have been a target for them as well. So how far could you reasonably move back? I think the other theme of this draft overall, aside from once again, we never know going in who the guy's going to be, but it's always somebody is that certain teams still look at running backs, linebackers as being worth it. And one of those teams is the Detroit Lions and their draft. Now let's consider something though about their draft. These things don't

happen in a bubble. In recent years, the Detroit Lions have done nothing but draft key positions. They drafted tackle. They drafted, I mean, they got lucky with a star receiver, but they, in St. Brown, but they drafted a receiver last year. So they have drafted these key positions, a pass rusher in Aiden Hutchinson, and then they went crazy in the free agent market with cornerbacks. So they felt like, the Lions felt like a playmaker out of the backfield, the next Alvin Kamara and a linebacker were the positions that

they desperately needed to fill. And I can see the logic there. I don't like it or subscribe to it. I think, Hey, look, look what Philadelphia does. Look what they're doing right now. They just drafted Nolan Smith. Philadelphia just takes pass rushers until the end of the day. And I buy it edge rushers, interior rushers, fat dudes. They just take them all. And I think it's a good strategy. So I think the lions made a mistake, but I get it because if those actually work out, if, if, you know, uh, you know, Jack Campbell is somebody that's really good for them. That's like having an Anthony bar. I mean, that that's like having someone them. That's like having an Anthony Barr. I mean, that's like having someone who, and look, Anthony Barr,

you can argue about what his contract was or whatever else. He was a big piece for the Vikings. And I think that teams had to really factor for him. So there is some value in what they did in the short term. I don't know if it's really in the long term. And I think they took a big risk there. You know, Chicago just going very solid with Chicago. They didn't make any huge noise. They just decided, you know, we're going to get our tackle and that's it. Um, Philadelphia is a huge winner of this draft. I think the Houston Texans are big winners of this, even though they gave up as much as they did to get their future franchise quarterback and Will Anderson and not mess around. Aside from that, any thoughts, Jonathan, about

the way that this whole thing played out? I think the only questions I have are for the Detroit Lions. And you mentioned that it could play out, but the whole process for them, they got David Montgomery earlier this off season. So they had the running back position already filled with David Montgomery, Deandre Swift, and there's rumors that he's on the trade block. So bringing in Jameer Gibbs might be as a replacement there, but you already brought in a running back. You could have at the time looking at who is still available.

Even when Jack Campbell was picked at 18, you saw Kalijah Cansey there. Could you imagine that defensive line of Kalijah can see and Aiden Hutchinson that would wreck the rest of the NFC North and the rest of the NFC. And as we've seen from San Francisco and Philadelphia stacking up at that part of the field on defense has helped those two teams so much. And Philadelphia just keeps doing it.

Adding Nolan Smith. That's their fourth Georgia Bulldog defensive plate defensive member from that historic defense two years ago that they've added. So I think for me, Detroit, I think they're a clear loser tonight. I don't think they did a good enough job with those picks considering what was still available. I mean, looking at that, that kind of ruins it for me, despite the fact that those two guys could become really key pieces to their team going forward. It just right now, looking at it, immediate reaction, I'm questioning that. And it's funny how you and Will were talking about how Detroit was doing such a good job

of making these trades and they're a team to kind of model yourself after. And then they go and make the running back pick at 13 and then a linebacker at 18. So it flipped for them really quickly for me. I do, I'm dumbfounded by how Philadelphia keeps getting away with having the best first rounds of every team. It seems like every single year, I mean, continuing to draft good defensive linemen who have skills who somehow dropped them every time dumbfounds me to the point where it's just like, they, they are playing this thing they're playing the draft like a fiddle at this point yeah i mean i think um with detroit

if campbell turns out to be this like micah parsons player who's rushing the passer and doing everything and is a complete monster the problem is that when you draft jordan addison if he's just okay that's really good that's a really good pick if you draft jack camp, if he's just okay, that's really good. That's a really good pick. If you draft Jack Campbell and he's just okay, then it's not a great pick for you. And okay linebackers everywhere. There's three okay linebackers in the yard right now, in my front yard. They're everywhere in free agency. But if you get an absolute monster, those guys can be, and I'm talking about the Fred Warner, the Eric Kendricks.

So that's the one thing about it is if, and it just tried to give the other side of that is that though it is a very high bar, if the bar is reached, how good was Elvin Camara? How good was Christian McCaffrey? How good is Fred Warner? If you turn those players into those guys, there's going to be a problem. It's just that it has to turn into a DeMario Davis or a Alvin Camara for it actually to work. So Kansas city's on the board and they're running the clock down. What's that? They're running the clock down, which is, they are. So if the Vikings don't

make a trade here, then we will call it an evening and put our bow on it and um you know i guess we'll see as you said it's it's going all the way down here but if they don't make a move uh then we'll we'll call it a night and uh i think tomorrow night i'm going to go out to tco performance center and just do a regular podcast after that uh probably with some you know somebody out there out there, maybe will rag it's, but, uh, I really appreciate those guys stepping onto the stream today. Just brought a lot, Paul Hoda, Wanek as well. And can't thank you enough, Jonathan, for everything you've done here tonight. Staying.

I mean, you're on for the whole thing. You're running the scroll. You set up this whole, this whole look, uh, managing the polls, everything else. So just, just tremendous work as expected, managing the polls, everything else. So just, just tremendous work as expected, uh, Jonathan, great stuff. So what about you, sir? Are you giving an A? You go, you're just going with the crowd here.

You're going to give the same grade as everybody else. Yeah. I love the pick. I think it's great adding more weapons, uh, to that offense, because as we said, cause I said, as I said earlier, said earlier adding uh adding a wide receiver to this offense when you just lost adam theelin adding a young wide receiver to this core makes makes essentially your first two picks in this draft a wide receiver and a tight end who can help you out immensely and yes we're not going to get to pick that second overall or that second round pick because they traded it but still if you look at it that way, you're adding two offensive weapons to this offense

for whoever the next quarterback is, because clearly it seems like they're going to move on from Kirk Cousins next season. So that helps him this season. It helps that competitive rebuild. Yes, they have plenty of holes in that defense that they still need to fill. But with the amount of defensive players that are still available, it looks like Joey Porter is slipping through to the second round, which is just astounding because it looks like, not to spoil the pick,

but it looks like Kansas City is not taking Joey Porter with 31. At this point, you can spoil. Just tell me who it is. It is, I don't even know how to pronounce that. It's the defensive end from Kansas State. Oh, okay, yeah. Yeah. But, yeah, so Joey Porter slips through. So can you make a trade up to the top of the second round to grab one of the better cornerback prospects and help yourself out immediately in that department as well? And I think after drafting in the first round,

an offensive player, you probably going to have to gift a bunch of defensive players to Brian Flores, uh, to help him kind of mature and develop into defensive stars for your, your team going forward. But I really liked the pick. I do too. I think they did as best as they could if they weren't going to pick the quarterback. And I just, I have to say, I mean, it's crushing to watch this for, for Will Levis. It is just agonizing to do that. And of course, they just show him and show him and show him.

And I get why they do that. But what an incredibly tough night for him. I think Hendon Hooker is probably more realistic about his chances. But with Levis, when you're told you're going to be a top five to seven draft pick and you fall all the way down the draft board into the second round and who knows where he's going to be taken there because the teams early in the second do not look like they're looking for quarterbacks that even opens the door could the vikings look at quarterback in the third round could they trade up a lot of things could they

make a player trade could they trade to darius smith delvin cook like there's so many options that are on the table for the vikings tomorrow because they only have the 87th pick i don't know about doing a live stream all the way through probably just look for the podcast and video uh after from tco performance center i want to be out there also for the press conferences tomorrow and things like that but thank you all so much for listening, for following along. Some of you were on here in the comments for all four hours of this. And I just cannot tell you

how much I appreciate your dedication. You guys are what makes Purple Insider so great and so much fun to do this. So thank you so much to every one of you. Thank you again, Jonathan, to all the guests. We had a ton of fun i mean just this was great this was great i i was so prepared just telling you all the truth i was so prepared for them to trade into the second round just be like i don't know guys have a good night like

hope you had some snacks and pizza but instead the build-up to, Will Levis still on the board. The fact they don't take him, which I do not think was a mistake, passing on Will Levis. I think they made the right pick. So I just can't tell you guys how much fun this was to interact with you, to see your comments and everything else, to read them. And you guys are hilarious as well. I couldn't put all the jokes on the board, but you guys are really funny as well. So thank you so much to everybody. You got a great wide receiver prospect, and you're going to get to see him pretty soon

when it comes to this season. And that will be very exciting. And guess what? We can still speculate about the quarterbacks for a long time, which will be great. So good night, everyone. Good night, Jonathan. Thank you so much. And we will see you guys again very soon.

Appreciate it, everybody.