Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Reacting to the Vikings training camp opening press conference

Episode Date: July 22, 2024

Matthew Coller and Dane Mizutani of the Pioneer Press talk about Kevin O'Connell and Kwesi Adofo-Mensah's comments on Khyree Jackson, Jordan Addison's DUI and the QB competition in camp Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hey everybody, welcome to another episode of Purple Inside. I'm Evan Collard here along with Dane Zitani of the Pioneer Press inside TCO Performance Center where we just finished up listening to Kevin O'Connell and Kweisi Doppelmensa give their opening remarks regarding training camp. remarks were mostly about Kyrie Jackson and how the team plans to honor him, how they dealt with that loss and how they will continue to deal with the loss of Kyrie Jackson. It's hard to have many takeaways or opinions on this other than just to say that it will clearly have a significant impact on Kevin O'Connell for a very long time to come. And they are doing everything they can resources-wise. They got players together right after it happened to talk about it, and they're trying to do everything they can to honor Kyrie Jackson. There's going to be a patch.

There's going to be some other things, and Kevin O'Connell and Kweisi Adafo-Mensah are going to his funeral. They're also going to have a celebration of life here in Minnesota for Kyrie Jackson. But it really, I thought in that room, you could feel the strain, the pain that Kevin O'Connell is going through. And both guys, O'Connell and Kweisi Dapflamenta talked a lot about just getting to know Kyrie Jackson. They said something that stuck with me that in their culture here inside the building, they work a lot on getting players to connect with each other and connecting from coach to player, which means that even though they were only together for a short period of time,

they got to know Kyrie Jackson very well. And Kweisi Adafomensa got to know him at the Senior Bowl and things like that. And it's very much felt, even though they weren't around him for that long, it is someone that they got close to really quickly. Yeah, I think you can tell just kind of how special of a person Kyrie Jackson was. We got to talk to him right after the draft, and you could tell that. But now hearing Kevin O'Connell, Kweisi Adafomensa talk about him o'connell quays is often meant to talk about him i'm sure how we'll hear his his teammates talk about him in the coming days you could just tell he was a really special person an incredible loss tragic loss gone far too soon i think what

this culture and this of this organization you know probably sets something like this up for is that there are going to be resources it's not going to have to be like we're football guys we're macho guys we can't feel like this team in this room and everything that they've kind of poured into it kind of sets it up to if if you're feeling a certain way feel it let's let's confront the feelings and and kind of kind of go forward together. I think Kevin O'Connell had a pretty good nugget in there, basically. Like, I want players as their head coach to see, like, yeah, I feel this. I'm grieving.

Because maybe it will give younger players permission to feel the same. And then what stuck with me with Kweisi and what he said was, you didn't hear like a cliche, we're going to honor, you know, his memory in a certain way that, you know, like a cookie cutter way of doing it. It was, we're just going to go do the work. We're going to continue to every day, you know, operate with a way and just kind of a joy that we saw Kyrie operate with. And that will be our way of honoring him. And I thought that was the most kind of organic, beautiful way of describing this is it's almost going to be like they're just going to try and embody the person he was and kind of move

forward because he was clearly such a special person who made such an impact in such a short amount of time. So incredibly tragic. I know we talked about that last week, but it kind of hammers it home that much harder when, you know, we're walking through the doors of this building, players are in this building now, and he's not. Yeah, I imagine it's hitting everybody hard. And Kevin O'Connell said that he addressed the team of just the players who reported early, a few days early today, 38 of them came in today. But normally he said he doesn't do that.

Normally he would just wait until everybody was here and then would go about talking to the team. But because of this situation, he decided that it deserved some extra commentary from him. And I was thinking today, Dane, that the strengths and weaknesses of this leadership were sort of on display in this press conference because the strength is when it comes to Kyrie Jackson and a tragedy like this, you would love to have Kevin O'Connell as your coach. He is a very empathetic person who has high emotional intelligence. He understands what players are feeling and how to communicate with them effectively. And when you listen to his commentary, it's worth going back. If you have a chance and listening to both of them talk just so eloquently about Kyrie Jackson, how hard it was to get that phone call, what it means, the people that have reached out around the league and so forth, and their plan to help and guide players through this. This is the coach that you want for this.

And at the same time, and transitions were very hard in this press conference, you almost have to stop and say, I'm sorry, but we have to move on to this other topic that is really pressing. And that is Jordan Addison. And this is where I don't think it is as much of a strength is we heard what I expected to hear from Kevin O'Connell and Kweisi D'Affomensa, that there was not, at least as of this moment, they did not announce any team discipline for Jordan Addison,

for his DUI, falling asleep at the wheel in Los Angeles. And I'm not shocked by this. Kweisi D'Affomensa used the words, we don't think in terms of discipline, which I thought was a pretty surprising comment considering the magnitude of what has happened off the field with Jordan Addison. There was a lot of, hey, there's a legal process. Hey, the NFL has their way of going about it.

And I expect when they start practice on Wednesday, and we will be here, that Jordan Addison will take all the first team reps as always. And Kevin O'Connell tossed in there how excited he is to have Jordan Addison back on the field, which I didn't think was a necessary comment, considering, again, that you had a player die in an incident that the police report says involved alcohol. And then you have a DUI

back to back pouring salt in the wounds of what everyone is dealing with. And it once again felt like, yeah, we're disappointed. And then what? Nothing really. And I don't know what to say about this because I think people are maybe expecting me to yell. This is their approach. Do I believe in it? Not really. No, I don't. I don't think just letting everything go and saying that's the NFL's problem for someone who is 22 years old, and I think you have an opportunity to send a message to this player

to put your arms around him, which they use that phrase, put your arms around him. I'm not sure that that's what works. Now, I, over the years, can't say that I have the perfect answer to preventing off-field issues. I don't know if Mike Zimmer did it right. I don't know if Kevin O'Connell's doing it right. I know it didn't work in this instance because it happened again. We're going to really go back to this moment and say, maybe putting your arms around and maybe believing in discipline might be a way to go in the future. I would have thought that having it happen again would have been a learning moment for Kevin O'Connell. But it is clear they have their way of dealing with stuff like this. And that's how they're going to approach it. Sort of hell or high water. And I don't know what else I'm supposed to say about it.

I don't, I don't agree with it. I don't think that this is the right approach to dealing with someone like Jordan Addison. This is how they're going to go about it. And there's not much else we can really say. Yeah. And I think the conversations we've had in the past or we had last week on

the podcast is, you know, I hope that it's different this time. And I think if it happens again, we can I hope that it's different this time. And I think if it happens again, we can hope that it'll be different next time. But if this moment in time on July 22nd, 2024 proved anything, it's that it probably won't be different next time either. Because to your point, this is just how, this is how they're going to roll with things like this and whether we agree with it or we disagree with it it's not going to change how they're going to

apparently handle things involving legal repercussions they're going to continue to defer to the nfl you almost were stopped in your tracks listening to Kevin and Kweisi talk about this because it was like, what's the point of a follow-up if you know they're just going to continue to parrot the same things that they've kind of been doing? It's clear any suspension is going to come rained down from the NFL, which Kevin O'Connell said a lot of times in this situation, that's the first step. And I

guess to a degree that's true. You let the league figure it out and then you kind of react accordingly. But I would push back and say, you don't have to. You could just say, we're incredibly disappointed in Jordan and a consequence of his actions is going to be, don't come to training camp for the first week. Clearly, that's just not how they roll. That's not how they operate. And it's hard because this gets into almost like a thought of like, what is the proper way to parent? And I'm not a parent. You're not a parent. But like, I do think if I ever become a parent or you ever become a parent, like, at some point, your kids, and Kevin O'Connell also harkened back to this today. Like, a lot of these players he feels in some way are his kids.

Like, but a lot of times your kids have to fear repercussion or have to fear some sort of consequence for their action. And I don't know if just saying publicly, like we're really disappointed in Jordan again is enough to make him fear any sort of consequence because it wasn't the first time. So maybe Jordan Addison is going to walk into this building and Kevin O'Connell is going to have a heart to heart with him. And he's going to express his disappointment in him. And then he's going to say, get right back out there on the field here

with the first team. And, like, that's the way it's going to happen, probably moving forward, things like this whenever they come up. I just hope nothing worse comes out of this down the road because I think this is how they're going to handle these things now and kind of for as long as they're in charge of the football team. So, yeah, they were disappointed in Jordan Addison for what he did. I think in a way I was disappointed in the way they kind of reacted today

because I thought at the very least there should have been something more than we're disappointed in him and now we're excited to kind of move forward and we'll take whatever punishment the league decides to do. Hey everybody. I know it's summer, but might I suggest a quick trip to Las Vegas to stop into circa sports book in Nevada,

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to get some sort of repercussion from the head coach on this team? Because when you consider the offense, the previous record, the age of the player, and the timing of it, just feeling so thoughtless and hurting everyone inside this organization even more. And then still the answer is the same as last year them as it is by me and by, I'm not sure, everyone else in the fan base or whatever it might be. I guess I can't speak for everyone. There are probably some people that say boys will be boys, but I don't look at it that way because we just went through a player dying in an incident on the road. So it's very hard for me to just say, yeah, you know what, you're right.

Get back out there, run some routes with no repercussion whatsoever. Now they haven't practiced yet. And so I can't say for sure that he will be taking first team reps. It's just my presumption since Kevin O'Connell did not announce any punishment. So I'll change my mind if there is something,

but we do have somewhat of something to look back on in the past with Jeff Gladney, where when he was arrested for a domestic violence issue, they basically told him to stay home and not up to training camp and they suspend him for the season or something like that. It just seems that if the message is whatever happens off the field to you is the NFL's problem and not my problem, that is a slippery slope or I don't know. Because I think when you're the head coach of the team, you're responsible for everything and everyone, regardless of whether it's your fault or not. When a player gets a DUI, it reflects on you. It reflects on how you approach that player. And they said, well, we talked to them about being great players, but also being great off the field. Whatever talk you had before didn't work because I have the results.

The results are in. It didn't work. So we're going to have a talk again. Is that going to work? Do I say the definition of insanity thing that everybody likes to say here when they've run out of things to say? And normally, Dane, I don't talk about hoping for things. I don't hope for anything.

Things are what they are. That's my approach in life. And with the football team, I don't hope they're good or hope they're bad. Whatever happens, happens. And I'll be here for it. I hope this never happens again with Jordan Addison. I truly do. And I hope this Jordan Addison. I truly do. And I hope this approach is right.

I truly do. I don't think that it has the best odds of being right. And I really, again, hope that Kevin O'Connell isn't looking back and regretting not sending a stronger message to Jordan Addison. And maybe some people can't be reached. I don't know. That's the end of it for me because I don't know what else to say at this point. I think differently about how this should be handled than they do,

and I hope they're right and I'm wrong. What else is there really to say? Because, like, that is – clearly this is just the way it's going to be, and me and you can disagree, and clearly we do disagree with how they're handling this but i i guess we're not going to be able to change the actual like actionable things they do to handle this um but i think it does need to at least be spoken about whether it's on this podcast written in a newspaper written online online. So it is kind of documented. This is not the way some people would handle this. Because I think there is a large

section of the fan base and maybe within the building probably thinking, this is not how I would handle this. So I think it's important to kind of give voice to that side of, you know, the spectrum because clearly the way that things are kind of operated here, it's on that other side of the spectrum of like, yes, I think there is some value into wrapping your arms around players and making them feel like a part of something. Because, you know, every NFL team, people come from millions of different walks of life and, you, and you just kind of have to work to one goal. But at a certain point, the wrapping your arms around something, it just kind of is hollow when there's nothing, no consequences to action. So I think you're right. What more can we say other than not how I would have handled it? But I guess we move on. And to your point, just hope that nothing like this happens again, because I don't want to be sitting here being like, told you, like, I don't want to be sitting here next year being like see i told you so like i i just hope that this is the right way of i hope the way that this plays out is with a good outcome

because i don't necessarily think the way it's being handled in present day is the right way to go about it all right so let me say one more thing about it and then we'll take a deep breath we will take a deep pause and then we'll talk about the football stuff. This is, as we said, it was going to be uncomfortable. It was uncomfortable. Every person I know knows someone who was hurt or killed in a drunk driving or person driving impaired accident. Every person you know,

I know someone from my high school who killed someone else on the roadways right after we graduated. Everybody, everyone watching, everyone listening, every single person knows someone. How often was it the first time ever that person did it? Almost never, right? You always hear, well, they were arrested 14 times, but they just kept letting them go. And then eventually they killed someone. I just wanted to make that point before we moved on that we kind of handle this way in society a lot. Well, you know, they just made a mistake back on the road for you. There aren't that many consequences to it and then it happens again deep breath not a whole lot new about the quarterback thing

i'm sorry there's no way a good way to do that what are we gonna do but o'connell said that they don't have a set depth chart and then sounded like he was going to kind of well actually us about what he said about Sam Darnold at the end of minicamp but then he didn't because Sam Darnold still is QB1 to start training camp absolutely nothing has changed the competitive nature and when it came to the plan to distribute reps it was each player has their individual plan and he alluded to the fact that Nick Mullins needs less work out there obviously they will not be putting a whole lot of focus on Nick Mullins but there wasn't some sort of oh wow he said this and revealed that unless I missed it I didn't think that there was any sort of revealing new information about how the quarterback situation is going to be approached,

except for the fact that he said essentially almost no matter what, they are only going to play J.J. McCarthy when he's absolutely ready to play. So I guess that's the place that I want to go is, do you believe that? I do believe that they are not going to play JJ McCarthy until Kevin O'Connell thinks he is ready to succeed in the NFL. I don't believe like all the words that it took to him to say that final. I don't believe like the, the winding road it took for him to get to that point of like JJ will not play until he's ready because like you said for him to get to that that point of the answer he talked about Sam Darnold and how he was the QB at the end of the spring and probably

will be the QB at the start of the summer, but JJ McCarthy might get first team reps and Nick Mullins this. And it was just a lot of words. So I believe that in their heart, like they're going to continue to operate how they've said all along with JJ McCarthy, that even if he looks great in training camp, and he might, he's not going to be, oh, well, he had five days of good practice in a row. We're starting him against the Giants. I think it's going to take a lot.

And I actually, you know, I think we did a percentage thing back in the spring, percentage chance that J.J. McCarthy starts. I'm still staying like 5%, 10%, because I think he's going to have to be so, so much better than Sam Darnold to ever do that. The only, like, illuminating part of what Kevin O'Connell did talk about today with quarterbacks, and it wasn't that illuminating, but I guess when I heard him say it out loud, it was like, okay, I guess that kind of makes sense. Was your point about Nick Mullins? That dude does not need reps. He really doesn't. Even if you know the season opener in in new jersey rolls

around and nick mullins is the backup quarterback he'll have been fine with whatever reps he gets in training camp he's played in the offense for two years he's thrown for a lot of yards he's thrown a lot of interceptions like you're not going to learn much more about nick mullins and the reason that was illuminating is because i think it does mean that we're going to see JJ McCarthy like a lot in training camp and maybe more with the ones like, and I think the reps will still lean and skew heavily towards Sam Darnold because I think deep down the Vikings believe Sam Darnold gives them the best chance to win this season. But I thought that was kind of an interesting, like, thrown-in nugget, and he kind of just blew by that stop sign too,

like while on his winding road to talking about how J.J. McCarthy won't play until he's ready. But Nick Mullins probably isn't going to throw the ball a lot in training camp, maybe in individual drills. But I think in team drills it's going to be Sam Darnold, it's going to be J.J. McCarthy figuring out what you have in both of them. Um, yeah, it's status quo. I mean, as we walked out of the building in the spring and as we walked back into the building in the summer, not much has changed. Um, and I, I don't think much is going to change throughout training

camp unless, like I said, JJ McCarthy looks so, so much better than Sam Darnold. Yeah. We kind of know the pivot point for this in the offseason, which is the joint practices in Cleveland. We're going. We're going to pod from Cleveland. It's going to be awesome. Maybe we can even get my friend Danny Cunningham on a pod. We played rec league basketball with our friend from Cleveland.

He can. Should I say publicly that he can't shoot? He can dunk. It's actually cool. If you don't know who we're talking about, then I'll just move on. So anyway, my, my former coworker, I think that with JJ McCarthy and the way that they set things up, there's a lot of the number two quarterback going against the number one defense. Now, this is something that didn't happen in the past with Zimmer. It's just a small wrinkle, but allows for J.J. McCarthy, I think, to get a lot of reps because what O'Connell

will do, and it's interesting, and I don't know that we've ever really asked him why he does this, but it'll be the first team offense versus the second team defense a lot. And I think that's to give guys on the second team defense a chance to sort of show what they can do or, hey, if you get in the game, you're not going up against backups you're going up against starters so let's put our third string corner up against Justin Jefferson and get him a little work they don't do it every time but they more and more reps than it used to be which would mean the number two offense versus the number one defense that's J.J. McCarthy versus the number one defense There will be a lot of reps of those. And McCarthy will be out on the field a ton.

And he'll throw a ton of passes. But Sam Darnold will likely go start to finish as the starting quarterback. I think. That's my projection as of right now. And I didn't get, because with O'Connell, one of the things we have to listen to, and here's why I think this, one of the things we have to listen to is what he doesn't say as much as what he does. So you have to go through all the lines of things that he's talking about and then go,

but what did he leave out here? What he left out was, I think JJ could win the job. If you think that JJ can win the job, you probably say at some point, hey, this is going to be good, folks. JJ might be able to win the job, you probably say at some point, hey, this is going to be good, folks. JJ might be able to win the job. And instead it was, we'll kind of veer all over the place, which is totally fine with me, considering his age, his talent, where we saw him at minicamp, the smart approach. But when you have to be saying, guys, I will not play him until he's absolutely ready. Well, that doesn't sound like he's very close to being ready, does it? That sounds like he's actually quite far away from being ready again, which is totally

fine and was my expectation. But as of right now, everything, and I agree with you said, Sam Darnold's going to be taking all those first team reps and then we'll see what happens. And if JJ McCarthy surprises us, then we'll have the conversation. Where I have less ability to fully buy into O'Connell's vow to never play J.J. McCarthy until he's ready is the two things. Number one, what if Darnold got hurt? Would you play Nick Mullins instead? I don't know about that. Number two is, last year we saw Nick Mullins throw four picks and Jaron Hall played. Are you telling me Jaron Hall was ready? Are you telling me that they didn't have a development plan

and everything else for Jaron Hall? No, it was the pressure of the season is wildly different than sitting in a press conference in a room with air conditioning and everybody just kind of being not under pressure and not strained and stressed. That's what will eventually happen if they struggle. You're right. And I guess that's a good clarification point because I do believe that they won't start J.J. McCarthy until he's ready for the season opener.

There's no way that they're going to be like four people in the organization want J.J. McCarthy and other people are saying no and some people are saying yes. Like Kevin O'Connell is not going to be like swayed to rush him into that role, into that spotlight. But you are right when you say like will that parameter – will those parameters exist if Sam Darnold stinks and the Vikings are 1-4 and Kevin and Kweisi are in year three of a four-year contract and you might just want to see what you have. And honestly, if they play J.J. McCarthy and they're worse, maybe you can have some, well, we you know and it took some struggles along the way uh yeah there might be a want to throw him into the fire if things go sideways with sam

darnold but for now i i do believe that they they don't want to do that um but you're right the pressure of the season and past knowledge serves like general wasn't ready to play that um but you're right the pressure of the season and past knowledge serves like chernal wasn't ready to play that game at us bank stadium and he did not because we were clamoring for it not because the fans were clamoring for it but because like holistically like there is a pressure cooker in the season of the nfl that we all do contribute to. And I think Kevin O'Connell felt that in that moment. And whether he admits it or not, it's a reason that Jaron Hall started when he wasn't ready. So if that pressure cooker bubbles up again,

if Sam Darnold struggles, and I want to believe in Sam Darnold. I think he could figure it out this year. So I'm not necessarily saying sam donald's gonna struggle at some point but if he does if the vikings struggle as a team yeah you might throw him in before he's ready by your standards um just because that's how that's how it works sometimes and and you saw what you had in nick mullins it's it's fine it's not great it's not something where you just drafted a quarterback 10th overall,

the highest in franchise history. What you saw from Nick Mullins last year is not enough to say, yeah, we'll keep doing that again. If Sam Darnold struggles, if the Vikings struggle, I think they probably blow through whatever plan they have and just throw J.J. McCarthy in. Folks, U.S. Cellular noticed that the way we use our phones has gotten ironic. We try to put our phones down for dinner, but the menu is on a QR code.

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Visit uscellular.com slash built for us to get started. And even though that sounds bad, I'm not sure that we know if it is or not. And I'll give you an example because I did an article where I looked at all the different possibilities and I gave them little nicknames like, and I'm not saying his knee will blow up, but like, what about if the Teddy Bridgewater thing happens where he doesn't start the season, but he gets in pretty soon. He doesn't have huge stats, but everybody loves him and things are looking up in the future, right? What if that happens? What if he turns into Jeff George and it's the funniest, most hilarious, amazing performance we've ever seen where he just throws the ball absolutely wild and Jefferson

catches everything and it's so fun or what if, what if, what if. So I went through all these different scenarios and I think one of them is the Justin Herbert situation where, well, he's not ready to go. We're going to have Tyrod Taylor start. Oops, their doctor was bad and jabbed him in the ribs and he couldn't play. And then Justin Herbert was amazing. Now, again, I'm not like guaranteeing that or anything because we don't know how it's going to play out. But a lot of times there is this penchant to kind of, well, we're going to protect him.

We're going to make sure he's fully ready and everything else. And then you put him out there and you go, oh, okay, well. And this happened with Buffalo and Josh Allen as well, where this first game right was his first start was against the Vikings when he jumped over Anthony Barr and won that game and he went on to have a six you know statistical season but then you saw all the tools and everything else you saw he could run the offense and with J.J. McCarthy we talked about this a little bit the other day about how I don't really care if he's inaccurate.

I just care that it looks like he knows what he's doing because the accuracy will come along as he grows. And there might be a scenario where that ends up happening. But as far as training camp, the final line on Kevin O'Connell's press conference is that nothing changed from what we heard before or what we saw before. So I don't feel any differently in also keeping the percentage low, but I'm not going to move my percentage either. I gave it a one in four chance, and I am going to give it a one in four chance because it is a long, hot summer. But let me ask you before we get to a couple other things,

TJ Hawkinson, Andrew Van Ginkle updates, which one of those scenarios do you think is the most likely? Do you think it is where Sam Darnold just plays the whole season and is a barrel of fun, everyone has a great time, and maybe you make the playoffs, maybe you don't. Or that McCarthy ends up getting in fairly quickly and then plays I don't know how. I think, at least to me, the more likely scenario

is that Sam Darnold plays the whole season. And I've kind of felt like that from the jump. I think if he does play the whole season, the Vikings could, at their peak, win nine games and maybe flirt with the playoffs. That also takes into account the other side of the coin, which is Sam Darnold in the past has been a turnover machine and he could continue to be a turnover machine but I think you know the infrastructure in place within the offense Kevin O'Connell

as the play caller Justin Jefferson as his number one receiver TJ Hawkinson who we'll talk about he will start training camp on pup but he's going to come back at some point jordan addison depending how long he gets suspended for he's going to be playing at some point like i think all of these things that go into the offense good offensive line great book great tackles it's just better than sam darnold has has ever had in his his nfl career and think because of that, the arm talent we see, like a coach that seems like really wants to invest in him and Kevin O'Connell, like, I think all of those things are going to be enough for him to take a step forward in his NFL journey.

Now, does that mean the Vikings are going to win 13 games and be dark or Superbowl contenders? No. Like, I don't think that reality really exists. I would be really surprised, I guess, if that's how it played out. But I think when you take into account everything Sam Darnold has at his fingertips now, the talent he has in that right arm, I think it's all going to be enough to justify the means of not playing that rookie quarterback before he's ready, before you're ready to throw him into that fire. I think it's why they spent $10 million on Sam Darnold. I think it's why we've heard Kevin O'Connell talk so glowingly about him, partially because he believes it, but partially as a former quarterback himself, I think he knows how important words are and encouragement and feeling like someone actually believes in you and has your back, especially like someone in Sam

Darnold who has kind of been passed around the league at this point. I think all the things combining together, it just would put me in a position to think most likely Sam Darnold just rides out this wave as the Viking starter for this year. And if they make the playoffs, if they go on a run, maybe he gets re-signed. If it's just a fun up-and-down year, thanks, Sam Darnold. We'll move on with J.J. McCarthy next year. Isn't it hard to decide which thing would be more entertaining? More fun. Because a part of me thinks that case Keenum

run was really wild. So we've seen it recently, the Jeff George, if you're on the older side, or even the Joe cap, if you're on the way older side, then the team goes to the super bowl. But the quarterback who you never expect to show up, especially with the playing style. This matters. If this was a game manager and they went eight and nine, uh, okay. Not a lot of entertaining moments. You just sort of keep the ball in play. You hope to win some close games. That's not what Sam Darnold is going to be. I was just going back and watching some Sam Darnold. He's crazy, man. He's crazy. He will, he will throw the ball just about anywhere at any time. And some of the completions are so fun and so crazy because you can't figure out how he got the ball out there with that level of velocity.

It's a lot of jump balls. And these receivers could be amazing at this. But then the other part is if Sam Darnold goes out after four weeks because he's just not good and J.J. McCarthy comes in and even looks like Teddy Bridgewater 2014 there will be a ton of belief and excitement about this team going into 2025 the games will probably be up and down some might be very good for him some sort of man like the game that Bridgewater played in 2014 against Atlanta you probably felt this is our guy, but then there were other times where he turned the ball over or just wasn't all that effective,

but they left 2014 with a lot of buy-in, a lot of belief. The team thought this is our guy. This is our franchise quarterback. That's better. There's no question. That's better. But the Vikings just have so many instances of this throughout their history

i kind of think that would be more entertaining the latter as far as jj mccarthy coming in no sam darnold oh yeah yeah that's the right answer like what would be more fun this gunslinger just throwing it around and going nine and eight like yeah that'd be more fun than jj mccarthy showing that like he's a good quarterback and they're going to be on an upper trajectory. Like that might be more fun for like the future of the franchise and probably, you know, our future covering the team. But in a vacuum each game, give me the Sam Darnold experience of throwing the ball around. We saw it with Nick Mullins and it was fun. Like it was fun last year watching him throw for 400 yards

and 100 interceptions, like, a game. So, yeah, I would take the road of more chaos almost always as someone who covers a team. I'm sure most fans would probably choose the J.J. McCarthy route, though, of knowing that the top 10 pick is ascending. Oh, yes, they would, but that's not, no,

no, no, give me the fun. This is devil and angel on the shoulders. This is like the angel saying, but you want McCarthy to be the franchise quarterback and the devil being like Jeff George season, throw it,

jump balls to Jefferson, 60 yard crazy passes off his back foot. We'll see how it plays out. I am very excited to cover this on a daily basis because what we think we know now oftentimes changes very quickly as we go along throughout the summer months. Just two more things that were brought up that we do need to mention. TJ Hawkinson will start on the pup. We knew that.

We don't expect him to play anytime soon. That was such a significant injury and a delayed surgery robert tunyon season baby we're gonna find out if the mini camp hype is either going to be something we laugh at in the past to go why did we all say robert tunyon or if he will be one of the really good stories of training camp. He could. He got 17 touchdowns the year he was Aaron Rodgers' tight end. In one year. I think he has 21 or something for his career. 17 of those came in one season.

I know because I had him on Fantasy. I thought he was like a godsend keeper. Turned out to just be kind of a mid-tight end. But he's gifted physically in a lot of ways. Is that the real stat, by the way? Is that real? 17 touchdowns. 17 touchdowns?

I didn't even look this up. Yeah, I think that's true. I think you're going to have to look that up. Is that right? Yeah, I can look it up. I don't have my phone. I'll look it up. You look that up.

Regardless, I think... That sounds crazy. Robert Tunyon has the physical tools, and we did see it. Let me look it up. Okay, look this up. I didn't think it was that many. I think it was. That sounds wild.

I think there were. That sounds wild. I think there were games where he would catch like three balls for three touchdowns. Okay. But he looked really good in minicamp. And he is the only one who lines up in multiple different positions. I am wrong. He caught 17 touchdowns for his career. Total. 11 in one year.

Okay. A lot. Okay. A lot. Okay. A lot. That sounded too crazy. 17 touchdowns would be like one of the best receiving seasons of all time. In my whole, anytime I talk about Robert Tunney and I talk about how he had 17 touchdowns. Well, either way, this man caught 11 touchdowns one year from Aaron Rodgers.

How many times have you told people this? Still pretty good. By the way. This is a completely wrong statistic. Yeah. You have you told people? Still pretty good. By the way, this is completely wrong statistic. Yeah. You know, does it doesn't, doesn't anyone I encounter?

Yeah. Robert Tony looks good. He caught 17 touchdowns one year. Regardless, 11 touchdowns is still pretty good. And I think with TJ Hawkinson starting, I'm thinking of all the radio interviews of stuff of all the hosts who are like, so give us a sleeper.

Wow, this Robert Tunyon got 17 touchdowns. You should actually, this is a great idea. I'm going to go with it. Start making up fake stats for every player they ask you about. You know, Aaron Jones' 2,000-yard season is one of the greatest years in history. Just totally fake stats. Well, you know, when Sam D darnold throw 50 touchdowns that one year actually the 17 is just on the edge of believable because i was like wait how many did

randy moss catch that year from from the patriot i thought it was like 17 or 18 you've got him catching a touchdown a game over but that's still he had like 100 catches and 17 were touchdowns with the packers so he has 250 catch seasons that is a absolute that's still, he had like a hundred catches and 17 were touchdowns with the Packers. So he has two 50 catch seasons. That is a absolute fact. That's the one I've been using when people ask one, that's actually true. I never thought of just making up, you know, this is what you do. If somebody asks you at a very inopportune time, come on our show at 10 30 at night.

Okay, great. But all the stats are going to be wrong. That's true. Thank you. Thank you for fact checking. Yeah. 10.30 at night. Okay, great, but all the stats are going to be wrong. That's true. What was the point? Thank you for fact-checking that. The point generally stands he's talented, and we saw that in the spring. And I think the Vikings are going to need him to be at least a contributor. I guess they love Johnny Munt, Josh Oliver.

If he's not fumbling the ball, it has has shown he can be, like, a decent receiver. But I think they need a little bit more. I think they want to use two tight ends more often this year too. And I think TJ Hawkins is obviously going to come back. And you would assume with the way that ACLs have just, like, moved forward in the medical world, like recovery from ACLs, they just barely even hinder you anymore like sometimes your knee comes back stronger because of it like i think he's going to be fine but i think in the interim of him not playing um they're going to need a little bit of

spark at the position and robert tunyon might be that guy you're right though. Like we could be sitting here in mid to late August being like Robert Tunyon, deep stinks. Um, but he, he popped in the spring. And I think that's enough for me to be intrigued heading into the summer. So now I'm going to have to fact check everything.

Do knees really get stronger after? I know this one because Derek Rose tore his ACL. Now we're going to go off the rails, but he tore his ACL a bunch of times, but he did say before he tore it again, like he did feel himself jumping higher because you, you coming back from it because of the rehab you do in your knees, the way it gets surgically repaired. This doesn't sound right. We're going to need a doctor to tell us this. Maybe it's like the Tommy John surgery where the guy's arm basically gets a year long rest.

And then he feels better because he's been throwing all the time. Derek, there's no way Derek Rose jumped higher after an ACL. He's one of the best leapers of all time. We're going to need a doctor. Someone leave in the comments as a doctor. Cause now I just don't trust anything that I hear from you. Last thing, Andrew Van Ginkle sounds like he's going to be fine,

that he will work in slowly after he missed minicamp. He had a foot injury that kept him out of OTAs and minicamp, but that was from last year. Still recovering. Should be ready to go. Sounds like a little bit of a slow ramp up, which could mean a lot of Dallas Turner. Andrew Van Ginkle is probably the really good player that we've talked about the

least because there was just so much going on. Aaron Jones is here, quarterback, Gernard, and then this long-haired dude from Wisconsin. In most off seasons, this would be a big signing. We'd be talking about, well, let's get our first look at Andrew Van Ginkle out there. A very interesting player for training camp in my mind because he does handle a lot of different roles and where they put him and what he does getting a sense of that will be something I'm keeping an eye on yeah I think he's someone you talk Swiss army knife and he's he's definitely the definition of that because he can do so many things from whatever position like I guess we would consider him an edge rusher,

but he's played all over the field in Miami in the past. So I think, like you said, just getting to see how Brian Flores kind of uses him in the defense, I think there's going to need to be an acclimation process. And I think they're going to give him kind of a slow ramp way to being a part of that first team reps on defense. But when he is, I think it'll be interesting to just kind of see kind of everywhere he's used on the field. Not obviously the same type of player as Josh Metellus, but having two guys at, I guess, the top and the bottom levels of your defense,

being able to just move everywhere is going to make your yourselves really hard to to scout against for the for opposing offenses. So he could be someone who by the end of the summer, we're looking at is like, this guy's gonna be a really, really important player for them. I think we kind of knew that when they signed him in free agency, because they were they were so aggressive after, you know, going after him. But he has kind of taken a backseat to a lot of these other players. Maybe in a month here we'll be talking more about him because he is a good player and he can play everywhere. Well, he also broke the sack record. That's TNU.

Pow. Collar with the home run. Right there. Okay, before we wrap up then Wednesday, assuming that I find the email to where we're supposed to get our camp credentials, which I was struggling with earlier today, but if I get that and I find it and we're there on Wednesday,

I assume we will be. What is your general feeling finally walking back out on that field for training camp? For me, it's going to be the fresh air. Everything is different. Everything. And it felt that way the day that Cousins left. And it felt that way the day that McCarthy was drafted. But watching him in OTAs in minicamp, it doesn't feel real yet.

There's no fans out there. You're so far away from the season. You're kind of trying to figure out some takeaways. Oh, look, he seems to throw the ball pretty hard. I don't know. They're not really running plays. They're not really in pads, playing physical, playing on time, just sort of learning. But now it's real. And I think that that hot wind that's

always blowing out there is going to hit us in the face with this is really a new franchise from what it was just a year ago. That's my feel. Totally. That's the only answer is that for the last six years, it's been, you know, exactly who's going to be the guy under center. You know, pretty much exactly how the whole entire season is going to play out. They're going to be pretty good. They're not going to be good enough to win the Super Bowl. And that's just kind of how it is. Ready? Break.

Now in the July, I have no idea. This team could be bad. This team could be surprisingly good. It will likely operate somewhere in the middle of those two spectrums, but I'm excited to find out where they fall in that line because, like I said, in the past, we've known kind of how the thing's going to go. We've known almost everything from the offensive standpoint, how it's going to run. I just think whenever there's a quarterback change, it's always going to inherently be the big story of the offseason, of training camp, of preseason, and then obviously of the regular season.

But yeah, I think we're all of a sudden six-ish weeks away from real, real football. You know, a little less than two months. And I think every day of training camp that goes by, as we can kind of have these fun, who looked good, who looked bad. In the spring, it's like, who looked good? Doesn't really matter. Now it's like, who looked good? It matters. The game's in like 25 days. So yeah, it's fresh. It's new. I'm excited.

I'm going to try and sneak in some other made up stats just along the way, whenever I'm on podcast, radio interviews throughout the summer and see what happens. I like this bit though. I like this bit because we podcast all the time. So when you reference a stat, are you telling the truth?

This is like a to tell the truth game to tell the truth about whatever stat you're bringing up because i think we could do some fun stuff but and and then we might um never forget where you were when when dane told you that robert onions scored 17 touchdowns i'm excited to watch him too i just want to know how many times you said this and no one went wait a minute i would have remembered if he scored 70 touchdowns say something with conviction people believe you so well we have rob gronkowski kellen winslow uh you know tony gonzalez here at the fourth tight end to start training camp anyway well we are very excited we'll be out there every single day roasting the sun coming back in here doing a ton of podcasts live shows and everything else as we always do and there's

just storylines at almost every single position and i can't wait to break them down so that's the feeling going into it football is upon us everyone we're finally here goodbye football