Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Reaction to Danielle Hunter reworking his deal and pie charts with ESPN's Courtney Cronin

Episode Date: June 14, 2021

Matthew Coller opens the show with an emergency reaction to Danielle Hunter news. NFL Network is reporting that he will be at mandatory minicamp. What does that mean for his current contract situation? How do we expect his "situation" to be resolved? Plus Matthew connects with Courtney Cronin of ESPN to talk about who's playing on the opposite side of Hunter, whether Irv Smith Jr. is set for a big year and how much coverage will be focused on Kellen Mond. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hello and welcome to another episode of Purple Insider presented by Scout Logistics. Matthew Collar here along with you. And believe it or not, I had recorded a podcast this morning with ESPN's Courtney Cronin, in which we talked about the Daniil Hunter situation. And since recording the podcast, as so often happens to me with every bit of Vikings breaking news, this came out after we recorded that podcast, which you'll hear the rest of it and not the Daniil Hunter parts after I tell you about the news, which is James Jones of NFL Network reporting that sources have told him Daniil Hunter will be in attendance for

minicamp. So the rest of the conversation with Courtney in which we talk about who's playing defensive end across from Daniil Hunter, we talk about some of the coverage, media coverage that's going to happen throughout Mandory minicamp and training camp. And even there's some kicker talk thrown in there, I think. So we'll get to that in just a minute, but let me give you my take first here in sort of an emergency podcast fashion on Daniil Hunter showing up to mandatory minicamp. Along the way during this, I'm going to finger quote it, controversy or finger quote it situation with Daniil Hunter that began last October with an Ian Rappaport tweet saying that Hunter wants to be the highest paid player in the NFL at his position, or he wants to be traded. Since then to right now,

there has been almost nothing in terms of reporting involving Daniil Hunter. He has not said anything publicly. The only thing that he's done is put out things on Instagram showing that his muscles are still extremely excessively large. And the Vikings have continued their line of, yep, we expect him to be here. We expect him to show up. And so I think what we have here is a sign that this is going the way it usually goes with contract issues between Vikings players and the Minnesota Vikings. So here's an example. Last year at training camp, we didn't know if Delvin Cook would end up with a contract extension at some point.

He was clearly pushing for it. His agent was pushing for it big time. And the Vikings dragged their feet throughout the summer. And eventually we got right before week one and Delvin Cook signs his contract extension. Another example would be Kyle Rudolph signing his extension after a few different media sessions with Kyle Rudolph in which he said there are other teams that want to trade for me and so forth. And he eventually got his extension and they worked it out. So I think what recent history tells us, this even goes for Anthony Barr. Barr went and signed with the Jets and then comes back and says, no, actually, I want to stay with you guys. And the Vikings, instead of going, we'd really like that cap space. They said, all right, come back. We'll work it out with you. And even this year, they worked it out with him to stay

rather than cutting him. So this has been very much the Vikings line of thinking of let's keep the players that are good and let's make sure they're happy and we work out their deals. So that doesn't mean that it's all set with Daniil Hunter.

It only means that the arrow is now pointing very much in the direction of getting a contract worked out with him that can work for both sides. So trying to project this is a little bit difficult, but the main issue for Daniil Hunter has to be that he only has $3.3 million guaranteed on the whole rest of his contract

and his cash over the next three years is way, way, way below the industry standard for top pass rushers from the Vikings perspective, though, I'm sure they don't want to say here's three years guaranteed when he has a herniated disc and he's coming off surgery for that. And they just had to trade away another player who had a major neck injury in Mike Hughes that did not work out because of it. So I'm sure that

they can find a middle ground here between Hunter wants to get the same type of money Joey Bosa has or somewhere in the ballpark. He wants to be much more close to the industry standard for top players. Right now he's scheduled to make, I believe, $12 million in cash each of the next three seasons or 12 and change. That's not what even guys like Frank Clark, who aren't that good, are going to make. So you can see Daniel Hunter's issue, even though he signed this contract back in 2018, but things change and these contracts can be torn up and thrown out the window and everybody knows it. So for the Vikings, I think it's wise of them to try to work something out in the middle, especially because if you look at the defensive line, he is so important to them that they can't say, sorry, Daniil, go fly a kite. You're not in a situation where you could say that because there just isn't another guy like Daniil Hunter that you can go out and acquire. They tried to do that last year with Yannick

Ngakwe. That did not work out. So instead of going to code orange from code yellow, which is kind of the comparison I would make is like the meter going up into the orange. If Hunter did not show up for mandatory minic camp, I think we stay in the yellow here. Things are not resolved. It's not over. He doesn't have his contract extension and we'll see what ends up happening there. But now everything is going toward,

okay, he's going to figure this out. And it would not be a surprise if on the first day of training camp, we hear, hey a Daniil Hunter has this new contract will be interesting to see at mandatory mini camp. What Daniil Hunter actually does. Is he participating? Is he out there?

A couple of years ago when Anthony Barr was going through kind of the same thing with his contract issue and the Vikings, he got insurance so he could show up to OTAs. And that was one of the reasons that he had missed, I think, a day or two days was that he was getting insurance. And that might be the case with Daniil Hunter, where he gets some sort of huge insurance package. So just in case he gets hurt participating in minicamp, I don't know if that's what he's done and we have not heard from him. It will be very interesting to see if we do hear from him and if he downplays this last number of months or if he acknowledges, yeah, there's a bit of a contract issue there and we're going to have to see how we work it out. But no longer are we in okay Daniil Hunter is hovering his thumb over the big red button of

I'm going to sit out training camp this says to me that they'll get this worked out Daniil Hunter will eventually be here for training camp be here for this season and then the storyline switches to how does he look as he comes back from his neck injury on a daily basis in training camp and And then when we get to the season, there's going to be two players on the defensive line who did not play at all last year who now are being asked to play a huge number of snaps. So that storyline has the potential to go away. It doesn't, again, mean that it's over. And I think maybe part of it is Daniil Hunter already lost out on a hundred thousand dollars for a workout bonus. If the Vikings said, no, we will find you if you don't come here.

And it would be, I think 90 something thousand a day. Well, maybe he didn't want to lose that much money when it comes to taking on those fines until he has to. But I, I just can't see this now, him showing up for mandatory minicamp. I just can't see this now staying super contentious throughout the entire summer and ending up in somehow Daniil Hunter being traded. This team does not want to trade

Daniil Hunter. They don't have incentive to trade Daniil Hunter. And after investing so much on the defensive side, it would be weird. When we talked about it earlier in the offseason, sure, there was a case for it of, hey, you're revamping your defense.

Why don't you add a couple draft picks? But with a team that really needs to win this year, with Zimmer, who really needs to turn around this defense, you also wonder if Mike Zimmer went to the front office and said, no more screwing around with Daniil Hunter. Let's get it worked out. Now, what that could look like, we'll see. My guess would be that the Vikings, they just have a tendency to always allow themselves an out of any of these contracts or something that could be reworked. So I would guess that however it gets worked out, that they can get out of it after 2022. That's just, that's like my prediction now that we get an announcement on the first day

of training camp, that the Neil Hunter has reworked his deal and, or we find out through, you know, Ian Rappaport or something, but sometime before camp or early in camp that that's worked out and that the deal ultimately takes them through 2022, but does not lock them in farther than that.

And then we get maybe, you know, Rick Spielman saying, we want to make sure every player gets what they're worth here. And there is past precedent for this being Adam Thielen, that he clearly outperformed his contract. They made sure they took care of him. And I think if you're a Vikings fan, this is a thing to kind of hang your hat on a little bit that even though they have made some mistakes with money, you can never look at them. And this has been the case in other places in this town. And even with this franchise in the past, you can never look at them now and say they're cheap because they're they're definitely not.

That is not the case. And so I wouldn't declare this saga over if it even is a saga just yet, just because he's going to be here. I really want to see what he does. If he's out there for every snap, then we certainly will have a different feeling than if he's just standing off to the side. But if you're a huge Daniel Hunter fan, this is, I think, a good day for you because it means this thing is going in the direction that has him playing defensive end for the Vikings this year.

So, all right, I'm going to bring you now the rest of the conversation that I had with Courtney Cronin, starting with asking her for a pie chart of who is going to be playing across from Danielil Hunter. Always appreciate everyone listening here to Purple Insider, Courtney Cronin. Hey, everyone. Summer is here and you're trying to get out on the golf course. But if you're like us here at Purple Insider, spending all day golfing isn't always an option. That's why you need to check out Birdie Golf in Woodbury.

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If Daniel Hunter returns and they work it out, which I still am maintaining that they will starting opposite him. I'm going to give you three options here. So get the math wheels turning. Is it DJ Wanham, Stephen Weatherly, or defensive end unknown? Give me pie chart percentages on that. Because like you said, we didn't really get a feel for that in OTAs. No, you're right.

And there was times where they were moving Steven Weatherly around. I know that the first OTA, you had noticed that they were using him as a standup, like using him to stand up and rush the passer. Then other times he put his hand in the dirt, like he's done both. I mean, he was, he was an outside linebacker, I believe at Vanderbilt. So he has the experience to do a number of different things where he's going to rush the passer from, but experience wise, knowing the scheme wise, he's probably the most, I guess, just your easiest, um, easiest wager right there in terms of odds. But, um, I would say that the order in which it could go would be defensive end to be named later, Steven Weatherly. And then did you say DJ Wanham? So I guess I'll put it

percentage wise. I'll go 50% for defensive end to be named later, 30% for Steven Weatherly, and then 20% for DJ Wanham. And the reason I have it that high is because something's got to happen with this team. I mean, their draft class is basically all signed. You're not worried about that at this point. They've got over 14 million in cap space there are still some pass rushers available out there now I know if you read anybody's off season um you know who's still available best of you know best free agent available you're gonna see a lot more guys that are like interior pass rushers like I know Gino Atkins has been linked here why because of Mike Zimmer solely because of Mike Zimmer.

But I don't know why they would – I mean, you're not going to overpay for guys at this point. This is where you can get guys on very inexpensive deals, sign them right before camp. And if you feel like you just don't have what you need at that position, right now is a chance that you have to go out and just get somebody who doesn't have a lot of other options. You don't have to overpay for them so and you still have an upgrade over potentially a Stephen Weatherly or a DJ

Wanham so I think it's very possible that they go and get somebody like if you're talking about like what's the next position or what is the position they end up spending on in free agency the remainder before camp I think it's got to be somewhere on the defensive line like you would kind of feel like it'd be overkill at this point if you get another defensive tackle because haven't we been told that they don't need a penetrating three technique i thought they have said that to you for whatever reason i don't know so then so then why are you gonna go get gino atkins why are you gonna go get an interior pass rusher i mean so there there are defensive ends out there um i you know i just don't know like what as far as the price,

you'll be able to afford it. But, like, what else would they do? Maybe a wide receiver. I don't think they'll go after anybody on the offensive line, not at this rate. But we'll see. It's interesting. I mean, there's definitely – of any position that they still have to fix, that's the one.

Because, you know, they've you know they've gotten corners like Bashad Breeland was their last you know they're you know another shot for them to land somebody to fix the secondary so not a bad um not a bad play if you're them with 14 million you know in available cap space to go get somebody else doesn't the uh basha breland signing or breezy as he wants to be known as um doesn't it say that they kind of get it more than they got it last year like last year at least i'm gonna sit with this until they do something else that's wild and surprises us all because that's always possible right but last year they had about five different spots where we were asking in training camp hey are you concerned about your depth there at say defensive tackle or corner or

whatever and we got a bunch of I don't know if you guys understand football but no and of course that ended up being their undoing last year wasn't it wasn't so much the starting defense it was the second team defense of guys who could not fill in those spots when players got hurt or when things didn't work out for like say Holton Hill for example which god it feels like 5,000 years ago that Holton Hill was starting at corner for the Minnesota Vikings but it feels like an acknowledgement like yeah last year we probably should have signed some of those cheap guys that were just sitting out there going into training camp to give us a little more depth at some of these positions that that's what they've done there I don't see why they

wouldn't do it someone like Justin Houston who could play 30 percent of the snaps or Olivier Vernon who I'm not sure where he is in his recovery from his injury, but is a really good player when he's healthy. Or even Adrian Claiborne, who's like a veteran journeyman pass rusher. I don't understand why they wouldn't go with one of those guys. And then look, if you've got to cut all your bait on Jalen Holmes and, you know, Hercules Monop, like who cares? I mean, none of these guys are impact players to begin with uh I think that makes a lot of sense so I'm gonna agree and say that there's a very high chance that someone else comes in though I still would go probably Stephen

Weatherly is the starter I I think maybe I'm like a situational guy it depends who they who they bring in. Cause I mean, is that person going to be like, how much better is that person than Steven Weatherly? How much of an upgrade is it? Is it somebody that you bring me in as third down pass structure basis? I don't know. You know, some of the names that you had mentioned, I mean, Ziggy and saw still out there.

Like it's at an upgrade over Steven Weatherly. If they went that route. Yeah, probably. But when are you bringing him him in it was before training camp that you then you have a battle that that becomes one of your bigger position battles assuming daniel's here because if he's not here you're signing somebody if he is here you're still signing somebody but it just becomes like that much more of a crisis if he's not here and you're having to figure out both defensive end spots okay pie chart on this one who is it that everyone is talking about at the wide receiver position by the end of mandatory minicamp because every year it's somebody every year that we see three practices in a row and one guy whether it's Davion Davis or Jordan Taylor, sometimes the player is good, but not those times.

Who are we talking about? I'll give you just nominations would be Amir Smith-Marset, Wap Filer, or- Fillier. Fillier, sorry. Or my Indiana guy. He's going to have to earn me getting his name right. Yeah, he is.

But I don't know. I saw something the other day. I actually kind of laughed about it. Like someone who had not been at practice was just like raving about Amir Smith from our set. Somebody who was writing. And I was like, excuse me. Here's the thing. I want to put all of those percentages that are not available for TBD.

Because even Chad Beebe, who has been your wide receiver three in training camp, excuse me, in many OTA practices, like just because of sheer numbers and what they're doing with their formation and keeping things very, very basic. It's an offense that works out perfect right now, but all you need to do is run two receiver sets. But it's – I'd probably go ahead and say, like, the other – I'd take the field over any of those names that you mentioned just for right now because no one has stood out, even, like, your veteran guy like Chad Beebe.

And then you wonder kind of, okay, is B.C. Johnson done at this point? Like, he hasn't done anything to really impress you. But granted, there's just, like, not a whole lot going on there. So I'll probably go – I'll probably go the field. I'll call it the field. I'll take the field at like 50%. I'll take a WAP failure at like 25 and then 25 with Amir Smith-Marset because honestly, this is the one position group that, sure,

there should be some buzz around like, okay, who's going to be wide receiver three because that person's also probably going to be doing punt or kickoff return or having some sort of duties on special teams i mean that's why they ended up drafting amir smith-marset because of some of his return availabilities i know it's not receiver but kene awangu is the same way as a as a kickoff returner they've got to figure out those battles. That's going to determine, I think, how they fill out their receiver depth chart. That's kind of always been the case here. They're a team that relies heavily on special teams play

to fill out who the remainder of their receivers are. I don't know if that's always the smartest move, but that's just the way that they do things here. So is Beebe that guy? Maybe. I mean, he's got the experience doing it and and they're probably doesn't feel like they're going to be looking towards the cornerback group the way they have in the past to bolster some of that that return depth just the way they had with mike hughes

but it's a receiver running back that's going to fill out those roles and that'll determine who is wide receiver three and four and five because Because I honestly don't feel that they're going to keep more than five on the active roster. I really don't. Yeah, I agree with you. And I also think that the field is probably the right choice, except for I'm just not sure who that's going to be based on OTAs. I know.

There could be a late signing. That's another one. If you had to give me positions of how I think they're going to spend the remainder of their money for agency,'d be defensive line wide receiver for wide receiver three and then maybe offensive line maybe find another veteran swing tackle to bring in or guard yeah i oh i think they should still do that It's sort of surprising that they haven't. But there I was going to circle back. There is a cottage industry on the Internet of picking a random late draft picker, undrafted free agent and saying they're good, like with no actual reason to say that. And then, you know, it's not even just not even just the Mr. Mankato odds that we all have to pick before training camp starts and see if we were right. It's just some of the stuff I've seen, I'm like, wait, how did you know that? Or where did you come up with that? Because he has literally done nothing since the practice in the practices

we've seen. So unless you want to blow me away, I mean, weren't we all saying the same thing, or at least fighting off the notion that Jordan Taylor was any good during training during mandatory mini camp two years ago same thing with Davion Davis I mean there's always somebody at that position who pops up these three days and it'll be interesting to see who it is this year but I mean Watt Fillier had a good catch last week if I remember correctly in the red zone period um but it's like that's the type of thing I'm trying to remember like okay well BB took the reps in the slot with the ones here and then this day Watt Fillier did that's it there's just not that much to go off of because I mean everything's like okay well bb took the reps in the slot with the ones here and then this day what failure did

that's like there's just not that much to go off of because i mean everything's so boring and basic right now and they're not really opening up the chance for a lot of guys to grab hold of those roles but give it time and one of those guys is going to emerge and in many camps a good time to actually see some of that when you get into the 11 on 11. Right. That's when we see a lot more of real practicing than OTAs. And that's where usually somebody emerges. It doesn't generally mean a whole lot, but at least they set themselves up. Isaac Frick D did this years ago where Mike Zimmer and his, I think final press conference of many camps that, you know,

Isaac Frick D looked pretty great. And so I, an idiot picked him for mr mancato and he dropped the first three passes in the first preseason game and it was over so you know that that's how it goes i just think it's funny that you know there's this there's like been only udo buzz for years on the internet like i don't know guys i don't think it's gonna happen uh but anyway so here's here's one that I've seen speaking of internet. It became quite a headline on the net amongst fantasy football folk that Mike Zimmer said, and this wasn't even this week,

it was actually like a couple of weeks, but I don't know where this, this kind of came from that. He said something about Irv Smith's role, not changing. Now I felt like that was kind of a Mike Zimmer blow-off. Whereas, like, Mike, do you think his role would be different? And Mike's like, no. I mean, and also, he might be referring to the final four games of the season. He was the starter.

So his role might not be different from that. And then he said, all right, well, now Tyler Conklin's got to kind of come into the limelight because he hasn't been a starter before Irv has played a very high percentage of their snaps pretty much every game that he's been in of his career so I think that was Mike's point but the fantasy folk uh are very concerned about this because they're worried about target share and usage and the whole thing I totally understand it when I asked Mike that question I was asking about the change in you know it's just kind of the general, like, what more is going to be expected of him this year? Because when they drafted him in 2019, the clock started ticking on Kyle Rudolph's future.

We knew that it was only a matter of time. And I think a lot of people were surprised even that year that they didn't move on from him. I mean, they ended up reworking his deal and, you know giving him more money front and then they're gone and you know they're able to come two years later um they could have started the clock on him then but knowing what we know now of like oh Irv was swimming and you know all these things that Gary Kubiak could use to describe just how hard it is to play that position especially in this offense when you're asked to block and you're asked to do a lot of things that he didn't have to do at Alabama, it was probably the right call for them to slow play that as much as possible. And then sure, he dealt with some injuries last year, but when you put him

into the starting lineup, the last four games of the season, because Kyle Rudolph was dealing with the Liz Frunk, that showed you, okay, the offense is in good hands with, with Smith and Conklin. Now what Zimmer was saying, I think it's just kind of a, you know, it's just kind of, I don't want him to change what he's doing. You know, his role is not changing that much. Okay. We understand that, but it is changing that much. Like he's going to be, and that's the thing we talk about wide receiver three. I know that we've mentioned this many times before,

like this offense is predicated on heavy tight end targets, at least the system that Kubiak and Shanahan created that we've mentioned this many times before, like this offense is predicated on heavy tight end targets, at least the system that Kubiak and Shanahan created that we anticipate this being very similar this year with Clint Kubiak taking over your top tight end could also be your number three receiver, just in terms of where the ball's going. So that's something that I anticipate being Irv Smith Jr's role. And I don't think anybody, any fancy players need to freak out about that.

Now what Zimmer was saying about it's going to be different for Tyler Conklin, Tyler Conklin's going to be asked to block a lot. Like, I mean, and he's great, like, too. He can be a good set for you on down, short yardage situations, all of that. His role is going to probably end up being a very heavy blocker, which is something Kyle Rudolph didn't want to do. He wanted to catch the ball. He wanted to be your red zone target he wanted to be all these things

and tyler conklin will have a role now that's going to free up herb smith to do a lot more especially if they're using these two tight end sets at a pretty heavy clip uh you mean kyle rudolph the former swing tackle is what uh he described himself as yeah that's how he felt that's how he felt at the end of last year. So pie chart this one for me then. Target share between Tyler Conklin and Irv Smith. Of the total targets that go to tight ends, what percentage do those two end up with?

65-35. I think that's fair. That should add up to um 100 so 65 for erv smith and 35 for tyler conklin i like it i think i'm i mean it would be like nitpicky what came to my mind though was 70 30 that i just don't think that tyler conklin is stealing all of these uh targets unless Irv Smith ends up getting hurt. We also heard from Clint Kubiak and I know that Clint is sort of towing the

line and doesn't want to say too much, but the one thing where he actually got excited was talking about Irv Smith. And I think Irv looks noticeably bigger as you said to him, he said, Irv, are you bigger? He looks bigger. He looks better. And Clint Kubiak said that he came back in phenomenal shape, so they noticed it too. He looks like a true tight end now,

not like somebody who's going through the process of transitioning from a wide receiver hybrid type position that a lot of college tight ends look like to a true NFL tight end. He looks thicker bigger stronger which is huge for this offense because as we know he's not just going to be sent out while catch passes or wind up as an inch back like they will use him to block because that's just that's what they these tight ends have to do when you have a running game that's as strong as the minnesota vikings like that's what they're called on to do you got to be big enough to do that and handle it

yeah that's right. And I think he's done a fair job over his first two years and he can get better in that area. Okay. So words written through mini camp and training camp on Kellen Mond versus Kirk cousins percentages on those. Because I mean, I, this doesn't mean to be a leading pie chart but i feel like there's going to be more words written about the second third fourth quarterback

than there will be about the starting quarterback when it comes to training camp and minicamp because there are people who don't want to believe right now that jake browning's your guy your quarterback too and i and i'm with you like i'd have, I have a hard time seeing it. Like, sure. If, if camp ended today and they're starting the season, that's your best option, but you didn't draft this guy with a third round pick and not have him to not have him be available on game day. Should you need him? Or even if they wanted to create some sort of goal line package, anything for him to integrate him into this offense. I just can't see how that doesn't change over the next two months before we get to the regular season. But with all that said, words written,

total words from everybody. Yeah. Just the percentage of words written about Mon percentage of cousins. Okay. I thought you meant like total word count number. I'm not asking you to guess the exact number. I'm going to guess that honestly, it's going to be like 80, 20, and it's going to be mostly on Mond of like, is he the guy? Can he supplant Kirk cousins? You know, when does he, when does it click for him?

Because we've heard from Kirk and talking about, you know, last week when he was mentioning how he's approaching this, because it's always a weird situation when you have like your starting quarterback, your veteran guy in a spot where he has to like, bring a new guy along. And like, usually it's not a big deal. Like if it's a Nate Stanley or Jake Brown and you know, they're never going to threaten Kirk Cousins for his job. Well, Kellen Mond isn't threatening Kirk Cousins for his job,

but the optics of having a third round pick in there and being like, all right, you train potential replacement is always a little difficult to talk about. So I think that, you know, Kirk, the way that he's approached it, at least what he's talked about is he doesn't feel any pressure whatsoever, nor should he, but it is kind of his responsibility at this point, at least he's talked about it that way, bring him along to provide whatever kellen mond would need but you know that that'll be something where it's a tired storyline for those of us who actually cover this team and are there every single day and like see it and understand it but it's not you know to people who are on the outside being like oh can he suppl he supplant Kirk Cousins? Absolutely not this year.

In the future, who knows? But it'll be written about quite a bit, probably until the halfway point of the preseason when training camp becomes preseason. Then people are like, eh. If he's not the backup by week three of the preseason, then there's a serious problem, in my opinion. Folks, if you are pumped up about how the Vikings did in the draft and now the schedule

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mile for your company. I 100% agree with that. Because I assume that the third one is going to be treated like the fourth one. Yeah, it's true if jake browning starts that and then it's all aboard the browning bus and uh everyone is going to like you said i mean kind of be in freak out mode a little bit that the guy that you drafted couldn't be the backup and there's a scenario where that happens if he can't master the offense we know mike zimmer is going to go with who he trusts and i feel like at that point there's going to be these raging debates again over the backup quarterback when it doesn't matter and that's the thing with mond is he's got to show us that he matters at some point like right now we don't know and he's the fourth quarterback and whatever and we'll see that's a storyline for minicamp is does he get some of those second and third team reps as opposed to just mixing in

he has not got a single second team rep not from what i can tell from the beginning of ots till till now he's been even like you know you know i love what we call it like oh just first second third team like he's the four-string quarterback. Like, I know they've been mixing second-team reps between – it seems like Browning has kind of grabbed hold the last two OTAs of, like, more of those reps. But Mond has gotten in in seven-on-seven and 11-on-11, like, with the very last bottom of the barrel of the crew. And I know that you don't – you do it first through third

because you don't have that many offensive linemen to create a fourth team. But he is a fourth team quarterback in every sense of the word right now because he's still grasping the offense. It's very much in its base form and not very complicated, but he doesn't look comfortable right now. And that's probably a byproduct of just how much is being thrown at you, what you have to do with it. Like you can't fault him for that, but like, I'm just being very realistic that he's got a long way to go before he's even like remotely scratching backup quarterback territory. Right. And so that's why all the words written about Kellen Mond will sort of be for not a little bit. I mean, there's a part of,

there's like a push and pull part of me knowing that people want to hear about what's going on with Kellen Mond, but also realizing, look, the history of third round picks says we shouldn't be talking about this a whole lot with how important this season is for Kirk Cousins. But I think 80-20 is right, that that's kind of how it's going to go, where we all look at Cousins and say, we know who you are. And, you know, we'll see if you know take this offense kind of back to where you were last year but maybe not start one and five um but i i don't think there's like this storyline of cousins taking the next step again that storyline is kind of overplayed that's so overplayed at this point it's like you know what you have in kirk cousins you know he can be a very

good quarterback for you if you can get some of the other pieces right around him. I don't see it being like, well, what more can he do? Like what's, you know, what's the next step for him? We've outplayed that because year one, it was a necessary storyline to see what they could do. Could they continue on their Super Bowl run? Take a step back. So because of the step back, it's, well, how much further can they get you?

And then they go to the playoffs and it's how much further can they get you? Like four years in, that storyline has to be retired because you know how far he can get you. It's just everything else around him. That becomes an even bigger storyline. Okay. So this is the last one I have, which is percentage of kicks made during mandatory mini camp and training camp. And you know, our friend, Sam Ekstrom loves tracking the field. Oh, he loves tracking the field he

loves tracking those things i'm like i can't even tell you where the distance is he's my eyes don't see that well so it's crazy sam running around saying did he miss that one did he make that one is like a sport at training camp um so percentage between greg joseph and rileyson, if that's indeed their names, made during all mandatory minicamp and training camp sessions. And we will revisit this question because if you think that they're going to cut one of those guys and bring in another kicker, this would sort of play into the question, I think. I bet it'll go 40% makes, 60% misses because Because they are two young kickers, and it's nothing against them. It's just the circumstances of special teams and the focus on it. It's not like you have a kicking battle and that's it.

You have a punt return, kick return, all these return specialists. You have competition there. You have two kickers, one of which was a practice squad kicker for the bucks last year like he was with the browns for a little bit you know he clearly has a long way to go and then riley patterson too i think they signed him as a udfa um there's not a lot of experience to go around here and this is not exactly a team and a coach that does well with with kickers who are making mistakes and that have, you know, put the team in a tough spot,

like an especially coming off of the season that Dan Bailey had last year, that's going to be really tough for Mike Zimmer to exhibit any patience when it comes to special teams, especially the kicking game. So I think there will be more misses than makes, and this could be the, you know, a big Achilles heel for this team. You know, people don't realize how much pressure there is in these training camp and mandatory mini camp slash OTA field goals.

Everyone stops and the whole field and just stares at you. If you're the kicker, it's probably more pressure than it is kicking in a game where you're in a stadium full of people. It's lots of background noise. Like you can feel Mike Zimmer's laser eyes cutting through your soul as you're lining up the uh the field goal so okay uh well you probably have a flight to get to i assume at some point um what is your what do you do usually when you're not into a podcast when it comes to layovers because I hate layovers the worst the worst I can't get any work done it's just sort of distracting there's like a lot of people around uh one time I went out of

my way to go get some food and then my flight adjusted its time and I missed it so oh yeah that's like right no no it was it wasn't a great situation. I got on the next one. It was only like an hour later. So I, I lucked out, but yeah, it was one of those things where they had bumped it back and then they moved it forward or something. I don't know. It was, or I didn't have the time, right. It was my fault, I'm sure. But I have sort of like lay over fear now every time. So I kind of like grip onto my bag and sit right next to the, the, um, you know, wherever the gate. Yeah. So it's, it's not great. Are you, are you, are you, do you have like lay over anxiety? No, not really. I know that, um, I know that like I'll get worked on. I know that I'll listen to whatever to kind of keep me awake. So I don't fall asleep and miss my flight. That has never happened to me. Fortunately, what has happened to me is being in the middle of an interview once and then another time covering, you know, trying to break the story about this

back in like 2013, 2014, this prospect that was committing to Ole Miss or Mississippi State. I had an exclusive and I was like trying to like my hardest to get this whole thing out and the plane left without me at the gate because I didn't hear them being like all last call like everybody on so that's the only anxiety I would have is that I wouldn't hear it but I'm with you I'm like just sit by the gate wait it out um get a little work done here and there and then and then call it a day when you get a plan i think what happened to me now that i think about it is when they move the flight back they said the flight now is at let's just say 10 40 i interpreted that to mean the flight will be boarding at 10 40 it will be leaving at 10 40 oh god i will never make that mistake again so i'm glad that uh you could take the time from the Philadelphia airport where

there are memories and we will see you out on the field tomorrow. See you then.