Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Reading between Rick Spielman's lines in his pre-draft press conference

Episode Date: April 28, 2021

Live from BIRDI Golf in Woodbury, Matthew Coller and Sam Ekstrom talk about Minnesota Vikings GM Rick Spielman's final press conference before the draft. He talked extensively about trade options, what the second round means to him and Spielman was very short on answers pertaining to the quarterback. Also would you trade up to pick Trey Lance if the opportunity arose? And what do we want from Day 3? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Get Coors Light in the new look delivered straight to your door with Drizzly or Instacart, Coors Brewing Company, Golden, Colorado, and as always, celebrate. Hello, welcome to another episode of Purple Insider. We are live from Birdie Golf, Matthew Collar along with Sam Ekstrom, and it's nice to be back inside of Birdie Golf, Sam, especially since the weather is garbage. And it's the perfect day to golf inside and not outside because it's awful.

So very happy that they welcomed us out here for a pre-draft show. Yeah, the forecast lied to me all week. I was going to go out with my dad golfing on Monday, and it was like 73, and then it was 66 and a chance of rain, and then it was 61. And it ended up being like 50 degrees and windy. And don't get me wrong, it was good to be out there, but the climate control in here is unmatched. The ambiance is awesome. They got every drink you can imagine.

Get a nice cocktail, bring your clubs, and play some golf. The numbers that they spit out for you are awesome. I think it's actually pretty informative, too, when you get to see kind of like your launch angle and your speed. That can actually help you on the real golf course, too. So it's super fun, super chill in here, and we're pumped to be here again. Well, the one thing that I love about the way that I'm doing this show is that I get to do ads for whatever I want and have

whatever sponsors I want. So this is perfect. Like, um, you know, to have a place that is really cool for us to come hang out. And another thing that I like about it, it's a, by the way, birdie golf is in Woodbury right off of four 94. It took me 20 minutes to come here from Richfield. So quick, a little drive right off Valley Creek road. Um, get off the exit, and it's like right there. So the thing I like about it that we get to do is just come here and hang out and be at a cool place kind of whenever we want to do the podcast here, and they welcome us and give us a Diet Coke and a beer for you. So there you go.

And we just greatly appreciate all of our sponsors that have jumped on board with us this year and our draft sponsor, Victory Home Team. Those guys are great. We just greatly appreciate all of our sponsors that have jumped on board with us this year. And our draft sponsor, Victory Home Team, those guys are great. They worked with our guy Jeremy Rushing, so we brought them on. So it's been awesome to have sponsors get on board with us here and welcome us into their home here at Birdie Golf. So, Sam, let's get to Rick Spielman's press conference, because that is why we are podcasting, to react to it. I came away with a couple things.

Now I'm going to give them to you, and you tell me if you disagree with any of them. I think the Minnesota Vikings are going to try as hard as they can to be in the second round. I think they are going to draft at some point a quarterback, and I think they're going to draft a kicker. And beyond that, I also think that Rick Spielman recognizes for the first time in a very long time that those seventh round picks might not be as great as he thinks they are because there are far fewer good players in this draft in the third day. Just far fewer players really in the draft.

Those were my main takeaways trying to read between the Rick Spielman lines. Do you disagree with any of those? No, I don't. Now, let's start with the second round pick thing. He tried to posture as if, well, we might trade up, we might trade down, we might stand pat. But he mentioned a couple times that he believes they have the capital to move up into the second round. And I've written about how if you go by the trade chart, that's really, really hard. Unless you're offering a player asset or a future asset,

using the third and fourth round picks they have now, it's going to cost a lot. Probably either all of your fourths or both of your thirds and a fourth, add some fifths in there. It's costly. The second round picks are really valuable. And I don't know if it's as realistic as Rick Spielman's making it out to be. That said, somebody asked him, can you be patient between picks 14 and 78?

And he sort of chuckled and scoffed. And I don't think he can be. I think he wants to move around. I just don't know if trading up into the second is his best play. Somebody else asked, is quality over quantity better this year? And that sort of plays into your seventh-round pick theory. He mentioned that there are significantly fewer players that are eligible in this draft, and we've talked about this on previous shows, how for a variety of reasons,

the college season was weird, and there's going to be, I think, probably sort of a plateau once you get to the fourth and fifth round and then dropping off thereafter. So the Vikings would be wise to use some of their capital, move up and get an impact player. I just don't know if you can get into the second round without robbing yourself of, I think, our pretty valuable third and fourth round picks, six of them. So I'd be curious to know what his plan is to accomplish that. Obviously, trading back is much, much easier.

What was your other take? Oh, quarterback and kicker. All right, so Rick Spielman used the line twice. No position is off limits. What he didn't say was, Kirk Cousins is our quarterback. We feel really good about Kirk. We might add some depth behind him. He didn't say that.

So that's something. I mean, that's on the table. In terms of kicker, I'm less opposed to it than most because I think the Vikings process has actually been decent, like finding Blair Walsh, finding Daniel Carlson. Those were pretty good prospects. And Carlson's having a nice career. Walsh was good for about three, four years before he fell off the rails. But when you've got 11 picks, I think you feel like you have some flexibility. So again, I wouldn't be surprised about that either.

My big takeaway was, I think he's setting the fans up to not have the offensive line addressed until the third round at least. He mentioned several times how deep it is, how the offensive line class, and I agree. I think there are a ton of good day two tackles, so I don't disagree with that, but it is going to be uncomfortable to wait 77 picks and watch like a dozen good linemen go off the board that's going to frustrate fans and i think rick spielman rick spielman was laying the groundwork for that possibility okay i got that impression too but let's uh go back to your second round pick thing and let me let me ask you this because i get this question sometimes

in the friday mailbag how do you think pressure on Rick Spielman and Mike Zimmer impacts their approach to this draft and how important it would be to get a second-round pick? I mean, think about it this way. Let's add up all the third-round picks that they have acquired since 2015. To me, that is just so much of an anomaly, we can't even talk about it. You get Daniil Hunter, Stefan Diggs after the second round. 2015. To me, that is just so much of an anomaly. We can't even talk about it. Like you get Daniel Hunter, Stefan Diggs after the second round. Come on. You can never expect that.

Add up all the thirds and all the fourths versus the seconds. And it is an ocean between what they've gotten in the second, even since they got Eric Hendricks in the second round versus what they've been able to bring in in the third. I mean, Rick was bragging about Alexander Madison as a pick in the third round. And I just, I mean. That's a weird hill to die on. It really is because, like, Alexander Madison is a good football player, but you guys never use him.

So, I mean, you trade it back and trade it back and then took a running back that you haven't used in two years outside of, you know, when Delvin Cook has been hurt. So, yeah, it is a strange one to bang your chest about. But also, I mean, who's even a fourth-round pick that you could be excited about since 2015? It actually might make sense in a draft like this that to me is so thick with talent in the first two rounds

and then falls off so quickly after the second round that I think if he was to sell out and give both thirds for a second or one of those thirds and a couple of fourths for a second, I would support that in this particular draft. Maybe normally you wouldn't, but I think that all the talent pretty much exists in the first two rounds almost every year and especially this year. Yeah, I think if you miss out on the second round,

you're obviously missing out on the best of the day two tackles because Liam Eichenberg is terrific. Brady Christensen is terrific. Jackson Carman, if he drops, would be terrific. All second round guys, I think. You'd miss out on them. You'd miss out on some pretty good receivers like Deami Brown. I'm a huge fan. Terrace Marshall might dip into the second round as well. Elijah Moore is going to be on that fringe. And those are positions that the Vikings need. And then whoever you don't

take, like if you don't take Ed Rusher in the first round, then again, you're going to have to wait until sort of that third fourth round area where you only have daniel hunter to point to you've whiffed on all of your defensive line picks really in that round jaleel johnson james lynch doesn't look very good um jalen holmes doesn't look very good scott crichton was a bust uh there's kind of only like one crown jewel like at all these positions that rick spielman can Jalen Holmes doesn't look very good. Scott Crichton was a bust. There's kind of only like one crown jewel, like at all these positions, that Rick Spielman can hang his hat on. But the track record doesn't suggest that he's going to guaranteed nail it.

So I get it, Collar. I get why there'd be an appeal to like sort of selling out. I think that's going to be hard for Rick Spielman to stomach, though. I mean, he loves amassing picks. He loves casting a wide net. And I think he still maybe overvalues the team's process when it comes to scouting these guys and trying to find value. And I think he can't resist a good trade back too. Like with all those third and fourth rounders, he will be able to kind of shift around and manipulate the board and probably trade back within the round and acquire maybe it's future assets.

Maybe it's future sixth and sevenths, which might be more valuable with a larger pool of players next year. And we might be looking at too, where they look down the road and they say, look, I mean, in 2022, we've got needs all over the place and we have to take several third round picks. We have to take several fourth round picks. But I guess I would just kind of counter with, you know, how's that working out for you? And like I'm generally team trade down, but that means in the middle of the first

or maybe even early in the second to the middle of the second where there's still value but once you get into the third I mean it's it just the the numbers go way down and even if you look at that Jimmy Johnson chart you see the numbers even the way that he valued it back in the day just fall off the edge of the cliff after the second round because they're just so few hits that you get there and I know that maybe the goal for a lot of teams would be, hey, let's find starters there, let's find decent players there, guys that are contributors, but I feel like this team needs players who can help right away. They also need just more star talent. I mean, they're so short even going forward on a few different places

and have uncertainty in a few different places and still have needs on the offensive line i totally agree with your point that there is going to be a run on offensive linemen in the second round that if you miss out on then you absolutely are locked into an offensive lineman in the first round and i don't think they want to be i don't think that's a good place to be to be locked in because what if you know slater and derisaw what if those guys are off the board? Are you going to reach for an offensive lineman or are you going to wait until one at 78? Like, I don't know.

I feel like it's very vital that they do get back into the second round. Now, let me switch to the quarterback thing. In my reading of Rick Spielman of many years now, of many of these press conferences, the short answers mean you're on to something. And I asked him directly at the Combine a few years ago, does Stephon Diggs want to be traded? And he was like, no. I was like, okay, so yes.

And Courtney got the same thing with her question for Rick Spielman about quarterbacks, where she said, hey, are you guys looking at quarterbacks with you know kirk's contract and everything and his answer was we're looking at all positions so like so yes that i mean we've already heard that but i feel like it just solidified it that you know if trey lance or justin fields falls i just think it would be impossible for them to pass and then even in the round, that that might be an area third or fourth where they're looking at those guys that we have previously discussed. Yeah. Is there a quarterback besides the top five where the fans wouldn't be just,

meh? I mean, does anyone excite you beyond that? It depends where you get them, obviously. Like if you're spending a third, like Jamie Newman, for instance, I don't think that's going to move the needle with a lot of people. Kellen Mond might be a little bit exciting. You know, Sage Rosenfeld's

guy, Ian Book, is probably going to be there on day three. But I don't find that there's a real appetite for the quarterbacks beyond the top five. And I am 99% sure that these quarterbacks are going to be gone. Like, doesn't it seem like they're all kind of in the mix to be top five picks?

I mean, the 49ers have been flirting with, you know, Lance and Fields and Mack Jones has been tossed out there. Like, they all seem to have this perceived top five value that if teams get wind of a drop like to number eight or number nine, and George Payton, I think he's sort of the last line of defense. He's the free safety. He's going to snatch up anybody that sinks down that far. I would be just flummoxed if the Vikings had a chance at 14 to take one of the big five. And after that, I think there's a pretty huge gap.

I mean, I think anyone you take at that point, to me, is developmental and therefore kind of uninspiring. Okay, let me ask you about Justin Fields then. Because I just feel like all of this Justin Fields stuff, whatever it might be, I mean, camp process, or we like Mac Jones better and all those things. I feel like it's the ultimate smokescreen of all smokescreen time. And my evidence is from actually a guy who is a birthday bro of mine. We have the same birthday, Ken Carman in Cleveland.

What's your birthday? June 27th. What's your sign? Cancer. And also Jeff Conine is my most famous athlete who was also born on my birthday. Yeah. Very nice. Yeah. Mr. Marlin. So anyway, Ken Carman is a host in Cleveland who I know, and he's tremendous. He's great. I think one of the best hosts in the country. In 2018, when there was the quarterback madness of Josh Allen, Lamar Jackson, Josh Rosen, and Baker Mayfield and all that,

he kept track of every insider report. And then he tweeted it the other day. I saw this. Oh, my God, was it funny. I mean, it's one of the funniest things I've ever read on the Internet. Like, somebody reporting that they saw AJ McCarron in a Browns hat. There was insiders who were sure it was Josh

Rosen and then they thought that Josh Rosen wanted to only play football for money and so then it was Josh Allen and then it was like they were at Baker Mayfield's Pro Day. I mean, it was so funny how the insiders chased their tails and I feel like it's

going to be the same thing here so I'm not believing that Justin Fields drops but if one of the guys does I think that that would be one of those like totally franchise turning type of moves that they just couldn't possibly ignore and anything anything else, yeah, gets a meh. I mean, Kellen Mond even, if they were to trade back into the second, late second, and get Kellen Mond or something, I don't think anyone's throwing a big party. That's going to have sort of a Tavares Jackson type of feel of like, well, you couldn't really get the big guys, so you kind of got the next guy.

And, you know, second rounders. I mean, that's the thing. So I got a great email from someone about second rounders i mean that's that's the thing so i got a great email from someone about second rounders versus first rounders because i kind of said look if it's past the first don't really bother and the point that he was making is look a lot of starters come from the second round and third round yeah but you don't usually change your franchise from there brett farve did of course he got traded traded from the Falcons to the Packers. Drew Brees did.

Joe Montana did. But if you look at the list of first-rounders who have been hits, I mean, it's like Phillip Rivers and Ben Roethlisberger and Eli Manning and Peyton Manning. I mean, you're talking about Aaron Rodgers. If you want to get someone who will alter the course of your franchise, picking him in the second or third round is just not going to do it, and especially today when everyone has access to everything. So I think that fans are kind of on to that,

and they're sort of not really excited about, oh, the eighth best quarterback or whatever. If you're going to do it, do it in the first round. Otherwise, it's going to be met with a shrug from me and I think a shrug from everybody else. Yeah, I mean, Russell Wilsons are pretty rare. Dak Prescott's are pretty rare. And because how prominent they are, you know, Tom Brady obviously too,

because of how prominent they are in the league, and those are faces of, like, major franchises, people can, I think, get convinced that, oh, you know, my team can do that too. But it's one, it is one in a million. Your odds of getting that type of player at that spot are so rare, like you said, with all the information that we have. So I don't know. And the Vikings have opened up this door collar by not addressing quarterback and free agency.

That's as big a tell as anything Rick Spielman's going to say, right? I mean, the fact that they would literally go into the draft without a backup quarterback besides Jake Browning and Nate Stanley, that's pretty telling. I just don't think it's going to be an exciting prospect. The Vikings have never really done this. They've never found a sort of developmental quarterback in the mid-rounds. They only go first round when they want a franchise guy, Ponder and Bridgewater, and then they go UDFA or last year Nate Stanley, which was a glorified UDFA, in the seventh round.

They don't do the mid-round quarterback. So this is sort of uncharted waters for Rick Spielman and company if they do it. I don't think we're going to be, like, floored by whatever it is. But, hey, it'll be something new. It'll be like a rookie quarterback who might be a backup. Like, even that would be sort of groundbreaking for this team, it seems like. Okay, I have two questions. Which one would you prefer of the mid-round quarterbacks?

And then follow-up question is, how about a trade-up? How about a trade-up for a quarterback? Let's say that Trey Lance makes it to eight, and Carolina says, now we're good with Sam Darnold. We're all set. So if you guys want to give us your first, next year's first, or something, next year's second, I don't know. I think it would take next year's first also.

Give us your first, next year's first, and one of them third rounders. Would you do that to move up to take Trey Lance? This year's first, next year's first, and one of the third rounders? Yeah, I think I would. I would. Iers? Yeah, I think I would. I would. I would, too. I think I would. I think, you know, it takes cojones because you're putting yourself out there

and this front office might be on thin ice. I don't know for sure, but I think that if you want to set up your future beyond Kirk Cousins, you need to make that move in the next 12 months, right? So, I mean, you're not married to Kirk Cousins beyond next year. You're just not. Like, he's not Aaron Rodgers who has sort of a lifetime contract with the team that he's with. And even he might not. And he's Aaron Rodgers.

So because you know that Kirk Cousins is not your indefinite quarterback you need to find his replacement at some point and sometime soon as early as this draft this is your first opportunity I think to find that guy so I would I would do that especially because you're trying to win really really bad this year which means your firstround pick next year is probably in the 20s. Like, let's be honest about that. The Vikings will probably be good enough to have a fairly late first-round pick next year, which has less value. And you have an extra third-round pick this year.

So if you give one of those up, you still have one. So, yeah, I think I would do that. So the reason that I would for Trey Lance specifically is because the high end of Trey Lance is special. And what we were just talking about with if you're going to draft somebody, make sure they can change your franchise. And I should pull up my list of guys that were, you know, just first-round draft picks. Even going back, I mean, there were 20 first-round quarterbacks who changed their franchise, not just like became hits or misses, but someone like Michael Vick. I mean, you know, the dog thing ends up being that he doesn't work out long-term for them.

But that guy, I mean, he altered an entire franchise for a decade, basically. And he took that franchise and elevated it to new levels to where people not only were excited for their product, but they could also go to Green Bay and beat the Packers there, right? I think that was, right, Michael Vick beat the Packers at Land O'Lantern? 2001, I want to say. Right, do special things. And even think about this team drafting Dante Culpepper, who I think is a really good comparison for Trey Lance.

Because remember, I mean, he was not a polished quarterback when he came out. He was just this giant, unbelievable athlete who could throw the ball a million yards. Well, it's kind of like Trey Lance where he brings that running element. And there is not, since Fran Tarkenton, been a more exciting quarterback to play for the Minnesota Vikings since Dante Culpepper. So if you were saying, would I give up the next year's first rounder to have a chance at what Dante Culpepper was for this franchise? And he's got his, you know, sort of Randy Moss in Justin Jefferson already. That would factor into that the other most valuable player you could have is already here and will be here for a long time. That would be a yes for me. And I think that that would be the biggest thing that would shock the mock

drafters and the draft analysts. But I'm going to say that I wouldn't be shocked because it's been brought up to me a few times by just, you know, emailers, commenters. And I agree with this, that if they had an answer for next year at quarterback and they went 10-7 this year, Mike Zimmer and Rick Spielman aren't losing their jobs if they have an answer for next year at quarterback, and they went 10-7 this year, Mike Zimmer and Rick Spielman aren't losing their jobs if they have an answer at quarterback. Because what you could project is,

well, Kirk Cousins will probably lose the games he's supposed to win as an $80 million quarterback or whatever the millions are at now. That would be an Alex Smith situation. Exactly. And really, if you think about it, there was pressure on Andy Reid at that point in Kansas City. All of a sudden now, we forget about that. But it can totally alter your franchise.

And the other thing, too, is you get a year to decide, is he going to be worth it? Is Trey Lance worth it, or did we screw up like the Packers may have with Jordan Love? Yeah, let me pose this to you, too. Do you think Trey Lance's draft stock, and you can lump all the opt-out guys into this, too, the ones who didn't play in 2020, who had pretty good 2019 tape, do you think that hurt or harmed his stock?

Like, could he have increased his stock with any 2020 film? Or do you think, like, is he sort of an, is he, like, still kind of a hidden gem because of how little film he has? Like, would he, if he had duplicated that, would he be a top two pick? Folks, the football offseason is off and rolling, and SodaStick has you covered with Minnesota sports-themed gear. Some of my favorite football designs that you have to check out include the Chuck Foreman Spin Doctor gear.

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So check it out, symbol.app. Follow them on Twitter at Symbol Exchange, and check out the Marketplace for Sports. I think it's really hard to figure out. You know how I think of Trey Lance is like a baseball prospect, where if you're drafting an 18-year-old, if you're drafting Royce Lewis, who is definitely a former twin, right? Current twin, who's torn an ACL, I think, and is out for like a second straight year.

Okay, but the point is he was a top twins selection. I have that right. Okay, good. So if you are drafting him, he was coming out of high school. He's like 18 years old. And you see tools and you see character, what you can glean from character of an 18-year-old, right? I think the same thing is with Trey Lance where, yes, there's a lot of uncertainty and there's a long way to go. But you just have to take a guy on tools. And, yes, if he had had a season that was down a little bit, that probably would have dropped his stock.

But I think his tools are so exceptional, and especially since Josh Allen has worked out. I do think that Josh Allen is an outlier here. But since Josh Allen was the tools guy, I think that that makes Trey Lance more attractive. It's very hard to figure out, though, how much it affects his draft stock that he didn't play. And the one game he played, it was against, what, Arkansas State or something?

I mean, what can you do there? Yeah, I tend to think that the opt-outs generally helped a lot of prospects because the ones that opted out had pretty good resumes already. Rashawn Slater knew that he could only hurt his stock because, you know, you're a Northwestern tackle. You're probably not getting much higher than where he's already going, which is like 12th. But someone like Trey Lance, there's probably just enough doubt because you want to be certain about your quarterback, as certain as you can be. There's probably just enough doubt about his level of play

and about his limited tape that I think he probably is a little lower in the pecking order than he would have been if he'd had two years of that film. So I think he's probably the best value proposition for whoever ends up getting him, especially if he falls below San Francisco. And he's the fourth quarterback off the board. There could be three teams kicking themselves in about six months. I'm pretty convinced of that. I think the difficult thing for them would be if he gets into that middle, like between

five and ten, if Atlanta doesn't pick him or whoever. And I guess this all applies to Justin Fields too. But if Justin Fields got to eight, I would say if you don't try to trade up and get him, you're making a huge mistake if you're the Vikings. If Trey Lance is there, I could see how maybe they would have some questions. It's Minnesota. They would know. But I don't know.

They've passed on other players from Minnesota too and made mistakes like Antoine Winfield Jr. But, you know, to me, Fields is more of a sure thing than Lance. So if he got to eight, I think you have to try to jump up over Denver because they'll take him if he ends up there. They have to take one of those quarterbacks. There is the other option of just rolling the dice and seeing how it plays out. And that was what I was going to ask is, you know,

Rick seemed to imply that there's a little more uncertainty with just what's going to happen even in the first round than before. What do you think would be the scenario outside of quarterback where the Vikings would throw a party like they did last year for Justin Jefferson? I mean, that's sort of become famous now of, like, the entire draft room celebrating that Justin Jefferson was not picked by the Philadelphia Eagles. What's the equivalent to that this year? That's a great question because their two biggest needs are probably O-line, D-line.

And I don't think there's anybody on the D-line that you're celebrating dropping because you probably have your pick of the litter. There is no D-lineman that is projected to go top ten. You probably are going to be able to choose from Barmore, Russo, O-way, maybe even Paye. Like, Quiddie Paye is the only one who's kind of on that borderline. And I don't think he is worth, like, having the celebration and, like, popping the champagne. I also feel the same, like, I guess Penny Sewell. Like, Sewell would be sort of the crazy scenario where all the quarterbacks go,

all the wide receivers go, Kyle Pitts goes, and maybe somebody takes like Sertain, you know, or Sertain above Sewell and he drops. Other than that, I guess maybe a wide receiver. Like, again, if sort of they have their evaluation on wide receivers and they think that um Devante Smith or Jalen Waddell is going to be like the equivalent of Justin Jefferson maybe that's the celebration I just I'm less and less convinced that this team is going to go that route in the first round I think even though Daniel Jeremiah mocked it it was fun to talk about that to me doesn't seem realistic for this front office I think so too that it doesn't seem realistic for this front office.

I think so too that it doesn't seem realistic that if Jalen Waddell was there or Devontae Smith, they would trade back. And, I mean, it seems like Rick was getting pretty excited talking about trading, no matter what, which, I mean, it's just like some things become sort of like beyond parody. Him talking about how much we have this draft capital to trade here, or we could trade here, or we could trade there. You're like, man, love something in your life like Rick Spielman loves trading draft capital. But, you know, that would be a really tough one because, I mean,

I think all three of the top three wide receivers are truly special prospects. And they also have the things that I think connect best to success. And what I mean is like route running, you know, like ball tracking. I mean, we're not talking about Corey Coleman's here who just ran the super fast 40 or John Ross's or whatever, which I mean, in hindsight, how crazy are those picks just based on guys who really didn't know how to play the game. But these guys aren't like that. I mean, you're talking about even Devontae Smith, where he has like the slight build, but he also has some of the longest arms in the draft, the biggest hands. And like, I think these guys are all really well built.

So if they were to trade down out of those picks, I think that sort of says you might end up regretting it. And like you said, you can get offensive line in the third round. But that leads me to kind of my next question for you, which is what would garner great grades from the draft analysts? And is it different from us like how will the draft analysts look at this vikings draft and grade it and what would get good grades from them versus how you would do it um and first a shameless plug we also talked about this in brief on a purple insider extra check it out on youtube subscribe to the channel etc etc., etc. I think draft analysts who, let's face it, when you are covering 32 teams, you're sort of looking at the needs, whether they filled them with a player that wasn't a horrible

reach. So the draft analysts are going to love if the Vikings take, I think, like Vera Tucker in the first round and then, you know, Peyton Turner or Joe Tryon in the third round and they kind of check the boxes. That makes the draft analysts happy when you fill your needs with players that, you know, might be of great value. I think that we would tend to look, maybe a year down the road, I think we would both endorse a cornerback pick in the first round. Because the cornerback class, it's rich, man. Mike Zimmer would love all these guys.

J.C. Horn, Patrick Sertan, and Caleb Farley are built in a Zimmer lab. They are big, physical, pressed corners, can play on the outside. I think Zimmer kind of has to bite his tongue whenever they take one of these, like, 5-10 nickel hybrids. He would love any of these corners. And I would too, frankly. Like, I think the corner prospects are better than the defensive end prospects.

So I would endorse that. I don't know if the analysts would. They'd probably look at the roster and say, you signed Patrick Peterson and Mackenzie Alexander and then picked a cornerback? That's a luxury pick. But I would be okay with it because of 2022. Sometimes you have to look a year ahead.

Offensive help is much needed right now on this team. They didn't do anything in free agency. So if they took offense of any kind, not just offensive line, but wide receiver or Kyle Pitts, probably the only tight end that I would endorse, I think that would be okay, too. And I don't know if the analysts would love that. Well, of course, drafting a quarterback probably gets an a from us and i'm sure that it would get an a from all the analysts too because i think pittswood as well yeah right if you take anyone who is projected in the top 10

that's going to get you an a from uh the analysts and i also think when it comes to the later rounds that a lot of the draft analysts value that way more than they should, that they'll look at your fourth round pick and be like, oh, I had that guy as a second rounder and you picked him in the fourth round. Well, you know what that means is that you were probably wrong. I mean, like I don't acquiesce to the football men all the time. But I also think that if you look at historically, and I saw a really good stat on this, the picks one through five since 1970 have produced 30 Hall of Famers. The next five picks have produced half as many as that. That means that these guys know what they're doing, these teams.

And you get a Stephon Diggs every once in a while. But if you look at the all-time draft value, it goes down even from the first five picks to the next five picks to the next ten picks to the second round. And that to me tells me that the league really does a good job of picking out who the most talented players are. So all that means is if a guy gets drafted in the fourth round that you had in the second, that doesn't necessarily mean the team did something super special and they deserve a trophy. It means that you overvalued the guy, and you should kind of look yourself in the mirror a little bit. Yeah, I'll have another one.

Thank you. You're awesome. We don't have to hide on the podcast that they're bringing us free drinks, Sam. It's great. That's what birdie golf is all about. Birdie golf is the best. That's what it's all about. So, anyway, I just think that they put too much into who you got

in the third and who you got in the fourth and everything else. I probably won't unless it's something really special and I'm very surprised. I'll put it all into how the first two rounds are handled and whether they got someone who I think is going to be at a position of

major value is how I'll look at it in the future and maybe even now. That would be a bonus for me. But that's why corner comes up, and that's why I defend corner, because it's a position of major value. I was looking at the wins above replacement for free agents that PFF has, and Richard Sherman's performance in 2019, because corners play so many snaps, that if you play at an elite level, you are worth a whole win to your team alone.

I mean, which is about as high as any position except for quarterback. So, you know, that's the way I would look at it is, did you get someone who could be great right away and for the future and not just, hey, we need this right now? Thank you so much. Yeah, thank you. Yeah, I think you're right about that. And, you know, you look at the Vikings in 2022,

you're not guaranteed to have Mike Hughes, Patrick Peterson, or Mackenzie Alexander. And I wrote this today. Like, if you're choosing between edge rusher and corner, yes, they're both extremely important, you know, cover and rush, rush and corner. Yes, they're both extremely important. You know, cover and rush, rush and cover. But I think I'd rather have a subpar edge rusher than a subpar CB2. Because the cornerback is on an island.

If you've got a bad second cornerback or a raw second cornerback, like the Vikings had last year, you're in serious trouble in a passing league. You know, I'd probably rather have rolled the dice with Stephen Weatherly and DJ Wanham than have a cruddy outside cornerback. So I think the Vikings should actually consider a corner, if not in the first round, try it out in the third round. And they found a good one last year in Cameron Dantzler. Can I just tell you that the musical choices behind us,

outside of one Nickelback song they played, Chris Cornell's cover of Billie Jean is playing behind us, which is unreal if you've never heard it. Chris Cornell is one of the GOATs, and him covering Billie Jean is the coolest. You're a guitar guy. I am, yeah. People don't realize that. You don't talk about it probably enough,

but Matthew Collar is kind of like the local Vikings beat music man. Yeah, well, Ben. Ben Gessling also. Yeah, Ben understands music theory better than I do. I am more of like a rip-off 80s shredder slash occasional blues enjoyer. But, you know, if you watch YouTube for some of the great YouTube guitars and stuff, you never want to brag about it. I think there's so many great people that way.

But I do have a great appreciation for the grunge era and Chris Cornell. So great music choices at Birdie Golf. Last thing for you, and then I want final predictions from you. Okay. Give me day three like what do you want to see is there anything that would excite you is there any because day three for us is often just a very long day in fact it's the longest day of the year as a Vikings reporter that includes all games easily I mean we start at 11 o'clock and we probably finish all of our work

I mean maybe at like 10 o'clock at night a midnight I mean just you start at 11 o'clock, and we probably finish all of our work, I mean, maybe at like 10 o'clock at night, midnight. I mean, you have so many people to write up, so many conference calls, all these things on day three. But is there anything that you think would be like, wow, they really did that, aside from the quarterbacks that we talked about? Yeah, let me just add that it's a little disconcerting when you and I prep our butts off for the draft. We do a 72-page draft guide, and we feel like we have a handle on things Thursday and Friday. And then Saturday comes around, and you suddenly don't know who they're picking.

That's always a little bit of a sinking feeling, and that's probably going to happen again. Vikings have eight picks right now on Saturday. You know, that fourth round is pretty compelling to me because you have so much capital. You have the ability to move up, to move down, and to get players that I think are fairly recognizable if you've been, like, kind of running the mocks. Usually there's a small handful of players

that are going to fall from Friday night into Saturday. Can you position yourself to take one of them at the front of the fourth round? At that point, let's say you have three picks. Let's say that you've addressed a couple of your biggest needs, offensive line, defensive line, and then one additional. Quarterback, I don't care at that point. If you take a quarterback, it's not going to really affect me. My heart rate's not going to go up.

I think trying to find a little more offensive line depth at that stage and taking shots and not being deterred by your past failures. The Vikings have really whiffed in the fourth round a lot on the offensive line, but I don't think that means they should stop trying. I think that, you know, try to get Kendrick Green. Like if Kendrick Green is falling into the fourth round, go get him. Be aggressive there. And give the offense a little attention too. That's what I would expect.

If I were Kirk Cousins, I would look at the imbalance in the offseason and I would say, I hope that they give us something in the draft. I hope that we get at least two of the first three picks and a lot of the day three depth because they've done nothing. We've lost a left tackle. We've lost a starting tight end, and what have we done to add to the mix? So help us out a little bit and at least give us some bodies

to kind of play around with in training camp. Hey, everyone. I want to tell you about our friends at Scout Logistics, and I really do mean it when I say friends. They are fans of Purple Insider over at Scout Logistics, and since they reached out wanting to support this show, I want to tell you about what they do. Scout Logistics is just-in-time transportation for full tractor-trailer loads, and if you're wondering what that means exactly, well, if you own or work for a company that needs shipping solutions, they are the preferred carrier of Fortune 500 companies across North America,

and we have quite a few of those in Minnesota, right? They can ship perishable, non-perishable, FTL or LTL, and they have on-time delivery rate of over 99%. So if you're like them and you enjoy the show and you have shipping needs, check out ScoutLogistics.com or call 855-217-2688 extension 232 to connect with them directly to find out how Scout Logistics can minimize risk and overperform and go the extra mile for your company. So I agree with you on the fourth round thing. What I'm looking forward to is for sure the players that we've never heard of in the 6th and 7th. Because every time we think, like you said, we've simulated the draft so many times,

we got an idea of who's going to be around. And then it's just, wait, I can't even find this guy in a Google search. Like, who is this player? The other thing is, too, they always, Alexander Madison and Jalen Holmes are examples of this, where, again, you think you've got a really good handle on the top like 200, and then you go, wait a minute, what? DJ Wanham was this way too. I don't know who this player is because PFF or other boards

just did not have this guy anywhere close to the fourth round. So that's always a curious thing that happens. But the thing that I would say, give this a shot, is to get a really exciting wide receiver in the third or fourth if you don't take one in the first round. Because I think that that, to me, would be just like a really important thing that could benefit them right away would be to get somebody like a Jalen Darden or a Tutu Atwell that, you know what, they might not work out. But they also could be a part of your, you know, a part of your offense next year in some capacity. Like, you know, we always look back and say, hey, what about Jarius Wright in that role he had?

Well, Jarius Wright didn't have that many catches, but he had big catches and big plays for them in 2017. And they just have been lacking that. They've been lacking like a fun playmaker guy that hasn't been a star. Like, obviously, Stephon Diggs is a star. Justin Jefferson is a star. But I think of like back in the day of a David Palmer or something or like an Ampley. Like, I know Ampley's a running back.

But, you know, know i mean guys who were these sort of playmakers they were role players um mo williams was another guy who i wouldn't say he was super excited but he returned kicks and you know had this role that he kind of carved out for himself they're kind of missing that they missed i think an opportunity with that with mike boone to use him as this move around type of player. I know that's your guy. I'd like to see that guy drafted in the third or fourth round. All right. Before we wrap.

Oh, go ahead. Go ahead. Oh, I'm just going to say they haven't really had a gadget guy. You know, like Curtis Samuel, who you were pounding the table for in free agency. He can be an impact in the running game. And thus far, like it's kind of a modern concept, getting your receivers involved in the running game. And thus far, it's kind of a modern concept, getting your receivers involved in the running game. It's being used more and more.

Adam Thielen has been their go-to in that regard, and I think they can do better. And someone like Tutu Atwell, who is not going to go up and get contested catches, but he is super fast, and he can go laterally along the line of scrimmage and just try to find a different type of player that you haven't really attempted before. but he is super fast, and he can go laterally along the line of scrimmage. And just try to find a different type of player that you haven't really attempted before.

I mean, it wouldn't take much to upgrade from Chad Beebe. Right. Who is your current wide receiver three? It would not. You could find an average fourth or fifth round receiver who could compete with Beebe in 2021. I just think it also shows how desperate people were for somebody exciting outside of the top two that they were into Alexander Hollins last year. Like the fans. I'm guilty of that.

Really wanted Alexander Hollins to be the guy. And yeah, I mean, me too, to some extent. My whole thing was, look, if Alexander Hollins plays, you're screwed. So don't worry too much about it. But, you know, I saw the other day. Oh, man, I mean, just these funny things that pop up. Somebody showed me a Kyle Hinton bench pressing or something. It was just like, look, man, if Kyle Hinton makes it, that is amazing for him. But there's a lot of sort of reliance or hope with Vikings fans about these guys like Ole Udo and Kyle Hinton

and, you know, B.C. Johnson or Dylan Mitchell or K.J. Osborne or whatever. Like, draft somebody. Draft somebody who has got something special to their game. I mean, none of those guys have had it. None of those guys have had a thing where you even looked at them on paper and you went, oh, my God, this guy runs like a 4-3. I mean, Dylan Mitchell was sort of a nice athlete, but still, I mean, it wasn't special. It wasn't anything that really made the guy stand out.

Same with, like, Rodney Adams or, you know, K.J. Osborne was one of those real head scratchers of, you got a punt returner, huh? I mean, is that the same in the NFL as punt returning at Miami? I'm not sure that it is. So that's what I would like to see in the third or fourth through seventh round or even late in the third. All right, I want you to put it on record. I have gone on record already saying that Elijah Vera Tucker will be a Minnesota Viking. That's what I think.

I think with the 14th pick, they will stay there and they will take Elijah Vera Tucker. That is my guess. I want you to put it down on record right now. Who do you think the Minnesota Vikings pick? So can I give you a boring pick and an exciting pick? Okay, I want your official official, and then you can give the exciting. Official official is Christian Derrissaw. Okay, I like.

ACC, Vikings love that conference for offensive linemen. Pure left tackle. Pretty safe pick. My exciting pick is Caleb Farley. Okay, interesting. He's supposed to drop. A lot of people have him dropping because of the back thing. Yeah.

You think they would do it anyway? I think you have to account for some smoke screens. Like, I'm always skeptical of any news that comes out this late in the game. And if not Farley, you know, maybe it's Greg Newsome or maybe it's, you know, Sertan. I could see corner. I'm talking myself into corner, and I just think that those top three corners or so are all really, really good. Mike Zimmer, this is your podcast, brother, where we promote corners in the first round.

Okay, well, I like it. So I'm going to order some food here at Birdie Golf. Last time we got boneless wings, and I thought those were really good. They gave us a lot, but there's a lot of options here. I'd split them with you. Okay, let's do that. Let's split some bowl and swings. Birdie Golf in Woodbury, right off Exit 59, Valley Creek Road.

It's kind of in like a little mall thing. You honestly cannot miss it if you get off at the exit. It's right near the McDonald's. And it was really nice because I heard from one of the listeners to our show on Twitter that tagged Birdie Golf, and I appreciate them doing that, that they were kind of looking for, hey, what should we do kind of thing. They brought their dad here. They had a fun time. And that's one of the nice things about it, just before we wrap up, is, like, if you love golf,

but you feel like, oh, man, I don't want to leave the family for, like, five hours or whatever, this is set up for not just, like, hardcore golfers, but you could like, oh, man, I don't want to leave the family for like five hours or whatever. This is set up for not just like hardcore golfers, but you could bring the kids, you could bring the family and, you know, have a good time. So I really appreciate them again through draft season. And I know that you and I, and I know that you have the young children at home, but I feel like you can sneak out for an hour to play golf with me throughout the summer at Birdie Golf. So we appreciate them very much for having us here. Definitely.

And we're going to get some food, so we will talk to you guys. I'll talk to you, Sam, on draft night. Looking forward to it. Can't wait. WCCO live stream. Going to be awesome. Yep, on Twitter or on Facebook. And even if you do not have a Twitter, if you just go to twitter.com slash WCCO radio,

you can still watch it anyway. You don't even have to have a Twitter account because I got that question today. So, all right. Appreciate you all listening. We'll catch you next time.