Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Reading NFL training camp Google News headlines to learn about the Vikings' opposition

Episode Date: July 31, 2022

Matthew Coller and Paul Hodowanic use Google News to look at the Packers, Eagles, Lions and Patriots to see what their training camp news is and then compare it to the Minnesota Vikings. Do we believe Allen Lazard hype? Are Eagles reporters already concerned about Jalen Hurts? Is there any Lions hype about top draft picks? Will Mac Jones's receivers be better? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hello and welcome to another episode of Purple Insider. Matthew Collar here, along with WCCO's Paul Hodowanek, and we are recording this on the Vikings day off, which means I've come up with a ridiculous game for us to play. How are you, Paul? I'm great. Excited to play this said ridiculous game that I just learned about 15 seconds ago. I'm ready.

Yeah, well, there's no preparation required for this game. This is not hot routes where you spend hours and hours pouring over your answers. This is more of instant reaction stuff. So here's the game. We're going to Google teams. And when we get to the end, we'll do the Vikings. We're going to Google teams on Google news and see what it says for their training camp headlines. And part of my reasoning on this is because I'm always wondering, how is every other beat covering their team? Do they have controversies? And something that I wrote about today was just about how, if the training camp controversy of the year so far is that some fans were asked

not to take video and then took video anyway uh although you know i guess when when your coach at when the coach of the team you like asks you not to do something and then you do it anyway and he says it's going to help the team like are you a fan it's a good question but uh you know the other one was like what uh kirk cousins not throwing with justin jefferson or something like, oh, no. Will they ever complete a pass to each other? And then yesterday, Jefferson Moss is like three guys in practice. I think they got it, folks.

So there has been nothing as far as controversy goes for the Vikings, which I think is the best possible outcome for them to not have any huge controversy. This is better than like Plexiglas gate and Daniel Hunter, like his tweak turning into a season long injury. So like, if, if this is just like maybe slight passive aggressive knit comments about working out in the fall, in the summer or not, then that is perfectly fine with me.

Yeah. And I just think that it wasn't like a thing. I don't think so. You know, those, I think that everybody takes a different tact with those weeks off, but trust me, they'll have time to throw the ball to each other on like every practice and

every play all the way throughout the summer and every warmup and every walkthrough and every whatever else. Something tells me they'll be fine. It just, you know, it's just sounds like, I don't know. Is it, is our first time here, folks? Like it's not our first time covering football. We don't have to make stuff out of nothing, but actually, you know,

in this case, they should be thrilled that you kind of do because there have been no major injuries, as you mentioned. And I know I can hear people saying, do not jinx this because roofs can collapse at any time. So I'm sorry if I jinxed something, but I think it really is the goal of them to have a non-controversial camp, to have a regular football camp, to have no tension, no head-butting, no fights, or having like in in 2018 when kirk cousins threw the ball into the road

out of frustration with uh mike zimmer's defense and john d filippo's offense they were already head-butting by i think the end of minicamp was when it started already so uh they have not had any of that which i think is the best case scenario and then even with the way they're handling players in terms of workload they are going out of their way to do everything they can to keep everybody healthy and just get them through this camp, which I think is something that they're doing in a smarter way than the previous regime. Yeah. I just thinking about the Kirk cousins throwing the ball into the street. I don't know if I ever thought about the logistics of that. It's kind of far away to throw it into the street from depending on where he was throwing it. So

that's kind of impressive. It's not an easy toss. No, I would not say that, uh, any of us could do it from where he threw it into the road, though there are multiple fields. So if you saw any pictures or any, uh, amateur content creator videos from the stands, he wasn't throwing it into the road from that field. That would be like the Michael Vick video from way back in the day where he was throwing it out of the stadium, which I don't know if that was real or not. But there was a clip of somebody, a coach, saying that what they love to do with Brett Favre when he was a rookie in Atlanta, I think it was Jerry Glanville, he would have him

throw the ball to the highest level, the stands in the stadium, like in, in before the game. And he hated far. And that's why they traded him to the Packers. Great trade, Jerry Glanville. But that, you know, that, that was like one of the things, his arm was so strong that he would make it like a circus trick. He'd be like, look at this guy, look how far he could throw the ball. Anyway, well, Kirk's not quite circus armed,

but he was strong enough to throw it in the road. We haven't seen any of that, though, since at least last year for controversy, and we'll see if any of it comes as the pads begin popping on Monday. So I want to look around and see what everybody else is talking about and go through some of these headlines and whether they matter to us or not. So when you pick what team you want, maybe have it be a team on the Vikings schedule, and then we'll look it up and we'll go through the division ones. We'll see if Courtney shows up at all from Chicago.

She'll be on the show soon enough. Let's start with the Green Bay Packers. First headline that comes up is, can newcomer Dallin Levitt be an elite special teams player for the Packers. Wow. They need one, though. They need one, though. That's the problems.

Right. No, I think if that's, again, if we're talking about worries that teams are having, if the Green Bay Packers are only worrying about who they have to find their special teams ace, that probably tells you their roster is in a pretty dang good spot. If those are the questions we're having first we got a camp is how are we going to fill our special teams unit okay there are more headlines that's not the only one that's not the only story from Packers camp Aaron Rodgers on rookie Romeo Dubes we all feel good about Romeo? You better. I mean, you know, I don't, I can't tell you what position is Romeo Dukes play. Romeo Dukes was the fourth round draft pick wide receiver. Okay. That's what I thought. I just didn't want to go on a tangent about wide receivers. And then you're like, Paul,

he's a linebacker. So I needed to verify, but I was, I've been doing some research for an article that will be coming out soon, just kind of looking at PFF tiered all positions for all teams and where they rank. And I don't think I quite realized, like comparatively to the rest of the NFL, how bad the Green Bay Packers are with their wide receiver unit. They're ranked 31st out of 32 teams, and the Bears are 32nd. So not exactly an all-star lineup that the Vikings coverage unit's going to have to go against. If Romeo Dubes is who they have to worry about, then I think Cam Dantzler and Patrick Peterson are going to be fine if that's the guys that they're having to go out and cover.

Okay, I have more on this very subject from our Google News search of the Green Bay Packers. Aaron Rodgers on his new look wide receiver group. I like the guys we got. And Adams' exit provides chance for Packers' Lazard to step up. Now, this is where we can have a discussion because there's like Alan Lazard buzz from Packers training camp. And I would say this, there's also another headline that says Christian Watson could miss a chunk of camp in preseason. That's not good for them that he's supposed to be their guy and he can't miss time when he's

trying to build chemistry with Aaron Rodgers. But as far as Alan Lazard goes, I do think you should be concerned about the Alan Lazard thing, because let's think about where Devante Adams or Jordy Nelson or whoever else has played for Aaron Rodgers. Let's think about their career trajectory of playing with Aaron Rodgers. And I think that ranking them 31st makes sense based on what we know about them. But we also know the tendency of Aaron Rodgers is to make wide receivers into his stars. And if he's having a great camp and they're looking really good together and they've already played together enough time, he could be the next guy that gives you a bunch of problems yeah i i'm searching this up as we go now but i believe alan lazard like had crazy records in college in terms of his production uh so this isn't some guy that just has no bona fides whatsoever like he i'm pulling it up right now

yeah he had 3 360 yards over four seasons he was right around a thousand yards twice 26 touchdowns in four years so had a lot of production in college Rodgers has made the Jordy Nelson's of the world top tier wide receivers before Jordy Nelson wasn't some gangbuster that came out of college ready to just was anointed a number one wide receiver even Devontae Adams two years into Devontae Adams uh the Packers fans were not super thrilled about him and then he turns out to be everything that he's become so I don't I think it's a stretch to say Alan Zard's going to be that or we can expect that from him but I don't know if it's necessary necessarily needed now still if you're the 31st

out of 32 in a position group that is as important as wide receiver I get that they have Aaron Rodgers and he's going to make a lot out of not much but you still need quality guys that are going to get open consistently you don't want to ask 17 weeks of the year for Rodgers to have to fit balls in and have to really think and like work super, super hard. Like, especially when we get into the playoffs, all margins tighten. So they're going to need a Romeo Dupes to pop up or they're going to need Christian Watson not to get hurt because Alan Zard could be a solid wide receiver. You can't just have one good wide receiver. They're tight ends.

Tanyan's been good, but he's also hurt a lot. So I think it is a major issue for the Packers, their wide receiver unit. Now, is it more than likely that eight weeks in, they've found another guy that can easily slot in to be that wide receiver too? Probably, because that's just what Aaron Rodgers does. But until we see it, I think it deserves to have some skepticism thrown towards it. And for the Vikings to have them early on in the schedule, that's a nice little feather in the cap because Watson might not be there at that

point. Dubes would be playing his first game. That's a nice time to see the Packers on your schedule. Of course, what you want to hear if you're Vikings fans is that Aaron Rogers is frustrated that he's throwing daily fits and he's coming to camp as different Nicholas Cage characters each day out of anger. And this is the way he's acting out because his receivers are so bad. So I assume that there's enough objectivity down there in Green Bay for them to be telling the truth that, you know, Alan Lazard is looking good with Aaron Rodgers, but we'll see as we go along, of course. Now, one more from the Packers. Zach Tom has athleticism technique to play left tackle. Don't know who Zach Tom is, but I do know that doesn't sound like David Bakhtiari playing left tackle.

And this is one thing where I would say that it could be a major issue for the Green Bay Packers. Last year, Elton Jenkins tore his ACL in a game against the Vikings. And David Bakhtiari tore it two years ago and has not come back yet. And he's still on, I think their pup list. If they're playing backup tackles and an offensive line, that's lost people that usually the Packers offensive lineman ended up getting signed by other teams. So they've lost people over the years and you're going up against the

defensive line. That is a hundred percent to start the season, which is the major goal of Kevin O'Connell. And this team is to have zadaria smith daniel hunter harrison phillips delvin tomlinson armand watts like the whole deal if everyone is healthy and good to go and bakhtiari is not back i'm not sure what there's not a headline in google news here about what jenkins status is but if someone named zach tom is playing left tackle and they're moving Hunter

over there and Z'Darrius Smith is rushing over this person, I think that is news that you want to hear because that is one thing that could be problematic. Yeah, Zach Tom is a fourth round pick from this year. So if they're playing a fourth round pick, really especially at a tackle spot that is not a place you want to be as a Packers fan so Elgin Jenkins tore his ACL last year uh other articles I'm seeing is he's ahead of schedule in his recovery but still if that that still could mean that he's missing time or he's not 100% when he gets back there another feather in the vikings cap for week one and just as you move throughout the season left tackles right the tackles matter and if you're starting a fourth round pick odds are he's not going to be great so that's that's an issue you have to address and

it's probably nice for vikings fans to hear about an offensive line issue that doesn't involve their team not that they don't have their own, but I would venture to say if the Packers are starting a rookie fourth-rounder at left tackle, that's about the biggest question mark you can have for an offensive line. So they might have that shakiest spot in the division for that offensive line. And this is part of the reason why I picked the Vikings to win in Week 1 and said that it's a great schedule draw to have them in week one. It is not a great schedule draw to have them in week 17, but at least off the bat with Rodgers making his adjustments and maybe their offensive line not fully healthy and your defensive line fully healthy, that gives you a bit of an edge.

All right, you pick the next team who should we look at uh in our google news analysis of teams camps that's really catchy maybe i'll make a song we gotta work on that headline maybe um yeah i want to know about the eagles get me up to date what eagles are doing googling your team googling your team well it's not really the team of the listeners of this show. Right. Googling some random teams that the Vikings will be playing this year. Okay.

We've got our Google search up. We've got, let's see. I just want to look at the headlines. So I'm not opening articles here. I'm just looking headlines. Oh, okay. All right. Here we go.

This too soon to worry about Jalen Hurts. That's the headline. There's not a, there's not a question mark though. So this must be this person's opinion that it is indeed too soon to worry about Jalen Hurts. Now, they don't have pads on yet. So I think just on its face, I naturally agree that too soon to worry about Jalen Hurts after a few days is right. But I guess I'm getting the impression, Paul, that maybe Jalen Hurts has not looked very good running the offense through a handful of days at Eagles camp. I also Googled this, and the little sub-caption that tries to get you the teaser

says maybe it's the Eagles defense. It might be very good. So, again, not the type of statements you want to hear when you're trying to make a playoff run and you're favored to maybe make a playoff run even over the Vikings. I believe they have better odds to make the playoffs, the Eagles do, than the Vikings. Yeah, that's probably not the headline that you want four days in. It's too early to worry about Jalen Hurts. I would argue after you've seen him for a full season and seen that he struggles to throw the ball, maybe it isn't too soon. Too soon within the lifespan of a training camp?

Sure. In the span of what we've seen from him throughout his career? Maybe not. I think it's pretty evident that he's not a great passer of the football. The Mike Sandoz quarterback tiers, I believe he was 20th. That was the very bottom of the Kirk Cousins tier. So technically on the same tier as Kirk Cousins, but in actuality, we know that that's not the case, especially in true passing situations.

Now the contract obviously helps them, but that's not what we're doing right now when we're playing on the field. So Jalen Hurts struggling for that team is not great. Again, early opponent for the Vikings and a team that they're going to be in the division or the wildcard hunt. They're going to be going right up against the Eagles. So another positive for the Vikings, you're not worried about, is it too soon to worry about Kirk Cousins? You know what you're getting from Kirk Cousins. The Eagles have no idea what they're getting from Jalen Hurts, and that's a scary proposition heading into a season. Jalen Hurts, so I do agree.

Again, too soon indeed in this camp, like you said. But Jalen Hurts has the running and scrambling element to him that evens out some of the issues with throwing. And I also think that he's pretty good at handling things like, you know, he went through a lot in college, came into the NFL. He was kind of a controversial draft pick for Philadelphia because they had Carson Wentz and they took him in the second round. And then he comes in his first year as a starter and reaches the playoffs. Upon further review with that season schedule might've helped them a little bit. I think they went like nine weeks without playing a winning team or something

like that, but either way, I mean, he showed that he has enough ability to get a team to the playoffs and to be dangerous, especially with the fact that he can run the football. And so even if there's mild improvement in passing, then he becomes a much more scary player, especially on a rookie contract. If he was a very expensive quarterback and his throwing wasn't all that effective, then I think we'd be going like, oh man, this could be really bad for their franchise. But it seems that they've set everything up to have flexibility at the quarterback position long-term.

But as far as this applies to week two, I don't think it really tells us anything. They got him AJ Brown and maybe there's some adjustment period there, or maybe it's just that Jalen Hurts and players like him who do a lot of off schedule stuff have to be in more of real game situations, or that it's only five days through training camp. Like this is, that's going to be a huge game for the Vikings either way. If they beat the Green Bay Packers week one, you go to Philly with a chance to start to and oh, and then everyone's like, whoa, look at the Vikings to and oh, with two great wins. And if you lose the first game, then it becomes must win very quickly because you can't start oh and two, even in a 17 game season.

You know, you play the Lions, but they're probably not going to be a complete joke after that. And then it just gets hard. Then it's the uphill climb that we've talked about the last couple of years in a row. And you don't want that. So I think that that is mildly relevant, just that he isn't looking the way that they want him to look. But I also think that we kind of know what Jalen hurts is now and the parameters of how good or bad he could be are really limited. Like there's just not, he's not going to be way better, but he's also probably not going to be way worse than he was last year. The question is just, can you get after him and actually sack him with, you know, the fact that he can run so well, can you stop their running

game? I mean, they had a great running game overall last season, one of the best in the league, and that includes him. That's an issue for the Vikings. It was a very serious issue that they've tried to shore up. And then can you cover A.J. Brown and Devontae Smith, two extremely good wide receivers? Now here's another one. Okay, I was just going to say one other thing. And credit to the Eagles, they went out and did it

and made the playoffs last year. That's something the Vikings can't say. But I think coming down the stretch stretch they got a little bit momentum just kind of and it was artificially bloated by their schedule just slightly if we at the start of week 10 they were three and six uh they then beat Denver New Orleans who was in shambles at that point with I don't even know who was playing quarterback for them. Ian Book maybe in that game. Then they lost to the Giants, beat the Jets, beat Washington, beat the Giants, beat Washington again, and lost to Dallas. So they had no win over a team that was above 500 there.

So it's just, again, they went out and did it, something the Vikings can't say they did. And obviously they go out and get A.J. Brown. They draft Jordan Davis. They had a really good offseason. But I think our last memory of the Eagles might be a little bit artificially inflated of where they finished the last season. Now, no question they got better. But if Jalen Hurts enters with question marks,

then I think they're still kind of right on that tier with the Vikings. If Hurts still has some stuff to figure out, but give me your next headline. Okay. There's some funny ones here. I'm trying to look if there's anything relevant before I get to the ones that are kind of hilarious. The Eagles need Miles Sanders to step up.

Actually, every team needs every player to step up. So I saw a good one about Marcus Epps, apparently Marcus Epps. Oh, yeah, for a Viking. He looks like he's kind of in the catbird seat to get one of their starting safety spots. Of all the players that they drafted in late rounds,

almost all of them went bust, and this guy is a starter in Philly, the one guy that they let go right away. Okay. Plenty of positive vibes surrounding N'Kobe Dean. I think that's relevant. N'Kobe Dean was supposed to be a first round draft pick and then all of a sudden fell. And I think Philadelphia made a good decision with him.

Their defense, I do think, is going to be fairly legit this year. I don't have any more N'Kobe Dean takes, but I think that's a relevant headline. Now here's the two funny ones. This is what nickname has Britton Covey already earned with the Eagles? What nickname has he learned? Guess what Britton Covey's position is, because I don't know. Let's just, what do we think? Let's see. Well, now this one I actually had to open. Okay. So he is a wide receiver and kick return extraordinaire, as if there are kick return extraordinaires outside of Cordero Patterson these days.

And maybe Kenny Wong. Who knows? What's the nickname? I feel like they really buried this. Where is this nickname? I'm like halfway through the article, and I've lost interest in whatever the nickname is. The Desert News, not doing much, not helping themselves right now with this. Yeah, I hate to see it.

Well, oh, there's like a whole Q&A here about the guy. Oh, it's like with his college newspaper. So there's a whole Q&A here. You know, okay, so I'm going to try to figure this out, what his nickname actually is. Or maybe we'll just leave it to mystery and we'll never know what uh britain what is his name covey is uh his nickname is i mean that's got to be in your lead if that's your headline if i can't find it in two seconds he's uh on q a too he's he's got it's got to be it's got to be great right his nickname is great great britain covey i just searched a nickname. The Mormon Missile.

Come on! It's nothing to do with Great Britain? Yeah. It's not UK? A couple of guys nicknamed me the Mormon Missile, so we'll see if that carries on. So he's University of Utah, you know. I get, I mean, come on guys, you got to do better than that. Are you going to read the Gardner Minshew headline?

Are we going to do that? That's the next one I was going to do. Yeah. Gardner Minshew. So here's, here's one. Gardner Minshew spent the off season in his own little island a prison bus you know what i gotta give i gotta give uh gardener minshu credit he knows how to make people pay attention to him he would have made a great influencer but this is a reminder of the fact that the vikings traded a fourth round pick for chris herndon and this guy who won a game for Philly that helped get them into the playoffs this guy who started in the league and didn't look half bad went for a sixth and the Vikings stuck with Sean Mannion instead of trading a sixth round pick for Gardner Minshew that is one of the most mind-blowing like of all the galaxy braining Spielman did over the years, like that's one of the,

that's one of the most absurd that you traded for this washed fourth tight end from the New York jets, the worst team in football. And then here's this quarterback who you had a whole year on of tape on played pretty well with the Jaguars had some good games. Looks like a good backup quarterback and Philly gets him and gets in the playoffs over you by trading a sixth round pick. I mean, that's just like, you couldn't have written it any better. Extenuating circumstances in other places, but the fact for how much Rick Spielman loved late

round draft picks, his just tendency to then give them away for the Chris Herndon's and Kari Vedvix of the world. while those same players like Gardner Minshew, Amari Cooper this offseason, Baker Mayfield. I know they're, again, extenuating circumstances with a couple of those guys, but still, they're going for around the same value that you paid for Chris Herndon and Kari Vedvix. So, you know, room for improvement for the new regime. As long as you don't trade a fourth-round pick for Chris Herndon, you're looking golden.

You know what one we overlook is trading Mike Hughes for nothing. And then Mike Hughes playing good. I mean, there was a lot of goofy stuff that went on. It was time for a change indeed. But all right. So he lived in a prison bus outside of his local gym. Good for you, Gardner Minshew, for doing that interview and letting everybody know you're the weird guy. You're the crazy backup quarterback.

I miss the crazy backup quarterback. Yeah, no. I don't think we're getting any of those headlines from Sean Mannion or Kellen Mond. I don't think. No. No, probably not. All right.

I'm going to go with the Lions next because, you know, we've got to see if Dan Campbell has done anything insane. Let's see. Yeah, true. It's kind of some – let's see. This is kind of a sad headline. Let's see. Terrell Crosby slams current Lions regime.

They truly just don't care about the players. I thought that was Dan Campbell's big thing is caring about the players. Was he cut or something? Yeah, you always don't know. Let's look. Terrell Crosby. I mean, he must've,

he must've been right. I don't think he's on the team saying this stuff. You'd think you would think, yeah, he's a free agent. So, so he must've been, Oh,

I've got another headline here. Okay. So it says Terrell Crosby, Detroit lions dismissed concerns before spine fusion. Okay. Well, that's not good. That's not good. fusion. Well, that's not good. That's not good.

Okay. No, that's not good. But look, man, at the end of the day in football, you're just another guy that they're going to do whatever they're going to do with.

That's best for them. So does anybody truly care about their players? Not in that sense. They're just going to do what's good for them. So does anybody truly care about their players? Not in that sense. They're just going to do what's good for them. Now, if their medical staff messed something up, that's a legitimate concern. Right. Let's see here. Aiden Hutchinson leaves Penny Sewell grasping air in first matchup.

Now, that's not what you want to hear the Vikings fans right there because Aiden Hutchinson, it was just dropped into their lap by the Jacksonville Jaguars. I mean, I was stunned that they went with Trayvon Walker instead of Aiden Hutchinson. And that the biggest worry you have, if you're the Vikings about the Detroit lions is some of these guys that they drafted high,

just being good. Penny Sewell, one one of them but Aiden Hutchinson edge rushers can come in and be good right away so that's not what you want to hear is is Detroit hard knocks this year is that what I'm saying right now uh yeah I think they are okay Dan Campbell uh I've got another one do you have a reaction to Aiden Hutchinson? No, I mean, first overall pick, you know, you should probably, I mean, hopefully you're doing some good stuff and flashing. I mean, I think we should expect him to be an issue and a problem going forward. Penny Sewell is a very good offensive lineman,

so I don't think in that headline they're going for, wow, Penny Sewell's bad. I think they're going for Aiden Hutchinson did really well. So a couple of nice bookends for the Lions. And yes, that will surely be an issue. But hopefully the Vikings offensive tackles, Derrissaw takes a step and O'Neal stays where he is. If you're going to have to face a really good player along the defensive line, you probably want them to be on the outside

with the two tackles that you have. That's where you're fortified the most. And where Cousins seemingly can handle a little them to be on the outside with the two tackles that you have that's where you're fortified the most and where cousins seemingly can handle a little bit of pressure on the outside it's when it's when the in it's in the middle and it's not great so i think they can handle some stuff on the outside well and this comes down to christian derisaw and how he plays this year because we've just sort of written it in that Christian Derrissaw is like good, but I mean, he was okay last year and okay as a first year tackle that missed training camp gets a lot of benefit of the doubt for me. I mean, you usually get steamrolled if that's the case,

there are good tackles in the league, Colton Miller, Andrew Thomas, they were high draft picks came in right away and were horrendous. And then they got better as they went along. And he was not horrendous by any means last year. So I think there's a reason to have confidence in Christian Derrissaw. It's just that now this is kind of a battle with Detroit where when was the last time you were afraid of a Detroit edge rusher? And why was it Robert Porsche, which was way before you

were watching football? I mean, I literally cannot think someone will tell me, but I cannot think of the last time I went like, Oh, you know, Detroit does have this one edge rush. You got to watch out for who was that? I don't even know. It's like, Oh, Ziggy on. So like kind of quietly, pretty solid, but he was always like underrated edge guy that you kind of have to look for. It wasn't like this dude's a problem they i don't think i don't remember any of those guys okay anthony zettel for one game i

believe in 2016 went absolutely off against them and then they signed him yes yes as one does got to uh this would be a i guess helpful headline to the vikings for their is it week three matchup against detroit uh jameson williams not close to returning so it would be shocking at this point I guess helpful headline to the Vikings for their, is it week three matchup against Detroit? Jamison Williams, not close to returning. So it would be shocking at this point, if he played by week three, the second matchup is more likely to have him playing.

And I'm not really seeing a whole lot of other headlines from the Detroit lions. That would be shocking. I did see a video on Twitter, which doesn't count for the game, but of Dan Campbell doing up downs with the team. And I don't know what that means. Okay. I've got, I've got another one.

I've got two more, two more. The, this is restore the roar hype. So if you're going to say anything for our boy, Eric, he's the positive stuff. Yep. Okay. I'll just read both of them. Well, this is from the Detroit Lions website. So this doesn't really count, but DJj shark enjoying his role in detroit lions offense that's good good for him you should

enjoy what you do and uh now this is actually interesting though lions wire uh jeff akuta off to a great start in rewriting his detroit lions career now i have written many an article about a third year bust who is not going to work out. And that was Laquan Treadwell. Treadwell learned to run routes in the off season, but with Jeff Okuda, rookie corners always struggle. Then he gets hurt right away. I do think there might be something still there with him as talented as he is. Yeah. Corner is such a hard position to pick in the draft and you can bust out.

You can be a Vernon Hargreaves really quickly with your cornerbacks. And so for Lions fans sake, I hope Jeff Okuda is good. He's the third overall pick. But yeah, that's not the type of guy you give up on. And again, different circumstances for the Vikings, but it's like why the Chiefs took a chance on a guy like Mike Hughes when you have a premier pedigree talent. So if Jeff Okuda sours with the Lions this year, that's a guy that some good team with a good infrastructure can say,

can we bring him in? Can we try to keep him healthy? Can we keep him good? So, I mean, hopefully for the lion's sake, they can kind of get him back on the right page because that, that defense can start to look a lot better if they have a shutdown corner next to them. And that's the type of stuff right now as they're rebuilding and they're kind

of a trendy team to be all right. Those are some of the surprises that end up happening if they are a good team, like they are a good team. Someone probably emerged from that cornerback room and just judging on the pedigree of the guys in the room, Okuda seems like a prime candidate where he's just starting to figure it out and he gets things going in motion.

So for his sake, I hope he has something left in him because, I mean, you're a third overall pick for a reason and cornerbacks generally never go that high anyways. So there's something about him and so it'll be cool if we can at least see that a little bit this is where we say before we move on to the next team something about the lions and whether they're going to be scary or not anytime it's in the division and matt patricia's not coaching i think it is just in general i'm not there yet to say that the lines are a playoff team or that they're

even going to hit the over, but they do have some of these signs of like, well, you know, if they tick some boxes, they're going to be pretty dangerous. And I think that they're a way more scary team to the Vikings than they have been basically since Jim Caldwell was the coach.

So, all right, you get the next pick off, go off the board a little bit here. We're not going to do Chicago because my gosh, like I don't want to waste everyone's time uh but uh go off the board just be an homage to courtney if we did chicago but also look at them just i mean i mean we do like like flaming wreckage here on the show so that's what they seem to be but uh yeah we'll get enough bears flavor on the show anyway so uh go off the board a little bit on the Vikings schedule with another team.

Yeah, I just mean like not in the division. Let me pull up the Vikings schedule real quick. I know I should probably have it. Do you have it at this point in memory? Like if I told you to recite it, would you be able to go down the whole thing? Hmm. Okay. If I want to buy you some time, I could try to recite it and have it be the worst podcast thing ever.

I've got one. But I'm going to say that I'm going to say like, I would say 60%. Like if you gave me a week, I would have a pretty good guess, but I'm not, I have not memorized it. It's a week to week league.

Paul, what are you even doing? Asking me that question. You podcast every day, Matt. I don't know. I think, you know,

maybe you should have it on lock. I just focus on, I just focus on the next practice. Okay. I'm sure. Yeah. You're day by day growth every day. I'm just trying to win today. I'm just trying to the next practice. Okay, I'm sure. Yeah, your day-by-day growth every day. I'm just trying to win today.

I'm just trying to win this podcast. Then I'm trying to win lunch. All right. I haven't even eaten yet. Go ahead. Let's talk Patriots. Let's talk Patriots because I know we like making Mac Jones comparisons. So let's see what our kooky friends are doing without coordinators over in New England.

Okay. All right. Here we go. New England Patriots wide receiver Devontae Parker solidifying role with big plays and contested grabs. Remember Devontae Parker? The last time I played Madden, I played with the Dolphins because they had Ryan Fitzpatrick on there.

And I will always, as long as he's on video games, play with Ryan Fitzpatrick. And Devontae Parker was unstoppable on the game and that's basically what I know about Devante Parker because he's hurt all the time is that gonna be a classic Belichick traded for this guy that another team gave up on and then oh my gosh welcome to Canton Devante Parker or is it like oh Belichick you're so genius. Look at this wonderful trade. And then it doesn't work out like, say, Ocho Cinco, who he traded for once upon a time. Albert Hainsworth, he takes a lot of swings. Which one do you think this one's going to go? You know, if it was any other position other than wide receiver, I would probably say,

man, this is a steal. But our boy Bill, if he's got a weakness, it's picking out some wide receivers he's he's gone to the well a couple times in the draft it hasn't worked with our Nikhil Harry's of the world and and such so I don't know I've I've always kind of Devante Parker's a tough one for me I know you're not a big fantasy player but Devante Parker is always just staring me at the face in some draft and I'm trying to believe in his upside this year. This year is going to be the year for Devante Parker. And then I missed out on whatever year he was actually all right after I've had him on my team every year.

So I'm ready to buy in again. I'm ready to get my feelings hurt. I think he can be good. I mean, his only issue generally has been staying healthy. And in terms of finding a role, you got to beat out Jacoby Myers and Kendrick Bourne like you should probably be able to do that if based on your pedigree and what you've shown when you've been healthy so I do like Devante Parker I think he will end up being this is steel they're gonna say oh okay Devante Parker was a solid ad I have no idea I mean he could be if he's healthy though like we might be talking about the Patriots are always clever at this so they don't have an elite wide receiver I bet on your PFF rankings

they're ranked like 24th or something or even worse when it comes to the wide receiver groups but what Belichick has always seemingly understood is if you have four guys who are decent it's kind of like having one guy who's elite and they all have to stay healthy. But like Jacoby Myers is a pretty good player and they mixed in some other guys. And one of them is in another headline here, which is Kendrick Bourne will have Debo Samuel year for Patriots. Tom Curran predicts Tom Curran covers the New England Patriots. A Debo Samuel year, so he's going to have like 1,800 yards receiving

and run for like 400. I mean, this has to go in terms of, if we were talking about ludicrous training camp headlines, thank you, New England. Of course, you're leading. Almost everyone we've talked about outside of the one guy who they couldn't give a nickname to like everybody else has been totally reasonable

well jalen hurts doesn't look that good and like maybe jeff akuta and then here's the patriots beat oh yeah this guy is like pretty mediocre debo classic stuff i i was just gonna say i'm jealous that we haven't run a similar headline yet on purple insider. I don't know what we're doing yet, but I mean, the off season and the draft was full of, could this be their Debo Samuel? Could this be their Debo Samuel?

So I'm glad we've carried that over into the training camp and we're already trying to find our Debo Samuels here in the draft. Kendrick Bourne. If I was going to rank guys that may have a Debo Samuel type rise, I don't know if Kendrick Bourne would have been on the tip of my tongue, but he is on Tom Currens, and I appreciate that because that headline, I would have clicked on that, and I would have read that and tried to figure out what that means.

Does that mean he's going to get upset and request a trade? I mean, that would be the ultimate dupe of a headline if that was that. So I don't know. I'm going to, I'm going to take the, if, if Tom Curran's putting out a line for that, I'm going to take the,

he does not become it, but I, you know, I respect him. I respect him for that. The next Debo goes under the category of like, there's a bunch of things that people talk about that just absolutely do not exist outside of one or two players where it's like will this guy be the big nickel hybrid guy who does everything and

ruins the other team and you're like well there might be like one or two guys but that's about it uh and the same thing with this running back is running deep routes 30 yards down the field like no he's not we get we get one of those players every year though like debo sam. I don't know what it has been in previous years, but we get one every year. No one's playing running back along with wide receiver except Debo Samuel. And Debo Samuel doesn't even want to. No, he doesn't. So no one's being that. So you mean he's just going to, like, catch a lot of passes and be very good.

Okay, good for you. One last one before we read the Vikings headlines and you know, have some fun with those, but like this one is great because I always want like these ones get me for this game. CB Malcolm Butler takes lighthearted jab at bill Belichick following drill. What do you think though? What do you think the,

what do you think the light hit hearted jab was about? It's got to be a joke right he's like grandpa grandpa bill or something like that maybe maybe he'll play me in the super bowl this time hey bill it's gotta i yeah maybe maybe you and old maddie patricia should have played me against nicky foals what would you say i would would have sniffed out that play at the goal line. That's not the lighthearted jab, no. Okay. Do we know what it was?

Oh, I've got it, yeah. Okay. I'm ready to read it to you. All right, I'm ready. I don't know, man. Looks like Bill Belichick is an offensive coach now. He ain't on our side anymore. Ha!

Oh, my God! Roasted. Camp is so dumb. Yeah, I'm glad we haven't done that. We haven't read the Vikings headlines, but I don't know if there's been any puns that we've spun out into news stories yet. He smoked them. Have we gotten any good puns? Is Kevin O'Connell ripping jokes for you guys?

No. No. No. Dang. We know Kirk's not. i just didn't know i thought maybe there's a jokester we're talking to yet we haven't gotten it yet uh cj ham comes with dad jokes sometimes okay i was gonna say i don't know who the do we know who the the class clown is in the locker room traditionally do we know that well getting back into the locker room this year so i guess we'll find out.

Traditionally, yeah. I don't know. It used to be like, wasn't it Britton Colquitt for a while? His locker was filled with a bunch of wacky stuff going on. Yeah, stuffed animals. Okay. Okay, so we have – now we're to the Vikings here. Okay. Let's see.

When pads go on, train your eyes to these players. Pads going on, big deal. Big deal. Cam Bynum's up and down afternoon. Yep, got beat by KJ Osborne for a touchdown. Made a couple of other plays. Vikings stir up controversy with video board message to fans. We will never remember this. I promise you.

We will never remember this controversy ever. It will be like next year in august somebody will go remember when they put that message up for the fans and we'll go and i think the vikings are pretty realistic in understanding that's a big ask um from fans because half of training camp is just the fans getting to experience it and getting hyped up and stuff like that so if it just deters 50% of people, then I think they've kind of gotten their job done in terms of video. Plenty of people, I still saw it on my timeline.

I don't think it necessarily worked great, but if it just takes some of the people away from doing it, who knows, but I, in the long run, it won't matter. Vikings value return of rejuvenated tight ender of Smith. Yep, yep. That was talked about. Yep, as they should. As they should.

We have a why Kirk Cousins could win MVP. Good for you. Good for you. You certainly exercised your fingers typing that. They're stronger now from that workout, but you did waste your time. Let's see. Kirk Cousins not too concerned about Vikings GM's comments. I mean, I'm sure that he didn't love it. I'm sure he didn't love it.

If you were Kirk, you got to be like, really, man? Really? Didn't we just do this? Didn't we just do this? Didn't we, didn't we just do this? Like you guys were so complimentary to me in the off season, just any interview that you could get Kevin O'Connell in. He was, you know, Kirk, we love him. So, you know, but some, some stuff just slips through the cracks every once in a while. It certainly does. Yeah.

We have KJ Osborne's name being spelled wrong here. We've got. Yeah. I mean, there's really not a lot. And this is kind of where we started is over Rashad Hill signed with Washington. I saw that. Rashad Hill. He is one of the nicest people that I've ever met in covering pro sports. Rashad Hill. Good for him. Ed Donatel has high praise for cam dantzler i guess so i mean he didn't have he didn't torch people otherwise like that's one of the that's one of the things about nfl headlines is where it's like this coach says this player is awesome like well yeah but was he like telling you the truth about other players though or yeah and a lot of times it's like it's sometimes especially when it's not one of the reporters that was there but sometimes you'll ask a question like oh is cam dantzler look good and they'll be like yeah he's look good and then that gets taken in

saying well he thinks he looks great but it's sometimes it can be the question that's asked and taken out of context but yeah i don't know why you would say bad things about cam dantzler unless your name's holton hill You usually get pretty good reps, pretty good feedback from the coaches in the media. Yeah. Well, so to me, it's all about specifics.

If somebody has a specific reason why they like what someone is doing, if it's like, I like this about him, then I'm interested and I might learn something. But if it's just like, oh yeah, we love what he's doing out there. It's like high praise. Okay. I don't know.

Are the Vikings sleeping on Cam Dantzler and Andrew Booth Jr.? I'm not sure how they're playing. So I don't know how. Can I ask you a question? Generally that I feel like I've seen in national media. It feels like national media podcasts. I listened to articles, football outsiders, like a lot of national outlets seem to be high on the Vikings in their potential this year

or just higher than normal. And I think a lot of that just goes back to, I think, what Kevin O'Connell can do with the offense is going to be really, really helpful for the team. But do you think, I feel like locally people are excited about the season, but I don't know necessarily if local media and fans are like jumping on this team as a Superbowl contender, but you're watching Colin Cowherd go out there and say, they're going to be 13 and four or whatever. And it feels like some of the national media seems to be thinking the Vikings could be

a frisky team this year. And so I just don't know if that's, we're in the off season, we're building up headlines or if that actually has some smoke to it. So I was on with Aaron Schatz of Football Outsiders on their podcast, previewing Football Outsiders. And he intro'd it by saying, our numbers are fairly high on the Vikings,

but I don't exactly know why. And so there's that. Part of it might be the schedule. And if you look at the opposing quarterback schedule, it's just not all that scary. Um, but yeah, I mean, the only prognosticators whose opinions that I take seriously, as far as setting expectations and what I think they'll do is those in Vegas, uh, the sharpest people are the ones who set the lines and these, you know, just, I don't understand entirely

how it works, but I've been, uh, I don't understand entirely how it works, but I've been, uh, I've had friends explain it to me who understand this whole thing about like the sharpest people, the people who are, uh, professional bettors essentially are setting the lines by the way they bet. And then everybody else comes in and then moves the line if it's going one way or another, but, uh, that might not be a perfect explanation. But the point is that like, they're the most accurate in the, in the universe. And how I know is that they make money off of it. A lot of money off of it about setting these lines. That's where I put the expectation. Any other, any other like media person or content creator or what, you know, whatever it might be random former player or something,

I just shrug my shoulders because none of us are good at knowing and none of us really know. If you go back and listen to me try to pick games of whether the Vikings will win or lose, terrible at it. It's just, I don't know. I'm not good at predicting games. It's a totally different thing that people are good at than it is covering a team and telling you everything that's going on and discussing them. So I don't think that Cowherd

or whatever, it has a particular skill. And if even the guy who invented football outsiders is saying, I'm not as high as my numbers say I should be. And I think PFFs numbers and the Vegas numbers match up almost right on where it's like eight, eight, eight or nine. So I'm, I'm kind of thinking like, well, you know, we've all got to do that where we pick a team and we go,

yeah, you watch out for the Jags this year or something like that. And then if you're right, you get to go like, ah, told you, um, one,

one more though. One more, uh, Vikings, Patrick Peterson drops truth bomb bomb that's sure to make aaron rogers life a little harder a truth without seeing the quote do you know what or without seeing the article do you know what that quote is based on that headline because you're in all these press conferences so if you could guess the truth bomb i mean i'm reading this article and if the truth bomb is

what they're claiming the truth bomb is they were so desperate to put aaron rogers name in a headline all it is is andrew booth jr telling our friend chris thomason that he or i'm sorry, Patrick Peterson told CT that he thinks Andrew Booth Jr. looks good. He's quick and he's going to be a problem pretty soon. That's what he said. OK. All right. Watch out, Aaron. If you wrote that headline, don't you have to like look at yourself at the mirror at the end of the day and be like, what are you doing?

What am I really doing with my life? Like, this is what I do. This is what I do. I sit in end of the day and be like, what are you doing? What am I really doing with my life? Like, this is what I do. This is what I do. I sit in front of a computer and write bullshit. Like that's what I do. Jeez. I,

it's the NFL can be overwhelming for everybody. So anyway, this was fun though. Yeah. Straight to get, I think this game has to stay. We'll go through each team's headlines and then we'll, then we'll have to figure out,

we'll have to figure out a title for it that you don't have to ramble on for 15 seconds though so we'll have to get that a little bit more shorter and snappy oh you mean the actual name of the game correct going around and looking at the google headlines of other teams that the bikes are playing and what they're doing in the training camp right yeah yeah we can get manny hill on that maybe all right we'll talk to you later paul thanks all right bye