Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Rookie minicamp takeaways and what the Vikings will do with their newfound cap space

Episode Date: May 15, 2023

Matthew Coller talks about seeing a glimpse of Jordan Addison at rookie minicamp and what Kevin O'Connell had to say about UDFAs Andre Carter II and Ivan Pace Jr. Then he answers fan questions, including about whether Kirk Cousins's 2024 dead cap will restrict the Vikings from winning in the future and how they will use Za'Darius Smith's open cap space Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hey everybody, welcome to another episode of Purple Insider. Matthew Collar here and this is a fans only episode of which, get ready, there's going to be quite a few. So that means send your questions to me at the Purple Insider website, purpleinsider.com or on Twitter, feel free to shoot me a DM or an at mention at Matthew Collar, because it's summertime and we had, it won't be our last breaking news that Zedarius Smith was traded, but there aren't that many more, right? Maybe I'm speaking too soon. It's the Vikings. They could break news at any time, but there's some OTAs, there's some mini camps. For the most part, it is summertime, which means we get to have some really fun discussions about the Vikings leading up to training camp.

And I want to hear everything that is on your mind so we can talk about it. We'll be doing more live shows on YouTube, hot routes, everything that's going on as always. So you want to keep it here, but I need your help. So send me everything that's on your mind and I will be happy to answer it with fans only. So before we get into it, I was out at Rookie Minicamp and I have to say from years past, quite a bit different under Kevin O'Connell.

I wasn't sure if last year was just different and he was going to go to a more intense style of Rookie Minicamp this year. He did not. So in years past, what we saw from Mike Zimmer was 11 on 11s. You had guys out there running full stuff that as much as they could teach in a couple of days and we could get a lot out of practice. We could really watch the rookies, especially if it was tight ends, wide receivers. Can't really tell on offensive linemen when they're playing without pads, but you would get a sense for what was going on out there, defensive players, how they were moving. But under O'Connell, it was really just individual drills. So we did watch Jordan Addison run a lot

of routes and he looks like someone that should have been drafted in the first round clearly the most smooth the most quick intense route runner that there is out there on the rookie minicamp field but man does that really tell us a whole lot I don't know other than that's exactly what he was expected to look like and Kevin O'Connell said the same thing that's what a guy who's drafted in the first round should be doing out here aside from that though when of the natural question is who look good at rookie minicamp I don't know uh the coaches though by watching the individual drills and seeing different skill sets that they're looking for and maybe somebody who's a tryout will end up on the team that happened before this receiver named Adam Thielen was a tryout guy.

I don't know if you ever heard that story. Google it if you haven't. But, you know, Chad Beebe a few years ago, every once in a while, there's a tryout guy who ends up on the practice squad, works his way up, something like that. So I don't know if they'll sign anybody from the tryouts or not. Other than that, undrafted free agents, the rookie draft class, very hard to say how this guy or that guy was performing other than just they were out there. And the most notable thing was really Kevin O'Connell talking afterward, where he talked about Andre Carter II and Ivan Pace Jr. And it really seems like,

even though it is a cliche with undrafted free agents for them to say, well, it's like we got another draft pick. They always say that. Why didn't you use a draft pick on the guy? Why didn't anybody use a draft pick on the guy for you to have him available in undrafted free agency? However, it does seem like with both players that they are excited and that they are intrigued. They genuinely, you know how you get the, well, he's just another guy out there and we'll see how it goes. It was more detail on why they were excited about those two players. And the natural question is why were they undrafted? And I was just doing a little research on that. I i mean part because

andre carter's production went down which kevin o'connell said look the reason his production went down is because every team they played started putting their entire offensive game plan because he was at army to stop him because there was no one else like him so other teams could chip double team do everything that they wanted still though that's usually true for just about everybody and that probably played into him going undrafted or at least partly and the other part was kind of a lack of i think nfl.com lance zierlein put it like he needs to mix a little more glass into his diet the glass eater uh that maybe he's a little more intensity, maybe a little more violence with the hands. And the way that he put it was, look, this guy's going to have to develop. So we're

going to want to see a lot of Andre Carter II in preseason. We're going to be watching it, but it might be a years-long process with him. It's a good decision based on somebody that has some intriguing traits and someone that has a great wingspan, great size, and at least one season of incredible production. Unlikely, though, that all of a sudden this year, Andre Carter II is going to be rushing the passer, starting for them, playing a lot. It's more of a development project where maybe year two, we see a big jump and then they start to make something of him. But still, I mean, it's a good investment to make. $340K is not a whole lot in the grand scheme of how much they pay their players to take a shot on someone.

With Ivan Pace, he was really loved by a lot of the people in the draft community because his tape is apparently fantastic. And that's what Kevin O'Connell talked about. But also, he was the highest graded linebacker in the country by pff he was higher than jack campbell who was taken by the um detroit lions in the first round now that's my pff grade they're grading every play they're not grading do you have nfl potential but just to say that he was making plays. He had nine sacks. He had a good coverage grade. He was tracking down ball carries. So he graded across the board extremely well.

The problem is I look this up. There is not a single linebacker who played last year in the NFL at his height at five foot 10. Maybe London Fletcher and Sam Mills would have something to say about that, but at least in the NFL where we're at right now, there's not a whole lot of Ivan Pace juniors, and he didn't light up the other areas. He only ran a 4'6", not that impressive for someone in his size. His 10-yard split wasn't great. His bench reps was only okay. At the combine. He just did not really impress. And I think that he probably needed to at that size. However, the combine is not real football and linebacker is an instincts position. So maybe there's an Eric Wilson type of find here. That's both guys from Cincinnati,

but even Eric Wilson was six foot one. And it's going to be a tough task to adapt. And I remember when we talked about someone like Hercules Mata'afa, who was another undrafted free agent that a lot of the draft Knicks loved. But once he got in games, you went, okay, that guy's just not big enough to play in this league and make a difference. That may be the case, or he may prove to be an outlier. I guess we'll start to find out, but I think you would see or expect to see more from him right away than you would Andre Carter

so those are kind of the biggest takeaways also in terms of Byron Murphy I've been very curious about what his role is going to be and Kevin O'Connell said basically both in certain packages that Byron Murphy will play outside corner and their expectation is to have him play inside in other packages. So instead of just having three corners, we might see a lot of rotations in different roles for corners under Brian Flores. I thought that was an interesting little hint that he dropped. So there you have it. Wrote a little bit more about it, purpleinsider.com. You can check that out out so now let's get into all of your questions we'll start out with nicholas m1993 says uh vikings 2023 team ranks offense over under seventh defense over under 25th seventh is very high and i know that

last year in terms of points per game, there was the weird thing with Cincinnati Buffalo and points per game versus points total ended up being different. I don't know. It happens. But points per game, the Vikings were eighth last year. Is it reasonable to expect more from them than eighth? Probably, but how much more is hard to say? I mean, they've had offenses before that ranked in the top 10, and you can shuffle around just a little bit here or there. I mean, you're asking them to be seventh or higher, I think is a tough task to be higher than that, because we're going to have to see proof that they can block on the interior

for Kirk Cousins. At no point in Kirk Cousins' career has he had guards and a center that have held up for an entire season. The health issue is, of course, part of this. But Jordan Addison looks nice in rookie minicamp. We don't know how quickly he's going to adapt to the offense. KJ Osborne, TJ Hawkinson, these guys know what they're doing. Justin Jefferson's still a star, but you can also bet that defenses are going to bring something different for Justin Jefferson. And it's not a guarantee that he does all the same stuff

that he did last year. He could still be amazing and all pro, but it's not for sure that he's going to put up those same type of numbers that he did last year. Now, they did play a lot of good defenses last year, and I would also expect them to be in a ton of shootouts this year where they're giving up a lot of points. And that would help your point total. If you are playing in a lot of games that are 35 to 31 and you're airing it out a ton, and we've seen that Kevin O'Connell is going with a pass first offense that you've got

a good chance. I think that's a great over under because they are a, in my mind, a fringe top 10 offense with the group that they have. It's a really nice group of weapons. If they do indeed move on from Delvin Cook, then the running game has an opportunity to actually be better than it was relying just on one bell cow back. We don't know that for sure though, but it's hard to be worse than they were last year. They were one of the worst and expected points added on the ground. One of the worst in yards

per carry. It was really ineffective and bringing in Josh Oliver as a second blocking tight end might help them a bit that, you know, TJ Hawkinson is not really his role. He's much more of a pass catcher. It really rests being in the top 10 on how the games are played and can they block better for Kirk Cousins? Because if they can't, then you are going to end up with a lot of the same inconsistencies as they had last year. And as they've had the entire time that Cousins has been their quarterback, it's also kind of hard to convince me that that just won't be a thing in general because it's always been his thing. It's a hot month. It's a cold month. It's a stop and a start all the time. And that's where his offenses have consistently

ended up. Doesn't mean he can't push that to another level. It's just that it has not happened during the time that he's here. I think it's a great, great pick over under seventh. I will go under, but also acknowledging that that's right around where I would pick them is to be somewhere between seventh and 10th at the end of the year on the defensive side. 25th is based on who they're playing opposing quarterbacks. I think that I would pick them to, to, to probably be right around there, but I might go a little bit higher than 25th. I mean, last year was truly atrocious, their defense, as bad as it gets for coverage in the entire NFL.

Now that could happen again. It is possible it could happen again. I do think that they will get more sacks based on how much they blitz. They actually did get quite a few interceptions for last year, but maybe some more splash plays end up happening. And just on the scheme alone, I would think that they could move up a little bit, but also tempering expectations.

I do not expect this defense to be in the top half of the league. 25th, we should expect them to be a little better than 25th. You've done a very good job of setting exactly where I think both things are going to rank at this moment. Without Zedaria Smith, we'll see on Daniil Hunter, but if he's traded away, then it's Marcus Davenport and Patrick Jones, and maybe they sign one other guy off of the street.

But you're asking a lot of inexperienced players to play really well to get into the top 20. So I will go over, but just a little over more like somewhere in the 21 to 23 range, because I think Brian Flores is going to have a better plan than they did last year. You still have Harrison Smith and you still have some players that can rush the passer, but if Hunter's not there, it could, it could be a pretty rocky year, but well done. Well done on those over-unders. That's right where I would put it. All right. From at smoked grapes, when they messed with Kirk's contract and the 28 million dead cap for next year, people were mad because it would hurt

them next year. But if we have a rookie quarterback on his first season, what are the odds of him actually winning the Super Bowl? Yeah, that's a good question. So the $28 million that they pushed down the road, I think part of the calculation there was that they would potentially draft a quarterback this year. And then they would have to wait through a year where they couldn't spend as much to another year down the road. And that's why there was always a question whether they would

actually pull the trigger on a quarterback this year. And I remember having this discussion, I think it was on the podcast at some point with Alec Lewis of The Athletic about how that big chunk of dead cap would potentially restrict them from drafting a quarterback. If they didn't like Will Levis, if they didn't like Hendon Hooker, they weren't going to do it anyway. If they had the opportunity to draft the right guy, they probably would have and ignored this, but it might be just one of those fringe factors that you wouldn't get the full breadth of the advantage of the rookie quarterback contract until two years into a player's career had they drafted him this year.

Now, I think when you go back and we talk about how they handled that, was there other ways around it without having to create this huge dead cap number for next year and to give them an opportunity to build the team up around that player because you aren't just missing out on guys you'd be signing for one year for next year. I think that would be part of the thing. So was there a different approach that they could have taken? And maybe the answer is no. They had to get cap compliant at a certain date and that's it. I mean, you cannot be uh over the cap and i actually don't even know what the penalties are but since no one ever does it it must be pretty harsh

maybe you lose draft picks or something for the future and at the time maybe that was something that they felt they had to do now when we look at it at this moment zadaria smith is not here delvin cook is not going to be here. Was there an opportunity to move them earlier? That I don't know. Was there an opportunity to restructure someone else or not add void years or not make another signing? Maybe to get under the cap as opposed to doing it the way that they did it. I guess I have some questions about that because the best option was to just let Kirk's contract run completely out. And then if you were to draft quarterback, there's no rule against giving that quarterback an incredible team around him. And so you bring up that, yeah, the odds are of course not good to win the Superbowl. Turns out

the odds are never good to win the Superbowl as the Vikings have proved many times, but I would throw back at you Brock Purdy and look at the advantages Brock Purdy was given as a rookie. No, he did not win the Superbowl, but they were right there. They were right there with a rookie quarterback who was able to step in. And why was he able to do it? Because they had so much around him. So what it would mean is, yeah, is it likely you're going to win the Superbowl? No, but I mean, a rookie Ben Roethlisberger won 15 games or something. Normally when you're putting a rookie into that position, that situation is atrocious. Normally, right? If you draft Joe Burrow, your situation is horrendous, but in the Viking situation, had they not had this massive $28

million resting over them, you could draft a quarterback and put him into one of the best positions in the NFL with money spent on the defense money spent potentially to bolster, say the offensive line or the running game or the receiver room, depending on what you need, but probably on the defensive side. So now we're talking about several years in order to build up that defense through draft picks development. And then before 2025, going into the second year of that drafted quarterback for next year, that's when you can kind of go nuts and spend a lot of money. That's not a terrible outcome. It's not, oh my gosh, the franchise is ruined. No, you can actually see the entire path, right?

You can see it laid out how it could potentially go. And that would make a lot of sense for a long-term competitive rebuild. And it all would have come beautifully to fruition. And that would make a lot of sense for a long-term competitive rebuild. And it all would have come beautifully to fruition if that, if it works out that way. So is it, does it ruin the franchise to have that dead cap for next year? If Kirk leaves and they take that 28 million? No, but it does make it harder to work around. And Hey, if there's free agents that you wanted to sign for next year to multi-year contracts, it does make it harder, right? It does not ruin the overall path. I think it's just worth asking, was that the right way to go? Or was that done because of some other reason? Was it done because you thought an extension was potentially coming

for Cousins and you were just delaying it and kicking it down the road, which sounded like what Kweisi Adafo-Mento was talking about after the draft, but now I'm not really sure. And I think it draws kind of a lot of questions there about why that was the way that they went. But as far as outcomes go, you're still on the path that we kind of expected to be on when this offseason started. So it didn't destroy that or throw them way off finding a succession plan and then eventually

taking full advantage of the rookie quarterback contract. All right. This one comes from at Sidhu6. Sorry if I mispronounced that. Would it be smart to treat this as a retooling year? Use the money from Smith and Cook for JJ and Hunter and higher cap hits for them this year rather than trying to sign free agents. So what you're referring to is that when you extend a player, you can kind of work it out however you want. And it not exactly, but basically.

And so what they could do is instead of going to the free agent market and say, sign Marcus Peters or something, they could instead push some of that money into the first year. Now, this is what happened with Delvin Cook when he signed his extension. Some of the money got pushed into that first year because i remember going into 2020 i think it was and they had a decent amount of cap space and we were all wondering are they going to sign somebody else is something else going to happen there and then well they did the yannick and gawkway trade and used a good amount of it for that and brought back riley reef so i don't remember exactly how that worked that they had to push some money into, uh, 2020,

but they could definitely do that where yes, Justin Jefferson's cap hit would go up and Daniel Hunter's cap hit would go up immediately. But then in the longterm, you kind of shave some off of those other seasons. Now, is it super significant? Probably not. I mean, you're probably not talking about enough money that they've created by trading away Zedarius Smith. As I record this, I still haven't seen exactly the cap hit situation because the Vikings reportedly are taking some of that back. So initially we talked about making $12 million,

but Cleveland only had $7 million in cap space. So are they kind of splitting the difference a little bit and just trying to get something back? I don't know if it's going to be even enough if they cut him and Delvin cook to matter a lot toward those guys futures, but is it better to stuff some of it into this year and not go sign one more free agent? Yeah, maybe I guess. I mean, the hard thing that I battle with as far as retooling year is that Kirk Cousins is still the quarterback. Every year that Kirk Cousins is

your quarterback, that you did not trade him to another team still has to be considered a year with expectations. Does it not? I mean, aren't we still saying like this team should be at the top of the division? They should go deep in the playoffs because he's still your quarterback and if you don't believe you can do that then why is he still your quarterback uh and why are you still paying him the huge salary why did you take the huge dead cap hit all those things right if you're looking at it as purely just a rebuild year i think if we pull ourselves back and be realistic, that's probably what it ends up being. It is sort of that one foot in, one foot out. The offense is win now. The defense

is completely rebuilding at this point. Even if they bring back Daniil Hunter, moving on from Zedarius Smith is completely rebuilding. You've now lost Zedarius, Delvin Tomlinson, Eric Hendricks, Patrick Peterson, all the veterans except for Harrison Smith and possibly Daniil Hunter are off this team. It's very much 2019 to 2020 again, and it has to be a retooling year. There's really no choice. So I agree with your theory that don't bother with a free agent that's going to come in for one year, help you a little for this year, but you don't even really know how much. And then, you know, sacrifice later down the road, which really was what they did in 2020. If I'm not mistaken, I mean, they did Kirk Cousins extension.

So his cheapest year was 2020, which was a year where they were having to rebuild major parts of their roster. Didn't really make a whole heck of a lot of sense to structure it that way. They should have structured it. So 2021 would have been a cheaper year for him in 2022 as opposed to 2020. Now, that's easy for me to say, but it seemed like they did that on purpose to sign Michael Pierce, who did not play for them in 2020. Is that right? Yeah. So, you know, tough, tough. That was, I think, a mistake. So to your point, yes. If they can move some money into those guys, extensions, TJ Hawkinson also falls under this category.

Is that a better idea than signing a single free agent? Yes. I also think it's better to find out. That's what you're going to hear me say. Like find out if Patrick Jones can play, find out if Brian Asamoah can play, find out if the corners can play a lot of value in that. So they should do that and not spend on this free agent or that free agent. That's just going to be another guy, uh, hoping that that player can put you over the top. Because one more free agent at a few million bucks, very unlikely to be the difference maker. We saw that from Bashad Breeland, Sheldon Richardson, when they brought those guys in and kind of a desperate situation in 2021 to try to be the difference makers and it did not really move the needle at all. This one comes from Zach Dixon on Twitter. And let's see, by the end of the season, so letting one or two players

develop a little, what do you think that the best and worst position groups will be? Okay. So by the end of the season, well, the best should be the wide receiver group. However, KJ Osborne is a free agent after the end of the season. So that might not be something that can be sustained, but let's say he signs an extension. I don't know. assuming Jordan Addison has gotten comfortable and that his route running prowess and ability to catch the football and everything else is all translated. And he's let's say got 65 catches for 800 yards, be a pretty darn good rookie season for Jordan Addison. Justin Jefferson is who he is best player in the league. And then KJ Osborne is the solid KJ Osborne that we know that would be the safest pick for the best position group. The most bold pick for the best position group. And I mean, extremely bold would be the offensive line. Now that is only in the case. Don't go crazy. It's only in the case that the two guards take big steps forward and become what they're expected to be

when they're taken in the second round. When you take a guard in the second round, you expect an above average starter. If they were to have two superstars at tackle, two above average starters at guard. And again, this is why it's a long shot to happen, but it could. And then Garrett Bradbury repeats what he did last year where he was 14th and pass blocking. That could be a really, really good position group. They have invested so much that offensive line. And I think on PFF, they may have just cracked the top 20 last year, but if they were to get solid to very good play at guard, they could be one of the better offensive lines in the league. But again, that is having those things come to fruition and also everybody staying healthy and everything else. Wide receiver is a much safer bet for that. As far as worst position

groups, it doesn't feel like the offensive line is one of them. So that's a bonus. Certainly the cornerback group is the one that you mentioned the first, because even though again, the guys are drafted high and they all have potential. Byron Murphy is a proven NFL player, quality cornerback, but Booth Jr. Evans, Blackman, Ward, we just don't know. Any one of these guys could emerge as really good players or none of them like what happened in 2020 where it was holton hill cam dantzler jeff gladney and i mean lewis scene falls into this category as well i guess we could say the whole secondary but just if we're going specific position groups then it could be uh the cornerback group i feel like brian asamoah

is going to step in pretty well. And Jordan Hicks is what he is. You could pick linebacker here. If you think that there's a chance that Asamoah isn't good. I think what we saw last year, there's a, I would lean more toward it's up and down, but more up and down with him than I would that it's going to be a disaster. The corners, there is just disaster potential. certainly there's a high end here when you draft a bunch of guys uh with high draft picks but i mean last year was a disaster for caleb evans and for andrew booth jr guys that i think they expected to contribute and then ended up struggling and injured so they need them to take a step forward i think those are probably

the most obvious picks but I also think if they trade away Daniel Hunter, worst position group could absolutely be the defensive line. I mean, you're talking about the interior of having Harrison Phillips, who's a solid player, Kyrus Tonga, Seiji Otomowo, Dean Lowry. Like this is not a group that is really going to stuff the run like it would if it had Delvin Tomlinson. And if you're not able to have a healthy Marcus Davenport, who's getting nine or 10 sacks, and instead he's the version last year where he's banged up a lot and gets no sacks.

Patrick Jones, DJ Wanham. I mean, yeah, that's, that's the thing when we're naming almost every group on defense for potentially being the worst. That's not a the thing. When we're naming almost every group on defense for potentially being the worst, that's not a great thing. I guess we could throw out running back just because it's unclear. What Alexander Madison does is the bell cow, assuming that Cook is gone, and the rest are inexperienced. But that one is one I would have trouble seeing them being the worst

just because I think Madison is a pretty solid player. So that's a good question. But, yeah, I mean, there's a lot there to be figured out because you could see the cornerback group by the end of the year being one that's talked about is very exciting. And here's, here's my proof for this. Uh, Christian Derrissaw was banged up in his first year, had ups and downs, missed some games, gave up some easy sacks, had some trouble with some elite rushers. And then by the end of year two, like that's an elite player. And we, and you don't know what's going to happen. He was only what the 18th pick or something. So it wasn't like he was a number one overall pick and you kind of knew it was coming.

And he took that big step forward. So do you take that or not really is going to dictate what happens with the corners. But right now I'll go wide receivers best than corners having the most troubles. From Hunter, how different do you think this offseason would have been if Spielman was the GM? In this scenario, my first question is what does Rick's contract look like? That would be my first question, because if he had gotten a multi-year extension, then he could take a little bit more of a long-term approach. Also, did he also win 13 games last year?

Is there job security there for Rick Spielman in this case? Because I think that what you saw from the early part of Rick Spielman and Mike Zimmer's era is they did a lot of very smart things. By the end, when they were desperate with Kirk Cousins, they made a lot of moves that were absolutely baffling. Trading a fourth round pick for Chris Herndon, trading a fifth for a kicker slash punter. They gave extensions to everybody that moved. I mean, they, they really spent a lot of money on like nose tackle. It's just, you know, there was a lot of stuff that happened that you would really question from an efficiency perspective. And even in the draft where it felt like every year there was this desperation and there's

no better example than 2019 to draft positions. We need, need a center draft, a center need a tight end draft, a tight, right? So just positions that they needed as opposed to maybe premium positions. But I think that that was impacted decently by just the desperation to win and to keep their jobs. Because when we go back, they drafted Teddy Bridgewater. They were starting to build around him. They had the advantage of the rookie quarterback contract. They made a lot of really good draft picks, right? So there is kind of a line that you can draw for when do the smart moves stop? And that's pretty much after Kirk Cousins is brought in after they go to the NFC championship

and that real push. So if Rick Spielman was still feeling the pressure, I think we would have Adam Thielen here. We would probably have Patrick Peterson still here. They would have found a way. I don't know that you signed Delvin Tomlinson either way. I mean, he got a lot of money and I don't think the Vikings could have afforded it, but you probably see more cap shuffling every single restructure that was possible to jam

as many veteran players as you can. I don't think that the guys that left would have been allowed to leave. That's not a guarantee, but I think after a 13 win season, they were really, really cap strapped. So they might have to do a lot of the same stuff. Would they have drafted a receiver? I don't know. I was banging that drum forever, but if they didn't allow Adam Thielen to go, then they would not have drafted a wide receiver because it would have been in that win now mode, presumably. The thing is that I don't think that Rick Spielman was wildly, wildly different as a general manager from what we're going to see from Kweisi Adafo-Mensa. But there are some things where Kweisi can be sharper.

And that's the advantages and the differences in the NFL. I mean, mostly outside of fringe GMs who have no idea what they're doing. Mostly it's not that huge of a gap between your good and your mediocre general managers. And I would probably put Rick Spielman in the somewhere in the middle as being a competent GM for a lot of his career. And then at the end, it was really pressure that I think ended up getting to him quite a bit and getting, you know, just getting to everybody really. I mean, I think the way Mike Zimmer coached was impacted greatly by the pressure on his job and all those things. So can you find the smallest edges? And that's where we see just,

for example, you know, Howie Roseman with draft picks always seems to find a way to get a bunch of draft picks and has managed the draft capital game unbelievably well. So maybe with Kweisi Adafomenta's first draft, he decided to kind of learn from that a little bit and say, you know what, instead of moving away from a player we really want, it could be really good, uh, in trading way down. Why don't we just take that player? Uh, you know, like they moved way down in his first draft. So he's still, I think learning on the job, but it could be just, if you're just that percentage smarter, you can be a little better, but it also helps that they are in a position where you don't have to have the pressure on your job because you won 13 games and the NFLPA put you number one and you're in a good spot to kind of make this

retooling situation and handle things with a little more of a long-term view on the defense as opposed to flailing at things to try to fill spots. So I think that's probably the biggest difference. And I'm sure's probably the biggest difference. And I'm sure that there are things behind the scenes that are handled differently that I wouldn't know about aside from the people in the building. Next question comes from Dave. Do you think anything similar to a Kurt Warner story could ever happen again? Undrafted quarterback working at Hy-Vee inducted into the hall of Fame. Unbelievable at the time, now seems less likely. There was a run from, I guess it would have been in the late 90s

through maybe 2010 or something, where there was quite a few of these types of quarterbacks that had been developed on other teams, became stars. Comes to mind like Matt Hasselbeck. I mean, even Brad Johnson, like what was he a ninth round draft pick or something? And Brad Johnson becomes a Super Bowl winning quarterback, Rich Gannon.

It seemed like the journeyman really was crushing it in that late nineties, early 2000s. Kerry Collins had been a total bust with Carolina and then ends up in the Super Bowl with the New York Giants, Trent Dilfer. It was quite a time to be alive. If you were a journeyman quarterback, Randall Cunningham, Jeff George, you could just go on and on for whatever reason in that area of say like mid-90s and on. Maybe it was, you know what it was probably is the transition a little bit out of some legendary quarterbacks that had really dominated for a

very long time. Your Elway, Kelly, Marino, Aikman, Young, all of those guys, their runs kind of came to an end. And when they weren't just dominating the league anymore, It was these quarterbacks who had the best situations around them. Could they operate the offense? Could they be accurate? Could they be a baller like Kurt Warner was unbelievably accurate and executed the offense and everything else, but also had the best group of weapons and offensive line you will ever find ever. And the same thing went for Randall Cunningham. So it's kind of perfect timing, right? You had the legends moving out and then you had Torrey Holt and you had Randy Moss and these people coming into the league just at the right time for that to happen and for it not to be run by a couple of amazing quarterbacks and dynastic

teams. Those dynastic teams faded. These other ones kind of rose up. Those guys were in the right position. A lot has to happen for somebody like that, but I will never stop believing it's possible. Never that someone comes from absolutely nowhere and develops late. And then all of a sudden gets the right situation and takes off. And why I would say it is possible is because of what we saw from Brock Purdy last year, just last year, or Case Keenum. And I know that Kurt Warner had a Hall of Fame career, but it will always be possible that somebody steps into the right spot with a juggernaut team at the right time.

It's harder to keep teams together these days than maybe it was then. But even then, the greatest show on turf didn't last that long. And then Kurt Warner gets put into another team that happens to have Larry Fitzgerald and was really great at that time to go to the Super Bowl. And then he ends up in the Hall of Fame. And maybe there's a little question of, like, is he a fringe kind of Hall of Fame, like the lowest end, still all-time great, no disrespect, but maybe the lower end of fringe kind of hall of fame, like the lowest end still all time. Great. No disrespect, but maybe the lower end of the hall of fame quarterbacks, because he had a part of his career that wasn't that good. So even Kurt Warner was kind of a product at times of what

was around him. Again, that's no disrespect hall of famer, super bowl champ, all time. Great. But I think every quarterback would tell you that, that landing in the right spot at the right time plays a big role in what they become. So I refuse to believe that there will not be any more undrafted free agents, seventh round picks, late guys. They will always be total anomalies, complete outliers, statistically almost impossible, but that's what makes sports great, right? That every once in a while in every sport, a Kawhi Leonard, a Dennis Rodman, you know, players who are not expected to be great end up being great because they develop at the right time land with the right coach.

I think that will always keep happening when, who I have no idea. Keep watching the XFL and usfl for the next great kurt warner i guess uh this one comes from max why do you think the vikings decided to restructure kirk's contract instead of restructuring brian o'neill if they did both in order to do an all-in move i would disagree but understand right yeah if they did both in order to do an all in move, I would disagree, but understand. Right. Yeah. If they had done both and that's what, and I should have brought that up with the Rick Spielman thing that they probably would have restructured every single contract that they could have if they were still in desperation mode. But I think you can see where there isn't

quite that level of desperation. I think, I mean, there isn't quite that level of desperation. I think, I mean, there's two theories. One of them, as we talked about to start the show, is timing. That you had to get underneath the salary cap by a certain date, and there's no way around it. And that may have been like, ah, we've got to push this button, and then we'll see what we can do later with Zedaria Smith, Dalvin Cook, and everybody else. Also, it's not a great thing to renegotiate and to restructure and to push money down the road.

So it's possible that it was just advantageous to stuff Kirk Cousins' dead cap into one year, bite the bullet on that if he leaves. And also, and this is the other part, have it in the back of your mind. Yeah, we actually can extend Kirk if he ever kind of comes around to our side. And then we can spread out that 28 million into the years into the extension, which also may have been part of the equation here that they wanted to set it up so they wouldn't have to do the O'Neill thing and be guaranteed to get crushed on it down the road. Whereas with Cousins, if they do sign

them to an extension, then they can lighten the cap hit on that by spreading it out over the future. That would be the best theory that I have is just that they maybe still are, or at least at that time were leaving the door open for an extension that would help that and not have them get nailed with that 28 million. And that's why they did it. Those are only theories. They have never said exactly what their thinking was on that. And I suspect that they won't be sending out a

press release anytime soon, fully explaining it, but that's the best theories I can come up with is very interesting. And you're right that when it's talked about just by these questions about a retooling year, this is where you see it. They didn't do absolutely everything under the sun to create the most cap space to desperately sign free agents to fill the roster we have seen them do that before including last year some of them worked out great so darius smith and patrick peterson but they didn't do that which means that they want to see these young players at At least that's where I stand right now. That could change tomorrow if they sign somebody. I guess we'll see. From skaper100,

when reflecting on the Smith trade, I began to wonder outside of some true outliers, do teams on average really win and lose trades? Meaning do trades really typically end up favoring one team? Very much, this is a case-to-case type of thing. I think we can all think of some trades that maybe were one-sided. There was one in the Vikings history with a running back.

You guys want to get into it? No, okay, we won't talk about that. But think about this way. Like, if you're the Jets and you got a fourth round pick for Chris Herndon you won the trade and a lot of times that's how it happens if you are Cleveland and you got Amari Cooper for a fifth you won the trade you got Amari Cooper they got nothing so yeah you win Cleveland wins this trade because Cleveland's trying to win and they got a great player and you got nothing.

A couple of draft picks and some cap space and a space for somebody else to play more. That's not, that's not great. It's the position that the Vikings were forced into that I don't think is a travesty because you get to see if Marcus Davenport can play that role and maybe more opportunity for someone like Patrick Jones. Still, you didn't win the trade. I mean, that team is pushing all their chips in to go get Zedarius Smith. They can afford him. They win the trade that way. And they didn't have to give up anything. They win the trade that

way. He gets 10 sacks. They win the trade that way. But what often happens, and I think what you're referring to is that every team is not in the same position. If every team had the same salary cap, the same timeline, everything else, then we wouldn't see so many of these obviously one-sided trades that are, we got to get rid of this player. Can you take them? James Bradbury going to Philadelphia last year, easily won the trade. Usually that's how you end up seeing teams win the trade it's not as often that you see a David Johnson in a second for DeAndre Hopkins type of win and a lot of times as you're saying it ends up being a team is trading

away a player that they don't I mean here an example, like Ross Blacklock for almost nothing. I mean, it's, there's not a lot there, right? Yet Ross, again, feel free to prove me wrong. Blacklock was not an impact player for them last year. If he is this year, then the Vikings will have won the trade. A lot of times that's how trades end up going. But usually it's when two teams timelines are different or when a team is forced. So if you are forced and you're backed into a situation where you have to make the trade, like Stefan digs to the bills, the Vikings were basically backed into a corner there.

They didn't have to trade him for anything. But once a first round pick came in, like you got to make that trade. If Justin Jefferson hadn't become great then we'd be talking about an all-time L for the Minnesota Vikings there so it does happen that there are those situations but in football I think it's very unique as opposed to say baseball there's a lot of trades of we want this prospect we're going to send you this player and it's kind of even where it's one team is way up here with a ton of cap space and they are trying to win now. So they could take your really good player. And

another team is retooling and doesn't need an older player and needs cap space. And so who won the trade? I don't really know. But it's an interesting question, right? I mean, because if Cleveland ends up being a great team and Zedaria Smith gets 10 sacks. You didn't win the trade, but you really didn't have a choice. I think that's the other part of it. Who won the trade also has to factor. Did the team trading the player have a choice? Probably Dallas didn't have to trade Amari Cooper, but they signed Ezekiel Elliott to a bizarre contract.

I don't know. Okay, let's see. Let's get in one more here. And I got a ton of questions on Twitter on Sunday. So if you sent me one, there's going to be more episodes, fans only this week, as I mentioned at the start. So be patient, but I will get to all the questions that everyone sent me. So last one from A West one. What do you think a combined cap hit in one year looks like for new deals for Jefferson, Hawkinson and Hunter, assuming that the team does in fact want to keep all three of them? Well, it's, it's really hard to know, uh, impossible to know

actually what their cap hit would look like for say this year that I imagine, like we were talking about earlier that they would push some of the money onto this year, but I don't know how much. And if you're talking about say in the future, like one year, how much money all three of them could take up, it really depends on how they time those out. Now hunters is going to be the hardest to work around. So Justin Jefferson's, if it's done now, he can have several years of actually being cheap. If you go look at the way AJ Brown's contract is structured, he's still not expensive this year. And that was the whole beef with the Titans, them not signing him to an extension. You can do it.

And that's the advantage of doing it while the guy is still on the rookie deal, because you can create it. So it has multiple years of manageable cap hits. Even Patrick Mahomes, when he signed his deal, he was still on a manageable contract until literally this year. And I think he signed it like two years ago. So you can do it for sure to make it with a guy coming off a rookie deal that there's a little more flexibility early in the contract or that it's less early in the contract or that it's

less early in the contract and then it elevates, but then you can restructure after that. That's why you sign him to an extension and don't just franchise tag him because you have more options at your disposal to mess with his salary cap hit. I mean, if we're talking about average annual value, we could talk about that. That's how much per year on average, this many years, this many dollars. And then the structure is really everything. I mean, you're going to be talking Jefferson, 25, 30 million Hunter, 20 to 25 and Hawkinson, probably 15 to 18. It's a lot.

And then Derrissaw comes along and he gets 25 as well. It's expensive to have good players. And this is why the Daniil Hunter thing may end up in a trade, because when you start adding those up, that's a lot. That said, if they do move on from Kirk Cousins, what they would probably try to do is structure some of these out to be expensive in 2025 when they're taking full advantage of the rookie quarterback contract and beyond that's what helps you afford them and

i also think this is one of the reasons why the vikings wouldn't want to go farther down the road with kirk cousins into a three four year type of contract because or one of the reasons that they want to jam all the dead money into next year which sort of speaks because, or one of the reasons that they want to jam all the dead money into next year, which sort of speaks to the question earlier of like, how bad is that? Well, it's not that bad. If you can set up the contract extensions for these great players to start to kick in a little later when you can afford it better. So, uh, very interesting stuff though, for sure. Okay. I'm going to get in one more because I just really like this question and I feel like it should be asked.

With Fast X coming out in theaters, which is your favorite Fast and Furious movie? Well, first of all, I want to say that our producer on Purple Insider, Jonathan Harrison, is the true expert of Fast and Furious, not me. He has watched every single one because he is deeply disturbed. But I would say this, they're all the same movie. It's all exactly the same thing. There's no difference. They're all the first movie over and over and over again. And they just get progressively more absurd, but they're all the same movie. Just more stuff blows up in crazier ways. And more stuff that is impossible by all the laws of physics happens as you go along.

But it's all the same kind of structure. Although I will say that it seems like, and I'm saying this because I don't even remember which ones I've seen. I saw the first one, which was good and entertaining. The second one was absolutely awful. And then there was a couple later that were fun. They were kind of like superhero movies, more than they were like a real narrative.

It's just some bad guys and we're going to go... It's like a Bond movie almost is what it's become. Maybe there's a real comparison there, where it would be like the bond movies for 50 years. They just keep making them, but still they're everyone. I should say it this way,

put an addendum on it. Everyone past the first one is the same movie. And so they're all the same. There's no difference. And if you're a huge fan, bless you because they're fun and you should like fun movies, blockbusters, stuff blowing up. I like it too. I saw fun movies. Blockbusters, stuff blowing up.

I like it too. I saw the new Top Gun, stuff blowing up. People flying planes. It's cool. But these are not like pieces of art. These are, let's do some crazy stuff with cars that can't actually happen. So anyway, somebody did an article. I should have read it about whether they could have actually taken the car to space. And I think that they tried to make that scientifically possible, but I'm not sure. Don't quote me on it anyway. Well, if you go to see it, enjoy it,

have a good time. And, uh, I'll see if I can catch that one, maybe on VHS. Thanks everybody. We'll have a lot more fans, only some good guests this week as always. And we'll see if we get more breaking news. If we do, uh, anytime there's breaking news, I'm going live on YouTube. So make sure you check that out, subscribe to the YouTube and we will catch y'all later.