Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Sheldon Richardson is a Viking and Jake Browning is still QB2 in minicamp

Episode Date: June 15, 2021

Fresh off Sheldon Richardson's reintroduction press conference, Matthew Coller and Sam Ekstrom talk about what Richardson's presence means to the Minnesota Vikings, where he fits in and what it means for the bigger picture. They talk about how Mike Zimmer has done it his way in rebuilding the defense quickly and whether the short-term nature of this rebuild is a good thing. Plus, was it the right way to go in ignoring the offense this offseason? And Jake Browning is still taking the No. 2 reps in minicamp. Should we care? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Oh, welcome to another episode of the Purple Insider Podcast, Matthew Collar here along with Sam Ekstrom and Sam, we spent the morning outside looking at Sheldon Richardson and Daniil Hunter. Now, they didn't do anything at minicamp, but the fact that they were there is extremely notable. Sheldon Richardson is back. Daniil Hunter is signed. You and I briefly talked about Daniil Hunter being signed or being reworked to a contract to return yesterday for the podcast after I recorded and re-recorded with new news several times. So let's start out with Sheldon Richardson. The media contingent is a fan of Sheldon Richardson because he sort of shoots from the hip and he's an interesting character to talk with.

But I think most notably now the pass rush for the Minnesota Vikings could be considered good. Would you agree with that, Sam? You buried the lead on Sheldon, first of all. He's wearing the number nine. He's he let me reiterate that he's wearing the number nine, which looks so bizarre. So to your question, this is enormous for the Vikings because there was a moment today in practice and keep in mind that Sheldon was not participating. He's still getting his, his seed legs and getting back in football shape. So he was off to the side.

The Vikings put in their pass rushing specialists on like a late game situational drill where the offense was clearly going to throw. On the inside, they inserted Jalen Holmes and Armin Watts. That was the best they had. That's why Sheldon Richardson is important. Because if you look at his career, and it's a good career, it's a lengthy career. And I think that gets betrayed by the number of teams that he's played for. He's been a journeyman. It always feels like he's kind of on a prove it deal. And then he got cut early from Cleveland as a cap casualty despite signing that big deal. He's always been able to rush the passer, including in 2018 with the Vikings. So if they can get that type of dominance from him, even in a situational

role, that's going to be enormous. And he might be working in tandem on a stunt with Daniil Hunter this year. Like imagine yesterday, us waking up kind of wondering like, man, is DJ Wanham going to be rushing next to James Lynch on third and 10? And now suddenly it's going to be, uh, Daniil and Sheldon 2018 all over again. Um, I hope Sheldon wears the number nine in the regular season. Frankly, I think that would be pretty terrific. I think it would too. I don't think he committed to that when we talked to him to wear number nine, but I also am totally here for players wearing single digit numbers. Patrick Peterson looks pretty cool in number seven.

I like it carrying over from college. I never understood why it had to be this way in the NFL that these guys have to wear, you know, X number. It's like, is it like what is the quarterback going to get confused? Oh, number seven. Am I throwing to a kicker? Like, I don't you know, I don't know. But speaking of Patrick Peterson, though, he's relevant here in this conversation about Sheldon Richardson, because I have to go back to the night that they signed Patrick Peterson. And you and I had a long discussion about what exactly is it that you're doing here? Because on that night, they spent

$10 million on Patrick Peterson. And when we looked at their over the cap.com, there was not a whole lot of cap space. And it appeared that their signings were going to be Delvin Tomlinson and Patrick Peterson. I don't remember the order. Maybe Peterson was first. But it just felt like they're going to patch a hole here. And they're going to run out a bunch of guys that are unproven still. And what we're going to end up with is a lot of the same of last year that there maybe was even a comparison of Patrick Peterson and Yannick Ngakwe of someone where you

talk yourself into this one player making a huge difference and you give them a lot of money or in Ngakwe's case, they used a lot of cap space to trade for him and ultimately had Riley Reif redoing his contract and everything at the last minute. That's how it felt that night. And we, as you said, wake up yesterday morning thinking, wow, they still have cap space to add someone else. And I was very confident that they would add someone else.

And I think in our little redo of the podcast, I mentioned like it's almost a guarantee that they use this cap space to bring in someone else. And then they get Richardson, but also getting Rashad Breland, which is a really big deal for them, getting Mackenzie Alexander on a very cheap deal. Those were the things that at the very beginning of the offseason, Sam, I thought that they should do. It just took a really long time to get there. Like they didn't do that on day one of free agency or day two where they just signed a bunch of guys who were kind of cheap.

Their patience here ended up playing in their favor to be able to get Breland at this point and Sheldon Richardson at this point. And I feel like they made up for a mistake that they made last year, which was to not make signings like this, even though they were available. Yeah. And the Vikings do get the last laugh here on us because we prognosticated that, you know, the early splashes they made were a little bit short-sighted. In fairness, though, the Vikings sort of had the full picture. They knew what their plan was. They knew that they were going to get Kyle Rudolph's money deferred to June 1st. And they probably had a good inkling that Anthony Barr was going to take the big pay cut, that Adam Thielen was going to restructure. And they knew all the ways that they

were going to clear up cap space. And they took myriad approaches to do so. And to their credit, they sort of waited some of these guys out and they get, you know, Sheldon Richardson, who went deep in the playoffs with Cleveland and Rashad Breland, who played in the Super Bowl with the Chiefs. So some pretty high pedigree signings at a late date at a reasonable cost and still more money to spend like i know the roster is at 90 now but that should not preclude you from adding to this team still even after breland and richardson the reports are that they've cleared up some cap space with the hunter restructure and they might still have 10, 11 million in cap space to play with. I know

the O'Neill extension is coming down the pipeline, but they've still got the ability to upgrade at wide receiver three, maybe even defensive end if they want to bring somebody in there. I guess Everson Griffin is still available, But, you know, the Vikings play this well. And I got to tip my hat to them. And I said initially when there were rumors of them going after Trey Hendrickson and Carl Lawson, I thought, are you out of your mind? Do you know what that's going to cost you? could have snuck in a contract like that under the number because of what they knew to be true about their cap situation and the ways that they were going to clear up money. And I think they've got some pretty high value acquisitions here with Breland and Richardson

that will contribute, even if it's not in a starting role, in, like first man off the bench role at their respective positions. And, you know, and so I guess I was thinking about this earlier today, as in, is this the right way to go about it? Because you and I were talking just before this about how there's so many players on one year deals and they deserve credit for just sort of scooping them up. Like, Oh oh someone cut Sheldon Richardson which I don't understand that move for Cleveland by the way Jadavion Clowney is not so big of an upgrade over Sheldon Richardson even though I think he's a better football player

but based on his health if you get like nine or ten games out of Jadavion Clowney versus you get full seasons out of Sheldon richardson i don't really uh think that that was a great way to go about it like it was sort of um if you looked at their wins above replacement at the end of a year it's maybe 50 cents or half dollar for both players and i guess i just don't understand taking the risk that jadavian clowny might get hurt but this ends up playing to the vikings benefit so from from the perspective of 2021 they pick up all these guys on one-year deals and now you go position by position and say there is nowhere where you are really weak I mean right now Troy Dye is linebacker three but I mean look you know who's making a big deal about that with Anthony Barr coming back and with Eric

Hendricks with his history. Okay, that's fine. Yeah, sure. Behind Xavier Woods is Cameron Bynum. But I mean, okay, fine. You're always going to have some weaknesses in some points. But when you go position by position, you're very strong for right now. Fast forward one year, though, and you're talking about who knows. Anthony Barr is probably gone. There's even a chance

Daniil Hunter is not still around if he doesn't play particularly well and the neck injury is a problem and then we could be talking about a whole other contract issue or if he does play well then they've set themselves up to have to make him one of the highest paid players in the league so that's not necessarily really a long-term play. Patrick Peterson is not a long-term play. Neither is Mackenzie Alexander, neither is Bashad Breland, and even someone like Delvin Tomlinson, they added void years to his deal, which is also not a long-term type of thing that this team usually does. So I guess there's a part of me that's always thinking in the big picture here and saying, well, they kind of threw the big picture to the wind to fill this roster up right now

and take advantage of sort of the offseason circumstances. I think based on where Zimmer and Spielman and Cousins' contract is, that that was the right way to go because they're not locked into people long term. But I wonder if there's a case of, well, now what in the future though, because you have all these pieces that just might not be here and you might be looking at a 2019 to 2020 again after this year. Yeah, you raised a good point. And in one sense, I think their dealings were intelligent because I wrote a few weeks ago how other teams that were kind of in cap purgatory, they restructured guys, but they kept them around. They prioritized veterans and kicked the can down the road with their salaries and created some cap pickles later on because they didn't want to lose anybody. They wanted to keep guys in the fold, veterans.

The Vikings didn't do that. The Vikings actually reduced the amount of time that Anthony Barr is under team control. They reduced the amount of time that Daniil Hunter is under team control. They didn't sort of jump the gun on Harrison Smith, who might still be negotiating an extension. They really kind of, in order to be cap compliant and be able to play ball in free agency, as we discussed, they had to make some moves that I guess weakened the team long-term in terms of like locking up players, but that's not always a bad thing. That's not always a bad thing. Teams that are over-committed like the Eagles and the Saints, wind up in horrible positions. So I think there is a middle ground there that I think is acceptable.

But if you're really good this year, I mean, that insinuates that some of these one-year deal players worked out. And then the cap is jumping by $25 million. Teams are going to have this windfall and money to spend. Odds are you're not going to retain all of them. If you're bad this year, well, that also insinuates that some of the signings or some of those expiring deals didn't work out. And then you might just kind of let them walk. So I don't necessarily see a scenario where this core, at least all the one-year deals, all come back. I mean, you might be able to prioritize one or two.

And certainly, you know, Daniel Hunter, who's not an expiring deal, he does have 2022 still. I think that becomes a priority to renegotiate based on his age. And if he succeeds this year, yes, you try to pay him. And maybe you even clear some Kirk money if there's a decision made on Kirk to to give yourself some more some more cash. But I think there's a lot of prove it deals for players like Patrick Peterson, Sheldon Richardson, Mackenzie Alexander, Xavier Woods. They all are playing for their next contract this year. That could bode very well for the 2021 Vikings because

of the level of motivation they're going to get from a number of individuals that maybe feel a little irked that they weren't valued more in free agency I don't know if it bodes very well for the 2022 team yeah I know I think so too and especially even just with the ages of some of the players that they brought I mean Peterson there's still a question about you know what he's going to be I, so far, minicamp, whatever, OTAs, he looks great. But I don't know, right? Like, I don't know how that's going to play off in the long term throughout a 17-game season based on his last year that was a struggle in Arizona.

So is he going to shine, or is this kind of it? We don't know that question. And how they end up, you know, getting some of these other guys to fit in. We still have some questions there, which brings me to, if it doesn't work, there is no talking yourself out of this one, right? There's no, Oh, we didn't have the fans in the stadium. Nope. You're going to have the fans in the stadium. And oh, we were really young. Well, you're not young.

Now you're kind of in a lot of ways on defense, you're sort of old, that it's mostly veterans playing. And also with Zimmer talking about how this off season, and we discussed this a bit with Harrison Smith, but this off season Zimmer talked about, he brought in a new defensive backs coach from Alabama. And I think he's really excited about that, about how he's taken some of the things from the college game and how they deal with certain offensive innovations and they're applying them. And so everything is sort of right there for you.

And I have to give follower Scott, who is a subscriber to the website. He joins the locker room chats that we do sometimes. Scott, a shout out to him. He brought this point up with me yesterday on Twitter about how not only is it sort of all-in approach from one perspective of we're spending a lot of money and getting all these guys, but it also means all the excuses are off the table. You've spent the money on the quarterback. You got the superstar wide receivers. You got the superstar running back. You have all these players on defense that you brought in. They're all veterans. You're not teaching them the game now this year. It's like you have to win. You can't just sort of talk your way around this if you're Mike Zimmer and Rick Spielman. And it's a pretty big indictment to on the quarterback if this team doesn't work out, because that ultimately is the engine. There have been a lot of talented teams that were harpooned by a bad quarterback situation. I'm thinking like 2008 Vikings quarterback situation and Kirk's better than they can't win with the continuity on offense you know um the the talent

at receiver dalvin cook the talent at tight end i i guess i guess if the offensive line sort of uh derails things again that would be probably the most reasonable um like doomsday scenario like with all the talent on the team that's probably the one area where you say, okay, I can see where this didn't work out. Like this makes sense that, that it failed when you expected, you know, two rookies, or I guess in, you know, door number two is Rashad Hill and Dakota Dozier. If you expected that to kind of get you over the hump, you shouldn't have. But, but otherwise, yeah, there's a lot on Kirk this year because he's got the defense back that allowed him to win 10 games as quarterback in 2019. I'd be curious, Matthew, how you feel about this defense compared to that defense, because this defense doesn't have

the track record together like 2019, but I think you could argue that they have probably as much talent on paper. No, I think that, well, part of that was, it really depends on how you factor like Everson Griffin in 2018 and sort of where that went because, you know, with Everson Griffin at the peak of his powers, he is one of the most dominant players in the NFL, but that year he had the issue that he left for five games. When he came back, he really wasn't the same Everson Griffin, um, 2019.

He was still good, but he wasn't like 2017 Everson Griffin. That was one of the most dominant players in the league. So that kind of makes a difference that that's like the missing piece here. Sheldon Richardson is nice, but at the peak of Mike Zimmer defenses Everson Griffin and Daniil Hunter are one of the best if not the best combination of defensive ends in the league you are not going to have that even if you sign Melvin Ingram and like you said he's had injury issues in the past or maybe you said that

in a video yeah so anyway so like right so even if they were to find a way to get him in here too and just sign everybody that's out there or another situational pass rusher it's not going to be like having everson so that's a little bit different for me but uh i think the fact that you could kind of go through and say the 2017 defense was pretty much perfect. I mean, you would have a tough time finding any issues with it. It was completely healthy as well. I mean, so not only, not only did they have good players, they had good depth. They had other guys who could fill in and play roles and things like that. So when we saw 2018 and 2019, there were small holes and at times they were costly. I mean, you play a bad game against the Los Angeles Rams. It's one bad game. It happens every year, but it really hurt them. And I think

that's more of the expectation of I'm setting for this year is where, you know, we're going to see games that it doesn't work out super well, I think, and they're going to have to win with their offense. And this is where it all does kind of tie back to Kirk cousins, because when he has his bad streaks at times, he doesn't always bail you out when your defense isn't perfect. And, and against the Rams, he was great that night, but like throughout the history here, sometimes where the defense hasn't shown a couple times a year, even it's like a thin margin that he isn't the guy who has been able to bail you out so I know that that was like a convoluted way of thinking about that but I look at it as very talented but having enough flaws where it's not going to just steamroll

everybody like it did in 2017 so there is a comparison there for sure. And that sort of leaves the door open for me to ask the next question to you, Sam, which is now that they've spent just, I don't know, we've got to be approaching like 50 million bucks on defense, right? And nothing on offense. Are they safe in assuming that the thing that determines you're winning the most, which is still offense, are they safe and assuming it will be as good as it was last year or even better no i i don't think that is a guarantee i think the healthy offense will be on par um but like you said the defense was extremely healthy in 2017 and 2019. The offense was uncharacteristically

healthy last year, and that's not always sustainable. We've seen what happens to a good offense when injuries bite. 2016, prime example. Miraculously, the Vikings sort of overcame the Thielen injury in 2019, and that was impressive. But I don't know if that happens again. You know, if this is your receiver depth, do you count on BC to do the same thing? Do you count on BB or Smith-Marset to step up? I don't think you can count on that. And the depth on the offensive line is extremely uninspiring to me still. And those are guys that get hurt a lot, right? I mean,

like it's almost a guarantee that somebody or some, you know, combination of offensive linemen will get hurt and you're going to have to rely on Mason Cole or Dakota Dozier or Rashad Hill, um, or a rookie if they're not, you know, the, the week one starter. So that concerns me. And having the new coordinator, I know it's the same last name and the same scheme, but it's different. It's a first time play caller. We saw sort of how Kevin Stefanski started the year awfully conservatively. He lost a couple of games earlier in that year too, where the offense was a nonstarter. Right. Like the Bears and the Packers games, the offense was dreadful. And the offense, frankly, didn't have to do anything against the Falcons that year, too.

They just won with the running game. So it's not as if things will click immediately with Clint Kubiak. I think there's there's a better chance than if they were switching schemes, but it's not a guarantee. So I look at the ability they would have had to sign more offensive line help. And I think it's even more of an indictment when you see what they were able to spend on defense now, all the cash that they opened up, it makes it even stranger that they didn't add some more meaningful offensive line depth and that Dakota Dozier was their choice and trading a draft pick for Mason Cole. Those were your methods.

So when you want to sign offense, oh, we don't have the money. We have to get creative and be cheap. But on defense, you are moving heaven and earth to create cap space and make splashy signings. That's just inconsistent roster management to me. Hey everyone. Summer is here and you're trying to get out on the golf course, but if you're like us here at purple insiders, spending all day golfing,

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forth and building it up rather than saying, no, I'm actually going to switch to a passing game where we throw 700 passes like the 1994 Patriots. Like that, that was never going to happen with Zimmer that he wasn't going to change who he is. And I kind of respect it. Like he believes in this way to win football games and he is going to put that throttle down and go all the way. And that's what we're seeing in this off season. At the same time, I just have to go back and kind of say, but right. Like, but the teams who make the Superbowl rank in the top five and passing expected points added the defense for the Superbowl. And I know it's a small sample. It's just teams who went to the Superbowl, but it's kind of all over the place. Sometimes it's great defenses. Sometimes it's just okay. Defenses with great offenses. And

like, there's a bit of a mixed mass but it's always great offenses it's always great passing games and i did a huge piece on kirk cousins and his statistics from year to year his best statistical year in terms of expected points added was 2016 where they were fourth so into that red area of you could actually make the super bowl with this offense, but their defense was terrible. Some of it was playing for behind as it always is with cousins, but they've never tried to really repeat that. His best year where he put up his biggest numbers, his most yardage, and even the environment was more difficult to throw in 2016,

even by a little than it was now. But I thought his best overall production is a passing game. And they leaned into him that year. They did. Washington didn't run the football that much. They pushed the ball downfield. They really went kind of all in on the passing game. And the results were better than anything that they've had here over the last couple of years in terms of like what your passing game

was worth so it's always been interesting to me that they didn't want to do that exactly and i mean i think that on one point one point on that so i i think 2018 was the attempt um to duplicate it because if you look at cousins attempts in in in, in 2016, 606, his attempts in 2018 with John DeFilippo, 606, exactly the same. They brought in a guy who, you know, wanted to pass more than Mike Zimmer. And that was, that was always the strange part is that, did you not know what John DeFilippo was going to do? Like was, how was this so poorly communicated that you were not on the same page at all? Because I I'm guessing that John DeFilippo did his research, you know,

for all his faults. He is a smart guy who I think understood like what it takes to win in the league. But Mike Zimmer is afraid of the offense, messing things up for the defense. He hates unforced errors, interceptions, fumbles, turnovers in general. You look at his quarterbacks from Teddy to Bradford to Keenum to Cousins. All of them have reduced turnovers under his watch.

And a lot of that is his influence in pushing the running game and I think guiding his coordinators to call games a certain way. And I think the three quarters of a season of DeFilippo was enough to spook Zimmer, honestly, into not going back to that methodology. But I would say that they might have been trying to duplicate it with what they started in Kirk's very first year. And Zimmer has been too hesitant to go back. Now, I think this is a good point. The difference between the 2016 Washington team and the 2018 Vikings team is that Washington had one of the best pass blocking teams in the league and the Vikings had one of the worst. And the other point is that they loaded up on weapons. I mean, they had Jameson Crowder as their number three wide receiver.

The Vikings have absolutely no one as their number three wide receiver. Tyler Conklin is a fine player, but he's not Vernon Davis or Jordan Reed in terms of what he brought to the table for having those two guys. And they use Delvin Cook a little in the passing game, but not the way Washington used Chris Thompson. guys and they use Delvin Cook a little in the passing game but not the way Washington used Chris Thompson like they lean to it not just in the run pass ratio or total pass attempts but in terms of you know putting a foundation there around Cousins the other thing was too they ran this offense like this this offense is always connected to you got to run the ball all the time like with Tennessee they run this offense the 49ers like to run the football all the time but Like with Tennessee, they run this offense. The 49ers like to run the football all the time, but when the 49ers reached the Superbowl, they were fourth and expected points added through

the passing game with Jimmy Garoppolo. And so I think that this offense can be a lean into the past type of offense. It's just shifting the sliders, shifting the roster. And I guess that would be part of the question when we look at it, And I guess it was circling all the way back to the point about how you built it and where you spent your money. Like Sheldon Richardson, Bashad Breland, these are good players. I agree with these signings. I think they're good signings, but what about a guard? What about a receiver? What about, right? And so when you see what some of the other receivers got in the free agent market, you go, okay, well, that wasn't super expensive.

And I guess, you know, maybe I wouldn't trade Sheldon for a guard, but if Wyatt Davis is not ready, then she's talking about Dakota Dozier. And if Christian Derrissaw isn't ready, which we will get to some of the things we saw in the practice field today. But if he's not ready, then you're talking about Rashad Hill, who I thought was a fine signing to bring back, but not somebody who is a proven starter in the league.

You know, maybe their their their allocation of the money still went so heavily toward the one side that was bad. It's like they are hoping, hoping in good scenario that they're as good as last year but it like you laid out a couple of things go wrong and it's not going to be the 11th best offense in the league it could drop from there so answer this question for me then i want to get to some of the things that we saw that sort of we're tracking through um minicamp uh where do you think the offense has to rank this year for this team to get past the first round of the playoffs what is our criteria because they were they were ranked fourth last year in yards but i don't buy into that rank so what what dvoa or points what do you think

look i like football outsiders the dvoa thing is tough for me though i mean because at times dvoa was saying the vikings had a good defense last year or at least like a mid-pack and they just they didn't um so i appreciate what they do and they're like trailblazers in the industry but dvoa is just not something i look at um i look at expected points added that's a little more more what esoteric is the right word, maybe. So let's just go points. That's the simplest way to do it. Okay. So 11th last year. So they're a top third, like the bottom of the top third, and they were seven to nine, right? 26 points a game, I think. I think if they bolster that into a top six offense,

which shouldn't be ridiculous, especially with, I think, some of the declining quarterbacks out there, we're kind of at an interesting spot, especially in the NFC, where there's a lot of quarterbacks who might be on the way out. There's a lot of young quarterbacks that might not be ready to realize their full potential, which would allow you to sort of, you know, with a 28, 29 point per game average, be very, very high on that list. I would argue that the offense no showing cost them, you know, two, three games last year, which would have gotten them to the playoffs. Like if you show up against Atlanta, give them a game, you make it.

You're one game out, and Chicago snuck in there. To win a game in the playoffs, probably a road game, unless you win the division. It could be a home game i guess i yeah i think i mean and you've done more on like benchmarks for what offenses need to like achieve to sort of be considered a contender but it feels like you need to strive to be a top five offense like maybe you'll maybe you fall just short but you need to try to improve that number from 11th last year and not just like rest your laurels on the stat that makes you look the best because that's what a lot of people cited we were the fourth best offense

okay I mean I'm sure you could spin that in some way to make the Bears look like the fourth best offense too in some absurd metrics so let's not kid ourselves they were a good not great offense last year so here's another stat that always tells me a lot about offenses that I think is important. So they were, by the way, they were 52 points last year away from being a top five offense. That's, that is a good amount to spread over a season, 52 points. And I'm just not sure where it's coming from. I mean, maybe a more consistent Kirk cousins, a better blocked for Kirk cousins could add up to that. And some of it was kicking, you know, they missed some field goals and missed out on some points there that would have bumped them up a little bit, but, um, is, are, are there 52 points to jump all the way up? Uh,

not in off season additions. There aren't is there in game planning we are gonna have to find out um i do think that clint has the potential to up this offense in terms of its um modern nature for sure uh maybe add more you know wrinkles to it that gary kubiak didn't have because he was running a lot of the same stuff that had been around for a while. I thought as the season went along, he adapted some of that, but they have to pass earlier in games that you could see Clint doing if he's allowed to do so. Always have wondered if he's allowed to do so though. That's a key point. But the stat that I'm talking about is scoring percentage. So just the percentage of times you get the ball versus when you score. Last year, the Vikings were 18th. You know who's right behind them was Chicago.

Like Carolina scored on a higher percentage of their drives last year than the Minnesota Vikings. So did Dallas with Andy Dalton as their quarterback. The Miami Dolphins scored at a higher percentage than the Vikings. They had Tua who didn't play particularly well. And Ryan Fitzpatrick, like you are kind of fooling yourself. If you think like, oh yeah, this is good. And by the way, a lot of points that they've produced came against Carolina, came against Jacksonville, came against Detroit in the final game of the season, where Kirk throws for 400 yards and four

touchdowns. Like sometimes these numbers lie to you by how they they've, they've come about. And I was looking at this the other day and I'm trying to find where I wrote about it, but the defenses that they play this year in terms of their quarterback rating against, there's a lot of teams that were really good coverage teams last season. So are you going to be able to now produce some of this against teams that are good in coverage in the past? They haven't been able to, and I'm going to need to understand how they are changing that because, you know, for example, they play Pittsburgh. I'm not super high on Pittsburgh, but Pittsburgh was the best past defense in the league last year, I believe. So that's usually a recipe for the

Vikings not winning. So that's kind of my point is when you just look at, oh, you were 11th, you were great fourth and yards DVOA. Here's what it says. Okay. That's true. But the order of operations kind of matters here. And you can't start out. Oh, and two where your offense just doesn't show and you lose the Cincinnati and Arizona. You've laid this out. If you lose a couple of games early, the schedule all of a sudden becomes problematic. So anything else to that before I switch gears? Yeah, I think that the team's mindset, to your point, is probably that they believe they'll have the chance to play Mike Zimmer's cliched complimentary football more effectively because the defense and the special teams put them in the worst drive start in the league,

you know, offensively and defensively speaking. Special teams almost cannot possibly get worse. That will be helpful probably for like points on the scoreboard from, you know, their kicker, whoever that is, and just where they're starting. Defense should help with that too. They should be creating more short fields, potentially more takeaways. And that in theory would help the offense. I'm not saying that's the right way to think about it, but I think that's how the team views it, is that if the offense sort of stays the same as it was last year with all of those obstacles set

up for them with awful special teams that were sometimes fumbling, you know, they had no punt return game, no kick return game. They were letting other offenses start at like the 30 and drive the field and then pin the Vikings deep. So with, with those parameters, the offense was still fairly good. Uh, I assume that they are thinking with league average defense and special teams that the offense will take an organic leap. They were very fumbly last year, extremely fumbly all across. Like they were fumbly on offense and they were very fumbly on special teams yeah real quick i i pulled up the number from my article the other day

uh in terms of qb rating against defenses the vikings will face from last year it doesn't always carry over number one two seven eight eleven thirteen fourteen and fifteen so a lot of top half of the league coverage units that they're going to face this year. And that has often been a determining factor for how well Kirk Cousins plays. At minicamp, you jumping on the Browning bus? Are you hopping on? It's pulled into the station. Are you saying, I've got a ticket to the browning bus let me come aboard because jake browning took i think all the second team reps today at practice and there is no sign whatsoever in any universe that kellen mond is in a quarterback competition with jake browning and

i did peek in mac jones is number two in new England. I'm just saying, I'm just saying, so it's not, it's not all rookies, not all rookies are the QB four at this point in the season. So what do you make of the Browning bus, which continues on down the road toward training camp? I don't know. I might be, um, the, the conductor at the Stanley station. I saw Nate Stanley drop one in the bucket today to the far sideline. Browning, though, clutch man at the end of the situational drill. He rolls out. He scrambles. He lobs one up for Brandon Dillon at the actual buzzer.

There's a real buzzer that played. Brandon Dillon with the heroic leaping catch, and Jake Browning is a hero. It did seem like the first day that there was kind of differentiation though, between Browning and Stanley, they were pretty much 50, 50 in OTAs and Browning was getting the better reps today. Now there's three days of minicamp and fortunately we get to see them all. So that could flip tomorrow completely. And the Browning bandwagon will lose a few members, but you can gloat today. I'll allow it. I'm going to stick with my man,

my man, Stan. And, and where is Kellen Mond? I mean, can they let him do something? Hey everyone. I want to tell you about our friends at Scout Logistics. And I really do mean it when I say friends, they are fans of Purple Insider over at Scout Logistics. And since they reached out wanting to support this show, I want to tell you about what they do. Scout Logistics is just-in-time transportation for full tractor-trailer loads. And if you're wondering what that means exactly, well, if you own or work for a company that needs shipping solutions, they are the preferred carrier of fortune 500 companies across North America. And we have quite a few of those in Minnesota, right? They can ship perishable, non-perishable FTL or LTL, and they have on-time delivery rate of over 99%. So if you're like them and you enjoy the show and you have shipping needs, check out scoutlogistics.com

or call 855-217-2688 extension 232 to connect with them directly to find out how Scout Logistics can minimize risk and overperform and go the extra mile for your company. So I was saying on the sideline to you and Courtney, we were watching and I was saying that I've been watching a lot of supermarket sweep lately. And even when someone else wins to take a huge lead or when someone makes a huge mistake that all the contestants are asked to clap. Well, that's Kellen Mond right now. Like he's standing on the sideline and no matter what happens with Jake Browning or Nate Stanley and their reps, Kellen Mond's job is to be a supermarket sweep contestant where he just claps. And sometimes this is another funny tweak to supermarket sweep. If anyone's watched it

is sometimes someone doesn't win anything the whole game, like they'll go the whole time and not win any points. And so their job was to clap the whole time. They did a lot of clapping and no winning. And that's gone so far in the minicamp. I'm okay with it, Sam. If Kellen Mond, especially after yesterday, especially after Hunter comes back and after Sheldon Richardson is now here,

I'm okay with Kellen Mond just being a non-issue, a non-conversation. I'm okay with Kellen Mond just being a non-issue, a non-conversation. I'm totally fine with that. Like this is a all-in type of season. There's so many players where this year is it and it matters, the head coach, the general manager, the quarterback, and I'm fine with Kellen Mond just not really being a part of this discussion at all

if he doesn't prove that he needs to be. If he is just QB4 and he's not even the backup and that's how it goes, not really being a part of this discussion at all if he doesn't prove that he needs to be if he is just qb4 and he's not even the backup and that's how it goes well that's how it goes for a lot of third round picks so whatever like i would still say it's fine that they picked him if that ends up being the case it would be disappointing i think for them if he couldn't emerge as the backup but it's just not a big deal to me if if whatever way this plays out at the moment yeah it's a shame that there isn't a literal redshirt rule like in the nfl for you know for non-first round picks if they could actually like shelve them for a year

without risking them on waivers and get that extra year of eligibility that's what the vikings would probably do with kellen mon but remember they have to roster him right like whether he's the backup or not he has to make the team so could be a wasted roster spot but if he's going to make the team he has to like sort of know what he's doing like even if he's going to be a game day scratch um he's going to be in the mix he's not going to be he's going to be qb3 like at he is going to rise the ladder here by default he has to leap somebody at some point um and i i'd say he's probably behind everyone at this point um which is a little bizarre for your you know the 66th overall pick like very very high in the third round.

So the team is, and that's what the team's doing with all the rookies though, caller. I mean, they're slow playing Davis. They're slow playing Derrissa. We haven't seen Surratt, but they're, they're slow playing Patrick Jones and Kellen Mond as well. So the only one who seems to be fast-tracked is Cameron Bynum right now like that's the only rookie that where I look at and I say huh you're kind of doing more than I would have expected otherwise they're all in the same boat and we did get the impression that Cameron Bynum's very intelligent like I remember Mike Zimmer calling him brilliant or something um which you know Zimmer can have like these sporadic hyperbolic moments but usually they kind of come to fruition. Like with Tyler Conklin, wasn't it a couple of years ago where he just said like Conklin looks

great out there. And we're like, real does he, but here we are and he's tight end too. So, um, this does happen from time to time. All right. Was there anything else that you wanted to bring up that happened at practice? Uh, it was a short practice. I thought the Browning thing, the fact that he was taking almost all, if not all of the QB two reps was the most interesting thing. I am still yet to have a wide receiver stand out to me. You know, maybe that's a little bit of the circumstances. We'll watch the next two days and see how that plays out. Was there anything else of note? Jeff Glad gladney not there it might be a situation they've told him look man you're not coming here until you get your situation dealt with but i

guess at some point we would like some answer to what is going on with jeff gladney i guess yeah that would be nice i'm not surprised that he's not there and i don't know if i expect him at training camp i don't know if we'll have clarity at that point either. You know, the wheels of justice move slowly. And if they're waiting for some kind of, you know, final judgment in court, that might take a lather for minicamp. We talk it up like it's mandatory. They're going to hit harder. They're going to, you know, extra intensity. Well, today was the easiest practice yet, the shortest practice yet. And it looked pretty much exactly like OTAs from a depth chart standpoint to me. I mean, other than, you know, Browning kind of standing out with the twos. O-line was the same.

Kind of the LB rotation was the same, wide receiver, you know, mixing in BC and BB as the wide receiver three. The one guy, and you mentioned receivers, and you'll scoff, but every day, and we've been at four practices, five practices now, every day I've walked away and I've said, KJ Osborne had a nice play today. And it's not all about just making one nice play. It's, it's about, you know, running the correct routes and knowing what you're doing. But I think he can actually catch the ball. He seems like he has really good hands and he's fast. So if he can like prove that he's trustworthy as a route runner and build a little bit of

chemistry, probably not with Kirk. I don't know if he's ever going to be on the field with Kirk Cousins. I think he can like maybe be a threat as a wide receiver, or at least kind of be someone that could step in if someone got hurt. He is a fifth round pick and he is only a second year player. So I think he makes the team. I don't think they're ready to give up on him yet. And for what it's worth, he has been the one to stand back and take punts, which makes me think they still want him to fulfill that role, even though he was pretty poor at it last year. But KJ Osborne, I've got my eye on you. OK, well, you know, this is what you do during mandatory minicamp. This is your way. You find a guy who's sort of mildly standing out, who's down on the roster and say that

that guy, it's always a receiver, I think. But you aren't wrong, though. KJ Osborne has stood out. I just remain skeptical that he would be someone who's going to have an actual role. But then again, you know, who's and we we could, this will be a training camp buildup kind of thing. It's like, who's a little bit on the hot seat, if you will, I think is BC Johnson, where like, he just took such a big step back last year. And I think there might be an opportunity for someone to step up and say, I've got a higher ceiling. I'm going to take that guy's job.

One last thing, just a, it could be a one word answer here uh matt nagy on chris collinsworth podcast said that he doesn't see any situation in which andy dalton is not his week one starter so let me ask you this when what week does Justin Fields start for the Chicago Bears Sam when's the buy because that's usually the the time to switch your quarterback so the Bears start with the Rams yeah tough game on the road I can see primetime game I can see why you wouldn't want your rookie necessarily in that situation uh six seven eight nine so they've got a week 10 buy. So that's pretty late in the game. You'll have a pretty good understanding of where your team is at. And if your team is hovering around the 500 mark, like if you're four and five and you think that you can make a push for the playoffs, but you're not getting it all from the quarterback situation, that's got to be

when you make a move um so they come out of the bye with a home game against Baltimore tough game but um I guess I go week 11 if they're intent on starting with Dalton they might ride him for a little bit so I'll go week 11 I'm gonna go week one I just I just I just don't i don't believe the game that was the setup i set you up there i'm going week one i don't believe you it's like uh the ron burgundy thing i don't believe you so i just do not believe andy dalton is starting for this team you don't trade up for justin fields to waste your time with the red rifle because you know what you're going to get out of that but i would say would say this Vikings fans were laughing.

Andy Dalton beat you last year. And so did Mitch Trubisky. So actually Mr. Trubisky several times has beaten you and chase Daniel. So you can't laugh at the bears, but I, yeah, I just don't believe him.

I just think that Justin feels good to start and play the whole season. So good stuff, Sam, we will do this again because we've got more mandatory minicamp coming up and at the website purpleinsider.substack.com lots of minicamp coverage

to come so we will catch you next time on the Purple Insider Podcast see you