Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Should the Vikings have traded for Jalen Ramsey? (Hour 2)

Episode Date: July 1, 2025

Matthew Coller breaks down the Steelers trading for Ramsey. Should the Vikings have made a similar offer to the Dolphins?See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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The entire Oracle trilogy is available on Audible. Listen now on Audible. All right, it is time for the triumphant return of intern Maggie Robinson, who started out on the show as a NFL producer and then now is back to being a student. Syracuse University there as a grad student, ready to show off to all those kids who are important broadcasters or think they are. They're going to be the next Bob Costas. They all think they're at Syracuse. So you are there amongst the egotistical orange children. How's that working out for you so far, Maggie? Today was day one. It was 18th grade. Weird to be back in school for sure after a little two year gap, but I will say it's so, this is such a cheesy

answer, but I'm genuinely so juiced up. It's so exciting to be back and learning something and to know that I'm going to learn all the tricks of the trade and the actual legitimate ways to be a journalist. Because I feel like a lot of times nowadays, people are like, why are you going back to school? You worked at the NFL. You could just do it right now without a degree. Yeah, but I wouldn't be doing legitimate journalism in my eyes. I would just be doing like hosting announcing. Anyone can regurgitate things people have said, but if you know the actual craft of it, that's what I'm excited to get my hands on and their facilities are insane. So I'm just excited to be able to use everything, learn a lot, fail a lot and

figure it out. But yeah, it's good. Well, that's very exciting for you. And having gone through journalism school, I learned most of the stuff by doing stuff like you're doing right now. I mean that, uh, just doing internships, getting to know people, uh, getting on the job. So, uh, hopefully you get lots of opportunities there to beat out all the frat bros that think they're going to be the next Mike Turrico and you'll do fine. I'm very,

very confident in that though, but it's exciting. Uh, but you have a lot of football still talk about, which I respect. You have still taken the time despite moving all the way there from Tennessee and starting school again today to put together some things for us to talk about here on Mondays with Maggie. So where would you like to begin the show? I would like to begin, you know, I love a good question of the day. So thinking about I'm starting school, I'm kind of a rookie in that sense. I'm a rookie in the sports journalism world. And people always ask rookies, what was your welcome to the NFL moment? So I ask you, Matthew,

what was your welcome to the NFL moment when you were a sports supporter? Is there anything that hit you across the face and you're like, Oh man, all right, we're here. Hello. Okay. I have a couple. First of all, there's a funny welcome to the NFL thing that popped up last year. So Josh Mattel is does a thing called tell us with Mattel is where he interviews his teammates and he was asking them all that. And a lot of them are giving answers like, Oh, I got crushed by this all pro or this guy smoked me.

And he asked Justin Jefferson, Hey, what was your welcome to the NFL moment? And Jefferson goes, well, my first game I had, or my first game was a starter. I had 175 yards and three touchdowns. So it's probably that first touchdown or I think maybe it's one touchdown, but it was probably that first touchdown. It was like, Justin, that's not how this question works, but they just moved on. So like, oh wait, no one ever really did welcome Justin Jefferson to the NFL. He just was great and was always great. I can't say the same for

myself. Two moments come to mind for me. One, when I was first becoming a journalist, I went to the locker room after a hockey game and I asked the player about a kerfuffle that he did not involve himself in. I asked him why and he took a little offense to that and called me some names that I can't repeat on this family friendly show. And I was like, Oh man. So then I put it out there as far as kind of what he had said. I reframed it a little bit, the answer to my question.

And then since he was a top prospect, all the fans got mad at me and I was like, wait a minute. I just asked him what you guys wanted me to ask him. And now you're going after me. Oh, you shouldn't have asked a question that way. You baited him. You went after, I was like, Oh, whoa, these things have real consequences. So you got to be careful. Uh ended in handshakes and apologies. But still, it was like, Oh, wow. You know, actually reporting on something can create quite the wave. So you got to understand that responsibility. And the other one was when I got to Minnesota, the listeners of the show have heard the story. But my first day is when Teddy Bridgewater suffered a catastrophic knee injury. That was my first day moving to Minnesota. I wasn't actually on the job

yet. My first day on the job was going to the state fair where they were doing their live broadcast, the radio station 1500 ESPN that brought me here. And in the middle of the ride out there, the Vikings traded for Sam Bradford. So my first day is Teddy Bridgewater suffering a catastrophic injury. And my second day is going out and having to break down a massive trade of a first-round draft pick for a new quarterback with my first time ever going on the air in this radio station. And then I went into the media room and asked a couple of other reporters like, man, this crazy. Is it always like this? And they're like, oh yeah. Yeah. It's always like this. Yep. All the time. And I was like, what? No way. It can't be this. And, uh, oh yeah. And Vikings fans know it is absolutely like this all the time, uh, in Viking land. And it has not

stopped since I got here, but at least I was prepared for it from day one. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, it feels like you guys always have things going on, exciting things, but I think it puts into perspective, well, right now, no, there's absolutely nothing going on right now. But, I just think- Well, sometimes it's crazy things.

It's exciting things sometimes, but it's also things that are so unfathomable. Like I'm not sure if you're aware of this. The roof collapsed one time, not when I was here, but the roof of the Metro dome. Oh, I didn't know that that's new. Oh, this is great. People are going to enjoy me telling you about history. Well, the Metro dome was where they used to play, not US Bank Stadium, and the baseball team played there as well. And it was kind of a dump and there was a really bad storm in the winter 2010. And the roof fell in and you can Google there's pictures of it.

It just went, right. Uh, so there's that. And then that same year where they traded for Sam Bradford, Mike Zimmer hurt his eye and had to miss a game and then coached another game with an eye patch like this. Wait, wait, wait, wait, really quickly. How do you hurt your eye coaching football? So that was a mystery because the same, the same night that he hurt his eye the next day,

the offensive coordinator quit and they were five and two. They were five and two in 2016. Okay. And the office of coordinator just walked off the job and Mike Zimmer had a serious eye injury and had to have surgery. So we all tried to put two and two together, right? That what did they get in a fist fight or something? And it's never quite because then Mike said that he had like poked himself in the eye with a play card, but he had it right. He had an injury that would not have been getting poked in the eye. It would be more of like someone, something that someone would have in a car accident. It was a detached retina.

So that would be like a shaking of the head, right? Injury. Right, right, right. So we're on it. So, so everyone believes that Norv punched him. We've never had that confirmed. And in 2021, I did say to Mike, I was like, can you just tell us what happened with Norv? And then, you know, other, I've tried, I've tried to prod people through the years.

They say that there was no punch, but you know, uh, it's made for a good story. And then I'll tell you one last one for crazy things happened in Minnesota and we could go on forever. But uh, it just in my first, this was all my first year and that we get to the final game of the season, they missed the playoffs. They went from five and O to missing the playoffs. This was in the 16 game era. So that's especially ridiculous.

And the last game of the year was pointless. A protester snuck into the stadium, climbed himself up onto the trusses of the stadium. These huge things that hold the roof up, the one that doesn't collapse and attached a climbing gear thing and propelled down. Like propelled down and held down. Yes. And this was like right in front of us. I mean, in the press box kind of right in front of us, propelled down and then let go a sign saying, I don't know what, I don't remember what the sign was.

It was something about oil or whatever. I don't know. The U S bank was involved with something in oil. I couldn't follow. The US bank was involved with something in oil. I couldn't follow the entire thing, but they let down this gigantic sign. And apparently they had snuck into the stadium that earlier that week and hidden the gear and then came into the game, hid some stuff underneath their jacket and then propelled themselves down. So I was walking, I was getting like a diet Coke or something, and I'm walking back to my seat and I look over and I see a person dangling.

And I'm like, is this a, is this a bit? Cause in Jacksonville, they have the mascot propelled down. Not a bit. And then just to add to the story, one of the reporters found the person's phone number and called them. They were wearing a Brett Favre Jersey. This all happened. You can look it up.

Oh my gosh. And it all sounds made up, but it was real. And Brian Murphy, who is on this show, he found this person's number and he called them and they answered the phone. Well dangling 50 yards above the stadium and they kept playing. They were just, I mean, he wasn't over the field. They were over the stands, but they just got the people out from the stadium and they kept playing. They were just, I mean, he wasn't over the field. They were over the stands, but they just got the people out from the stands and they kept playing the football game.

And I will tie this into one more insane thing. Now this is really going to blow your mind. Okay. I'm ready. So in that game, it's a meaningless game. They've already missed the playoffs against the Bears. None of us are paying any attention to the game. We're just watching this protester wondering, you know,

they going to live or die. And so I don't remember much about it, but I do remember that Matt Barkley caught a touchdown, you know, journeyman backup quarterback, Matt Barkley, the play of which Matt Barkley, the quarterback of the bears caught the touchdown was the Philly special. It was the play that the Philadelphia Eagles copied to create the Philly special. And then Philadelphia runs it in 2017 Superbowl in Minnesota in the same suit, in the same end zone that Matt Barkley caught that touchdown underneath the protester.

That's so cheap. Welcome to Vikings football, Maggie. Folks, as you know, over the last five years, I've built up purple insider into my own small business, but I realize as a business owner that I still have a lot to learn. That's where IDO you comes in. I'm learning to jumpstart my company's growth through IDO you courses and how to be more innovative and use their award-winning methods to help me lead Purple Insider confidently

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What is happening? We don't know. That's one season. Oh my God. I can give you two quick ones. I know we're just in story time right now, but one of mine was I was at the NFL draft just like doing my normal NFL broadcasting responsibilities. And I always try to go to the gym before these things.

They're crazy days, whatever you got to clear your head. And listen, I'm trying to work on my upper body strength. I'm a woman. I can't I failed on my upper body strength test in college. I can't do a pull up. So I'm trying to do push ups. But mind you, I'm doing knee push ups. So I'm over here struggling on a yoga mat and doing knee push ups.

I look over next to me and Kevin Stefanski is over here grabbing like the 50 pound weights to do curls right next to me and I'm like, I might as well pack it up. What am I doing right now? It's seven in the morning at the NFL draft. Can't even do a knee push-up and Kevin Stefanski is curling a hundred pounds. Well, that sort of reminds me of the combine where sometimes it feels like you're in some sort of fever dream where you walk by like Sean McVeigh having dinner with Peter King and you're like, what is happening? Like, is that what I'm seeing in front of you? But yeah, that does happen. Steve is curious if you know who Matt Barkley is. I'm not gonna lie.

I might be outing myself. No, no. Okay. I'm willing not and a smile. You did bet a backup journeyman quarterback who was thought at one time to be like a great prospect at USC didn't really turn out to be that way. That sounds familiar. USC has a lot of almost really greats, but never turn outers. He does. That's like their ML. Also, weren't you a Division I athlete and you can't do push-ups? No. Okay.

Listen, that was a lot of that was expository for the story. I can do push-ups. I can't do more than 10 good form push-ups. When I'm talking about push-ups, I'm talking about your college strength coach making sure your elbows are at a 90 degree angle that your chest is hitting floor at the right time. Can you do a certain amount in a certain time? I can do push-ups. Can I do the amount that they required of me in the certain time with proper form? That's where things get tricky.

So someone's asking in the comments, what do I think about the $400 fine Sophie Cunningham received for a foul? What? I honestly, you're looking at the wrong show for that, I think. I honestly do not know what that is talking about. Sorry to have read that out loud. Anyways, let us go. Oh, that's a new skill you're gonna have to learn

at Syracuse is reading the comments and which ones are bizarre and strange and then moving past those. I really thought I was getting good at this where I was like, yeah, I'm gonna read it right off the bat. You were like Ron Burgundy right there. That person could have said anything. Oh, my gosh. OK, let's get to what you guys are actually here about, which is not me

yapping at you incessantly on a Monday night. But it's the biggest offseason takeaways from around the league because literally nothing has been happening. So we might as well look back before we can look forward. Let's get it going. Let's start off with our A's. Arizona. Okay. Marvin Harrison, two things about him.

And they both include the word big. One dude's gotten jacked. He looks juiced up. The man is huge. He even said he thought he looked like AI when he saw a photo of himself. That's how you know that your strength team is doing the right things. If you thought your photo of yourself was doctored, that's pretty incredible. Is, uh, is this like Drake? You saw Drake in his picture in front of his no. Okay. I

guess you haven't been online today. Uh, Drake, you know, he's taken a lot of L's in the rap battle with, yeah. And so forth. And he took a picture of himself in front of a mirror and his abs looks so fake that, you know, everyone was making fun of it. So I wondered if there was like some sort of tie in the, uh, year two for Marvin Harrison Jr. though, very, very interesting because Arizona is a team that has a chance to take that big step. They added a lot to their defense and Kyler Murray just remains suspect. Like, is he really good enough to take you over the top? And if he's going to, Marvin Harrison has to be great.

But there was a stat that I saw somebody put out there on Twitter that was really good about how many fade routes they ran to him, which are generally an inefficient play, but they ran a ton of him. Cause I think that they expected him to be this dude who could just go up and moss people like crazy. And I just don't think that that happens these days in the NFL for too many wide receivers. I'm very curious to see if Marvin Harrison becomes the wide receiver that they expected him to because everyone was using those fun words that they love at draft time, generational

talent, which I think should just be banned. It should be illegal to call someone generational talent because it's so hard to be that Caleb Williams, Trevor Lawrence. We've heard this a million times and a lot of, or even Bijon Robinson. And the guy's a great player and it's like, ah, you know, he's not a generational talent. So we'll see. We'll see. I don't know if getting bigger abs makes you a better wide receiver.

In fact, actually the first thing that came to my mind was, isn't he kind of slow? Does he want more muscle? I was thinking that bulking up if not done right could actually be such a hindrance, but you know what? Who knows? I don't know. I think there's a big question mark over this team for both the reasons that you just mentioned, Kyler Murray and Marvin Harrison Jr. We don't know. I know I've mentioned this before, but I really want so badly for Kyler Murray to break out. So badly. He's right there. You can tell that he's talented and I just don't know what the block is. Is it a mental thing? Is it the people around him?

Is it poor coaching? Is it something that we're not seeing? What is in his way? I want to worm inside Kyler's brain and be like, what's up here? What's keeping you up at night? Is it for coaching? Is it something that we're not seeing? Like what is in his way? I want to like worm inside his brain and be like, what's up here? What's keeping you up at night? Let's chat. Like, what is it? I don't know. I think it is five foot eight is what keeps him. I really do. I mean, you know, we don't want to use the height excuse, but there's a reason why there are only a handful of quarterbacks ever who even play in the league at under five foot 10, five foot 11. And one of the reasons is that seeing downfield is tough.

And if you look at even Russell Wilson, when he was at his best, what do they do? They ran the ball a lot and then they would run play actions and around, allow him to kind of scramble around and find guys downfield and find throws But when they played the Vikings a lot of times Mike Zimmer would make him stay in the pocket And he just wasn't the same and he's a great quarterback at his best really truly great not anymore But even then anymore he lost a little bit of that running ability and just not that great I don't think that it is too much call of duty, Brian. I know that was the meme and it was in the contract and all that sort of thing, but I really think

that Kyler Murray just can't see the field well enough. So it's always got to be getting outside the pocket, scrambling, throwing to the outsides. It's really difficult to see the middle. It's hard to see the middle of the field when you're six foot three. And I mean, I remember this last year from watching, uh, JJ McCarthy, that one of the first observations was like, Oh, I think he can actually see the middle of the field. Like that's hard. Um, Kayla Williams, I have wondered about this with Kayla Williams. Everybody blew off the high, uh, you know, he's fine. He's five 11.

He'll be fine. But last year, didn't it look like he couldn't really see the middle of the field? There are limitations sometimes. And I think that's it with Murray, but he's a Madden quarterback to me, where you always get him on Madden, run around with him, have a great time. I'm not sure that it's ever going to be quite enough. There was a flicker there in 2021, but I think he's going to be one of those guys. You can win 9-10, you can get to the playoffs, but it's not going to be consistent enough because he has to throw down the field and he has to make plays with his legs. So I don't know if it's ever going to quite get there to be a prolific

quarterback, even if that roster is pretty good now. Yeah. I was about to come to the defense of his height and make a comment of like, well, goalkeeper height is also really important. I'm five nine. And then I was like, well, I also didn't play at all. So that or do any pushups. I am literally proving your point. Okay. Anyways, that's enough about my, uh, not fun, not a prolific college experience. Not, not fun. Let's go to Baltimore. Okay. Kicker is up for grabs.

We all saw this coming. The writing was on the wall a little bit, but Justin Tucker has been suspended for 10 games. This is most likely, very probably the end of his NFL career. I think he put his house on the market. Like he's piecing out of Baltimore, which I think is good for everyone involved in the, in the state, the state, the city, but the position is up for grabs and they have two rookies who are going to battle it out. And I think this is really interesting because when I was at the draft

and I was on the pick line, so I was like announcing the calls to all of our TV networks and then they could prep all our things and let their announcers know what to say. We heard Tyler Loop, Arizona in the sixth round. And I remember being like, why are the Ravens using a draft pick on a kicker? And turns out this is the first kicker ever to be drafted by the Ravens. So this is big news. We all had a right to be shocked, but apparently he's not selling it well enough because they also brought on John Hoyland, who was signed in the off season, is undrafted coming out of Wyoming.

They both seem really good. All the comments from head coach just seemed like, yeah, they're both great. Like, we're going to see. It's kind of up in the air. I don't know where this goes. I think you would assume Tyler Loop gets this, but I don't know. This will be a toss up. So there's an interesting research about kickers and the draft that shows that undrafted kickers who actually make their teams perform better than drafted kickers. Now this makes sense logically because if you beat out somebody else as an undrafted kicker, that means you're probably pretty good, right? That doesn't mean I would bet on the undrafted

guy, but it does mean that if he wins that job over the drafted guy, there's a good chance that it works out. I think it's also evidence that drafting kickers is maybe not the best idea because you even see now the UFL is putting kickers on display. It's the same football. It's the same kicks. And Jake Bates, for example, from Detroit had a really good season as a UFL to the NFL kicker. The bigger thing with Baltimore is just how uncomfortable that whole situation was and went down and he gets the 10 game suspension. They're like, what is that? Like one per allegation, I guess. I don't even know how they decide on that. But if you are the Baltimore Ravens, I mean, you've, I mean, this guy has been one of the best and Steven brings it up. I mean,

you're talking about the best kicker of all time. And even if you do relative to your era, cause it's way easy to kick now, you're still talking about a guy who's up there with the all time greats. And then he's just got this thing that is also tagged on to his legacy there. And they have to awkwardly cut him, but pretend it's performance based

when we know they wouldn't have done that. Just an uncomfortable and unfortunate situation for somebody who was such a great player for so long. I just feel bad for the people in it. Now, if they knew, then I don't feel bad for them. But if you're in the organization and you felt like, oh, we've got this great guy, this great kicker for so long, and then you find out this happens. Like, what are you supposed to do with yourself? I mean, he's just been such,

this happened here with Darren Sharper, who I'll let you Google that one. I'm not going to go through that whole thing, but he's in jail currently, and was one of the great safeties in NFL history should be in the hall of fame. Peter King got himself in some hot water with fans when he said, uh, Darren Sharper should still be in the hall of fame, even though he's in jail because he was that good of a play. I know it's awkward, but I mean, you can keep people out because of that, but the whole thing just ends up being like, Oh, really, really this,

this is what you decided you needed to do to ruin your reputation. So it's unfortunate and ugly. And I'm glad it's someone else's problem in the media, not mine. Because that would be a nightmare to cover. I mean, it's also really unfortunate not to get too far off the football side. But also you think about his reputation, also the reputation of his family and his kids. My gosh, this is just like such a messy situation in general. And yeah, it's like you said one of the league's most accurate kickers for 13 years was really

beloved by the organization and by all the fans, like had a great following. So I, it's just, I don't know, people with power doing messy things that they really don't need to be doing. Yeah. This opened up on the golf course, some very interesting conversations with me and other reporters about that whole thing of just Why why would anyone do this? But? I'll i'll just leave that there and we can move on to the next subject But I have to jump in quick because I did forget one of the three sponsors for tonight's show

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any time. Okay. Back to you. Okay. Let's jump now to the Cincinnati Bengals. We're talking about linebacker Demetrius Knight Jr. That is a name to keep top of mind. Let me tell you why. Okay, we think he's going to be slotted into the starting spot next to Logan Wilson. They released Jermaine Pratt. Demetrius Knight comes out of a six-year campaign at South Carolina. He played in all 13 games, starting in 10, was second on the team with 82 tackles, including 57 solo stops, tied for fourth in the SEC with forced fumbles.

He's also, just from all the research I've done, a super outstanding guy character-wise. We're talking about someone who's potentially gonna be a captain of their team. He's got all the things going for him. Just a really upstanding dude, and can also back it up with the playing So this is someone to keep an eye out

There's also chatter that Barrett Carter could also be somewhere in there who's going one and two or unsure But lots of people on the internet talking about Demetrius Knight jr. I think he's gonna be a starter It'd be interesting to know. It's also interesting again. We're in this covid world of I think he's going to be a starter. It'd be interesting to know. It's also interesting again, we're in this COVID world of six year player coming out of South Carolina. Yeah. If you do six years in the sec, you better be that good. I would hope, you know, so it's kind of to their benefit into the coaches benefit of like, Oh,

we can trust you more than a normal rookie because you're probably 24, 25 physically developed and also have the mentality to know how to hold your own here. I agree with Matt says Demetrius night and all time, I physically developed and also have the mentality to know how to hold your own here. I agree with Matt says Demetrius night and all time cool name for a linebacker. And that is true. And at least you've got a couple of real draft nuts, Derek and snooty X, who have heard of Demetrius night. I'm going to be honest, I was not familiar with his game,

but I suppose there's a very good chance that I will be familiar with his game when they play Against the Cincinnati Bengals and it's really relevant to me Just how that team ends up building up like their defense We are talking about a Bengals guy, right? Like you looked at me like we're not talking about a Bengals guy, right? Oh, no, we're talking about a Bengals guy. Okay. All right. There was a second there. I was like, wait, she said Bengals, right? Uh, yeah. So when they, I mean, that team has struggled so much on defense last year that they completely blew out their defensive coordinator who had taken them to the super bowl and

struggled so much that Burrow had this generational season last year and he ends up not even making the playoffs with it. So they need to find players like that. Um, kind of reminds me of maybe like an Ivan pace situation with the Vikings where we didn't really expect the guy and then all of a sudden he emerges and they decided to roll with them. But if that team doesn't develop some players and also get Trey Hendrickson back, then you are talking about coming to us bank stadium and shootout mode against JJ McCarthy. I mean, that's still how I'm viewing this right now, but that's interesting that they've had somebody emerge kind of out of nowhere. Yeah. I think definitely

someone to keep an eye out for. And so I mentioned his name at the top as well, but Barrett Carter. So these two guys kind of have different specialties, but both could be slotted in depending on what they need to fulfill on the team. Carter, it says, is probably better positioned to be more of a hybrid role. He's like limited in past coverage. Excuse me. He is, he's the one who's exceptional in past coverage and special teams, but Knight excels in the first and third, goodness, I'm reading all my notes wrong. Night excels, uh, in other ways, but I just think it'll be helpful for them to have two guys who can be slotted in wherever they need. It's extra helpful when you have two people who have opposite traits and can

back each other up. So do people to keep an eye out for. Okay. Shout out Demetrius night. Well, it's just that game though. I mean, the start of this season for the Vikings on TV against the Bears on TV against the Falcons and then the Bengals. I mean, this is just a, like, you got a lot of drama there as far as seeing Joe burrow and then two 2024 quarterbacks. So that game though, is one that as you're looking through the schedule, it's one that they need and whether the Bengals actually have a good defense or not. And they do flip from year to year defenses. I mean, you look at the Vikings defense in 2022, it's the worst in

the league and then by the next season, they're above average. So if the Bengals do that, it's a different type of game than what we would have been expecting. So even though I am not familiar yet with Demetrius Knights game, I do know that the defenses in the off season is we're trying to figure out what this team looks stacked or this team looks like they're going to struggle. You just don't really know, especially when they change coordinators. Yeah. Lots up in the air. Also up in the air, as we've all been talking about Cleveland and the quarterback room and that really fun super corgi situation

Cameron wolf came on the NFL Network and said that the Cleveland Browns think they can develop Kenny Pickett in the same way the Vikings did with Sam Darnold and I am just not buying that for one. I'm not biting. Okay, he thinks Joe Flacco would go number one Kenny Pickett's number two. They're kind of up there. The Joe Flacco thing makes sense to me. He's played under Kevin Stavansky's offense before the guy's done his time in the NFL. We know he's good. You know, he's a respected quarterback. Comparing Kenny Pickett and Sam Darnold feels like a wildly off comparison here.

Let's go through the two players, shall we? Okay. Let's look at Sam Darnold, you a former number three draft pick who joined the Vikings on a one-year $10 million deal and who came in eyes wide open to the fact that he'd probably be competing with JJ McCarthy, maybe even playing backup. And then all of a sudden was thrust in the spotlight week one, you got a whole team on your hands, figure it out. And he did, he did. Went above and beyond. Everyone thinks and knows that Sam Darnold had a breakout year last year, total stud.

But to say that the Vikings developed, Sam Darnold feels a little overblown. That he was there for one year. Sure, he has good coaches, he has good people around you, but how much development happens in a year? I think you have all those growing pains with the Jets. You figure it out and then you come here and you ball out because all the stars aligned. But I mean, to say that the Vikings developed him is giving them a lot of credit. Right. I mean, it was more that the

Vikings maximized Sam Darnold to the point where he showed what he could really be in the NFL. There wasn't enough time to really develop him. In fact, if we're going to give anybody credit for developing Sam Darnold, it would actually be Kyle Shanahan because he was the backup quarterback for the 49ers that went to the Super Bowl in 2023. And that was something that he talked about a lot. It was something that O'Connell talked about a lot that that year getting off the field and being able to watch how Brock Purdy effectively played quarterback that year. And he talked about Purdy not trying to do too much, not trying to make something where there wasn't just running the offense and the offense works and getting it to the playmakers

and those things really helped him develop his mind as a quarterback because physically he was freakish and that's why he was such a high draft pick with the arm talent, the mobility and things like that. But as far as like understanding how to play the position, I don't know that he ever got to learn that it was a messy situation with the Jets right from the beginning. I remember looking at this. I think his offensive coordinator never coached again in the NFL. The guy for his first year with the Jets, the guy never even ever coached again. And then he had Adam Gase. That was

a, I mean, he had the worst situation ever. So I think all they did was take what San Francisco had developed and helped Sam Darnold with and then build on it. But the focus here for me for that comparison would be physical talent. I mean, Kenny Pickett should thank Jordan Addison every day of his life for making him look like a first round quarterback. Cause Addison was unreal, won the Boletnikov award that year and he was catching everything that Kenny Pickett

was heaving up in the air. But Pickett has small hands, doesn't have a super strong arm, is not all that mobile. I mean, okay, he did a couple of things in college mobile wise, but that's not the same as doing it in the NFL. He was not really that big of a threat with his legs in the NFL. I mean, he's just mid across the board. He's got backup caliber talent where Sam Darnall was the number three overall pick. And know we're gonna hear this a lot though we're gonna hear this a lot every team that picks up a failed former top quarterback i'm sure they're saying in indianapolis what you know sam darnell and my answer would be i mean two things one sam darnell probably had the worst situation anybody's ever had coming out, but also KOC, Justin Jefferson, Jordan Addison, try try replicating that. How many teams can actually replicate those things? The coach

of the year, the best receiver in the NFL. It's going to be pretty hard to do in Cleveland. I don't even know who their number two wide receiver is. I know Jerry Judy's there. I'm not sure who's next. Maybe it's Webster Slaughter who played in the eighties. Uh, but yeah, just figured it out there. Um, but I mean, they, they've got such a bad setup and a bad team. I don't, I just don't know what their plan is there other than they're going to win three games again and draft really high and fire Kevin Stefanski. And they'll probably just be playing Chaudhuri Sanders halfway through the season and he'll be getting killed. And that's the plan. Although Kenny Pickett did win games in Pittsburgh, like 14 to six or whatever.

Yeah, he did do that. So maybe they'll try to do that. About it was that he had like insanely no low numbers and like by all accounts did not do great, but they kept winning, which is like, well, he can't be that bad, right? If they keep like, we had a winning season, all this. Also, you did mention hand size and I did look it up. They measured his hand size at the combine legitimately, the smallest hands of a quarterback in the NFL.

Oh, it's a real thing. Yeah. I didn't know they measured your hand size of the combine for a while. Oh, it's a big thing. Big, wildly unaware. Yeah. But I mean, I don't think that's a huge deal. I think, doesn't Joe burrow have small hands too. I don't really think that there's something truly to that, but Kenny Pickett had like comically small hands. He's gotta wear the gloves for reason, you know, so it stuck with them. But yeah, I mean, I think they're, they're only real plan is probably just to try to win games by

incredibly low scores and get seven or eight wins. So Kevin's the fancy can keep his job, which sounds like a circle of hell that I would never want to be part of. Yeah, not one for me either, but some are we are a part of is the Vikings. I read an article that I would like to debate with you and chat about an ESPN article that said, let's look at proposing one final offseason move for all 32 teams by an author, the journalist Aaron Schatz. So for the Minnesota Vikings, he proposed Matthew Judon, Judean, Judean, excuse me, guys, Matthew Judean coming to the Vikings.

Here's the thing. I'm against this one. I think this is a no. He hasn't been prolific. He has a 43 overall PFF grade from last year. He's coming off really poor, honestly, showing certainly Linda Falcons with five and a half sacks and he's turning through 33 in August. Like it doesn't seem like there's any need to sign this guy. Like, why are we stressing out? Why is there an angst here that we like need to fill this backup role? I don't get it. I think what, uh, Aaron is probably thinking there is just that Dallas Turner last year played 300 snaps and he's kind of the next man up

for this outside linebacker rotation and then there really isn't anybody behind him that is proven. I mean they have a couple of undrafted free agents that they liked from last year, Bo Richter and Gabe Murphy and both of those have a chance to develop. They brought in some other UDFAs this year but it's not like they have anybody that is a proven rotational outside linebacker behind Andrew van Ginkle and Jonathan Grenard. That's my guess. Matthew Judon though, I think is just kind of cooked and I can't really see the benefit. But then again, you know, there might be just an argument for you bring in somebody if it's not working out.

And I'm just, I'm not for this, just sort of defending the, uh, the article. And I, and I know Aaron, uh, he's a friend of mine, but he might be thinking you've already done so much on defense with guys in their thirties and stacked it up and Atlanta might be just looking to move on from him for nothing. So what, what downside would there be to adding someone who is cheap to acquire and then is probably here for a year and maybe could help you in some sort of rotation? That would be the thinking.

I don't think it's really necessary, but you never know when training camp gets going, somebody gets hurt and then all of a sudden everything looks way different. Somebody gets banged up. If an edge rusher gets banged up, then all of a sudden everything looks way different. Somebody gets banged up. If an edge rusher gets banged up, then all of a sudden you're going, uh, well, your depth doesn't look very good and maybe you have to do something about this. That's what happened last year with Mackay Blackman towards ACL on the first day of training camp. Uh-oh. Now you're having to go look for new cornerbacks.

And they signed two of them, uh, Stefan Gilmore and Fabian Muro to fill that spot. So you never really know. Also if he's doing all 32 teams, that means he has to do somebody for the Vikings. I'm not sure that I know of a better pick other than, you know, maybe a quarterback or something. Yeah. I do think you make a, I stand by my, my statement of, no, I don't agree with this, but you do

make a good point of we are looking at this from the outside. We have no injuries. It's pearly white. It's so clean. Everyone looks great. We're so excited. The vibes are high. No one's popped a knee. No one's torn an Achilles. No one's right elbow is messed up for two years. So sure, I think also price does matter. If we're talking anything very expensive. No, absolutely not. If we can get them for like a few pennies, like, cool, you know, pennies is relative. It's NFL money.

We're talking millions, but you know, I haven't looked at his contract either. If that's even something that's feasible, but the Vikings could potentially do that. Um, purple Jesus, you're making me laugh in the comments about Dallas Turner leading the league in sacks per snaps played. You had to work hard on that one. He had three.

So it's not like, you know, that's all rookies. Jared verse, I think was what second in the league and all for all guys and pressures. We all know where this stands right now. And I'm high on Turner. Also saying calm down is funny because I recall being calm. But I'm high on Turner. I also saying calm down is funny because I recall being calm. Um, but, uh, I I'm high on the idea of Dallas Turner and it's actually telling that they haven't made a move like this, that they like where Dallas Turner stands in this rotation. So, uh, I, I agree with Matt that if it was really cheap, sure.

Throw on a player like that. But when you look at the whole roster, there's not a lot of nitpicks to be had with this roster. That's why we spent so much time early in the show talking about Jalen Ramsey, because that's kind of it. Uh, if they were doing something like that, then okay. I mean, I'm not against it, but I'm also not like pounding the table for it. Yeah, I hear you in Chicago.

We think they should sign linebacker Jalen Reeves, maybe the lions released in this off season, just to clear up some cap space ahead of the final year of his contract. He was a backup linebacker for them, but he was pretty standout at special teams. I think there's no harm here. This feels like no harm, no foul. He could come back under Ben Johnson. He's played with him before. He's obviously great on special teams. I think that's where you use him more. You don't really need him at linebacker. Like he's great to have that depth once again, but he forced five tackles or covered three in his career on special teams.

That's pretty impressive. One thing I do wanna highlight here because it's timely and it's reminding me, he's also president of the NFLPA, which could be a little messy given this whole collusion thing that's kind of blowing up at the moment. I don't know if you wanna take that on. Does that come into account when you're looking to sign somebody? Do you want that associated with your team? Guys who have been heads

of the NFLPA before have made that claim that there is ramifications from the teams because you're not the favorite person of the owners if you're being outspoken and I think that is Kevin Mawai was maybe the first guy to make that claim that he wasn't on the team because of his connection with the NFL PA. So that could be the Bears are a team that did so much on the offensive side, but I kind of failed to see what they did. That's really game changing on the defensive side.

So maybe they would be looking for one more player. I mean, Grady Jared, if he could still play, they added a couple other D lineman, but I'm still looking at that defense as being pretty flawed and purple Jesus. You're, you're fine. I would just give you a hard time about like, I'm remaining calm about the outside linebackers. Don't worry. Uh, no, I, I, I've been, uh, I think high on the idea that Dallas Turner could take a huge step forward, but even behind him,

you're talking about undrafted free agents. There's nobody proven behind him. So that's where if there were somebody to get even banged up a little, you would start to go shopping. But I'm interested to see the Bears, their defensive numbers overall were never good because if your offense isn't good, and then your defense is on the field all the time, it's like hard to do. Matt Eberfluss always gave the Vikings a hard time though. So now that he's gone, I do wonder about where that defense is going to be. And if all of a sudden it's going to be shootouts with the Chicago bears, or if Caleb Williams is just straight up not good, then it's going to be blowouts with the Chicago bears.

Cause I don't think they have the defense to really scare anybody. Yeah. Yeah. Not to circle back to this PA question, but I am curious if you've listened to the Pablo Torre investigative journalism piece, what are your thoughts about this whole collusion thing and what does it mean for the week? Is anything going to change? No, uh, nothing will change.

No. I mean, maybe there's some settlement that happened behind the scenes that we still don't know about. I don't know. But the NFL has colluded before. They'll collude again. I promise you they will. And that's why it hasn't really moved the needle as much as I think Mike Floreo and Pavel Torey thought that it was going to. I think that they thought they were breaking this huge story that everyone was going to be it was Going to be leading Sports Center and stuff like that and that the internet was going to implode over But I think the reaction was and I'm not saying that they're wrong for feeling that way because it's a huge story that the NFL Is pretty much on paper colluding against quarterbacks, but I think everyone including myself went. Oh, yeah, they were clearly colluding against quarterbacks, but I think everyone, including myself, went, Oh yeah, they were clearly colluding.

I mean, if no one was going after Lamar Jackson, the guy was the MVP of the league in 2019 teams are paying Jordan love and Trevor Lawrence and Tua and Kyler Murray. Huge contracts. You think that nobody actually wanted Lamar Jackson. Nobody wanted to give Lamar Jackson that Deshaun Watson contract, and they were finding a way to fight back. Congratulations, Atlanta. Good for you.

You fought back with everybody else and you played Desmond Ritter for that year and lost a bunch of games and then paid Kirk a hundred million because you didn't offer Lamar Jackson that contract. Again, great stuff does not pay to collude actually. Um, but I think that's, that's really what it is. I mean, in any business situation, you're probably going to have these people having relationships with each other and they're going to want what's best for the billionaires.

But at the same time, it does come off as pretty silly, like, Oh yeah, we guaranteed them like this, a few million bucks less, as if you all aren't worth billions. Right. As if it really matters. And I've thought it was an edge for the Vikings that the wills just pay when it comes to players. They just pay, they just give the guaranteed money and then they just keep their players. You never hear of the stuff like you got with the Bengals where they're fighting tooth and nail with every player. So it is an edge, but I think it was just met with shrugs because there wasn't a whole lot of shock, but it is wrong. And the players didn't do a good enough job of fighting back against this.

And I think that Dak Prescott, one of the reasons he really dug his heels in for his contract was to sort of take back some of the power. So there's always this underlying business element of it. I'm just not sure how many football fans really care. Like how many football fans are sitting at home thinking, boy, that next CBA negotiation. Like, you know, I just don't think it's something that really makes people want to, uh, you know, have, have a lot of debates and arguments and fun talking about. Yeah, it definitely is more on the heavy business side. It was what like a super dense

Multi-page document of who is gonna sit down and read this it's really hard to boil down into just quick facts So I mean, yeah, it is it's shocking, but it's also it's shocking in the way of like, oh wow, that's that's crazy But also yeah, we could have probably projected that and I will say I'm not saying anything here But I'm just making an observation for my time in the league office the management council is a group We also we have a cafeteria and we all like you sit where you want whatever management council without fail They have their designated time they come in they have their table. They sit at they are their squad They are so insular like no one knows what is happening with management council Even at the league,

even if I'm coming over to get a sandwich and I sit down next to you. Oh, sorry. I'm at the management council table. I can't sit here. It felt very high school in that sense, which I just think is kind of funny now reading this, seeing how intertwined they all were. Like there's a culture there, you know, it's a mean, mean girls with the NFL management council. So you can't sit here. Excuse you. Yeah. And just, you know, when it comes to this also and, you know, Purple Jesus kind of makes a point here.

I don't think anyone feels bad for any of these people. They're not going to feel bad for the quarterbacks that are making so much money. And that is another part of it. This is not the 80s where Kurt Flood is fighting for free agency in baseball. And was right because the teams were taking so much advantage of the players versus how much they were making. If Lamar Jackson only gets a hundred million guaranteed and not 150 million guaranteed, and he can't buy that third helicopter, I don't think any fan who's

paying $27 for a water is going to be all that upset. And that's, it's not really the right technically way to look at it, because if you have a job and you have a union, then your union is there to fight for you and your rights and your vacation days and your health benefits and all those things, and it's not really that different of what's happening. It's just the dollar figures are much bigger, but it's the same sort of stuff where if you say, well, Lamar doesn't need that extra couple bucks. Okay, fair enough. But does the billionaire who owns the team, does he need the extra couple bucks? Like what are we, we're, we're

talking about a cartoon fake world that we all follow for its drama, but none of it can really be connected to us. And unfortunately they're just going to keep raising your prices, no matter what you do or who wins. So I'm usually on the side of the players when it comes to this stuff, the NFL has the money, they have the money to pay out collusion lawsuits. So they certainly have the money to pay guaranteed contracts to quarterbacks. Yeah. I mean, their whole MO is getting the bag. We've known that.

We know that it's clear So this doesn't really change anything I will say I just read in the chat purple half said and it's reminding me it's a Maya Vaughn You know you a UDFA underdog and you read my mind because guess who's the UDFA underdog of the week? It's the Maya Vaughn. This is a really fun one I'm actually quite excited about this if there's any guy that I've read to you Who's a UDFA underdog of the week? He might be the guy Fun fact to kick this all off. He played quarterback in high school all the way through senior year. He is not a quarterback

He's a cornerback. Those are very different positions He was unrecruited coming out of high school ended up walking on at Utah Which was like really the only D1 school that was even semi-interested. He ended up gaining a scholarship his freshman year. He's incredibly athletic. He's 6'3", 187", long reach, 80-inch arm span, wingspan, and does really well at man-to-man coverage as well as zone. He wasn't even on the page of any NFL scouts, was not invited to the combine, but put up some pretty good stats at his big 12 pro day. He had a 39.5 inch vertical leap, which is over three feet. For those of you like me who cannot do quick math, that's really high for a vert

at over three foot vert. I'm sorry. I don't know what you can jump vertically, but I'm just saying, if we're talking athletic feats, that's insane to kick it off. Well, once upon a time, and that time is not right now, I could get rim. I couldn't quite dunk, but I could get rim and I'm six, one and a half. So that's a pretty decent vertical to be able to at least get two hands on the rim. And if I had like a smaller basketball, cause I have Kenny Pickett hands, so there's no way that I could, uh, you know, right. To get right. Yeah.

So a little, like if it was a kid's ball and I could grip it, I could dunk it, or I could dunk a baseball again. That was, um, that was years ago. Uh, anything that I could palm, you know, a football baseball, but I just couldn't palm the basketball. Not the point. Uh, as I, as I'm, In, the actual point is he was somebody that really stood out to us at mini camp.

I mean, I think if you were talking about, is there anyone that no one's ever heard of who actually caught your eye and it's not JJ McCarthy, then yeah, it was a Maya Vaughn, because on a daily basis, we saw him make plays on the football. And there seems to be a natural playmaking ability of this player. And maybe it is because he played quarterback in high school. I was not aware of that, but sometimes guys who played a lot of basketball or guys who, um, you know, played a lot of quarterback or wide receiver, there is something about playing the football as a corner that they have built into their DNA

that maybe somebody who played corner their entire life doesn't have. And his leaping ability was on display a couple of times. He has become someone that is going into training camp with serious intrigue because of his physical traits. And his numbers were pretty good too at Utah. I'm really surprised that nobody picked them. They were drafting kickers for the Ravens

instead of drafting potentially good corners. I don't understand that. And Purple Jesus, when it comes to the owners versus the players, the players are not colluding. That's not how that works. Like they're the employees versus the employers. Like, so it's when the employers all collude against the players, that is what is called illegal. And, uh, it's,

you're not supposed to do it. It's against the law. So that's why it's different. But anyway, no, you pick, you picked a right one for this. Cause I think that he is definitely a guy to watch in a quarterback room where there's a lot of competition. Yeah. And it's always fun to cheer for someone like this, too. We're like, man, you didn't even play this position in high school. How are you here? Like, this is kind of a feat in and of itself and speaks a lot to you of you just kept going through, like there was adversity you pushed through, there's adversity you pushed through, you're

undrafted. I think he really has the potential, like you're saying, to be someone that we're going to see on the field, probably a depth position to start off with. But again, you can't teach athleticism and he also has the stats to back it up. So there are a fair number of players. Well, and this kind of makes sense because, you know, if you're in high school and you're the best player, they probably just give you the football, right? Um, so there is, uh, you know, that kind of happens a lot where someone has played quarterback. I wrote about Gavin Bartholomew, their sixth round draft pick, how he was in the middle of his senior season and they just said, we just need you to play quarterback.

This is not working with our guy. Just go out there and do which can. So, um, you know, when it comes to, I actually asked O'Connell about this and he said something to the effect of like it allows guys to sort of see the field through the most important position and where the ball is. And maybe that just helps someone like Jordan Addison who played quarterback or Zamyia Vaughn understand what the quarterback can see, can't see how they're progressing through something,

how they're reading the field. Or maybe it's just, hey, this meant the guy was a baller growing up. And if you're a baller, you got a chance to make it in the NFL, but he is definitely someone will be watching is that you got 17 more. How did you come up with all this stuff when you were moving to Syracuse taking your first classes?

My goodness. I don't know did a lot yesterday. I've been keeping busy. My brain is full. It is it's stuffed up here. I have one more though. You guys know I. I've been keeping busy. My brain is full. It is it's stuffed up here. I have one more though. You guys know I love I'm going to leave you with this a behind the scenes guy and there is no one in the Vikings front office who is more deserving than Dennis Ryan, the equipment manager from 1976 to 2023. This is such a

feel good story. And so we have to end it here. He started part-time as an equipment manager, just kind of helping out when he was a teenager, then became at 20, the youngest equipment manager in the NFL ever period, spent 47 seasons with the Vikings, 922 games. They ended up dedicating the equipment room to him. The more I read about this, the more it was just like, wow, this is such an upstanding dude. He received the 2025 Award of Excellence from the Pro Football Hall of Fame. That's what this award is that he was recognized for. And it's just like someone who takes such a passion and an honor in what they're doing, even if it's not the most shiny front office, front facing job. He took such pride in what he was doing and all the players really

felt that. I know I have, we all loved our equipment manager at Penn when I was playing there. Like they just hold such a special place in your heart and they're so integral to you being out there on the field genuinely. Your uniforms hung up on your locker. You don't know what color you are. You're missing the wrong socks. You need this tailored. You need this hemmed. Oh my gosh, I'm freaking out, I left my lucky spandex out in wherever. They're there, like they're always there saving the day

and making sure that the players have everything they need. And I think on that level, it's almost like an emotional relationship in the way of like, I got you, we got everything situated. Like I'm gonna handle this so you can go do your thing. And that's what it felt like you did. A lot of people get called the goat. Dennis Ryan is the goat when it comes to equipment managers all time. And I hope that he writes a book because the stories that this man could tell it's actually fun. What Vikings fans who like to

watch old games like I do on YouTube, go look at a picture of Dennis Ryan. So you know what he looks like and then look for him on the sidelines. You will see him all the time in these old games like I do on YouTube, go look at a picture of Dennis Ryan. So you know what he looks like and then look for him on the sidelines. You will see him all the time in these old games. You'll see him on the of any game that you ever watch. You'll see him with a helmet in his hands or running over here over there working on something. You are right that if you are on the outside, he's not a guy you could get on your fantasy team or anything else like that.

But if you are inside the team, you understand how valuable and awesome it is to have somebody like that. So he is a one of one in the NFL to have that job for that long. So congratulations to him. Very, very cool stuff. All right. Well, how about that? Great show. Maggie.

Great stuff. Glad you were still able to bring so much to the table and we will continue now that you are at Syracuse and Eastern time, which is garbage. Should be illegal. There just should not be an Eastern time. It's awful. I grew up in Eastern time and then moved to central and I was like, wait a minute. You guys had all the games started seven instead of eight. It makes a difference. It's different.

It's different. I mean, there were baseball games in the world series ending at like two o'clock in the morning in the Eastern time, which is still late, uh, in central, but everything's so much about, and I'll tell you real quick before we go, just a funny, you said welcome to the NFL moments. Well, uh, funny things still happen. No matter how long I've been doing this last year, week one Vikings are at the giants. So I wake up in New Jersey and I call an Uber. It's about eight 45 in the morning. Go over to the stadium. I go in looking around the press box. I'm like, where's everybody? Like the food's not out yet. Like what's, what's going on? Did I go to the wrong area? Which has happened

many times. Did I go to the wrong area? The stadium? Am I like missing something that is going on here? Not seeing any of the other reporters. So I just kind of sit down and start, you know, open the laptop and I'm looking around and what is them? Did I miss something? Game was at one o'clock and not noon. And I forgot that. So everyone showed up like an hour, an hour and a half later

from when I had gotten there because I was sitting there at my usual time to show up at US Bank Stadium. And usually there's people buzzing all over. I'm like, what is going on here? Like, what, do they not know there's a game? It's week one, let's go. And yeah, I forgot what time the game was.

You know what? It happens to the best of us. I had to confirm this podcast time with you today as if I hadn't been doing it for the past month and a half. So. With guests that are in the East, it's always it's always a mess. But you know what? You're still allowed back. So we will have Mondays with Maggie again next week, and we'll see what pops up then for a little bit of news. But once you know, once training camp arrives and gets going, then all of a sudden you're going to be like, oh, I've got a

bunch of headlines to work with, uh, as opposed to now where, you know, we're poking around and finding our best things to talk about. So Maggie Robinson, thank you so much for your time. And, uh, we'll talk again soon. Thank you football football. All right, everybody. Great stuff. Really good chat conversation tonight and we'll be live again on Thursday. And I think I'm trying to think, am I going to do a count, continue the countdown? Most interesting players at training camp. Maybe we'll do that. I haven't, I haven't gone through my bold predictions yet. We're going to have to do the bold predictions as well and we'll see what pops up between now and then. So thanks so much, everybody, and a reminder,

newsletter, purpleinsider.football, great place to be. I'm going to have a written reaction to Jalen Ramsey ending up with the Steelers and much, much more. So make sure you check that out, and we'll catch you all very soon. Football. Bye bye.