Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Simulating all 7 rounds of the NFL Draft based on what we think the Vikings will do

Episode Date: April 25, 2022

Matthew Coller and WCCO Radio's Paul Hodowanic go through the Minnesota Vikings' options throughout the entire draft. What's the case for trading down in the first round? Will receiver Jameson Williams be available at No. 12? Will there be pass rushers available in the second round? How should they approach the later rounds? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Welcome to another episode of Purple Insider, Matthew Collar here along with WCCO Radio's Paul Hodowanek. And Paul, it is time. It is draft freaking week. And it is the final draft sim. We are going to go through all seven rounds like the sociopaths that we are and pick all the players that we think the Vikings will select. This is not what they should do. This is what we think they will do in the seven rounds.

Really the first three rounds. But then after that, we're trying to just figure out who might be good. And every once in a while in these draft sims, I've gotten it right. So last year, the final draft sim that went in the draft guide, by the way,

if you sign up for even one month at purple insider.substack.com that should get that uh but i went back and looked at last year's and i had jenerys robinson in there as a guy that they picked that i was able to target i just went with a lanky guy who didn't sack anybody and boom you got him uh but uh this year might be a little harder but i had a couple of years ago, Brian O'Neill was the pick. Last year in our final draft sim, Courtney Cronin correctly selected not only Christian Derrissaw, but Kellen Mond as well. So I'm not saying that we're going to tell you exactly who they're going to pick, but I'm actually definitely saying that this is who the Vikings will pick.

Are you ready, Paul? Are you prepared? I i'm ready and my biggest goal is to if courtney got two of them right i need to i need to match her i'm i've supposed to been i've been writing a draft column i should be on top of this stuff so i i i want to beat her is my goal today okay all right all right we'll take a deep breath here we go i got the diet dr pepper as well it's not just for fans only pods and we're ready to go it's the final draft sim do do do do do do do do do all right we don't want to break laws or something by humming the whole thing so off we go uh let's go through first before we go to number 12 how the board played out on each of our draft sims using the PFF draft simulator, which by the way, I get emails all the time from people saying,

Hey, I thought you guys were totally nuts using this. And then I tried it and it was fun. So Google that PFF mock draft simulator. It's fun. So let's go over how it played out at the very beginning of the draft for both of us. Cause I think even number two pick is a surprise on mine, but what do you think of the top five in your simulation? Yeah. And I will establish beforehand. We set up the settings. Yours has very little randomness.

Mine has a little bit more randomness. So the chances I have a couple of weirder picks might be in there, but actually my top five, I could see these five guys going. It might be a different order, but Trayvon Walker goes one, continued momentum building for that to potentially happen. Ikema Kwanu went two to the Lions,

Kayvon Thibodeau to the Texans, Aiden Hutchinson four to the Jets, and Charles Cross to the Giants. So a little bit different, but I think that wouldn't be outlandish if those five guys go in the top five picks. So that is completely different from mine, which is Aiden Hutchinson.

Number one, sauce Gardner with the number two pick to the Detroit lions. Kayvon Thibodeau goes to the Houston Texans, Trayvon Walker to the jets and Ick Iki Ikuonu to the New York Giants. The rise of Sauce Gardner and Trayvon Walker both through the draft process is pretty wild. And we thought initially that Sauce Gardner might have a chance to go to the Vikings. And now the simulator has him going all the way up at number two. I also think that Kavon Thibodeau is not getting past the fifth or sixth

draft pick that all of that hype for him falling is maybe someone who wants him to fall. And Iki Okwunu has a good chance to be the first offensive lineman off the board. So let me go through my next picks. Evan Neal goes to Carolina, Charles Cross to the Giants and the Giants drafting two tackles is probably unrealistic here

because they have Andrew Thomas and so I that one's a little odd maybe my randomness was turned up too far that's not going to happen but Derek Stingley goes to the Falcons Malik Willis though off the board at number nine to Seattle then Garrett Wilson then Kyle Hamilton and so the Vikings coming very close to some really interesting prospects, but just missing out on them. Tell me where the most interesting guys went. Is Willis off of your board? Willis is not off my board,

but pretty much every other thing that could go wrong for the Vikings in these next few picks, or at least in the positions of need, you would think are gone. So Stingley goes sixth. The Mod Gardner goes seventh drake london eighth garrett wilson ninth and then we go trent mcduffie kyle hamilton nine or ten eleven so pretty much the the top three corners and the top safety off the board when the vikings pick uh evan neal has slipped all the way to this spot, number 12. So ideally this would be an ideal spot for a trade because that him getting this far is pretty remarkable. And there are some tackle needy teams coming up with the saints and chargers. So I can see them as a trade possibility.

If a tackle does slip. Now you are a gifted trader on PFF simulator. So if you want to pull a trade off while I'm deciding who to select and going through my potential options in my mock, are we doing this? What we think they will. We're doing what we think they will do, right?

Yeah. What they thought, what we think they will do. So I'll tell you who's on my board. You can pull off your trade and see what you could get. Jameson Williams is the top player on the board. Then George care left this Trent McDuffie, Drake,

London, Tyler Linderbaum, and Devante Wyatt are really the top players here. Also Chris Alave, Jordan Davis. These guys are pretty highly considered. Andrew Booth, the cornerback from Clemson. Those are probably the top options. Jermaine Johnson is still on the board. I don't know how highly they think of him, but PFF is a little less high. And then of course, every quarterback that is not named Malik Willis is available. And in this case, I think the Vikings actually would pick Jamison Williams because he has the highest upside of any of these players and might've been even higher of a draft pick. If not for tearing the ACL. I don't think that they would go Trent McDuffie here in part because people see Trent McDuffie

as more of a slot corner. That's really valuable, but it's not quite the same as a shut down corner, which is Stingley and Gardner. So I am going to say that they pick also Drake London is on the board. I don't know which one they would like better. I think Jamison Williams is a better prospect. Seems like a lot of the analysts think so too. So I am going to stay at 12 and select Jamison Williams with the 12th overall pick as what I think the Vikings will do if he is available. So what did you do for a trade? Yeah. And just to know, Jamison Williams, other than Evan Neal, was the top guy on my board for my draft sim. So I think that could also work out for them there if they decide not to trade. But I actually think in my mock, if this is what happens and they can find a suitable guy to either come up and take

Malik Willis, because he's still on the board, or someone with Evan Neal, those are two really highly touted prospects. One at a position of great importance in quarterback and then tackles right behind him. And Evan Neal is considered by some to be the top tackle in this draft. So he makes it that far. I think there'd be a lot of suitors. But in terms of a trade, no one in the mid first round really wanted to come up. So I had to trade with the Buffalo Bills. The Buffalo Bills are coming up to 12. Maybe they want Jamison Williams or they want a tackle or something. And so I got the 25th pick. I looked at trying to get their 2023 first round pick. They declined that. So I had to settle for their, the 57th pick, which is their second round pick and their fourth round pick as well as a 2023 second. So we got some capital going into

next year. And then we also picked up another second round pick and another mid round pick. And I think that would work out really well for them. So I have now moved to 25. You want to know where we're at, where we're looking at for 25 now? I do. Yeah.

Who do you got at 25? Top player on the board, Devante Wyatt, defensive interior defensive tackle from Georgia, Bernard Raymond tackle, Sky Moore, wide receiver Bernard Raymond tackle sky more wide receiver, George Pickens, wide receiver Zion Johnson, a really good guard.

So lots of interesting options for the Vikings here. What, what's your initial thought on that? What, what's the, who's the top edge rusher. Let's see for you there. Cause I think they'd be looking at that too,

but Zion Johnson, who's the top edge rusher? Let's see for you there. Cause I think they'd be looking at that too, but Zion Johnson, who's the top edge rusher? Jermaine Johnson is still here. Arnold Abaketti is also still here. Yeah. Okay. I think Abaketti might be the guy, the guy, I mean, you can make your choice, but there's good options here. This is why trade down seems very likely.

There are very good options there. If they were to draft a guard, i think people would be happy with that um considering that chris reed and jesse davis like these are short-term type of solutions um but you know i mean you have a high-end prospect that some people think should be drafted even higher than jermaine johnson but jermaine johnson also destroyed the senior bowl and is thought of pretty well. So even if he was the pick late in the first round, that's probably pretty good. Sky Moore also gets a lot of attention. I think he's maybe a little overrated by draft analysts, but you got good options there late in the first round. Yeah. I think what, what I would do and maybe what they would do are different um so i jermaine johnson the one thing i'm wondering

about is he's older for a prospect i think he's 23 already and i i don't know i i saw a graph from pff cleveland by far drafted the youngest players in the draft last year they were pretty much emphasizing youth over anything and obviously quase Kweisi is coming from that. And so I don't know if they would go with Jermaine Johnson here, but also Arnold Ebiketti is also 23 too. So both those guys are older. So it's kind of hard to know if they would want to take either of them. But I am going to stick with Ed Rusher because I feel like that's probably the smartest. And I'm going to go Ebiketti here. He has some of his underlying pressure rates and things are pretty stellar. And I think going to go Ebiketi here. He has some kind of some of his underlying pressure rates and things are pretty stellar. And I think maybe that would appeal to someone with analytical

background. So Arnold Ebiketi is who we're taking at 25. I like it. And I think the age thing, when you're talking first round prospects who you expect to make an impact pretty fast, I don't know if it matters as much, but when it gets later in the draft, that's where I think that's a draft hack. And for our draft guide, I'm writing about draft hacks. I was going to include that because I saw an ESPN study about how the Vikings had done fourth through seventh rounds that I brought up on the fans only podcast that it's not been great compared to other teams in recent years. And I think this is an area where if you draft guys later who are 20, you have a better chance of developing them to an upside

than say if you draft them at age 23 or 24. Okay, on to the second round and Sam Howell taken just before the Vikings. So that's not going to happen. A couple other players that went that are notable, Sky Moore, George Pickens, David Ajabo, who I'm really interested to see where he goes. Boye Mafe too. I think, I think he's a late first rounder because of his freak athleticism and everyone's favorite Jalen Petrie was taken just before me. He's the guy that I've gotten in so many draft sims. The, the corner slash safety

hybrid player from Baylor. So now on the board, I am in a great position to draft an edge rusher. Nick Benito from Oklahoma is the guy that I think I'm going to go with here. But Drake Jackson is another one. Benito is only 248 pounds, which the old regime may not have really liked. But this one could tons of production at Oklahoma. Eight sacks in each of the last two years. 92 PFF pass rush grade, which has correlated pretty well in the past to success in the NFL.

Not so much of a run stuffer, but a really good, really, really good pass rusher. Winning his win rate for the pass rush almost 30%, which is. Cause if you're at like 15%, you're pretty decent. So I'm going to go with the analytics edge rusher, Nick Benito. Fantastic. So since my 25th pick, we've had a run on quarterbacks. Kenny Pickett goes off second round to the lions. Sam Howell goes pick 38 to the jets. Uh, Seattle takes their quarterback, uh, Matt Corral. So pretty much all the quarterback options are also off the table for me, but luckily that means Sky Moore is still there.

Jalen Petrie is still there. Travis Jones, defend interior defensive lineman. Also still there. I think all those positions are, uh, a spot where they, they could draft early uh interior defensive lineman i think maybe lesser uh but they obviously still have a need there

wide receiver sky more is falling jaylen petrie's falling and i also have that pick again in 11 picks that buffalo pick that i can toy around with so i think here i think if we're gonna assume uh quacey is just gonna try to take guys at high positions of value who have fallen and sky more is ranked 22 on pff's board we're here at 46 that feels like good value at a position of need so we're gonna go sky more here in the second round they get a first round talent someone i know our friend chris duprasso is very high on and on and Vikings get him in the second round. Okay. So you have another second round pick then for that or from that trade?

Yes. I have another second round pick here at 57 and I'm looking to the corners and Roger McCreary is still here from Auburn. Pretty much all the top guys on the board are either other edge rushers, linebacker, running back none of those intrigue me as much as roger mccreary does tons of tons of production at auburn playing against some really really good competition he's got some measurable concerns with his arms but i think if you're in the sec and you're able to thrive as much as you did against some of that top competition i feel like that's worthy of taking a shot at so i I think they would go cornerback here, Roger McCreary.

Okay. So you have a corner, a wide receiver and a pass rusher in your first three picks. I, and to be able to trade down and address those issues, it just, if there's one draft hack that it feels like they'll utilize, that's the one that seems the most likely. And if they could somehow, and I don't know if it's possible, but get a second, second round pick there, every draft semi run, there's like 10 guys that I like in the second round who are talked about somewhere, whether it's Dane Brugler's the beast or it's Chris Trapasso's, you know, mock drafts or wherever that are talked about as potential first round talents. I like that a lot. So, so far, I think you've got ahead of me

because of that in your draft value, but we'll, we'll compare and contrast at the end. So onto the third round, this is where the players become a little less recognizable. I think even as long as, you know, draft season goes on, there are some guys that i haven't really looked at a whole lot but one is sticking out to me in the third round and that is cam jurgens the center from nebraska who absolutely demolished the nfl combine and there was something else to note for anybody who watched the combine they'll know what i'm going to bring up that's cam jurgens brought actual jerky jurgens jerky to the combine to give to NFL teams. He apparently makes his own.

And if you have a center who makes his own jerky, how do you win a locker room? That's the way. But he also won the combine, had tremendous numbers there. And he's a top hundred player on PFF's board. I think the Vikings need to be thinking about their future center because even if Garrett Bradbury is the guy for this year and Juergens didn't play, that this is the last year of Garrett Bradbury's contract unless they pick up the fifth year option, which seems very

unlikely. I think they need interior offensive line in the draft to continue to develop those guys. So I am going Cam Juergens with my third round pick. Yeah. And I think this is a really interesting spot for them in the draft just because it it's going to, if they make this pick and don't trade back at any other point and pick up another pick, they're not picking for like 70 more picks. Like we are going a long time without it. So it's interesting if they stay there because they feel like there's a guy that they really want to get there and feel like maybe he's above the rest because they probably could trade back and accumulate some picks and maybe grab one in between some of their they there's just such a big gap and so for me i'm gonna trade i'm not

gonna trade no okay there's two like intriguing prospects here. Dylan Parham, the guard from Memphis, is still there, and it would continue to fill out my need. He's the fourth-ranked guy on the board, best available, so the value's there. And then there's also another cornerback in Marcus Jones, who's there out of Houston, and we could just double up on corners, really try to add some talent to that room and hopefully kind of address that further. He's kind of only a slot guy. So I don't know if I love taking him this early. So for that reason, I'm going to go guard. I think they add another guard to the room, another guy that can compete and you see what you can do there. So I'm going to go Dylan Parham here at 77. So I also considered a corner here. Jalen

Armour Davis was a guy who's on the board. He comes from Alabama, had pretty good numbers of passer rating of 52.3 on throws against him. So I think would have been maybe a good idea. I decided to address the offensive line in the interior instead, but you know, if you're looking at other options, that would be more of an outside corner uh jalen armor davis is another potential pick there but man you are right that after that you have to wait a long time to the vikings next next pick we go from 77 all the way down to number 156 there is absolutely no way in this universe that the Vikings go. Is that like 80 picks? They're not going 80 picks without selecting a player that does not happen. They're going to

absolutely try to trade back maybe in the second, maybe in the first, um, to try to get more, or maybe in the third to get more draft picks, because that just does not seem plausible. However, that's what we did. So now there's a lot of guys in the fifth and sixth that we'll get to pick. And this is where it becomes a little more random and just position-based and upside-based. But I think here is where I'm on the hunt for some more development type players, maybe an interior pass rusher, where we've seen some of those guys come from the, you know, the late rounds. I'm hunting for a corner and having trouble finding one, but I'm not finding one that I really like here. So I'm going to go with the 156th pick with Christopher Allen from Alabama. And the reason is because Christopher Allen is a guy that

kept getting hurt, but he's a former four-star recruit. When he played, he was really good. Had six sacks in 2020. Played only one game and was really good in that game in 2021. So there's upside here. It's just a guy who's been injured, played for Alabama, and maybe you get lightning in a bottle. And that's what I think that you have to do in these late rounds

is just look for lightning in a bottle type players. Yeah. And for me, I had a pick just like 20 picks before this because of my bills trade. So I have a second pick here. Um, and so at one 30, I'm going to take Kalon Barnes. He's a corner from Baylor and really what stuck out to me again, you're just taking dart throws right now. And he had the fastest 40 at the combine. So four, two, three, 40 yard dash. Um, so I, at this point, it's just, can we bet on a trait? Does he have one outstanding trait? He has that in his speed and can we figure some stuff out? He's obviously not going to play right away. Can we figure some things out? So went kalon barnes there with my first fourth round pick and then or with my only fourth round pick and then we go into the sixth round or into the fifth round and man i i start to have i've i've done so many draft sims and i still some of these names i don't really

know who they are kellenellen Deesh from Arizona State. Marquise Hayes from Oklahoma. Bailey Zappi, the quarterback. We could go quarterback here. But if we're doing what the Vikings would do, I don't think it's that. So I am going to go with a linebacker. I'm going to go with Damone Clark, a linebacker out of LSU. He's pretty much going to be out for his whole rookie season. This is one of those really investment type picks.

He's one of those guys that would be a lot higher in the draft if he wasn't hurt. And so again, I'm going to take a flyer on him. He's from LSU. He was a really good linebacker for them. And he's just had an injury. And I mean, it's a spinal fusion surgery, so it's not one that's going to be like easy to come back from. But again, we're in the fifth round. I've already picked up some extra draft capital. I'm throwing darts. So we're throwing one at Damone Clark.

Uh, saying it's a spinal fusion. Like, yeah, it's not great. It's not great, man. It's not great. No, the only thing you can do really is to throw darts, but it's a spinal fusion. Sounds pretty tough. All right, so we're now entering, let me see here, pick number 184, early in the sixth round. And yes, I'm struggling a little bit. Brock Purdy is the quarterback that you might recognize. Curtis Brooks actually had a really

good i think it was pro day i remember seeing him pop out he's a edge rusher from cincinnati that cincinnati team had a lot of talent so i'm considering him um i'm also looking at tight ends here because i think that tight ends in this spot have a decent chance to develop we've seen actually multiple tight ends that the vikings have takenett Ellison, Michael Pruitt, Tyler Conklin, David Morgan, all these guys became contributors and they don't really have an answer at backup tight end at the moment. Is that something we really care about or not? I guess that's another question, but I went with a corner Duran Bland here from Fresno state. And, um,

you know, the amount of information that I could tell you about Duran bland with the PFF simulator slowing down on me here for a second is not much, but a corner. Got to have a corner. I'll see if it, I'll see if it reloads here in just a second, but a corner,

nonetheless, Duran bland, welcome to the squad. All right. And I will speed through mine. Uh, went back to edge, look and see what I could get there. here in just a second but a corner nonetheless duron bland welcome to the squad all right and i will speed through mine uh went back to edge look and see what i could get there isaiah thomas out of oklahoma is a popular guy i've seen in people sending me their draft sims he's a popular guy i've gotten just in uh this kind of range uh from what i've been able to read just because

he has been someone i picked so i had a lot. It seems like a very versatile guy kind of can fill in the rotation. That feels like what the Vikings need at this point. They have some stalwarts on the edge and if they can get some guys that can just rotate in and out and can, you know, provide for five good rushes a game, that's what you want. And so we're going to go Isaiah Thomas here. Okay. I love my drawn bland pick. Now that I have his numbers, he allowed only a 42% completion percentage into his throws. And he's six foot two, 200 probably means he's not maybe ideal speed, but somebody who has good numbers. And that's what I basically look for with these draft Sims at the end, give me one good

number that I should go after. And that's probably just as accurate a way of doing it as the scouts who are looking for those late round draft picks something to develop or some good college number that points that way so now i'm at uh pick 191 and you know we're looking around yeah i like uh micah mcfadden out of Indiana. He's a linebacker. And I know that linebacker is one of those, oh, what are you doing? But when we looked at the draft surplus stuff, linebacker was one of those positions. And he's a little undersized at 6'1", 240, that the later round guys actually became stuff for teams.

And I think we've seen that Fred Warner was a later round guy. He turned into a really good player. And at some point you do need to develop people behind and they've been trying to do this. Eric Kendricks, it's just been unsuccessful. Troy Dye is not that guy. We'll see about Chaz Surratt, but signing Jordan Hicks kind of says a lot about Chaz Surratt. So another linebacker here in the sixth round. Fantastic i'll quickly do my picks i'm gonna take joshua williams center from unc pembroke um and pff's little write-up says williams is making a massive leap in competition from d2 to the nfl but he's got the goods to do so nfl teams will covet his length and rare fluidity at the position. And he's 6'6", 300 pounds and a center.

Opposite in terms of size is Garrett Bradbury. And if they decide to move on, maybe they just want to go with the complete opposite type of guy. They want someone who's longer. He makes sense with that. So Joshua Williams, you have no stats for me to look at because you're from a D2 school. But we're bringing you on the squad and then next up matt i i have to do it now because i'm just not sure

he's going to be available no no yes no no no no no no no end of podcast no no you're off it says his average draft position is 222 that is before our next seventh round pick. If anyone has read any of my draft columns, you will know who is coming. Punter Matt Arizia of San Diego State, commonly referred to as Punt God. Feel free to just look up Punt God on YouTube. There will be many clips of him just bombing 70 yard punts not a need for the vikings per se but he's very swaggy uh and maybe you know as swaggy as a punter can be and i mean your name's the punt god i mean come on and you know maybe just provides a

very long-term answer your punter for the next 10 years go get your jerseys matt orizia welcome to the vikings you know when i was at buffalo i'm not gonna i'm not making this up brian mormon their punter yeah was so popular yeah and so oft used that a lot of people had his jersey and i mean a lot like in the stadium there were as many brian mormon jerseys as probably any other uh any other person who played for the team and he was like the biggest star that they had because he had been a pro bowler a bunch of times and there was some rookie who came in and said oh yeah i recognize brian mormon because he's been in the pro bowl a bunch so you know there can be popular punters still uh i just don't see the

point because the way that i think of it is like congratulations you could punt at 70 yards nfl teams will absolutely return those for touchdowns like if if you punt it that far they will have so much time to set up that they will probably just run it back for a lot of yards this was the marquette king problem is the guy kept kicking it 50 yards and teams kept bringing it back. When you look at the best net yards versus average net yards, it's like five and the Kansas city chiefs punted 40 times last year, 40. If you have a great offense, you're punting like 40 to 50 times in a season. So you're drafting someone to play 40 to 50 plays who had absolute best. If they are the best at their craft, gives you five yards.

Like, I just I just can't justify. I see what you're what you're doing because you want to draft punk God. And maybe there's something special about him. But, man, I just you know, if if Kevin O'Connell unfortunately takes inherits the bad clock management of Sean McVay, they may be punting more than you would like them to be punting, in which case I want to have a weapon out there. What did we get Dan Chisna? What did the Vikings get Dan Chisna for if he's not going to sprint after these guys? We're getting really fast, guys.

Put my 4-2 corner that I just drafted on the outside to gun and put punt guard out there. I mean, let's just build a unit on special teams. That's what I'm doing, man. Yeah. All right. Well, three phases to the game.

Yes. So I'm going to take a, with the 192nd pick a guy named Chris Paul. So you took Isaiah Thomas. I might as well pick another point guard, but in, in Chris Paul's writeup, it says he is a tremendous athlete and not a great football player.

He's an offensive lineman from Tulsa. I mean, that sounds good to me for a six-round pick. See if there's something there to develop. And if there's any position, and it hasn't worked a ton for the Vikings, but I believe in it for positions that can be developed. Guard, tackle, center, like late rounders. Those are the ones that we do see fairly often two three years into somebody's career where they become a solid starter so i'm taking a swing at a highly athletic

tackle from tulsa yeah i'm you know i don't know does folks minnesota sports teams are in the playoffs yes that's right playoffs minnesota sports teams are in the playoffs. Yes, that's right. Playoffs. Minnesota sports teams is happening. And for all your Minnesota sports-inspired gear, go to SodaStick.com. That's S-O-T-A-S-T-I-C-K.com. They have hockey, basketball, all sorts of great designs on hoodies, on shirts, on hats, everything you need. Go there. Use the promo code Purple Insider for 15% off your purchase. Again, that is SodaStick, S-O-T-A-S-T-I-C-K.com, 15% off for the promo code Purple Insider. Yes, as one does. I'm trying to decide. There's a tackle who's just been sitting at the top of the board, Zachary Thomas from San Diego State. He's ranked 143rd on PFF's board, so we're at 250. So he's almost slipped 100 picks from where PFF has him. Tackle, not a position the Vikings necessarily need in the future, you'd think, but injuries happen all the time we're at a seventh round pick what am i going to take brock purdy i don't i don't think so so at this point let's just try to develop a

tackle uh he was and it says he played all five positions at some point uh for san diego state so maybe some versatility there can move him around wherever you need if he hits but again seventh round picks there's a chance zachary thomas or whoever you just took isn't even on on the roster come uh week one that's kind of the what happens with these seventh round picks but I'll take my chances with a long and athletic tackle okay uh I found somebody that I absolutely love is my favorite player in the draft now who's not at the top or just at all so you love your punt god yeah i love i love devin tompkins okay devin tompkins is a five foot eight 155 pound wide receiver from utah state who has totally insane numbers this guy last year he played 580 pass snaps and caught 104 passes so basically one

out of every five to six times, his quarterback was dropping back. He was throwing to Devin Tompkins, this tiny little man who gained 1,700 yards and 10 touchdowns for Utah State and only dropped 4% of his passes. The dude has wild numbers, but he played mostly out of the slot.

A slot receiver in the late rounds who could be fun. And, you know, you think, okay, little man from Utah state, it's probably got no like other abilities or whatever. He ran a four, four. So he is blazing fast. I'm calling it a 2020. What would that be? 2023 or not this training camp, but next year's training camp,

Mr. Mankato is this five already. This is the guy that goes, has two touchdowns in a preseason game. We get hyped about, and he's the last man cut on the rosters and we get all upset that he's not on the roster. That is my next Alex Hollins. Yes.

Yes. Okay. So that's who I went with. Getting over excited about sixth round draft picks and that was the final draft picks i don't think they have a selection the seventh as we speak so devin tompkins was my last pick so uh there you have it who's who's yours mine was zachary thomas i may have jumped ahead oh that was your last pick okay i got all my picks are done too okay so let's go one by i'm gonna go go one by one on mine and we'll see what PFF graded us.

And then we'll compare and see who had the better draft. So I took Jamison Williams with the first pick, Nick Benito, the edge rusher in the second round, Cam Jurgens, the center in the third. So those are the guys who could actually make an impact within their first year or two. And then my swings were Christopher Allen, the guy who's been hurt plays for alabama duron bland a tall corner from fresno state uh michael mcfadden a undersized

quality linebacker chris paul the tackle from tulsa who's a freak athlete and my tiny little receiver devin tompkins who's quick and could be there to to at well except for where maybe to to at well should have been picked just like the seventh round or sixth round, not the second by the Rams. Uh, and our, our own two, two at well is just a guy that doesn't play, but hopefully, you know, uh, and, uh, PFF gave me a B plus they hated the Christopher Allen pick. I'm deeply sorry. PFF draft simulator. Uh, how did you do? Yes, I got, well, first i got an a minus on my trade so again i traded back from the 12th pick to the 25th pick i picked up the bill's second rounder their fourth rounder in a 2023 second round pick so then at 25 i picked arnold ebiketti edge rusher out of

penn state uh feels like he's kind of rising at least from the people that i follow on twitter they seem to really enjoy him as the kind of a sneaky edge three uh three or four um ahead of guys like Jermaine Johnson or even Trayvon Walker for some that gave me a that was a b-plus pick they gave Sky Moore was my wide receiver pick in the second round that got an a-plus feel good about that cornerback Roger McCreary in the second round as well a and then in the third round dylan parham guard memphis that was also a and then my shots in the dark was kaylin barns fourth round corner from baylor here he ran a 4-2-2 so we're betting on speed there uh my spinal fusion guy damone clark in the fifth round uh linebacker from lsu that got an a minus uh my isaiah thomas versatile edge guy from

oklahoma got an a minus my center pick from unc pembroke joshua williams the d2 guy that's massive a plus matt uh matt arazia my punter punt god f minus pff did not enjoy my picking of man erasia that was a d from pff and then my final tackle zachary thomas was an a plus overall they gave me an a so i'm feeling really good about it okay and uh i will say that well i the pick of jameson williams could be the one that has the most impact on the franchise of all the players that we picked because he's the one that could eventually take over wide receiver too he's the one who people have compared his quickness and explosiveness to tyreek hill like this is somebody who when he comes back from the acl which we've seen plenty of players do successfully delvin cook adrian peterson um could be a complete game changer for this offense and long-term, whether

it's Kirk or whether it's someone else, like you're just giving them something, something potentially special here. However, if you're talking about complete value outside of our ridiculous tiny man or former basketball player names or whatever, outside of all that stuff, first three rounds that matter, I mean, you picked up the most value. And this is what I think when they talk competitive rebuild, they haven't rebuilt the roster in any way with the salary cap, but they could rebuild the prospect pool, if you will. Because if we go over the roster that they have right now,

I mean, who are the prospects? Like guys who we still don't have answers on that could be something. Amir Smith, Marset, Cam Bynum. I mean, you're getting pretty far down the list to start talking about Harrison Hand. Chaz Surratt, maybe. Yeah. I mean, I sort of like that he could potentially like Wyatt Davis still counts guys from the last draft, but you can only go like really two years drafts deep on players that are prospects.

And so you just need guys that have a chance to be something at any position. And, uh, you got a lot of them. So I think you did really well there. Um, also I should have been throughout and I apologize for this singing the final draft sim do, do, do, do. Is that the band Europe? Don't sue me. Europe did a do, do,-do-do yeah you're you're probably asking the wrong guy here can i ask you a couple questions before we're done here i don't know if you had more to talk about just i can sing more yes we could just start breaking out you know what real quick yeah that song has a blazing hot solo. I mean it. I know nobody cares, if I trust anyone's opinion on guitar solos, it would be yours. Um, but yes, I had a couple of questions for you. Um, just, just some final

stuff. Cause I don't know if we're talking before the draft, obviously we'll come to you live after they pick, but just some final, like, do they do this in the draft? Do they pick a quarterback at any point in the draft? I'll say no. If I'm making a prediction, I'll say no. Like, I think that we've talked a lot about the possibilities, who they should take, why they would do it. But I think what they're doing and maybe trading back would be a part of this too, is they are going to wait until next year and see what's there. And, you know, some of the data that's been looked at by people, there was a really good article by, I think it was Anthony trash of PFF who wrote about completion percentage above average and compared next year's potential top quarterbacks to this

year's and no surprise, like they're better and completion percentage above average is not like your, there's no silver bullet. This will give you all the answers statistic, but they're better. So, you know, I think that there is some merit to that considering you wouldn't have to use two years of someone's rookie contract, which I'm not terrified of, but you know, I think is maybe along the lines of their thinking. So I would guess that zero or maybe a late round quarterback is taken. And that's about it because every team seems to love taking the guy in the fifth or sixth round that just won't matter ever at all in a million years, but they like it because if it hits and then they can say, Oh, we're so smart because we loved that guy coming out. We had a second round grade on them or something.

But what do you think? I'm going to go with no. Yeah, I would guess no. In the draft guide coming out, which if you subscribe to Purple Insider, you get our draft guide. We rank needs. And for quarterback spoiler, I just said where to pick them. I said round one or not at all. And I think that kind of would be the mindset that Vikings already kind of took a guy last year in those mid rounds. I'm not sure they double up another time with a guy in the mid round, unless they like one of those top quarterbacks who just happens to fall to them in the second round. But if we're talking about the Bailey Zappies, Carson Strongs, Brock Purdy's of the world, I think you'd, you'd look and say, is the value really there for a guy that at his best probably could only be an average backup? I don't, I don't necessarily think they go there. Um, I think round two is possible. I think round two, I would leave the door open to, let's say they evaluate their top five. Let's just say like, this is not anything I've heard or anything like that,

but let's just say that their top five is Malik Willis, Sam Howell, then Desmond Ritter, Kenny Pickett. That's their top five. And they go all the way through this and they get to the second round and their second best quarterback on the board is actually still there in the second round. I do leave the door open to second round quarterback as not being like an insane, terrible thing in a draft class where no one seems to be able to figure out what the order should be. Um, but that, you know, I still think the chances are very low. Let me ask you this since we both picked receivers with our first

or second round draft pick, um, would you be surprised if they don't select a receiver? I would not be surprised if at all, or just in the top rounds, just in the first, in the first two rounds. I mean, they'll pick a receiver somewhere I'm sure, but in the first two rounds, I wouldn't be surprised. Um, only because we've seen in the last few years, just people be able to teams being able to hit on wide receivers late in the draft, uh, third round receivers, fourth round receivers. We've seen those guys be able to succeed. And we've seen teams kind of, you know, be able to turn. I mean, Terry McLaurin, I think was a fourth round pick.

You go through that draft. There were tons of guys like that. I think they definitely could do that. And there's enough other needs on the board and enough value that probably meets those when they pick. We've done enough drafts to know there's going to be a lot of addressers available in the second round. If they want to take one,

there's going to be some corners in the second round if they want to take one. And so I think if they don't go in, in the first round, I think they could easily wait till third, fourth, fifth round for a wide receiver, just because of the nature of the position.

And like we've said, it's not the most immediate pressing need. You can go into the season thinking cage Osborne can be your third wide wide receiver and i don't think anyone's going to be like upset about that with the way he played so i think there's a very good case to be made that they won't i think it would be a wise decision if they did but um you know based on other mid-round picks taking a wide receiver mid-round is one of the better bets you can make in terms of taking shots in the middle to the late part of the draft you You know, um, the other thing that came to mind for me is another song. You can't always draft what you want. Um, I'm looking at this and I got left out of corners

until the second pick in the sixth round because of just how the board fell. Something's getting left out of the party. It be a receiver it might be edge rusher it might be line it might be corner you can't get what you want here unless trading back multiple times and getting like several thirds that worked out great last year um but like that's another point too is like when you trade back you can't trade back so far you hurt yourself and i think quesia daflamance is going to know that rick spielman absolutely did not know that he just thought every time you trade back you win the super bowl like it just like oh we got a bunch of thirds for trading back like k yeah and uh

those picks i mean the the drop off is so significant between the first second and everything else that if you're trading back, make sure you're trading back. It's still getting second round picks if that's what you're doing, because getting third, fourth, fifth, there's just not a whole lot of value there compared to what you're going to do anyway. The whole more darts thing does just doesn't apply past probably the third round. But yeah, I think that that was another major takeaway for me is you go into it

knowing, okay, here's the like four or five things that you really need and you can only get two or three of them. And that's just how it's probably going to go on draft night. We're going to walk out and go, yeah, but they didn't get whatever. And they needed that. I'm like, well, right. Because they just didn't have any more picks. So unless something crazy happens and there's an absolute crazy wild bidding war for the number 12 pick possible, uh, but not super likely they're going to walk out of the draft with something that they really wanted and just didn't come home with. Yeah, for sure. I, that was going to be one of my other questions. Cause corner is just one of those positions. I feel like anytime I do a mock or see anyone send me their mock it's a corner in the first round and if it's

not a corner in the first round it's a corner in the second round pretty much immediately would you be shocked if they first second third round didn't have a corner just like your mock had i would not be shocked uh especially with more derrick stingley hype of him going in the top 10. If it's not Stingley and it's not sauce Gardner, then it might not be worth it. And something else, the, I I'm sorry to keep bringing it up, but the draft surplus thing really solidified kind of my thoughts on what,

what the whole point was is like what you're getting versus what those types of players get paid in the open market. And with a position like corner, it seems like average corners are very easy to find in free agency, whereas elite corners are almost impossible to find and they get paid insane money. So if you could draft a guy who could be an elite corner, well, yes, take that shot, take that swing.

But if you're talking about, and he might be great, I don't know. A Trent McDuffie does not seem to me like that is a elite player just based on his size, the likelihood of him being a slot corner. And if that's, that's just not worth it. Like for that position, you have to get elite, or you should take a bunch of swings in the middle rounds and try to get average because then you're doing well. And look, I mean, there's still guys in free agency as we speak, average corners who you can pick up and have a shot to be decent. What the Vikings did last year, picking up Alexander and Breland, I thought was actually right. They just missed on both of them. They failed, but other teams have done this and succeeded where they said, let's pick up a couple of $5 million corners and see if it works. And sometimes it has. So, you know, I, I think that I wouldn't be shocked if they look at

something like that, if they don't pick one at all, but it really kind of comes down to, I think they'll pick pass rush. Are you picking a receiver or are you picking a corner? Depending on how the board goes might end up being the major question. So, Oh, the final draft SIM, Paul, we could do a jazz swing version. The final draft SIM, the final draft SIM, we both screwed it up and now we're fired. I think we did great actually. I was totally wrong. I think I got at least three of these, right? Just spot on on the nose so i'll be looking forward to seeing which ones uh hit okay great stuff so uh the rest of the week we'll have a lot of fun we'll have courtney on chad graff brett coleman who's a

great youtuber um does a lot of amazing draft content and we'll get his takes and he'll probably have the final word on what the vikings should do and what will happen in this draft. And then, like you said, finally, we are going to be out there at TCO Performance Center recording our pods from there. As of this moment, don't have a plan for being live, like for every pick. Probably just go live on TCO Radio's channels and be talking with henry lake who's going to be live um on the air there so we'll probably kind of have a mix of doing reactions probably won't do like a pick by pick thing this year but um great stuff paul so i will see you on thursday night then and thank you all for listening to another episode of purple insider do do do do