Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Star Tribune's Andrew Krammer breaks down the Vikings pre-draft press conference

Episode Date: April 14, 2023

Matthew Coller and Andrew Krammer of the Star Tribune get together at TCO Performance Center to talk about Kwesi Adofo-Mensah and Kevin O'Connell's comments to the media about their quarterback situation, Dalvin Cook and Za'Darius Smith and receivers. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Welcome to another episode of Purple Insider. Matthew Collar here and joining me from the Star Tribune, Andrew Kramer returns to the show. Andrew, you have to be ready because this is going to be one of the most intense podcast experiences you've ever had. And I mean it. You're laughing, you're smiling at me, but I mean it. This is going to be intense because we just listened to 30 minutes of the general manager and the head coach answer the toughest questions they gave insight they broke down everything for us they welcomed us in to their front office they pulled back all the curtains and showed us the rest of their off season plan including the draft and now we've only got like 40 minutes to break it down so let let's go yeah

let's tell them who they're going to draft at 23 overall um i thought you were going to say um the intensity of this podcast was going to rival stefan dig's twitter account which those have been popping up left and right in terms of his cryptic tweets but yes we we didn't learn a whole lot they were non-committal about a lot of things um i do like kevin o'connell's candor when he talks about evaluating quarterbacks if you read between the lines on some of those comments we can get to quite a bit on that front but yeah with all the questions we have about hey how are you building this engine in this plane while it's still flying what's going to happen with zadarius is dalvin cook going to get thrown out of the plane they're just like yeah we'll see we're not sure yet okay but you know i of course i'm kidding

because the goal of every pre-draft press conference from every general manager and head coach is to not really give away your cards and why would you want to show the rest of the league what your plan is when you're 23rd and there's a lot that's going to happen before you so you don't want to be saying publicly too loud well we really want to trade down because that maybe hurts your leverage or whatever there's like or hey we really want hendon hooker he's our guy i mean you just don't see that very often for a reason sometimes somebody spills the beans on something but i do think do think, and this may be trying too hard, but you can tell me, I think that noncommittal on stuff is the headline.

Like noncommittal on Zedaria Smith actually showing up for workouts and being a part of this team. And when Kweisi Adafomenta is asked about Delvin Cook and Alexander Madison and if they could coexist, he says theoretically they could coexist in the backfield like uh what they've played together for four years and they are currently both under contract so why would that be theoretical unless and look it's not

something we don't already know but i think if they were looking to dispel the idea that those two guys aren't going to be here that they did not do that in any way and were also very like they were asked directly did delvin cook tell you he was going to get surgery and it was well i mean we're very proud of delvin for his report card this semester i mean it was just like if you wanted to be direct on those answers there was the opportunity to be there if that was the case but it was so much like well I mean theoretically and I think that that is pretty notable I thought it was interesting that Kevin O'Connell made a point to say that it was Dalvin Cook's decision to get surgery that's kind of I think he said

it was fully up to him or something like that which goes to show i mean it was odd timing and the surgery coming right before a decision would have been coming down on whether or not he's getting traded kept uh or or released and he gets that injury guarantee regardless because he's still on this roster but they've got so much money in this backfield they kept the backfield the same Instead, the only addition they made was increasing Alexander Madison's pay, which means his role is going to go up. Dalvin Cook only gets a year older. He's set to earn $10, $11 million, which just makes no sense. So where they're at right now, that noncommittalness, it screams the quiet part of where we're at, of, hey, we're going to move these

guys. We're looking to move these guys. And it seems to be just a matter of time and the only way I see Dalvin Cook for instance staying on this roster is if he somehow accepts a lower number to make it work with him and Alexander truly as a one-two tandem which last year they just weren't they this has been Dalvin Cook's backfield if they're truly going to make it that way with alexander seemingly getting more run here it's going to be either with a lesser dalvin cook or without him at all so when does something have to happen in your mind does it have to happen on draft night like it does seem like people make trades on draft night that used to not happen a whole lot with players but then all of a sudden we started seeing aj brown and ho Brown and Hollywood Brown and Charlie Brown. Anybody who was available last year at the draft was actually getting traded on draft night, which was very unique.

At the same time, it's not going to be draft night number one for Delvin Cook or Zedaria Smith. Those guys are not getting first round draft picks. Hunter, I can't say that he for sure won't be a part of that conversation, but they get hit pretty hard when it comes to the dead cap if they were to trade him on draft night. Does it happen then? Does it happen later this offseason? Is there a situation where they just have to draw an end date of like, we have to cut you because we have to sign our draft picks? How does this play out, you think?

Yeah. I mean, the next thing they're going to need money for is the draft picks, as you talk about. It's going to be $2 million to $3 million to get them under the offseason rules. You don't need a whole lot to do that. You could extend TJ Hawkinson, and we could be sitting here in training camp, and they could have this exact roster. And we could still be saying, this doesn't make sense. What are you doing, Zedarius?

How do you have three starters for two spots with Marcus Davenport and Daniil? As it drags on, though, I do wonder, they've wanted to extend Daniil Hunter for some time and they have not been able to do it. Ever since Quasey got hired here, he's talked about wanting to keep that guy and make him a priority. Did this past year in a 3-4 tell you anything you didn't know about him and how he fits this kind of system? Because they clearly haven't reached that point where they've been able to extend him. So the longer this drags on, the more I wonder about him. And if that extension doesn't get reached, does he become the solution of moving him and then just keeping Zedarius and Marcus

Davenport for the 2023 season and the edge rusher part. But with the money, man, they can keep moving these rocks and they can keep flipping things over and they can keep finagling it to just kind of barely be over that line because there isn't one major thing they need to clear cap space for when their biggest additions are going to be Byron Murphy and Marcus Davenport. That's clearly what it's going to be right now because they're going to add through the draft and stuff. But every other free agent addition is going to be a Bashaw Breeland level budget type can I ask you just like almost sort of to pause the momentum of breaking down a press conference just how you feel about the whole thing because I do these you know live streams and stuff like that chat with fans and the one thing that comes up every time is sort of a disappointment or a malaise. Not that, oh, you blew the whole future of the Vikings with this draft or with this off season,

but just, oh, this was kind of it. You ever, like, when you're a little kid, you go to a theme park or something and you think like, oh my gosh, there's going to be rides and clowns and food and all this stuff. And then, you know know it's just okay maybe there's only one ride you like and you had a good time but it was not what you were expecting in

your mind when you had seen the commercial or or a toy what were you the commercial what were you hoping for i have a lot of childhood disappointment i was gonna say what were you what were you hoping for no but i mean well think about that though you see the commercial and like you're you're the doll is flying and shooting lasers out of his eyes. Then you get it, and he doesn't do anything. And that's kind of this offseason. What? I'm not following you here because, all right, look, they haven't extended Kirk Cousins.

They engaged in those contract talks. We've talked about where we're at with him. I think the drawing the line there, you talk about noncommittal being the headline off of this. Them being noncommittal on Kirk is the headline of the offseason. Oh, for sure, yeah. And that is the change that is imminent and on the horizon. And him just flat out not being under contract beyond this year sets that up. That is the excitement that I – if you're a fan, I guess my message to people who feel let down by anything is that that kind of changed in major changes in organizations.

They don't happen with some kind of fanfare and fireworks in March and April. When Patrick Mahomes was traded up for and acquired by the Kansas City Chiefs, nobody was sitting there saying, oh, boy, they just got the next great Tom Brady. Everybody was saying, Alex Smith just won 13 games. What are you doing? This is kind of weird. All right. I guess we'll see where it goes. I'm just saying that these things rarely are, um, blueprinted and mapped out to the point where you can see this grand, uh, uh, scale up to the mountaintop. Are they doing it right? I don't

know. I have, I have just as many questions as the next guy about what exactly is going on with their plan, how are they going to repair this awful defense? Who is going to be the successor for Kirk cousins? But if you're looking for any excitement out of this press conference it's the fact that Kevin O'Connell was willing to sit up there and say what he's looking for and a successor they were willing to talk about that in a way that in the past they've always kept saying yeah you know we love Kirk can't wait to get with Kirk now it seems like no this they've clearly drawn a line with him contractually and they seem to be ready to take that step and is that step going to be this year or next year that is going to be the fascinating thing to see so what i mean is

in the commercial lamar is there and you know like some big trade up for a quarterback which could happen but but i think more people leave in the commercial you know that they really that they don't give void years out to free agents and they don't do this like competitive rebuild that they just like everything that's not nailed down, take it apart and lay the course for your future quarterback, which still could happen, of course, in the draft and go from there. And things have not really come to fruition. And there still exists these other subjects that float over our heads of, well, here's other veteran players who are expensive. And are they playing for you or not playing for you or what's going on and what's going on with the quarterback? And you're right that, I mean, the most, the most, uh, I think likely thing to happen is pretty boring, which is play out this year, draft a quarterback in 2024.

And that's what i mean that it's not necessarily that you the toy that you bought was bad it just wasn't like as maybe exciting as you thought it was going to be but i totally agree with you the way that they talked about the quarterback and we could play extreme read between the lines here in saying like well yeah we would like to have someone developing behind kirk but we all need to buy into that person so is he like those are the discussions that they're having now so is he saying that they are all buying into a person or that they would love to draft someone this year but they really can't because they can't all agree on that person

and this is a draft that has three dudes that everybody seems to agree on and nobody else that has like this consensus will levis some people think he's going to be a second round pick now hendon hooker i mean you know all of a sudden just the other day he's a first round draft pick so how are we to know what they're in on but i think that he was sort of laying it out there like yeah this is this is what we think of that position which said to me if the guy was there or is there we will pick him that's how it felt to me they were also saying that they don't need the ultimate athletic freak at quarterback which which i thought was interesting you know kevin o'connell's asked straight up are you looking for more of that mobile? The question referenced Justin Fields.

And they basically said, look, we're going to stand by our philosophy and our X's and O's and how we got here. And that says, look at where Kevin O'Connell's come from, from the Rams to here. They didn't get there by having a Lamar Jackson. They didn't get there by having even an Anthony Richardson, perhaps, out of Florida. It's been more of the accuracy that they talked about, the intelligence. Kevin O'Connell referenced how they go through progressions, how they process information, how they read with their feet and their eyes. All of those things about how they play the position coming from a former quarterback in Kevin O'Connell, he laid out what he wants. And some of that Kirk does, and it helps explain why they like him. Now, would they like a more mobile Kirk? I'm sure they would. It's not hard to be

more mobile than Kirk Cousins. You and I on some days might be more mobile than Kirk, but I think that that's not going to be a North star for them. I don't think they're going to sit there and say, we need this kind of quarterback. This is what we're going to go get and then when you look at the tertiary options in this draft outside of cj stroud and bryce young yeah it's full of question marks and especially when you put their trait list of that they just told us in this press conference it's even more full of question marks when you look at those third fourth and fifth quarterbacks i think straight line speed kirk's a lot faster than us like if you lined it up and we just ran yeah yeah i can make an argument i'm a little more twitchy maybe a little more twitchy yeah yeah in a phone booth i might be able to sneak by uh and you know what i will also say this for kirk he takes some hits that i would not prefer

oh my god a lot of them oh my god i would be an ir i'd be in the icu after week one i think quarter one the mvp of last season was the rib protector that thing got hit so many times and i mean he looks like you know sort of a transformer sometimes with all the gear he wears but i mean that's how he stays in the game but yeah so when we talk about these quarterbacks though and you try to figure out like what he's talking about and what might fit Hendon Hooker makes more sense in that context, I think, than anybody else, because he is a downfield passer. That was his big thing. Drop it back in the pocket. Hitting guys open down the field, like executing the offense and people criticize his offense

like well he can't go back in time and play in another one and show it to you so but that required a lot of downfield accuracy and i think one of the things and this is not from anything he said but it would just be a guess that would frustrate kevin o'connell is that cousins would not push it last year downfield and i i remember that there was a narrative that was kind of brewing after a few big throws to jefferson and like oh he's thrown it into coverage now the objective measures on that do not bear that out at all well jefferson was helping to drive that narrative though too how many times we stood up there and heard justin say kirk's doing this more yeah and it wasn't objectively true but I think he

was also trying to be like do more of this you know like if you have a hot take on this show like Andrew's ramping up his hot takes like right buddy you're doing a great job make it hotter I think that there was a little bit of like nudge nudge let's say it's fourth and eight just total scenario I'm making up off my head and the game's on the line maybe push it into coverage don't check it down three yards in particular but uh you know i i don't think that that bared out though like that he was actually doing that pushing it down the field and it will stick in my mind that in i think it was either mini camp or training camp early on o'connell saying something to us about i want kirk to hang with his reads a little longer downfield. And I think, especially in the first half of the season, that didn't happen really at all.

Maybe it did as it went along, but I think the deep pass accuracy is something that's very important here that does not scream will Levis to me. No, no, it doesn't. And, and the head and hookers a good point because when you read about them and watch them play, people talk about the intelligence. People talk about the arm, the accuracy, the mobility that he brings to, um, that's just a plus, uh, for his game. Um, I don't see them reaching or, or getting and falling in love with a guy like Will Levis, who's more of a trait based, Hey, big arm, uh, kind of Josh Allen-y, right?

Um, that kind of stuff. I don't see them reaching for... Arm strength is never something you've heard them say, this is what we covet. It's always a plus. It helps you unlock other traits. It helps make other traits better, but it does not lift you up as a quarterback. If all you have is a big arm, tons of guys have failed in the NFL with that. And with Will Levis, that's what you always hear about. He said it himself. He showed up at the combine. He's like, I don't know why all these guys don't want to throw. I'm going to throw. And why? I got a cannon.

Well, that's great. I'm sure John Gruden loved that. But he's not in the NFL anymore. And a lot of GMs these days are smart enough to know that. And I don't think you're going to see that guy get overdrafted the way that it seems to be. And I certainly don't expect the Vikings to take a swing on him either. Folks, it's almost time for summer. And i've got something to give you a boost it's called ag1 by athletic greens i'm giving ag1 a try because i generally eat terribly and i am no good at all at remembering

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one-year supply of vitamin D and five free travel packs with your purchase. Go to athleticgreens.com slash insider. That's athleticgreens.com slash insider that's athletic greens.com slash insider to check it out today and i do think that if you're looking for and all these guys like like all the shanahan's mcveighs they all want someone who can like understand their offense that is not going to go do wild stuff on their own. And that's going to make the throws because they believe that it works. And of course, eventually they got to the end of the road with Jared Goff in that, because he's like the, the pinnacle him and Kirk are both the pinnacle of, they will do exactly what you say and exactly

nothing more. So they knew that they needed Matt Stafford, but Stafford is just as good at executing the rest of the offense. He just throws the football sometimes while looking in a different direction and does something insane with his arm but the question i think is do you set the bar there though do you set the bar with a hendon hooker of like well look the ceiling's not somebody who's a number one overall draft pick. The ceiling is not a megastar. We all agree that the ceiling on Anthony Richardson is the dudes on the cover of Madden, right? This guy could be a Dante Culpepper, like a big superstar quarterback, a Josh Allen. I don't think we think that of Hendon Hooker,

but from the perspective of the whole rookie quarterback contract thing, is that that bad if the guy is not like josh allen right you know what i mean like there's this big balance and then there's this huge cap hit that's going to hit the vikings next year if kirk leaves that would ruin a year of your advantage there so like there's a lot of moving parts of this conversation yeah i would say something i don't think this would be popular among Vikings fans, but if Kirk Cousins were in this draft and they kind of, if they see a guy in this draft that has what they think is the future of a Kirk Cousins or a Jared Goff, as you mentioned, I wouldn't be too shocked to see them pull the trigger on that guy. If their Intel is telling them that, Hey, you're not going to find that guy in 2024 outside of Caleb Williams or whatever.

You're not going to find that guy in the future. If they really fall in love with somebody who's not blue chip, who they don't think is like premier, premier, I wouldn't be shocked to see them take that swing. And I don't think that would be them settling for anything. It's the reality of there's only so many of these guys that can operate in NFL offense and succeed. Kirk has already established himself as one of the top 10, 11, 12 guys. That's worth so much in the NFL. Unfortunately for the Vikings, it's worth $35 million a year. And what they don't want to do is have to keep paying that for that. So why not take a guy who at least costs you a lot less for five years of team control? And if he has the ceiling of a Kirk Cousins, that is worth to them so much more at $5 million,

$10 million, whatever it's going to be 20 on a fifth year option, as opposed to the money that a veteran's costing you right now, because they're right now trying to turn over a salary cap that had just been mangled paying 10 million dead for Anthony Barr paying 13 million dead for Adam Thielen right now. They need to turn all that over. And part of that's getting rid of getting out from under the Kirk Cousins rock. So to answer your question, no, I don't think they need to be thinking, boy, this is the next Deshaun Watson, Patrick Mahomes to swing for those fences because we just got done hearing Kevin O'Connell say there are many ways to drive a successful offense. We as a coach can find many ways to build around different quarterbacks. and i think

that's why they're going to have kind of an open mindset about these things they certainly did not pour cold water on the idea and now i will say that last year at the combine i remember quay c.daffo menta saying oh we see a lot of good things in this quarterback class and clearly that was just gm speak because they didn't pick a quarterback although you know like kenny pickett was there if they wanted to pick him but i do think it is relevant to talk about that dead cap hit for kirk and what the restructure has done to this situation because let's say you draft hendon hooker so you still have kirk he plays out the year you go nine and eight or whatever and then you say all right mr hooker this is now your corner uh i'm

sorry that is terrible but uh so just awful just awful um so hendon hooker takes over but there's still this 28 million dollar dead cap because kirk left and so you don't get that advantage right there and does that matter to you? Because I think for some people it would say it doesn't matter. And really the third year is when we see the big jump from a lot of quarterbacks. But then Hendon Hooker is like 39 at that point. He's old. Look at their cap commitments in 2024. It's not a lot.

Their blank slate really starts next year. And it's going to be eaten up by an eventual probably Hawkinson extension, Jefferson extension. There's going to be guys you got to add to that, obviously. But what I'm trying to say is if you have any room, it really is next year to shove 20 million, what is it? 26 of Kirk's money into next year. I don't think that's that big of a deal. It's the cost of doing business of saying, no, Kirk, we're not going to be beholden to you for another three years, which is what we reported that he wanted. Three years fully guaranteed. They didn't want to do that. They were even open to doing two, and he didn't want to do that.

They came to an impasse of the duration. And so the cost of that, of only having one year of him, is saying, all right, fine. We'll do the nuclear option, clear this $20 million, just eat it next year because we can afford it much more than you can this year. How you compete this year with this salary cap in this roster? That's the biggest question I got because they have three corners. So when you come to an impasse, I've probably used this example before, but I've always thought, and you and I are married men with no thoughts of changing this and I haven't had many other girlfriends actually zero other than my wife so I don't have a personal experience on this but I can imagine this situation let's say you're dating somebody and you want to move in together

she doesn't really want to move in together and you're like staying together you're going on dates going to movies going to the theme park it's as good as you expect and yet you keep saying like but but don't you just like don't you just want to move in and like maybe commit to this she's like nah nah i don't think so i don't think so i mean shouldn't you just end it right there like that would be the trade scenario that gets talked about. Like, shouldn't you just say, what is the point of us continuing to go to the theme park and go on the Ferris wheel and hold hands? If we're never going to move in together, we're never going to get married.

We're not going to have a future together. Um, all right. Why not move on from Kirk right now? Because what if the only reason, the only offer you're getting from him is a third rounder that you're going to get next year for him leaving anyway?

What if you don't love your options right now in this rookie draft class? And so you're not even going to start the clock right now anyway. Kirk is a placeholder, obviously. That's where he's at right now in his age and with his tenure with the Vikings. It's not going to be awkward because of the relationship him and Kevin O'Connell have.

And I really think this is unique. I think if this were Mike Zimmer and Rick Spielman doing this, I wouldn't be shocked if Kirk would have demanded a trade. Um, but right now I don't think Kirk sees a need to get out and he might not be happy. He probably isn't happy with where this has gone, uh, in terms of him feeling like maybe I wouldn't be shocked if he felt like he's earned more than this from the Vikings. But with that said, he's smart enough to know that he can keep going on those dates and his next suitor is watching. His next suitor is going to keep watching. And the Vikings are saying, you know what, if you do well, good for us, right? We win games and also good for you. You're going to go get the bag from somebody else. And that's where I think it's going to be fine for the Vikings because look, they tried, they, they shopped them around a little

bit last year. And I, from what I gathered is they weren't enamored with what, what they were getting offered back or even sniffing. So I think right now, what, what's changed that a 13 win team that not a lot of people believed in. So I guess why hold on to him? It's because right now he's worth more to you on this roster, and you might end up getting the return for him next year anyway as a compensatory pick. So the compensatory pick thing is confusing. Do you get that if you have void years on a contract is unclear to me?

Oh, I suppose, yeah. I think if you have void years, I think that that to me. Right. Oh, I suppose. Yeah. I think if you have void years, I think that that negates. Okay. Well, yeah. Yeah. That's a good point.

I'd forgotten that they obviously added these void years to his contract. They sure did. Yeah. I totally forgot about that. So if you don't get the third round or compensatory pick, like whatever point is, is that if, if you think that the third round pick that who's a third round pick,

I'm not saying that they can't turn into guys. I'm just saying, if you don't think that we'll offer you have on the table for him is worth it. Yes. And stop forgetting that he has a no trade clause. I'm so sick of people thinking, and this isn't you,

this is obviously fans who say, well, somebody is going to want to give him the bag right now. Just have him negotiate a contract and then trade him for that. And then he'll wave it. Like, no, I've heard that Kirk

loves San Francisco, loves Kyle Shanahan. And I've heard Kirk would be open to getting traded to San Francisco. I have not heard that Kirk would be open to getting traded anywhere else. I mean, anywhere. Because why? Because he's a year away from picking. Why? Why would he ever? Why would he say, no, I'm going to get rid of another year with Justin Jefferson. I'm going to move on from him and I'm just going to sign right now at the bottom line. No, he'll bet on himself at age 35 with another year of Justin Jefferson and a pass happy offense. Right. This is good for Kirk.

If he can parlay this into another big deal, I can absolutely see why Kirk would bet on himself here. Oh yeah. I mean, Kirk is the business hall of famer. Like he knows him and his agent know how to handle these things brilliantly and they probably have again because this offense will be good and i'll add another thing to it that might sound annoying and i'm sorry for that but like they're going to be playing from behind next year because they are playing my homes and they are

playing burrow and they are the here come the stats like it Like it's just, it's just a fact of life. Like their defense is not going to stop these teams. You're going to be playing in shootouts. The stats are going to pile up. And then when you hit free agency, we see how desperate the jets are for a broken and strange Aaron Rogers. I mean, if you put up those numbers, if you win the division again, then you're going to have a, I mean, even Alex Smithith like got a second round pick back i think

in a player in that trade like there's always some desperation there especially if the guy has recently been very good the san francisco thing still hovers around for me of like could that because san francisco has just been weird about this the whole offseason they will not give trey lance any credit for existing in fact they act like he does not they trade three first rounds for a guy he barely plays and they're like you know who we love brock i mean this would be brock purdy pulled the case keenum last year and i thought he was good but he only played a couple games and now they're like joe Purdy, Steve Young Purdy. I mean, we don't even know if he's Elvis Gerback Purdy at this point. So, like, we know he's just better than Jim Druckenmiller.

That's all we know. And yet. And Trey Lance right now. Right. And he's just basically, to me, the Purdy thing is kind of like, Trey, we'll do it. We will play this little guy from the seventh round. We swear. And that's weird. So, after after the draft Kirk becomes more tradable because or not after the draft after June 1st I don't know like is it dead is it dead to you because I think the Lamar thing is dead after Odell Beckham signed there but I don't know if the idea is completely like RIP that they

could still have a break the lamar thing never made sense to me and i'll just as a quick aside never made sense to me because of one person justin jefferson he needs to be the focal point of your offense uh lamar jackson cannot be the focal point of justin jefferson is and they both can't be that's not how this works there's one football so anyway but with the san francisco yeah like if they get into their otas and they go oh boy this sam darnold's everything we thought he was which which is not good. And if they, if Brock Purdy's healing is not coming along the way they thought and Trey Lance still isn't progressing the way they thought, sure, why not? It wouldn't be out of the ordinary. It wouldn't be crazy because

Kyle Shanahan knows Kirk. Kirk knows Kyle. The offenses aren't too dissimilar in things Kirk has run in the past. So I could see that if San Francisco gets desperate, if they look at their roster and say, you know what, we're going to cut Darnold and move forward with Kirk or whatever. Sure. I just think that's the only destination. If you're holding out for a Kirk trade, I don't think Kirk is going to waive that for anybody else. That's conjecture, speculation. I'm not reporting that, but I really don't think you are hoping on a star if you think that that's going to happen. I've never been able to make it fully work in my brain, but it makes more sense now than it ever did. After this impasse, after it's very clear there's an end date one thing

i would say about kirk and i and i truly mean this is giving him credit he does not care like if yeah if he plays bad on a sunday night and on monday espn rips him to the ends of the earth he will go out and play the same way i'm not saying he doesn't care that they're being mean to him or whatever i just mean that it won't affect his play this guy's seen everything it's unreal he's been treated every way his team in washington didn't want to sign him and didn't believe in him this team here has done this play it year to year kind of thing and last year you could tell his frustration it was the least happy i've ever seen a player to have signed an extension last year when he was like yeah i guess i gotta earn my way to a uh lifetime you know be a lifetime

viking like oh okay man you know you are from the midwest aren't you uh but but then he played last year like stefan digs skips practice and is like saying there's truth to all rumors and kirk just goes and plays the next game it is remarkable this dude's tunnel vision so you could see him just operating the offense again and whatever and doing his thing but the feeling that i'm left with is for like us for narrative purposes for also big picture for hey we could get hit by a meteor next year like what what's the point though like why are we still on this merry ground with this girl we're not gonna marry like i just keep coming back to this what is next year what is next year just awkward it's kevin o'connell's job to win games matt you're asking why is there are they not tanking like um like like the bears why are they not taking why are they not ripping everything

out of the studs and kirk is obviously the biggest piece of furniture to rip out and throw away on i totally get it i totally get what you're saying but it is kevin o'connell's job to win games and they need a quarterback to do that and right now at what kirk is costing them they obviously don't love it which is why they're not giving him more it's just a matter of what is it if it's not him and clearly he's the best option according to them um so i wanted to ask about something else it's just less intense than this is a quarterback conversation now you're short you're not obscene you're not obscenely short like okay don't get defensive like five eight okay you're like a you're just normal all right so i look down upon all of you tiny people that are smaller than me. But no, how do you feel about receivers that are your height?

Normally, in your life as a reporter, even Stefan Diggs would have looked down at you when interviewing him. And of course, Justin Jefferson's pretty tall. You know, receiver, there's a lot of them in this draft. And when Kweisi Adafomento was asked about the small receivers, he basically said i have no idea yeah i thought that was funny he said like we've asked the same questions ourselves we don't know if it's noise or if it's an actual trend in terms of zay flowers being 5'9 josh downs

being 5'9 jordan addison also being 170 pounds and 5'10 or whatever um You know, I don't think it's that big of a deal when it comes to the complimentary pieces the Vikings are looking for. I think they're very fine adding a short wide receiver, but I don't think that receiver is going to be a first round pick. I don't think, I don't think Kweese in all the analytical models and trends and you know he knows obviously eons more than either of us do about what the trends are in the NFL and what says what works but I don't think drafting a number two receiver or somebody who's not capable of being a number one in the first round is good team building and maybe it is in in a pass happy league with the right offense maybe this is all of those things um but i would

be shocked to see the vikings add a receiver in the first round in particular because of the the height thing that you're talking about uh quinton johnston is like the biggest guy but he can't catch the football and so that seems like it's problematic this wide receiver class does not seem to be as well reviewed by the people who would know such things as ones in the past. So if I'm the Vikings, I, yeah, I wouldn't be shocked to see them take a receiver, but I don't think it's going to be one of those top guys. See, I think that there's a really good analytical case to take a receiver anyway, which is this, that absolutely if you take, well, we assume, I shouldn't say absolutely. We assume if you take Jordan Add assume i shouldn't say absolutely we assume if you take jordan

addison he does not become a number one caliber wide receiver that he's not your chris carter to randy moss or antonio brown or whatever yeah however do we really know because the fifth wide receiver in 2020 was justin jefferson and he is better than all of the other wide receivers he's also six foot and has arms as long as DeAndre Hopkins. No, I understand that. And there are some receivers in this class that are not like small people. So, you know, there are some. But let's even say, though, that the prognostications are correct,

of which, meh, sometimes they are, sometimes they're not. But let's even say. So I wouldn't take the ceiling off just because the guy's not the right size. That's what I would say. Uh, that maybe it could be better than what the draft community thinks it's going to be. I would also say that someone who is given the opportunity to never have a double team ever in their life has more opportunity than someone who has to be a number one wide receiver that isn't capable of that. So Kelvin Ridley looks pretty good next to Julio Jones, right? Kelvin ridley's a number two but he looks like a beast when julio jones is on the other side i also think that if you want a free agent wide receiver look

at what adam thielen got adam thielen got paid a lot to be a secondary level wide receiver and if you draft one you only have to pay the guy two million bucks or whatever as opposed to oh we're gonna go overpay adam thielen jacoby myers odell beckham i think that there is an economics case and this is why i have kind of thought maybe they'll do this to take a wide receiver but i also think that based on this group trading down is probably the way to do it yeah and you mentioned like yeah there are guys later um i think of cedric tillman out of tennessee is one that's come up a lot as one of these like six three big possession kind of guys who do stand out as a potential mid-rounder and that that fits a lot with what the vikings need they need somebody's going to win those solo matchups in ways that

they too often had to rely on TJ Hawkinson, who as you see when it's fourth and eight and he needs to chip and he doesn't become a primary read when he needs to help you pass. Theoretically when it's fourth, you're not referring to anything specific. Theoretically it leads you to Kurt Warner, breaking down your playoff loss and saying that guy should never be thrown to.

And so, yeah, they need more options to win like that. And, and Adam Thielen showed last year that he's, it down your playoff loss and saying that guy should never be thrown to um and so yeah they need more options to win like that and and adam thielen showed last year that he's 32 i mean the gas just wasn't in the tank i think he was dealing with some injuries too last year and that's what happens when you're 32 years old so yeah they need to find somebody there and i like your point about how maybe this is an offense that can make a number two wide receiver worth that kind of first round pick and i think the frequency of passing certainly the shadow of justin jefferson certainly

would help um what justin jefferson also does though for you is that i don't think you need a certain prototype i talk about the size that would help but so would the speed right another guy who could catch a go ball when you have an alpha that can do everything you can suddenly fit anything under the hood right and make it work in terms of the schematics i would think and that's actually what kevin o'connell was really saying in that answer was he was saying like it's my job as a coach to take the things a guy can do well and he does come from a place where they drafted two two at well now that didn't work out but you know they did like they didn't they were not against the size element of it so if it is like are the odds of a josh downs working out way better for this

team than another team of course and not only that but you're going to have an accurate quarterback assuming kirk is here to get you the ball right away somebody who's in command of the offense that could tell you what route to run if you don't know is a rookie right i mean these are things that are that are uh major compliments to kirk i mean he's so accurate and he's so detailed he knows every bit of an offense and uh when they've been micing up these xfl players you see how often the quarterback has to tell people what they're supposed to do on a play and i think that probably happens a decent amount in the nfl sometimes where there's confusion or noise or whatever. And he's always going to help out a rookie. So, yeah, I mean, I think that there's a really good argument for doing that.

But probably just spending 23 and then sitting on your hands till 87 just does not seem like that's something Casey's going to do. No, that's a good point. They need more picks. They have five of them. The only way to do it or the best way to do it is moving that top pick at 23 and they just need defenders i mean this cupboard is so bare that how do you feel about is this roster even worth starting that quarterback clock right now for or is it worth using this draft to try to uh replenish the defense yeah they have three corners on this roster right now all of them were acquired in the

last 14 months of this new leadership that's they have nobody the previous regime signed as a corner under contract keaton barns still here maybe maybe barns is so maybe there's four tae gowan are you sleeping on tae gowan the point is the disrespect they have moved on from everybody that was acquired at corner under the previous regime. They could spend all five of their draft picks at corner, and I'd be like, well, I can't argue with that. What's Trey Roberson up to these days? Former Indiana quarterback turned cornerback.

To your point about trading back, though, yeah, they need to do it, and I just don't know either if it would make sense of swinging at an offensive position when you have the seventh-rank seventh ranked offense and you're returning everybody this year. What was the tanker tankers Lee quarter quarter? Ray Cordray. Yeah. Cordray tankers. Lee.

What an era. Former Dolphins draft pick. That was OK. Before we call it a day. And this I think you've brought it. I think you've really brought the intensity. You were you lived up to the commercial. Oh, I appreciate you've brought it. I think you've really brought the intensity. You were, you lived up to the commercial. Oh, I appreciate that.

Thank you. I'm not much of a hot take artist, but I try to at least drop in some Stefan Diggs tweet level, uh, sayings here or there. So, you know, we'll see new beginnings or something, you know, he'll just tweet like, so dot, dot, dot. And I'm like, yeah, I feel it. I feel it. I did ask him once, what do your tweets mean?

And he said, which one? And I was like, all of them he said which one and i was like all of all i'm talking about which one that was before truth all rumors so we all laughed about it and then you know uh it was whatever uh but uh i i know that you are a see the matrix with the draft guy where it's like you see the reality reality. There's all this mock drafting. There's all these scouts out there. I was reading some report about how this cornerback is a technician with his hips. And you're like, I don't know if you know that there's any way, you know, that okay. Like I, anyway, that's not the point. Uh, but I have to ask, do you got like, you got like a dude, you got like some guys, you got like your, Hey, this is my guy for the Vikings. Cause he's going to be good.

Um, boy, I, I would say I've only really dug into, um, the receivers, um, just because I am interested to see what the Vikings will want to do there. So, um, when you bring up those, i brought up cedric tillman um there's a mingo out of mississippi who's also very interesting there's always a mango there's a mango out of mississippi that's very interesting for me there's some my album mango out of mississippi there's some mid-round guys perry out of uh is it wake forest at perry at perry is my guy also very very intriguing i've been looking more of these big bigger body guys who would fit ideally and give them more flexibility with justin jeff. Can you have a guy who can come in and play that split end role in a way that Adam Thielen was not set to? And as a side note, I'm really interested to see how Adam fits in Carolina where Thomas Brown, a former Rams

assistant, is now working under, I think is the coordinator to Frank Reich. And that offense is going to be a blend between Rams and Reich. And and adam thielen i don't think is going to really be much of a split end so he might have the exact same role in carolina anyway um point between rams and reich is also my album name what are we doing here point being in that the vikings can bring in somebody who can help them move justin jefferson around even more than they already did play a true split end role which gives kirk um that other option on the boundary to throw to i think there are big guys later in the rounds of this draft class that makes sense and would be intriguing for me uh you apparently like at perry i do as well i thought the guy flashed and and from what i can read about him i think he would seem like a fit for the vikings

he's a good athlete who caught a lot of footballs i don't know how much more i can really know i mean really truly like truly like i watched some of his games and he was always catching the ball and then he goes to the combine and it's like a 95th percentile athlete like okay well that's the best i can do because how someone transfers their skill to college to the nfl in terms of coverage the things you got to know all this stuff like we have no idea. But before we end, do you want to guess Mingo's first name? Oh my gosh. I got it here. It's just the B,

doesn't it? No. Gosh, I can't remember his first name. They all run together. What's, what's, what's his first name?

It's just Jonathan. It's not exciting. Jonathan. That was it. Yeah. Yeah. That's it. I don't like his NFL future. No, no. If it was, if it was Barkevious, we'd be good to go. Yeah. I would have felt a lot

better. I don't think that guy worked out. Did he Barkevious Mingo? I know. I don't think he did. Um, but when I talk about, you know, I am looking at these kinds of things for the Vikings, then what they'll do is they'll go and draft a two, two at well, or a Marvin Mims out of Oklahoma, which is some short, really fast guy. Yeah. Cause watching that offense, I would assume you would agree. They need more speed as well. Oh yeah. Outside of Justin.

So I agree. Yeah. I mean, how they approach the size issue will be something really interesting. And then maybe we'll look back and say like, well, Kwesi did know that they wanted to go after one of those guys or maybe they won't. So we'll find out. But I appreciate all of your time here. It's always fun when we get together,

especially in person at the Performance Center of Performance. And, boy, it was a performance in this press conference. Can't wait to be here three straight nights for draft week. Only two weeks away. That's enough for 14 mock drafts. Day three we do at home now. Oh, that's right. Yeah, day three went from a nightmare of being out here and like getting subs

delivered to us in the middle of the day to stay alive to like, you can just go for a walk in the middle of the sixth round because they don't have any picks and this team doesn't have a lot of picks. So, uh, thanks for your time, Andrew. Always great.

Straight laced reporting as always on this podcast. Um, and we will, uh, we'll do it soon. We'll do it again soon. Sounds good. Thanks for having me on.