Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Star Tribune's Andrew Krammer breaks down Vikings OTA practice and power index rankings

Episode Date: May 18, 2022

From TCO Performance Center, Matthew Coller and Star Tribune Vikings beat reporter Andrew Krammer talk about Kellen Mond's fresh chance, Danielle Hunter being back at practice, Matthew's conversation with Bisi Johnson and the WR3 battle and the offensive line. Plus the gap between ESPN power index and power rankers and who Wally Pipp was. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hello and welcome to another episode of Purple Insider. Matthew Collar here, along with Andrew Kramer of the Star Tribune inside the walls of TCO Performance Center with a picture or two of Sid Hartman or three looking over us as we do this. So I guess we need to be very positive to honor Sid about this OTA practice that we just covered. So I think actually we should start off with some things that we took away from ota practice and then we could talk about other stuff uh where do you want to begin there were there was not a hardcore super intense practice unlike 2018 kirk cousins didn't throw the ball into the road or anything out of frustration in fact it was so lacking in intensity. Kirk wasn't even throwing the ball and the plays that he was out there. He was like pretending to throw. And so that's kind of where we're at. But what was your biggest number one takeaway that will

lead all of Star Tribune sports coverage tomorrow? Oh, this, this won't lead Star Tribune sports coverage, but it will lead Matthew Collar's Purple Insider podcast because I was surprised and maybe delighted for Kellen Mond, the amount of time he was talking to Kevin O'Connell. I have seen him speak now more to Kevin O'Connell than I ever saw him speak to Mike Zimmer in just this one open OTA. If this kid has any kind of chance in the NFL, he's got a much better chance under this coach who seems to take an active interest, obviously as an offensive guy, but an active interest in giving him the reps and giving him the work, the reps and the work that frankly, we all know Sean Mannion just doesn't really need at this point, right? Sean Mannion is learning a new offense. Yes, he did spend some time in LA, yes, but he's kind of a formed entity at this point we know who he is so uh i just this wasn't any kind of play nothing like that but just seeing that kind of interaction consistently that kind of

uh work they were giving kellen mond i think was a good sign for him and the young man at least trying to get a chance to stick in the nfo i mean leading the show with kellen mond is just so perfect for ota curveball Curveball, right? Right. I think last year people were arguing over whether Wyatt Davis should have taken the first team reps right off the very start at OTAs. And then he doesn't even get any game. So that's OTAs. I will say, well, why not?

Why don't we just go down this road? There are other things to talk about. Like you talked to Janarius Robinson, who's worked out with daniel hunter daniel hunter talked to the media i talked with bc johnson so let's get to some of those sort of things but um the backup quarterback situation if it's not kellen mond then what's the like then that draft pick is just a massive failure and And also having Sean Mannion, a total sign of you don't have any cap space because it is the bottomist of the bottom barrel with due respect to a journeyman backup quarterback,

but it is the bottomist of the bottom barrel. And the bar has not been set very high for Kellen Mon. This is his chance. Like when Mike Zimmer was fired, no one should have jumped higher in excitement than Kellen Mond to know that his career doesn't have to be over right away off the bat. Um, at the same time, I mean, you know, not being able to beat out Sean Mannion last year was problematic and now he's got to learn a whole nother offense, but at least the door is open for

him being the backup. And I think that there have been so many frustrations from Vikings fans this off season. Why didn't they trade this guy, extend that guy or draft this guy. But one of them that has cropped up every once in a while, like in my Twitter is I can't believe they signed Sean Mannion. So maybe there will be some, some enthusiasm for Kellen Mond really getting his shot to compete for the backup quarterbacks.

Yeah, Vikings fans have done a good job of throwing water on the notion of the backup quarterback is everybody's favorite player. Well, not this backup quarterback. Not right now. Not with Sean Mannion. When you do look at that contract, yeah, it makes it feasible that Kellen Mond could somehow supersede him this offseason if they end up evaluating the quarterback pecking order as such. But Sean Manion was still taking the second team reps with the offense and OTAs here in the 11-on-11 that we saw. It's just a matter of seeing Kellen Mond actually getting

a lot of the obviously third team work. Nate Stanley wasn't out there today actually participating, but I can't imagine he's much of a threat for that backup job. So I do wonder if they are keeping much of an open mind about that, or if a new coaching staff is coming into this, wanting to stick with the same reliable veteran that drives Vikings fans so crazy and somewhat validated when you saw Sean Mannion start that game in Green Bay in December and it went nowhere. Yeah. I mean, it was the right thing to do to start Sean Mannion because Kellen Mond at that point last year was not ready to play. And when he actually came in the game, look completely lost and almost threw a pick six, which was kind of how he looked in preseason and throughout the year at practice, I'm sure he's not getting hardly any reps. So what would have

mattered the most to Mike Zimmer and making that determination would have been entirely camp, camp and preseason. It's been a long time since camp and preseason. I will not spend past six minutes talking about this, but I think it has been a long time since anybody got eyes on him. Remember, Jake Browning was a thing in camp. Right. And so this will be at least his chance to catch back up and give himself a shot at the backup quarterback. And then there would at least be the idea that if he can be the backup, he has the physical skill to give you a chance to win a game if Kirk Cousins is out. And at that point, we are done talking about Kellen Mott.

And on to Daniil Hunter, because what a weird offseason for Daniil Hunter. We all think he's getting traded. We all think me might get extended and it's just neither. And Oh, by the way, he's played like seven games since 2019. Like what a, what a bizarre sort of journey of being the most incredible young player at that position in the league for a long time.

And then just hitting the skids with his injury. And now they're really, really relying on him because they have, aside from third and fourth round draft picks, not invested anything else in that position aside from signing Z'Darrius Smith. Yeah, the good news about Daniil Hunter this time around, after this injury, is that it has a lot more,

you're a lot more sure that he's going to come back from it full strength. This was a run-of-the-mill torn pectoral muscle. This is something a lot of guys come back from and does not hinder your career long-term. This is not an ambiguous, mysterious tweak neck injury that was really casting a shadow over his entire offseason last year when they tried to really ease him back from that. I didn't see Daniil take a single rep off

that Zedaria Smith wasn't taking in this practice. From what I've been talking to his trainers, talking to people who worked out with him, he was full strength. And he said today he was full strength as of end of February, beginning of March. So he's been able to do much of his off-season program and workout regimen that he was already able to do if he were healthy. So the concern or uncertainty with him is about how long are they going to be able to keep him under contract here in Minnesota, happy and paid. As you talk about a team that has a lot of financial constraints that signed Sean Manning as its backup, how are you going to be able to back up the truck that Daniil wants in getting his new contract? And I asked him after practice today about that,

just whether or not those contract terms or contract talks have even kicked up recently, because they obviously fell off when they decided to pay him that massive roster bonus. And he dodged that like he was dodging some footballs today when him and Zedarius were throwing them around. But afterward, he walked off the podium and I said, Hey, I had to try. And he goes, well, in due time, in due time. So I think he's always had this kind of peaceful Zen kind of, he likes Bruce Lee a lot. He always kind of tries to have this kind of like peaceful mentality about a lot of this stuff. But really that is the biggest concern. If you were a Vikings fan is how can we, if as a team keep him under contract and pay him what he wants. And especially if he goes out there this year and shows you what he was before. Remember he had like six sacks and what seven

games last year, he was on track to have one of those seasons that really makes you pay for it. So if you can kind of drag this can down the road and do this, he stands to really gain only more leverage. If he plays the way that everybody thinks he can. It was a highlight watching him try to throw a football though, because I said, I think it's clear that I'm a better athlete than Daniil Hunter is because I could throw a football better than he can. It was rough. It was rough. It was rough. And Zedarius too. He had a nice spiral on it, but he couldn't catch it and then daniel really could catch it but really couldn't throw it so it was quite the duo they're already are we concerned about zadarius smith dropping back in coverage if he can't catch a football my column um with with daniel for me

i mean football injuries just like happen at random and so now he's had two of them so of course you're quote injury prone like you said there's no reason to think that the one injury is going to be an issue but the other one still lingers like the existence of what happened two years ago is much more dangerous of a threat to his future and then there's just the idea that there's nothing behind him and they didn't make any effort to bring in anybody else, which is just kind of surprising to me because when you look at those guys at Aries Smith and Daniel Hunter out there on the field at the same time, you think, my goodness. I mean, just even watching

them at OTAs, there's a difference between those guys and everybody else, but after them, there's just nothing there. I mean, that is proven at all. Um, you know, I was reminded that Kenny Willekes is still around today and Janarius Robinson was somebody they drafted that you spoke to after practice, but you're not talking about anyone proven anyone even rotational. So even if we don't have a huge fear of Daniil Hunter having troubles, even if he misses some time because football is football or the same thing for zedarius smith i mean they've really kind of played with fire with this position relying on those two guys to stay fully healthy yeah and speaking about generius robinson um he actually called up daniel after the season and said i want to work out with you like basically reached out to

him and tried to latch on to him and daniel was open to it and so they spent a lot of time this off season down in houston working out together gener Janarius doesn't even live in Houston. He was kind of a stalker, I guess he just flew down there and, and continue to stay around Daniel doing all the workouts, going all the trainers that he goes to. Uh, they spent a lot of time at Oh athletic, which is Adrian Peterson, Trent Williams gym down there in Houston. Um, and it sounded like Daniel, at least through Janarius's eyes, that Daniil is fully healthy and okay. It sounds like he said just the intensity that this guy works at is unparalleled and something we hear a lot about Adrian Peterson, actually, back when he was still playing here.

So that is concerning, certainly, the neck injury and that they didn't add anybody around there, because that is the one thing of like, you need him to play 17 games you need zedarius smith to play 17 games because if you have dj wanham starting another game for you you're gonna have to scheme him up as an untouched rusher because we've yet to see him beat anybody one-on-one in terms of tackles so i think this is defense is a good fit for what dj wanham does in terms of being athletic and moving around and coverage certainly he is one of the more lanky athletic guys they've got but we have seen nothing from him as a pass rusher, even though you can look at those sack numbers, but you've seen those sacks, you know, those don't really reflect

who he is right now as a pass rusher. So there's just, this roster is very top heavy in a lot of places still. And that's what happens when you have a new GM takeover and not really not really retool it that much um Zedaria Smith was the big addition that was the offseason addition and then in the draft they obviously tried to revamp the secondary um but up front if you're going to win up front with Harrison Phillips Armin Watts was the five tech today that's a starting defensive lineman right now for you um with Dalvin Toml, you're going to need those two guys being basically the best edge rushing tandem in the NFL. Right. And Armand Watts showed a little bit last year, I think at least a little bit more than some of the other guys, but it really shows you how missing in the later rounds of the recent drafts have continued to leave this team so short

from extra depth. It's like, maybe there's another guy that they could go out there and pay two or $3 million to rush the passer as a veteran. But we haven't even heard any buzz about them even potentially signing someone like that. Like there's been a little JC Treader buzz, but there hasn't been any for, hey, they might bring back this guy or that guy

or sign so-and-so to be a situational rusher. They need some of these guys to emerge. And that's been the story of the last several years is they need these guys to emerge. Oh, they didn't. And so we don't have any idea yet whether they will here. But this really applies to a lot of positions. We were watching because Eric Hendricks wasn't working out and Blake Lynch wasn't here. So we're watching Troy die and we're watching because eric hendricks wasn't working out and blake lynch wasn't here so we're watching troy die and we're watching chas surratt and we're just going like

okay well there's another position it's almost really at every level where you're saying if one person goes down then it's problematic now my question for you this is like a severe hardcore football ota question is like what what do we think of the defensive line as a whole? Like if Armand Watts is mixing in as a five tech Harrison Phillips, Delvin Tomlinson, Zedaria Smith, Daniel Hunter, it on paper with that group actually sounds like it should be pretty good. Yeah. I like that. I like those five. And frankly, I like the nickel defensive line even better because it's just not Armand Watts in there. And you've got Harrison Phillips, Dalvin Tomlinson, Zedaria Smith, and Daniel Hunter. Those four kind of forming that traditional four-man front, that's a pretty good defensive line.

You know, it's not your Linval Joseph days, but I think Harrison Phillips can be a really good player for them. And I think especially if those two guys on the edge are healthy and drawing the attention that they should be, that that can open up some things for Dalvin Tomlinson on the inside as well. And then with Kendricks, if you assume him healthy back there with Jordan Hicks, that's a decent front. It is a decent front for them. And it's just, it's top heavy. Because like you said, you're one injury away from playing Troy Dye.

You're one injury away from, hey, Brian Asamoah, are you ready already to jump in as a third round linebacker? They had the rookies working with the backups as is NFL tradition this early in May. So the defense and the backups are going to change over time here in the coming months. But right now, I think the defensive line is the strength of this defense. It seems to be crafted that way with obviously Harrison Phillips and Zedaria Smith being your primary primary additions there and that's where they need to win and just as we've seen the Vikings offense crumble when the offensive line gets beat that's how this Vikings team needs to short circuit opposing offenses it

has to start up front right and even on the interior they need someone like Armand Watts to be useful they need someone else to show up there that was another position that they just really didn't address much beyond getting harrison phillips to replace what michael pierce was for them phillips has a much better health record so maybe he'll be on the field more often but you know you're looking at someone like jaylen twyman is out there working out like oh yeah the six round pick from two years ago like that guy might have to play or something or if he makes the team we're talking about that and it just speaks to when you see it out there the haves and have nots of talented players on this roster it's a pretty big gap and every time we mention that i'll always get messages of like oh every team starters are better like that's true

but we don't know that most of these guys can even play in the nfl and that's where they ran into your jaleel johnsons and trying to start fadia denabo and stuff like that and they didn't even make a stephen weatherly move to bring in someone who has proven uh this year now uh sorry i was just gonna say where i do like the depth on this team is i think in their offensive skill talent um they've got good starters and i think they have decent backup so there's alexander madison and kenny they have decent backup. So there's Alexander Madison and Kenny Wongwu back there, or it's K.J. Osborne now taking another step in his third year, right? He has wide receiver three. B.C. Johnson coming back, a guy who had taken a starting job a couple years ago.

He's a guy. Amir Smith-Marset, you hope, can take another step at wide receiver. So I think they've got intriguing talent there in some depth there, but that's about where it stopped short for this team. It feels like. Folks with baseball season in full swing, just a reminder, if you're headed downtown for baseball, make sure that you are dressed right. Go to sodastick.com for all your Minnesota baseball gear. That is S-O-T-A-S-T-I-C-K. Go to their website, sodastick.com. Check out everything they have, hats, t-shirts. If it's one of those cool summer evenings, bring your hoodie as well. Check it out, sodastick.com. You won't find anything better. Go there today and use the code purple insider for 15 off your purchase well i was going to

talk about that because i spoke with bc johnson who just said after practice it was great to even be out on the field i mean he got hurt so early in training camp last year and has not run routes in almost a year against other people and is working back from that. Usually ACL is not that serious. I mean, for the guy, it is no fun for him. I could say that, but, uh, you know, not getting another receiver. I still think we'll loom large for this team at some point, because what they have is like, they have a lot of wide receiver force. I mean, KJ Osborne is a good player, I think, but he's kind of a wide receiver for on a great, great unit. That's what I think.

Talent wise. Now, he did some good things last year. I'm not saying he did it. I'm not saying he did it, but it's just when what I'm here's what I mean by wide receiver for sure. If you are given perfectly favorable situations to catch the ball wide open, you're going to make those plays. Like you're not just some guy, like you're going to make a play, but if you're asked to elevate and roll a wide receiver four is not able to do that. And I think that's what we saw from KJ Osborne last year, Smith, Marset showed some flashes, but with his physical talent, it's clear that maybe the offense wasn't

his thing. Um, and I think Mike Zimmer alluded to that and bc johnson is like definition nfl wide receiver for super smart guy but his physical ceiling is not that high i think you i i know that people want to give osborne more credit than that but i think that that's kind of where you're at no i think he's a bona fide wide receiver three he's j he's he's uh jarius right coming back from the dead even though jarius red still with us um r.i.p all right he he really is not only because of the 17 and the locks he's a guy who can actually we're forgetting the week two over the middle slant he's catching and getting drilled we're forgetting that opening that game with a 64 yard bomb i mean he's a guy who can do these things that are very versatile

and and um not ones that i don't see bcC. Johnson making, not plays that I see. I went back at one point last year and counted up all of K.J. Osborne's catches on third, fourth down. He was one of the more reliable go-to targets in that vein of when we think of Jarius Wright. When we always talked about this wide receiver depth is lacking, we always thought they need to get a guy they can just go to in those critical moments when Thielen and whoever's double-team digs. And now they've got that guy that they can go to and i really think that especially in this offense with kevin o'connell i i think his stock is going up and i think he showed a lot last year that he is a bona fide wide receiver three so that's our argument

three versus four yeah three point three point two all right well let's let's look at it this way at least from my mind i always look at things through the lens of like the best teams. And if it's, if we're talking about the teams that scored the most last year, like a Tampa Bay, Antonio Brown, when normal and not insane is their wide receiver three. And, and Michael Gallup is wide receiver three for Dallas and T Higgins is wide receiver three for Cincinnati. And Emmanuel Sanders is wide receiver three for Buffalo. That t higgins is wide receiver three for cincinnati and emmanuel sanders is wide receiver three for buffalo that's kind of where i'm coming from i know he's a little washed but that's kind of where i'm coming from is like the rondale moore would be for arizona or aj green for arizona so i think that when you have when you're talking about the best offenses it's not that he can't play wide receiver three and be effective and make plays we saw that it's just like the rams brought in odell beckham to be wide receiver three so i kind of pumped that bar up higher for what you need to be a great offense but i think that there's legit competition there and they also you know they draft jaylen nailer i don't know if he's

gonna you know who knows right but it's like at least they have players who can play or who have some experience. So it's not a gargantuan drop-off, but it's also not like, whoa, look at this bevy of receivers that they're just, they can't get guys on the field enough. There's only one football, everyone. Like it doesn't feel quite like that. That's true. That is true.

And I do think that they might use that wide receiver three just as much as last year which is not that much because i don't i don't think kevin o'connell is going to come in and spread the ball out and run and throw it a ton two wide receivers like they did in la we've heard him a lot mention cj ham we know they want to split as we saw today and one headline that i maybe should even let the podcast with instead of kellen mon is that earthsmith Smith is out there running routes and it didn't, didn't look like they were taking him as slowly as they had said they were going to, or at least at what it sounded like it was May.

He was out there with the first team offense. He was running around and making cuts and doing things on that knee that you should expect eight, nine, 10 months, whatever it is removed from that meniscus surgery. So with him involved at that spot, if they do lean more to back heavy heavy, two-tight end heavy, yeah, I don't think this is going to be an offense that tries to lean on those guys a whole lot, the wide receiver threes, fours, and fives.

But yeah, he's not Odell. He's not Antonio Brown. Something else I saw offensively that, like, don't write this down for it's going to change the world, but Kenny Wongwu mixing in with the first team, I want to see like what is the need more cowbell like i got a fever and it's more kenny on the offense i mean like there is there is no reason to not have kenny wong woo playing some sort of role in this offense

yeah and even if it's kind of a gadget role or something that you can you know if you don't trust his vision or whatever in the zone schemes, whatever it is, or his pass protection, all that stuff, smart NFL coaches find ways to get their guys involved. Whether it's Kansas City, whether it's San Francisco, you look up and go, what's a Mecole Hardman? Oh, now all of a sudden he's a bona fide name. Or San Francisco finds their ways to get their kind of gadget guys involved. And he's so fast. It doesn't matter how unrefined he might be as a running back. You need to get him in this game and get him out running people

and get him in space and create. Do your job as a coach and be creative and get him involved because as great as Alexander Madison is, he's not that. So he's not the guy who's going to burn you and run past you. So I think Alexander Ford, he's a good backup. But, yeah, they've got to get kenny involved okay so that's all i have uh that's an ota you don't want to break down the right guard competition between jesse davis and chris reed so sorry so sorry this is going to be the one that

just oh also a punter was wearing number 66 yeah yep yeah how about that that's special they also had here's another couple of things to note. They had a giant TV out there. So I think, at least from the way that I saw it, they could look at what happened on a play instantly if they wanted to, I don't know, yell at the right person. I mean, is that what that's for? I'm not sure.

Yeah, we'd have to ask Kevin. He wasn't available today, but I would like to ask him, hey, what's the TV for? Hiding from the media. Catch up on some Hulu or something. Right, because he doesn't want to answer questions about this large television. But it looked like the play was happening, and then it was being shown like a couple seconds later, almost in the way that we see it in the press box on TV after we've seen it in front of us.

That was a change. I also noticed that there was a football on a rope. So it was for a drill. They've got the money to have these things. Okay. Big investments on money on a football on a rope. No salary cap on how many ropes you can buy. That's true. So the defensive end would practice knocking the ball out of the assistant coach or intern's

hand and it would bounce right back to him because he had on a rope yep i haven't seen that before no you got to worry about the assistant's carpal tunnel though you're kind of working that wrist a lot if it's getting yanked back constantly that's that's something that's not going to pop up on the injury report but we'll find out i wouldn't want daniel hunter slapping me over and over again and that too seriously he's doing it lightly like can i just go chase down the ball it gives me a few seconds to reprieve from daniel hunter assaulting me it's like down the ball? It gives me a few seconds to reprieve from Daniel Hunter assaulting me legally. There have been a few instances of this where you try to play it cool.

Like, Linval Joseph patted me on the back one time after an interview, and I was just like, ugh. No, I'm good. I'm good. My spine's normal after that. Like, shaking hands with Adrian Peterson. If he hits you in the right spot, it's just a chiropractic adjustment. You just feel better.

You're like, oh, thank you. Right. Oh, he cracked my spine. Okay. So, Team cracked my spine. Okay. So team Jesse Davis or team Chris Reed? I'm team surprised to see, well, maybe not surprised, but Garrett Bradbury took every snap at center. We didn't see a single person even run, you know, and I guess when you looked at who they

signed, it kind of fell that way. But I think there were a lot of people out there saying, well, what if this guy could play center? What if that guy could play center? No, nobody's playing center but Garrett Bradbury. I don't think I'm too shocked to see Davis and Reed mixing in. Those are the two guys with the most experience, I believe. I looked this up at some point this offseason.

I believe they have like over 2,000 NFL snaps at just those positions at guard. Davis has way more because he also played tackle. But it's not shocking that an NFL team new coaching staff is going to go with the most experienced guys, mix them in there, see how they do, and then really not make any decisions until August when they start playing in real pads and playing real football. But, yeah, I didn't expect us to see Wyatt Davis out there. I didn't expect us to see Ed Ingram certainly out there.

I think it's going to be probably one of those two guys, and that's why you signed him uh so we asked um kevin o'connell at the combine about garrett bradbury and he absolutely raved about him which i thought was really interesting this was like but you've seen i did i i followed up and asked me i was like but he's had some ups and downs huh he was he was benched, man. And this is every once in a while you get a message that's like, why don't you grill the coach on this thing? And like we asked, what do you want me to do?

Be like, he's terrible, Kevin. I want a swinging light in interrogation room, pointing it at his face. What do you know? Wear a shirt that says no Bradbury. What do you want me to do? Yes. You need a campaign sign for anybody,

but Bradbury. Right, right, right. Not my center. They had out, stand outside the gates at TCO performance center. Dress is a giant Barry.

No, Barry. It's just like, I don't know, man, but there is their trust in Garrett Bradbury because they legitimately think that whatever the last group was doing was not great for the center. Or is it just money? Like a lot of this stuff just comes down to money.

We were talking about Sean Mannion. The reason that someone really good is not your backup quarterback is the same reason. Okay. I could say a lot of things societally but money they it is because they at the combine which is when we had asked kevin o'connell about brad barry and he raved about him there were two things he said that stood out to me in his comments one um was yeah we got to get him in the right system it's about getting him in the right system the right setup that says to me that yeah we looked at what they were doing with them and thought we

can do things better which you know that happens all the time, but we'll see about that. Number two was, I didn't ask about Mason Cole, but he brought up Mason Cole and they wanted to resign Mason Cole. And then Mason Cole got a ridiculous contract from Pittsburgh for 5 million a year. So they were never in the ballpark of paying Mason Cole that for a guy who would compete at those spots or be a backup. Mason Cole obviously took Bradbury's job while he pipped him at some point in November. And I think they were interested in having Bradbury compete with them again. Now, the money fell to where they were just obviously put it in that right guard and they felt like they could bring in some more veteran cheaper options at that right guard spot

with Reed and Davis and the guys that we were seeing mix in there. So it really is about money. It, and especially when it came to Mason Cole. And I think it really is about the system. When you listen to O'Connell and him talk about, they asked their centers to do a lot communication wise,

setting things up more so than the average center, more so in the Kubiak system did. And one of the things O'Connell raved about with Bradbury was, um, he was, I think he even said he's outstanding at what he, what they had asked him to do communication wise, which kind of flies in the face of what the old coaching staff said about him. But if they believe that, if they believe that this guy's intellectually what they need at that position, then it's just about physically scheming up an offense around him where he doesn't get dusted every now and then, which is what kept happening to him, overpowered by guys. And so with an offensive head coach, I have to feel like this is Bradbury's

best chance. They were never going to pick up that fifth year option. Even if it was after his first year, they were never going to exercise that because of how much money it was. So it'll be interesting to see how this kid plays this year. And if they even have a viable option, like let's say the first month doesn't go well for Garrett Bradbury. What is that option at backup center? Cause I'm not even sure what it would be. How much do you know about Wally Pip?

Only in the, only in so far as to say that he's the guy that people bring up. He's a pitcher, right? No. Oh my God. I know nothing about wally oh this turned out great then i know nothing yeah no all i know is that he's just the name that people use so there's an nfl films clip of bill belichick saying to i think it's

is west welker he's sorry it's from the it's a fictional character right no no oh my god what what let me keep guessing so belichick, somebody in preseason returns a kick for a touchdown. And he says to Wes Welker, like, oh, you're going to get Wally pipped. And Wes Welker's like, the Wally what? Wally pip. Best remember, this is from his Wikipedia. Best remembered as the man who lost his starting job to Lou Gehrig due to the fact that he was experiencing a headache on June 2nd, 1925.

That was the beginning of Gehrig's streak of 2,130 games. That's where- So what position did he play? He wasn't baseball. He was a first baseman. Okay. So I was close. And he got a headache.

Pretty soft Wally. He would never have lasted in this game. Not football. Who was the guy that teddy bridgewater was often you're talked about the fictional football character who oh man why am i why did i think he was i don't know why i went to fictional football character for him but i knew it was baseball more on wally pip let's see uh he and home run baker led an improved yankees lineup in home runs in 1913.

And he led the American league in home runs in 1916 and 1917. So basically by the time he was getting his headaches and losing his job, he's sort of washed. So sorry, Wally Pip tough break. He was born in 1893. So we definitely should still reference him. Has anyone lost their job since,

and somebody else took over and you're mad that people keep using that. Well, I just, you know, you didn't even know if he was real. No, it's just because it's become such a part of the nomenclature, you know, the ethos, the whatever. Well, there's nobody who's pipping Garrett Bradbury. But this will be looked at, though. It's like as we go through and we look at this roster and we see them out there running around in in football pants and stuff it's like we're gonna ask ourselves which things were the right stuff to do and looks good and which things maybe you should have not relied on or kept with and that's one that will be questioned for sure it because i think that the best thing

they could have done at right guard is probably what they did, which is just get two veteran guys. If they were, if they were going to spend all their free agent money on defense, that's all you could really do. But even replacement centers, guys who are cheap and free agency have performed better by the numbers than Bradbury and his respectable run blocking has just not resulted in anything. It's like, it's not like they've been this incredible screen or run blocking team over the last few years. And so that's one that I think they're taking a pretty serious risk. But the last thing that I wanted to ask you about on the show today, though,

was football power ranking index. Okay. This is a Wally Pip question. This is from, yeah, no, his, his power ranking was zero after he got a little headache and had to sit at baseball man it rains they all go inside

barton buxton am i right if you've never seen if you've ever seen the george carlin comedy bit on football versus baseball it's incredible yeah no look it up it's it's so funny um but uh from seth walder of espn the football power index rankings are out and they have the minnesota vikings 13th only a shade behind the denver broncos just ahead of the raiders and in terms of nfc they are well ahead of the philadelphia eagles who are 18th which i think maybe is a little questionable there. 13th, too high, too low, just right. I would say this team hasn't done a whole lot to say, yeah, they're a playoff team.

Yeah, because that would indicate 13. That means you're one of the last ones in, if not the last one in the NFC. Yeah, too high, I would say. At this point, it's also May, and they could also prove me wrong by going out and beating green Bay in week one and looking like the team we thought they were. But defensively is where we have our questions, right? We spent this entire half of it talking about the depth on defense and lack thereof, which we will do all summer. And until Lewis scene gets out

there and shows us that he's a real player until Andrew booth can stay healthy and be a starting corner until Chandon Sullivan is your slot often often used slot nickel corner, until we see him be better than he was in Green Bay. These were all budget options because they're on rookie deals and because it's Chandon Sullivan. So I have major questions about the secondary. And when we talk about this defensive line, that's where that has to be a difference maker, because I don't see many difference makers behind them. And I know Harrison Smith, as good as he is, he can't make up as we've seen in the past, can't make up for all the deficiencies around him at corner. So Patrick Peterson's a year old or all this stuff. So I think the offense will be what it has been, which has been kind of underrated good, even with Clint

Kubiak. I know he had his moments and all the three and outs, but if you look at the explosive plays, you look at what they were able to do in the red zones at times, I think this has been a really good and very talented offense. And I think it'll be better with the guard competition there and not starting Ole Udo. But you need to sell me on Aaron Rodgers not carving him up twice. You need to sell me on this defense keeping their head above water because last year the defense just totally blew it for him.

Right. The Packers are number two on the old power index ranking thing. So I saw our friend Kevin Seifer tweet about how the ESPN group of analysts who power ranked every team themselves came up with, I think, 23rd for the Vikings. And so that's maybe more closer to where you have them. Yeah. My thing is, though, that Kevin's comment was, well, that's quite a gap between the power index and 23rd. And what I think is, is it like, is there, this has them as sixth in the NFC. Is there a huge difference between finishing sixth in the NFC and finishing 23rd, which by the way, I mean, this, this has some, like, it's always

hard to rank teams in may this, the 40, the 49ers are 24th on this. I don't see them as the 24th best team. Um, the lions could be a lot better. There's other teams that could be better, but the whole point that I thought of is just, well, if they're the six seed that that sort of shows how high we have to set the bar after the way they treated the off season right because if they if they are behind the packers rams bucks cowboys and cardinals and are just ahead of the eagles in terms of the playoff race if that's how it finishes just how the football index says the power index andrew my gosh um my question was for you is is that is that a success for Kevin O'Connell and Kweisi Adafo Mensah in their first season if this plays out like this if it went exactly like this

oh god yes yeah no yes so yeah I don't think so really I think it's got to be better I think it's got to be better than a six seed I I don't no I don't I think the expectations should be maybe that which is hey 13th best team in the league, sixth seed, seventh seed, whatever. That's what they were last year. And they were just a bounce or two away from being that. And what did they do this offseason? They were hamstrung by not moving a lot of these big contracts and instead of reworking them to try to get more pieces in, to try and redo this.

You're basically running it back or a competitive rebuild, as Quasey wanted to call it. So with all that, that just seems like what they are and instead you're doing it now with half of a new defense a bunch of rookies starting in the secondary presumably uh if not it's camera dansler and so i i think that the expectations shouldn't be so high like why do you think that they need to be greater than a wild card team because they made all moves to win now and if you make all of your moves to succeed for this year and not push it down for the future and not do any of the rebuild parts of a competitive rebuild, we should hold you to a high expectation that it has to work. And, and, and look, six seed

actually looks better now since there are seven seeds, but we used to make fun of the six seat, right? Yeah. Yeah yeah i would push back though on the notion that they haven't done anything to actually rebuild they haven't done it in terms of moving the biggest pieces that would allow you to do the most rebuilding but what they have done is try to replant the seeds in the secondary of actually developing and growing some of these players when you spend first and second picks on scene and booth those are supposed to be long-term starters for you and you only bring patrick pet. It was really a win for the Vikings. Half of what you got him at last year when Rick Spielman and them were bent over the barrel to pay him $8 million. Now you get him back for one

year, $4 million. That's a win for them. You're not tied to him long-term. You don't have a $10 million cap hit next year for Anthony Barr. The biggest mistake I could see them making is next year they get to the point and go, God, we're paying Adam Thielen what? $ million. Like that was the one where I look at and go, what are you doing in terms of your rebuilding mode right now? Cause you're gonna have to pay Justin Jefferson soon. And are you going to start paying two wide receivers, 50 million total? I don't know about that. So I do think though, that I like some of the little things that they've done to try to turn over this roster, at least slightly. It's just, they, that's all they were hamstrung to do because as

we've talked about clearly they didn't seem to get the go ahead from ownership to just kind of blow the thing up with kirk and feeling and all this other stuff they clearly are trying to do the best they can with the pieces that were seemingly forced upon them to win now right well the kirk thing is the biggest part of it if you kept kirk if you kept a 34 year old quarterback who's one of the most expensive in the league, our standards shouldn't be sixth. That's just what I think. Like you're, you're being realistic about what they actually have. Yeah.

And I think like trading down in the draft is a rebuilding move. Um, but I also think that drafting players isn't rebuilding because all of the teams do it. But as soon as you keep Kirk, the standard when you signed kirk still exists for me like to make that a success you have to repeat what you did with a deep playoff run with this quarterback or it failed which i know is hard to say because we just don't see that happening necessarily but i think that just because it we don't see it happening doesn't mean we can't hold that to the same standard because if you didn't believe you could win a super bowl or compete for one or get to an nfc championship

game then you should have moved on that's a good point it is a good point in the sense that yeah if if the wilfs have any reason for making this team and leadership hold on to kirk cousins as it's presumed to be that that would have to mean that they view this as a super bowl ready roster and if you fall short of that, then yeah, the Kirk cousins era has been a failure. And right now it's been what? One playoff win. Yeah. One playoff win and a one playoff appearance in four years. Right. Yep. So yeah, you need to be a playoff team and win not one,

but maybe a couple of games and make a strong run at it. I understand where you're coming from and you're right. I'm being a little more realistic of, hey, I think if they get that far, it's a pretty decent coaching job based on just the pieces they've got. Okay, who do you think that the football power index has last? Worst team in the league. Last? Oh.

Football power index. This is a tie between To me the Texans And the Bears Maybe The Bears Ah okay The Bears

32 Yep Too harsh No No but also Ryan Poles is doing What I think a lot of people Wanted Quasey to do

Right Yes He is getting all the Giant contracts out Every commitment That the previous GM Ryan Pace ever made He is sending it Right out the door And trying to rebuild and try to embrace that full rebuild.

And you have a young enough quarterback only in a second year in Justin Fields, where you can burn a year of that value of a rookie contract to then make a run at it with his final two, if not three years under that rookie contract. So I don't think that's too harsh because that's just where they've at. That's too, if're the vikings you no longer need to worry about that trip to soldier field that you can pen that in as a win wow you are testing fate right there it's true the team that they lost to in 2016 i think was like one in five and was and was beaten by 30 the week before that defense was still there though didn't they have all the pieces on d i don't know if they had clue mac but they probably had a keem hicks they probably had a lot of the players there it was a really bad team okay

they lost uh falcons to me could be the worst team in the world they're 29th panthers also we're the texans are you guys thinking you're gonna get a quarterback uh the texans are 30th okay jets are 31st which i would have the jets higher that's harsh you know who could be truly terrible as the steelers like that division m Mitch Trubisky's your quarterback. Like they could win like four games. I had this conversation with somebody. It was you, rookie minicamp. Mitch Trubisky is Christian Ponder.

If Christian Ponder never played that game in 2014, Vikings fans will remember this. They had to try it out Christian Ponder because Matt Castle got hurt. Teddy Bridgewater got hurt after he made his debut. And Christian Ponder started week five on a Thursday night in Green Bay. And they got floored.

He threw a pick six to Julius Peppers. They lost 42-10. I think that's what the score was. I remember this so vividly because of how bad it was. And Christian Ponder was basically never heard from again. He resurfaced in Denver on some cheap deal. But if he would have gone somewhere like Mitch Trubisky did, which was stand behind and stand near Josh Allen.

Yes. And then all of a sudden the team goes you know what that could be our bridge quarterback that would have been christian ponder but christian tanked it because they made him start a game because two quarterbacks got hurt if matt castle's foot would have never broken christian ponder would have had a lot more money the best thing ever happened to first round bus was ryan tannahill because then everyone could still talk and he was but he was good in miami at times whereas whereas Mitch Trubisky was not good. Although, did lead his team to more playoff appearances

than, say, Kirk Cousins in Minnesota. Oh, wow. That's a way to end our OTA breakdown. All right, well, we'll be out here again tomorrow for more press conferences, but not watching practice. I don't know. It's fine. And then we'll just... tomorrow for more press conferences but not watching practice i don't know it's fine uh and then we'll just i i'm not i'm promising not to get worked up over anything in otas so that's may

right all right well thank you for your time andrew always fun i was good and we will talk to you all later