Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Stop the Mac Jones comparisons to Kirk Cousins and whether Jeff Gladney's status matters in the draft

Episode Date: April 14, 2021

Sam Ekstrom returns to the show following a week off and discusses Matthew's article about why Kirk Cousins shouldn't be an insult when people compare him to Mac Jones. Would Sam take Mac Jones at 14 if he were available for the Vikings? Plus will Jeff Gladney's recent arrest matter on draft night? Would the Vikings consider another first-round corner to replace him? What do we expect will happen now with Gladney? And we play a game of what will happen to NFC teams at the top. Finally, a SimBull Market report. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Folks, do you feel like everything these days is go, go, go? It's nonstop from work to friends to family and a million pressing issues. Sometimes you just need to take a playoff and hit the reset button. That's when you reach for a Coors Light. It's made to chill. Hey, it's that time of year in Minnesota again to get out on the lake, go to the cabin, sit back, watch some baseball. Coors Light is the perfect refreshment to chill during these summer months. There's only one beer out there that's made to chill.

The mountains on the bottles and cans turn blue when your beer is cold, and that way you know it's time to chill. Hit that reset button with some mountain cold refreshment. Coors Light is cold lager, cold filtered, and cold packaged. It's literally made to chill. It's crisp and refreshing as the Colorado Rockies. Coors Light is the one you should choose when you need to unwind. When you want to hit the reset button, reach for the beer that is made to chill.

Get Coors Light in the new look delivered straight to your door with Drizzly or Instacart, Coors Brewing Company, Golden, Colorado, and as always, celebrate. Hello, welcome to another episode of Purple Insider. Matthew Collar along with Sam Ekstrom, as always, we're presented by Scout Logistics and Assemble, your stock market for sports. At the end of the show, keep your ear out. We're going to have a little symbol market report for you guys at the end. Sam, you are back. What is up, man?

Hey, man. Good to be back. Thanks to intern Paul for filling in while I was away. That was clutch on intern Paul's part. Had a child while I was gone. I don't know. Were you aware of that? Did you know that's why I left? I had child number two, Remy Ekstrom, and he is perfect and he's also a handful. So that's where we're at. I'm not sure if this is a dream or if this is like actually happening. That's kind of the state that you live in when you are sleep deprived. So here we are. That's funny. You are a second guest in a row

to have recently had a child. Our friend Jeremiah Searles did as well. And Jeremiah was so sleep deprived. He didn't know if it was 17 or 18 games that were playing this year. So that's, that's kind of the point where he is at, but congratulations and welcome Remy to draft season. He dropped in right you know as we're getting uh into the busiest part of the year which is exciting for him have you taught him to draft sim yet yeah he um he whispered to me like like right out of the womb he said gotta go with derisaw get a tackle the first can't throw while he's on his back, man, you're just a baby. How do you know that? So anyway, well, that's congratulations to you. Very excited for you. I did not break the news on the show.

I just figured if you wanted to bring it up, then you could bring it up. But I said that Paul was in for a positive life event for you, that that's why you were off. So it's good to differentiate that from the negative life events. You never want to be gone for one of those. I also wouldn't want Remy to run across this podcast eight years from now and hear me complaining about you not doing the show because he was being born. So anyway, all right.

I want to begin with your reaction to what I wrote. Okay. So I wrote for the website, purpleinsider.substack.com if you have not checked it out. And that article is open for everybody if you want to go read it about how I've just gotten to a breaking point on Kirk Cousins and Mac Jones comparisons. Because Mac Jones is a better athlete than Kirk Cousins. He is a better prospect than Kirk Cousins was. They aren't really all that comparable outside of their height and the fact that they aren't

running quarterbacks. And if Mac Jones becomes Kirk Cousins, that will be a phenomenal outcome for whoever drafts him. And yet it's being painted as, yeah, well, you don't want to draft Kirk Cousins with the third overall pick. Now, look, I would draft Justin Fields myself. I think that he will be a better quarterback than Mac Jones, but we also thought that Josh Rosen would be great or that Jameis Winston was

generational or that lots of other things. So who knows when it comes to this? And that's another frustrating part is that people seem so confident that Mac Jones will just not be good because he's quote like Kirk Cousins. Kirk Cousins has the sixth highest quarterback rating of anyone in the NFL since 2015. If you have a quarterback on a rookie contract who does that, you have hit a home run with your draft pick and you have a great chance to build a roster that can win the Super Bowl. So I've just, I just lost it yesterday, Sam. I had heard it so many times that I ended up getting kind of frustrated and having to write about it. Well, if you forecast Kurt Cousins as a fourth round pick and tell

people, all right, 10 years into his career, he's going to be entering like year seven as a starter um he's got a 26 touchdown six interception season a 35 and 15 or 35 and 13 whatever he was last year um I mean people would be pretty excited about that so uh you're right like equaling Kirk Cousins career would be like a positive development especially for Mac Jones who I think came into the 2020 season as, I don't know, second, third. I mean, if things go the wrong way, maybe a fourth round prospect. I don't think he was going to go number three when the 2020 season began, obviously surrounded by a ton of weapons. And I liked watching him every time I saw him. But his college resume is just considerably better than Kirk Cousins too. I mean, 41 and four last year, Kirk Cousins was like a 25 and 10 guy at Michigan State. That's why he was a

fourth round pick. So it's pretty easy, I think, to compare sort of the immobile statuesque quarterback and then compare the mobile quarterbacks to each other as well. I mean, that that's you fall into that trap probably even more frequently, but they're different players. And I would say that Mac Jones probably has a little better arm strength than Kirk Cousins and Kirk Cousins probably has qualities that are better than Mac Jones, too. But yeah, I'm not willing. I like that you're kind of taking a stand on this, Matthew, because someone's got to like, just speak up and say, let him be his own person. I mean, I, I guess I'm willing to entertain the Ben Roethlisberger comparison a little more than

Kirk cousins. I don't think Kirk is, is all that accurate to be honest with you. Well, I think that what's it's just frustrating to me because they're both being wronged by this. Like like Mac Jones is a much better athlete on paper than Kirk Cousins is. The relative athletic score has Mac Jones as a 72nd percentile athlete and Kirk Cousins is 40th percentile. Like you mentioned, there are reasons why Kirk Cousins was drafted in the fourth round. And the fact that he's not that athletic is a big part of it. I mean, you'd be hard pressed to find starting quarterbacks who are good in the league, who are lower than 40% when it comes to their athleticism.

Usually those guys become backups. And when Kirk was coming out, that's what he was talked about as like, yeah, this guy could be the best backup you'll ever have and he has so far outperformed his draft status and expectation but the other part of it too that's unfair to cousins is that if you drafted a quarterback in the top three and they had his career so far you would be calling that a hit you would have given the guy a second contract you would have been proud of that draft pick and on his rookie contract you probably would have given the guy a second contract. You would have been proud of that draft pick. And on his rookie contract, you probably would have had a good chance to win. Kirk has actually never really been on a rookie contract except for 2015 when he was a starter. And then he was franchise tagged and then he was franchise tagged again. And then he was signed to a huge contract. So I'm not

saying he's been like victimized in any way by that, but nobody ever had that with cousins because it took so long to develop. And with Jones, you're talking about somebody who is a better athlete, played in far better circumstances when he was in college, produced far better numbers when he was in college. really making this one match up too much to me aside from saying that the guy's ceiling isn't that high but again if you draft someone at three who ends up being cousins that's a pretty high ceiling I mean that's not a hall of fame ceiling that's not your Patrick Mahomes but I mean I even think when we're analyzing these other guys it's like wait do wait, do you think that, you know, three or four of these other quarterbacks are going to be consistently top 10, top 12? Like some of these guys won't work out. Some of them will. And it just feels like the most shallow possible analysis is just to say, yeah, you know, that expensive quarterback who's not athletic, who hasn't won a super bowl, he'll be like him. And it's funny that Garoppolo and Jared Goff are not being used as comparisons because they took their teams to

the Superbowl, even though both are better athletes on paper than cousins, more similar to Mac Jones and both play a similar style game in a similar style, you know, play action type of offense, but it doesn't really fit the narrative of people who are using Kirk to sell Justin Fields it's almost not even fair to Justin Fields to be doing this like you can like Justin Fields better you could talk about how that that Justin Fields is being analyzed differently because of his race you could do all of that without involving Kirk like Kirk is the wrong guy to say oh oh man, he just, you know, was overrated because he was white.

Well, that's certainly true for some guys, but he was a fourth round pick. Like he had to go through the long way to even get there. He's the wrong guy to use in so many ways. So there you go. There there's the rant. Yeah, no, I, I totally appreciate it. And first I want to point out that seven minutes in to my first show back and i've already had like a new father brain moment when i compared um jones to roethlisberger that's kyle trask that

let me just get that out there that's who i was thinking of um secondly i find it interesting too that the cousins comparisons abound when reportedly kyle shanahan is flirting with, you know, taking this guy, Mack Jones. I guess Kyle Shanahan can't get enough of Cousins or Cousins-like quarterbacks. Like, is that also contributing to this comparison because he's someone who fits into that system? Because we've heard for, what, two years now that Kyle Shanahan is interested in Kirk Cousins. He's enamored by him. He's going to trade for him. He'll do anything to get him. Oh, he can't have Kirk.

Okay, he's going to trade the farm, move up and get his clone, allegedly, with the third overall pick. Maybe you've talked about this while I was gone. Do you buy that at all? That like the 49ers are just transparently going after Mac Jones, number three? Because I don't for a second.

No, no, I don't either. I don't either. And I don't know why they would be smoke screening necessarily, but I also don't exactly trust any sources when it comes to draft time. I think that every team is out there trying to feed information to point people in the wrong direction who are searching for it. And we always find out on draft night night just how wrong all the reports were but draft night is so exciting that we don't care like whoever goes back and is like wait a minute there was a report by this guy that

said this team like this guy and that was we never do that the players are drafted we move on we don't cross check how accurate everybody's sources were. There is one website that cross checks mock drafts. But I mean, whatever. I mean, who's getting all mock drafts? Right. I don't know. But it's just funny how there is no accountability in reporting when it comes to draft season. All the rest of the year there is where if you report something that goes completely wrong, that is on you. And yet during draft season, if you report something that's completely wrong, it's like, well, whatever, just forget about it. Probably bad sources. Who cares? But no, I don't buy that because I think that a rewatching of Justin Fields, there is a case that Justin Fields is actually better than Trevor Lawrence when you watch him back. I mean, that's what JTO Sullivan said on the PFF forecast,

and he does the QB school and a lot of film analysis. I mean, he thinks that he's a little bit better or just as good. And our buddy Derek Klassen, who works for Football Outsiders and Roto World, or whatever Roto World is now, NBC Edge. But he also has Justin Fields equal with Trevor Lawrence. So I think that they'll watch Justin Fields and they'll see a better prospect than Mac Jones and they'll take him. And this whole thing about the, like, it almost became a little weird with Kyle Shanahan would give his own soul for one play of Kirk Cousins. Like, what is this? As if, as if this is the only,

like, look, you know, my wife is the only lady for me, but like quarterbacks and coaches are not like that. All right. I mean, they just want the best guy. Okay. So no, I, I am not buying that at all. And I fully expect at number three overall, they will be announcing Justin Fields or Zach Wilson or Zach Wilson. Cause I still think that could happen too. I, you mentioned Klassen whose work I respect immensely. I don't think Klassen's that high on Mac Jones. I mean, I think that late first round always felt like the appropriate spot for him,

but inevitably, QB needy teams and getting needier all the time, right? Like we see like how the QB market's always like shifting even more rapidly now and more dramatically. We're probably going to start seeing more and more like QB market's always shifting even more rapidly now and more dramatically. We're probably going to start seeing more and more QB 5s going in the top 10, 15 picks. Kind of reminiscent a little bit of the 2011 draft, to be honest, where the Vikings reached on Christian Ponder. And I think he was QB 4, QB 5. That's dangerous. That's dangerous for whoever gets uh winds up with that but i i

also think that sometimes we get so caught up in the mud of like oh this pro day and this happened and this happened and we forget that coming into this year it was fields and lawrence who are one and two uh lawrence one and fields two and they might stick with that and there's a decent chance that they stick with that so the the way that this is going to play out is just, I think it's both great and horrible at the same time. Like the conjecture has been horrible as we started out with the Mack Jones and Kirk Cousins comparisons.

But the intrigue as we actually enter draft night is at an all-time high. Let me ask you this before we kind of get off this subject is, so now that we've talked about Mac Jones, Kirk Cousins comparisons, if Mac Jones is there at 14, if he is the quarterback who drops, and I think there will be one who ends up outside the top 10,

would you do it if you're the Vikings? No, not good. Not just not good enough prospect. Yeah, no, I wouldn't, I wouldn't,

I don't, I don't think the Vikings are going to make the same mistake they did in 2011, which is like taking maybe the fifth best quarterback in a draft class. I think if you want your quarterback of the future, you've got to make a big move. Like you've got to go get them. I don't think you should let them fall to you and just sort of take them by happenstance.

No, I would not take NAC Jones. Especially if you want to entertain the Cousins comparisons, because then what you're going to just run back for Cousins 2.0. But again, we've established that that isn't entirely fair, but I think the Vikings do the opposite. I think they go get a different type of quarterback with their next franchise guy. Yeah.

There's a very distinct possibility that they, if you were betting on how this plays out, they draft someone in like the fourth round this year. And they're like, well, you know, maybe he'll be our developmental guy. Then it becomes quite clear that that player really isn't going to be a

starter because that's the history of most fourth round draft picks and they'll say well you know once upon a time kirk was fourth round draft pick and nobody thought he'd be a good starter right and then uh next year it'll all come to a head you'll either have kirk cousins or you won't you'll have an answer on that whether he's going to be traded whether he's sticking around and signing an extension and then we'll be really talking about them potentially trading up to get a top quarterback. I would say, though, that there have been plenty of examples where it was not the first or second or even third quarterback who has become the best quarterback of a draft. Right now, Lamar Jackson, even though Josh Allen gaining on him, was the fifth quarterback.

Maybe that's a little bit unique because they thought he was supposed to be a wide receiver. But even when you go back to Derek Carr and Jimmy Garoppolo, ended up being the better quarterbacks than the first rounders. So you do see it sometimes. And Kirk Cousins, even the fact that, you know, Andrew Luck was the best and then Russell Wilson. But Kirk Cousins also hit Colin Kaepernick and Andy dalton were better than jake locker and blaine gabbert so you you never know and that's why i would probably do it rather than trade down and take an offensive lineman because if the guy is a first round caliber prospect and he's being talked about that way i think i'm in now let me switch gears a little bit with you sam uh mock drafts mel kuiper released 4.0 very exciting times and he has christian yeah i know right he has christian derisaw to the vikings which now

seems like everyone has christian derisaw to the vikings when i do a little sweep of the mocks uh your thoughts if the vikings were to stay at 14 and take Christian Derisov. It's kind of popping up at the same time that Bradbury popped up in the 2019 draft season because it started out like a lot of people were talking about who was the tackle that went to the Eagles, I think from Florida. Was it Andre Dillard? Andre Dillard was the sexy name. And then everyone kind of shifted to Bradbury there like early April. And it was Bradbury, Bradbury, Bradbury. And it ended up being Bradbury. I feel like the same thing's happening a little bit with Derrissaw.

But I can't fault. I would, I'd probably rather have Derrissawaw than Vera Tucker probably Derrissaw over Slater like I I think he's just the pure left tackle that you want and if you're not going to get Sewell um I think you want like a big body in Derrissaw I I'm it makes a lot of sense to me and with that left tackle spot still just like yawning wide open, just asking you to take someone there. It makes all the sense in the world that you would take like a pure three-year left tackle from the ACC who, you know, the Vikings love drafting from the ACC. That's probably their favorite conference in the Zimmer-Spielman era. They respect the level of competition.

That's where they found Bradbury. That's where they found O'Neill. So I think Derrissa kind of fits everything the Vikings need and want in a prospect. I don't know. I mean, they got Bucky Hodges from the ACC and that worked out great. Dynamite. to have a lot of those ACC draft picks. Would you rather have Christian Derrissaw at 14 or Elijah Vera Tucker at 19 because Washington traded up with you to take Mac Jones? And you got a second round pick, I assume? Or another third, maybe.

I have a really tough time figuring out how these draft trades are actually going to work. People love the Jimmy Johnson chart. Our friend Brad Spielberger and Jason Fitzgerald from over the cap, they invented their own chart of like draft value based on history. And I think this year is going to be different with teams not wanting to give up their second round picks. So you wouldn't do it for a third. I think I would do it for a third. Do you, you really,

you really like Vera Tucker or I mean, you really like a Derrisa, huh? No, I really like a second round pick. I'm not going to, yeah, no, I, I'm not going to, I do like Derrisa a lot and I like him more than Vera Tucker, but I'm demanding a second round pick. There's like the more and more that I scout this draft, the more I see that i scout this draft the more i see that you've got edge candidates that would fit your team really well you've got receiver candidates that would fit your team really well and if you don't have a second round pick they're just not even in the discussion you can't even like consider um drafting them and i think that that the vikings are going to regret that so i demand a second otherwise I just take

the guy hey everyone we have a new special offer to tell you about with our friends it's symbol if you go to symbol.app that's s-i-m-b-u-l-l dot a-p-p and sign up as a first-time user with a $20 deposit into symbol using the promo code, you will receive six months free of premium Purple Insider written content at purpleinsider.substack.com. So go to symbol.app, deposit $20 if you're a first-time user, six months free of our premium written content at Purple Insider. If you are not familiar yet with Symbol, it is a new sports marketplace where you can trade shares of professional teams like stocks. So as we are fully into draft season,

you're going to want to get in now with your team before their stock rises. Here's how it works. You buy stock of teams and when your teams win, you earn cash payouts that are instantly deposited. So check it out. Symbol.app. Follow them on Twitter at Symbol Exchange and check out the Marketplace for Sports. Hey, everyone. Anybody who listens to the show knows that Sam and I may not be scratch golfers, but we love to have a great time playing golf. And that's why we have partnered with Birdie Golf in Woodbury birdie golf is hands down the best indoor golf experience you will ever have there are eight of the world's best golf simulators where you can sharpen your swing and luckily for us never lose a ball but it's not just for hardcore golfers

birdie golf is for everyone bring the family play arcade style games while dining on great food in an upscale and comfortable environment they have private bays for social distancing, a luxury lounge for private events, outdoor patio, and scratch kitchen. You'll want to try the whiskey or beer float flights and the best boneless wings in the Metro. Make golf a night out or the place to hold parties, events, fundraisers, even your fantasy football draft. Check out Birdie Golf at 494 in Valley Creek in Woodbury,

just a short drive from anywhere in the Twin Cities Metro and at birdiegolf.com, or you could call 651-998-2200 today. I'll see you there. Okay, fair enough. And if there is a draft to just take whoever is the best guy at 14, then just take the best guy at 14. The debate I think that will exist here as we get closer to 14 is offense or is, will Mike Zimmer actually let them draft an offensive lineman? And so recently the answer has been yes.

And I don't know if Mike Zimmer has the say to, I don't know exactly how the dynamic works, to pound his fist on the table and say, no way you draft who I tell you to draft. I don't know if that's the dynamic here because Mike Zimmer is not a scout. I mean, he's the coach and he would be making the 53 roster decisions, but I don't know if he's making the draft decisions. But in recent past, they've drafted quite a few players in the top

several rounds. If you take top four rounds where guys can make an impact, I mean, you're talking Samia, Cleveland, Brian O'Neill, and Garrett Bradbury just in the last, what, three years? So yes, I think that they would draft an offensive lineman high, but will Mike Zimmer push for an immediate solution in terms of pass rush rather than getting someone who can help their offensive line maybe long term more than short term well I've been on the record I think is saying that you are okay on the defensive line right now you're not stellar but I think you're okay you can get by the offensive line to me feels like it's in shambles right now I think that you need the offensive linemen more than you do the defensive line and that's and that's why especially after bringing in six outside free agents on defense and zero on offense like it would just be a slap in the face to Kirk Cousins if you didn't provide him with something anything in in the first round or free agency because to this point they've got him Mason Cole

they've got him Chad Beebe coming've got him Chad BB coming back. Amir Abdullah coming back. Like what, what is this? I think that there needs to be some level of investment just to like prove that. Okay. We care about the offense too,

because that's the knock on the Vikings right now is that they only care about fixing this defense instead of improving a good, not great offensive unit. So I, I like, like the positional value of edge rusher more, but if this team wants to commit to the path that they've kind of started down, which is winning in 2021, kind of at all costs, then you need to take that offensive lineman, even if, and I don't see a huge discrepancy in the value there. I don't think the edge rushers are a must-take at that stage. I think the offensive linemen might even have potentially greater futures.

I look at someone like Aziz Ojolari or Kudipe. Their size is kind of a little bit concerning and there's a, there's a couple like red flags here and there. Whereas with some of those linemen, they feel a little more like plug and play to me. So I, I think I, you have to go offensive line. If you're asking me today, when I was talking with, uh, Jeremiah Searles last night, he said that he thinks that the Jeff Gladney situation should play into this. That's looking at what happened with Gladney and the incident with a woman that he knows that could get him suspended for a year. That could get him suspended for longer.

That could get him in jail, potentially, if things come to fruition there. Now, it's always possible that it might not be a thing but even at very least some headline like this usually gets you suspended even if all charges are dropped and everybody moves on then still oftentimes this ends up resulting in a suspension do you agree with that that the way the way the Vikings approach the first couple of rounds of the draft should factor in Jeff Gladney's situation? I think they already factored in Gladney's situation, whether they knew it or not, like by getting the extra depth with Mackenzie Alexander. And the Gladney news came out the day that my son was born. So I'm a little fuzzy, but on the timeline here, but the alleged incident happened,

I think a day before Alexander was signed. I could be wrong about that. So 75%, take it with a grain of salt. So I'm wondering if the Vikings already knew, number one, when they signed Alexander. If not, I still think that you can find a different way to address that other than the draft. Like if you, if you need an extra body and you already have your starters set, even without Jeff Gladney, um, I guess it does speak to, to like how they feel about Mike Hughes,

because Mike Hughes health is going to play into this in a big way. Um, the reports are that he's like, that he's going to be able to go. I don't think they pick up his, um, fifth year option, but I think that he might be like an eligible player for them this year. So if that's the case, I think they'll be able to like make things work, but you can still supplement in free agency. Like there's still probably a million dollar corner you can bring in who can give you, you know, some, some part of what gladney would have given you um i i think that corner needs to be filled in the middle rounds and i think you would do that anyway like i

think you're always developing corners and i think that there are probably candidates in the third fourth fifth round that you go after and and that's fine i don't think they need to stretch it if they didn't have alexander I'd probably be singing a different tune. But they also have Harrison Hand who might develop, and they've got Chris Boyd who might take another step too. You can still kind of spin it that they have enough depth there to get by without Gladney in the mix. And it probably, I mean, from a football standpoint,

I don't think they have Bill Gladness for the first half of the season. And that's like that's best case scenario for the football operation could be longer, like you said. So they signed Alexander March 27th and the incident happened April 2nd. So they did not know about it, but it ended up being maybe the reason that you do it is you're not sure about Jeff Gladney and where he was going to go anyway, because he struggled at times last year. And I still had in the back of my mind, the instance where he was coming off the field and Mike Zimmer tried to talk with him and he just walked right by. And of course they tried to downplay that, but I've never seen anyone do that to Mike Zimmer in a game situation before where they just stopped by him as he's trying to talk to them. And I thought, I'm kind of going to put that one in the back of my head and wonder

if that relationship is going to repair after that, or if this is going to be a thing where Jeff Gladney and Mike Zimmer butt heads. He did times with alexander obviously they've been able to mend that fence and he's coming back but uh you know that's not a great sign when a rookie is trying to walk by the head coach of the football team i would want to get insurance on that too and i think even with this instance same deal now um the vikings will have even sort of a decision to make themselves, no matter how this ends up playing out about Jeff Gladney. Is this a guy, especially if it ends up coming to fruition that he is, I don't know,

convicted or whatever legal terms that I'm not great at using. But let's say he doesn't end up in prison or something, but he is found guilty of doing this. I mean, if you're the Vikings, do you want to stick with him through this? Because Mike Zimmer has been very unhappy about off-field incidents with players. And it's been one of his things that I think he's very proud of is that they don't get players who have things like this happen. And we knew J Ron curse

wasn't coming back the minute he had his off-field incident. How do you think the Vikings end up handling Jeff Gladney? Right. So the first round pick aspect of it, unfortunately, influences the situation. We've seen that with a legend like Adrian Peterson, 2014, that there is a willingness, you know, in the organization to stand by a player when there is, you know, proof or allegation of like a violent crime or act. I think that you do have to probably separate that a little bit from a DUI or something

like Colton Hill was a drug conviction. There probably is, I would think, some separation in the team's mind and how they handle that. Maybe you can jog my memory. I can't remember a lot of violent allegations of Vikings that have been on the roster, at least in like my time covering the team, maybe you can like remind me. So the Peterson example is sort of like the, the best, the best doppelganger for me as to like how the team might respond to something like this. And the, the allegations against Gladney are horrific. Like if proven true,

it's hard to imagine him, you imagine him avoiding any trouble at all. So I think the team probably, this is not because of the first round pick status, this is probably the type of thing where the team lets the legal process play out. If this is a futures deal guy or like a UDFA, I think they're probably cut yesterday. Because it's Jeff Gladney, I think that there's going to be a level of patience with the league's independent investigation, the legal proceedings. Is there going to be a guilty plea? Are they going to go to trial? Because jail time is on the table. From my understanding, with this type of thing, it could end up just becoming like a plead guilty, get the charge down. But I'm not a lawyer, so I don't want to speak too much to that.

So all that said, I think Jeff Gladney is still in the organization's sphere when the season starts, but I don't think he's wearing a helmet. I think it's probably commissioner's exempt list. It's suspension list. I have a hard time seeing him like on the field, um, at any point in, in June or August, or, you know, probably even September. And there's a common question. Why didn't the Vikings just cut him as soon as this happened? And the reason would be that if you let it play out and he does plead guilty or he is convicted of this, then you can go into his contract and say,

you violated your contract because in every contract it's written in there, whatever it is, a conduct detrimental to the team, I think is probably the exact language and teams have this ability to go after the guy's money and to be able to cut him and not pay him, you would still, I think, maybe have to take the cap hit if you were to cut him, but not have to pay him the actual money if they were to do this. I know that when a player is suspended, you actually get the cap space,

but his cap space is not significant. I think it's just the signing bonus you're on the hook for. If I'm not mistaken, I think that's all they would have to pay i think that's right so that would end up ultimately at being a big battle i'm sure between the nflpa and the vikings like these things get pretty messy as we go forward and i think more likely scenario with jeff gladney is that they play it patiently because he is a first round draft pick and see what happens. And if he suspended, he suspended, and then you're kind of on your last chance type of thing, if anything else happens. So circling all the way back to my question, I don't know

if it will matter to them to take a corner in the first round and the third round with some of their top draft picks. If they do trade into the second, i also would say that if they do that's fine if they take asante samuel jr or uh patrick certaine or any other players kid who played in the 90s who is making me feel incredibly old uh the other one jc horn all these player kids, if they were to take one of those guys and that was part of the reasoning was like, look, we just don't see Jeff Gladney as part of this organization anymore. And that's sunk cost. And we're going to move on. And JC Horn is our guy now. I'm fine with that. Like, I would not criticize that if they decided to go that direction. No. And I've kind of laid out the argument for why they might have good depth this year. But 2022, Alexander's on a one-year deal. Peterson's on a one-year deal. Both of them would probably jump at the chance to sign a multi-year deal elsewhere. Mike Hughes is also in a contract year probably. The stable could be extremely barren. It could be Cam Dant dansler and that's it next year so there you can always kind of talk yourself into it right there's a couple ways to look at it so uh the vikings then going into 2022 would have to hope that the cap you know opens wide up and they can kind of go

and address that in free agency again if they don't have any backup plan. But the future does get a little muddier when your first round pick who you have signed, you know, potentially through 2024 might be out of the picture. I mean, that's like a long-term, you know, damaging development to your roster. Folks, the football off season is off and rolling and SodaStick has you covered with minnesota

sports themed gear some of my favorite football designs that you have to check out include the chuck foreman spin doctor gear you can commemorate randy moss's disgusting act on a shirt or a hoodie and if you're old school check out the purple people eaters design as well go to soda stick dot com and check them all out. If you use the promo code purple insider, you can get free shipping on all your Minnesota sports inspired gear. All of their apparel is screen printed here in Minnesota on super soft, super comfy shirts and hoodies.

You will love it. Plus keep your eyes and ears out for our giveaways going on on this show as well on social media, follow them at soda stick co on twitter and at sodastick.com for your original minnesota sports inspired goods code purple insider for free shipping yes it is and you can see even if you go back in recent years how much missing on first round picks has harmed the vik I mean, Garrett Bradbury so

far has not been a hit for where you drafted him. That's hurt their offensive line significantly. If he turned into Alex Mack instantly and was a pro bowler and a star like you expect from the 18th overall pick, we would have been talking about, I think, a much better offensive line performance last year, even with mediocre guard play. And I mean, trading away the first round pick for Sam Bradford, that is just a guy who does not exist. Mike Hughes being injured all the time has forced them to do things like sign Patrick Peterson, bring back Mackenzie Alexander, draft Cam Dantzler, draft Jeff Gladney. Like I think if Mike Hughes had turned out to be a great corner, then you're at least not doing one of those things and maybe multiples of

those things, because you're so confident, even though they've hit on second round picks missing on the first has been a problem. I got a game for you before we wrap up, which is so did you ever, let's see, they used to do this.

It was like a really old show. And then it was parodied by like PBS shows. And I can't remember which one it was like Sesame street or something and then it was parodied by like pbs shows and i can't remember which one it was like sesame street or something like this is your life you ever you ever heard of this this is your life this is your life no never heard of it okay that doesn't matter used it how this relates to sesame street at all but okay well uh i think sesame street did a parody of it but some of us grew up without cable. So I ended up watching that as opposed to like Rugrats or other things that people grew up with.

Anyhow, so they would, you know, take a person and they would tell them like you would hear a voice that would say, I met you back in 1953 and we did this together. And then the guest would be like, oh, that must be my friend. Whoever. I think this is how the game works. People older than guests would be like, Oh, that must be my friend. Whoever. I think this is how the game works. People older than me have to explain it, but it popped into my head for the, I want to go through a few teams in the draft. This will be your life.

Okay. I'm going to give you Mel Kuyper's pick for these NFC teams. And I want you to tell me what their life will be if they pick blank. Okay. Sorry. That took so long to get to, but this is the game. Mac Jones goes number three to the San Francisco 49ers in this mock draft

for Mel Kiper. What will be your life, your life, your life. Yeah. Mac Jones. Yeah. Yeah.

Now you get it right now. You get where I'm going with this. I understand the concept. I'm still not sure I understand how it worked on the original show, but that's neither here nor there. I'm not 100% sure either, but I just wanted to take the general concept.

But this is not like the show. We could have just gone back to what now, Sam? That would have worked too. Yes, yeah, that would have been okay. I like the creative attempt, so I don't want to rip you too hard on that this will be your life with mac jones this is like it's a wonderful life where i see like what life would be like in in this situation um okay yes good and you are the uh the angel clarence who comes down anyway. So I think Matt Jones goes to San Francisco and probably delivers like at a level that people, people will end up comparing him to Jimmy G I think,

because that's the, you know, the immediate predecessor and they might say, well, all right, this is, this is fine. But you know, again, we're kind of just running this through like our our running back stable and george kittle like we're not that explosive mac jones isn't really that that special of like a playmaker uh this is this is fine i think we would have liked more for a number three overall pick but um yeah yeah we're um but we still live in san francisco which is a really cool city so

we're just going to cheer for the warriors instead santa clara though not as cool as we discovered when we covered vikings 49ers no there's one i hop and i went to it uh all right okay fair enough with this is your life i think with mac jones uh there they will each season try to stack up around him after he sits for a year with jimmy garoppolo so they'll go into next off season create garoppolo's cap space stack up around him and then they'll still just be okay and they'll go you know 11 and 6 and be all right and it'll probably be like oh okay well this sort of worked out for them and then we'll debate like how much it worked out for them would be this is your life my opinion on mac jones this is your life, Falcons.

Whoa. I'm fond of that. You're trading back. You're getting more draft capital to put pieces around Trey Lance, and you've already got some pretty good pieces. You've got Calvin Ridley, um, who's a, a deep threat guy, which I think kind of suits Trey Lance's, uh, skillset. You've got Julio Jones, obviously, and you've got some young linemen that you, you know, picked relatively

recently. I, I like that for Atlanta. I think they, I would love to kind of be on the, um, the Falcons insider shows just to like hear what they're talking about with their longtime quarterback to see how they feel. Because I feel like they're kind of in the same situation as the Lions were with Stafford. Like, do you do you need more? Do you need more from this guy that kind of got you to one Super Bowl and otherwise hasn't really taken you to special heights. When you're making the case that the Vikings should look at the quarterbacks, then you would definitely say the Falcons should be drafting a quarterback here because they will actually have that opportunity to do so. If they could trade back and still do that, then I think they've hit the lottery in this draft. And as much as Jamar Chase or Jalen Waddell

or another playmaker might help Matt Ryan, I remember the Buffalo Bills trading up, I think trading another draft pick from the following season, maybe a first rounder to get Sammy Watkins because they were convinced that he was going to help their quarterback at the time. That quarterback was EJ Manuel. Now I know that Matt Ryan is still decent,

but we've seen Matt Ryan a couple of times the last few years. He looked good against the Vikings defense last year. The year before, he didn't look that great. That's kind of been who he is now, where some nights Matt Ryan kind of reaches back into 2016 and looks great, and then other nights he looks like you can't possibly win with him. Like that's who he's going to be. So you should have an option for after this year.

And Trey Lance is the perfect guy to sit. You can draft another wide receiver or sign another wide receiver next year. But right now you've got a good chance that you probably won't have because the NFC South is not going to be as good next year. How many times do you get a chance to draft fourth overall and get one of the top quarterbacks? Next one, Detroit Lions take Jamar Chase in this Mel Kiper mock. What is your life, Detroit Lions? Well, the Lions lost all their receivers and didn't replace them with anything special in my mind. So give Jared Goff a chance, right? I mean, he is set up. I feel bad for him, with the Rams, he was supposed to win Super Bowls.

And now with Detroit, it's like, well, can you win five? Can you win six this year? Do you want to win five or six? Would you rather just go 0-17? That feels like what Detroit is kind of angling for. So Jamar Chase is the building block piece that, you know, and Jared Goff probably won't get to appreciate him forever it'll probably be like one or two years where goff is like ah this guy is so good and then they'll bring in um the quarterback of the future to to throw to him for the bulk of his career right he's probably a long-term type of thing where you hope he turns out to be your julio jones and he's with your franchise for a really long time and is peaking in his career when your roster is finally back to being normal. Now we have seen in the past that if you do this right, it doesn't have to mean that your team is bad for seven years in a rebuild.

The Miami Dolphins bounce back in two years. And if Detroit is trying to take that route, then Jamar Chase will be coming into his prime as they're rebuilding and maybe drafting a quarterback. I don't know if quarterback is the right way to go for them right now because their roster is just horrible. Like wait till you've got a better roster to draft quarterback, especially if you're not a hundred percent sure on the guy. And I really think that next year there'll be drafting very high as well. Last one. In this case, Dallas trades out of 10 with New England for Justin Fields to go to the New England Patriots in Mel Kuyper's mock. What is Justin Fields' life? So he's in New England?

He's in New England, and Dallas has traded out of the pick, making all Vikings fans very jealous. It's hard not to like any fit with Bill Belichick and all that they've kind of put on that roster now in free agency. The Patriots have it all right now, except for like a long-term quarterback answer. So I would tend to think that that's kind of the final chess move that Bill Belichick wants to make, whether it's that move or something else. And I think that would be pretty tremendous for Justin Fields. When you're a quarterback of that caliber and then a good team makes a move to get you, instead instead of you having to like go through the rebuild with this fledgling organization like mahomes for instance like when a good team went and got him how great is that for his career arc um and that i think would be the same situation with

justin fields for a franchise that has gotten lucky in so many ways a sixth round pick becomes a great quarterback and they get down 28 to three in a Super Bowl and still find a way to win. Seattle doesn't run Marshawn, all sorts of different things. They really didn't pay any sort of huge penalty for videotaping other teams, lots of stuff, or deflating footballs and such. This would be another insanely lucky break for New England

to take one step back at seven to nine last year, and then fall right into a really good quarterback prospect as they were rebuilding their roster through free agency and with guys coming back. So that would probably drive everyone nuts, but would not be a shocking outcome. All right. Well, well sam you have a child to tend to so thank you for your time and thank you for playing this will be your life you want to try it it's fun do it this is your life okay let's just leave that to leave that to me for the future yeah hey everyone i want to tell you about our friends. It's Scout Logistics. And I really do mean it when I say friends, they are fans of Purple Insider over

at Scout Logistics. And since they reached out wanting to support this show, I want to tell you about what they do. Scout Logistics is just in time transportation for full tractor trailer loads. And if you're wondering what that means exactly, well, if you own or work for a company that needs shipping solutions, they are the preferred carrier of fortune 500 companies across North America. And we have quite a few of those in Minnesota, right? They can ship perishable non-perishable FTL or LTL, and they have on-time delivery rate of over 99%. So if you're like them and you enjoy the show and you have shipping needs, check out scoutlogistics.com or call 855-217-2688 extension 232 to connect with them directly to

find out how Scout Logistics can minimize risk and overperform and go the extra mile for your company. All right, before we wrap up the show for today, I want to bring you our Symbol Market Report. And just a reminder, if you sign up at symbol.app and you put in at least $20, use the code purple, you get six months free of our written work. Now, normally a year would cost you $56. So do the math there. Very good deal just for signing up with Symbol. and i've had some questions about how symbol works and i just wanted to clarify that it's not like the real stock market like you're not buying game stop here it's much more fantasy football with teams where you

get in at prices and then prices rise and fall and then you get paid when your team wins so just wanted to clear all that up. Now, Sam, the teams that are on the rise in the symbol market are the Denver Broncos and the Tampa Bay Bucks. Are you buying the Sim Broncos would be my question, even though we're not sure about their quarterback situation. Yeah, that's a tougher one for me. You know, they've got this, the new leadership from the Minnesota Vikings, George Payton running the show over there, but I can't buy into a team that doesn't have a clear quarterback situation. I know that Drew Locke had the sophomore slump and sometimes a lot of quarterbacks can come out of that and be really good in year three. Look at Josh Allen. I like the receiving core, you know, Cortland Sutton, KJ Hamler, Jerry Judy. I like the weapons they have. Noah Fant. That's a great stable of pass catcher catchers. And they've got my favorite slasher, Mike Boone,

who's going to go in and be an impact running back in Denver. So offensively, I love Denver, except for the quarterback situation. A little easier for me to get on board with the Sim Bucks, who you also mentioned there. Yeah, very clear that the mike boone signing is what's taken the sim broncos to the next level i agree with you i'm not buying drew lock and the fact that denver has been seemingly in on every quarterback discussion even making an offer for matt stafford tells me how they feel about drew lock now the sim bucks

though uh are you thinking that they're just going to keep that train on the tracks and rolling toward the Superbowl next year? Or are, I mean, when we look back at how many teams go to the Superbowl and then what they do the next season, Kansas city was able to get back, but most of the time there is a drop off. There is just Tom Brady immune to that. I look at that division and I don't see how they don't win like the Saints are probably taking a step back the Falcons who knows what their quarterback's going to be probably Matt Ryan for another year but I they're not really a huge threat I don't think and then the Panthers are probably kind of rebuilding as well so I think the Bucks are

clear favorites to win the NFC South, could easily get a bye in the playoffs if things go well for them. And they've got all 22 starters back. They just added Giovanni Bernard as well for another little extra punch in the running back room. So I don't know how the Bucs don't come out and perform barring some pretty serious injuries. I think that that system that Tom Brady's trying to kind of bring to Tampa, like all the things he wants to do, they're now finally starting to do them really, really well, as we saw in the Super Bowl win and the playoffs.

So I think it keeps going for Tom Brady in Tampa. I don't know. Will he ever slow down, caller? No, it'll be 2030, and the Sim Bucks will still be at a very high price so clearly we talked about the lions and how they're not in a good spot i can see why they're down the sim bangles being down though is interesting to me sam because i would think that with a high draft pick where they can get jamar chase or kyle pitts with a team that has drafted a top quarterback recently usually those are teams

on the rise, but at least recently people not being as high on the Bengals. Yeah. And that Joe Burrow knee is going to be a pretty important to follow because I believe he suffered that injury in November, December. So if you assume a nine month timeline, okay, he's probably going to play. Is he going to be steady on it though? Or is it going to be a little longer? Is it going to take him into the season? And then he loses kind of on out on that training camp and all, all of the reps that he needs to get into game shape. So I'd be a little nervous about the Cincinnati Bengals, but I like Joe Burrow. And I think if Burrow is the quarterback week one, then you're getting a bargain. If you buy in on the Sim Bengals. Sim Bull, S-I-M-B-U-L-L dot app.

It is like a marketplace only for all sports teams. There is a lot of other sports as well. So if you're a baseball fan, you want to jump in on that as well and make sure you check them out. There are sponsors. They support us. So support them and we will catch you next time.