Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - SumerSports analyst Sam Bruchhaus thinks guards are worth the price for the Vikings

Episode Date: January 30, 2025

Matthew Coller welcomes back SumerSports analyst Sam Bruchhaus to the show to discuss what Sam has seen while at the Senior Bowl practices and why he thinks the price is worth it for the Vikings to upgrade their guards. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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this time from Mobile, Alabama. Doesn't have the sexy setup at home. Sam Brookhouse, co-host of the Sumer Sports Show with Lindsay Rhodes and also the Draft FM podcast. Well, Sam, draft season is upon us. I'm going to tell you the truth. I haven't paid a whole lot of attention to the draft because the Vikings, I thought, were going to be deeper into the playoffs.

So this is some hardcore reporting for you. And also, I need team building analysis. But how are you enjoying the scene in Mobile, Alabama? I'm doing good. We've been on the road. We've been in Dallas for the Shrine Bowl. Now we're in Mobile for the Senior Bowl. We've been checking out all of these prospects. You know, I'm a little sunburnt, don't have the good setup. We got the phone on the coffee maker

plugged into the big mic. There's all kinds of things going on, but that's the name of the game when you're in draft analysis and you're watching some of these great prospects that hopefully will be helping out NFL teams here shortly. All right. I know exactly what positions Minnesota Vikings fans want to hear about. And I'm hoping, I don't know if we have this information yet that a lot of players play in the senior bowl because I felt like last year, there were a lot of guys who were interesting to me that did not end up playing. And I don't want to see the game start to drift off as being not mattering at all. Like in the past, I know it's a little secondary to the practices, to the teams, but if you're not there, you want to watch a game and see some guys that you might be interested in.

And the Vikings have drafted a lot of players out of this game. Josh Metellus, Patrick Jones. I mean, there's a lot of them. so i want to start with defensive tackle now there's one name that has really caught my eye uh walter nolan out of mississippi who is a guy that i think the vikings could be very interested in defensive tackle is a position that they haven't invested much just in general whether it's money or if it's in draft capital but i think what we're really seeing sam in the playoffs is if you got those guys, it is worth its weight in gold. And I think the Vikings have to come around on that position.

So what have you seen from him at these practices and just in general, the defensive tackle class? Walter Nolan fits into the type of defensive tackle that gets the kind of freaky athlete bold, where he's able to hit these weird angles that most defensive tackles aren't able to into the type of defensive tackle that gets the kind of freaky athlete mold, where he's able to hit these weird angles that most defensive tackles aren't able to make, which allows him to get penetration against the offensive line and be disruptive. The interesting thing about this Ole Miss defensive line is I've actually seen all four starters now.

We have Ivy and Prince Lee Yu on the edge. J.J. Pegues was in Dallas at the Shrine Bowl, and Nolan is also at the Senior Bowl with the two edges as well. They're all killers, man. They're all very, very good. Pegues is a freak athlete who's kind of in the mold of like a Patrick Ricard where he can play tight end and fullback. He did that at Auburn.

He did that at Ole Miss. His explosiveness through his hips, his usage of hands when we talked to him was something that he focused on all the time. He's a great defensive tackle who is a little less than Nolan that I think may be a good fit for the Vikings, as well as Nolan, who should be right there kind of in that mid to late first round. And all of them have the same MO. They all are great athletes who are able to create difficult angles for offensive linemen. Thus the offensive lineman can't get their hands on them. They're able to

win with power, win with speed, make penetration in the backfield. And that sounds like a great recipe for the Vikings. Well, and I think that the Vikings have tried to make the most that they can out of the traditional run stuffing DE and a three four type of thing jonathan bullard jerry tillery harrison phillips and it's been okay like they've gotten a lot of pressure a lot of sacks by blitzing linebackers but i also don't think you could survive that way the entire time and what i see a ton of in the league is these stunts and twists and if you have dudes who are quick defensive tackles, you could start them in one spot and rush them in another spot. And it was causing hell for the Vikings against

the Rams and to some extent against the lions, because they have players like that. As far as the bigger picture, not just the senior bowl, it looks to me like there's going to be options in the first round. I'm thinking more as a first round, as opposed to the depth of the draft. Because when I look around, there's just not that many third, fourth, fifth rounders who make it at that position. That might be all positions, but I feel like it really shows up wide receiver, some third rounder, some fifth rounder becomes a star every year. I don't think that that's really true for a defensive tackle because it's such a freak show type of position. Right. I agree. And Tay Seth has done some great research that you can find on Summersports.com

about the way that these positions break down. And when you look at how the Vikings have built themselves, we're going to talk about philosophy here in a second. They've kind of built themselves along that philosophy. They have key wide receivers. They drafted at the quarterback position. They have two tentpole tackles on the offensive side of the ball. And then particularly at the edge rushing positions, they've been able to build through free agency, but those guys are very effective and thus they can slot in places at cornerback in the draft. There's some interesting people who will be at their slots there. And it'll be interesting to see. agree with you i think that this is a class that has a lot of freaky type defensive tackles there's none of the surefire

jalen carter-esque players i'd say per se uh where it's just this guy's gonna play every snap this guy is massive and this guy can also rush the passer i wouldn't say that's this class that's maybe more the edge rushing class for 2025 where it's just the guys who can do everything. But there are gaps that can be filled. I love that you pointed out the stunts, because one of the major takeaways has been that some of these guys are a little smaller at the Shrine and Senior Bowl. And ESP Bowls out of Virginia Tech is a guy that caught my eye yesterday, who was able to win with speed a lot. I was a little worried about how he would win with power. And then I started thinking to myself and looking at the trends that defensive callers were doing.

And you mentioned it, stunts and getting these guys involved and getting these guys moving, particularly when you have edge rushers that are very versatile like Greenard and Van Ginkle. You can start to work with that a little bit more. And once upon a time the minnesota vikings took an undersized defensive tackle and moved him out to the end sometimes john randall uh they would put him at defensive end and you could just move those guys around you see even not that chris jones is undersized but he is the quickness of an undersized player he plays defensive end sometimes and i think that's something that brian flores really wants

to do, but they've had no versatility at that position. They've pretty much just had traditional guys there. Now there's a couple other spots. Running back is one that normally I would have been Mr. Anti draft or running back high. And that would even go for second or third round. I would say, I don't know. Okay. That's something you could get in free agency, something you could develop from a later pick. The C's are a change in Mr. Brookhouse. It feels like running back talent is really shining through in the NFL and there's fewer guys that are sort of coming out of nowhere. So I'm more intrigued in the middle of the draft

at the senior bowl. What has your observation been about the running backs there? Are there guys that for a third round pick say, I should be keeping my eye on? I got to say, it's been weird just being at the Senior Bowl because it's tough to get a gauge on these running backs. And here's the reason why. A lot of these drills are either designed for them to outright win, and you kind of got to write it off. A great example of this is linebackers versus running backs, one-on-one and pass coverage. It's tough to glean stuff from that. A later round guy that I've loved all year from Syracuse, Kent Allen, he's a guy who was able to take a team that was okay last year, had a lot of transfers, like Kyle McCord, for example, and some guys had already been there, like a Rondae Gadsden, performed very well in the Shrine Bowl.

He was kind of a tentpole for them. And when they won tight games, it was because of LeKent Allen. He was able to show up in some of those drills that they're kind of designed to win by making tough contested catches, which typically isn't the case in those drills. You're getting more open catches that would be catch tackles for linebackers. But when you get in the team run periods, you can't really tackle. The whistle is blown very quickly so guys can stay off the ground. Me and Lindsey were talking about it. It really shows kind of the efficiency of the passing game versus the running game

and why we've gotten into that position, like you just mentioned, where perhaps you can pick up a running back from free agency because when a player would get first contact, if it was blown dead every single time, you're not going to get a ton of yards. That's why it's kind of hard to glean from the senior and shrine bowl. But the Kent Allen is a guy who has stood out to me and stood out to me all year. He kind of confirmed what I saw all year at the senior bowl. Do you feel it just in general about the running back position any certain way? Because I'm trying to weigh between overreacting to like, Hey, Saquon Barkley just did this thing. And Derek Henry with also that Jameer Gibbs is a top draft pick that everyone laughed at

when it happened. And then he's turned out to be a superstar player. And I think about the Vikings offense and how complete they are in every area, except for basically the interior of the offensive line. But I mean, tight end wide receivers play caller. They're good at the quarterback position, no matter who plays, it's probably going to be McCarthy and this running back spot. Aaron Jones was okay, but not a difference making running back. And it feels like when the running back is the final piece and not the only piece that they can make more of an impact, if that makes sense. I agree wholeheartedly. And I think it gets really tricky because you think of the New York giants who were on full display, their decision-making on hard knocks. And I don't really fault them. They went with Tyrone Tracy and Tyrone Tracy had an excellent year. It just

so happens that Saquon Barkley had a historical year behind two tackles that are awesome. And I think that's kind of the key here of when a running back can slot in and be good. We saw Aaron Jones kind of decline. I thought this year was a little bit of a return to form per se, particularly at the beginning of the year before injuries started affecting him a little bit. And I think the reason why, and also the reason why he maybe declined a little bit was Christian Derrissaw and Brian O'Neill. When Christian Derrissaw got hurt, this changed everything. This was something I was talking about with Sean Syed of the Stats and Skiing podcast, where you can't really think of a team that has two good tackles, that one doesn't have a quarterback that is either very good or overperforming, and they don't have an effective running game. Sam Darnold was another person who

really benefited from this. Jalen Hurts has benefited from this for years. Jared Goff, Jameer Gibbs have benefited from this. When you have two really good tackles, it really helps to slot in some talent behind it. It ends up working out well for the offense altogether. The Vikings have that, and I think that can really control the way they try to build this and the way they allocate resources, as long as Darisal is healthy, of course. Folks, I found something that I didn't even know how badly I needed. It's called Rocket Money. Like everybody else, I've got so many subscriptions to different apps and websites that I couldn't keep them all straight and it takes forever to try to figure it out unless you have Rocket

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Go to rocketmoney.com slash purpleinsider today. That's rocketmoney.com slash purpleinsider. Once more, rocketmoney.com slash purple insider. Once more, rocketmoney.com slash purple inside. Okay. Sam had to switch seats to get a little better internet connection here, but the perfect look now to talk about offensive guards, no frills, just grinding a Sam. Look, uh, the Vikings need guards. It's been my whole life for nine straight years. Every off season, I'm asked,

how are they going to fix the offensive line? And I say, here's a bunch of ideas. And then they never do them. And then they move a tackle, the guard, they bring in a Tom Compton or a Dakota Dozier. Who's been a career journeyman backup.

And then that doesn't work. This is the year to invest. But my question for you is where should the Vikings or how should the Vikings invest in their interior line? And this actually might include center as well. It's not really clear that Garrett Bradbury is going to be their long-term answer there as they want to have a deep passing game. So would it be free agency? Is there someone you like at the senior bowl? Would it be draft and develop philosophically speaking? If I were to tell you, Hey, you get all the capital you want draft cap space, go, go do your work. Where would you put that capital into to fix the

interior? So philosophically speaking, I think you can go into free agency and get some pretty good players. We've seen people be able to do this time and time again. If you want an example of that, the Carolina Panthers, who didn't have a ton of success in terms of the win column, but did turn their offense into an effective NFL offense, did this exactly this year, and it really paid dividends for them. They went out, they rebuilt the interior offensive line through free agency. All of a sudden, Chuba Hubbard becomes a guy who's in the discussion for Pro Bowl. Last three games of the year, Bryce Young is playing very, very well. The wide receivers didn't perform that well for him, but the reason that was is because he was being protected well by the interior offensive line. They were getting good push in the run game as well. We've seen teams like the Rams

do this as well. We saw the Eagles do this with Makai Becton, who will now be a free agent next year. And I think the reason why is, number one, year over year, we haven't looked at guard and center as a premium position as we do with tackles and cornerbacks and other positions like that. And so you're able to pick up these guys that just kind of are casualties per se. And then secondarily, a lot of the time, these guys are swing guys. If you're looking at swing guys in the draft early, someone like Kelvin Banks from Texas

who played left tackle this year, but is an elite talent at guard alone, that's a good guy that could fit into that mold. We like a guy named Gray Zabel from North Dakota State who's probably gonna be a more mid to late round pick. He's able to play center and guard, really able to sit down and be able to block with hands and destroy the attacks of the defensive linemen. So I think this meta of let's build through free agency and let's draft swing guys that may be able to help us at the guard and tackle position

should someone go down or at the center and guard positions to someone go down is going to be something we'll see more some names to watch in free agency. I mentioned Makai Becton, Kevin Zeitler, who was up there in Detroit. That's another name who was an all pro according to us, according to me, when we were voting for our all pro votes on Summersports.com. Another guy, Patrick McCary, who had an excellent year with the Ravens and the rebuilding of their offensive line as well. And there's more guys who are in that mix of big name guards who have performed really well that are going to probably end up being free agents and out there for someone to pick up and rebuild their interior. Yeah, I think I mean, one example I could think of for the draft was Connor Williams, who was drafted as a tackle out of Texas a few years back and then kept moving farther inside, eventually ended up being an elite center before injuries ended his career

prematurely. But he was a great player who moved inside. And I think that in the draft, if I were doing this, if Kweisi Adolfo-Mensah called me, I would say exactly what you said. You got to invest big money on these guys and they're worth it now when maybe once upon a time they weren't, but as the league changes, we got to change. And as the defensive tackles become more nasty and lighter, we got to have answers to that, a defensive tackle or an offensive guard. And if that means moving a tackle inside, well, then that makes a lot of sense. I also think that if you are a draft pick that I would look at tackles in the mid rounds and go, hey, do you want to be a swing tackle or a starting guard?

Because the tackle should be willing to do it now that guards are making as much money as they are. So we're kind of seeing this little shift from the traditional, these are the only positions you should ever invest in, which I think is how the Vikings got themselves into this, to no, you actually have to go out and try to find some of these free agent guards. And I think that the way Kevin O'Connell is going to play is going to be the quarterback is sitting in the pocket for a long time, waiting for double moves to play themselves out facing two deeps where he still wants to beat them with explosives. You just can't have guys who are, well, you know, we drafted in the sixth round a few years ago.

I guess he could start that. I just don't think that's going to work going forward. I agree. And I think the Detroit lions are a great example of this. Like I said, they go out and get Ziegler in free agency and then they draft Christian Mahogany late. Ziegler goes down, Christian Mahogany can play behind him as a end. It ends up having a pretty good year in the release spots that he did have. I think that probably could be a good formula for the Vikings this year. So let me ask you the question that everybody's talking about here with the Vikings. I'd say the obligatory must get every single person's opinion about what they should do at quarterback because every bit of reporting that comes out is uh nobody really knows what they're going to do

i don't know what they're going to do jeremy fowler just was out there today saying yeah i don't really know what they're going to do he thinks the raiders and giants would be interested in sam darnold but the question we don't know is just how far along JJ McCarthy is going to be by the time they get to training camp, by the time they get to week one next season. So knowing that neither you nor I know his medical information, how would you view the conundrum of the quarterback position for the Vikings? This is my personal view. I think the Vikings this year are uniquely set up to attack guard and free agency, which won't cost them a ton of money. It'll cost them at maximum $10 to $11 million. They have a ton of cap space. I think they can attack the cornerback positions and defensive tackle positions in the draft, which allows them probably to franchise tag Sam Darnold

this year. The franchise tag is coming in at projected about $42 million. And so if you build up all this cap spacing, you do want to let it go another year instead of doing something like they did last year, where they're bringing in some big money edges and spending money in other places. I think you probably do have the flexibility to do that this year, especially given you just signed Justin Jefferson. You can play with his contract with the cap and contracts and restructuring and stuff like that as well to create a little bit more cap space.

If you do want to do that, that's probably the avenue that I would take right now. The reason why, as you mentioned, is you do have a quarterback in waiting in J.J. McCarthy. I liked how he looked. I don't know if he's going to hit, you know, Jaden Daniels levels of success. But we've seen these types of offenses be able to kind of plug and play quarterbacks. We've seen KOC do it time and time again and be successful with even guys of a talent of like Josh Dobbs, for example, at least for a couple of games.

I think J.J. is definitely ahead of that. I think if you're confident in his health and you want to have another option, you want to stick with Sam Darnold, you want to bring him along slowly, you probably tag Sam Darnold. Other than that, I'm kind of more on the side of maybe just letting Sam Darnold go, letting him go to another team. I know that would be tough if JJ McCarthy comes in, but the question that I kind of pose to everyone is does $50 million taste good for Sam Darnold coming in right now?

Because that's what it seems like it's going to take. Now, if he's happy with a Geno Smith-level contract or a Baker Mayfield-level contract, 25 to maybe up to 40 just under the franchise tag level contract where you're able to stretch that out over years, continue to spend money under the cap. So be it, I guess. But at this point, that number makes me a little queasy for what we saw the last two games. Yeah. So this, as soon as you say that there's even any possibility of franchise tagging him, I don't know if you've ever seen the Ron swanson gif where he picks up his computer takes it to the trash bin

throws it out that's every person watching so just so you know that's where the fans stand they want jj mccarthy hands down don't even bring it up anything else i don't know if kevin o'connell feels the same way as the fans on this. I think there are complications on both sides. The complication of Sam Darnold to me is not as much the cap for 2025. It would be the cap down the road because if you restructure Brian O'Neill or anybody else or give extensions, that means that when McCarthy takes over, he's going to hit, uh, Oh, there's eight players on this team that are making 20 million, 30 million on the cap. And eventually the check comes due with that. So you could hurt yourself long-term. There's another part of it that I don't know how to weigh the Vikings, just projecting out,

look like they're going to have a really difficult schedule. And I know it's hard to say, but when you're playing the AFC North, you know, those teams are going to be good. Right. And when you're playing Philly, you're playing Washington, you know, those teams are going to be good for next year. So do you want to see your options are Sam Darnold's clearly going to regress or at least the team will and not win 14 games. Or do you want to see JJ McCarthy with no experience whatsoever, go up against Mike Tomlin's defense and the Ravens and the Eagles and all those things. And I think there's one part of me that says, Hey, throw him to the wolves. He's going to have to play good teams and whatever.

And there's another part of me that says, if you wait another year, there's no downside to that. There is downside to having him play his first year with such a difficult schedule,, there's no downside to that. There is downside to having him play his first year with such a difficult schedule, but there's really no, and no experience this year, but there's no downside to him developing for another year. We've seen that work for a lot of great quarterbacks. I think why this is such a troubling decision is because both of the options are unknown. Sam Darnold won 14 games. We have no idea what an average Sam Darnold-led Minnesota Vikings team looks like.

And then on the flip side, we literally have no idea what a J.J. McCarthy-led Vikings team looks like. And so it's really two roads diverged in an unknown wood because we have no idea what is going to happen. You say that Sam Darnold's clearly going to regress. I'm of the belief of that. But at the same time, the unknowns of rookie quarterbacks is a lot scarier than what we saw from Darnold this year, even when he was bad.

I mean, they were still in games against really good teams. It ended up taking a tailspin at the end. But I don't want to say that maybe we could have lost a couple more games and gotten a little clearer picture, but it would certainly make the off season feel a little bit better, especially after a first round loss that one would have expected from a team that would have won less games. I think of order of operations all the time and just how the order of things shapes our view. And just for example, if something different falls and the NFC West, you're playing Seattle in the playoffs and not the Rams, and you're such a better matchup for Seattle and Darnold plays really well in one game and then goes to Philly and has a really bad game. We might just say, well, you know, Hey, it's easy to start Darnold next year, easy choice. And they'll just have to get some better guards and another couple of corners. And then they could play with Philly next year. But the fact that, or if they had lost one more

game in the regular season, then the 18 week 18 game means nothing and they don't even play them. And then we don't have two games that feel like playoffs and he just loses one. It's really shaped the view. He played like a top 10 quarterback and that's a hard thing to recreate. But I guess what the counter to that would be is I think we learned he can't win the Superbowl. It's just too many weaknesses in Sam Darnold's game to actually win the Superbowl. And if you're not chasing that with so many veterans on the team, then you should be chasing J.J. McCarthy

playing for whatever he's going to be over his rookie quarterback contract. It's very interesting. I'm a huge basketball fan, and it's almost the exact conundrum that the Golden State Warriors found themselves in, where you really play extremely well in basketball. That ends up being a title,

but you're trying to rebuild behind it. What's the proper ratio of doing that? It's a little easier in football because you can turn over in a year, but you don't want to sacrifice a 12, 13 win team a year for a middling quarterback who could be gone in two years. I don't think that's going to be the case. I'm a little bit more confident in J.J. McCarthy per se than I am in Sam Darnold for the next two to three years. But it's a truly difficult problem to approach. And it's more difficult when it's

going to come at the account of cap and contract situations down the line. And then you'll find yourself in a position like the Cowboys are now where they're juggling Dax contract at any given point in time, but they can't really get rid of them because they can't replace them with someone better. Then all of a sudden you have a wide receiver that you have to pay. You have an edge you have to pay. And that's just the way these things play out. You try to keep a long-term view while maintaining in the short term. I think that move is probably starting to lead the horse to water when it comes to J.J. McCarthy.

So one thing that we have to keep in mind is it is a good place to be, and they could potentially trade away Darnold. Or if you have to wait for another year of J.J. McCarthy, it's not the end of the world compared to where a lot of franchises are with their quarterback positions, where they're lost in the woods and there's no one good to draft, and someone's going to have to work harder to sell me on cam ward being like the next great quarterback in the nfl so uh anyway let me let me just get your take on this before you go is the nfc in general the just overall outlook of the nfc i think we have a clear top two teams to look at

as like the or three at the very top for next year. If you were just picking right now, give me your Superbowl odds for the NFC. You would say Philly, Detroit and Washington. Where do the, I mean, right.

They're going to spend, they got cap space, Jane Daniels, right? I've been, I've been discussing this so much, man. And it's really worrisome.

And that's why I was like, like, so, so floored because I've been thinking about this a lot. We all thought the same thing about the Texans last year. It's true. With CJ Stroud, and the pieces didn't fall correctly across the offensive line. And for better or worse, the commanders have a little older offensive line. Their better players are Sam Cosme, who got hurt, and Biotis, who got hurt. And then they're going to lose a lot of guys. Deami Brown is now a free agent. A lot of the secondary is now a free agent. A lot of the linebacking core is now a free agent. And I could just see so many moving pieces that if Jaden

Daniels has a little bit of a sophomore slump, as we saw CJ Stroud, I wouldn't be as comfortable saying that they're going to pop up. I'm comfortable with two. I'm comfortable with Detroit and Philly. You're right. And Bobby Sloak was getting head coaching interviews and then fired. So no, you're right. A lot can change.

I, I look at Daniels as being more undefeatable because even if his offensive line, isn't the best, he can run for a thousand yards. And those guys are just magic in the NFL. But let's just accept the premise. Where do the Vikings then fit in, in most promising futures in the NFC? I think you have to rate them in the NFC North first because they have to play those teams all the time. And now the Bears have been Johnson. I think they're probably still over the Bears. Like I said, they have two great

tackles. And if those guys are healthy, they're going to have a good offense or at least a suitable offense to match their defense on the other side. So I'd put them over the Bears. The Packers is another discussion. I probably still put them over the Packers for that same reason. I trust their defense. I trust their linebacking core in particular. And I trust their two tackles. And I trust Justin Jefferson. I can't say the same for that many players for the Packers.

So that automatically puts them kind of in the upper echelon of the NFC. I still probably would stick with them over a Washington or over some of the teams in the West. But I really love what the Rams have done. They were able to defeat the Vikings as well. I think just in terms of what I expect for next year, I probably still expect a little bit more from the Vikings than the Rams or the Seahawks. 49ers, real wild card with what they're going to do.

I probably like the 49ers just as a healthy team, a little bit more than the Vikings. So that probably slots them more in the four, five, six range in the NFC. I think for the Vikings, there's a few things that they have to have click for them. I mean, number one,

clearly is JJ McCarthy into the future, but I also think Dallas Turner too. I'm certainly willing to give, and we see this from Nolan Smith or Jason Owey or Adafi Owey from the Baltimore Ravens. Like there's a lot of guys who in their first year, I believe Khalil Mack had four sacks his first season, like who takes some time to develop at that position of the edge rusher and opportunity wasn't there for Turner, but he's going to have to be a huge player for them in the future if they're going to get there. And this year's draft with four picks right now, Sam, is absolutely enormous.

And they don't have the highest draft picks, but I really think they have to crush this. And they have to find some of these better core players who are young because they can't just go into free agency every single year and be like, okay, we're just going to spend all of our money. Because eventually those contracts are going to catch up with them. And the thing is, is they're going to be very targeted in the draft, I assume, which leads you to the, the, the, the job of picking for need, which is a little tricky. The Eagles are in a spot every single year where they can just pick the best player. We saw them pick two cornerbacks last year, not just one. It ended up working out for them because they were just picking the best player. I think given the limited draft resources that the Vikings have, it's going to be tough to probably do that this year. They're going to have

to fill holes and it starts to get trickier and trickier year by year, the good thing is, is there's a lot of teams facing these problems and those teams don't have a Justin Jefferson or a Christian Derrishaw or any of these guys. So they're in a good position, but a tough position at the same time. Right. And I think coaching development for Brian Flores matters too. I always feel like he's going to get more out of everyone than you expect. Okay. Well, let me get you one quick prediction before you run. We didn't talk about the Super

Bowl at all because I'm going to be honest. Vikings fans are just not that interested in the Super Bowl. Who do you think will win the Super Bowl? I think the Chiefs are going to win. Here's why. I think the Eagles have the better players. They have my Lada and they have Lane Johnson, Jalen Carter, and some good rookies in the back end, but think the Eagles have the better players. They have my Lada and they have Lane Johnson, Jalen Carter, and some good rookies in the backend, but the chiefs have the more important players. They have Patrick Holmes,

Travis, Kelsey, Chris Jones. We've seen them do it too many times. It's going to come down probably to the end. Patrick, my homes book. It,

if it comes down to it is going to run for a first down, put the game away. It's going to be the chiefs. In my opinion, I haven't decided how I felt about it yet. Uh, but I am proud of you. We went a whole show without you talking linebackers. And as a former linebacker, usually you direct conversation back that way. It's your growth as a broadcaster, Sumer sports show. Lindsay Rhodes is on this show all the time. She's the best. She's going to be coming up from super bowl week, Thomas Dimitrov,

former NFL GM involved as well during your draft coverage. Phenomenal stuff coming out of Sumer Sports. So I'm really glad we could get together for you in a dark hotel room in Mobile, Alabama at the Senior Bowl. People should follow you to get all of your coverage from there. Great to get together with you, man. You're one of my favorite guests. I'm glad you could come back on.

Yeah, thank you. This is one of my favorite shows to do. And the Vikings are a really interesting team to talk about. So I'm glad I was able to do that. All right. Thanks again, Sam. Thanks everybody for listening. Catch you next time.