Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - The Athletic's Alec Lewis is seeing GOOD SIGNS from JJ McCarthy in minicamp

Episode Date: June 11, 2025

Matthew Coller is joined by Alec Lewis of The Athletic to react to what they saw of JJ McCarthy and the Vikings and the team's latest minicamp practice.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Hey, everybody. Welcome inside TCO Performance Center. Matthew Coller here along with Alec Lewis of the Athletic to break down a very compelling mini camp practice that we just saw and I really want to talk more Alec with you about the mini camp and OTA the spring as a whole because today's practice didn't have a lot of news. It was a slower practice. I'm expecting to be a little more intense tomorrow, but there isn't like a throw by throw that we can do for JJ McCarthy. So why don't we begin with your breakdown of

McCarthy and then I got a little game for you to play here going forward, which I know you're very excited about, but I am curious to hear because I've given my opinions and my viewpoint over the last few weeks on what I have seen from OTAs and mini camp from JJ McCarthy, but I have not asked you what you have thought of his performance so far. So tell me and everyone watching. Yeah. First, thanks for having me. Always enjoyable to be on the show. Uh, looking forward to speaking to all you listeners out there, wherever you might, uh, be your game, um, is always, you know, every time you asked me to come on the podcast, there's a hesitation because I know you've got something planned that is going to put me in a compromised position, uh, you know, with the

journalism ethics that I try to keep on a day-to-day basis, uh, as far as JJ McCarthy look like, um, I think the best way I know to describe it, and you've probably, um, said similar is if you pause time at the end of last year, um, like after right before that preseason game, right after that preseason game, and they didn't tell me anything that happened after that. And then your press play these last few weeks, I would, I would have a hard time deciphering the difference between those two images, videos, throws. Like there is unquestionably a zip on his throws that differs from the other guys we see out there. And that is comparable to the quarterbacks who have started in this league

and had success in this league that I've seen up close. There have been plays where like he gets picked off, but I have said on my show and in writing many, many times that this is like the equivalent of watching Scottie Schaeffler on the range before a major golf tournament. Like you don't know what pin he's aiming at. You don't know the club that he's taking out of the bag to hit on the range. Um, and so unless you get that information in the aftermath, by talking

to people, it's really hard to, you know, have a real feel for what you saw overall, um, the fact he's been out there every day, uh, the, the, the really hard to, you know, have a real feel for what you saw overall. Um, the fact he's been out there every day, uh, the, the, the accuracy that he's kind of displayed the athleticism is obviously there. It's everything that you would, you would want to see at this point in the calendar of what is going to get a lot more. Uh, I mean, you know, the eyes are only going to increase as things get to training camp, but I have no like hesitation to say that it's been, it's been kind of everything I hope to see at this point.

The caveats just have to be said. There's no way around that, that it's not enough information to really make any sort of real conclusion about what he's going to be in the upcoming season, but we can make observations. And I think the biggest observation that I've had is how he's going to be in the upcoming season, but we can make observations. And I think the biggest observation that I've had is how he's throwing the actual football. And I do agree with what you said that if you went from the end of training camp and brought it back and it looks the same, but I think that even just the accuracy and consistency of throwing the ball accurately has been better in this camp than it even was in training camp where I feel like there still was and I even mean just where the ball is being put on wide receivers. The timing is going to take work and that's the only thing that's been a little off at times, but it always is in OTAs at mini camp.

It even was with Sam Darnold where we were kind of freaking out over his arm talent and his connection with Jefferson and mini camp last year. But even still that took time during training camp and I think with the actual results. Now it's interesting to ask everybody their viewpoint on an interception that someone throws and one of these is like, what did you see? What did you think of that? Was it the decision? Was it how he threw it? Was it a great play from the defender? And it's sort of, that's what we do in football and makes it fun is that everybody can watch it and kind of have different viewpoints and so there's been a couple of interceptions

there worth talking about what exactly is happening there, but I think the bigger broader picture for hey, how is JJ looking is it's the physical part of it. This is a guy coming off of a very serious injury where he could not throw a football for a really long time. And now he's back throwing the football and looks every bit the part of a quarterback one. You mentioned it if you walked out onto this practice and there were no numbers you did not know

what JJ McCarthy looked like you've just been watching football practices a long time. You would have no mistake of who QB one is. And the other part of it for me is that the practices have run smoothly. And when someone is way off at the quarterback position, it is choppy. It's ugly. It's players looking around. It's coaches having to constantly talk to somebody. What's going on?

That we have not seen a lot of that. Those are the types of things that I would say it's on track for the best case scenario. That's how I would put it is I haven't seen anything from McCarthy or the offense or O'Connell or McCown or the receivers that would make me go. What what's going on there? Not really a single time during this OTAs and mini camp. Yeah, the two things that I want to say the first that is probably important you talk you you talk to people out here every day Just like I do and the one thing that that

We don't talk about with as professional as it has looked is How much they're putting on his plate right now, which is a lot like they are not This is the one aspect and I've said this many times, um, and written it like Kevin O'Connell is this positive guy. He's incredible in interviews. Um, he displays himself very optimistically, but he does not like run from a challenge or refrain from wanting to challenge guys. And in this camp specifically, um, they have done a lot of like throwing

the entire book at him and seeing how much he can handle. And, and even like with protection calls, yes, Ryan Kelly probably has the answers with certain stuff, but they're not like having Ryan spoonfeed him the answers in this type of camp because you know, that's guardrails that you maybe you'll have if it, if it calls for it, but it's not necessary now as JJ's kind of exposed to everything. So I think that aspect of how they're trying to bring him along is a very positive one and is a very sequential type of process that's probably important to consider.

And the other thing that I wanted to say that is just piggybacking off what you said, like this is a very like physical type of evaluation right now for us. There's no, like until the past rush is bearing down on him and things are moving at the speed that only things move in game or in like legit full speed environments, you can't really get a feel for the processing speed, the decision making that ultimately typically dictates why guys succeed or why guys fail. So, um, I'm with you.

Like nothing that I've seen out here gives me any pause to believe, um, that come the fall, like he's going to be ready to rock and things are going to be smooth. It doesn't mean it's going to be perfect. I don't expect to be perfect. I expect there to be training camp practices with the fans in the stands or joint practices with the Patriots out here where it's like a bad day and there's, you know, tough throws, there's interceptions on video and all of that. But like it to, for me, that's not going to be enough to overreact because I just, I have a lot of faith in the process, uh, ultimately that

they're kind of putting it through to get to that point. At every different level of a practice and then preseason and joint practice, as you mentioned, I think we just have to change what our criteria is. And for this one, it was, does he look like the JJ McCarthy that impressed us so much at the end of training camp and in the preseason game last year, there aren't enough full speed reps to go well, you know, his rhythm and timing and feet and eyes are off or on or things like that. And even doing completions and incompletions is pretty silly at this point. But when we

get into training camp, the first part of it is still everybody getting back in the mix. But once those pads come on to me, that's where it becomes results for me, where you want to see a lot of completions. You don't want to see the ball hitting the ground. You don't want to see him taking sacks. You don't want to see slow processing, which he has not ever had since we've seen him out here. The processing part of it, I think, has been pretty good. And I was just thinking about today about how

JJ McCarthy has taken in so much information, but think about it as if you were going to, like, if you're a golfer and you watch... I try to be. You try to be. Me too. Watch a million YouTube video lessons from Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson. And you spend eight hours watching all these lessons,

but you play one time a week. This is kind of me. And can you, that's a lot of information you have and you know what to do, but you have to make your hands and arms and all that do it. And I think that that's McCarthy where there's going to be probably some time when we get to training camp where all this information has been crammed into his head. So he knows it all. He knows what to do, but then he has to connect the physical elements to it. And we'll have some patients for that. But once we get into joint practices,

those are Kevin O'Connell's preseason games. Like those are his games that matter the most for evaluation more so than pre season. And I'll be curious to see how much JJ actually plays in preseason because I think where they're really gonna treat it like this is what we need to accomplish to show where we're at is those joint practices. Okay so here's the game because we just didn't have a lot of updates I didn't see Darasaw out there today is that right? Can I? Can I? I want to give the

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mixed in, mixed in with some of those like second team groups. I just, I've got my eyes on this guy and I just want these fans to remember because here's the thing in this role. If he hits a man, they remember this is if he never, no one ever talks about it. So it's a win-win for my standpoint, you know? And that's how it is as a writer, you're putting yourself in win-win situations. I have also noticed them. I have on, on a daily basis, he had an interception where he was falling out of bounds today in a goal line drill. He had a pass breakup in OTAs in a goal line drill kind of, you know, some might say that he's long and lanky.

He's like, there's a lot of physical improvements out there. That's like the best thing you could, that's the, like most you can glean, honestly, from some of this. And you're very good at gleaning when players are long and that makes them winners of this time of year. But when it comes to players who have stood out to me and O'Connell said it's a passing camp. So, I mean, hey, Jordan Mase is really frickin big. Whoa. But that winner sometimes people want to know what Donovan Jackson looks like. You're like big. His passing.

Yeah. I mean, if like looks good out there, just doing nothing in team drill. But when it comes to guys who have actually caught the football, the one who has stood out to me is tight end Ben Urasek. Okay. Undrafted free agent tight end that they gave a decent little amount of cash to on a daily basis. Georgia.

He's made, yeah, I think he's made some plays for them out there and that, we haven't seen Gavin Bartholomew much. He must've got banged up in one of the practices because he was at the first one, but we haven't seen him since and I think that that tight end three thing is wide open for Ben Urasek if he could be that guy to step up. He's big. He's got good hands and you know, we'll see. So, there's your there's your camp, your mini camp riser so far. Uh here's

how the game works. In order to get really all of your takes out of you, uh, from mini camp and just with the Vikings in general, what I've decided, I want to call it player pass. So I am going to give an opinion of mine that I've probably talked about on the show at some point, and you can either say that you want to play and you want to break down that opinion and go back and forth on it, or you could just say, that's not that interesting to me or whatever. And I'm going to pass.

Okay. That's fine. All right. So I don't know what you got. I'm curious. All right. Yeah. That's the best part.

So here's the first opinion yesterday on the show. I made a very large announcement that after watching JJ McCarthy through this OTA and mini camp thus far, that I have changed my wins prediction for the Minnesota Vikings. And also I'll throw Frank Ragnar retiring into that. That's a huge deal. Uh, I had him when I picked the initial schedule at 10 wins. And now I have moved it up to 11 wins. Would you like to talk more about that or do you want to pass? No, I'll play. Um, I mean, look, I've said this, um,

and written it for me, like, yeah, with what you've seen from JJ, I think that's integral. It's, it's the other key aspect. And like we've talked about this kind of in the media room around type is like health is just such a pivotal factor in that eventual number. So it's difficult. It's, it's difficult to prognosticate, even though that's our job, oftentimes, you know, what ultimately can happen. So you're, I mean, 11 wins is, I mean, to me, if you went 11 games with JJ in his first year, that is a, an, an immense success. You're in the playoffs, obviously at that point, the question for me, I mean, the other

aspect is like the schedule is pretty difficult. So I mean, you're, you're expecting them probably to be able to navigate some of those like mid season stretches that are pretty tough. So I, I don't think it's the craziest thing in the world is that's why I'm willing to play on this first opinion. Well, I think a big part of it for me is that yes, it's going to be more difficult than last year because they don't play the AFC South, which was just four free wins for everybody. Thank God we don't go to Jacksonville. My goodness.

Not my favorite either. Uh, got really soaked and then had to fly home after that. And it was a very uncomfortable experience. Also watching the game was not my favorite either, but it is more difficult. There's no questions more challenging and because of the uncertainty that exists with a quarterback that we've never seen play in the NFL. You can't just say, oh, well, they won 14 last year. It should be 13 or 14 this year and just do all the same stuff.

But what they did, I think, was mitigate all the things that were clear reasons that they didn't win in the playoffs and problems. They addressed all of them. If you went into the offseason with an entire checklist, it was five or six deep. You need another running back. You need to fix the interior. You need a little more receiver depth.

You need an interior defensive line pass rush presence that everybody at the combine, all the GMs and coaches were being asked about after the Eagles won the Super Bowl. How are you going to recreate that in the playoffs? And there's also enough questions for me not to go back to 14 wins either, because we're still not entirely sure about how this secondary is going to play out.

There's a lot of bets that they're making there that could hit or might not. And we don't know exactly what there will be a learning curve for JJ McCarthy. But what is that learning curve look like last year for Bo Nicks? There was a dip in the middle of the season in one game where he had like negative 10 yards at halftime. And he kind of came out of the other side of that and turned out to be a playoff caliber quarterback. How does JJ McCarthy navigate the ups and downs? I think are tricky, but to figure out and prognosticate, but we also know

what this offense and what this supporting cast does for quarterbacks. There is a reason Sam Darnold was the best version of himself. And I've also just been wildly impressed with Justin Jefferson. I mean, okay, yeah, obviously, but he's here and the mentality he's taken on, I think is even developed. And he said it when I asked him and he said this was important to me for just studying him and

watching his progress as a superstar player when he said he was not really comfortable being like that leadership guy and last year he proved to himself he could do it. They need every ounce of that this year. I think they've got that. I also think veteran teams win. Everyone loves young teams. They just love them. Oh, they've got so many recent draft picks. They got whatever. And then you get to the playoffs and you know, it doesn't always work out. So I think veterans know how to stay on the field and they know how to handle very complex things that are thrown at them from these coaches and that should guide them. But the division's hard enough that you can't really start going 12, 13, 14.

And I agree with you on a lot of that. I mean, this offense has produced 4,000 yards passing every season that Kevin O'Connell has been here. And I mean, you said like the, the, the floor with the receiving court, like TJ Hawkinson to me, um, is probably due to, it probably motivated to, um, you know, have a full season, take what he kind of generated over the course of the back half, um, specifically that, that the end of that bears game on the road, like I remember I was pretty impressed there, but I just feel like Hawkinson is probably wants to get back to the close to the level of production he

had in 2023, which was, I believe 90 catches, um, that year, the, the other question for me, besides obviously the uncertainty with JJ, the health overall, like defense doesn't tend to be as sticky year over year as offenses. And so like, yes, Brian Flores has shown a willingness to evolve, to push the envelope, to maximize the talent. Um, but like, can you sustain the level of run defense that they've had? Can you, you know, create the level of turnovers that they created last year that to me, like if I was betting and putting my chips on it, like I'd probably

say that I expect this defensive staff to maximize these guys again, specifically with the improved interior, um, with Blake hash for another year in the system with Theo Jackson, who I really believe in, but that is another area where like, if that wind total doesn't hit the, the, the place that I think, you know, you hope that it hits or you believe it might hit, um, that's probably another aspect of it that you kind of just assume on the outside, like Brian Flores defense is going to be a certain level. It's just so hard to for that to bear out year over year. Well, and normally when it comes to run defense, I would say it's okay.

If you don't have a great run defense, it's not okay. This year, when you go through the teams, they're going to play right out of the gate. It's Ben Johnson. I don't have a great running back, but they do have a good offensive line that they've rebuilt and then it's Atlanta and it's Bijon Robinson and they know how to run the football as well with Zach Robinson is their offensive coordinator and okay, you face Joe Burrow, but then you get down the road a little bit. It's the Lions

again, Washington can run the football with their quarterback. You have the Ravens. You have the Eagles. Even the Dallas Cowboys have traditionally been a running team. That's pretty effective. I don't know if they will be this year, but you're playing the two top running backs in the NFL from last year quarterbacks who have been consistently great in the running game. And if that is a major weakness, then teams are going to be able to possess

the ball a lot more than they were last year when they were stuffing the run. You know, stay on the field a lot more. And sometimes when you hunt explosives as an offense, then you don't stay on the field as much in terms of times of possession. I think that that was problematic at times.

I do think that McCarthy will play a little bit less of a I'm always going to look for the downfield shot like Sam Darnold did, especially early on. And I don't blame him for that. It was very successful, but it did result in sometimes, oh, there's a three and out. And then the other teams got the ball. And toward the end of the season, I thought the defense did wear down

with the other teams being able to possess the ball for a long period of time. That is one of those question marks that we'll have to see how it works out with the new rotation, the defensive line. They need somebody to step up, which brings me to my next play. I knew your segueing suit. It was coming. I can see your, right. Now I could ask you before we move on over under 10.5 wins.

Um, I'd have to go through the schedule. on over under 10.5 wins? I'd have to go through the schedule. That's like the Vegas over under I think right now is eight and a half. I'd say I hover around 10 is probably like where I'm I could go right under. I could go right over. That's probably where I'm at. I think eight and a half is a fairly easy one to go over on right now. From what we've seen, 10 and a half is much harder. Let to go over on right now from what we've seen Ten and a half is much harder Let's move on to the next one and again That's a one you could just move on from this or you can talk about it if you want to

Is there go I think that there is going to be a major impact of the decisions that are made in The kick returning game you want to talk about or not play your pass that are made in the kick returning game. Do you want to talk about or not? Player pass the decisions that are made by the Vikings around the league. No, I mean, Matt Daniels, who is the part returner? Who is the kick returner? We talked to Matt Daniels today. I think it's going to have a big impact on this upcoming season. Play your pass. I'll I'll I'll I'm kind of going to pass it. Is that all right? All right. I like Silas Bolden, by the way, the undrafted returner guy, but I, it doesn't, it's special teams. I, I can see why you'd have the opinion, but I'm passing.

I just think with the increased kick return, I'm going to defend it and then we'll pass to the next one. I think with the increased kick return likelihood of volume, because they're moving it to the 35, that who they pick to put back there, if it's Isaiah Rogers, if it's Ty Chandler, they have potential to make plays there and actually might have to be a little creative. You passed, so you have nothing else to say about this. I'll think about it for next time. And they don't have a punt return right now. They do not have a punt returner. And so can Silas Bolden make it? Is it going to be Jalen Naylor? I feel like that's risky.

Is Rondale Moore here to do that? They have not decided yet, but you cannot speak anymore about that. Okay, I will say that Dallas Turner is going to finish this season with 7.5 sacks and two interceptions and, and a PFF grade of 74.8. That is my opinion. Would you like to play on that or would you like to pass? Absolutely playing. Let me start you with this is his primary position at on the edge on the line of scrimmage. I think so. I think what they'll do is they will rotate more van ginkle because last year they asked van ginkle to play every single Snap and that was unbelievable. That was a lot. I mean and Grenard too. So I think they'll rotate

I think they'll move them to both sides and on third downs. There will be opportunities for him to free rush at the quarterback I'm thinking that it's really a Patrick Jones-like role, don't you? I mean, Jones leaves, he just slides right into that role, and maybe it's a little more dynamic than that, but they had Patrick Jones drop it back in coverage, and you pointed out in your article yesterday, his great play out here in coverage

that just shows freakish movement skill that we know he has, and also, there is just a long history of guys who do not get a ton of sacks in their first year and then take that big step the next year. I feel like he's going to be doing a lot more rushing than he is dropping back. I don't think it's going to be 12 sacks, but I think it's a, it's a big jump kind of like Nolan Smith made for the Eagles last year. Yeah. The other comp that to me is, is just as applicable is Nick Benito.

So Nick Benito, for those, the uninitiated, if you're listening to the Perp and Sider, you probably know Nick Benito, but he's a Denver Broncos edge rusher who was drafted in the second round. He played at St. Thomas Aquinas, just like Dallas Turner did. They both worked out together in the Miami area. Nick Benito, his first year played like 357 snaps. I know that off the top of my head, 357. So same amount of millions of dollars of Vikings are spending on this current roster right now. Um, 357 snaps his first year, very minimal production.

And then if I'm not mistaken, second year had around seven and a half sacks. Um, and, and then last year was like an all pro type player at 13 and a half sacks. So that arc, um, is, is sensible to two interceptions. That's lofty. But again, you mentioned the play yesterday in coverage like he, and he had the pick last year against Gino Smith in Seattle, um, in the second quarter of that game in the flat, like he has the ball skills to be able to do that. I mean, my question ultimately will be how much is he playing off the ball? Um, and, and, and like, is that taking snaps from a Ivan pace? Is that taking

snaps from a Josh Mattel is potentially who played a lot in the, in the, as kind of, as kind of an off-ball linebacker, the Patrick Jones role, like it's, it's sensible. A guy who's an edge rusher just slides inside, but Patrick Jones probably weighed. I want to imagine maybe like 10, 15 pounds more than he did. So it's going to be really interesting to see how they use him and then what the eventual snap count looks like. It was 300 last year. Does he get to 600? Like what, what is, I think the question for us is like, what is the, what should the expectation be and what's a fair

kind of number there? I'm going to go 560, 560 snaps. That seems to me like it's a very significant role, enough on third downs especially to pick up sacks and make plays. And the interceptions are based on one time I was watching them last year and they do this drill where they have the guy drop back and then they just like kind of whip the ball at him. Most of the guys who are outside linebackers it kind of just bounces around. Dale's Turner was swiping that thing out of the air like he's a tight end. Like he can really catch the football. And I think if they throw it at him, and sometimes we see this with Flores,

where those blitz is where you're sore, those simulated pressures, you know, you're sending for somebody drops back, you don't know where it is. And then all of a sudden, uh, Russell Wilson doesn't see anything and throws it right to him or whoever's playing quarterback Jackson Dart by the time they get to the Giants. I could see a couple of picks, but I think the snap count and the sacks sacks are a goofy stat sometimes because everybody gets paid on sacks. You go to the Hall of Fame based on sacks, but it's only 10 plays for Jonathan Grenard

out of a thousand plays, but the 80 pressures for Jonathan Grinard are just as valuable as the sacks because that's consistently throwing the quarterback off. And so if you're talking about him dropping back in coverage and making a nice play in coverage that doesn't get noticed because he's just in the right spot, well, that's going to be a plus for us watching him, but it's not necessarily going to show up in that box score. I just think that there's so much talent on this D line and that's going to be a plus for us watching him, but it's not necessarily going to show up in that box score. I just think that there's so much talent on this D line. And that's what we never talk about with young players is

what you can surround them with last year. He didn't get to play as much because of that of that which may ultimately benefit him. But now he's surrounded with past rushers everywhere and somebody is going to come free. You can't double team everybody. You can't sort out every single type of different blitz and stunt and twist that they're going to send at them. And,

and we've just seen this from the DJ Wannums and the Patrick Jones, that that role tends to be the one where other teams get somebody lost in the shovel, concentrating so much on the other edge rushers that there's some free runs to the quarterback. Folks, I'm trying a new thing in order to stop going to fast food restaurants all the time with my busy schedule. It is called Tempo Meals. Tempo is a weekly delivery service

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is offering my listeners 60% off your first box. Go to tem tempo meals.com slash purple insider. That is temple meals.com slash purple insider for 60% off your first box. Temple meals.com slash purple insider rules and restrictions apply. You said stunts and, and in and games like in twists and stuff. We haven't seen a lot of that because again, like you said, it has been like a passing camp, but that's where I mean, in another year where, where the guys who have been in the system can continue to learn like the grenades and Van Gankles who probably know a lot of the system anyway, your Blake cashans, your Ivan

pace, um, with the amount of fear that the interior guys can now strike into opposing offensive lineman, like the, the possibilities with being able to loop guy like in Dallas is athleticism allows for that. But you, you like you mentioned his ability to drop into coverage. And then last year there was that one sack he had can't remember the game where it was like, I don't, his shoulder got so low to the ground, that it was almost unfathomable how he, how he was able to kind of grab the edge. Like you can understand why the people upstairs two floors above us would have been willing to acquire a guy. He is. Um, and then he has the mental makeup to want to have gone to Alabama when he could have gone anywhere in the country. He went

to a place that is like, I know I'm the Alabama guy. It's kind of a joke, but like that program was you talk to people around it. It was like a pretty militant style program, um, comparatively, and you're not catered to, like it's all about proving yourself. So, and the other aspect, I mentioned the off the ball play. If he does play off the ball more this year, like the responsibilities that you have to learn to be able to do that, you probably can't pick up as a rookie in, in the league. So I, um, I'm, I'm fascinated to see what happens with Dallas Turner this year because I, I do believe in the talent

and it's, they just have, have a lot of it. So that's one, I don't know if like the fans will respond to the amount of interest that I have in it, but I really am very curious about it. I think it's one of the harder places to be for covering a player when he's going from year one to year two. And you just don't know. Because we've seen this go either way. We've seen players who have had struggles in their first year and then just nothing happens and they never take that next step. Lewis scene would be one of them.

Also Laquan Treadwell a few years back where you go into year two, you kind of hear the reasoning, okay, he's going to take that next step and then it just doesn't happen. I don't know that there's a good way to project it But what you have at least with Dallas Turner is you have these flashes you have the increase in snaps And then you have the trust of the organization to not go get another edge rusher in free agency Which they could have they could have they've still got cap space. They could have added one more guy That sounds like another opinion to jump into whether you can decide to pass or play. I am 100% in on the idea of Jalen Ramsey. I think they've made several moves that look just like Jalen Ramsey on this roster.

I don't care really what it takes. I think he's a top 10 corner in the league still. And if you can add that to this group, then suddenly you're not asking yourself, well, can Mackay Blackman do it? Can Isaiah Rogers do it? You're saying, well, we can rotate those very talented players who are less proven. I mean, Isaiah Rogers was just a rotational corner and depth on a team that won the Super Bowl. That sounds pretty good to me, Even if they love Isaiah Rogers, but him and, uh, Jalen Ramsey with Byron Murphy playing a nickel roll and switching in and out. That sounds elite to me. I'm playing this opinion. I'm not as into the Jai year

Alexander because I just don't think he's going to play a lot of football games, but you're going to play on this. Okay. Yeah. I'm playing and it's two, two separate opinions to react to your opinion. One, number one, I do strongly think that they need another cornerback and some depth at the position. And it's not because I don't believe that buyer Murphy jr. Is a stud. Obviously I really Isaiah Rogers, you go back and are, if you're a lunatic like me, you go back and watch some of the tape from last year when he did get in. Like there's a game against the Rams where he played and he's like, you know, competitive at the catch point with Pooka Nakua is it's, it's pretty impressive.

And then he obviously he started in the past before the suspension for the gambling situation. Um, and then even Jeff Akuta, who I know, like you look at the PFF grades, terrible. Um, you, you like, you, you know, anecdotally, there's a lot of reason to be skeptical, but his skillset, his length in this specific system, I, they will maximize what he's capable of. And then McKay Blackman, I still believe in, I talked about them. I have on Dwight McGlendon. I like, so I, they will maximize what he's capable of. And then McKay Blackman, I still believe in, I talked about Zamiya Vaughn, Dwight MacLennan. I like, so I, I liked the room, but in the event that Byron Murphy goes down or that Isaiah Rogers goes down or that Jeff Okuda

goes down or McKay Blackman, like, I mean, really those, those first three and specifically Byron Murphy or Isaiah Rogers, like I don't feel comfortable then if I'm relying on Isaiah Rogers and Jeff Okuda and, and McKay Blackman probably as my main, main trio and nickel. And you know, just as well as I do, like the odds of a cornerback getting hurt are pretty high throughout the league. So that's my first point is I strongly think they need another cornerback for death.

Now, Jayalen Ramsey, specifically, I I'm not total. I'm not nearly not even remotely close to us bought into that as you are. And it's mostly just like from a fit standpoint, it's twofold. One from a playing standpoint and production standpoint, they're like, you can look at a lot of things and I admittedly need to watch more film to verify this, but talking to people throughout the league, I'm not sure if there as much. Yeah. I'm not sure if there I, and I have, because I'm curious. I'm not sure if there's, there's as much belief in the, his ability to like play every down corner as it seems like you have at not every, not play every down, but be like as impactful as I think you're talking about.

And then the other aspect of the two prong as you know, thing with Jalen Ramsey is like from a fit locker room, all of that stuff, just from, from conversations. I'm, I'm not totally sure if I'm all the way bought in there. Now, Jair Alexander, like you said it, he hasn't been able to stay on the field. He did. He went out on the coin toss in Charlotte because he's from Charlotte and he thought that's something you could do. And then like just all the stuff with Justin over the years, it's kind of a little silly. But the thing with Jair would be, it would probably be a more one year type of prove it situation. So a player in that of that ilk is probably more of where I'm, I have my mind focused on than the Jalen Ramsey, but I know you're, you disagree with

that. Well, I don't know Jalen Ramsey's personality. There is a guy who runs this football team as the head coach that would know a lot better than me. So if Kevin O'Connell told me, hey, yeah, but here's what I think about. So just bat take basketball. For example, I love basketball. There was a big fan dribbling shooting got a game tonight. It should be good.

And we had to wait six weeks for game three, but here's my basketball comparison to this is somebody studied the playoffs and who wins, who loses, and why? And one of the conclusions that they came to was that a team like the New York Knicks, one of the reasons that they lose is because they have weak points, that they have weak links. And we've talked about this for different parts of rosters. The offensive line is a good point, where it was shown by a PFF study a few years ago that you can survive one bad offensive lineman,

but you can't survive two. And we saw that from the Vikings last year where you can get away with it for long enough, but if you have two weak points, you can't double somewhere. You can't help somewhere twice. You can only do it once. And I think that that applies. I think the secondary is like defense in basketball, especially these days

with everybody playing zones all the time, that if you have two weak points in your secondary, then teams are going to find ways to take advantage. Now, I don't know if Theo Jackson's going to be a weak point or not. I think he's pretty good. We've seen a lot of camp practices and we've heard a lot of testimonials, but we have not seen it. And the same thing kind of goes for everybody in that group, aside from Byron Murphy and aside from Harrison Smith.

But everybody else in the secondary is based on testimonials more than it is actual data. For Jalen Ramsey, this is data from last year where he's the top 10 PFF corner playing 1,000 snaps and well disgruntled, still put up a pretty darn good performance and I think also on a team like this how gruntled can you be or is gruntled the good part of it how disgruntled can you be when you end up with a team that has a great culture and wins and one last thing to say about it is just that there

is a switch that gets flipped on where it's time to do everything. And I think that moment is now for the Vikings organization. I think you can take risks on these things because you have to. And we see this where even like a Kansas City Chiefs where one year they go out and get Kadarius Tony and it's like, okay, I guess and then he has a game winning Super Bowl catch for them. Is that a great move to trade for Kadarius Tony? Not really. Did he really produce what they expected? No, but he made one play that got you over the top and I think someone like Ramsey is a guy who can

get you over the top and give you more flexibility, more depth, more options there. And it's just time. If it was last year, I would have said, I don't know. I don't know if it's time yet. Two years ago, I would have said, definitely don't do stuff like that. Now this is the moment where winning teams make that one extra play for somebody. I want you to get to the next opinion. Cause these are phenomenal. But I mean, they, ownership is really in this team has really told us that they kind of believe that as well. They've spent $357 million on the 20 foot 25 team, which you don't do if you're like, yeah, it might be time. I don't know. Y'all want to spend 357, which is more than any other team in the league is spending in cash on their 20, 25 roster.

Yeah, let's do it. Why not? Who knows if it's time? I mean, it's, there is a serious commitment right now to what this team could be. And that's where I'm with you in that you don't want to look back. I mean, goodness, if it's like, man, if we just had added that one more piece for the secondary, that would have, you know, allowed it to rise to the level, um, that it, you know, was that we needed it to, like, you don't want to look back and, and, and kind of regret that being a possibility. Now they could look at it and say, you know, we think the past rush is going to be so good that the quarterback is going to have to get the ball out that we don't, you know, we have enough faith that we believe in Mackay Blackman.

If he has to step in, that's where I, as the analyst in my role would be like, I don't know if I have that level of faith, faith that you do, but they get paid to make these decisions. So, um, it's, it's, it's an interesting and it's a worthwhile conversation. I think. All right. Next one is Jalen nailer is going to catch 44 passes for 557 yards and six touchdowns this year. And the next best receiver, so it'll obviously be Jefferson, Addison, and then

Nailer, the next best receiver will have nine receptions for 82 yards after those three guys and of course, health pending. I don't see any real competition behind them yet and this is not to disrespect Ty Felton. I think he's gonna need work. Uh we've seen him mostly with second and third teams out here as he should be developing at this point. I think Naylor took a very clear physical step forward and this is a big year for him contract wise. I I believe it's gonna look more

like KJ Osborne. And I think that McCarthy's gonna spread it around a little bit more than Darnold who I think focused a lot on getting the ball deep to Addison and Jefferson. I think there's a little more layers to this. I just don't see, unless there's injuries, other guys who are going to compete with that big three this year.

And again, that does not say what Ty Felton's going to be in the future. I don't know yet, but for right now it's those receivers and Hawkinson and Naylor I think is set to have a big year and then make $13 million in free agency next year. I'll play the opinion just to say that I agree with you. I mean, Ty Felton, you know, I've had a lot of questions. You, you've probably gotten similar questions like, how's he looking? Is he the wide receiver three? It's like, yes, Jalen Ehler dropped the ball in Los Angeles in a very key spot. And there was another drop last year on deep pass that I'm somehow blanking on Tennessee.

Yeah. Um, but like in general, he knows all the positions of the offense, which you and I both know is complicated and complex and takes time. Um, you said the thing about his, you know, how he's reshaped his body, but I've been on, been on the front lines reporting about this, uh, I know it's integral to everybody, uh, but that's, that's, I'm, I'm only playing the opinion to say that, that I, I, I, I, those numbers might be a little high. I mean, we, Jordan Addison, you mentioned Jefferson and how much

you're impressed with him. We haven't talked about Jordan Addison at all this camp, which is a good thing because it probably just means he's here doing what he does. But what he does just impresses me every single day. Like Justin is out there and he's got the gold cleats and it's in, in, in Addison's got swag unto himself as I mean, I shouldn't be the one, you know, opining on swag, but like Addison is, he just moves so fluidly. It just looks so easy for him. He's been out here every day. He's been very engaged every day. Um, and I just, I,

you know, and I mentioned what I already said about Hawkinson early in this podcast and the beliefs that I have in terms of what he wants to probably accomplish this year. And, and among those three, um, that in my opinion, that probably leaves a little less than 44 opportunities with that. That doesn't, I'm not minimizing Jalen Ehler being a key cog. Well, and I'm factoring in a potential suspension for Jordan Addison and just, you know, maybe even just get banged up a little bit. That happened last year. I agree with you on how he's looked out here. It's plays every single day. It's deep routes. It's going up and getting it, but we've reached the point where it's like, yeah, that's what we expect from him.

Next opinion for you then that one probably should have been a pass if we just sort of agree. Uh, but, uh, our first time playing the game. You know, I'm not right. I mean, it's like any game you're going to make mistakes. And that's really as a, as a young, young player in the league, it's about, is the teaching and learning phase. And so that's the, that's the process that we're undergoing.

Right. And that's why I'm not judging too harshly because I think if we're just on the same page, then you could just say we're on the same page. I'm gonna pass. Okay. I like talking this. Okay. How about this? Will Reichard this year? I'm not passing on anything Reichard related. Will Reichard will make 92% of his field goals this year and show that he can take what he did in the first half of the season into an entire season and he'll make the pro bowl. What is his 92% like? Where would that rank? Oh yeah. I was like, if you know this answer, that'd be incredible. I had to get out. Maybe I'll look it up. Well, if you see, if the

game is, if I agree with you, then pass, then I'm up. Well, if you see if the game is if I agree with you then pass Then I'm passing see this is the thing but then I'm not gonna get to talk about little Rikert Which is my favorite pastime no, so if you agree but have like a lot more to say I Don't have much more to say. I mean it's will Rikert. He's he's steely. He's fiery he doesn't say much the injury last year was very unfortunate with the way he'd been kicking the ball. But I, I have questions about a lot of things. I don't have questions about that guy and what he's capable of. Okay. That's probably a pass then, but that would put him in the top 10. Okay. It would put them in the top

10 of it. Yeah. You pulled up the kicking stats quickly yeah I did yep the top kicker in the league last year by percentage was Nick Fulk at 95.5 percent that was twenty four twenty one for twenty two and the guy who took more than 30 chase McLaughlin from the Tampa Bay Bucks was at ninety three point eight okay percent 92 is pretty high at 92 say it'll get you into the top ten and so that means I need to factor in this Now that I'm thinking of it now you really got me on it. I mean kicking in Dublin. What's that gonna look like? London he looked great last year. I remember In Tottenham believe he made like two field goals from depth. I don't know how I remember that. Uh, it was raining though that day.

So he's proven that he can kick in the elements, but there's, there's, there's elements this year. Let me try for a Kevin O'Connell angle here. And we, and then I got one more to wrap up that will make you, uh, that you have to play. Yeah. Very, very squirmish. Trying to make this into an opinion rather than a question. Usually I'm

asking questions. Kevin O'Connell question? Usually there can't be coach of the year twice, but this might be a unique situation where you're taking a rookie quarterback, essentially rookie, and not truly, but essentially, and you're trying to take him to the top of the division again. I'll say that if the Minnesota Vikings win this division, that Kevin O'Connell will get coach of the year consideration finalists.

I got to make it hotter than that coach of the year again. How about that one? You want to talk about O'Connell? Yeah, I'm always up for talking about Kevin. Um, I mean, man, it's back to back coach of the year is hard to envision mostly because these awards, it feels like you just go to the hot thing at the time. But I mean, if, if you're, if, if what happens is 11 wins, 12 wins, JJ throws for 3000 yards. I mean, I don't, I don't,

is that, is that enough? I think 3000 yards doesn't get you anywhere. 3500. I mean, what's it for your 4000 yards that you got to be close to 4000. He's done it every Kevin has had a quarterback here throw for four. I mean, they've thrown for 4,000 every year, but that's the, I mean, that's you're probably right. If you get to that point and JJ is the talk of the league and the Vikings win this division, that is as difficult as it is, and they beat Detroit and, and, and maybe like Ben Johnson struggles a little bit. And part of me is in this conversation, trying to, trying to imagine who else do

I expect to be like in that conversation? And I know this is a Vikings podcast, but like is Todd bowls in Tampa Bay? They have a great year. That's a conversation. Like I don't, I don't know who else you, you toss into the mix, but if they have a season that is in the 95th percentile of what is expected or whatever, like it's going to eat it. And Kevin, you know, just as well as I do, he'll be on, he'll be doing interviews and, and we'll blow people away in that setting and, and, and that'll help his

cause. That's just part of, I mean, what has made him it's, he's just incredible in that environment. I'm not, I can't even minimize it. Well, there's a few different guys in the NFC that have like pretty clear paths to that. Ben Johnson would be one. If you get the Bears back in the playoffs after they've been such a calamity, you are going to get that attention. How about Dave Canales with how down the Carolina Panthers have been for a long time? If one team like say, well, how about even just a retroactive almost Dan Quinn? If the Washington commanders are number one in that division, they beat out the Philadelphia Eagles. You could see that. And you know, maybe some,

I mean, I don't know if Pete Carroll makes the playoffs, could they give him like a lifetime achievement coach of the year award? I don't know. It was really more about with Kevin O'Connell last year, we were having a lot of discussions about like, is this real? Is this quarterback whisper thing that you love so much and keep saying all the time in the media room and writing all the time constantly at the athletic? Is that is that is that something that like we were saying last year? Is that really real? And we're going to have kind of a test case.

And I remember writing about the over under, like if they can't win six and a half games, this guy is just not a good coach. They've their their adversity though has been under a different context than what it will be this year. So last well even go back to 2022 adversity. They didn't have a lot because they won every game at the end. They also had a ton of veteran players and it was his first year and they were exceeding expectations by so much and they everyone's sort of riding this roller coaster the second year the quarterback goes down so even as frustrating as some of those losses were and we criticized the Brandon Powell tush push and you

know Josh Dobbs throwing 35 times when they were running the ball well against Chicago and things like that but even then all those sort of came along with, well, look, you know, I mean, they don't have their quarterbacks. What are you supposed to do here in hall against the Packers? And I was also very patient for that season in general, because it was a roster reset type of year. So I didn't think that their roster was really worthy of a team that was seriously competing and last year had the very much magical whimsical they were really good as a team and Sam Darnall goes to that next level. So we've really never had a year where the pressure is what it is and I'm sure every NFL person could say to me well look there's always pressure it's the national foot but

when you get coach of the year, you get a huge contract extension, you win 14 games, you change quarterbacks, and then you spend the most money of anybody. And now you are under the white hot light as a team that should be seriously competing for a Super Bowl. And in 2018, this happened the same way. And the Vikings collapsed under that.

I'm not saying that's gonna happen. I'm just saying we've seen it. We've seen a lot of teams that they get that off season hype and they get all that attention, everything else and the pressure mounts on them. And it becomes a very different world when things go wrong. I think there is probably a ranking of which coaches would you want to try to bring your team through tough times, ups and downs. And O'Connell would be very high on that list for me right now. But that's just something that is going to be a true test

of him this season that we have not really seen before. Well, it's a, it's a, it's a really tough, it's going to be a tough balance for him. And I haven't, I'm not sure if I've thought about this until now, but it's like, on one hand, if the quarterback play isn't at the level that, you know, you, you, you really need it to be, to be that elite team. It's like, well, God, I mean, this is first real opportunity, but on the other hand, it's like, well, you have such a veteran team, you spent so much on this team, you have so much talent that like, it's, we can't really excuse.

Like not rising to that level right now. And that push pole is tough because, and I just have to say this, like I can see both sides. I can see if I'm Kevin and I'm like, what do you really expect for this guy in his first year playing quarterback? But then I can also see the fans being like having spent all this money and having not want to play off game in three years. It's about freaking time that that happened. So it is definitely a different set of circumstances that he is operating under,

that this team is operating under. And I think, I mean, it's just like, you, you know, this like everything. That's why these seasons are so fun. It's because the, the, everything, the circumstances like provide an entire landscape for thinking about things differently. So it's, it is going to be very interesting. But if, if they, if he shepherds JJ through and this team through and they win 12 games and they win this NFC North, I mean, it's, he's going to get a lot of praise deservedly. So, and so that's, that it's, it's, that's just kind of

the nature of it. No one is ever getting that award two years in a row no matter what but I thought it was a good starting point for a conversation. Good. I I just think in general that and this is not the last one but I'll give you the last one. So you're gonna have to play the last one.

So you really only passed on one and then you should have passed on another. I don't duck but you haven't been hot takey enough really. You don't think so? I thought I've turned it up for you. I mean I was given Dallas Turner, 7 1 half sacks, and Naylor. That was a lot. I mean it was. Okay. You stick to your job, I'll stick to mine. But I just want to finish that part with it because you mentioned the, well you know they have a new quarterback and he's young and so forth and it's about winning windows two or three years or however you want to look at it. Here's how I look at it.

If you could have brought back Sam Darnold and you could have signed Aaron Rodgers and you chose to go this direction and this was the guy you drafted and you didn't bring back Kirk Cousins and all that, there are no he's young excuses. And if I've seen other quarterbacks at this same age and experience, go to the Super Bowl, go to the NFC championship. There are young excuses. And if I've seen other quarterbacks at this same age and experience go to the Super Bowl go to the NFC Championship. There are no excuses. This is a team that should be legitimately competing for a Super Bowl period and anything short of that is a disappointment and missing the playoffs would be in a massive massive disappointment.

That doesn't mean fire everybody that just means the bar shouldn't be couched for me because you've been building for three years for this. You have a roster of veteran players who signed here to compete for a championship not to develop JJ McCarthy, Jonathan Allen, Javon Hargrave. They didn't stop by Ryan Kelly didn't stop by to be like, Oh, maybe two or three years. We'll see. No, they came here to compete for a championship. Now go do it again. anything less than that is going to get criticized for me.

I I'm not moving on that standard. Um, unless there's a quarterback injury. So that's fair. It would be interesting though. Like if there were a level of injuries that like wipe out the clear ride evaluation and then you enter next year, it's that'd be a weird place to be probably. But I, I understand. I understand that.

But I mean, I also like, what is the realistic expectation of a guy in his second year playing this position? Like a realistic expectation. And now these circumstances raise the realistic expectation to a certain level. But I mean, and, and look like super bowl or, or in championship, like I get it. And I want that for these people who tune into the show and to read my stuff. And I, or, I mean, like I really do. Um, and I, like, it's not my job to root, but you, I just care about people and their

happiness levels. And so that's, that's the situation, but I don't, it's, it just, it is asking a lot of the quarterback. It is. And I mean, that's that this, but it's the pros, I guess, asking a lot. That's, that's, that's what it is. That's how I look at it. Uh, no, no, uh, trophies for participation this year for me.

I, because I've been so in support of this entire journey of how they've gone on with the roster taking it down, building it up, drafting McCarthy, but you support this journey and are in favor of it to get to a point where you're competing for a Super Bowl. Now that has to happen. And okay, I mean, if they go to the divisional round and lose 34-31, I don't think we're going to say like what a disappointment that was, but I think you got to be playing on the divisional round games or it's,

I mean, cause then you start talking about going four years without a playoff. If there's no playoff win after this year, it's, that's going to be tough. I mean, it's, and it's going to be very disappointing for everybody. So that, that I will say that, um, that'd be pretty tough to see. Okay. Just the last one that went longer than I expected, but just the last one. So keep this one short with your reaction. I haven't really truly thought this out yet, but I'll just off the dome here, come up with the JJ McCarthy stat line for this season. I knew you were going to do it. All right. Sack percentage of no, I'm just kidding.

Uh, his quarterback rating under pressure is no. Well, what I saw on Twitter is that he's 9900 of 920 best. He's had the best OTA since Tom Brady is what I've seen. I saw some clown write an article probably using AI that he had broken Tom Brady's record for OTA touchdowns. And you know what? I'm here to confirm it. I don't know what I actually true here to confirm it. Actually true. Let's go with the stat line. Yeah. Here's a reveal. Here's a stat line. 530 pass attempts for 3,852 yards, 26 touchdowns,

11 interceptions. However, it equates to a 96.8 quarterback rating and a PFF grade that ranks him 11th in the national football league. I mean, what do you want to do with that? I'm, I mean, I gotta say something. What I want to say is if that ends up happening, I mean, everybody should be ecstatic. That's that's, I mean, what is, I don't know what Jordan loves first year was after, you know, in his third season, Deshaun Watson before, I know we all have opinions about the Sean Watson, but like he was good at, at the beginning of his career in Houston. I, I, I would be mild. And this is not a knock on JJ at all. Like

I'd be mildly surprised if it's 38, 50, 26 and 11. I mean that, that's, that is, it's very, that's a very solid year for a guy in his second season coming off the tour of meniscus. I'm not saying it's out of the realm possibility. Definitely think it is. But to me that's that's you're really near in the high end. Anything less you trade. No, I'm just kidding. But like that's that's the thing.

Like if it's like 21 touchdowns 15 picks 3450 like I'd now I'd have to see it all play out and I'm sure the emotions will live or die or rise or fall based on how it actually looks because I'm a human and that's how things go. But like even that, I think I'd come away being like, you've, you feel pretty good that this guy was able to stay, stay healthy for the full year and be accomplished that, but I don't know. Maybe I'm, maybe I'm, my expectations are not high enough. My, the key number there is 11, 300. healthy for the full year and be accomplished that. But I don't know. Maybe I'm, maybe I'm, my expectations are not high enough.

My, the key number there is 11th best quarterback in the league for me, because I looked at PFF grade, QB rating, and the completion percentage over expected of all the quarterbacks that made the playoffs last year. And the average ranking of those quarterbacks was 11th. So if you can be the 11th best quarterback in the league, I think that's where you have to be to give yourself a real shot at winning something going into the playoffs. I don't think that now Jalen hurts his PFF grade wasn't that great. There was the injury didn't

throw that much. They ran like crazy, etcetera, etcetera last year, but if it's going to be very, very hard in a team that passes this much to just be the 17th best quarterback in the league and seriously compete for a championship. So that's where I think the line I don't you don't need them to be number three because I think you can win without that. But if you're not thrown for 3,800 yards, then you're probably ranking in the bottom third of the league and passing. They need to be better than that.

I think they need to be a top notch passing offense in order to be a serious contender or at least be playing like that through the second half of the year. I'm going to be patient with bounces up and down and bumps along the road. But I think at the end of the day, you better be talking about having one of the better quarterbacks going into the playoffs for how someone's been playing recently, or it's going to be tough. Here's the one thing we haven't talked about this entire podcast, the run game. Like I thought about it. Yeah.

I mean, that's like, that is going to have to take a major step. And we haven't seen anything in these practices, realistic that involves the run game. So scheme, no idea gap scheme, zone scheme, anything. And it's not the sexy talker that JJ is. So I don't, I don't mean to like go here, but I just, I've been thinking about it. If that is not with the interior improved with Josh Oliver extended with Jordan Mason, the fold, if that doesn't take a serious leap with as much too high safety

shell as they're going to face because they have the receiving core that they have, then you're not going to put JJ in a position to be the, the, to, to produce the way that, that, I mean, we're, we're talking about right now. And so like, I get why we don't talk about it on the front end, but I almost want to, because it's just, it's just so important in my opinion. They have to be a little more 49ers-y than they've been in previous years, which the benefit of having a really good run game, as we mentioned earlier, is that you have the ball a lot. If you can consistently run and you can convert on short situations, which they did not do really at all last year and there's a lot of

big benefits of that the play action off of it which they've been good at drawing up but can you make it can you increase the percentage in which you can do it so if you run that's my thing with the run versus the play action you can still succeed in play action without running well but when you're running well you're in a lot of situations to do it. And JJ McCarthy at Michigan was tremendous running play action. He was really good in the preseason game. We've seen him in training camp

that I think he's very comfortable under center and in that kind of environment because of where he played in college. So there's a real serious trickle down effect of that. And everything on paper says you can do it. We haven't seen them actually do it. They also haven't really had the pieces to do it. We haven't seen them actually do it. They also haven't really had the pieces to do it. Um, but I'm just, I'm going to pass on that one for right now though.

If you were asking me to play or pass on the run game, no, the JJ thing. I mean, um, no, it's, it's, it's, it's good to be thinking about that, but, uh, I'm telling you, if we get to the end of the season and it's 3,800 yards, 26 touchdowns, 11 interceptions, I will be, I mean, I'll be like salute. That was, that was very well done. Well, the only reason that I would pass on it is that we'll play again sometime. You know, we get this once. So corny. Once summertime arrives, I get the porch podcast going and then it'll be a good time. And then it's training camp, but off we go. So Alec Lewis, the athletic, make sure you go check out his

article coming on Ryan Kelly. I assume is who you're talking to today and a deep analysis of Dallas Turner. I think you want to talk to his friends, his family, 37 people that he's ever talked to. That's exactly right. That's what we do. It's it's hardcore journalism, long form, uh, reporting over at the athletic. No, it's, uh, it's been good. Thanks for having me as always. I, um, I'm looking forward to like a month off and then, I mean, this training camp,

you know how it's going to be. It's, uh, you got to bring you gotta bring your reporter's notebook out there. When you're not talking about, as we have in so many previous years, like well, you know, I mean, if this guy, or maybe that's not the way we're talking, I think it's a different place to be for people like us, and it is exciting.

So thank you all for watching slash listening, and do subscribe to the athletic because a lot of big companies are hiring AI to write their articles. So it's always good if you could support your local beat reporters. Thanks everybody for your time purple insider dot football as well and we'll catch you later football.