Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - The Athletic's Chad Graff previews Vikings-Patriots joint practices

Episode Date: August 11, 2025

Matthew Coller is joined by The Athletic's Chad Graff to preview what we'll see at this week's joint practices with the Vikings and Patriots at TCO Performance Center. The Purple Insider podcast is presented by FanDuel.

Welcome to another episode of Purple Insider, Matthew Collar here. And look who is back on the show from the athletic New England Patriots reporter, Chad Graff, formerly of the Minnesota Vikings beat. And it's a return for you and half of the New England roster coming back to Minnesota. I was just looking at the roster. And I was like, Kyris Tonga, nice guy. I wrote a story about Kyris Tonga one time. I mean, there are deep cuts, there are former stars.

It's going to be a heck of a time when the Patriots come for these joint practices. I want to start with you, Chad, with this. Is it as big of a deal for Mike Vrable as it is for Kevin O'Connell? Because O'Connell at every single press conference has talked about how much he cares. And I mean, every single one he has brought up these joint practices. I think O'Connell is downright giddy to see his team go up against the Patriots and the practices that matter to him, honestly more than any of the preseason actions. It's the same way for Vrable.

Not quite. Brable's kind of the old school. He's got a little Mike Zimmer to him of like just a nasty tough football guy. The kind of guy who last week at joint practices when they had the Washington commanders in town legitimately, and I know you may have seen headlines about this, those headlines were not exaggerated. He jumped into a skirmish involving. offensive and defensive lineman and comes out with this big gash on his cheek that you'll still see in Minnesota because it was that bad of a, you know, gash that he comes away with from jumping in.

So he's such a football guy that when you ask him, you know, are joint practices more important? What do you think about the preseason? No, no, today. It's like these one-on-one drills are so important behind me. Like, this is what matters. And so I wish it were the same way as Kevin O'Connell because I'm as jacked up for these as Kevin O'Connell. Mike Ravel probably won't admit that even if he feels similarly. Well, I think Vrabel is just jacked up for all football all the time.

Now, we do have some precedent, though, in terms of how seriously his squad will take it. When the Vikings practiced against the Tennessee Titans, it was serious football. And that's what I like about covering these joint practices is that they are violent. They are aggressive, except for it takes out the risk. But these guys go out there wanting to show out. And we don't know yet whether Justin Jefferson will practice in the joint practices. But in years past, he has taken it like personally to go show the other team that he's the best wide receiver in the NFL.

Fans who get tickets to these really get to see quite a show. And I want to talk about the importance for both teams because for the Vikings, we've seen J.J. McCarthy take one series in preseason. We've seen him practice every day against a really great Brian Flores defense. and there have been ups and downs. I think it's been more up than down. But to see him in a real environment versus another team is a very big deal. I think for O'Connell and the Vikings to know how far they have to go before the start

of the season. Are the Patriots viewing it the same way with Drake May? Yes. What's kind of been fun for me as I, you know, follow your work and still a bunch of Minnesota writers is that there have been so many, you know, mirror moments of God, the defense looked really good today. and, you know, is this the offense struggling or is the defense just that good? So this is kind of, you know, a chance to see it against a different group.

And that, to me, is where Drake May comes in of it's all been very elementary for him so far. He's not asked to push the ball down the field, which is kind of a bummer considering how great his arm is. He's in Josh McDaniels' scheme. It's a lot of, you know, remember Wes Welker, Julian Edelman, it's a lot of those over the middle, crossing routes, shorter stuff. So I'm excited, you know, it's all been entry-level classes, basically, for Drake May at this point. He's about to go against some Ph.D. stuff against Brian Florence. And I just want to see how he handles that. Like, he's got the athletic traits. He's big. He's fast. He's strong-armed. But I want to see, like, the makeup of, hey, Harrison Smith is at the line of scrimmage? And when you look up from your play action, he's going to be 20 yards downfield. Can you handle that? What is that going to be like for you?

It has not been perfect for Drake May. I think a lot of people saw, hey, they've got Stefan Diggs, and they've got a real offensive coordinator now in Josh McDaniels. And maybe this is, here he comes, year two, leave. He's about to be Jaden Daniels. I haven't seen that quite yet. Doesn't mean it's not going to happen, but it's been smaller steps.

It has not been what I think a lot of people here pictured, which is he's going to be out going 14 for 15 every practice, just torching this Devens. It has not been that. And so I just want to see what the offense is going to do. Like the Patriot's offense has been so boring, so stuck in the mud, the least explosive group, not just, I think they were second least last year. They were at the least explosive group the year before that.

And the least explosive group the year before that, there's been no juice to this offense. And so it's basically all on Drake May's shoulders. Hey, kid, go do something crazy. Is that, you know, the best way to usher in a new quarterback? Probably not. but the kid might just be talented enough to do it. Here's what I want to do. Since you're a reporter, I'm a reporter,

why don't we ask each other questions? So that was my first question about the Patriots. What do you want to know for me about the Vikings as we go? And it's a joint podcast, really, as much as it is a joint practice. There you go. So today at practice was surprisingly

a decent amount of like prep. And it was a little bit weird for me where they've got the offense on one side and it's Drake may run in these plays and they've got the scout team defense going against it. And Brable had them put on, you know, jerseys pennies of Vikings players. So there was zero for pace and there was 22 for Harrison Smith.

So it's a little bit jarring for me to see Harrison Smith supposedly running around out there. But from afar, like I think we've all wondered outside of Minnesota, do they have enough talent on defense? Can Brian Flores actually like come up with, cobble together some crazy stuff to make this happen again? or like is the lack of talent and maybe talent on the secondary in a corner actually going to catch up to them? What has it been like so far with the secondary and the defense in general so far practices?

No, it's really interesting. I mean, the defense has been dominant and a lot of that just comes from the front seven. Like Hargrave and Allen are everything that they are cracked up to be. They are in the back field all the time. And then Jonathan Grenard has been taking over these practices because Christian Derisaw is still recovering. from his ACL injury. And then what we've seen is Dallas Turner. First round draft pick didn't play a lot last year, really take a step forward this year in his body and his pass rush

bag, which has left J.J. McCarthy, I think a little frustrated and KOC a little frustrated at times. Like, guys, you can't create a pressure every single play. And there has been a lot of Tom Foolery with guys coming up, dropping back, giving different looks, which I think it's a copycat league, there will be a lot of people doing the same stuff in the NFL. It's not just going to be Flores like it was last year. But I think that that's made the secondary look pretty darn good is the fact that all the quarterbacks when they're throwing are under pressure. There's also a guy where's number 18 who has not been practicing, which also helps them look better. At the same time, when Brian Flores makes bets on players, we tend to lean in the Flores direction. So they go out

and get Isaiah Rogers because he's a guy that Flores has liked for a long time and he's looked really good so far in practice. And even with Jeff Okuda, Jeff Okuda is the classic former top draft pick. We're going to reinvent this guy. We're going to reinvigorate his career. And yet here I am going, maybe like I see I see what you're doing. Like I see how he fits into this role that they did that for Shaq Griffin and Stefan Gilmore last year where those guys played really well in a similar type of situation. And then even losing Cam Bynum, Theo Jackson comes in. He's making plays every day in camp.

So I think when those two are tied together, like if you took the Viking secondary and you just put them on the Jaguars, they might not hold up as well. But the fact that they're here with this group, I think that it's going to work because the pressure on them is not going to be as much. But this is going to be a really good test because you have one of the best route runners still in the NFL coming in. It's Stefan Diggs and, um, others, other people, Mack, Hollins and, um, yeah, that guy from LSU who was pretty good for a little bit there, yeah, those guys, those guys will really test

the secondary. Well, it's funny because I was, you know, kind of paying attention, 22 jumps out to you when you're watching the scout defense. But then, and I, I just kind of had to think about it for a second of like, okay, seven, I know and then that's like 26 and I'm like 26 who's 26 on the Vikings so just there are a lot of guys similar to that back end of the Patriots wide receiver depth chart that make you pause and think really is that is that guy good but what Floresa actually has been which is wild and you know to go big picture it was always fascinating to me what Robert crafted pivoting so quickly after

Gerard Mayo's disaster to Mike Rable and I always wondered if he was going to bring in Flores because that Kraft is probably one of the more influential owners who could thumb his nose at the NFL if he wanted and said, this is my guy, we're going to go for him. He didn't. I think that had more to do with his relationship with Ravel than it did with anything with Flores. But that whole dynamic has been so fascinating to me of if Flores goes and takes this roster of guys on the back end and does what he did last year and has that devens playing like they did, how could you not give this guy another chance at head coach. I know there's obviously issues, things that you need to hear about from him specifically. What are you going to do at quarterback? How are you going to develop that

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You could see a scenario where some team would just say screw it, because even if he is still suing the league that may get resolved eventually and, you know, people can move on. But I think there's probably a franchise out there that has, you know, a quarterback that's good, but it doesn't have a defense that's any good. And they feel like we're just that one defensive mind away. But you're right. I think Brian Flores real cheat code is not just that he blitzes, throws a lot of stuff, the offense. I think it's his player evaluation where they know who they can move on from. Like, Cam Bynum's a really good play. But they know they have Theo Jackson, who the whole world does not know a thing about,

but yet he's a practice legend. Every single day, he's got a pass break up and interception. They've been seeing this guy for a year. And the same kind of thing goes with Rogers, where it's like, okay, who is this guy? He's played 500 snaps. He was suspended for gambling for a year. Like, what are we doing here exactly? Then you see him in practice.

You go, I get it. So the outside world has a lot of questions about the secondary where I feel like from watching practice. I'm pretty okay with where this unit is at. Let me ask you about the unit of the Patriots that I think is going to test the Vikings the most. That is the defensive line. I think the defensive line of the Patriots is going to give the Vikings the most problems, especially if Derisaw still isn't in there. And then Will Fries at right guard still working back from that leg injury, didn't have a great preseason game and who I'm really watching close. Donovan Jackson first round draft pick did not also didn't have a great preseason debut.

I'm not saying like hit the panic button, but you know, you really put a guy like that under a microscope because J.J. McCarthy cannot perform if he's getting pressured a lot, which he has been during practice. So where is that at with a 20, is it $26 million, Milton Williams? More. He is now their highest paid player, the highest paid player in franchise history even. And so this is where I think that matchup is going to be really interesting over the next couple of days is the Patriots have a good pass-stress from the interior. Christian Barmore, who, you know, I remember sitting with you and we were saying the Vikings should draft Christian Baramore when he was fallen to the second round to go all the way back to whatever year that was, 19 or something like that. But their interior is legit. Barmore, Milton Williams, they're going to be very good, you know, in fairness, they're going up against Scarrett Bradbury every day. and Bradbury has had his hands full.

You know, we all know, his strengths, but also his weakness against bigger, stronger defensive tackles. And, you know, I can think back to like Akeem Hicks in some of those matchups against the bears that didn't always go great for him. But the outside pass rush for the Patriots is a giant question mark. One of their big free agent, you know,

spending halls that they got was Harold Landry. In a deal that I think surprised people around $11 million in the year, Harold Landry had the worst pass rush win rate by ESPN in the entire NFL last year among qualifying edge rushers. He's been okay. That, you know, if there was a surprise signing from the Patriots, it was that. He's got a history with Brable, and so that is mostly the reason. But like, they gave a lot of money to a guy with a worst pass rush win rate.

The edge in general is a giant question mark. Ken White was the second round. A pick a couple years ago, he's like this big, strong dude who you'll see throw aside. an offensive tackle and for one play you'll think this guy is totally unstoppable and then it'll just disappear for 12 plays and um so that's you know the issue there their version of okuda the former first round pick who you you think you know with the change of scenery this guy might be legit not sure if you remember the name k levan chason uh an edge rush out of ls u you know bounced around the last five years hasn't stuck on was in jackson bill when he got drafted he's the guy that

You know, you watch and practice and think, hey, maybe this is it. Maybe they're actually going to get something out of this guy. You know, I've been fooled plenty of times by saying it is legit, so I'm not going to go quite that far, but it's real that he's looked good. And so that matchup, I think, is going to be very interesting to me, which to kind of bring this full circle. I'm sitting in the, if I can give your YouTube viewers a little show. I'm sitting in the booth where the visiting coaches sit.

And that brought me back to 2018 when John DeFilippo was the offensive coordinator in his second to last game. Remember, this was against Belichick and Brady. Belichick was doing that funky stuff where he would have like no down defensive linemen. And Mike Zimmer was roaming the sideline furious. Like, why are we not running the ball? Run the ball. And so I think this was basically the game that ended that tenure. Obviously Seattle was the next week.

I think that actually ended it. But that was when Zimmer was losing. against mind that there was no running game, which brings me to what the Vikings are going to do in the running game. It was interesting from afar to see them bulk up, get bigger on the offensive line to embrace perhaps at least, and correct me if I'm wrong, but seemingly embrace like more of a bully ball style than we're going to beat you with outside zone. How has the running game looked so far three weeks in? It has reminded me a little bit of that following season of 2019 with Kevin Stefansky and I think it was a part of the theory wasn't just you got to run the

ball. But it was also that Kirk was in the shotgun all the time. He was asked to do a bunch of different stuff, reads motions. And they just put everything on Kirk's shoulders. And I think, you know, Zim was saying, why aren't we running more play action? Why aren't we running the ball to set up those play actions? And that's why he goes out and he gets Gary, the play action king. And he goes out and gets, you know, Kevin Sofansky and moves him up into that role. But I've noticed them going to more of an outside zone run game, which I think is really fitting for their line. I think it's really fitting for their running backs. Aaron Jones did that a lot in Green Bay. Jordan Mason did it a ton in San Francisco, of course, with Kyle Shanahan. So there's that connection there. I think that

they are crafting this run game to the running backs that they have. One of the biggest developments of camp, I think, has been Jordan Mason looks fantastic, which isn't a shot. soccer because he average five yards of carry. And it is weird to see San Francisco signing Amir Abdullah and some other guy, Jeff Wilson, maybe. And you're like, didn't you guys have Jordan Mason? But I think their salary cap may have gotten in the way of signing him to a bigger contract. But he's been kind of a revelation for their run game. And I think that they are, especially based on what we saw just a little bit in the preseason. I think most of J.J. McCarthy's passes were play action in some way. There's going to be.

be a lot of that. And I think that they have to guide him into the season as much as you can. The first couple opponents are Chicago and Atlanta, not exactly scary defenses. Can you get ahead? Can you run the ball more? Can you run play action more? So I think we are going to see a little bit more of an offense that maybe Mike Zimmer would be proud of. He's not going to go full Zim. He's not going to want 35 carries a game. You know, Zim, they'd be down 21 points. And he'd be like, why are we running the ball more? what is going on we can't we got to set up the pass with the run so that's never going to be KOC but I think that they are going to hunt explosives off of the play action and really the run game is another part of this in practice it's looked really good and then of course

fans want to know wait does that mean our run defense is a concern like I don't know this is why we have joint practices I think which is just the perfect thing that encapsulates training And I'm guilty of it, too, of like, you see this one awesome play and all the fans go wild and cheer. And that was crazy. It's like, well, your starting quarterback did just get torched for that touchdown that you're cheering or vice versa, like, groaning a sack. Like, well, that's your guy, too. They're both on your favorite team. You can celebrate every play if you want.

The running stuff is just so interesting to me because, you know, obviously funny has been made about the offense that Jason McCarthy was in in college and how that's going to adapt to KOC. and I was just curious because it looks like Josh McDaniels is going to bring with him and this could be a product of the fact the Patriots don't have good wide receivers a bigger offense, 12 personnel, 13 personnel like they're pulling a fullback all of a sudden. Will Kevin O'Connell

use less 11 personnel, you think, just to lean into perhaps the strengths or at least just not hold JJ's hand but help him out and guide him in his first year as a starter? I think to start the season they're going to have to because Jordan Addison is going to be suspended for the first three games. And also, they just gave a huge contract extension to Josh Oliver, which, you know, not a household name by any means, but probably the best blocking tight end in the NFL. And then also

somebody who has caught like 75% of his passes over the last two years. He's got, I think, 44 catches on 52 targets or something like that. Not deep balls exactly, but he's got good hands. if you're comparing it, this is one of the biggest questions for this week to tie it into the joint practices is I think the Patriot secondary has some dudes that are pretty good. Carlton Davis, I know is definitely a good player, Jibril Peppers, Marcus Jones. So some good players there. And I guess my, my question that I have is how lucky Jackson, who maybe you were here for, I don't know if you were here for Lucky Jackson and not quite yet, because he's been around. It feels like forever. He was an XFL guy. They picked him up. He was on the practice.

squad on the practice squad and then all of the sudden Jefferson goes out of practice. We're looking around like, oh, it's going to be. And unfortunately, Rondale Moore looks like he's out for the year after the other day. We're looking around going, okay, is it going to be their draft pick, Ty Felton, is it going to be Rondale Moore? And like, oh, Lucky Jackson is taking all of the reps with the first team. This is going to be a real test for him. He was good in the preseason game. That's not all that telling usually. But the wide receiver depth here in the first and the second team, I think is going to be a huge test. I think both teams are really looking at their wide receivers saying, show me something here because the Vikings have to

decide, are we going to go out and get somebody else or not? Which is going to be fascinating like come cut down day when all of a sudden there's a lot more wide receivers available if they dip into that, which is going to lead to what I want to ask you. But this Patriots team, it's not a roster that especially scares you. There's not a ton of household names. What they have been good that so far through three weeks in joint practices against jaden Daniels and the Washington commanders is their second there's been surprisingly good like gibral peppers has you know had a bit of a resurgence the last couple years and is starting to you know play like the first round pick that he was however many years ago when he was so exciting out of michigan they've got a top

10 true top 10 cornerback christian gonzalez i don't think he's going to practice which is a bummer it would have been a ton of fun to watch justin jefferson against christian gonzalez we may get neither of them, which kind of stinks, but Carlton Davis still a good quarterback. And their depth, like I think every team at this point in camp has a position that surprises you. And those guys are good, really? That's, was not expecting that. For the Patriots, it's been their secondary, both their safeties and their cornerbacks have been the guys that as you look down the depth chart, you think DJ James, who the hell is that? Why is he making plays? Alex Austin, what is this? They drafted Craig

Woodson, I think a former Calbino teammate. And so, you know, the secondary has been surprisingly good, which is going to be interesting to see how that fares against the wide receivers from the Vikings, all of which is a roundabout way to say one of my favorite things to read this offseason. And, you know, just about every season is your argument the Vikings should draft with their first pick a wide receiver. I genuinely love it. And at the start of it, when I click the story, I always think, that'd be crazy. What are they doing? By the end of the article, I kind of think, caller kind of sold me. It wouldn't be fun to see them with another weapon and another toy. So where are things at? Is it not felon that is going to be that guy? Like

is Addison's out? What are they going to do behind Addison and Jefferson? Yeah, I know. I think on draft night, I may have fist pumps, not for them, but for me. Just like, they agree. They agree with that take that they need to draft another wide receiver. Nothing if not consistent. I was, going back, I made the Antonio Brown argument and then everyone thought it was crazy and then Antonio Brown went to a team with two good wide receivers and won the Super Bowl with Tampa Bay and then went absolutely insane. So, but they got him before he was crazy. Anyway, uh, well, mid crazy, but the point being that it was, it was a good idea for them to draft Ty Felton because Jalen Naylor's going to be a free agent for next year. But when you draft somebody in the third round, there's

always an assumption, and you know this from the fans, that that third round pick is just going to be a star immediately because he's got enough highlights. They've heard of him. You can find all the information. Usually by the third round, everyone still loves the guy. Night two is a highly rated night of the NFL draft and he was the last pick. And it was kind of a cool story for him and everything. But if we're being realistic, third round draft picks need development. They are not guys who you can just say, oh, well, plug and play. usually that kind of ends early in the second round if you look historically first rounders of course play right away into the early part of the second but once you get past maybe the 10th pick in the second round you're talking about guys who need to have a year developing behind the scenes or guys who become kind of role players I think what felton's going to be right away is he's going to be a role player he's going to return kicks he's going to be a punt gunner and he seems to have a real talent for the punt gunning and then he's going to be a he's going to develop to be the next Jalen Naylor because, you know, one of the reasons the

Patriots don't have any good wide receivers is how freaking hard they are to find. I mean, if you want one and you don't have one, you better go get somebody who's coming off an injury or pissed or both with Stefan Diggs or is on party boats, chewing bubble gum with a lot of celebrities. Like, there's got to be an issue with that guy for you to get your hands on them. So you have to draft them and develop them. And I think that that's what they're looking at with Felton, but Jackson is like 27 years old. He's been around pro football for years. He played a little bit in the CFL, the indoor league.

He's kind of that guy. He's just more ready to do this. I think Felton needs a lot of development there. But, of course, the draft pick did get an A plus in the recap from me. I want to bring us back, though, because the highlight of this, of course, is the quarterbacks. Drake May and J.J. McCarthy, everybody will be watching. watching. Fan dual question of the day. Actually, I have two of them for you. I'll give you the first one now in the second at the end. Uh, I was looking at fan duel over unders for Drake

May and J.J. McCarthy in terms of yardage. And this was interesting to me. Uh, for Drake May, 3,275 yards. And for J.J. McCarthy, 3,575. So that's, you know, 300 more yards being given and the over under to J.J. McCarthy than Drake may. Uh, fan dual question of the day is Do you agree with those numbers? Would you go over for Drake May? Would you go under for J.J. McCarthy? Because I think that's a little low for Drake May, who's probably going to have to play in some games where he throws for 300 yards.

I would go over, but it doesn't shock me because Grable is one of these older coaches or old school coaches who does want to run the ball and have a 50-50 balance. And that stuff is genuinely important to him right or wrong. And also, like, their running backs are good. They can draw up a good run game. Josh McDaniels can do that. We can say a lot about his head coaching tenure, but as an offensive coordinator, he is effective there.

The wide receiver's not very good. And just what is around them, including the offensive line, not very good. And so those are things that are going to make it difficult for Drake May to put up those numbers, to go over on that fan dual number. And so, you know, this is going to be very interesting to me at joint practices is because so far it does feel a little bit like Drake May is this big V8 engine who can do all of this crazy stuff and can run, it can throw, and can throw on the run, the truck at 50 yards with ease. He does feel like he's been put into like this Toyota Prius or something and

the governors are on and no, no, no, don't look downfield. We are going to work over the middle and we're going to stay on schedule and first, second and six is great. Let's not have second and 10. And so it all just feels a little bit hamstrung by the fact that the offensive line kind of stinks. They're scared about his turnovers. He did throw a lot of interceptions last year. I would argue it was because they were constantly losing. They were a really bad football team. And he was throwing it into windows where his wide receivers could not win because they had the worst wide receivers in the league. Those things can compound on each other. And so I'm both very high on Drake May long term. And I also just don't know that he's going to put

up 3,500 yards this season. I think that's probably too ambitious. His best wide receiver is Stefan Diggs turning 31 years old coming off of an ACL tear last Halloween. This is not a guy with an ACLTA 12 months ago. He's like nine and a half months post-surgery off the ACLTA. And so yes, he is still a great route runner. And you'll see flashes, you know, that almost a little bit feels like old Stefan. But just so far, the burst isn't quite there, all of which is to be expected for a wide receiver in his 30s coming off of an ACL tear, but the weapons are just so poor around Drake May that I don't know how you can expect that much more. That said, everything with Stefan Diggs fascinates me. I'm going to be very keen to watch him. I want to know what the

reception is going to be like for him back in Minnesota. I want to see how he embraces it, you know, knowing him, he usually runs out there and eggs on the fans a little bit or plays catch with people and the fans. And so I'm, I'm excited to see all of that. Where are you at with the Stefan Diggs of it all? You know, we've gotten a half hour into this podcast and barely talked about him, despite all of these Minnesota, New England connections. What do you think the reaction's going to be? What do you think about him as a player at this juncture? Like all of Diggs fascinates me since we were there for his come up and becoming an all pro. Well, I know how he competes in the joint practices and just any practice in general. So that's going to be worth watching for the Vikings

cornerbacks for sure but as far as digs goes i think that with him for viking's fans that at first there was some bitterness and it was kind of split between the well better to be without him because he's a diva and all this sort of thing now you and i both know that stephan is a very intelligent guy and i think that what stephan saw was the writing on the wall in minnesota more than anything And that's why he wanted to move on because there was a thought in that locker room of 2019. Like this is really the last chance because a lot of guys are going to leave. There's going to be a rebuilding process. And when they extended Kirk, that's when he sent out the famous time for a new start or something like that tweet that got him traded to the Buffalo bills.

And then even the bills looked like they had had their best shot. Now it turned out that wasn't the case because Allen is so good, then kind of forced his way to another team that looked like it was on the rise. And now I think he should just be happy to be a top wide receiver. But I think time heals the wound and also Justin Jefferson heals the wound. Like that trade, if they had traded for the next Troy Williamson or Laquan Treadwell, and that's how it turned out. I think people would be yearning to see Stefan Diggs again and angry at the franchise for trading him and everything. But it's like, all's well that ends well.

He helped Buffalo be a highly competitive team. Just the Jefferson has become the best receiver of a generation. like everybody's happy. But at this point in his career, it just seems like it's a lot to ask for him to be a number one wide receiver. I think he'll get cheered in Minnesota. I think that, you know, I still see a lot of Diggs jerseys and kids walking around with Diggs jerseys.

He's beloved. He's the Minneapolis Miracle Man. You can never take that away from him and how well he performed here. So I think everybody's over all of that. I would be shocked if I heard any booze or anything like that for Stefan Diggs, unless it's kind of just joky or play. with him. But I think that when you draft a Drake May and the best you can do is the washups from the 2019 Minnesota Vikings, I just am not really. And look, a rookie left tackle.

I'm going to be really interested to see what Will Campbell looks like. You know, Morgan Moses is a guy who sort of bounced around. Hunter Henry was good like five or six years ago. And this is just not a good group of players. And I think that they couldn't be farther away as we talk about that fan dual question of the day, they just couldn't be farther away with the supporting cast where we're going, you know, Addison's out for a couple games. They'll be fine. They got two great running backs, two great tight ends, another, you know, superstar receiver. They'll be okay. They'll survive it where, I mean, if you lost Stefan Diggs, who's doing like is Kyle? What, what round was Kyle Williams? That the fourth round, like third round? Like, he's like the next man up, right?

It is crazy. And this is where I think the Vikings are in a much more interesting spot of, at the end of this year, we're going to be, you know, two years through that famous, interesting draft class of quarterbacks, who's going to go where, Drake, Daniels, Caleb, panics, like all of that. You should feel like you have a better answer. And I feel like even after his rookie season was wiped out, the Vikings are going to have a pretty good answer on what J.J. McCarthy is after this because they have an awesome offensive play caller, a really good head coach, awesome wide receivers, good tackles and

seemingly an improved offensive line. like you should when you surround them with all of that if nothing else you're going to get your answer we got the guy or we don't got the guy what's hard for the patriots is that Drake may has all of these raw tools that are so obvious and so fun to watch in seven on seven and you can see him move and he's way more mobile than he gets credit for the raw tools are there is any of it going to translate because of what they have that's kind of the fear and the worst case scenario for the patriots is that maybe you go you know win six or seven games this season. And you still don't really know. You kind of think like, yeah, you know,

there were a couple of those throws, man. If we could do more of that, we got something with this guy. But then you look at his numbers and he's got 17 interceptions and 3,000 passing yards and nothing more than that. And you think like, well, at the same time, that's two straight years of that. And so that is, I think, where the Patriots are at a big disadvantage in the bit larger picture is that JJ McCarthy, you're going to know maybe even 10 games in. You're going to have a really good sense of this is it or this is not it. Drake May, I think he's awesome. I loved him as a prospect. I don't know. He's going to have to throw to Stefan Diggs legitimately a hundred times this season. And this is not Stefan Diggs from 2018. So I don't know what that gets you. Okay. Well,

what does it get you? Because, you know, we're talking about the, the fan duel here. And as far as the, uh, the wins and losses, there's a couple different ways you could go with that. But, uh, the over under the close over unders are either seven to half and or eight and a half is that where you are with this team and because I feel like in the national media and maybe it's just because it's the Patriots there's a lot of overlooking of all that stuff and they're like Patriots is going to be great. I mean just like hey they got Vrabel and they're just like snap the fingers they're all of a sudden going to be great but when we go through this we go who's blocking who's catching you know maybe that you know maybe he can show some magic and win seven or

eight games, but I feel like that's probably it. Don't have a ton of respect for the division, though. Maybe that helps. I don't know what their schedule is like. Would you go over under seven and a half? I'm at eight and nine right now. So I would go over that. I don't think they're going to be a winning football team.

But here's where I'm at with the Patriots. The roster is not very good. It's a five, six win roster. Just going from Gerard Mayo, which was a total disaster. It named that I think 10 years from now, people will forget that he was a guy who coached the New England Patriots to Mike Rabel, like an established culture setting, seemingly good head coach. That gets you a win from what they were at a year ago.

And then the other part of this is they have the second easiest schedule in the NFL. If you will get their schedule, you will be blown away by the amount of cupcakes. Every bad team they play this year. And as you mentioned, the division, the bills are going to be awesome. You can mark down two losses against the bills. But the Jets with Justin Fields, I don't know, that doesn't scare me. The Dolphins seem like a total dumpster fire right now with everybody. That just feels like it's run its course.

Like I was kind of high on McDaniel and what he could do in the run game and stuff. That just feels like, all right, we've seen new dolphins. Time for you to go do something else. So they have such an easy schedule that I think they'll get to eight wins, even though this is not an eight win roster, should not be an eight win team. The offense should not be able to get to that. they're going to have such an easy schedule that believe it or not, maybe we'll recap Thursday night and I'll say, nope, I take it back. I take that's five wins. The Vikings smoked them.

But right now, I do have this Patriots roster as bad as it is getting to eight wins. Well, it's weird to say, but I think that the joint practices, the teams that the Vikings have had joint practice against, I've had a pretty good sense coming out of it, like how good that team's going to be. Just for example, last year, we went to Cleveland for the Browns. for two days. And it was some of the worst offense I've ever seen in my life with the Browns trying to practice against Flores defense. And I was like, well, I think the Browns are going to be horrible. And I actually think that the Vikings defense could be really good because there were a lot of questions still last year. And they ended up in the top five. So I think we will get at least some

sense because they are really going to battle in these practices, except for the tackling part. That would be maybe in a Chicago Bears where he's, Ben Johnson's got him tackling each other. How about we finish on this, Chad, because you covered the Vikings for some time in Minnesota. What was your favorite, favorite training camp preseason moment while you were covering the Vikings? What comes to mind when I ask you that question? What comes to mind is mostly my stupidity. And I still tell this to people here when we obsess about training camp. And granted, this comes with different circumstances.

and I'm sure plenty of people know where I'm going with this. I was adamant that B.C. Johnson was a better wide receiver than Justin Jefferson coming out of that training camp. And I thought this B.C. guys got something. Justin Jefferson were coming off the heels of Waukon Treadwell. Not a bust, but it felt like he's going to take a little bit of time. Now, granted, there were extenuating circumstances. This was COVID. This was no mini camp, no OTAs, no any of that. And so obviously, I should have been smarter enough to realize, yeah, Justin Jefferson's very first NFL practice. is this. Of course, B.C. Johnson's better than him. But B.C. Johnson was better than Justin Jefferson for like those three weeks. He'll forever have that. When I think about my own

stupidity, that's one of the first things that comes to mind of. Guys, this B.Z. Johnson, 81 over 18 here, guys. Well, I will admit, though, that we all thought that he wasn't, Jefferson wasn't going to start right away because now that still gets brought up occasionally. He's like, well, Justin didn't even start and that's crazy. It was like, wait, he missed the first part of that camp with COVID. So he didn't have the offense down. It did take him a couple of weeks. And B.C. Johnson, I think, could have had a pretty legit career. He had a couple of injuries that you just can't afford if you're a seventh round draft pick to still stay in the league. But it definitely looked that way. I remember talking with Mike Clay, who does all the fantasy projections. And I was like, I don't

know, Mike. I mean, he's just not getting those first team reps. Like maybe B.C.'s going to end up with more targets. So you were not alone. I thought you were going to go Jordan Taylor because you talk about being all in. You were all aboard the Jordan Taylor train of like, this guy's wide receiver three. It's got a great story. Here he comes and then just didn't make the team. I also thought from your perspective, a lot of little funny, silly things happened behind the scenes that we don't, you know, mentioned to the public, but maybe statute of limitations on this one that we were called into a meeting with the coach because somebody reported that a running back was playing in the slot and we weren't supposed to report schematic stuff

and all that. And that running back never caught a pass out of the slot in his life. It never happened. But it was like you just can't be putting out there details of our offense of what we're going to do. Like you're not putting that guy at wide receiver. It was OTAs if memory. Oh, yeah. That's right. It was. Like this is the most does not matter portion of the whole thing. But I think about that all the time of like today their second round pick, Trayvon Henderson briefly lined up in the slot. Right away my head went to, oh, I remember something that came of this. And of course, they're not going to, you know, turn proven running backs into wide receivers. But yeah, one of one of many funny, funny moments on that beat and

along the way. And man, those were some fun seasons, some not fun seasons, depending on how you look at it. Yeah, there were some tough seasons that we grinded through. Well, I hope your golf game as well. We're probably not going to have time to get out there on the links while you're here, but I look forward to seeing you back in Minnesota. And I really look forward to see what happens on the field. So thanks for popping into the radio press box there at the Patriot Stadium and having a really long conversation. Don DeFilippo's press conference, or not the radio one.

But yeah, super fun. I can't wait to get back to Minnesota. All right. Thank you very much, Chad. We'll see soon, man. Thank you. Thank you.