Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - The case for the Vikings trading down

Episode Date: April 16, 2023

Matthew Coller and intern Haley English break down her article suggesting two different trade down scenarios that might work for the Vikings. She also talks about her favorite analytics players in the draft. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hello and welcome to another episode of Purple Insider, Matthew Collar here along with Etern Haley English. If you're watching on YouTube, I'm sorry. It looks like I'm sitting in the dark. Just a weird lighting situation. But if you're just listening, then that doesn't matter to you at all. So Haley, I just had a press conference, Kweisi Daffel-Mensah and Kevin O'Connell. You'll be shocked to know that they did not reveal their entire draft plan, but there were multiple questions about trading down and Kweisi Adolfo Mensah, I want to say, didn't really know how to answer the question without directly answering the question. So there was a lot of like, well, if we end up picking with our picks, that's okay. We got to just make the right picks.

And we had a lot of picks last year and he didn't, he didn't go there, but I thought he was going to mention that they traded one of their picks for TJ Hawkinson, which kind of matters in this conversation as well. But I think that the runaway favorite for the Vikings is still to trade down of which you use your big statistical analytical brain to dive into some potential options and even created fake trades. So let's talk about trading down. Haley, would you do it? Would you trade down if you were the Vikings? Oh, yeah, I think I would.

I mean, there's so many potentially great options at number 23, like a star corner, like a Deontay Banks or Joey Porter, or maybe a good receiver like a star corner, like a Deontay Banks or Joey Porter, or maybe a good receiver like a Zay Flowers or something. But I think there's some good options for the Vikings if they were to trade back a couple picks, trade back 10 picks or something like that. And they'd still be able to get a great player while adding some picks in the process. So I think it would be pretty good for them to trade down. And they only have five picks in this draft. They kind of need a little more because they've got a ton of holes. So I think it would be pretty good for them to trade down and they only have five picks in this draft they kind of need a little more because they've got a ton of holes so i think it would be pretty good for them to trade down so i was looking at a mock database which tells you kind of the collection of

the mocks and where people are expected to go and like it's not perfect but nothing's perfect but if you look at you know the trading down and you consider who might be available at their positions of need say like in the late 30s someone like Jalen Hyatt for example who you mentioned in your article is kind of a dream scenario but I think we can do this with almost every position where if we go to cornerbacks that players who are projected in this ballpark of even if they were trading down it's not like it's some nightmare now i think so you've got like an emmanuel forbes who you also talk about the cornerback from mississippi state who is a little bit undersized but is a tremendous playmaker but i think that everybody between the

23rd pick and the 35th pick is probably going to have something where you're like well i don't know if he's perfect he's not exactly the right wingspan or something like that. So it does make a lot of sense. Now tell me about, there's two trades that you proposed, one with the Texans, one with the Falcons. I want to go through them because even though these are just mock imaginary trades, I think that they're extremely realistic potential scenarios. So take me through first your proposed trade with the Houston Texans. Yeah. So I think this is probably the Vikings best option. We'll kind of say that first, but, um, I have the Vikings trading with the Texans. Uh, they're currently on number 33 and I think it's the second pick of the first round or

the third pick of the, or the third pick of the second round. Um, so I have them trading down to there and they're also grabbing a third round pick number 73 and a sixth round pick number 188 in the process. But I also have them giving a late fifth rounder back to the Texans. And I think this is a pretty good trade because you're adding a quality third round pick. They're already at number 87. They're going to pick up number 73 and I think they can still get a great player at number 33. I think I have them taking cornerback Emmanuel Forbes at that spot. Who knows, that might be a little early for him, but he'll definitely be on the board at that time. And I think he'll be the best corner on the board because I think Banks and Porter and all those

other great corners are going to be gone by then. So I think taking him there would be great. And then you'll kind of be hopefully left with a decent receiver at 73, like an Nathaniel Dell from Houston, who I think would be a great player there. And then you have another pick at number 87 to go grab another good, or to go grab another good player. So, yeah, what you kind of did here was like sort of draft simmed in a way, but you know,

trying to figure out like who was going to be there if you did these. And by the way, you use the Jimmy Johnson draft chart, which I know is not perfect, but no draft chart really is. And maybe Kweisi's draft chart is a little bit different than Jimmy Johnson's, but even until the last couple of years,

a lot of the trades were still matching up with the old Jimmy Johnson charts. I think it was a fair kind of baseline to use. So all of these trades that you propose were not just like grabbed out of thin air. They were done with the point system to kind of make this work for both sides and come very close. So Emmanuel Forbes, for example, just to kind of like, you bring it home talking about like the difference between a 23rd pick say and you know moving back to 33 forbes was one of the highest graded by pff he had six interceptions last year cornerbacks but the one problem is that he's kind of on the light side so he's only about 166 pounds this is a theme of the draft past the top 15 is almost like even Deontay Banks his athleticism his length and stuff is perfect but his statistics are not as perfect like they're good

but they're not unbelievable so if you told me like what are the odds that Banks is good or Forbes is good it's probably pretty close I think I mean maybe a little bit leaning toward banks but but how much percentage is that and then the same thing goes for picking up Dell as an additional wide receiver where it's like yeah he's a little on the smaller side too but what's the difference chance between him and another receiver and you get this other additional draft pick I think this one is very realistic because I also don't think they want to move super, super far back. Exactly. Yeah. Only moving back 10 picks and picking up a third round or in the process. I think that's a great deal that you get. And the players that are there, like you said, like an Emmanuel Forbes versus a Deontay Banks. Yeah. Could be like fairly similar players in the

NFL. They're both kind of great athletes. Forbes was, I think, the second highest graded corner out of the ones coming out for the draft right now by PFF, only behind Devin Witherspoon, who's like the best one by far kind of right now. So who knows? Forbes could be better than Deontay Banks. And if he puts on a little weight and kind of gets to a more optimal cornerback size, I know that was a thing with sauce gardener. Everyone was like, Oh, he's so light. And he put on just a little bit of weight and look what he did last year.

So like Emmanuel Forbes could be that type of player for the Vikings. If they're able to get them at 33, if they decide to trade down. Yeah. And I think also just not to like, say, I think Forbes is the best pick in the world, but I think that what they've done when they've kind of missed on some of these guys is that

they have gone for guys that weren't really playmakers on the football and we'll never know what Jeff Gladney would have become. That's a very hard one to talk about on the show because it just obviously, you know, what happened with him was tragic. But when he was coming out in the draft, that was one of the critiques was like, well, the guy just didn't make a lot of plays on the football. And I think that that's one area where I think Kweisi may end up valuing a little bit more because the stats point that way. Now, the other one that you proposed was a little more on the radical side.

I'm not going to hate on it because you put a lot of effort into it. But I do think, though, let's imagine they're at u.s bank stadium they're having their draft party everyone's excited they're like oh first round everybody's cheering everybody when will the vikings pick and they trade all the way back to explain the trade with the falcons so i got them trading back all the way to number 44 with the Falcons. Obviously, like, amazing value. You're trading back 21 picks, but then again, do you really want to let 43 players go without selecting any of them? I don't think you really want to, but who knows? If everything falls into place for this, it would 100% work, because what if Emmanuel Forbes falls to number 44? He could. It's still a second-round pick, and I've seen him go not even in the second round,

maybe the third round, but I think he's definitely a second-round guy. I don't know if he'll be there by 44, but he definitely could. Maybe a Josh Downs, a wide receiver, falls to 44. Who knows? You could definitely get one of those guys there if everything goes according to plan, but if you kind of trade that far back and all your top guys are gone, there's no receivers on the board, there's no decent corner or any type of player that you might want, then you're kind of stuck.

And I think that would definitely turn the Vikings and all Vikings fans off from trading this far back because there's so much unknown. And you do wonder, now with Kweisi Daffomensa, I don't know if he's sensitive to criticism or not. Maybe he is, maybe he isn't. But I'm sure that he heard at least a percentage of it last year with trading down as far as he did. So is he going to be willing to do it again? And maybe it's like that that meme where it's like, I'll do it again.

Like maybe that's maybe that's Kwesi. Like I will trade down that far again. I don't know if that's the case or not for how he feels about some of the criticism or if he went back and re looked at what he did last year and said, you know what? I actually did trade down too far. But if not, like your point system adds up here. And also I remember hearing that, I think it was Howie roseman looked at second round

picks like they were gold because that's where you do end up getting a lot of starters now maybe you don't get hall of famers but you do end up getting a lot of great players in the second round 44 and let me check what it was 75 right uh it's a little far in your mock scenario the falcons are doing this to move up and they're and they're getting a position of need that they could probably fill with a starter where the vikings would be getting josh downs and dj turner who are both i think good prospects but downs is on the small side like maybe turner wasn't the most productive guy so i this one to me is a little too risky and i think on draft night i probably would be like okay, we get it. You have analytics and you read Haley, but this is a little much.

Yeah. I like as a Vikings fan, I would not be very happy to be sitting in the stadium or wherever the draft party is and seeing that they traded all the way back to 44. I'd be like, are you kidding me? I came here for nothing. Like I know I go to the Jets draft party every year and it was exciting having number four and number 10 last year, you're getting two early picks and the Giants were there too. And they had two top 10 picks as well. So I can't imagine like sitting there for that long and being like, we're not even going to pick tonight. Right. Yeah. That would be pretty obnoxious for everybody there. So a lot, but, but I still think that what you demonstrated here is that there's a lot of options that make sense um that there are a lot of potential opportunities with teams that have multiple picks that could be willing to kind of

go get their guy which we see every year and you pointed out in the article that there was nine trades i mean that like a lot of people are moving and shuffling around in the, at the very top of the draft. So I think this is very realistic. If we were making the argument against it though, like just stay at 23, like let's, let's go to the counter argument here because I think that it does fit. I think it probably is what they will do, but make the counter argument for me for not trading down.

I would probably say if a great, like if they love like Quentin Johnston, I don't know if he'll be there by 23, but I think if they love him so much and they want to be like, all right, let's pull a trigger first round receiver. Then I'd say, okay,

do it. Like if you really, really, really love a prospect, if they think Deontay banks can be the next sauce Gardner and they truly believe that and everything. And they love the stats, they love how everyone plays like the guy that I really want.

Then I say, yeah, say at 23, if they really feel it's worth like that player and a potential like fourth round pick that you might be getting by trading back. If you think that player is worth kind of those two picks, then go for it. Yeah.

So like in this scenario, you might have, I mean, imagine, and I don't know what point system they use exactly to create their board, but let's say after Deontay Banks for cornerbacks, he's a eight out of 10 and the next best guy is a six and that their scouts and their analytics and everything else think there's a big fall off a cliff and they really need a cornerback. And I, but I, I mean, it just is so attractive though, to get a corner and a receiver, right. Or a corner and an edge rush. We've made a corner receiver mostly because those seem to be like the top of the mind, but a corner and edge rusher, even in the second round, like I look at the linebackers and go, all right, you don't really

want to spend first round on linebacker, but let's say, you know, Jack Campbell from Iowa or a Drew Sanders from Arkansas, say those guys are there in the middle of the second round. And then you could fill that need, which you're going to have obviously with Jordan Hicks in his last year in his contract. Um, but I do think there's probably something to be said for that with this receiver class though. I, I don't think that there's such a big gap. So like Smith, the jig buzz at the top, but then like everybody that's number two through like eight, I feel like they're projected to be very similar prospects. And this is like one of the, I think strongest arguments to move back.

Yeah. I was looking like through the PFF big board and everything and kind of average draft pick. And it's kind of like Smith and Jigba going kind of first. I feel like he's in a league of his own, even though he didn't play a lot last year. Then you have like Quentin Johnson, Zay Flowers, Jordan Addison. I feel like they're kind of that first round tier. Then it's like maybe like a Josh Downs early second round. But I feel like after Downs, I don't know if you're going to see a receiver go until

like the 70s. Because all the average draft picks, it's like goes from like 40 to 60 40 to 60 and i'm like whoa like all these teams in the middle of there like what are you going to do do you really need a receiver so maybe one of those receiver needy teams could be like i want to move up to the first round because i want say flowers and the vikings could be the team to trade back with them yeah it's so interesting right you mentioned like so zay flowers on just what i'm looking at, the mock draft database, Zay Flowers is listed at 25. Like three guys down, we're in the 70s.

And it's just like, there's just this huge gap between where the projections have Flowers and Jalen Hyatt kind of on the outside of that. Cedric Tillman is kind of an interesting one. But there is this second wave almost that would be only if you're sticking in the third round and i do think there's kind of a cutoff for where we see great receivers selected now amen ross st brown terry mcclure and these guys are third and fourth but usually i think it tends to be after the second so that would make a really good case for them so anyway that's your fully in depth breakdown of trading down but make sure you go read the entire article as well.

Now, I wanted to ask you about this interesting trend as I have become completely engulfed in darkness in this room. I'm sorry for that. I have my light on, but the sun is shining next to me and it's just like washing everything out. So anyway, you don't have to look at me as much. But anyway, so there's a bunch of players who are unhappy with their contracts, including two Vikings, Delvin Cook and Zedaria Smith, or at least in a situation where they could be traded. And around the league, we have Devin White, Dexter Lawrence, DeAndre Hopkins, Saquon Barkley. All these players seem to be unhappy, which I think opens the door for a potential draft day trade, which we saw several of them last year. Let's just say that the Vikings wanted to use number 23 to acquire a player

because they are all in on next season trying to win. It doesn't have to be one of the players I just named, but is that a good idea? Is a good idea to trade a late first round pick to acquire a player that you're going to ultimately give a big contract to? Right now, for Vikings, I say no. I don't think it's worth trading number 23 right now. That pick's a little too valuable. You're going to get a player on a rookie contract who could be really, really good. I'd rather trade down in that scenario.

The only thing I'd be like, okay, trade 23 fine, is if you're getting like an A.J. Brown. Like if you're doing kind of what the Eagles did, I know they're going to have to pay him at some point. But if you can get a young player who's still on a rookie contract, who's got a couple more years left on that rookie contract, maybe, then I'd say go for it. Like Dexter Lawrence, I feel like is the only player probably worthy of being traded for number 23 out of the ones you mentioned. But then again, is he on his last year of his rookie contract? I think he's still like he's getting up there right now. So yeah, I don't know if I'd want to do that even.

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And that's the one problem with trading for players is that they're just so freaking expensive. I mean, that the reason that they're on the trade block is that they're wanting a lot more money than their team thinks they're worth or can afford. But there is like, if we're trying to play a little bit of devil's advocate here though, like, could you imagine Justin Jefferson and DeAndre Hopkins playing football on the same team? I mean, there's a little bit of that. Or if the Vikings wanted to jumpstart their defense, and I don't think the Giants are going to trade Dexter Lawrence for just about anything. But having seen two games of Dexter Lawrence in person, oh, my God.

Like, that guy is a dominant player. And I know it's against the Vikings. Like, make your jokes. It's against the Vikings' interior offensive line. but look what the guy did it to everybody the entire year last year. He is just an absolute beast. And the Vikings have not had interior pressure for a long time. Again, I don't know that the giants would trade in the conference, one of the best players, but Deandre Hopkins, the trade buzz is definitely real for him. There's a huge risk that he's been banged up a lot.

He's getting older. But I think that when he's in the lineup, he's still a tremendous wide receiver. Trading with so many needs, trading a pick like that for someone who's super expensive, who's on the older side, does seem pretty bad practice as far as business goes. But there's just another part of me that's like, wait.

And then if I'm trying to make the argument, I don't necessarily believe in it, but it's kind of a talk me into. This is Kirk's last year as a Viking quarterback, right? I mean, I know that. Okay. So how are you going to make it work contract wise? Well, you can sign him to an extension. You can restructure Brian O'Neill. You could trade away Zedaria Smith.

You could trade away Delvin Cook and create maybe just enough to slide this thing under the salary cap. But I think if you're trying to make a case, that would be it. And I would also say, be on the lookout for other players who have not made their frustrations known. I don't think any of us knew that Hollywood Brown was going to be gone, right? So if they did trade 23 for a younger player, Hopkins is like pie in the sky. But if it was a younger player who was just maybe coming up on a contract

that their team didn't want, I would say go for that because you're looking for, that would almost be like the TJ Hawkinson trade essentially. That's true. Yeah, I really think like they got good value for Hawkinson.

He's an amazing player. And what, they just traded a second round for him or something like that. So, yeah. So I think that was a home run. I think he's a little more valuable than maybe a potential second round pick right now here. But 23, I think it's too much. It's too much to give up if you're not getting like a player who's going to immediately be amazing in that offense and that defense or something. I know like Dexter Lawrence was like the second greatest defensive or the second

highest graded defensive tackle last season. So yeah, amazing player, but he's going to be expensive. Which one of those guys, do you think any of those guys actually get traded before draft night or on draft night? I was looking through Devin White's stats and they kind of were horrible. So maybe like a team will give up a late round pick for him if he really wants like to be traded. I mean, I think he does, but I don't know. I feel like Barkley could be, but then again, what team is want like wants to trade a premium pick for a running back right now? Not many, but he doesn't want to play on the franchise tag. He's not signing it.

So I don't know. The Giants could want to trade them after signing their quarterback to a ridiculously large deal. They don't have the money to pay for a running back. I know that we always talk about like why you don't draft running backs and stuff. One of the reasons that also is that down the road, their contract situation after their first round pick always becomes incredibly awkward or even like with delvin cook where they didn't want to give delvin cook the huge deal they ultimately folded and did give him that huge contract and i don't think it's worked out i've been a success for them since

he signed that deal uh and you always run into this so So like the player is saying, look what I proved in my first few years. And the team is saying, yeah, but the age curve, you're beat up, the amount of injuries, the price tag versus what we could do by drafting someone in the third round, all these things. It's like Saquon Barkley, Delvin Cook, Derek Henry. You always run into this collision course.

If you draft Bijan Robinson, you will run into this collision course. If you draft Bijan Robinson, you will run into this eventually. How about Josh Jacobs going to play on the franchise tag? Like here we are with that same situation again. So I think that's a reason not to do it. But I do think that we're going to see some fireworks. I don't really know who, but I feel like the league has gone in this direction where there's a lot less fear there used to be a lot more of like making the big kind of crazy trade moving the draft capital i just don't know who it's going to be like is it going to be the bears they seem to want to like you know well they've got cap space left i wouldn't be surprised if something crazy goes down one of these players yeah i definitely think

something's going to go down on draft night like i know i was shocked when AJ Brown got traded and I feel like there's going to be another moment like that in this first round. I just feel like kind of happening. I don't know why, but I feel like it's been the common theme lately. I think Mike Vrabel was also shocked. Remember now their GM doesn't have his job anymore. Crazy stuff.

Imagine that would have been the case if, well, actually, I mean, Rick Spielman got fired anyway, but kind of for different reasons. But if the Vikings had not drafted Justin Jefferson after trading away Stefan Diggs, like that gets you fired most of the time pretty fast. So I wanted to do this as we were talking about some of these draft picks as because you look at everything with such a analytical eye. And I was curious about who it is in this year's draft that stands out to you with your analytical eye. Now I didn't include this in the email, but I should have mentioned like, it doesn't have to

be Vikings targets. It can just be anybody in this draft. And I want to call them Haley's heroes. So just like Scott's tots only way less uncomfortable. These are Haley's hero analytical stars of the draft. So what do you got? All right. So the first one I have, I feel like is obvious. It's Devin Witherspoon, cornerback, Illinois. He is like a sauce gardener type of prospect. He has better stats, like stats in college and sauce gardener type of prospect he has better stat like stats in college than sauce gardener so he could easily be one of the best corners like in recent history from the draft and i think whatever team is going to get him he's a steal he dominates like every single stat pass breakup machine that'll translate i think pretty well to the nfl and had the like lowest

passer rating when targeted like i've ever kind of seen at 25.3. So yeah, I think he's a stud. I think he's going to be one of the best cornerbacks immediately in the NFL and whatever team drafts him probably in the top 10 is going to be really lucky. I mean, 92.5 coverage grade out of PFF. You mentioned the like quarterback rating against, he gave up 22 receptions on 62 targets so teams were kind of throwing against him a little and then immediately regretting it uh yeah that's like when we talk about and i i just there's nothing anybody can do about this so it's sort of a frustrating point to make over and over again though it's like when you go seven and nine, eight and eight, eight and nine, nine and eight,

you don't draft Devin Witherspoon and you don't get sauce Gardner. And you just like most of the time you, I mean, even you don't get like a Parsons, even if you're not in that top 15, top 10, it's very hard to find these foundational players. Now the Vikings kind of lucked into it with guys like Harrison Smith and Xavier Rose, but they still picked an Anthony Barr, extremely high. Like you usually have to get these foundational players super high. So I don't mean to, I know these are Haley's heroes. I don't mean to make them all about the Vikings, but when you mentioned someone like that, it's like, now that's what they re oh yeah, that's right. They're 23rd as always kind of drafting in the middle of the first round. Yep.

So my second one is Nolan Smith, the edge from Georgia. I wasn't like his PFF grades are extremely amazing. It's 83.8 from last year in defense. He didn't even play a ton of snaps, but he was just an insane combine freak. Daniel Jeremiah from NFL.com kind of compared him to Hassan Redick, and we all kind of saw what he did in the playoffs. So if Nolan Smith can be any sort of player that Redick is immediately, yeah, I think he's a draft steal.

Yeah, I think is he not? I'm going to look this up on relative athletic scores. I think he's like 100. I don't think he is. I looked it up. Oh, 90 second. Okay. Yeah. 90 second. That's, I mean, that's pretty nuts though. Yeah. Yeah. So I, yeah, I think now this is an interesting one for the Vikings though, because we haven't talked as much about edge rusher, but when I've done draft sims a lot of times it's like he is a little too high for them but it's always possible that teams don't like the production enough and like a jason

oway who dropped down or a daffy oway he dropped down even though his athleticism was outrageous but he was not taking that high so it's possible that possible that Nolan Smith could end up in that ballpark just because maybe there's a little hesitation that the production wasn't quite enough. I mean, it wasn't horrendous, which I think that maybe always was pretty bad and he was more of a combine hero, but I'm intrigued by that idea for the Vikings to draft at least maybe this potential Haley hero.

But I mean, I think also, you know, kind of the edge rusher thing that, you know, they've got Sedarius not knowing what's up with him and Marcus Davenport on a one-year deal. Like this one actually kind of makes sense that it could be possible. Yeah, I definitely like this option for the Vikings. I don't really know entirely

where he's kind of projected in the first round. I think like late first round or something like that. So he could be an option for them at 23 if they move back and he's still there. I'd say go for it. Maybe. Yeah. Seems like, seems like he's jumping a bit because he, I used to be able to get him in draft Sims and now he's at 19th on the mock draft database. So, but that's still, I mean, it's ballpark 19th versus 23rd. So I think there's a good chance. Who is our next Haley's hero? Our third one is Dalton Kinkade, the tight end from Utah. I think he's the best tight end in

this draft. I have him a little better than Michael Meyer from Notre Dame just because he's better at pass blocking. So he's more of that like all around tight end than Michael Meyer is. He had a 91 PFF grade last season. That includes pass blocking. And then 92.3 just for receiving. He's just like great with yards after the catch. He had like seven yards after the catch, I think it was. And just breaking tackles.

So he's like that big body tight end. He might be like a George Kill type player. I think I like whatever team is going to pick him. I'm going to tell you the truth. I have not looked at tight ends at all because the Vikings have TJ Hawkinson. whatever team is going to pick him. I'm going to tell you the truth. I have not looked at tight ends at all because the Vikings have TJ Hawkinson. So I haven't dove into it, but I did happen to watch quite a bit of Utah play football this year.

And it was noticeable that they have like multiple good tight ends. They also have every player on their teams, like 24 because they go on missions. And so these old players, these Hendon hooker old players uh beating up on poor usc but uh here's an interesting question though about dalton kincaid because i believe you that he's a hailey hero but tight ends are a weird one in the draft like tj hawkinson plays for the vik He was a, what, ninth overall pick or something of the Detroit Lions. I mean, this whole universe of tight ends is just weird because a lot of times they

are drafted high. Evan Ingram is a player like this. They are drafted high and they don't become the superstars that are expected right away, but they also have the possibility of developing. It usually just takes years though. Irv Smith Jr. is another example where it's like oh he's going to develop he's going to be great and we saw some of the flashes of talent but it never got there like is it worth it to take a tight end that high

I think if you're getting a great player who you like your team can develop and not just train him away like the Lions did Hawkinson then I think think, yeah, like that's definitely a good option. I know Kyle Pitts is a weird one because he was taken fourth overall and he's kind of still developing. So hopefully he can become that player or else it's going to look like kind of a horrible take to take him as a tight end number four overall. But I think, yeah, I think if you can get a good player who you feel like could be a George Kittle, could maybe be a Travis Kelsey somewhere down the line, then I think go for it like in the later part of the first round. I don't

know if you'd want to take one pretty early on now, though. Yeah, I think later part of the first round makes so much more sense. And even when Kyle Pitts was taken, the whole thing was, oh, well, he's really like a wide receiver and look at his routes and everything else. And still, it did not work out quickly for them. And I, and I don't doubt that. I mean, also they've got some quarterback problems there. Uh, but I don't doubt that he could become a really, really dominant player. It's just that it usually takes for so long that you have to be in a position as a team to almost, you know, develop that guy and have another tight end that you can use and not be looking to him to be your central piece of your offense,

which I think probably the Detroit Lions did when they drafted him, and it didn't work out for them. And then he became a really excellent player. Let's see. Is that three? How many do we got here? Five? Yeah, I got five.

Okay. Who's next? All right. So the fourth one is I think the best linebacker in the draft, which is Jack Campbell from Iowa. He had a 91.9 defensive grade last year, 85.6 in run defense, and 92.9 in coverage. He kind of excels in almost every area and doesn't have a bad area. The linebacker from Arkansas, Drew Sanders, kind of wasn't great in,

I think it was coverage, but it was like great in run defense. I could have fixed them up. So, but some people have him better than Jack Campbell. I like Jack Campbell. I think you're going to get a steal like early to midway through the second round for whatever team, maybe even the Vikings that decide to draft him. He doesn't miss tackles and a 70.6 passer rating when targeted, which is really good for a linebacker. So I think he's pretty much a draft steal. You know who Jack Campbell kind of reminds me of a little bit is like an Anthony Barr in that like he has this enormous size. I mean, for a linebacker today, and this is why maybe the Vikings wouldn't look at him

because they wanted the undersized linebackers. But I don't know. I mean, last year, like the undersized linebacker but i don't know i mean last year like the undersized linebacker thing didn't work out great he's almost legit six five and 250 pounds and ran a four six and that's pretty impressive for a dude that big and his quickness scores were like just through the roof there's a reason why iowa actually won games while scoring about uh three field goals per game and that was because of their defense and a player like him. He actually is very interesting to me for the Vikings in our trade back scenario.

If they were to take him at 23, I think there'd be a lot of disappointment. But if he were taken, say, like 33, as you kind of laid out there instead of a corner. And it's hard. It's very hard to say what they're going to do with the corners, because like, are you going to use free agency are you going so if you have a player like this who you think could be a foundational player to your defense to pair him with Brian Asamoah that's a good place to get him so I do like this Haley's hero as a potential target for the Vikings yeah I think he's a great player um all right so my fifth one I like I wrote one down, but then I thought of another one also.

But I feel like they're kind of similar players because they're both very, like, undersized. So, like, the first part of this, like, 5A, is going to be Josh Downs, wide receiver from UNC. He – I think he's a star player. He had great receiving stats, 86.1 receiving grade. That's eighth in all of college football and the highest of the top prospects

this year, like even over Quentin Johnson and all those other players. And he also had the potential like second overall pick next year, throwing to him and Drake May. So I think like having already like an NFL caliber quarterback throwing to you is already a step up because you're not like learning from like oh maybe like an okay to a horrible quarterback in college to hopefully a great one in the NFL you're not like learning anything different so I think he could be a great player in the NFL I really like him he had a really high passer rating when targeted uh catches almost everything thrown his way I mean

that's a lot of on the quarterback because he was really accurate but I like Josh Downs as a player again he's kind of undersized but then my second one like 5b I'm gonna say De a lot of on the quarterback because he was really accurate. But I like Josh Downs as a player. Again, he's kind of undersized. But then my second one, like 5B, I'm going to say Deuce Vaughn, the running back from Kansas State. One, I love Kansas State for some reason. I don't know why. And I saw him play one game as I was out to dinner and the game was on TV and he rushed for like 300 yards.

And I was like, this guy's awesome. He's what, like 5'6", 5'5". And he's just like a little like bundle of energy and fire that's going to run all over the field. And I don't know if you're, I don't know if he returns kicks or punts, but could be a thing for him. Kind of like a Darren Sproles type player. Cause he was also really small, but I don't know.

I like those two guys, even though they're kind of undersized. Yeah. I mean, Darren Sproles went to Kansas state. It's kind of the same thing. Like, you know, I don't know. There's a connection there. And I really enjoyed watching him play too. Like, I don't know if he'll be a great NFL player being five foot five is difficult,

not impossible for a running back, but if you draft him, you're getting a lot of fun. I think that he was just such a good, like, if you can overcome, I've always thought this about small players that a lot of times, if you can overcome, I've always thought this about small players that a lot of times if you can overcome, and I know sometimes history just points against these, but even to be considered a top prospect, if you could be that short and be a fourth round prospect, it's worth it at that point. You're not drafting him in the first round, of course, but it's kind of worth it to take a shot at somebody who's always had to overcome being that size and playing against such difficult competition. So I think that that's a really fun one. As far as Josh Downs goes, very interesting prospect because he was great on contested catches.

And the irony is like Quinton Johnston was horrible on Quinton or on a contested catches. And Josh Downs was amazing. And Downs is tiny and Johnston is huge. And that might change in the NFL. I don't know. Downs is a very, very tough one. And it was so interesting to hear Kweisi Adafo-Mensa say that this draft is so much of like an outlier draft with the size of the receivers that there's nothing you can even reach back to and say, Oh, well, we're looking at this or we're looking at that. Uh, there's not even a lot of

players who have ever been considered top three round draft picks that are at this size. Now there hasn't been a lot of success, but I think that's an interesting one because his numbers were so, so good. Even at that size, that might be like a third rounder if again like it's in the third round make him a haley's here we should have got like a jingle haley's heroes draft them so there you go oh yeah okay so those are haley's heroes i i'm glad you did that uh well i'm gonna go slightly out of order here because we got uh two, two quick things left, but, uh, Aaron Rogers hasn't been traded yet. You notice it's okay. Have you seen Joe Douglas at the on stage with, I don't remember what that was.

Some radio thing. He was like, Oh, he's going to be here referring to Aaron Rogers. He's going to eventually. I'm just saying it hasn't happened yet. It's all right. I mean, hopefully it happens before the draft, but if it doesn't, then, hey, the Jets will take three players in the first two rounds. They got back-to-back second-round picks now,

and they'll gladly take players with those picks if the Packers don't want them. So who knows? I'm counting down the days until the draft, and if it happens on draft night, I will be in MetLife at the Jets draft party, and that would be the most insane scene ever. The Jets are not giving up number 13, though. No matter how many analysts and everything, I see mock a player at 13 to the Packers.

I'm like, are you serious? Like, the Packers and Jets, no. Number 13 is not in the equation. Like, clearly you're not keeping up with this. So he's going to be on the jets eventually and yeah all right every single week we keep coming back and i just this is our update he's not a new york jet yet you were so confident uh though i would leave the door open that aaron rogers just decides that he is going to move to bolivia and become a monk okay like it's always possible that he's going to go live in a tree

in south america or something so i'm just saying that it could happen uh but yeah it's it's the it's the weirdest thing because like this trade hasn't been done rogers is still on the packers roster and yet jordan loves like i'm the quarterback now and they're the jets are talking as if they have aaron rogers and yet this deal isn't done. And I think that when it comes to the leverage conversation, which just throw me off the tallest building in Miami. I know. I never want to hear the word ever again. So obnoxious.

But it's like both and neither. Like both of you kind of do, both of you kind of don't. Would you just do the deal already? We're all tired of hearing about it. Yeah, I'm sick of hearing the word leverage. If I ever hear it again, I'm going to die. And neither side has leverage. It's about like the same.

You go back and forth. You can argue like whatever side you want to hear the answer to. So it's annoying, but it'll happen at some point. The Jets are confident. And if it doesn't, then I don't know. Trade the farm for Lamar, whatever. Yeah. Well, now it looks like he then I don't know. Trade the farm for Lamar, whatever. Yeah. Well, now it looks like he's not going anywhere either.

So all of our fun is being ruined. So last thing I had for you outside of potential questions for me was NFL.com wrote an article about each team's ideal draft picks with their first three. But of course, theings only have two and the author of this article i forget who it was wrote that the ideal picks were will levis for the vikings and kytrell clark a corner out of louisville with the third round pick and i would like your uh reaction to saying that that is the ideal situation for the Vikings. Okay, so the person who ever wrote this article clearly hates the Vikings, definitely, because one, Will Levis, no, that's not an ideal pick. Hopefully he's gone by then and the Vikings don't

have to decide whether to take a quarterback and kind of not go all in for like Kirk's probably last season on the Vikings. So hopefully it's not even an option because I don't want them to see, or I don't want to see them take a quarterback for the future when he is, doesn't have good stats in college and is a big giant question mark. And you kind of wasted a pick at that point. And you're not getting a player who could be good for your team for the next year. And then, so I thought that was bad. And then I laughed at Kytrell Clark because he, I think he's horrible. He's not worthy of a third round pick at all.

I think he'd be a sixth or seventh round corner because his stats are absolutely horrible. Like I probably have 15 corners ahead of him in this draft, at least 15 corners ahead of him. He had a 58.5 coverage grade. Like, why are you going to of him. He had a 58.5 coverage grade. Like, why are you going to draft someone that high with a 58.5 coverage grade? He regressed heavily that year, too. He had coverage grades in 2020 and 2021 of, like, 71 and 72. So those aren't even great. Like, I wouldn't be extremely high on him if he went 70 again.

But he dropped down to 58. Like, gosh, that's not great and then he let receivers catch passes 61 percent of the time had 107.8 passer rating when targeted only two pass breakups like he's gone awful I didn't even have him in my like table of top 15 corners so I was like who the heck is this guy so yeah there's so many great corners that'll be there at 87 for them maybe like Hodges Tomlinson like Clark Phillips or something like that why are you like mocking someone who's kind of bad and should be a fifth or sixth round seventh round pick I don't know tell me how you really feel about this uh Haley I'd really like to I think that we're we could tell you're waffling

on this ideal scenario I gotta say I had the same reaction, but I mean, Levis is such a weird one because by the laws of this show, I have always said, we don't know which first round quarterbacks are going to work out, but there, there's just a lot of red flags with Will Levis, including that he eats bananas whole, which is real. Did you see this video?

Yeah. He made a video of himself where he's just like it's like a banana that's kind of expired and he eats the whole thing with the peel and why you would make a video of yourself doing this much less do that he apparently puts mayo in his coffee like i don't know if he's trying to like be an influencer or something this is very weird very weird stuff uh that doesn't take him off my board but it is interesting to me that there seems to be like a growing kind of, I don't really know if this guy's really going to be an actual first round pick. The numbers aren't that good.

And Kevin O'Connell talking about, they all have to be in agreement about Will Levis. I feel like he'd be a hard player to get agreement on because if you're crazy, how do you say that this guy has the numbers? And then, you know, his pro day maybe wasn't that great and like his performance wasn't that great last year this is is i think i would have to say okay this is a good pick because they made their selection for the future like just again the bylaws of the show if someone gets drafted in the first round as a quarterback that's a good idea but this presses this presses the edges of that probably just as much or more than hendon hooker because hendon hooker was so much better in college than will levis will levis is also old by the way so a lot

of red flags there and the other guy like wow i haven't even heard of this player at this point and this is who you're saying is ideal for them uh very very strange very strange but i wanted you to bash uh will le more. What is your, let's put it this way though. What, like, what is your, what is your confidence though? What is your confidence that it's that Will Levis is not going to work out? I probably, so like in a percentage, the percent that I think he won't work out is probably like close to 75. I think he's going to be one of the biggest, like if he's taken pretty early on in the first round, Oh my God. Like I'm like, you might be the biggest quarterback bust in a while right now. I mean,

Zach Wilson was obviously horrible. There's been other like first round bus, but I think he's the biggest potential for a bust in this draft for the quarterbacks. Yeah, I agree. Yeah. Sorry. I was going to say the biggest busts have all happened to your favorite team. So, but you went there anyway. All right. So now just as the sun has gone down and I am back in the lights and look normal again, as opposed to looking like a airplane pilot or something in the dark. Do you have any Vikings questions for me? Yeah.

Okay. I've got one this week and it might not be the most positive one because it kind of takes you to the end of your season. But that fourth and eight play against the Giants that ended your season, what do you think they were trying to do? You're throwing it two yards down the field think they were trying to do like you're throwing it two yards down the field and they're trying to win the one-on-one like having hockinson break that tackle and get the first down but i wouldn't trust that like throw it at least to the sticks

it's isn't it amazing by the way like that football game was really good this was a really good playoff game and it comes comes down to a one score game and it's close and everything else. And you could also go back to how they couldn't get a stop and that the giants end up going ahead at the end of the game with Daniel Jones as their quarterback, because you just could not make the key stop. Right? So there's so many things in a game that lead up to it, but in the playoffs, there's these one plays that always stick out to us.

Like with the Broncos and Ravens, when the cornerback for the Broncos on the Hail Mary from Joe Flacco, like underplayed it, the guy goes in for the touchdown, Jacoby Jones, I think. And it's just like, that's the play. That's the play that didn't even win the game. And like, that's the play though. The fourth and eight check down, like that's the play. That's the one that just sticks with you. The same way with Dak Prescott, where Dallas was actually already about to lose almost no matter what,

but Dak Prescott running the clock out on himself will just never be forgotten. And I think that's, I actually think that that domino effect leads to Kellen Moore being the offensive coordinator in LA because nobody ever forgets these things. So just, it's funny that you bring it up because it kind of comes up on the show almost every day.

And so I think, I think based on what they said that what happened was Kirk Cousins saw Justin Jefferson double teamed. And he was like, okay, I need to go through the next read which was probably KJ Osborne on the other side of the field or Adam Thielen. Both of them were on the other side of the field. But when Dexter Lawrence broke through, he thought, okay, I'm not going to be able to

throw it over there. So I've just got to get rid of it and make sure I don't take a sack to end the season. But I mean, look, you'd almost rather have them get sacked to end the season than check it down three yards where you, I mean, not technically, but kind of right. Like trying to make a play and take a big hit or something, but mostly you just want them to throw it to double coverage. And Kirk saying after the game that he like didn't throw it to Jefferson because he was doubled was like, why would you tell everyone that? Because throw it to him when he's doubled. And then i'm sure jefferson's

reaction after the game was probably like really man really like really uh so that was tough but for me the funny thing is about for me so this whole season was nuts right it's like one of the longest feeling seasons i've ever covered because every week was just something totally insane week after week after week and so there was like the two minute warning. I think they come back out. Kirk throws that pass. And I turned to the person next to me, which is Sam Ekstrom, which our audience knows he was, you know, purple insider.

And I said to Sam, I was like, wow, all comes down to this next play. And Sam goes, no, it doesn't. It's over. I was like like that was fourth down like i just just i had like a tom brady moment of like losing what down it was because in my mind i was like oh wow there's no way there's no way he just threw a check down on fourth down and eight so you know that that one it's gonna it's gonna stick with him which is it's unfair and it's fair right like? Like, I don't know how you tell

me how you feel about it. I feel like it's unfair and it's fair. Like in some ways it's so definitive of why they haven't gone any farther throughout the years, but also super unfair to a guy who had all these like clutch plays throughout the season to put it on that one. But then there's another part that's like fair because a lot of quarterbacks who win run away or take risks or make that, you know what I mean? So I don't know. It's a,

it's a play that will definitely live in Vikings infamy for sure. Yeah, I think so. I think the Cowboys might have you beat there with that having Zeke and center. Oh my God. That was like the funniest thing I probably have ever seen because everything that could have gone wrong,

like went wrong and just calling that play made it all go wrong so at least you're not the cowboys in that aspect and again like the game is over but you just did the stupid if they just threw an incomplete pass regularly no one would ever remember that and then you know so two years in a row the cowboys end on the stupidest fashion so uh anyway well once again as always I tell you to go read what uh Haley has written. Purpleinsider.com had some glitches, but now it is back up and running and all good. So go there, check it out. It's a fantastic piece.

And we will do it again next week. And wow, we're almost there. We are closing in. Haley, you excited? Yeah, definitely. Draft night. I mean, as a Jets fan fan a draft night is the that's the night the night of the year it's the most exciting one it's the one everyone looks forward

to because there's optimism so I think yeah draft night's always fun I love the first round and I'm excited for it your Super Bowl maybe we'll have to do uh we'll do analytical draft sim and we'll let you draft sim for the Jets we'll do that for next week uh so uh thanks for your time as always thanks everybody for listening and we will see you soon awesome