Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - THE FINAL DRAFT SIMULATION!!!!

Episode Date: April 24, 2024

Matthew Coller is joined by CBS Sports draft analyst Chris Trapasso for the yearly edition of our final draft simulation ahead of Thursday night's NFL Draft. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hey everybody, welcome to another episode of Purple Insider. Matthew Collar here along with CBS Sports Draft Analyst Chris Trapasso for The Big Show. The one where we do our final draft sim and we give our final picks of what we think the Minnesota Vikings will do in the NFL Draft on Thursday night. So this is always one that I look forward to the entire draft season. When we're in Indianapolis at the Combine, Chris, I'm thinking about this podcast here today. How are you feeling, man, just a few hours now before the NFL draft? I'm super pumped. And you just mentioning the NFL Combine, doesn't that feel like two decades ago

with all the quarterbacks we've talked about? And I'm not going to say we were the ones that did it, but we were some of the first to report on the JJ McCarthy hype train that left Indianapolis and has been nowhere to be found, or I guess everywhere to be found since then. It just feels so long ago. I'm excited to finally be here this close to the draft. That's right. I remember you spending some time in a restaurant, bar, hotel, whatever, with some NFL people and coming back and doing a podcast and saying, you know what? I think that there's more JJ McCarthy hype than is out there.

And then he goes through his workout. He had his meetings with teams. And then suddenly it exploded to where people think JJ McCarthy is going to end up, which we'll talk about this as we go through our draft sim. So how I've done it, I've run a draft sim. I made my picks already for in this scenario, what would happen? And then you're going to, as we go along, give your analysis and what you would do as the Minnesota Vikings in each one of these situations. So that is how we're going to do it. So I'm just going to

get right into it. The first overall pick in this draft sim using a PFF mock draft simulator is a total shocker. Caleb Williams to the Chicago bears. There is at this point, no mystery, no disagreement whatsoever.aleb williams will be the number one pick we agree with that chris totally uh there's been not one even like glimmer of should the colts take rg3 over andrew luck and maybe they will maybe like there's been none of that um their gm uh ryan poles didn't necessarily say it's it's locked and loaded but i feel like the commissioner or maybe someone like involved in the league is like gms please didn't necessarily say it's locked and loaded, but I feel like the commissioner or maybe someone like involved in the league is like, GMs, please don't just say what you're going to do

like two days before the draft. So he kind of gave a vague answer, but I think it makes sense for Chicago to do this, and this will ultimately be how the draft starts on Thursday night. And in the middle of the season, you could have convinced me that there were more questions about Caleb Williams, although I was listening to Pablo Torrey's podcast and someone compared him to if Prince was a quarterback. And I thought Prince would actually be an amazing quarterback.

So I don't know. He'd be owning Charlie Murphy out on the backyard playing football. But that's a Chappelle show reference if you haven't seen the show. Anyway, yeah, there's no question here. The league seems to view Caleb Williams' head and shoulders above the next best player, but the next best player is actually, in my opinion, who goes number two. So we have talked about Drake May a ton as a fit for the Minnesota Vikings. I just read a story five minutes before we came on here about how Washington's not leaking what they're doing to

anyone. And they're doing a lot of interesting stuff in their approach. But in this draft simulation, they do not take the player that everyone thinks they will. They take Drake May instead at number two overall. And I believe, Chris, if this happens, then the Minnesota Vikings might take their hand off the button, which is what I did in this draft simulation that I waited and you could put it on super slow mode before deciding if you want to make a trade. I waited until number two, once they took Drake May, I was like, oh, now I'm not going to swing that trade with the New England Patriots. If you were the Vikings in this situation where Washington takes Drake May number two,

how would you approach now getting a quarterback? I think that exact phrase, taking your hand off the button or maybe putting down the phone and not having Kweisi call the Patriots at three, the connection to Josh McCown that we certainly referenced at the combine that he coached him in high school. We both love Drake May. We kind of went over his best game, his worst game, but can see the upside, especially in Minnesota. What I will say about this, it's like, again, last year, I think Steve Palazzolo from PFF tweeted that like a year ago,

the week of the draft, like Will Levis was the odds-on favorite to be like the second pick in the draft. Or certainly, if not second, going to go to the Colts at four, like that was a foregone conclusion. Right? So I think this year we've all kind of talked ourselves into Jaden Daniels at two, which this is not to say that I think he's a terrible prospect and in no way, shape or form, should he be the second pick, but it's not as though the commanders have gone about it and not had Drake May in for a visit and only been at the LSU Pro Day. Yes, they've been tight-lipped. And their new GM, Adam Peters, has said that they're not going to really leak anything, obviously, or they're not going to indicate one way or the other.

And they had that kind of, I don't know if it's famous or infamous, but that group quarterback meeting where they go to Topgolf, where they have them in for a visit. All of them to kind of keep people guessing. I don't think we can totally rule this out. but that group quarterback meeting where they go to top golf, where they have them in for a visit, all of them to kind of keep people guessing. I don't think we can totally rule this out. And I kind of liked that the PFF draft simulator will occasionally send Drake may to two, because I don't think it's locked as much in as Caleb Williams to the bears that one.

Yeah. I mean, I a hundred percent agree. I think it's a total coin flip between Jaden Daniels and Drake May at number two. And I do keep going back to when we started the college season, we thought it was locked in. Whoever was one and two was taking Williams and May, and then it's a free for all for the rest of the spots.

We may have been right when we had less information as opposed to seeing these guys play this year. And I mean, I think about this, you made a Tik TOK or something about how you thought people should keep an eye on Jaden Daniels at the beginning of the college season. And I don't remember anybody even retweeting it. I think that it was like, ah, whatever, you know, this guy from LSU is not even really a big prospect and then he emerges. But in the eyes of Washington, we don't know if he emerged as high as Drake May who's been at the top seemingly really since the end of the 2022 season so this would not shock me in the

least I think Vikings fans would probably have their hearts broken a little bit here because they've got eyes on Drake May but the next question then becomes at number three I chose not to trade up for Jaden Daniels at number three, and he was taken in this simulation by the New England Patriots as the third overall pick. Should the Vikings send it all for Jaden Daniels? I wouldn't. He is my number three quarterback and I have like a top five or six grade on him, but I think there are those concerns. We've talked about it ad nauseum, but I'll say it one more time, pre-draft, pressure to sac rates,

lacking spatial awareness, maybe not keeping his eyes up quite as long as you would want for a quarterback, especially one who's athletic and does have a good arm. And I think it would, what's interesting though, is that because we've all almost written in pen that it's going to be jayden daniels to the commanders at two i would understand if vikings fans would be livid if then with him falling the vikings didn't jump on that and i'm sure you would hear it on the broadcast like oh my gosh like the vikings or the broncos or whichever team didn't trade up for jayden daniels they're getting this thrown into their lap, the locked in number two pick. When, like you mentioned, I think it is more of a coin flip. And in terms of which prospect is better, I like Drake Maymore.

So this would not totally surprise me. And I wouldn't necessarily sell the farm for Jaden Daniels. Now it doesn't happen in this, in this draft sim, but if you were to fall to five, six, seven, eight, then I could understand it but multiple firsts multiple early picks um he's just a little bit too scary for me the two that i like the most caleb williams drake may so at number four now consider that the simulator doesn't do other trades so i mean i guess we could have had five people get together and all try to be trading at once.

But in this case, the Arizona Cardinals go with Malik neighbors at the number four overall pick, which I think is possible. This would be a spot where the Vikings and then number five goes Marvin Harrison Jr. to the Los Angeles Chargers. This would be a spot where the Vikings could try to trade up and take JJ McCarthy. Is that worth it at this point with the top three quarterbacks off the board? You've got two teams that have talked about wanting to move down. You end up with neighbors going first, which may make the Chargers decision easy. They may say, okay, all right, we're not trading out if we can get Marvin Harrison at number five overall. So this scenario, again, might make it unrealistic to be able to trade up.

But let's say that Arizona said, okay, we would be willing to do it if you offer the right price, and that price would have to be very high. Is that now worth it, trading up for J.J. McCarthy, assuming you can't do it without sending the two firsts this year and a first next year? I don't know if I would trade all the way to four for J.J. McCarthy. If you're getting to five and it might seem menial, it's only one pick, but that could drastically change what this team would have to give up to get that quarterback. And it's kind of the catch 22 of, I don't absolutely love J't absolutely love JJ McCarthy but as we all understand that

the situation in Minnesota is as good as any in the NFL for a young quarterback to be able to just step into so I could see at five and it feels like I mean you're mentioning that in the PFF mock they don't have other teams making trades but it feels like the Chargers could be a team that would be very much like, Hey, we'll move back. We'll just pick an offensive tackle or Roma Dunzey or Brian Thomas Jr. in that trade back to 11. So I wouldn't do it at four, but you could talk me into it at five, just because again, I don't absolutely love the prospect, but you need a quarterback. And I think him falling into your lap, um, or not costing as much just makes a lot more sense than trading like multiple firsts and multiple seconds to get all the way to three. I don't want to make it too economical because it's quarterback and the price is high, but that's

okay. And you're giving up something for the potential of a very high ceiling. Even if the quarterback is good, it's still a very high ceiling for what this offense could become. I chose in this scenario, not to trade up and let those two teams make their picks and then go from there. And to see if JJ McCarthy would get to seven, where I decided would be a spot that you'd have to go up to because it's not in the division like it is with the Chargers. So Denver could try to trade up with a team like Tennessee or the Raiders. That was my aim in letting him get by number four and number five. But I came to regret that

because at number six, the New York Giants select JJ McCarthy. We've gone back and forth on the Giants and their potential of drafting a quarterback. I still think that unless they could get their hands on Drake May, they will not do something like this. But also if you talk about quarterbacks and coaches that would work really well together, you could definitely see Brian Dable and JJ McCarthy, little bit of that development project that Josh Allen was not the same athlete, but same sort of concept. And maybe the giants would do this if he fell to them and they didn't have to make any other, you know, bigger efforts. So that's what ends up happening in this draft sim. And it's realistic. I feel like it's a coin flip, whether the giants would

take McCarthy there or not, but I rolled the dice thinking I could get McCarthy at seven and I lost them. I failed that. So now am I, am I fired? Am I, in your mind, like, am I in trouble? Are you mad that I lost out on him by not trading up to five? I don't know. I, I think it's, it's not, I mean, in your case, it's just, you're saying I'm going to roll the dice. I'm not going to offer anything. I mean, you would have just been offering it to the PFF draft simulator. I think what's more realistic is if JJ McCarthy is there at four or five, or, you know, as the giants are going on the clock, that Kweisi will make those calls. And what we have to realize that is a pretty distinct possibility.

It's not guaranteed, but it's distinct that they could just be too costly to trade up, that they could get back that call and say, look, we want 11. We want 23. We want next year's first. We want a third. We want a player like, and the Vikings just say, look, that's too much to give up. We've talked about for years now that this new regime is not, I mean, this draft more than any other in the past is understanding how important it is to just be competitive and they're not pressing the reset

button. So I think that Kweisi, his understanding of analytics and trading down and getting more draft picks would maybe make offers and probably will for quarterbacks, but ultimately might just be too costly and that he could have maybe more of a leash in terms of what he's willing to do. Because like you mentioned, it is a quarterback, but where he's going to reach a point where he's like, all right, I'm not going to trade into 2026 or something crazy like that. And I do think that we might see on draft night that you can look at the draft trade charts. I have a great one. We have the Spielberg or Fitzgerald chart. That's great. Where that for quarterbacks getting inside the top five or six might be significantly

more costly for a quarterback. If you're trading up from 15 to nine to pick a corner, all right, it'll probably be aligned with those trade charts, but I would almost, I don't want to say throw them out the window, but we might see a team or two have to trade way more than what the chart says to get that quarterback in one of those coveted spots. So here's my feeling on that. When neighbors went number four, my thought was the price probably goes up for the chargers because of the caliber of prospect that Marvin Harrison is. So it's not just moving back by a chart. Yeah. It's who they would be passing up, who they're giving to somebody else, because that means that whoever's picking six or seven gets to have this really, really excellent prospect and where there

are other good ones, but I don't know that there's two that are of neighbors and Harrison in their caliber. So if they're giving up that, then you're probably going to have to really go all in, give them, I don't know, Jordan Addison, or give up three first round draft picks. So that's how I landed on deciding not to do that. And then he goes to the Giants. So now they've missed out on the top four quarterbacks. Vikings Twitter is losing its mind.

Vikings fans are freaking out completely. They are already calling for my head as the general manager of the Vikings in this in this draft sim to number seven goes dallas turner pretty good pick there for the titans joe alt local guy here in minnesota ends up as an atlanta falcon i don't know how realistic that is i think i'd switch those flipped yeah yeah okay but whatever either one of those guys off the board i'd go all to to Tennessee and turn her to the Falcons. Roma Dunze, who is on a plane apparently today with Caleb Williams, and those guys look like they could very well play together in Chicago.

And then number 10, Brock Bowers, goes to play with Aaron Rodgers. So now we sit at number 11. We're assuming Denver has not tried to trade up to get above the Vikings. We're assuming that the Raiders have not traded up and you have your choice. You can do one of three things. You could draft Bo Nix, you could draft Michael Penix, or you can decide to wait until number 23. In this draft simulation, because I was attempting to do it two years in a row where I got their pick right, if this were to play out, I decided to go with Bo Nix. I think I might go with Michael Penix, but I decided to go with Bo Nix because I think

when the word processing keeps coming up, it just feels like when you watch Bo Nix out of all the assets he has, see where to put the football, get it out of your hands quickly. That's his top thing, but who they would pick between those guys. Very, very hard to say either one. I would not try to wait till number 23. I would pick a quarterback here. And if it was me, I would probably take Pennix. If it's them, I think they might go next. So I'm going to make my official pick Bo Nix with the 11th overall pick if this scenario does play out. So grade my draft. How am I doing so far? I think you're doing pretty well. I would go with a different quarterback though. I agree with all of your logic. And we went over that last episode, like don't wait until

23. It just adds weird pressure. Why didn't you pick him at 11? And I think in reality, if this is how it plays out, or if J.J. McCarthy is just not there and he's not in a Vikings uniform, the Broncos and the Raiders right behind you, I mean, you can cross your fingers all you want, but I feel like at least one of the two quarterbacks goes off the board, whether it's Knicks or Pennix, whichever one you don't pick, not going to last all the way to 23. There's other teams that could trade back into the first to see these quarterbacks fall. I would go with Michael Pennix. And I agree with the

processing. We heard Kevin O'Connell talk about that, being smart, the footwork stuff. I feel like there's just more explosiveness possibility or potential with Michael Penix and I'm not going to say his I mean I'm not a footwork expert when it comes to quarterbacks Kevin O'Connell knows a lot more about that than I do Josh McCown as well but I feel like this is not someone in Michael Penix who's just totally raw inside the pocket and just has to get rebuilt like Tim Tebow when he was a first round pick in 2010. So I'm going to go Michael Penix. And we do have to say for the record, last year, I went Nolan Smith. You went Jordan Addison. You not only hit, but you hit on a really good player who was

awesome for the Vikings last season, even after Justin Jefferson went down, really took over those wide receiver one duties and was great. So I think we both have the same idea, the same draft logic, didn't trade the farm, still have that extra pick in the first round, which is super valuable. I'm just going to go Michael Pennix at 11 to just instantly plug into the offense. I think by the end of last year, you could have called it a obsession with Jordan Addison as the pick. And when they did it, I was like, wait a minute. They actually picked the guy that I thought they should pick. I don't know that that's ever happened before.

So that was fun last year. But in this case, yeah, it's a toss up to me. I'm trying to put myself in Kevin O'Connell's shoes and think about the risks of taking Michael Penix. Maybe some of the details on routes of he's not the most flawless with his accuracy and his execution, but is a great deep ball thrower. But how much of the NFL is actual deep balls? There might be something like that in there. Also, if you're really pushing all your chips to the middle of the table, somebody's injury history does matter. I mean,

I know that Michael Penix is going to say, hey, give me all the MRIs you want. Here's other players who tore their ACLs, things like that. But we're talking about someone who Kevin O'Connell wants to call his future franchise quarterback. And I'm leaning just a shade toward Bo Nix because of that. But I mean, if it was me, I would probably go Penix based on what I know and what I see from him. But man, I mean, who would know at that point like which guy they're gonna pick that's all dependent on what they see and how they feel the guy's going to fit in their offense yeah what i

wonder here and i kind of alluded to it with my last answer and maybe you're i mean you're probably the perfect person to ask this i know that the vikings and they've been very open about like this you know we've been targeting this draft class for a year. They get the extra pick. I truly wonder how much they're willing to give up, how like, and this sounds like there's a negative connotation, but how desperate are they to get a quarterback, a top tier, you know, let's say one of the top four, or how much is their GM with a vast analytical background, super smart, super articulate, understands all the trade charts and how probably how beneficial it is to trade down and accumulate extra picks and did it in the first

round two years ago, how much he's going to say, look, like, yes, Kevin. Yes, Josh. I want to get us a quarterback too. But we know that this is ultimately a role at the table for any of these quarterbacks. And if we miss and then we have no picks, then we're definitely fired. We're not going to be good. We're not even going to be competitive to get another chance at it. That to me is more so of like which one they will pick. I guess we'll see very soon. How aggressive

are they? Is there going to be more of a situation in Denver where I think their GM George Payton should be on the hot seat, but how aggressive are they willing to be? Are they willing to trade like Patrick Sertan like we've heard here is rumored to get into 2026 with a first round pick? How aggressive are the Giants? And then could we maybe see more of a methodical and more cool approach from Kwasi saying, look, I want a quarterback badly, but I'm not going to go berserk with this for a J.J. McCarthy or someone who's not a finished product. And I think this exercise really kind of forces that question out of me, because I think if it's not Drake May available at three, then that in the war room, they will kind of have to finally make that decision, whether it's coaches versus GM or the GM just says, look, we're not going to trade the farm for someone other than either Caleb Williams or Drake May. Well, yeah. And that's something I've thought of quite a bit through this entire thing, which is how much is it worth to them to trade for McCarthy? That's the hardest decision.

And that's the decision I ran into here. And I made my choice thinking that, you know, the difference of prospects between someone like Bo Nix and JJ McCarthy, at least in my opinion, is not that much now in the draft boards are totally mixed if you look at arif hassan's consensus draft board uh there is not that huge of a gap i think mccarthy's in the 20s uh for his i haven't been the 20s boards and then right so going off of big boards and then you have penix and mccarthy or in uh n are in the thirties. So there isn't that huge of a gap versus Drake May. That's all the way up at the top. So for me, pushing the chips to the middle of the table and putting everything out there, risking it on one guy is okay. In my mind for Drake May, I, as sitting in the seat, doing the drafts and was not willing to

do that for McCarthy because I'd be comfortable with Penix or Nix. And I also think, as you mentioned, that the odds of success for either one of those guys versus McCarthy is just not that much different. If you're drafted in the top 12, 14 prospects as a quarterback, look at throughout history. It's not always the first guy. It's not always the third guy. It's sometimes it's the fifth guy in the case of Lamar jackson you know the the fifth guy is a two-time mvp and that is very influential to me and also i like their resumes i like their fits so i was comfortable with staying at 11 and deciding to make that pick yeah one last point on this and i will get in my obligatory mention of the bills here i've done a million radio spots and podcasts who should the bills pick which receiver? Which receiver? Do you like him? Do you like him? And I've literally gotten to the point where I'm

like, as long as they don't pick like Jalen Rager, like the worst receiver in the class, you have Josh Allen, you have a good offensive coordinator, you have other weapons, you have Dalton Kincaid, decent to very good offensive line. Just pick receiver don't wait and say let's get one in the fourth round that's kind of how I feel about the Vikings where we've talked so much about what a great situation I was listening to Mina Kimes podcast and she was raving about like holy crap the situation in Minnesota is amazing the Vikings know that and it wouldn't shock me kind of baked into my thought that maybe Kwesi's analytical background would kind of push him away from selling the farm for a quarterback

could maybe take kind of a, I don't want to say not confident approach because all these guys, they pour over the film, they know the analytics and they have so many former coaches on staff that know the intricacies that make it work at the quarterback spot. But I could see them just kind of stepping back and saying, look, we don't really know. We've like you and I joke about this all the time. We don't really know how they're going to play out. But as long as we kind of just pick one, I mean, we had Nick Mullins throwing 400 yards in a single game, like in this offense. And that was maybe without Justin Jefferson at a hundred percent.

So it's to me, maybe that's too simple, but it seems like if I can think that, and it's not that hard for me to grasp that you would certainly realize that the Vikings could maybe feel like plug in any of these guys. And this is kind of to your point that there's not a huge difference. I don't think between McCarthy and Penix and Knicks, plug him in and let him go. And then suddenly we're not barren with future draft capital and can add some more younger talent to the roster that's cheap. So you and I think that way, and I think Kwesi thinks that way, but I don't think Kevin O'Connell thinks that way. And so that's what it comes down to here with this. So if Kevin O'Connell

evaluates all these quarterbacks, he sits down with them. He has a steak or they eat ice cream and he watches if he competitively eats his ice cream or whatever. And he's decided on every single detail. Oh wait, that's how Washington might do it. But they look at every single detail of these quarterbacks and he says, look, let's just say out of a 10 scale, I don't know what scale they work on. JJ McCarthy is a 7.7 and Bo Nix is 7.6. Then Kweisi Adafo-Mentz is going to say, could you be comfortable with Bo Nix as your guy versus JJ McCarthy at three first round draft picks? Here's another thing Kevin O'Connell should keep in mind is that he is the head coach of the Minnesota Vikings football franchise, not head

coach of a quarterback. So it is very important that he keeps in mind. And especially as I drafts him to this, and I know already who I got at 23, that that could be pretty darn beneficial to his friend, Brian Flores, who will help him potentially win. So I'm going to start moving down now through some of the other picks. And so again, I went with Bo Nix as my pick is who i think they would pick i would certainly uh take pennix as well uh denver in this case did not take pennix they went with jared verse um the raiders went with a tackle we had a real run on tackles here yeah saints tackle colts tackle seahawks tackle byron murphy ends up going 17 to the Jaguars and then number 18 is Brian Thomas

goes to the Cincinnati Bengals this is where Michael Penix went is 19 to the Los Angeles Rams I guess he would be the next man up after Matthew Stafford retires Quinion Mitchell at 20 Terry and Arnold 21 Cooper Dajin at 22 so we've now seen my favorite defensive interior player, Byron Murphy, go three corners that I would have been pretty happy with. And I am left settling for at number 23 with an incredibly productive defensive end slash outside linebacker in this defense,

Leatu Latu with the 23rd overall pick. And I got to say, I was very proud of myself. In fact, I may have fist bumped or fist pumped. I may have been a little like, I just, I just got one of the best edge rushers in this entire class with number 23 overall. Somebody who had what? 13 sacks last season. Tremend season, tremendous,

tremendous pressure statistics, very, you know, well considered technical defensive pass rusher. So now Andrew Van Ginkle can move around. You can have him locked in with Jonathan Grenard for years. And this made me really like this outcome. Chris for the Vikings franchise is getting a quarterback with a really good resume that I think can execute a lot that Kevin O'Connell asks and an absolute beast at the

defensive tackle or the defensive end position. I believe he's the second edge rusher off the board. Yes. Cause Oh no. Third because Jared verse and Dallas Turner, the third edge rusher off the board, not something you normally get with the 23rd pick. So now grade me, Chris. Yeah, that's an A, absolutely. I mean, he's my number two edge rusher. The only thing is just like the past neck injury, and he's a little older, doesn't have crazy long arms, and that's ultra nitpicking. Because back-to-back years, his pressure creation rate was like around 20%.

That's crazy high. That's like Micah Parsons level. He's big. I think to your point, like I, as you're saying this, I'm trying to think, all right, who am I going to go with? But that specific point of with Latu and then what that would do the ripple effect to Andrew Van Ginkle, who can really align anywhere and kind of be an agap blitzer or rush off the edge or stand up, move all around the formation. I think like that impact on another player would make him more enticing than someone like, say, Johnny Newton from Illinois, who didn't work out during the pre-draft process. And I've been the

biggest advocate and biggest believer in this edge rusher class is a cliff after round one you're really I mean to me hearing some names that might go in round two I'm like man you are really like just pushing these guys up because of the positional value and I'll say to segue there perfect positional value you get the number one most important position on the field at 11 and then the number two or number three most important position at edge rusher, the guy that gets after the quarterback in Latu. I was going to go different just to keep the tradition going to pick someone different than you, but that just makes way too much sense for me.

If Johnny Newton had worked out and tested similarly to Byron Murphy, some people think he would have been similar, but I could maybe be forced to make that pick because I people think he would have been similar, but I could maybe be forced to make that pick because I do think they need defensive tackle as well, and he can get up the field, but it's where the draft navigation has to come in, where you look at the rest of the defensive tackle class and even third, fourth round, a lot of better names than there is at the edge rusher spot and again after lotto there's chop robinson and chris braswell maybe i'm gonna go with liatulatu as well ripple effect on the defense

he's a little on the older side but it is a plug and play type of position here for the vikings to get a quarterback and then liatulatu at 23 so other potential options would have included nate wiggins the cornerback who is very undersized uh from clemson 173 pounds i don't know if that and he's like six two yeah so i don't know if that really gels with what brian floris wants although he could play man coverage extremely well i just don't expect him to be able to tackle anyone at the NFL level. Also chop Robinson, who is a little more project the, in my opinion, I'm not sold on him being a better pick than lots to,

you could also go Darius Robinson, or if you want it to be a guard guy or interior lineman guy, Jackson powers Johnson. But I think lots to is the best decision here by far. So where would this rank to you? And then I'm going to run through my fourth round late picks here by far. So where would this rank to you? And then I'm going to run through my fourth round late picks here as well. So where, but where would you rank that among best case to worst case,

like on a scale, let's say that a one is the absolute best case, your favorite case ever for the Vikings with the first round of the 2024 NFL Draft. Six would be they miss on all quarterbacks and take two punters in the first round. So let's just, I don't know why, it's because there's six quarterbacks, I guess. One to six, because it's random.

With one being the best and six being the worst. Six is, oh my, what? How about 2.5 because i i don't know if you totally agree with me on this but we i i think we do that drake may just however they get him would be the best case scenario that's reasonable um with him off the board i think you don't trade the farm for jj mccarthy because we do agree i mean you can look at my big board. I have my, I think at 21, I have a Knicks or I have Pennix near like 31 or 32. And then Bo Knicks, I think is my, is like 33 or 34. So again, not a huge golf between those. So I think to miss out on May is a bummer and it takes it out of that number one range. And to still get a quarterback,

you pick Knicks, I pick Pennix. Knicks, you can certainly, I mean, I could be talked into that because of all the processing. And again, like I said, just getting a quarterback that is reasonably talented in this situation without trading the farm. And then certainly from picks 11 to 22, there would be Vikings fans like, why did we not trade up for McCarthy and May? And oh my gosh. And then you land Latu and you're like, oh, I see. Like this makes a lot more sense now because this helps out the team

on both sides of the ball. And I think we started off this pre-draft process before we just talked about quarterbacks for an hour straight every week. We're like, the defense needs a lot of work. And I get that certainly talking about quarterbacks, and especially this draft, is fun for Vikings fans and makes a lot of sense. But this would remind everyone that, yeah, they still need, even after some of the signings in free agency, some good ones,

they do need some more help up front. And Latu is hit the ground running, instant impact edge rusher. I like 2.5 because it's not that hard to think of something that could be better. Let's say Drake may gets to number four and then you have to give up a little less or number five and you have to give up a little less or McCarthy falls to 11. That's under the assumption that they rank quarterbacks the same way that the outside world does, which who knows if that's the case. I think we know that the NFL is going to like Caleb Williams and then the rest is really

up to all the teams making those picks. But let's just say if they had McCarthy as QB four over the other two guys, then getting him at 11 would be ideal. What I would really be fascinated by is if three of them were on the board at number 11. If they, if it was Knicks, Pennix and McCarthy, I think we all assume the outcome, but I'd love to see how that would play out. That's probably another like a one potential outcome. But right after that is being able to pick a quarterback that has a really good resume. And then somebody at 23, where I was just like, I can't believe I'm getting this guy. But I think no matter who you get,

you're going to go, I can't believe I'm getting this guy because there's so many good defensive players in this first round. Yeah. And what I think the over under, which I don't bet on the draft, but I saw the over under for offensive players in round one, instead of like 21 and a half.

So if you're the Vikings, you're like, all right, we knocked out the quarterback need we're all that's kind of breathing inside relief we're gonna get a good defensive player whether it is like in this mock where Latu falls to you or maybe like barely any of the corners go off the board you can pick Terry and Arnold from Alabama who's a plug-and-play incident impact corner it's kind of a good alignment in terms of where they pick 11 and 23

and where the board is seemingly going to fall. The last thing I'll say is that, um, I mean, you know, this, I know this, but it's, it's still like, you have to remind yourself of it every year. I said it earlier that Will Levis was an odds on favorite to be a top five pick, uh, back in what, 2014, Teddy Bridgewater was maybe going to be the first overall pick. He's a 32nd pick. There was such a divergent opinion on Lamar Jackson.

Until the day of the draft, I was in Dallas my first year at CBS. It was either Sam – it was probably Sam Darnold to the Browns at one, but maybe Josh Allen. And I remember waking up and going to AT&T Stadium to do a video with Pete Prisco, and he's like, it's going to be Baker Mayfield. I'm like, no, it's not. Sure enough, like all of his sources were like that. I think at that point, Hugh Jackson was like telling everyone

what they were going to do. So even though we're so, so close, we still don't know. Like Drake, Mac Jones went a lot later than expected. Justin Fields as well. So any of those last scenarios that you represented, like, hey, maybe like J.J. McCarthy, Penix, and Nix are there. It seems right now, like, Hey, maybe like JJ McCarthy, Penix and Knicks are there. It seems right now, like no way that's going to happen.

He's going to be gone. We still haven't seen quarterbacks go what? One, two, three, four. And a lot of mocks have that. Don't be surprised if something completely off the board ultimately happens when the draft starts on Thursday. I'm sticking with it. I'm going to keep mentioning it.

McCarthy at 11, not having to give up anything is the hot take pick. It's not what happened in the draft simulation, but it's the one I'm sticking with because if it happens, I will feel great about my, I don't know what I came up with this. Maybe when, maybe when his draft stock went too far for me to think it was realistic. It was like, wait a minute, this has jumped a little higher than I think it should. What if it's actually- Where it seems overly inflated, like it's not real.

What if it's splitting the difference? What if it's actually higher than the draft boards, a lot of big boards that analysts have, but it's, because if you were to say, Arif Hasan brought this up when he was on the show. He said that if someone tells you, hey, the Vikings are higher than most people on McCarthy. But if most people thought that he was a backend of the first round draft pick,

then actually at 11 would be higher than most people. So anyway, I'm going to try that out and he'll go number four and I'll go, eh, what are you going to do? So here's the, here's the rest of my draft. I had a little fun in the fourth round plus, and you let me know if you don't know any of these players because i didn't either i just pulled up their pff pages and went like oh yeah that looks good to me um so uh let's see anias smith from texas a&m is that how you pronounce his name yes a wide receiver looked to me like a kind of a running back wide receiver hybrid put him in the slot get them the football

maybe playmaker could potentially hey the kick return is back could potentially be a kick returner uh but i think they do need another wide receiver in this draft to add to the competition that they have and it's a deep receiver draft so fourth round wide receiver, Aeneas Smith sounded good to me. Yeah. So his film to me is day two quality, but his workout was day three caliber. So that's really probably going to be why he'll be available later early in his career at Texas A&M. He looked like maybe even a future first round pick. His career missed tackle force rate is crazy high.

It's near like 25 or 30%. So it's up there. Like Malik neighbors is 31 so it's it's he's really is exactly what you just described that he's small he's stocky he just doesn't have that you know 40 inch vertical with low 4-4 speed but in an offense it's going to be very rhythmic and it's going to get the ball out of the hands of the quarterback quickly Aniah Smith can be someone that is that truly, I think becoming very important, chain moving slot receiver where maybe Jordan Addison is going to run more routes, get down the field more. But if it's third and

three and there's bracket coverage on Justin Jefferson, you can use Aniyah Smith on the other side of the field away from he and Jordan Addison man-to-man coverage. He can win. He's a good enough athlete to separate. And even if he doesn't, he's going to catch the football, bounce off a tackler, and get the four yards for the first down. So I would like that pick for the Vikings, just adding more firepower to presumably a first-round rookie quarterback. Look at me.

In past years, I spent time looking at later round picks just to know who I kind of thought might be interesting. Or we had the intern do it who turned out to be, she turned out to be a genius and picked Ivan Pace Jr. as her favorite late round pick. I don't know. That's why she's in the NFL now. But in this case, I really did just look at the data and say, all right, well, who kind of looks interesting to me. He's got good film. He does does but my next pick at 129th overall i actually did see play football and he had an incredible game so i went all right i'm picking this guy that would be muhammad camara out of colorado state when he played colorado he ate them alive and even though

he's undersized i think brian florist is okay with unders. So I went with him. I think his data was really good. And certainly the time I saw him, he was a beast. So here's the book on Camara is that he's like you mentioned, he's undersized, doesn't have quality length, but the pass rush moves like you would be getting with Latu are, I don't want to say through the roof, but he certainly develops pass rush plans. Like he's like, all right, I'm going to try this and then counter to this. And then this one, I'm going to try this and then counter to this. And then this one, I'm going to go inside and spin off of it.

He's very calculated with his rushes. And he's kind of like Ivan pace playing a different position in that he's more powerful than you would think at his size, because he's built so low to the ground. There were some reps that are just popping into my head now at Colorado state for him, where he drives like a 320 pound tackle backward you're like this guy's like six foot barely like 235 240 and it just has a low center of gravity the one

concern that I have with him truly just overall this is kind of more analytical is that he's 24 and he turns 25 like I think like early he's's a 1999 birthday. So it's a little scary. Like this guy's literally was in college forever. So are we getting just a finished product that has literally no upside whatsoever? And was he just beating up on younger players? The one thing I will say though, is everyone was old in college last year. So it's not like a 24 year old playing against all 19 and 20 year olds. Everyone took that COVID year year i think he had an injury early in his career and transferred but certainly in terms of just the refinement you definitely get some ivan pace fives where he plays with his hair on fire and plays bigger than his size because of how skilled he is and just how much power he has because of his low center of

gravity i really think that for a couple years here we're going to have to throw out the whole age thing we're just not going to be able to consider it the same way we did last year. I saw that, I think it was Jason Lisk put out the older quarterbacks and how they performed in the NFL guys who are over 23 years old or something. It's just a different world because if you were Ryan Tannehill doing it, who is a converted wide receiver, I think, that's different than last year where your competition was 23 and 24 years old. So Kweisi D'Affomenta compared it to a minor league season where it was something in between. And that's just what COVID did to college football.

And eventually it'll go back, but not right now. I'm going to give you some other names here. Tell me if anybody stands out. I am absolutely taking that punter from iowa i am doing it this guy tory taylor punted the bejesus out of the football in ways i've never seen someone do something to a pigskin before and i actually think it's worth it because one the guy's gonna play so you don't if you draft a corner in the fourth you don't even know if he's gonna play but you, the guy's going to play. So you don't, if you draft a corner in the fourth, you don't even know if he's going to play, but you know, this guy's going to play instant starter. If you get, if you get five extra yards, every single time you punt the ball and you punt

the ball 50 times in a year, what is that versus a random other position? I actually think that of course course kickers are not worth it that's been proven that's been analytically looked at i think a punter who's okay is not a good idea just let's let's take one that we kind of like a historic punter someone who is better than anyone who's ever done this in college i think i would do it i would do it in like the fifth round so i i decided to take the punter am i crazy for taking the punter out of iowa i'm not i'm not a huge fan of picking punters or kickers but your argument for taking a punter i mean kickers to me like you mentioned there is no rhyme or reason like they they have great seasons bad seasons good seasons they can

kick till they're 40 i would almost never pick a place kicker but Taylor is the consensus top punter in this class I will admit I have not watched a ton of his punts but I know he has a big leg and he's very good at every Iowa game he punched I was gonna say I was gonna say that was my next sentence is that in watching the college football season it was like a highlight outside of Cooper Dij, it was like a highlight when it was like, all right, it's the eighth third and out for the Iowa offense. Here comes Taylor, and he booted a 65-yarder. Certainly think that maybe, again, the analytical approach from

Kweisi Adafomensa would be like, hey, look, we could gain this many expected yards or change EPA a little bit with just starting field position and yes it would be an instant starter so and it does feel like that he will get picked and it's not going to be like with one of the last picks in the draft he could go fourth six round range is what i've heard if you add up how much the vikings lost last year by ryan wright not being a good punter for them it's convincing so here's some other guys that I took uh Kalen King cornerback D. Kamarian Robinson um that's an interesting name uh Isaac uh Gerardo the running back from Louisville who had that insane

NFL combine that was literally the only reason I took him Solomon Bird at the edge rusher out of USC and Dylan McMahon a center from North Carolina just for all the interior offensive line people I thought if I walk out with a center there's going to be riots or without a center or guard there will be riots so those were my guys late in the rounds all right I'll go rapid fire through these because I have watched and evaluated all of them Kalen was, if you look back on way too early 2024 mocks after last year's draft, Kalen King was probably in the first round. He just had a really bad 2023 season at Penn State. The athleticism is there.

He's kind of smaller, tried to play on the outside. Marvin Harrison Jr. kind of lit him up a little bit, but certainly has the talent. In his second to last season was very good. So that would make sense for the depth. Deacon Marion Richardson from Texas A&M is like, he would be the size, speed, athleticism, raw specimen. He, I don't remember exactly what he ran, but I'm pretty sure he had a big time combine length. He kind of like Cam Dantzler, but faster than Cam Dantzler was obviously. Dylan McMahon from NC state is kind of a garrett bradbury type he's not very big i think he was under 300 pounds at the combine um but super athletic like he and tanner bordellini

from wisconsin had crazy workouts at the center spot and isaac garendo and i think there was one other um guy that you mentioned isaac garendo is not going to make a lot of guys miss. But like you mentioned, a big combine from him, ran sub 4-4, and is a just hit the front side of his own stretch play. If there's any space, like goodbye. Like he's that fast. And he's not little. He's like 6'2", like he's a big back that has freaky speed.

So to me, someone that literally owns a shirt that says, do not draft running backs in the first round. And I think they should go way later. Like he's the type that you pick six or seventh round and just say, if we block it, well, he can maybe hit us. He can have a four carry 50 yard game where his, all of his other runs go for negative yards, but he hit a 40 yard run for us or whatever the case may be. Like that's valuable to get the return on investment at a running back spot on day three. The other guy was Solomon bird.

The Solomon bird. Yeah. Edge rusher. He's weird. If you look at his RAS, I believe it's like two or like 1.5. And I do believe in RAS. Like I'm not someone that I feel like I can see it

better than what the numbers are but I will also contend that sometimes guys just don't have good workouts and he's one where when I typed in his RAS I was blown away because Solomon Bird looks way more athletic on film and he's someone that is I'm not going to say he's of course to lot to his level, but he's very calculated as a pass rusher that he is bigger, bulkier and swim moves, white moves, spin to the inside, fake inside move,

rip move. Like he's got it all. It just not to the level of athleticism that you want out of even a mid round pick. So Solomon bird would be someone where you're hoping like Ivan pace, who doesn't have a crazy high RAS either, could certainly outplay those numbers in his athleticism because he's pretty refined as a pass rusher. I just want to point something out.

I didn't tell you any of these players before we did this. I told you none of them. These are guys that I was draft simming in the seventh round, and you got the full breakdown and watched the film. This is why you are the Purple Insider official draft analyst, because I just did this draft sim, and I was like, hey, I'm not telling you how it went, because we're going to do it live. I was just hoping that I watched all of them, and I did.

And you had analysis on every single one of those guys. So that'll be fun if they end up with any of those late round picks, just guys who mostly statistically, whether it was their combine or if it was their production numbers, stood out to me from the rest of the class. So I decided, hey, maybe that's where Kweisi Adafo-Mensah would look. He might draft none of them. He might draft all of them. I guess we'll see.

But here's what I want from you. we are under two days left to go under 48 hours i think or just about as we're recording this 48 hours to go before the nfl draft you and i have done this show every single week we've talked about every single scenario every situation we've broken down the quarterbacks in 47 different ways. Yes. I just want your final thoughts. Your final thoughts going into it. How are you feeling about where the Vikings stand,

the draft in general? What is the number one thing that's on your mind as we head into the NFL draft? All right, this is going to seem like I'm just placating all of the listeners and you, but I really think the Vikings are in a great spot. Because for everything that I mentioned at the beginning, that we're not totally sure that Jaden Daniels goes to,

I don't think anyone's going to be surprised if he's the second pick. And then at that point, if Drake Mays there at three, four, or five, they have the ammo and they don't necessarily have to dip way into the future and give up a lot in 2025 beyond the two picks that they have in this year's first round and then on the flip side of that like we saw in this draft sim if they do want to stay put they can pick a quarterback at 11 and then probably get a premier defensive prospect who in basically any other draft class there's no way that laia to latu would be available at 23 or byron murphy or johnny newton or one of the top corners

so you could be talking about what the fourth or fifth defensive player overall off the board at 23 so they've really positioned themselves well to either get the guy that they really want at the game's most vital position and i i do think that Drake May would be the best fit. And I think for us, if it's Drake May, I think we're going to be like, duh, the Josh McCown connection. How did we not just like write that in pen instantly that he knows Drake May? He's known him for years. It just makes sense.

Whether it's him, whether it's someone else, I think if that's the route that they go, great. If not, we just saw how they can sit or stand pat, sit there and still pick two quality players, get the quarterback at 11 and then someone else at 23. My final thought, and I'll do another live stream before the actual day. So Wednesday night, I will do one and get fans feelings on it but is so i don't get nervous for things that happen to the vikings because i'm going to be doing this no matter what i've just never felt that way but i do get very anxious

like when it comes to games so when i fly into philadelphia at two in the afternoon and it's a night game that starts at eight o'clock local time, those six hours are like, is it going to get here? Is it going to get here? I felt like that for about six weeks for the moment that Kirk cousins decided that he was going to sign with the Atlanta Falcons. I have just wanted, I want the answer. I want to know the answer very, very badly, whatever it is, then we'll cover it from there and we'll go and we'll go forth. Uh, but I really want this this new information i want to know who they like i want to know who the league likes and doesn't like and i want to know who falls and i just i i really wish this was two weeks ago but we're here and it's uh incredibly exciting for bikers fans more so

there have been other years where we've been talking about, well, do you draft a safety? Do you get a guard? What should they do? So much more fun this year. It's been like no other for you and I. And next year, if they trade their first round pick and have no second either, we might not do a draft show. I don't know. You might have to find a Patriots draft show to go on every single week after that.

So thanks so much for all of your time. We will do one final episode between you and I to of course, break down what happened next week. So I won't give you the big thank you speech, but I always go into this feeling 50,000 times more prepared because of you. And I know the audience feels the same way. So thank you so much for all of your hard work on this show, Chris, and, uh, one more, one more show for us after this, and then we'll know. So thank you so much, man. No, thank you. It's been a pleasure being on the show, getting to really intimately learn about another team besides the Buffalo Bills. I mean, I certainly

have to know about the entire league for my job, but being here in the Western New York area, I certainly know the Bills the best, but I know a lot about the Vikings now, and it's fun. And I want the information too. I want to see what they've had up their sleeve this entire time. And honestly, league-wide, I want to just remember back and think, oh, that was BS. That rumor was BS. That rumor was BS once the draft actually gets here.

And then for as fun as this one is, I love our traditional draft Sam and the fact that you're usually pretty good at hitting what they're going to do. One next week where we get to run through all of the draft picks and in two or three years, I'll either look stupid or I'll kind of call out like at Ingram is kind of a weird fit. I don't understand it. Or I didn't like Justin Jefferson and he becomes the best receiver in the

league. Things like that. I love getting to all those breakdowns. I can look at my scouting grade book look at my grades and say look I had him in the fourth round they picked him in the second or I had him in the third and they picked him in the seventh things like that I love that episode that will be chock full of hopefully eventually useful information for Vikings fans all right looking forward to it Chris and we will talk to you then football you want why don't you give a pretty intense why don't you give an intense football football let's go