Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - The most interesting Vikings players at training camp (10-6) (Part 1)

Episode Date: July 8, 2025

Matthew Coller talks about his countdown of the top 25 most interesting Vikings in training camp, revealing numbers 10 through 6

Hey everybody. Welcome to another episode of purple insider Matthew collar here and folks, we got about 15 days left until the Minnesota Vikings take the football field for training camp and I can't wait. So what we're going to do tonight is continue our countdown of the most interesting Minnesota Vikings at training camp. And I've got my list. I've been counting down from 25. So I should probably start by telling you who was on the list. If you haven't been following well, also if you haven't been following, come on, let's go. Right. Uh, but if you haven't, I guess I can forgive you and tell you who is on the list so far

to start us off. And then tonight we have numbers 10 through six counting down. And on Thursday night, it will be the top five most interesting Minnesota Vikings at training camp. And you'll never guess who's at the top of the list but the rest of them maybe you haven't figured out just yet so let me run through the list to this point and then we can go from number 10 to number 6 ask questions leave comments this is a wide open space for you guys to talk

football with me as always so jump in the comments and we'll have a really good discussion. Also, Maggie Robinson is back and she's got some things to look at later on in the evening as well. So I'll just count you down from 25 to 11 and then we can go in depth through the top 10 because there are podcasts on each one of these. So the starting with 25 was Jay Ward, 24 Zemaya Vaughn, Silas Bolden, 23, Bo Richter, 22, and Gavin Bartholomew, 21. From 20 to 16 was Jalen Naylor, Gabriel Murphy, Will Reichard, Max Brosmer, and Dwight McClother.

I'm gonna have a story on Max Brosmer, by the way, over at purpleinsider.football. Might be a good time to sign up everybody. From 15 to 11 was Jeff Okuda, Tyron Ingram Dawkins, Sam Howell, Theo Jackson and Jordan Mason which brings us to number 10. The Dusty the intro I believe was done on my Yamaha Pacifica for the intro does have a chimey sound to it. That can be a little telecaster. That's a good question.

You guys like your guitar questions from time to time. So let's get to it. Number 10 on the list is defensive tackle Levi Drake Rodriguez. Last year, Levi Drake Rodriguez was one of those training camp darling type of players. He had everything. He has a cool name. He's got long hair. He's got great athleticism. He is a seventh round draft pick out of Texas A and M commerce. So the intrigue of a college no one's ever heard of before. And there was a little bit of a vibe when they were talking about him. And look, I understand why people do this of the John Randall, right?

A small college in Texas. Nobody's ever heard of him. He's underrated. He I think was a baseball player and then decided to go full-time football. And he had all these crazy background things that he did to get to be an NFL prospect. Kalen Kailer of ESPN wrote the big piece on him as prospect X and there was a story in there, two different stories in there that were pretty wild. One of them was that he would sleep on the field so he could be the first one out there to practice before everybody else got to the facility. So it would be five

o'clock in the morning and the coaches would show up and Levi Drake Rodriguez would be already out there having got a workout in at four in the morning. So, you know, first one in the facility, why not never leave and sleep on the football field? So that was one of them. And then there was something else about how he would put snacks in his uniform Because he was trying to put on more weight so he'd have like a sandwich in his pants or something I mean there were all these kind of hey Levi Drake Rodriguez Chuck Norris kind of style stories and Last year he had a good training camp He got some work with the first team when Jerry Taylor

He was out showed some power power, showed some strength, some raw ability, but raw ability is what it really was for Levi Drake Rodriguez. And during the regular season, he only got a handful of snaps against the Seattle Seahawks. One game he gets tossed in there and he looked pretty good in his handful of snaps. He had, I think a a run stop may have batted a pass down or tipped a pass, something like that, but didn't get a lot of action. And the Vikings last year had a defensive line with a lot of veterans, with Jerry Tillery, with Jonathan Bullard. And you could see why Levi Drake Rodriguez wouldn't see a lot of action

overall, but they did have space for it. And I think it just tells you that because Jalen Redmond emerged from a guy who was in the XFL into the NFL and got a lot of playing time right away. So if they had felt like Levi Drake Rodriguez was ready to go, then he would have been in the game, but clearly they thought that he needed more development. Now, Brian Flores during a mini camp when he spoke did talk highly about the development of LDR and about how he thought he was already seeing a big jump in him because it is actually

a more complicated position than you think on the interior of the defensive line. Things happen super fast. If you're not hitting the right shoulder, if you're not getting off at the right time and using the right hand placement and footwork and all those details for every single play, then things go wrong around you, whether it's the edge rushers or whether it's blitzers or whatever else. And it does also take time. And quasi da Fomenta has called pass rushing the dark arts and talked

about how it just takes time for guys to learn how to really be a pass rusher. So Levi has now had an entire off season to learn, to develop, to grow. And there's also, I think a spot to be earned in a rotation along this defensive line, because when you look at Jonathan Allen, when you look at Javon Hargrave, I mean, those guys have a lot of experience on their bodies. And what I think the Vikings would really like to do is rotate those guys in and out

and not have them play 800 or 900 snaps. They would much rather have them play 650 and have Harrison Phillips play 650 and everybody's kind of coming in and coming out. So they could be fresh all the time on the D line because over the last couple of years, we've certainly seen the defensive line get worn down. Now, what I'm curious about with Levi Drake Rodriguez is where he lines up on the defensive line, like who he's emulating because each guy, each backup, they have a general idea for who they're supposed to be like. So for example,

Theo Jackson was trying to emulate last year, Josh Mattel is so if Mattel has got hurt, Theo Jackson knew his job. Now, sometimes, hey, you're going to have to go be the deep safety instead, but that's how they usually try to set it up. Like if this guy goes out, then this guy can do what he does. So is Levi Drake Rodriguez more of a Harrison Phillips who's using his power and his leverage and his strength to move blockers or is he more of a Jonathan Allen? I mean, I don't think he could be a J von Hargrave because he's not undersized. He's big. I think he's about 300 pounds, if not a little bit more. But can he be

a Jonathan Allen who's more of a all around player who gets in the backfield and uses his quickness and his quick twitch, get off all those football words. But Jonathan Allen is one of the best when it comes to that. Is Levi Drake Rodriguez more of a pass rushing type defensive tackle or more of a run stuffing body moving type of defensive tackle because we don't really know. I mean, he's kind of a ball of clay when he arrived here. So we'll see. And that's one of the things that makes him so interesting in training camp here too. And with any of these players that are late round draft picks undrafted free agents, this is the time they got to do it now.

Like there isn't a, Hey, over five years, we'll develop you and see how this works out. Like the next man is always coming up. And if Levi doesn't take that big step, then it's kind of onto the next guy. You know, Tyreon and Grim Dawkins is the next most interesting player, right? So this is a, I mean, you can't really call it make or break, but it kind of is, it's like, is there something there or not? When you've had a full off season to develop, you've had a full season to work with this coaching staff. We're going to find out, I think pretty quickly on him. Number nine on the list is McKay Blackman, cornerback. Last year, first day of training camp.

It was really brutal. Tears is ACL and everybody was already really down at training camp last year to start based on what had happened to Kyrie Jackson. And it was already a somber beginning to camp. And then Mackay tore his ACL and it was really crushing for a lot of people who had been impressed by him in the way that he played in 2023 and also the way he had prepared to be the starter in 2024. They came into camp feeling really good about how he had played in OTAs and in mini camp and he's also a mature guy.

I mean, he's 26 years old. They only drafted him two years ago, but he played a lot of college football and he was ready to play when he came out and played over 400 snaps did well was a really good tackler aggressive player. And honestly, if he hadn't been lost on that touchdown by Cortland Sutton, his grades and his data would have been even better for 2023. Overall, outside of that memorable play that lost them the game in Denver, Blackman had a good run as a cornerback in 23 and is ready to start now or ready to play a significant amount of time.

The question for Mackay Blackman is, I don't think it's whether you come back from the ACL and Flores mentioned being very impressed by his recovery and how he was ready to go. And he was doing everything that he was supposed to do in mini camp. I think it's really, what does it look like with him and Isaiah Rogers and Byron Murphy? Like, is there a desire to get more nickel personnel on the field at the same time? Because Gilmore last year and Shaq Griffin didn't always play on the field at the same time. In fact, they kind of didn't often where it might just be two corners and they would mix in Shaq Griffin. And then occasionally Byron Murphy would go into the nickel, but it was not their

their main base set to have those guys on the field at the same time. Often you'd see Josh Mattel is lining up in the slot or at the nickel corner sometimes. So will they want a more, Hey, Mackay Blackman and Isaiah Rogers are the outside corners and Byron Murphy is the inside corner and you're doing something a little different with Josh Mattelis. There's some versatility potential there, but Blackman has to play well in this training camp. And there also could be like, who's going to get more snaps in the season? Will it be Isaiah Rogers or will it be Mackay Blackman? He was not the most crazy, freakish athletic guy coming out of the draft. It wasn't

like he was 20 years old and he was a raw ball of clay, but he is somebody that has great instincts for the football and has an aggressive mindset and is a real fit for who Brian Flores is. So, McKay Blackman, a lot of pressure on him now to become the guy that they were looking for when they drafted him to bounce back from the ACL and to also prove that there was no reason to have all these conversations about Jair Alexander or about Jalen Ramsey that the Vikings, he can show that they do have depth at the cornerback position because right now it's just a lot of unproven, but if he has a really good training camp, they walk into the season feeling good about him,

then we're going to look at it more like maybe they've got something here in Blackman, in Rogers, and of course we know what Byron Murphy brings to the table. So he is number nine. Number eight is Josh Metellus for two different reasons. As of this moment, seven, seven, 20, 25, Josh Mattelis does not have a new contract. And if we arrive at training camp and there is not the old school, cause they haven't done it in recent years, but it used to be a tradition where we would arrive at training camp and somebody would be getting a contract extension. It was Everson Griffin one year, Lindvoldball Joseph another year. We haven't seen it so much during the quasi Adapha, Metsa, Kevin O'Connell era,

but maybe we could with Josh Mattelis. They've had all this time to negotiate, but if they don't have a contract settled, then what, how much does he practice? Is it a hold in situation like we saw from Daniel Hunter for a couple of days before they got something worked out with him? Uh, was that 2023? I think. Yeah. 2023 in training camp where there was the hold in situation with Daniel Hunter, or there was the mysterious earache slash back injury that suddenly was okay for TJ Hawkinson once he got his contract

extension worked out then no, my back feels nice and loose today and no more ear issues just in time for the season and to play on my new contract. Is it going to be something like that in mini camp? Josh Mattel has participated in all the walkthrough elements. So he wasn't, it was like a half hold in. It wasn't like he was only coming to meetings and then not doing anything. He was out there doing the walkthrough parts, but he was not doing the full team seven on seven. And I think that this contract negotiation will be a little bit tricky with Josh Mattel us because it's hard to find comparables. And from the Vikings perspective, they could say to Mattel us and probably be

right. This is the place where you're going to be the best version of yourself. And are you going to be the same Josh Mattel is if you were to hit the open market or do other teams think that you're going to be a 15 or $20 million player somewhere in that range? If you're playing for another team. And I think Josh Mattel is could come back with and his side, I think it's true. Rosen house and his side could say, Whoa, uh, thousands of snaps, captain, interceptions,

fumble recoveries, fumbles caused high grades as a run defender, multiple positions, the most multiple player in the league. So there's those two sides I think can make reasonable arguments against each other. Can they get to a middle ground to the point where they find a contract extension for all the other players on this team they have, but will it take a lot of training camp or will it just be resolved quickly? And then that's part one to why Josh Mattel is on the list. Part two is where's Josh from tell us playing this time is Josh Mattel is playing deep safety next to Harrison Smith. I think we've all just assumed that was going to be Theo Jackson, but it doesn't have to be. Is he sometimes in

the box, sometimes playing deep? Is he less of a linebacker this year and more of a true safety? Like what's his position this year going to be? Uh, we will be watching that on a day to day basis because this whole secondary is really new from what it was last year. And there's a realistic possibility that they've been just, or they'll be just as good or even upgraded to some extent. But there's questions to be answered about how all the puzzle pieces are going to actually fit it. So Josh Patelus, number eight on the list. Number seven is rookie Ty Felton,

wide receiver from Maryland, massive production in college, great speed, impressive NFL combine, comes out with a lot of excitement. But what's the opportunity for Ty Felton? Is he going to be a returner in a year where the NFL has said, we want kick returns? Does that benefit Ty Felton to get the football in his hands? He's never really been a returner before in college, but he's got the speed. He's got the playmaking abilities, even got some size to him. So maybe a kick and punt returner or one of the two. And then is he looking like a more refined young receiver that could step

right in if there's an injury or could even force some snaps and force his way on the field? Or is he looking like somebody for 2026? I think in Minicamp, he looked like somebody for 2026. You could see the raw speed, you could see some of the ball tracking ability when they would throw downfield to him, but you didn't see the refinements of the route running and of some of the details. So is that going to matter or are they going to carve out a role for him right away? We are going to start to see that as training camp develops. And the really interesting moment for Ty Felton will be when the pads come on. How does he perform when guys start getting up in his face and using their strength and

their power against him? That will determine maybe how often we see him during the regular season. And number six is Christian Derrissaugh, left tackle for the Vikings, one of the best players in the national football league, and they need him back. They need him for as many football games as they can get him for, But you don't want to rush. You don't want to try to force Christian Derrasa on the field because it's a long 17 game season and they expect to be competing throughout. So if you rush him at the beginning of the year, does that set him back?

I thought just going back, the first one that comes to my head was in 2018 with Delvin cook, where they pushed him back onto the field after a hamstring injury. He was coming off the ACL and then it just turned into a bit of a lost season for Delvin Cook in 2018. You do not want a lost season from your superstar left tackle that you just gave a major contract for. So they want to play it safe. They want to be patient, but here's a little bit of the problem. When you look at the beginning of the schedule, those are your winnable games.

Chicago, Atlanta. Okay, Cincinnati is good, but your home against Cincinnati. And then you look at the middle of the schedule. Whoa, that's where all the tough teams are. That's where the lions, the Rams, or sorry, the Chargers, the Eagles, the Chargers are the Thursday night one. I mean, that's where some of your toughest teams

are going to be out to Los Angeles on a short rest after playing, I think, Philadelphia at home. I mean, whoa, that's tough. You need Christian Derrassaw at 100%. You don't need him in some games out of some games. You want his recovery to be good to go all the snaps the rest of the way. So it might take some patience, but how much, like how much are we going to see Christian Derrissa do?

Will he be back taking first team reps before the end of training camp? Or if not, then where do we feel like he stands to start the season? So that the importance of that makes him the sixth most interesting Viking at training camp. So just to recap Levi Drake Rodriguez at 10, Mackay Blackman at 9, Josh Patelis at 8, Ty Felton at 7 and Christian Derrisaw at 6. So questions comments anything is on the table for you guys when it comes to the Minnesota Vikings and NFL. What do you want to talk

about tonight the rest of the way? If you got thoughts on the most interesting Vikings at training camp, if you guys want to guess some of the top five, those will be coming out on Thursday night. Go ahead and anything else is on the table. So let's see what you have to say. Daniel said, I think of Levi Drake Rodriguez caught the attentions of coaches at S eight G U when he had a two handed dunk of a basketball while wearing cowboy boots. Is that true? I mean, honestly, if you told me any Levi Drake Rodriguez story and you said it

was true, then I would probably believe you. That sounds made up, but it might be true. Actually, I think what happened was they had come across him somewhere. One of their scouts, I wrote a story about this, but I can't remember the exact story. It was one of their scouts had come across him and then they wanted to confirm it at the hula bowl or something, something, some sort of bowl game that I tropical bowl, Tropicana bowl. And I had never heard of that bowl game before. And then he just blew everybody out of the water in that bowl game. So the Vikings, you know, got caught

their attention. They started to do their background and so forth. And then he got drafted in the seventh round. But one of the things that's always a little bit tough about guys like this is they're so easy for fans to fall in love with that you get to know the name, you get to know the background story already. The guy's got some lore behind him. He's a seventh round pick. So we also have to be realistic about what this could be. Could it be a, you know, just something we remember like, Oh yeah, that guy was there for a year or two, or is it another great story where someone becomes a significant player? I think this is the year we started to find out dusty with a great

reference here. Hopefully that's not a Treadwell stairs thing talking about sleeping on the field. Yeah, I will never forget Mike Zimmer at the NFL combine saying about Laquan Treadwell that he needs to stop running the stairs and start working on his skills. And I think he said that maybe in a press conference too about because he was running the stairs at training camp in 2017. And if I'm not mistaken, Joe Schmidt was doing his TV hit down there and it was like, yeah, behind me, Laquan Treadwell is the only guy out on the field and it's late at night and

he's running the stairs or whatever. And it was never Laquan being in shape. That was the problem. It was the route running and he never really got that. Although I'm sure he's still on a team somewhere. Corey says, is it a florist thing or why don't we use a true nose tackle like Taki Taimani instead of using Harrison Phillips? Well, Harrison Phillips, a way better football player. So that is part of it, somebody who's proven over years that he can be really, really good on the interior.

Taki Taimani like just barely made the team. So, you know, there's like not just the size issue, but also the technical parts of it are enormous of being in the right spot, readjusting. He's the leader of that D line. So he's adjusting where the line is communicating all that sort of stuff. So Phil Phillips is a even if he's not as large weight wise, he's much more qualified to handle offensive lineman and he's super, super strong. So strength is going to be a little more important than just actual weight. And the way that I understand it, and this was explained to me by Harrison

Phillips is that Brian Flores is not really looking for his defensive tackles to just be fat and shove themselves into a couple of human beings and which has been effective in the past from some of our favorite players ever like Ted Washington or Pat Williams for the Vikings But I think what he's looking for is this game where they're moving guys left and right where the linebackers are set to attack certain gaps and What the defensive lineman's job, especially in the middle Harrison Phillips

is to get the center turned one way or another or bring the center with him as he jumps over to another gap right after the snap stuff like that and then open up space for the linebacker. So it's not really just run into a bunch of people and stuff the gap like that. It's more of move it to the left or the right, manipulating what the offensive line is trying to do. And then you're bringing a linebacker to the party. So if you notice, like all the Vikings linebackers and Josh Mattelis, they grade well by PFF and run stuffing. But a lot of that is because they're not having to often run directly into guards who are getting to the second level because those guards are being moved by Harrison Phillips or Jonathan Bullard.

How they do that this year will be interesting. But I know we think of that four three, I'm sorry, the three four defense. I know we think of that as like one giant man in the middle, two defensive ends, the giant man in the middle takes on three people and just pushes them back with his stomach. I don't think that that's how this system works with Brian Flores. So maybe we will see some talkie-talkie money because of that, but you know, I don't know if that's really a role in this defense. I think quickness is going to have to be part of it. Strength and technique are valued a little bit more than just like large. Uh, let's see. I don't know. Let's see. Carl Edwards. Okay. I was trying to read. Is Carl Edwards a NASCAR driver? Who is that? Carl someone. Maybe it is. Uh, why is there no hype on Mackay Blackman anymore?

I mean, was there ever like a lot of hype on Mackay Blackman? He's a third round draft pick. And when he came out, there was some criticism of the draft pick because he didn't match up with the consensus board, which I kind of thought was as a, as a consensus board user, I thought was a little silly. Once we get into like the third round, because teams are usually picking players. They feel like fit for their systems and culture at that point. And it's not like reaching in the first round, but, uh, black men never really came in with a lot of prompt pomp and

circumstance. He was a productive player at USC, but it wasn't like he was one of the USC players that got talked about a ton. And he worked his way into the lineup in the 2023 season, but that was a season that was a little bit lost, especially at the end where he played well, but the defense didn't play all that well and kind of fell apart toward the end of the season. So I've felt like with the ACL and all that, and then when he actually got his playing time in 2023, that when this defensive back unit is talked about outside of us, it's often, and maybe this is what you mean is it's often like,

Oh, they got nothing there. They know nobody proven. There's just nothing to even talk about. And Blackman gets left out of that conversation is just because he does have a small sample size of performance. And it came at a time where no one was really paying a lot of attention to the Vikings because Kirk cousins had already gotten injured and they were playing Nick Mullins and they're in some tight games, but it's Denver, Cincinnati, the lions where Mullins throws

the interception. Like these are the types of games that he was playing in that, oh, it's the Jaren Hall game. They just weren't the types of games that were getting a lot of attention for what the Vikings defense was doing. So to the outside world, Mackay Blackman is a complete unknown. I don't think of him that way. I think he's like a half known for us. We know

somewhat about him, what he can do in a half a season, but we don't know everything about Mackay Blackman just yet. Rob says the Vikings went to a lot of trouble to keep LDR safe on the roster last season. They lost Nick Muse and Jameen Davis on waivers. I mean, Jameen Davis is not what I mean. He was barely a part of the team to get them to the practice squad instead of LDR. Are you sure they lost Jameen Davis? I thought he showed up in the middle of the season or do you mean, do you mean between like the end of last year and the beginning of this year? I don't even know if that guy is like in the NFL right now. They did lose Nick Muse though. That's true No, I mean they kept him details aside. They kept

Levi on the roster. They didn't cut him last year. So he did play well enough in training camp to earn a spot I think that always I'll say this the idea of guys getting poached is so overrated and teams are way too afraid of it. I don't know that that was like why if they were afraid of him getting poached. I think that he had a good training camp and that's why they wanted to keep him on the roster. Maybe they were annoyed at losing Nick Muse, but I think you're always going to pick a younger defensive tackle who you're just starting to develop over a tight end three.

That's pretty replaceable in the draft or undrafted free agency. It's clear that the guy has upside because when you look at just his raw talent, his quickness, his strength, especially stands out what he was able to do in that bowl game that I couldn't remember the name of, but also even when he played in Texas A and M commerce, it's not the greatest competition, but he pretty much mold the entire competition with everybody. I'm sure trying to block the heck out of him. So he's got a lot of talent. Is he the next John Randall?

No, probably not. But is he somebody that could be a useful part of a rotation in the best case scenario? I think the answer is yes. So clearly they liked him enough to keep him around for that. Otherwise they would have cut him right out of, uh, you know, training camp last year. Uh, bra me says, uh, every time or every team needs some reliable J eight G's. You mean just the guy hoping he can morph into one. Um, see, I, when I think of just a guy, I don't think of them as being reliable.

I think of just a guy as someone who I'm looking to replace all the time or that I wouldn't want to have actually play. Uh, I think of it as you have your superstars, you have your quality starters, and then you have your reliable backups, and then you're just the guys. And the just the guys are ones in just in my definition book are guys that you don't want on the field pretty much ever, if not for maybe a handful of snaps. So I think I would read that is you need some of these just the guys currently to be reliable backups or rotational players that right now Levi Drake Rodriguez is just a guy. And if he takes a step forward, he could be more than that. And I think you

need some of them somewhere on this roster. Like even Dwight McClothern, everybody was high on him, but until proven otherwise, just the guy. Even Theo Jackson, he's made a few plays in the league, but still just the guy. You need him to be more than that. You need him to be a starter. You need McClothern to be a quality backup. Like there has to be some development here

because this team has not hit on a million draft picks. So what they're banking on is finding some of these guys and turning them into reliable players and then they've got their stars that they've built through free agency. Andrew says on behalf of the Lions Packers and Bears, we all want to thank you for letting Sam Darnold go and taking a chance on JJ. Yeah. Andrew, were you the guy that predicted the big season for Sam Darnold last year? I think you were. And you nailed it. You nailed it. My friend, you crushed it. You were absolutely right. You were saying 30 touchdowns for Sam Darnold that he was going to win a bunch of games. And I mean, you were dead on about Sam Darnold.

However, here's the thing about saying that the Lions, Packers and Bears are thrilled about them moving on from Sam Darnold while the Lions probably aren't too terrified after what happened in week 18. Are they thrilled about facing Jonathan Allen? Are they thrilled about facing a much better Vikings offensive line? That's what I would ask. I mean JJ McCarthy being better than what Sam Darnold was last year is a high bar It's going to be difficult to do to be a top-10 quarterback To have the type of high moments that he had against Atlanta five touchdowns Seattle game-winning throw to Jefferson The game against Green Bay is one of the best quarterback

games that I've covered since I started cover the team by a Minnesota Vikings quarterback. That's one that you know, they'll be playing on NFL Network for years to come right that every time Sam Darnold's name comes up. So I don't think anybody would degrade what you're saying about Sam Darnold having a great season last year or being a good quarterback

I think that he is and he proved that he is But they are facing now a much stronger roster overall for the Minnesota Vikings if we were to go through like let's say we were doing like a Madden thing where they grade You know one to a hundred and we've talked about this how they kind of overrate some of those things But if they were doing a one to a hundred grade on every position and you're, you know, you got the little bar, how is it all the way full? Is it halfway full? I mean, how many of the Vikings position grades now after their upgrades, if we turned injuries

off, how many of those would be a 90 or higher? The offensive line, the defensive line, the front seven, the running back, you could make an argument for it. The wide receivers. Absolutely. Yes. I mean, they took this off season and they went to every single area of weakness and they stacked it.

Will fries, Ryan Kelly, they poured money into it. Jay von Hargrave, Jonathan Allen poured money into it. They kept Byron Murphy Jr. They kept Andrew Jones, Aaron Jones. They did not keep the former Braves outfielder, but they did keep this great running back. That's a lot of money that I'm not sure how you spend that if Sam Darnold had continued to be the quarterback, I think they could have done some of it and I think they would have still been competitive and I would have said because I was the only person saying that I was okay if they figured out a way to bring back Darnold and made McCarthy wait another year. So they could have done some of it. cast got better, not worse. And this is a supporting cast that just elevated a guy who

had been one of the worst quarterbacks since 2018 to being one of the best quarterbacks in the NFL. So if they even do something remotely similar with elevating JJ McCarthy, then you're talking about a really, really good football team. So I don't know that there's celebrations around the NFC North when Sam Darnold left because they are allowed to look on ESPN depth chart and see the rest of the players, I think. So Rob says Rogers and Okuda might have the inside running for the outside spots when Murphy shifts inside. Okuda is not above Mackay Blackman on the depth chart to start this out. It's definitely Mackay Blackman Mackay Blackman is somebody they really like they really like a Jeff Okuda is a hey, maybe there's something there guy and That's fine because there's no downside to taking shots like that at

former first round draft picks but like that at former first round draft picks, but we're talking in Mackay Blackman of somebody that they identified and they got in the game in 2023 and they really, really like what he looked like. And then they loved the way that he attacked his rehab. And he's out there with the first team during mini camp. And he, it's going to stay that way. I think, um, rotating in with Isaiah Rogers, but I think it's going to stay that way. I think, um, rotating in with Isaiah Rogers, but I think it's going to stay that way with Blackman if Okuda ends up being anything, any sort of rotational element for them, that's a huge win if he's anything. Um, and he was out there sometimes when Josh Mattelis wasn't there or if

Blackman wasn't doing everything, but right now the depth chart is pretty clear. It's Isaiah Rogers, Byron Murphy, and, uh, Mackay Blackman. And then we'll see if McClothern or if Okuda becomes something that they can trust. But when you look at Okuda's past, I mean, there's just really not a lot of evidence that he's somebody you want on the field much. Uh, Dusty says, I do not want us to extend Mattelis just so we can't go old regime and hand his agent a blank check. So here's the thing about that, Dusty, is that the difference between the two regimes

is JJ McCarthy. If you were paying Josh Mattelis huge dollars when Kirk Cousins was taking up 30 million or at the time that was a lot 15 to 20% of the cap every year because he was always on a short and fully or largely guaranteed deal it would be problematic. I mean that Anthony Barr contract was problematic because they just couldn't afford to do anything else to that team. So you keep a star but gosh gosh, that's, you know, that's a couple of players that you would be able to add,

or you have to bend and twist to get a bars contract under the cap for one year, but then you can't get it for the next year the same way. So you got to let somebody else go, et cetera. But it all drew back to that quarterback situation. I know you can't pay everyone and they kind of have Daris on Jefferson. Those are huge deals. And then Jonathan Allen and Byron Murphy, those aren't cheap.

Those are $20 million a year. But even then think about the gap between even Jordan love who's early in his contract. I think he's at $29 million hit. It's 25 more than JJ McCarthy, man. I mean with Josh Mattel is if it's 15, if it's 18, the way you can spread the thing out. It'll be through most if not all of JJ McCarthy's rookie contract. You can make these things work.

There does come a point where yeah, I mean next free agency You're not gonna be able to go spend on 18 different guys like they did this year I think our free agency special next year. I'm already Preparing myself for it to be not as exciting as it was this year Where it seemed like every five minutes they were making some big move where it seemed like every five minutes they were making some big move. They're not going to have the cap space to do that, but they can sign Josh Mattel as to an extension. I think it's just really figuring out what kind of extension you're talking

about with him. Is it something under what Byron Murphy got? Is it more? Is it similar to Javon Holland? Was he around 20 million, I think with the New York Giants or is it Trayvon Morrig who was around what 16 or 17 or did they look at it and say, this, this type of player, we can find that player in free agency, but that would be pretty hard to argue, right?

Because there's so few of him and every team would want one. That's what makes it a little bit tricky, but I'm much more okay. These days with signing the blank check to somebody because you have the cap space to be able to do it. And if you look at just these current contracts, there is a lot, and I mean a lot of, um, space for call it adjustment. You could also call it manipulation, but adjustment is a fine word to use as well for you can restructure O'Neill.

You can restructure, Grenard, you can restructure, Hawkinson. You can like that's a lot of what's going to happen into the future because it's when now time. So that's what you do. You start messing with the cap and then, uh, you know, eventually you'll have to deal with that, but you're in your winning window for now. Uh, Brahmi says, uh, Felton feels like a guy who's going to get 15 receptions. Just doesn't seem like a guy who's going to have a year one role.

Yeah, I agree with you. I agree with you. And that's okay. That is completely okay. Uh, if Ty Felton is allowed to develop. It's what I said about Dallas Turner. Uh, once upon a time we had kind of declared KJ Osborne is not anybody to pay attention to. And then, Whoa, he's got, you know, 50 catches or something the next season,

because sometimes it just takes a little bit to develop. And I think he's going to be someone that really does need to work on the details of route running specifically. When I saw him in mini camp, that was my main takeaway. I don't mean he's bad at it. I think that when you watch the guys who are very refined, there's a difference and that's natural, but he's got the athletic ability to do it.

And I think he's got the drive to do it from everything that I've heard about Ty Felton. It's just, it's going to take some time because he doesn't have a whole lot of actual gameplay. Let me get back to your questions in just a second. But this show does have at least one sponsor for this week, and that is IDOU. As you guys know, over the last couple of years, I've built Purple Insider into my own little small business here.

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I think this is going to stop happening if the Vikings like win a lot more or if the Vikings are not the, Oh, cute little Vikings team. They got some guys, I guess, which was what they were last year. Jonathan Grenard was in the top five in quarterback pressures last year and is still getting called greenered blows my mind blows my mind. This is like Denelle Hunter. Like, Nope, Nope. Danneel Hunter. Come on, man. Like the Neil Hunter is one of the best players in the league and people are still calling him to Nell. I mean, I don't even know what they're saying about Christian Darasa. Is it Dara Shaw that they're saying instead of Darasa? Cause there's really no H there. I don't Shaw that they're saying instead of Darryl saw cause there's really no H there.

I don't know how they're mispronouncing it, but this does tend to happen a lot and maybe relevancy will come along with Jonathan Grenard and not Greenard. That to me just is like, you haven't seen him play. He must be a stat sheet number to you because he's always making plays and the broadcast is always talking

about him. So you had to have caught his name somewhere, right? Uh, that, that one is, there is no excuse for now it happens. There's a lot of NFL players. It does happen, but there's really no excuse for when you're talking about one of the best left tackles in football or one of the best edge rushers. I mean, okay. So there was the one time that Steve Levy tried to say a Foddy Adenabo and that went very okay, so there was the one time that Steve Levy tried to say a Foddy Adenabo and that went very wrong, but I get it. Like that happens. The guy's a seventh rounder who had just started to crack the starting lineup. Mistakes happen, but a guy who's been one of the best left tackles in the league over the last five years,

yeah, you should get that right. Son of a Beaver says, as much as I would love for the Vikings to sign Keenan Allen, our wide receiver depth is pretty dang good. I think the wide receiver depth can be very good. Is it for sure goes under my major camp questions, which is another podcast series in the few days leading up to a training camp coming very soon. But is it very good because Rondale more,

if Rondale more pops back to be in Rondale more, that guy could be pretty exciting. If you look at from year one to year two with Rondale more, he was just a screen guy in year one to the point of, I mean, almost comedy where they never had him run past five yards. And then year two, they started using him as more of a real wide receiver. Then the wheels came off Arizona. Then he got hurt, but there were signs there that he could really be a guy more than just a guy, uh, but actually someone who can make an impact.

If he works out and if Felton shows the signs and I mean, then you're talking about a really good unit. If Rondale more is just not really back from that injury and Felton isn't coming along, it will feel a little light. So it swings on both of those guys. If they signed Keenan Allen, I'd be like, Whoa, okay. All right. I mean, that's one heck of a wide receiving trio. I think if I'm keen and Alan though, I'm probably going somewhere else.

I mean, if I'm keen on Alan, and I like getting the football, am I going to a place with Justin Jefferson and Jordan Addison? Probably not. I would guess not. I agree with you, Daniel, rushing a guy with an injury history like Darasaw,

you gotta take it slow. It was a very serious injury, and if they don't play in week one, there's no panic. I think the fact that he was back in mini camp at least opens the door for a week one. And when we first saw him back there, it was like, whoa, okay, wow, that is shocking that he's actually doing these workouts.

And maybe that puts him on track, but we do have to slow the roll a little bit. They went out and got a veteran backup tackle to make sure that if they need to play just in school for two weeks, that they'll be in good shape. And you know, they don't have to push Daris all back. It's much better to take one more week. And we talked about this with Hockinson last year. It's much better to take one or two more weeks, even if the guy says he feels great,

than it is to force him out there, pull a hamstring, because hamstring and ACL, for whatever reason, I think they go together or other leg injuries because there's compensation. Well, I'm not a doctor, but I see it happen sometimes. And that's something you want to avoid because you don't want nagging injuries going down the stretch of a really important season. You'd rather miss the first three weeks.

Dusty says with Felton definitely feels like a guy that you can give some simple plays too early, but otherwise he'll need some time to learn routes, especially in KOC's offense. Yeah, I agree. I agree. Get him in there from time to time. Try to get the football in his hands. See if he could get something going, especially It might be a game by game thing. You might see oh man This Bears team just for example is playing in the parking lot. They are just put everybody back They're playing cover for they're running their linebackers back and they're just saying hey We're gonna dare you to throw underneath. they're just saying, Hey, we're going to dare you to throw underneath.

We're not going to let any deep balls go. Well, that might be a situation where you throw in Ty Felton. You just run them a little quick route, get them the football and get a move in. Or it might be a situation where the offense is stalling and you need a spark and you just run a jet sweep with Ty Felton to just get them the football. They just didn't have that last year. So now at least they've got something, someone and maybe Ronda Elmore, too, that, you know, you can do something quick with.

You can do a little change up. And it's not everything difficult on the quarterback, because I did think last year at times we did reach a point toward the middle end of the season where it was just the Sam Darnold show. They weren't running very well. They weren't throwing short as well. And then it was like, all right, Sam Darnold do something great and asking him to do that

all the time. He was able to do it for a while, but that's, that was pretty tough. And you know, they did have a decent short game by the numbers. They just didn't do it a lot. Sam Darnold had the highest percentage of throws that went over 20 yards. And I think the lowest percentage of ones that were from one to 10 yards that I think they could improve on. David says this current Vikings teams, the oldest team in the league this year.

And that worries me. Now I'm thinking eight and 8.5 wins might be too high of a goal to reach. I cannot tell you cannot tell you how overrated the average age of a team is just insanely overrated. The teams that are young first of all they barely ever win teams that are young. If you look at the studies on this of average age of teams that win the Superbowl or go deep in the playoffs, it's actually veteran teams who win more than younger teams, which stands to reason because you have a lot more experience. Uh, the other part is when you talk about that, it's like,

well, you know, Hey, Andrew DiPaola, long snapper, stop screwing up the average age of this team. If you take off the long snapper, what's it look like? Most of the players, if we do this, who are the Vikings core players? They're most important players. Justin Jefferson in his prime, Hockinson prime, Addison coming into his prime. That's, that's three. Darasaw is in his prime. Brian O'Neill, I would say is closer to the end than the beginning, but he is late prime, still playing really, really

well. Had a good season last year. Kelly is old. So there's one. Aaron Jones is old. There's two, but Jordan Mason is young and Will Fry's in his prime. Donovan Jackson young. So like, where's the ancient Vikings on the offensive side on the defensive side, there's two guys who are old, uh, in the defensive front, but then Harrison Phillips prime, Granard van ginkle, Cashman all in their primes. Ivan pace still young, Mattelis prime and a Byron Murphy. Same deal. Blackman, I think, you know, middle ish, like young ish. Rogers, young ish.

I mean, Harrison Smith, ancient, of course, like a million years old. But as I mean, you see the point, like their main pieces here are not ancient. They're often just in their prime. But a lot of teams, especially teams with expensive quarterbacks, they have a lot of guys playing those positions that are 20 years old or 22 years old because they don't have anybody there. So they have to draft somebody. So they have to throw in an undrafted free agent or just, uh, you know, somebody who has just had one year of development after being a late round draft pick or something. The Vikings have proven players in their prime, which, yeah, their window for this group is not nine years,

but it's two at least, and then we'll see after that. So that's what I mean is that discussion of average age. If you have a young team, it might just mean that your guys are really unproven and then there's a lot of questions or you're just filling space because your quarterback is so expensive. It's misleading and especially since older teams tend to win. Brett says, can you explain the difference between slot corner and outside corner? The difference is skill set. One must have to play either. Yeah. So nickel corners, think about Byron Murphy as

a, as a nickel corner, or if you are a little bit on the older side, not ancient, but a little bit older, Antoine Winfield, uh, think about the size of that guy, quickness, like the feet are very quick. There's a toughness element, especially Antoine Winfield. I mean the toughest, right? So that's they're usually a little more undersized because they have very quick feet because there's a two way go for the wide receiver. He can either go out to his right or out to his left and on the outside they can't run out because then

they just go out of bounds. So you can only really run in or straight if you're on the outside and that makes it a little easier for corners with like longer strides or who are taller or have more length and outside corners don't have to tackle as much. They have to tackle but they don't have to tackle as much because the nickel defender becomes a big part of all the run fits. So you have to have that toughness. I think you have to be quick-footed, also quick-minded.

You have to read a lot of things in the middle of the field pretty fast. You got to have eyes on the quarterback a lot of times and read and react super fast. Whereas the outside corner, now this is all changing a little bit and you see the size and shape of these guys changing. Because outside corners cannot often just be outside anymore with motion and with bunches and things like that. But usually their thought of as being a little more like larger, stronger, physical, getting their hands, you know, as Xavier Rhodes, getting hands onto a wide receiver, playing press coverage, stuff like that.

So there is a different size type of skill set for nickels and outside corner. I think if Blackman is somebody who I thought when they picked him, profiled a little bit as an inside guy, but he mostly played outside because he's really good at tracking the football. So I think you want that guy outside, but it's an interesting discussion.

A lot of times it just is the mentality of the player. Do you have like a nickel mentality, which is got to be a bit of a bulldog if you're going to play that spot. Also, Brett Brett got the book. Oh, good. Good. Good. Oh, Lindsay's book.

Yeah, great. Good to hear Lindsay Young. My friend wrote a children's book and I gave a few away the other day. I'm glad that you got it. Ah, son of a Beavers says, how would you feel about Jamal Williams as RB three goal line running back? We always seem to struggle with the goal line. I think he would be a great locker room and not against it. I'm thinking of Jordan Mason a little more as the goal line back that is going to get most

of it, but it just doesn't, doesn't it feel like there's going to be another running back who shows up here that there's not going to be an entire training camp that's just Ty Chandler versus undrafted from Jacksonville state, Trey Stewart for the running back spot behind Aaron Jones and Jordan Mason. Somebody else I think is going to eventually be here as part of that RB3 competition. I don't know where Jamal Williams is at in his career. If he's still got the juice, you know, running backs, they wear out pretty quickly. Where is he at health wise? If he wants to play for the Vikings, I don't know the situation at all with Jamal Williams, but there's usually free agent running backs that just kind of show up from time to time like a cam acres and you don't really expect it. How many teams

did Latavious Murray play for just bounced into a couple of different teams? Right. And so I think that there's somebody else who will eventually get here. I would not be against it if it's him, if it's someone experienced, but their lack of trust in Ty Chandler just showed so much last year that it's hard to believe that they're one injury away from Chandler playing half the role there. Or maybe that's changed, I don't know, but he's going to have to prove it. Daniel, does Brian Flores get a extended contract and pay bump to stay with the Vikings? I don't know. I don't know because Brian Flores could look at it as, hey, things are going great, but look how good my team is.

Maybe I'll wait till next year to negotiate this contract. I don't remember too many times that we've ever really discussed coordinators, but it is with their contracts and when they were up and when they weren't, because usually if you're going to leave, you better have a good situation. If you're going to make a lateral move, if you're going to let your contract run out and then make a lateral move, because if Flores gets a head coaching job, he can always go. But if he lets his contract run out, then he's just going to the highest bidder that's interesting.

You don't see it very often. And I respect the business play if that's what he wants to do because he is one of the highest touted and highest respected defensive coordinators in the league. And he has turned this thing around big time and he deserves to be compensated for that. But if he wants to hit the open market and go to the highest bidder after, you know, I mean, say the Vikings have a top seven defense and they're playing in the divisional round

and they lose, I don't know, 14 to nine and Flores's defense is great and everybody's talking about it. I mean, if he wants to go into free agency and see what team will pay him the most, maybe there is some other team that would do that. But what has happened with most of these situations that we've talked about? There's been a lot of drama. There's been a lot of, Hey, will they resign quasi and all this other stuff? And are they going to trade Jefferson, et cetera,

et cetera, et cetera. And what usually ends up happening is, you know, they didn't trade KOC. They just got it worked out in the end. And this is where, when you look around the league at some of the, uh, you know, ownerships around the league, I mean, they're pretty bad and they don't pay people and they don't resolve these issues and they have a lot of drama and everything. The Wilfs are just not that way. Usually if there's a situation that comes up with a contract, they get it worked out. And that's what happened with quasi-daful meant. And that's why for the most part on this show, we were just pretty

chill about the whole thing. Like, well, you know, I'm raising an eyebrow and kind of wondering what's going on there, but it'll probably get worked out. And then it did. So I kind of feel the same way about Brian Flores, unless there's some really unique scenario where he wants to take all of his leverage and push his chips to the middle of the table on this year. Wouldn't it make sense to just get a deal done? I mean, this is the best place for him.

It kind of reminds me of Mattel is actually, it's the best place for him and he's really good for the Viking. So why wouldn't they want to go forward together? Unless, you know, there's, you know, something else, but makes sense to me. Hey, if you're trying to maximize your dollars though, there's nothing wrong with working out your contract. Oh, Jameen Davis is on the Jets. Yeah, he had the he had one sack, I think, right?

And it was like a big sack. But that was about it. Have I ever gotten the story on the nudie McClother nickname? There are different versions that I've heard, and I'm just going to leave it at that. But I will tell you that I will be calling him Dwight McClother and that would be, that would be it. That would be it. I am going to just continue to call him Dwight. I don't feel comfortable calling another grown man.

Nudie. Uh, Freddie says over under eight and a half wins. I would be hitting the over pretty strongly. Um, if I mean last year, and I know it's a different schedule, it's a different scenario. It's a different year. It's different health, all that sort of stuff. But if last year they can win 14 with Sam Darnold and a worse roster, I just don't see how they win seven or eight with a quarterback who's unproven.

Yes, but talented and has been in this offense for two years and all the other things around him, it would be the best eight freaking win team in the entire league. I mean, I think that that number is fully representative of the gambling world, not knowing what to make of JJ McCarthy. But for me, if they win eight games, that is a huge disappointment because they have talent to win 1112 if not more than that, but the schedule is really hard.

But I mean, they have the talent to win double digit games, win the division. And the only reason they wouldn't would be either the health or if the quarterback doesn't play like he's supposed to. So I'm going to, I would go over on that. Stephanie, good to see you, Stephanie. Of all the position groups, which are the worst ones from the perspective of significant injuries out of that group that would have consequences on our season? So you're touching on a subject that in July, I don't love because I feel like it's just such a downer. Like don't be Stephanie

downer, Stephanie. I'm just kidding with you, but I know what you're saying. I mean, it's just such a downer like don't be Stephanie downer Stephanie I'm just kidding with you, but I know what you're saying I mean, it's really a question about depth right like which position group has the most questionable depth that if there was a Significant injury it would be majorly problematic if we kind of go through it a little bit I mean, I think cornerback is probably the one that pops out the most because behind these three starters is Jeff Okuda, who's not proven in the league. And then Dwight McClothern, who's not proven in the league safety is another one where, you know, we just don't know what the O Jackson is. And if you lost either him or Harrison Smith, then you're kind of asking Mattel is to do

something he's never done before where linebacker they've got more depth this year. Defensive line. I think they have developed some guys who could mix in there and they've got enough talent to be okay. A wide receiver. Obviously if Justin Jefferson gets injured, you're in a lot of trouble, but you know, outside of that, like you can, you can always bump up Jaylen Naylor for a few weeks. Maybe that one's a little bit tenuous and every team's offensive line is in a lot of trouble if you get serious injuries i think the answer is probably the group that we talk about the most which is the secondary. you you