Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - The Vikings actually picked Kellen Mond and hit a home run with guard Wyatt Davis

Episode Date: May 1, 2021

Matthew Coller and Paul Hodowanic have a discussion about what it means for the Vikings to have picked Kellen Mond with the 66th overall pick. It appears the Vikings are saying that the pressure is on Kirk Cousins to perform in 2021 and take them deep into the playoffs. What do we think of Mond as a prospect? Should the Vikings have just taken Mac Jones if they wanted a future QB? Also why the Vikings crushed the Wyatt Davis draft pick and what they still have to accomplish. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Get Coors Light in the new look delivered straight to your door with Drizzly or Instacart, Coors Brewing Company, Golden, Colorado, and as always, celebrate! Hello, welcome to the post-Day 2 NFL Draft coverage here on Purple Insider. Matthew Collar, along with Paul Hodowanika, thanks to our draft sponsor, Victory Home Team, along with our other sponsors, Scout Logistics and Symbol, your stock market for sports. All right, Paul, I'm just going to start with a little personal vocal essay here, and then you can react to it. I think that Kellen Mond being drafted by the Minnesota Vikings is quite the interesting statement

about where they stand with Kirk Cousins and how the Minnesota Vikings view his future. I think what it says is a couple of things, starting out with that they understand his contract situation puts them in a position to not really have a clear future. I also think the player that they selected in Kellen Mond over Davis Mills and over Mac Jones in a lot of ways says that they wanted an athlete at this position. And I think that it puts the spotlight very much on 2021 to decide Kirk Cousins future,

which makes day two of the NFL draft really darn exciting for the Minnesota Vikings. And I'll get your reaction on that in just a second. But the other statement I want to make is what a great draft pick of Wyatt Davis, a thick offensive guard who can pass block. My gracious, people have been calling for it. This show has been calling for it for I don't know how long. And Mike Zimmer said he wanted big, giant, beastly offensive lineman to block for his quarterback.

How about that? That pick on the live stream got an A-plus for me. I'm going to stick with it. I will give that an A-plus. So we will go through in detail all of the picks from day two and the fact that the Vikings did not move. But I wanted to get those two things right off the bat that the Kellen Bond pick is fascinating from many perspectives that aren't really even focused on him as a player and Wyatt Davis is the perfect day two draft pick Paul Hodwanik formerly known as intern Paul now just yourself you're in for Sam Ekstrom here

tonight Sam is at his mother's funeral unfortunately and, and our condolences to him. He's been doing all this draft work while dealing with a lot going on in his personal life because of the passing of his mother. So condolences to him, and we miss him greatly here tonight. But Paul, you did a terrific job filling in on the live stream, and now I want you to give your reaction to what I just said about Kellen Mond. Specifically, let's start there. Yeah, I mean, we were doing the draft stream live, and so we got to react to this as it was happening. I think we were both shocked that it happened. We had talked about it a lot leading up to that pick. We had two hours to talk and figure out what they might do if they were going to trade into the second round.

And so they stayed there, and we were kind of wondering what that could be for. And Kyle Trask goes two picks before they end up taking Kellen Mond, and that kind of signaled, okay, maybe this quarterback run is coming. And then, of course, the Vikings draft Kellen Mond. And so I think it's fascinating in so many levels. I think we had so many questions just off the top, what it means for Kirk, what this timeline will look like if Mond, if they view Mond as the future moving forward, how they, how they kind of see this.

I just got off the Zoom call with Rick Spielman, the GM. Obviously he said Kirk's our starter. That's no surprise. But I don't think anyone was worried about who was starting this season. I think the question now becomes who starts the 2022 season. Is it Kirk Cousins? Is it Kellen Mond? Is it a third party that we don't know about? This pick signals the most concrete step that says that Kirk Cousins may not be on this team in 2022. They've extended him in the past.

They hadn't extended him yet. So maybe that was a sign of, okay, watch out for the draft. Watch out. This might not be what we're committed to long term. But this was the first time where now we can see on the horizon a post-Kirk future. And I don't know if that comes. Kirk may play well next year, and Kellen may struggle, and they may decide to extend Kirk even longer.

That is entirely on the table and cannot be – we cannot just say that's not going to happen. That very much is a possibility. But now there was no succession plan. There was no succession plan to Kirk. If they let him go after next year, they were just going to swim in the draft, try to find someone in a draft that isn't as good for quarterbacks. I think already they kind of know that. Obviously people are going to pop up,

and Kellen Mond was probably not going to be at the top of that draft either. But this now gives them an option. And so it's going to be a really, really interesting year to figure out if Kirk's the future or if Kellen's the future, because this is the first time that it could be someone else. Yeah. Let me try here on the night of day two that we've been through a lot of picks and our heads are swimming and everything to try to make a relationship metaphor, as I sometimes do on the show. Put it this way. If your relationship is a little unclear of whether this is going to be someone that you marry and you're out at a restaurant and you meet

somebody else and they give you your number, their number, you're not deleting it if you're not sure about the relationship long term that you're already in. If you are married to that person, then you delete it and you say, well, okay, I'm never going to call that person back because there's no chance I would ever get with them. Well, they just met somebody in Kellen Mond and put the number in the phone. That doesn't mean that Kellen Mond is the long-term answer. And that's the difference between last night and tonight, that if they had drafted Justin Fields and traded up for him or if they had drafted Mac Jones at number 14 that locks you into that player is your guy for the future

but I would also say this that you're going to face just as many questions this was the 66th overall pick I know that there's this big difference in our minds between second round third round but the 66th overall pick means that you spent a big draft asset that can be a starter on your football team and you and I were going through on that live stream talking about all the talent that was still there they also could have traded up from 66 to get starters on this football team for next year and they foregoed those opportunities to take someone and put their number in their phone and leave it there in Kellen Mond for the possibility that they might have to use it later and it was also notable to me Paul that they decided to do it with someone in Kellen Mond who is athletic and who has a strong arm and ran a sub-4-6 40-yard dash.

So they had multiple opportunities to take pocket quarterbacks. They could have even traded up and taken Kyle Trask. It wouldn't have taken that much draft capital. They could have taken Davis Mills where they picked. They could have taken Mac Jones last night. Instead, they flirted with the idea of even trading up and getting Justin Fields and instead went with Kellen Mond. To me, that's even more statement of this team recognizing, look, the NFL might have to just be going toward more mobile quarterbacks. And so that's where we want to be in the type of player that we want to pick here, because the mobility and the athleticism of Kellen Mond gives him the

potential to be a playmaking quarterback that Kirk Cousins isn't. And I think that it waves a sign to Kirk Cousins and says, hey buddy, next year it's on. And here's the other thing too. Drafting two offensive linemen also says the same thing. Okay, Kirk, no more excuses about the offensive line. We're going to give you a ton of talent. This means that in the top three rounds over the last four years, they've drafted all of these guys. Five starting offensive linemen with the pick of Wyatt Davis and Christian Derrissaw. Five starting offensive linemen in the first three rounds over the last uh what three four drafts now uh 2018 19 20 and 21 so that is over a number of years building this up in front of kirk cousins and telling him okay now what else can we do for you of course wide receiver three was not addressed we'll talk about

that a little bit there are still guys on the board going into saturday that i think are probably close to some of the receivers that they could have gotten tonight so I understand why they waited on getting a wide receiver but there is a pretty clear message and I was reminded also that remember when Mason Rudolph was picked by Pittsburgh and how upset Ben Roethlisberger was that if the Vikings think that they're going to avoid, and you need to tell me what Rick Spielman had to say because you jumped in on his press conference, if they think they're going to avoid this drama by not taking someone in the first round, they are sorely mistaken

because this now becomes a huge discussion when they diverted very far away from the path that they usually take on, Paul, which is here's our seventh round guy, Nate Stanley. Here's our UDFA, Jake Browning. Here's our UDFA, Taylor Heineke. Here's our veteran journeyman backup, Case Keenum. Like that's how Sean Hill, that's how they have addressed the backup in the past. Now they put a significant asset into Kellen Mond.

That means you think there is the potential for him to start down the road, and it really puts a lot of pressure for next season. And so what I think now, Paul, is we have all three, Rick Spielman, Mike Zimmer, Kirk Cousins, all three of their futures in Minnesota converging on 2021. And if there wasn't already enough heat there for all three of them considering the contracts considering how long Zimmer and Spielman have been in charge this to me really solidified it that hey look I mean this this is kind of it um for you guys to all win this year now maybe there is a case that Spielman and Zimmer would be able to say, no, no, we've got our future quarterback with Kellen Mond.

So I guess that remains possible. But I just feel like certainly we know that Kirk Cousins now in 2021 is going to meet a fork in the road, and we're going to find out, do you take this team deep in the playoffs and stay here and get an extension, or do you come up short and go 500 again, and the Vikings look stay here and get an extension? Or do you have, you know, come up short and go 500 again and the Vikings look for their options to move on? I think that's what that tells us with this Kellen Mond draft pick. Yeah. And I don't know if hitching your wagon to, well, we drafted a guy in the third round, so you shouldn't get rid of us because we,

you know, we drafted this guy. We think he's really great. Unless somehow if Kirk gets hurt and then Kellen comes in for four or five games and plays really well, then maybe you have that opportunity. But on the postgame, or not the postgame, the post-draft presser, Spielman was very clear in he is not competing with Kirk Cousins. He is competing with Nate Stanley and Jake Browning. He said he's competing with those younger guys. So I wouldn't – there's no quarterback controversy,, at least in the first part of this year,

unless Kirk gets off to a horrible start. Then maybe you do something. But barring that, Kirk's the quarterback for all 17 games of this season, and Spielman made it seem that way. He was trying very, very hard, I think, not to make it sound like any controversy. Chad Graff, the athletic writer, I asked him, you know, did you call Kirk and tell him like that you were making this pick?

And he, he brushed it aside. No, we don't, we didn't need to do that. It was like, this is not about Kirk. Like this,

this was a guy that we liked on our board, blah, blah, blah. Like we like his upside, but it was not like there. He was, there was no discussion of, well, Kirk,

we're worried how Kirk feels about this. Uh, so he did not call him. Uh, I would presume Kirk learned of this pick like every, everyone else did. Uh, so there's that. Uh, so yeah, I don't, I think he's going to try to keep it as much of a, this is not a quarterback controversy as possible, at least based off his statements. And I I mean, why would you want, from his perspective, why would you want anything else? But while he said Kirk's not the starter, or while Kellen's not the starter, we're not really talking about this year. We're asking about 2022, 2023.

That's what this pick signifies. And so Rick answered, well, Kirk's the quarterback for now, but, I mean, it really signals that they are creating some sort of contingency plan for a post-Kirk world, and I don't think this pick would preclude them if they decided to get rid of Kirk that they wouldn't go draft someone else high, but this is just an option. This gives them a multitude of ways to go, And I think that's a good thing because if you're pigeonholing yourself into Kirk or the unknown of whatever we can get next offseason slash draft, that probably isn't a good spot to be in. So the fact that they have at least a

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Or you could call 651-998-2200 today. I'll see you there. Right. If there was no thought of moving on from Kirk after next year, you draft an edge rusher there. I mean, there were lots of good players. Aziz Ojolari was a guy they could have traded up for, who was a very highly ranked edge rusher. There were a bunch of other ones that went off the board tonight. Carlos Basham, we talked about. So if they had wanted to do that trade up that we had discussed, they could have done it and they could have gotten some of those players. And there were other

defensive pieces. There were cornerbacks that went off the board. There was a run on them that they could have made a move for, and yet they sat there and waited and waited to pick Kellen Mond. I'll give you a very comparable situation, in my opinion. How about last year when the Philadelphia Eagles picked Jalen Hurts with the 53rd overall pick. Now that's not that different from 66th where the Vikings took Kellen Mond. And after that draft, what did they

say? They said, oh, well, you see, we took him because we just like him as a football player. And so far, fourth and whatever. And we're totally fine with Carson Wentz and he's our quarterback and whatnot. But what did that tell us when they took Jalen Hurts? That it was a realistic possibility that Carson Wentz might not be their guy long term. And what we went on to learn was that the relationship between Doug Peterson and Carson Wentz was not very good. And I don't think that that's exactly the case here with Cousins. I think that it's just the Vikings recognized that there's a possibility with Cousins that

you're just stuck in this 500 world where when it's a bad season, you go seven and nine and draft 14th, which doesn't get you usually the number one quarterback, obviously. And when you have a good season, you go 10 and six or, you know, in the future, we'll see if that's 10 and seven or whatever we decide is a mediocre season. But that's been Kirk Cousins. And I know that you can separate individual play from win loss record, but not when the team's whole goal in signing you in their timeline was to take them deep in the playoffs. And that has not happened. So that's where a lot of pressure comes on to the quarterback, to the general manager, to the head coach, from ownership saying, you made us pay a lot of money

and then extended this guy, and we didn't get where we needed to go. So next year, and I think their moves on defense and free agency also pointed to this, next year they're going to look at this roster and say, look, this is a good roster we got you offensive linemen we improved the defense to get back to at least being respectable and maybe average or a little better and moves can still be made for this team after after this in free agency so it's going to be a good capable roster in an nfc that's a little rocky and we're uncertain in a lot of different places that's opening the door for door for the Vikings to be a legitimate contender with Kirk Cousins.

And if you don't do it, we got another guy. That's exactly what Philadelphia did. And if you look through kind of mid-round quarterbacks, this really happens a lot, where teams try to take that approach of, we're kind of going to half-step a little bit here. I'll give you another one that stuck out to me that did not work out, which was Davis Webb was another one that the Giants took in the third round who was kind of the same sort of, oh, he's got a high ceiling. He's got this big arm.

Dak Prescott was this once upon a time for Tony Romo. And they said, no, no, no, Tony Romo. He's our quarterback. He's our guy. But they understood that Tony Romo had injury issues and that he might be coming to the end of the line, and so they turned it over eventually to Dak Prescott. Now sometimes, like with Davis Webb, that guy never gets off the bench,

and that might be the case for Kellen Mond. But this is a classic situation where you sort of go halfway, one foot in, one foot out, but you certainly send the message, all right, well, we're thinking about this. And even if Kellen Mond never steps on the field for the Vikings, I think if Kirk Cousins has an average 2021 that doesn't get them anywhere and then wants a massive contract extension and then is set for a $45 million cap hit, that that will be the end of the Kirk Cousins era. That's what tonight tells us.

Now, Paul, you've been doing investigative journalism for the last several hours on Kellen Mond. Sure. Here's what I'm fascinated by for him as a prospect. The number of comps are just all over the place for comparisons to Kellen Mond. To shout out our Courtney Cronin, who was on the live stream at one point with us and compared him to Teddy Bridgewater, Rick Spielman compared him to Teddy Bridgewater. So she was spot on with that one. Rick said he's got a familiar frame as opposed to Teddy.

Hopefully he's not quite as slim as Teddy was. And he said he's more athletic than Teddy from a frame build. He didn't get into much more comparisons than that. But, yeah, we saw Tyrod Taylor. We saw who else were you looking at that you saw? Kevin Hogan and Colin Kaepernick. Also, like, look, guys, when you start throwing Colin Kaepernick, okay, I get it. They're the same complexion.

But I think there's quite a bit of differences there. Kaepernick was a prolific runner in college. And Kellen Mond is not a prolific runner. Tyrod Taylor. They did really emphasize the dual threat portion of him. I believe they said he was the number one dual threat quarterback in like the 2017 class. He ran a four, five or something like that. So they were talking up his ability to run as a big factor in why they took him.

And I agree with that. And I think that that says something also about Kirk Cousins, that they looked at this and said we're interested in Fields and Mond we're not interested in the pocket quarterbacks again still though I don't like the comparison because Kaepernick threw a 95 mile an hour fastball in baseball had a tremendous arm and also again was a prolific runner like that was a major major bonus to him with Kellen Mond he's fast he's athletic he is dual threat where you can RPO and you can have him run. But he's not like a Cam Newton where he's going to lead the league in rushing as a quarterback. At least the way that I look at him from what I watched with JTO Sullivan's QB school,

I didn't see a guy who also went like off schedule and just ran away like Russell Wilson or anything like that. So I wouldn't make that comparison. I think that's pretty lofty to say that he could be that level of a runner, but I see the stiff motion and the way the ball comes out is it's kind of like Kellen Mond is throwing it hard every time, no matter if it's a short pass or a long pass, it doesn't matter. And I think that that's something that needs some work from him. But it's fascinating that, you know, pro football focus pretty much in their write-up called him just the guy. But one thing I like about him is that he improved each year. He played against very difficult competition. He played in an NFL style offense. And I also think that what we saw at the Senior Bowl was really impressive

of him showing a little bit more of that off schedule. He made a couple of off-balance throws that were good and was easily the runaway best quarterback that played in the Senior Bowl game. And I think that that probably influenced them. But if Kellen Mond ended up like Teddy Bridgewater, then I think they would move to him as their starting quarterback, if that was their guy. Not only because Mike Zimmer loves Teddy Bridgewater, then I think they would move to him as their starting quarterback. Like if that was their guy, not only because Mike Zimmer loves Teddy Bridgewater, but there's a threshold that you meet where it's an economics problem. Kirk Cousins costs blank

to provide you with blank. Kellen Mond or, you know, whatever, if he becomes Teddy Bridgewater, provides you blank for blank price. And let's compare the two. Is $45 million for Kirk Cousins versus, I don't know what, Kellen Mond's cap hits going to be like a million? I mean, it's not much for second round draft picks. Maybe it's like two or three. I don't know. I'd have to check it out.

But like, it's nothing. It's nothing for second round draft picks. So what could you use, even if you extend Cousins and you lower that to 30 million, have to check it out but like it's on it's nothing it's nothing for second round draft picks so what could you use even if you extend cousins and you lower that to 30 million what can you use 30 million on on a roster that has a young offensive line that has a megastar wide receiver in justin jefferson that has a defense that is sort of in transition but they've been drafting and filling pieces in there for a little while now and they've shown that they can stack it up on free agency because people want to play for Zimmer. If Kellen Mond, over a year in practice, showed that he could be a

Teddy Bridgewater-level quarterback, your chances to win are probably just as high or higher with that level of quarterback and that amount of money. So it really doesn't come down to whether you like Kirk Cousins or not, or whether you think Kirk Cousins is good or not. I think we all know he's good, but it's really a math equation that they would be doing here if Kellen Mond could turn into Teddy Bridgewater. However, let me just get your reaction to this, Paul. I just want to go through quarterbacks that were taken in the third round. I was going to say, we're very complimentary of this so far. And so I think we both like that there is competition in there for Kirk and that there is seeming to be a future plan. But Kellen Mond being that future plan and him as a prospect,

we're not as warm on that, unless you've changed your opinion in like the 30 minutes since we got off the live stream. Well, I have not, no. And I'll explain that in a second. But just give me your reaction to this. So third round quarterbacks, let's just go back a little ways. And yes, we will run into Russell Wilson, but I don't think they have too many similarities. Will Greer was 2019. In 2018, it was Mason Rudolph.

2017, it was C.J. Bethard and Davis Webb. 2016, we got ourselves a Cody Kessler and a Jacoby Brissett. 2015, our boy Sean Mannion. Garrett Grayson also was the 75th overall pick in the third round in 2015. 2014, there wasn't one. Logan Thomas was the closest, but that was pretty far away. In 2013, it was Mike Glennon. 2012, that was Russell Wilson, but also Nick Foles.

And when we go back to 2011, it's Ryan Mallett. And then 2010 is Colt McCoy. And so you can keep going like this, and you can get some pretty great names as you go down this. Like Trent Edwards, that was a guy that I covered in Buffalo. Charlie Whitehurst, Brody Croyle. I mean, it's full of guys who kind of made their way around the NFL. And not even like long-term backups. Not even many of them are like big-time backups either.

Right. So history is not on your side with a third round quarterback. And that's where I would say that I'm just going to give the take and we'll move on from it. I'm just going to give it and then I'll move on. I promise. If you gave me the choice between drafting Kellen Mond in the third and taking Christian Dersaw or taking Mac Jones and then trading up in the second round to take a tackle like Walker Little or someone, I would easily take Mac Jones because he is a first round talent. And when we go through the first round

quarterbacks, there are busts, but they're not all busts. There's a lot of superstars as well. When we talk about first round talent quarterbacks, there's guys who changed franchises. There's guys who went to Super Bowls. There are, yes, there are busts and boy, it would have been a kick in the teeth if you drafted Mac Jones and he didn't turn out to be good. Yeah, that's going to mess up your franchise for a bit, but that's your better chance at going to the Super Bowl than drafting Kellen Mott. So I'm just going to say it. I'm just going to leave it there because I know that people don't want to hear me talk

about it more and they'll get frustrated because that's not what their team did. But that is my take. And I'll go with a quarterback other than Mac Jones. I would have much rather given up the draft capital that the Bears gave up to move to 11 to take Justin Fields. And if that means we don't get one or two of these third round picks because they're included in that deal, and we give up a, and we even had, let's just say to move up three picks or whatever, they'd have to give up their first round pick. If we gave up exactly what Chicago gave up, I would take that for Justin Fields. And the reason is you'd sit for this year most likely,

and then maybe you'd trade Kirk Cousins, and maybe you get a second-round pick or a first-round pick for him because a team's going to want him. And so then maybe you recuperate some of that from when you get rid of Kirk Cousins or you get rid of him this year, and you get some of that back. And even if you don't get it back, I just, if you're, if you think he's the franchise guy and from what Courtney said on the live stream and what from a couple other Twin Cities reporters have reported, the Vikings wanted Justin Fields. And so now that we know that they came away with a quarterback this draft, I would have rather

given up the future capital, albeit whatever it is, to get Justin Fields, who was a top prospect for so many months and then inexplicably fell. And so you might take Matt Jones and keeping those picks, I would prefer to go up and just give whatever you needed to give up to get Justin Fields, now knowing what we know, that the Vikings were in on taking a quarterback and are in on a post-Kirk Cousins era. Yes, we didn't know that yesterday when we did the podcast. And I agree with you if you're giving me the two options. I would probably prefer Justin Fields. I think if he ends up being a bust, it sets you back more than it would if it was Mac

Jones. And I'll just, I guess we're down the road, so I'll just carry on a little bit. Most of the responses that I got to yesterday's podcast pretty much said, well, I don't really like Mac Jones. And I guess my response is, well, Bill Belichick did. So who, I mean, who's right? I don't know. Because Bill Belichick doesn't know more about it than you do. He thinks he does, and so does every NFL person.

But if I had my dog eat from bowls and she you know had each one have a quarterback name and then I did all of my film work and and tried all the analytics and everything else the dog picking out which bowl would be just as accurate that's what history tells us that these NFL teams identify the top talents but no one knows how it's going to work out after that. So basically, it would be like this. If you just reached your hand in a bag and grabbed a number, and maybe your number wins or not, and there's five numbers in the bag, do you get a number? Or you just decide you don't want a number. That's how they do this. Would you rather reach into a bag of five numbers when two of them are franchise

quarterbacks who could take you to the Super Bowl or just not have a number? That's how I look at it. I say reach in the bag. And you know what? If you don't get one, you go, well, I guess that didn't work out. But the chance exists in that bag. It does not really exist in the third round bag unless you get super stupid, insanely lucky with Dak Prescott or with Russell Wilson so unfortunately yes I did have to go down that road let's move on let's move on yeah turn off the road let me say one more thing just because there's been a lot I got you going Baker Mayfield and Joe Burrow do you like them like do you think that Baker Mayfield and Joe Burrow are quarterbacks that you would want for your franchise?

Because Mac Jones is like them. This is a historically good draft class. But when Baker Mayfield came out, there was a lot of questions. And when, you know, some other quarterbacks, like even Joe Burrow came out, there were some questions. He only had one year of good play, just like Mac Jones, won a national championship, put up crazy numbers, had crazy good teammates.

There's not a huge difference between those two. But I think a lot of Vikings fans would say, on a rookie contract, I would take Baker Mayfield or I would take Joe Burrow. So why would you look at Mac Jones and say, no way, he's not for me? Now, again, I would prefer Justin Fields myself because I think athleticism and arm strength is the way. I'm just saying as a prospect, I got so many like, but I hate Mac Jones. Like, well, but if the Vikings

had picked him, would you hate him? So anyway, there it is. There's all that. That's the 30 minutes on Kellen Mond that all of you deserved. And this is really interesting to see where this goes. And if Rick Spielman thinks he's just going to say, well, Kirk's our quarterback. This was our best guy on the board. This isn't going away. You might as well have just drafted the first rounder. But let me say this. I'm interested on Kellen Mond, and I'm very interested to see him in training camp and preseason and all that.

And it adds a lot of spice to training camp that I am absolutely here for. And I love that we're sort of coming to a crescendo of this era. And that just adds a lot of, a lot of interesting discussions on the way. It'll be fun that the second quarterback or third quarterback reps actually like have like meaning when we were trying to assign meeting to the Kyle Slaughter snaps or the, the random other backup snaps. So now that we actually have a backup to watch the snaps and it like actually matters what he does in the preseason, like that'll be fun.

That will be fun. Okay. So let's move on to Wyatt Davis. Love it. Now, their other pick, they picked a linebacker. Eh, I'm just going to kind of give it like a, you know, Chaz Surratt is maybe an Eric Wilson type. Maybe they hope that he develops. He's very small, but he's a guy that they clearly liked his character. That matters a lot at the linebacker position. It matters at every position, but linebacker for sure. He is a project who's going to need probably a couple of years before he's ready to make an impact. He's a little depth for this year. Okay, that's fine. The Wyatt Davis pick, though, is an A-plus. A phenomenal job by this team to recognize what type of guard they needed. A thick pass-blocking guard and not a zone-running, small, undersized guy who went to Ohio State that's played against great competition and was rated extremely high coming into the season. As high as, I don't know, like a first-round pick. I think I saw him at the coming into the season, as high as, I mean, I don't know,

like a first-round pick. I think I saw him at the beginning of the season, and then he dropped because of his performance this year in a very odd year where I think he battled some injuries. I think that he starts at right guard, Paul, and Ezra Cleveland's going to move to left guard, and Christian Derrissaw is going to be your left tackle, and all of a sudden, for the first time since I have covered the Minnesota Vikings, they've got a chance to build themselves a really good offensive line that was the pick of the night if they had only come away with Derrissaw and Wyatt Davis I think we'd be saying great job on the first two days of the drafts yeah and I think I agree with you that he'll start on the right side all his snaps Wyatt Davis's were on the right side as know, Ezra Cleveland was a left tackle at Boise State.

So it would make sense to move him maybe to a side where he's a little bit more comfortable. But both Spielman and Davis were pretty noncommittal in what side that he would play. Davis, obviously, like he's not going to say, well, I only play the right side. Like he said, I can play anywhere. And Spielman was like, yeah, we didn't really pay attention to what side he could play. So, I mean, I guess there's a possibility that he plays on the left side if they feel like Ezra made good progress at right guard. But notwithstanding, I think you'd expect those to swap and Davis to be right guard, Ezra to be left guard. That gives

you a rookie kind of on both sides instead of both rookies playing next to each other on one end. Not that Ezra has that much experience, but he has more experience playing at an NFL level. So you'd think that's where he is. But, yeah, I really like the pick. They obviously had an emphasis on getting big guys that fit the pass protection, that, you know, fit pass protection and give Kirk some, you know, not just run blockers. And so it'll be exciting that, you know, they took two guys that are kind of their priority and their skills help with the pass blocking and kind of can see what happens there.

But yeah, I agree with you that he was the number one rated guard by PFF. I think that didn't count Elijah Veraitaker, so he'd be two, but anytime you're getting that number one guard that late in the third round, it feels good. He's going to be there right away. You said you expect him to start from day one, so if you're getting a day one starter on the second day of the draft late in the third round, I mean, you can't ask for much more than that. Hey, everybody. I want to tell you about our friends at SimBull. SimBull is a new sports marketplace where you can trade shares with professional teams like Stocked. So as we jump fully into free agency season,

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Hey everyone, I want to tell you about our friends at Scout Logistics. And I really do mean it when I say friends. They are fans of Purple Insider over at Scout Logistics. And since they reached out wanting to support this show, I want to tell you about what they do. really do mean it when I say friends. They are fans of Purple Insider over at Scout Logistics, and since they reached out wanting to support this show, I want to tell you about what they do. Scout Logistics is just-in-time transportation for full tractor-trailer loads, and if you're wondering what that means exactly,

well, if you own or work for a company that needs shipping solutions, they are the preferred carrier of Fortune 500 companies across North America, and we have quite a few of those in Minnesota, right? They can ship perishable, non-perishable, FTL or LTL, and they have on-time delivery rate of over 99%. So if you're like them and you enjoy the show and you have shipping needs, check out ScoutLogistics.com or call 855-217-2688 extension 232 to connect with them directly to find out how Scout Logistics can minimize risk and overperform and go the extra mile for your company. I think that outside of taking wide receiver three, which maybe i would have advised with their last pick instead of patrick johnson um patrick jones sorry um that they showed sort of a modern approach in this

draft trading down getting more draft picks and still getting a tackle tackle remains a very valuable position and i think that when you look at how guys get paid, it's probably third in the NFL for how guys get paid. It's quarterback, edge rusher, tackle, and then wide receiver maybe for pay. So they get a valuable position and get extra draft picks. So that's a good modern type of move, an analytical type of move. And then they take a quarterback with some upside and athleticism, which feels like you're moving toward that as well. And then you take a guard, which is not the highest rated position, of course, but it is for this team in your situation and it solidifies

your offensive line and you waited till the third round to do it. And you got a pass blocker, which I think is a very key part of this, is getting a pass blocker as opposed to, hey, we need a run blocking guard. So you switched your thinking in doing that, and now you've set yourself up with an offensive line that says to Kirk Cousins, okay, we're probably not going to be perfect next year. Garrett Bradbury's still going to get pushed back. Christian Derrissaw, you should have seen the look on his face when I asked him about facing Khalil Mack. He was like, oh yeah, can't wait to face us. Really? Because yeah, he's tough. He's definitely tough. No matter which side he's rushing off of. Sometimes he's gone off the left,

sometimes off the right. I guarantee you he's rushing over the rookie when the Vikings play against the Chicago Bears. So there will be the hiccups. There will be problems. I would guess there may be more of a mid-pack offensive line. But the fact that they sort of recognized what they needed for right now and for later, they needed these offensive linemen. They needed a quarterback to at least sort of say to Kirk Cousins,

we have another option, but also even to themselves that this is someone who could develop. And if you turn a third-round draft pick into a starting quarterback, my gosh, then you've hit a huge, huge, huge home run in the draft. The linebacker, even the linebacker is a guy who is undersized, quick, speedy. Like that's kind of the direction you want to go. I remember talking with Adam Zimmer about this, about how when they drafted Eric Hendricks, you know, linebackers were 250 pounds and now they're 230. So that's much more where he fits in. And then edge rusher taking a

shot on, you know, a guy with production in college. Patrick Jones is, you know, somebody they clearly liked in the senior bowl, but who knows? I mean, middle round edge rushers don't usually work out, but at least you take a shot at a position that matters. So now they go into the next day still with needs, still with wide receivers, still with cornerback. But I think as we sort of end the night here, Paul, that would be my final comment is just that they seem to really recognize what they needed here

and found a way to do it. And even though you could have kind of said, well, maybe you should have done this, maybe you should have done that. And certainly this person right here will not be letting go the quarterback discussion of what they should have done and the what ifs and everything else that won't be going anywhere. Sorry, everyone. But I thought from how we approached it coming in and what we said about it versus what ended up happening, I thought it matched up pretty closely. Yeah, and I mean, the fact that they were able to take a quarterback,

they were able to, I mean, improve the offensive line because you get the Christian Derrissaw pick, but you aren't really improving the offensive line with that pick. You're basically hoping that that is a net neutral with Riley Reif. Like that is your dream goal for this first year, that he play as well as Riley Reif played last year. So now Wyatt Davis comes in. This is where you see the first, hopefully, improvement from this line

because he's going to come in and you better hope that he's playing better than Dakota Dozier or Drew Samia. And so you're seeing your first improvement on the offensive line and then on those defensive picks both of them are just going to be depth pieces for this first year I think they didn't say it in in the comments but Jamal Stevenson the director of college scouting was talking along with Rick and I mean both of them it was all about them being athletes them being they're just really impressed with them so I think both of them, it was all about them being athletes, them being, they're just really impressed with them. So I think both of them maybe could have situational roles, but nothing more than that in the first year. But it fills out some depth for them.

Obviously, they probably still need to address the secondary on the second day, or on the third day, you'd love that they, if they address the wide receiver position on the third day uh rick made it seem like those first three picks in the fourth round i think they have three are really going to be the priority for him um seemed like he knew after the fourth and fifth rounds things drop off considerably so while he said we're open to trading back and if that if the board falls that way we will i i would expect that they probably stand pat with those fourth and fifth round picks because from what he said he knew he said it falls off so if we're trying to project a little bit for tomorrow I would project that they use those picks

or maybe even move up if there's a guy that they like because he admitted that there isn't much in those last few rounds. Paul, great job filling in for Sam Ekstrom. Really appreciate it. This is by far the most broadcasting you've done in your life. The four hours we were on the live stream and then here another 40 minutes on the podcast. So I really appreciate you. Appreciate all your help.

You're also helping out on the website, purpleinsider.substack.com. If you have not gone there to subscribe and check out our draft work, please, please do. So thank you and good night. And we will talk again tomorrow after, oh man, listen to you little, little naive Paul. There's still a little intern Paul in there. You're a professional journalist now. And I respect your hustle that you have broken into the industry from intern paul to real paul hodowanek and yet here you are saying maybe rick won't have seventh round picks well i i wouldn't say he doesn't have any but i would say he uses we've just got a ways to go paul i did i did get you 30 seconds into a a draft uh you thought the vikings had picked someone. Yeah, I know.

Because I, you know, so. Because you weren't – I'll blame myself for that, not listening closely enough. But there were full pause on the live stream. That happens. But, you know, just like the linebacker they drafted, you know, we'll develop you. So, all right. Thanks, everybody, for listening. We'll have another one of these tomorrow and then every day after that.

So, we'll see you.