Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - The Vikings sign Byron Murphy and bring back kicker Greg Joseph

Episode Date: March 15, 2023

Matthew Coller and Jonathan Harrison analyze the signing of cornerback Byron Murphy and talk about what's next for the Vikings and what position they would pick if the NFL draft was tomorrow. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hey everybody, welcome to another episode of Purple Insider. Matthew Pollard along with Jonathan Harrison here. And we were planning on doing this Hot Route style with five questions about what the Minnesota Vikings have done and a little bit around the league. But just before we went on, of course, I took two seconds to run to the grocery store and restock on diet dr pepper and uh as of course i was picking up 17 cases of this uh the minnesota vikings signed byron murphy cornerback from the arizona cardinals who had been on our radar somebody that had been mentioned on the show as a youngish player, signed a two-year, $22 million contract. And Jonathan, this falls also under the category that Marcus Davenport did

of players that are good bets for the Vikings to make. I mean, when we laid out kind of the criteria of what types of players should the Vikings look for in free agency, it was not players like James Bradbury who signed a huge deal today. It was not the top pass rusher, Javon Hargrave, for example. It wasn't those guys. They didn't have enough money to really compete for those guys unless they wanted to make just one signing this offseason. And plus, if you're hoping that one dude is going to turn around your entire defense or make a huge change for you. That usually doesn't happen.

And that's why we bring up the Yannick and Gakwe trade all the time, that they were hoping one dude would entirely operate their pass rush for 2020, and it blew up in their face. So instead, they are going out looking for young-ish free agents, as young as free agents are allowed to be. Guys who might have upside. Players who were drafted fairly high in the past. Marcus Davenport and Byron Murphy.

And I think that this fits perfectly for what they're trying to do, which is if you hit on the guy, then you've got a great chance to keep him long-term, have it be a fit. And what we know is when players get into the building, they usually want to stay with the Minnesota Vikings. We saw that from the NFL PA study. We have seen that from the past. And, you know, I think that this is right along the lines of the type of move that they should be making. And even if, you know, you're looking at his PFF grades, you're looking at his passer

rating against, or you're looking at his statistics. You're probably not overwhelmed and saying, oh, wow, they got themselves a superstar. But also he's got three years of being a shade above average. So not terrible. And what you're aiming for is to get him here, put him with Brian Flores, make it a fit and feel like you found somebody. And if it doesn't work out the same thing with Marcus Davenport, this is not a long-term contract. You are not asking this guy

to be the savior of the franchise. So there is little risk in a move like this, potential high reward. And it's a guy that is flying under the radar a bit because now when you look at those cornerback prices, I even wrote about this yesterday. It's like, okay, you're not getting the top guys because you're just not going to be able to compete with that kind of money.

But also Jonathan, historically, I think we've seen it be oftentimes just as good to go for a little bit more of the second wave of corners than the top guys, where if it blows up, then you have thrown so much money into a JC Jackson that totally blew up for the chargers last year. So this is another move that I think I, you know, you give an a, you give an a plus, like this is exactly what they should be going for. I think you give it an a plus because of the contract that's involved. It's not, you're not holding him or you don't have him here for a long time. It's two years. So if it does go bust, you can get rid of them pretty quickly and you can move on. But if it does work out for you, it's an easy re-sign and you can move on and keep them here

for a long time. And as I agree with you, it's one of those, it's one of these moves where you're taking advantage of a guy who's coming off an injury. He has that going against him with his back injury that he had last year. So obviously his market was pushed down a little bit because of that. There was probably some concern there and you're taking advantage of that. And you're asking Brian Flores, who has a history of kind of bringing these guys up and scouting, as we've said multiple times on this program, that he, that he had a, he has a history of scouting guys and you're asking him to do that. You're not going to, you, they probably communicated with him. Look, we're not keeping many of our, our high price free agents because they're all old and obviously we can't

afford them. So we're going to need, we're going to rely on you to find these guys, these diamonds in the rough and kind of make them into these stars that we're hoping that they can be. So this seems like one of those moves that fits in right with that. Yeah. I mean, he is 25 years old, by the way, like Marcus Davenport is a little bit older. He's going to turn 27 during the season, but with Byron Murphy, he just turned 25 years old. And the fact that there's still potential for development there has to be a huge factor in this. And looking over his statistics, it's not great. It's definitely not great from last year where he allowed 105.5 rating on throws into his coverage.

The year before though, that was only 87.8 and he had similar PFF grades, which kind of tells you how wonky those stats can be, uh, where, you know, somebody makes the catch of the century against you and it counts and looks like you did something bad. So the grades are a little bit more reliable and he's been just around or a shade above average each year. Two out of the last three years, very good in run defense, an aggressive blitzer who created quite a few pressures. So, and a guy with raw talent, enough to be the 33rd overall pick

just a couple of years ago. And that sort of speaks to what the high ceiling could be. And even if he does turn out to be an average player at this price tag, I think is very good. I mean, average corners are good corners. That doesn't mean they're going to be perfect, but they're a lot better than when you see it completely implode in the secondary, like it has with a lot of their players the last couple of years. So this is a good replacement for Patrick Peterson. Not that I expected to play as well as Patrick Peterson, but as a guy who can continue to grow and be a part in the best case scenario

of your long-term, when we were talking with Eric Eager earlier, he was talking about signings for then, signings for down the road. And this could be one of those that if you sign him to a nice little deal here and he helps you this year, that's good. And if he helps you the year after at a fairly decent price, that's very good because despite what they did earlier with Kirk Cousins, they're going to try to compete in 2024. But if you have him here and you can resign him at the next time he's coming up for a contract is age 27. That's not old at all. So you have the potential in the absolute best case scenario

that this could work out for a number of years and you find a staple over there. It also gives you more margin for error with a Caleb Evans and Andrew Booth Jr. because we really don't know with either one of those guys. And I thought going into this, the Vikings should treat the cornerback position like they had nobody, like they had an entire room to fill. And this ends up being a part of it. Now I will say we're getting this question about earlier with the cousins restructure.

And it was clear to anybody who watched or listened earlier that look, when I, when I say throughout the last couple of weeks, it's a main goal to not hurt yourself going into 2024. And then they do it. What do you want me to say? I mean, they clearly made it more difficult for themselves next year. And there is no moving that around. That is 28 million dead cap and it is dead forever. So there's nothing you can do about that. And yeah, they have other cap space to work with next year, but half of a roster. So they're going to have to fill a whole roster. And that is just going to be a rock, an anchor sitting there.

So it doesn't change really anything about that, especially because there were other options on this roster right now. And during the show, we might see another shoe to to drop but there were other ways to create enough space to sign someone like Byron Murphy Zedaria Smith has still not been cut Harrison Smith Delvin Cook there were other options for creating that cap space to make a move like this and if they ended up doing it because they wanted to make sure they kept Delvin Cook or one of those other guys I I think that that would be a bad move in that case.

So I don't tie them together to say they had to do that to do this because there were other things that they needed to do. So I'm just checking here real quick on another question about him playing in the nickel. Yeah, no, that's right. That's a good call from our friend Sloth here in the nickel yeah no that's uh he that's right that's a good call uh from our friend sloth here in the comments he's capable of nickel uh playing in the nickel and that that is a big deal in brian florist's defense by the way that you couldn't just bring back chan and sullivan and sort of hope uh they need a nickel corner who can play man-to-man coverage in this defense because it is so

aggressive and someone with blitzing experience like Byron Murphy, but it's so aggressive. They love the cover zero blitz where you send everybody and it's just man-to-man with the wide receivers. You need someone to be able to play man-to-man coverage who's a nickel corner, not just drop back in zone and make tackles in front of you and kind of just uh you know hang on for dear life you really need a good player in that position and looking at murphy's usage over the years he has played more slot no uh well overall in the last three years more in the slot than he has outside but he's split so he does have quite a bit of versatility there for this guy. So I have

zero criticisms for this move. He was on our radar. Our intern Haley English included him as a potential target for somebody to look for. And I think another point too, is that he comes from a defense that was bad, that was not run very well. And of course, next year's defense probably won't be super for the Vikings, but maybe it will be run potentially well. And as you grow with them, I think every part affects the other parts. So if someone like a nickel corner gets in a good defense, remember when Terrence Newman was able to do it with a really good defense, if you build the defense and he's part of it, he's a cog in the machine. I think that could be helpful as opposed to chaos, which was the Arizona Cardinals defense

last year. And just to answer Greg's question about whether it's easier to trade cousins. Oh no, it's vastly harder. In fact, almost impossible. So that's another part of this, that if they were to trade him, they would take a $38 million cap hit for this year, which again is just not possible for them to do with their current position. So that means that he can't be traded. And if you, and I got some questions about, we sort of like when they signed the blocking tight end from the Ravens, like Lamar, Lamar, is that you calling? That dream's dead, friends. That dream is dead so if you had any discussions with your friends about whether the vikings should chase lamar jackson your quarterback for 2023 is kirk whatever his middle how do i know his middle name i've been covering him for this

long yeah like what do you have a john or something uh k, Kirk, Edward, Daniel, Daniel. Okay. All right. Had to be, had to be. Okay. So Kirk, Kirk, Daniel cousins will be your quarterback for 2023. Without question. It's just whether they decide to draft one this year or draft one next year. And those are the only discussions to be had. Do they trade up for this year to try to get someone? Do they see if someone drops? Do they draft a developmental quarterback or do they wait until 2024 to do it? But one of the problems is if they do it this year, then they are still very expensive. If you draft a first round quarterback at the quarterback

position and then next year you're paying 28 million plus a first round quarterback's price which means that's going to have a lot of cap space dedicated to the quarterback so we won't spend as much time into that because we did an instant reaction to it uh earlier but focusing just on the Byron Murphy move, the most recent thing we just saw. I can't find a single thing that I wouldn't like about it, Jonathan, other than I guess he was banged up last year and maybe you worry a little bit about that, but I can't even find in his past where there were any issues really with injuries for him. All right. So then let me get my question out here. This, I guess, talk me into,

if you will, since we play, like to play these games here on the show, looking at his PFF stats, you mentioned that with the Brian Flores aggressive blitz, they like to play the man coverage quite a bit. They play the man coverage in the zero, zero coverage game. His numbers, according to PFF, his grades, his man coverage grades over the past season, past three seasons, if I'm remembering these correctly, have not been good. Last season, his man coverage obviously banged up, only played nine games. Man coverage grade was 49.0 compared to a zone coverage grade of 71.9. And it kind of follows that similar path over the last three seasons as well talk me into

not being too concerned about that uh that looks like flaw in his game that he doesn't really according to the grades on pff play the man coverage as well as his own coverage and considering what the defense is going to be installed here with b Flores. That kind of concerns me a little. So talk me out of that. Yeah, I mean, that's no, it's certainly a concern that his numbers in the past in man coverage weren't good. I think the talk you out of that is, well, one is they don't run the blitzes all the time. So that is one. If there's any position in Brian Flores' defense that will play a little more zone, it would be the nickel corner, probably, just how defenses generally have to work. You're not as a nickel,

assuming that that's going to be his job, you're not as a nickel lining up man-to-man all the time. It's usually just in the case where they send a lot of blitzers and then those like zero blitzes where everybody comes, then you have to do that. And I don't know how that breaks into when he played in the nickel and when he played outside as far as that goes. So they may view him one way or the another. They may look at him as purely a nickel or they may look at him purely as outside. But the way I see it is even if that doesn't work out

because of exactly the number you just said, and is that a little concerning? I would say it is. It certainly is. But if it doesn't work out because of that, and he can't cover people man to man and it blows up, that's okay. And that's not to say that next year doesn't matter or throw it out or whatever, because clearly with what they did with Kirk Cousins today and how they're adding some of these pieces, you know, they're not getting just all development players and that kind of thing that are way down the list. It's more of guys who fit into that small area of could have more potential and aren't that expensive. So you have to get guys with flaws.

Marcus Davenport had a half a sack last year. What you're doing is you're trying to find some sort of diamond in the rough. So you're going to your scouting department and saying, hey, did we see something here when this guy was coming out? This happens all the time where free agents will get signed for halfway decent prices, even if they haven't produced as rookies, because the team really liked them when they were coming out in the draft and saw flashes of it. And so when you look at his overall numbers, there's definitely flashes of it.

And the blitzing numbers also where he's had some success, maybe they feel like he was used too much as an outside corner because it was split quite a bit and he needs to be a pure nickel and that's where he'll be better. So I, you know, I think that those numbers are worth bringing up and looking at and saying, oh, that's not good. If he's had trouble playing in man coverage in the past and he's coming to a man coverage system. But also I would say that

cornerback numbers are hard to pin down because so much is how you're used. And if that happened a lot on the outside or a lot on the inside with some of those numbers, but he was better in one place or the other, they might be able to use him a little better than Arizona did. And Arizona is one of those teams that you cannot trust. You can't say this is not like, you know, New England, where if they're getting rid of a guy, then there's probably a reason and buyer beware. This is much more of, Oh, Arizona didn't like him, but yeah, it's definitely worth bringing up those numbers. I just think that if it doesn't work out, you have not crushed yourself that it has the same with Davenport.

If Davenport comes here, sacks, nobody gets hurt. It's one year deal. You didn't lock into him for a long term. And the same thing goes with Josh Oliver. It's a three-year deal, but it's more of a two-year deal. It was $10 million guaranteed. But the upside of Josh Oliver is maybe an emerging player who did contribute to some extent in the receiving game as well, but an elite run blocker. Maybe that works out really well for you. And every move, I want to be like this. Maybe it works out really, really well for you. And I, every move I want to be like this, maybe it works out really, really well for

you has to be the last line of every discussion that we have for every player that the Vikings decide to sign. So those, yeah, those are good stats and interesting stats. And I think maybe if they play him purely as a nickel, uh, that some of that can be reduced, but if it doesn't work out, it doesn't work out. If it does, then they've got someone for a long time. Let's get into some of the other stuff here. And if anybody else has thoughts on Byron Murphy, I feel like it's sort of an open and shut discussion with Murphy. It's like not, not a huge commitment, potentially a good player.

Okay. That'll work. And, you know, we'll ask around to other reporters from Arizona and things like that in the coming days about what they think of it and get some other opinions. But to me, that's the biggest thing is just that these moves have upside and not a ton of commitment. Uh, so how about this? Uh, the Vikings, uh, filled their center position with Garrett Bradbury, um, Patrick Peterson left Delvin Tomlinson left, Adam Thielen left, Eric Hendricks left. So where are the Vikings likely headed with their first round pick now

that you have seen all this happen? And of course, as I was writing the question, I didn't know they were signing Byron Murphy. So they sign a corner. I don't know if that changes anything in your mind, Jonathan. But as of right now, let's just say I told you, I looked into my crystal ball. They did not trade out a number 23. They selected somebody. What do you think is the position that they went with? I would assume it's defensive tackle right now because they still have a gaping hole there. Marcus Davenport's more on the edge. I don't know that you're going to rely on Harrison Phillips to do that role. And you still have, you're not going to

have Jonathan Bullard do that either. You still are whoever else they have left on the roster in that position. They still need that position. And if the pit guy is still there, you're going to take him because he's got the upside. I'm blanking on his name right now but you're gonna take collage you can't see if that one collage you can't see because the upside he had a great uh combine showed out now if he drops that's a question because he might have helped his stock a little bit too much to be there at 23 but i think the vikings will look at defense to try and shore that up because they don't have a whole lot of bodies there. They need a lot of young guys. You can't bring in Brian Flores and then just dump all the veteran guys and say, hey, good luck with the scrappy.

You have to give him something. And I would assume that it's probably going to be defensive tackle. If not, do they go with another corner? Yes, they just signed Byron Murphy. And they have the two young guys uh in caleb evans and andrew booth jr but obviously they have injury issues from last season they could also go there those are my two those are the two thoughts that pop out of my or pop out right away is that they'll still look at corner because uh it'll still be there they'll

have plenty to choose from in this draft class or is it defensive tackle? Yeah, I mean, cornerback, there is a bevy of guys who are expected to go somewhere between 15 and 30 with that position. And the Vikings could kind of have their pick outside of the top two, which would be, well, at least how most people are looking at it, Christian Gonzalez and Joey Porter Jr., that those players are probably going to be taken. And then after that, you've got a pretty good chance to be able to draft someone at 23 at the cornerback position. I also think that that is partly one of those spots

that Brian Flores has coached in the past with defensive backs, safeties, corners. And he might be looking at those. When you hire Brian Floresores i think maybe you promise him first yeah excuse me first dibs uh this is what happens when we drink soda during the show but first first dibs on uh making a draft pick i definitely think that um you tell brian flores yeah we're going to be drafted some defensive players so get out your scout notebook like he used to use when he was a scout for the v. But there are multiple options there. I see some folks in the comments

bringing up linebacker. I think that linebacker is maybe a position that you don't try to spend usually in the first round. If you look at recent history on first round linebackers, if we don't call Micah Parsons a linebacker and we call him an edge rusher, it's a little bit more risky in my mind and the upside isn't as high. You have to draft a megastar linebacker for that to matter where if you draft a good corner, and I mean versus someone that you could bring in in free agency, if you draft a good corner and you get a shutdown player there, it can be unbelievably helpful to your defense. The one position you didn't mention is on the offensive side and defensive tackle for sure. You see what teams are paying pass rushing defensive tackles this year.

Jerron Payne being the best example. Javon Hargrave. These guys are getting huge dollars because teams have figured this out. What the Vikings knew many years ago with John Randall or Henry Thomas, if you have guys that can get after the passer from the interior, holy cow, does that throw off the opposing offense. And we've seen it on the other side too with the Vikings. I think Derek brings up two really good options,

potentially Brian Brees and Nolan Smith is the edge rusher who ran a 439 which just sounds absolutely perfect for playing that wide nine and the edges standing up and getting after the passer so those guys all could be potential really good picks on the defensive line we don't like long term we just don't know what's going to happen with daniel hunter still zedaria smith either way is not going to be part of this thing long-term. I'm waiting for him to be cut, but they must be going after potential trades here or having those conversations because there's no other reason in my mind that Zedaria Smith would still be on the team after signing Marcus Davenport.

Great point by Ben that before Sheree Floyd's surgery, he was exactly this. He was that interior penetration, three down type of player that they could really, really need, really use. And if, you know, Canty is there, I'm not sure he will be, but that's the guy or Breeze. Both of those guys make a lot of sense, but we also didn't bring up wide receiver. And I think that still should be on the table because now that they've gone out and they've gotten a corner that they've spent a little money on

and an edge rusher that they've spent a little money on, I don't think that they're looking in free agency and not that there's a lot of these guys anyway. Jacoby Myers is already off the board, but even a Juju Smith-Schuster or something, if they're signing someone, it's probably along the lines of a short-term, not huge contract for any wide receiver. Alan Lazard going to the Jets

as all of Aaron Rodgers' friends are. At some point, he's going to ask for them to sign Jordy Nelson, I think, or a witch doctor or everything you know, everything on the table there. But, you know, I just think that like the wide receiver position, there's no really good way to get someone who can replace Adam Thielen unless it is Odell Beckham. Jonathan brings up a good name, DJ Chark. But I mean, all of those guys that are there that are kind of older, the DJ Charks, the Juju Smith Schusters, you know, there's some good players there, but I don't think we're talking about guys that you would say

are a significant upgrade over Adam Thielen. If you're looking for someone that could potentially be a game changer to pair, and it's fine to sign one of those guys short term, but if you're looking for a game changer to pair with Justin Jefferson, you have to draft that position. And that's why it is so hard for them right now that they don't have the type of draft capital to spend because every position we just talked about, there's a great case for it. There's a great case for your defensive

tackle or your cornerback or the edge rusher if he's there and Nolan Smith. I mean, there's just a really good argument for any of these positions. But in my mind, if you're trying to both compete and plan for the future, receiver is the best one because we know this. If you hit on the guy, then he's going to be good right away and make an impact right away. As we've seen from numerous receivers over the last couple of years, who've stepped right in and made a difference, maybe even more so than a cornerback that has more of a development curve, unless you're talking about a sauce gardener or something. But usually there's more of a development curve for corners. And edge rushers and defensive linemen can make a difference right away,

but it's not often massive right away. So I look at it as any one of those options probably work and it ends up being best player available in those positions. But the more obvious answer is the one I said you couldn't use, which is they probably try to fill multiples of those positions by trading back. Don't you think Jonathan? Yeah, it feels like a draft that they will trade back because as you and Eric talked about on the podcast earlier, Kwasi was brought in to kind of bring in and get a lot and accumulate a lot of draft picks. And right now they don't have a lot for this year. They've already given away some next year.

So he needs to start filling in some of those draft picks that he's kind of given away over the past couple of months. And the best way to do it, it's trade down, accumulate picks for this year and next year and start filling in some of these holes because they have a lot of them next year as you said 26 guys on the roster next year they're going to need to fill those holes and what better way to do it on the cheap than with draft picks and they're and they have to have more draft picks than they have right now and to do that you have to trade down it's not going to be the most fun for Vikings fans that they're trading out of the first round possibly. But for the long run, if you are truly

competitive rebuilding and it feels very much like they are, the best way to do that is accumulate draft picks by trading down. Yeah, I think that that's right at the cornerback position, especially there's supposed to be a good number of guys that are sort of even in their draft grades from most of the draft analysts. You know, I, I see just to throw this comment up here about, you know, receivers being strong in the early and mid rounds. That's one where second round receivers we have seen have quite a bit of success and a little bit into the third round. Terry McLaurin is pretty good. Second round though, seems to have just produced a lot of good receivers. And this year appears in my mind to have a lot of receivers who are more of

second round talents that if they traded back into the second round and you're looking for corner and receiver, those are two positions you might be able to get potential quality players. The, what just the way the draft tends to work is the first half of the second round usually is where it starts to peter out. And I know Mike Renner said on the show that he only sees maybe 25 to 30 first round talents here. But just historically, if you go back through all the drafts, you're going to find a good amount of

starters and even some real star players into the second round. Adibo Samuel, AJ Brown, those are elite wide receivers. Those are all pro players who are drafted in the second round. So, you know, you can get those guys still, I think, with decent odds. Receivers are very hard to evaluate. Also, I believe just with route running being such a big part of it, fit for the team they go to being a big part of it as well. Sometimes the best athlete doesn't always turn out to be the best receiver. Justin Jefferson was the fifth wide receiver off the board in his draft year. So there's a lot of evidence for, Hey, you don't necessarily have to get the top guy.

You can wait a little bit, but I would not wait past the second round. That after that, I think is mostly, if not all outliers, just a quick question here. Why is Delvin cook still employed? You know, I, I, I, I don't know what's happening there. Something, something has to happen. So I'm, you know, trying to keep the math straight in my head they created quite a bit of cap space from the players that they cut eric kendrick's adam thielen and then the restructure from kirk cousins but they've also spent quite a bit of cap space these last couple of days uh in their signings so that may maybe around even at this point like something else has to happen i'm assuming it's zadarius smith but I don't know what the argument would be

for not moving on from Delvin Cook if they are just continuing to shop him, continuing as some of the running backs come off the board in free agency. Jamal Williams is going to sign somewhere. We just saw David Montgomery join the Detroit Lions, which I'm sure Vikings fans not want to see because David Montgomery is pretty good

and probably has a few years of still being in his prime. So that's a really good move for Detroit and their offense for a versatile player who's kind of ripped the Vikings apart the last couple of years in playing for Chicago. But as some of these running backs find their homes, Miami re-signed their two guys, Mostert and Wilson. Now, is there a place for Delvin Cook? Is there a team that wants him? And that might be the holdup here because tomorrow afternoon, as we record this on Tuesday night,

it's three o'clock central where they have to be cap compliant. One of those moves I think has to happen before then. If they keep Delvin Cook, I'm going to be confused. There was quite a bit of chatter, though, about re-signing Alexander Madison and moving on from Delvin Cook. That would be wise, in my mind, to see Alexander Madison in a bigger role. He does not have a whole heck of a lot of hits on that body, that's for sure, with him and pair him with Ty Chandler, maybe draft the guy in the late rounds or sign, you know, a really cheap free agent. I think that's a much better approach than bringing back a running back who is in the be terrified age of him. I mean, even, you know, even if you look at Adrian Peterson

after age 28, 29, and he did have the one season where he led the NFL in rushing, but his comparison to his first part of his career in yards per carry goes down by about a yard, yard and a half. And that's one of the greatest runners of all time. So it happens to everyone. Derrick Henry, they're trying to trade him, which also might be some kind of hold up that other teams are throwing offers all over the place. Or they might be saying, no, we want to keep him.

We just needed a blocking tight end i i really don't know what's going on there and i don't know someone asked about the highlight video he put out who who could know who could know i only can interpret stefan digs tweets okay that's my only talent anybody else don't ask me chris thomason tweets i can uh with with his text from harrison smith if everybody saw that on twitter Don't ask me Chris Thomas and tweets. I can with, with his text from Harrison Smith. If everybody saw that on Twitter now, though you haven't seen it,

I don't know how you haven't seen it. Go find it. You know, but those I can interpret pictures of Prince staring at the camera, but that's a lot of moving parts still. And each day we've come in at the end of the night, Jonathan, we've said a lot of moving parts, still a lot of parts still still. And each day we've come in at the end of the night, Jonathan, we've said a lot of moving parts,

still a lot of moving parts. Still tomorrow it will happen, but literally tomorrow has to be something. And we'll kind of go from there and see what they decide to do. They all might not be here. They all might be here. I'm not really sure because they still can push restructure buttons, but the way they've handled everyone,

but Kirk says to me, they don't want to hit more restructure buttons. They could have created a bunch of space with Brian O'Neill. They have not done that. They could have restructured Harrison Smith and those guys have no choice. It's in the contract where the Vikings can do that anytime, but that's pushing money down the road. And they mostly haven't done that, which I think is why it's taken me a little by surprise that they did move so much money

into next year with Kirk Cousins. But anyway, there's another signing that they made, Jonathan. Last night, I was wrapping up the show and I said, oh yeah, one more question someone asked about Greg Joseph, whether they're going to re-sign him. And I was like, I don't know. If you look at his numbers field goal percentage extra points were a problem not really sure that that would be the best move and then they resigned greg joseph today uh what do you think jonathan playing with fate or is it right that they decided to stick with their kicker greg joseph at a very I will say a very low price in comparison to what it looks like kickers are making a very low price for Greg Joseph. But I think they might be toying

with fate a little bit here because at no point during his career, has he been an above average kicker? So they've got to have some competition for him as well. But I think, I don't know, you can only upgrade so many positions when you don't have any money. So they kind of had to do what they had to do and they have familiarity with him. So I guess it's okay from that perspective, but from a numbers perspective, it has not been above average for Greg Joseph. No. And like you said, the number, the cap number is, is favorable to where the Vikings are at right now with how much, how little cap space they have to play around with. So that's probably the biggest factor in why he's back other than the fact

that they know him and they feel like they probably feel like they can get the best out of him by just being a better environment for him than the past couple of head coaches he's had. So there's probably that. I think it is toying with fate, but that's kind of the Vikings franchise at this point with kickers is you're just toying with fate all the time with that position. So, and if they are really not that concerned with, obviously there is obvious, they obviously want to win, but if they're really more concerned about kind of rebuilding this thing, they're probably not too

concerned about, Hey, if he misses a game winning kick, it's not going to hurt us because it's a higher draft pick for us in the end. So there's probably that factor to go along with it, but there, they also just probably feel like they can get more out of him than what they did last year, because it'll be another year under Kevin O'Connell and another year under their special teams coordinator. Who's really good at what he does. So I feel like it's a decent enough move. And at this point, the Vikings kickers are just cursed anyway. So decent enough move and at this point the vikings kickers are just

cursed anyway so what does it matter at this point yeah there is a case for if you chase your tail with kickers like you know what you have mostly with greg joseph if you chase your tail with kickers you can really end up just going round and round and round and then you end up giving Matt Gay some massive deal like the Indianapolis Colts did. And you look like a crazy person, which they are indeed run by a crazy person. So there's that. But with Joseph, I don't know if you brought in three or four kickers who are unproven undrafted free agents or guys who are down the list do you find someone who works out uh maybe uh you know i i don't know are you willing to take that swing because

proven kickers do cost a lot of money so i don't think they're in a position to find one of the league's greatest kickers it's okay that they brought back greg joseph just make sure you're also keeping your eye on other kickers don't't draft them. Do not do that. Unless it's Daniel Carlson. He's great. What a draft pick, but you know what I mean? I will always sting. I know. Don't spend a draft capital on kickers because they're just too volatile and it's you're wasting your time. Uh, however, they should bring in guys to see if there's anybody who can outkick Greg Joseph. He did totally redeem himself toward the end of the year, the 61-yard game winner, and that probably locked him in. And again, the price tag is so small. The commitment is so small.

It's not a big problem. Question here about Josh Oliver. The draft profile on Josh Oliver, the blocking tight end, the Viking sign, talked him up as an athletic receiving tight end who led his team in receiving. He also went to like San Jose State. So if you're a fairly good athlete, you probably could lead your team. Wasn't it San Jose? I think it was San Jose State. Could Kevin O'Connell unlock these skills? This is why I did like the deal.

OK, for that. And when you look at the salary cap hits, it's not bad for Josh Oliver. I think some people got kind of worked up because it was a blocking tight end was their first signing. So if you really wanted to react to that first signing, what is it? What's it going to be? It's like Christmas time. You got all the presents under the tree. And then you open the first one and you're like socks like what what is this socks uh however i do think there is upside and look at tight ends look at their history what often happens is they take so long to develop because the position is very complicated and

challenging that the next team that signs them is usually the team that benefits from someone else drafting that tight end. And I saw that comp picks were brought up. Look, this is just a little bit of a thing for me. Get asked about comp picks constantly. Don't worry about comp picks. Don't concern yourself with comp picks. It is unbelievably hard to get a high comp pick. You usually end up with a fifth or a sixth or a seventh. Don't worry about them. Do what you need to do for your play, for your real players, for your real roster. And if you get comp picks, that's totally fine. But most of the time they end up evening out and you don't get many because everyone you let go, if you sign someone, then it eliminates the comp pick.

But are you not supposed to sign people to fill out your roster? It's real hard to benefit from the comp pick system. That's my point. So every year it's, do we get a comp pick for that? Somebody left. Do we get a comp pick for that? What's with that guy? If he leaves, we get a comp pick.

Like, don't worry about it. It's not going to make a difference anyway uh if it if it does then good for you but for the most part no uh it usually doesn't and i'm and i'd rather just have a player that could have a high ceiling and end up working out and be a big player for you than somebody who you know you're drafting in the fifth round so i don't worry about those. Jonathan, I want you to make a statement here. Put this on paper. We will hold you to this for the rest of the entire next season.

So this is an important moment for you. Your job here at Purple Insider is actually on the line for you picking this correctly right now. So don't act so casual, okay? Don't be laughing. After two days of free agency and Aaron Rodgers, most likely going to

the jets. Although it's always possible. He goes on Pat McAfee and announces that he's going to be a Cal Berkeley professor now or something. I don't know, or whatever. I don't know. That was maybe not exactly accurate. I should have said university of Phoenix professor. That's what I should have said University of Phoenix professor. That's what I should have said. I had that one right up there. That's what I should have gone with. Like some ITT tech philosophy, Aaron Rodgers. Anyway, not the point. So he's going to the Jets. I want you to predict the records of everyone in the NFC North for next year, based on what we've

seen from the Chicago Bears who continue to spend, spend, spend the Lions also, man, the Lions, they signed Emmanuel Mosley, which was a great move, a tremendous move. So they've restocked their cornerback position. Their defense is going to be better. If you were to predict right now, what's everybody's record in the NFC North, where would you go? I'll start with the Lions. I'll place them first in the NFC North. I think they'll win it this year. Just based off the rest, what everybody else has done. And I don't have faith that Jordan Love will be able to do anything, do much with the Packers. I do like Matt LaFleur as a head coach. I think he's a good head coach, but I don't know about Jordan Love. Jerry's still out on him because we haven't seen a whole lot

from him. So I'm going to go with the Lions as the best team in the NFC North, and I'll give them, let's go 10 wins, 10 and 7 this year as the winner of the NFC North. We've seen teams win their division with less wins, aka Tampa Bay Buccaneers this last year, eight and nine. I think the Vikings will finish second because the rest of the division won't be that great. I think they'll finish second, but it's going to be a nine and eight or an eight and nine season because you have this base level with Kirk Cousins that it's going to be seven, eight wins and the Vikings will be around there because they'll still have a good enough offense to win a couple of games that they probably shouldn't. And the defense, who knows what it is. I think it'll be better because I like Brian Flores a little bit better than Ed Donatel. And I think he'll be able to, despite the fact that

they'll have a lot less talent than they had this last year, I think Brian Flores will just be able to get a little bit more out of what pieces he has in front of him than a Donatello did last year. So eight, nine, nine and eight for the Vikings. I think the bears will be around that same level as well. Probably, probably leaning more towards seven and seven and 10 for them. And then the Packers finishing last at probably five, five, one, five, six wins with them. Cause I don't like the rest of their roster right now. Uh, with who's, who's Jordan left thrown to besides Christian Watson at this point, he doesn't really have a whole lot. And a guy that you're still looking and still trying to figure out what you have. You usually want to stack talent around him at the receiving position

and they've got Christian Watson and everybody left for New York. So, yeah. I mean, what are they going to do without Mercedes Lewis? Actually, let's play this game. People can answer this, and I'll give my answer. But I just want people to fill in the blank. So Aaron Rodgers teased everybody for this couple of weeks and made it seem like he was going to the Jets,

but instead he's quitting to become a blank comment section. Fill it in. We'll read Aaron Rogers quitting to become a blank. You're leaving some of the show up to the YouTube comments section. This is dangerous caller. That's how we'll end the show is I'll read some of the ones that people fill in. I am very close to where you're at with that.

And I think it's the safest way to pick it is probably that the Lions win 10 to 11 games. And then the Vikings are right there because with Kirk Cousins coming back, you have a floor. You're not winning less than seven or eight games. And then with Justin Jefferson, TJ Hawkinson, maybe an offensive line that develops together. Bringing back Garrett Bradbury is probably an important part of this improved running game. I'm sorry, I'm looking at the comments. I'm trying to answer this question. But with an improved running game, if they don't bring Delvin Cook back or they run out of 12 personnel more and things like that, I do think

that the schedule is a big deal, but I'd put the Vikings at eight or nine wins at this moment. And I would do the same for Chicago. I don't think Chicago is going to just sign all these players and be way, way better as in 12 wins better, unless Justin Fields turns into what Jalen Hurts did this last year. I think they're one, probably one year away from being a great team. If Justin Fields is really good, if Justin Fields is not really good, they could win six games and look around and be a massive disappointment and have everyone say, Oh, you spent all that in free agency, but then they will draft a quarterback high and go from there for next year. And then they're still kind of working their way along the timeline. So it really depends on Justin Fields. I still think Matt LaFleur is a pretty good coach. I don't

want to say the Packers are winning six games because I just think he's probably too good for that. But then that ends up me saying that you've got 11, nine, eight and eight or seven possible, not impossible at all that a division could turn out that way. The NFC is getting a little bit stronger with some moves that teams have made this year. But that's kind of how I see it. I mean, I really see Detroit and then everybody else just kind of shuffling around in the middle

and battling for those final positions. Let me read some of these. So it was... Instead, at the last minute, he the jets a curveball says he's not going to come play quarterback he's going to instead become a shaman from efelt uh rob k with pot farmer that seems right truther actually is a job from alex like now is. If you have spent a lot of time on YouTube in some weird places. You can make a living off it, unfortunately. Truther is a job.

Dark room sitter. Spiritual healer. Definitely does a lot of that. Insurance salesman. The new Jake from State Farm. Chiropractor. Newark-based airline pilot. I don't really get it, but I kind of like it. Like Jets. Okay, I get it. I get it. I get it. Chiropractor, a Newark based airline pilot. I don't really get it, but I kind of like,

like jets. Okay. I get it. I get it. I get it. Chiropractor is a great answer. Purveyor of the thing that he smoked. That's very good. That's very good. Whatever it is that he smoked the Hiawaska. I think he was drinking, right? I don't think, I don't know how it's done. I don't know what yeah me either but uh ayahuasca tester was another one a life coach is too good that's exactly right a guy who just cannot get it together but seems to have words for everybody else for what they should do did you see that danica patrick is doing a podcast on how we didn't go to the moon or whatever like how did they ever break up and then he was dating somebody

who drank mud so i don't know like he finds these people we only drink really safe things like dr pepper feel free to advertise with us dr pepper if you want to camp counselor uh they're the ones that i can't read. Prime minister of Peru is just funny. I don't even know if there's a reference. Cult leader is a hundred percent possible. Thor with the family counselor coming in off the top rope. Jared with a psychedelic frog farmer. Nicholas Cage stunt double.

I don't, I guess. Sure. Family counselor, family counselor. That's a great one. That's tough. That's tough that's tough okay so uh and then and then poor Josh I'll put his comment up here because as the comment section is going completely mad Josh is asking about Duke Shelley Packers GM I mean he's gonna be the it's gonna be the Jets GM. Anyway, yeah, I actually do think they bring back Duke Shelley. But if some other team comes in with a bigger offer,

then he might end up going elsewhere. But I do think so. I think that it'll be Byron Murphy, Caleb Evans, Andrew Booth Jr., Duke Shelley, and then one other person, maybe a draft pick is going to be their cornerback room, and they're going to hope their host of America's Got Talent. i mean this one i also saw on twitter but is worth putting on the screen schrumer asaias and being that's great that's too good i i uh yeah earlier i tweeted like uh wait till the Jets find out that they also have to sign an amateur YouTube philosopher and three witches or whatever to go along with it.

I mean, he is just one of the strangest guys out there and has not done anything to dispel that notion. It is really funny. Just a lot of things about this. And he is one of the all-time great quarterbacks so no disrespect to the throwing and the touchdowns and so forth and all the success because there's no taking away from that but this last year where he's decided to just tell everybody everything he thinks and then wonder about why people pay attention to him so much he holds the entire universe hostage over this jets thing for for weeks, it feels like.

And then it's like, I can't believe you guys just are so interested in me. It's very weird. Yeah, we want to know where you're playing football, man. No one cares about the other stuff. I promise you that. He's going to have the locker room mad at him before he even gets there because it's taken so long and it's been drug out too long. At a certain point, you just got to bleep or get off the pot.

Come on, just make the decision already. you had four days in the dark tank just do just make the decision already yeah you said he had four days in the dark tank and it's actually true like that's a thing that really happened one of the things that uh he could do is to start companies that scam people like the dark thing. That would be another thing. Just don't invest in Silicon Valley banks like the other startup scams did. Let's see. He's going to leave to steal welfare funds for a volleyball court. That was an obvious answer.

It was right there. It was right there to go for. It's just sitting there. Got to do it. New host of Mr. Rogers neighborhood with weird puppets uh yeah his version of it would be um maybe a little less wholesome so i got nothing else on free agency was there anything else you want to talk about oh i was gonna ask you didn't i would think i was gonna ask you like which team has

got a lot better or a lot worse um you know, it was actually gotten a little bit worse, but they might be so good. It doesn't matter is Philadelphia. Like they've lost some players here. They did bring back James Bradbury. That's good for them. But Javon Hargrave leaving TJ Edwards leaving. That's a little bit tough for them. I don't think they're going to drop off.

Oh, and the New York Giants getting Darren Waller. Have you seen this? Have you seen what happened? This is crazy. This is why the NFL never stops and is the best that Darren Waller, the NBA thinks it's got drama. It's always childish, ridiculous drama. Now this, now this is drama. Apparently Joshcdaniels accidentally told the media that darren waller was marrying kelsey plum before they had announced that it was happening and they were mad and then it was kind of out there that this is what ended up leading to his trade somebody tweeted about how this went down and kelsey plum, the doesn't Robert Griffin jr. Right. Right.

Right. And RG three says this and she quote tweets it and says that Josh McDaniels was not invited to the wedding. And it was like, wait, did Kelsey Plum and Darren Waller's wedding end up leading to him being a New York giant. It appears like it did.

Wow. Daniel Jones is going to be like, I won't tell anyone anything you do, Darren. I will just throw you the football because everyone on the Raiders was like, what, what is going on? This is like one of our best players. I mean, it makes no sense that Daniels would a get rid of is, I mean, I guess you want to move on from Derek Carr. That makes sense. But you're getting rid of one of your best receiving options and one of the best tight ends in the NFL. If you're supposedly this passing offense guru, what are you doing? You have Devontae Adams and Darren Waller in the same offense,

along with Josh Jacobs, who's one of the best running backs in the NFL right now. That is an almighty receiving core and just playmakers that you have on your offense. And now you're purposely hurting yourself because you're angry. Cause you weren't invited to a wedding. What? Or he was so mad that he demanded a trade, but I,

you don't have to trade him though. That's your point is you don't have to trade him. So there's a personal grudge here over a wedding that ends up being leading to one of the best tight ends of the NFL going to the Giants, which for the Giants is a phenomenal move. Like this is the thing about Daniel Jones last year is he was throwing to people that I hadn't heard of before they smoked the Vikings. Isaiah Hodgins was a practice squad dude who ended up on the Giants and played really well for them uh and it's it is amazing how bill belichick consistently hires people who can't get along with other people i mean this is josh mcdaniel's now two times manipulating everybody the nflpa study absolutely hated him and trashed

him in that's the air in that uh survey matt patricia is a complete joke and a disaster and ruined their last season. And for some reason, Belichick brought him back, which was one of the worst moves Bill Belichick has ever made. And we could go down the list. It's actually funny that Brian Flores is the one guy that had success and did get along with people and And now as the Vikings defensive coordinator. But other than that, it is, there's still funny responses coming in. I can't read all of them, but they're still funny. They're still funny. But it is remarkable to me how often that happens

where it's like everyone who Sean McVay hires on his staff gets along with people great. Zach Taylor, Kevin O'Connell. Those guys got great responses from the players at, in Cincinnati and in Minnesota and everyone from Belichick's tree, the players cannot stand them. And I don't, I don't get it. This seems like a common sense thing. And even if he made a mistake by accidentally mentioning that they were getting married, it's pretty, it's normally pretty easy to just apologize for doing that. But it seems

like that led to something much more and very funny, but you know, the NFC, it is worth saying that as the Vikings are going up, you know, trying to get back into the playoffs here, not completely tanking. The NFC has gotten a lot better on the whole. Certainly the New Orleans Saints are much better for having Derek Carr and all those things. So Atlanta is getting better. I don't know what they're doing exactly at the quarterback position. It might be lining up for them to draft a quarterback or even trade up to draft a quarterback so many many things going on here but that was one of my favorite stories in a while with this darren waller kelsey plumb situation so anyway well uh good time german pop star he's definitely signing with the daily wire is the one I just, I had to, I had to mention it. It's just too good. It's just too good.

So anyway, well, good times. And the Vikings sign a cornerback before our ridiculousness at the end of the show here. That's what we mostly talked about. So if you missed any of that, go back and watch the beginning where we really did a hardcore breakdown of, we had man coverage stats involved. So at one point the show was serious, but this is what happens by the end of day two of free agency where crazy things have been happening. So thanks for your time, Jonathan.

Thanks again for everybody watching. I have a feeling that tomorrow there will be more things that go down, particularly with someone named Smith or Delvin Cook. I don't know. We'll find out, but we'll be back here going live. Make sure that you keep your eye on the channel, subscribe and all that. So you know when we're going live here, but it'll be when things happen. And then probably at the end of the night,

if it's an eventful day, if it's not, then maybe not, but that's what I like doing here as there is so much going on in the NFL. So thanks again, everybody for watching would not do these unless you guys logged in and spent your time having some fun with us. Good stuff, Jonathan and free agency continues. We will be back with you another time. Thanks, everybody.