Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - The Vikings sign veteran cornerback Fabian Moreau

Episode Date: July 31, 2024

Matthew Coller talks about what the addition of veteran corner Fabian Moreau means and the QB competition Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

🎵 Hey everybody, welcome to another episode of Purple Insider. Something new every single day. And today is a new quarterback that is a Minnesota Viking. That is Fabian Morrow, who is an NFL veteran. He's been around. He's been with the Atlanta Falcons. He has been with the Denver Broncos, and he now signs with the Minnesota Vikings. Kevin O'Connell did not shy away from this the other day when talking about the cornerback depth. He said, straightforwardly, look, we don't have enough numbers, so we are going to have to sign someone.

And, wow, they did. And his name is Fabian Morrow. So this is the second longtime NFL veteran that they signed, Bobby McCain. The other one, and he has some versatility to play corner and safety, where Fabian Morrow has been a long time just locked in as a cornerback, but he has been around the NFL for some time. And in comparison to cornerback, but he has been around the NFL for some time. And in comparison to other options, I guess we could take a look at what they did versus what maybe they could have done. I think Fabian Morrow was one of the guys that made the most sense for me when we were laying

out the different names. There are guys that you have certainly heard of a little more than Fabian Morrow who has bounced around. He's been a starter. And if you go through his PFF numbers, Fabian Morrow has been an average starter every single year, which is good. Average is good. I've always thought this about the NFL, that most teams have a handful of difference-making players. And then if you have average players around them, they can be good to better than they would normally be. And if you have really catastrophic players, then that's hard to make up for.

But if you have average players that you're relying on to do a lot, it's really tough. If you're relying on them to just fill roles, then it's very much manageable. And that might be the case with Fabian Morrow. Should he actually make the team? So last year he played a lot for the Denver Broncos. I mean, this guy has been a starter.

It's not somebody that they're picking up who was a starter four years ago and saying, well, maybe back in 2017, he was the, no, I mean, Fabian Morrow has been a starter every year. And last season in terms of his numbers is PFF grade was just a little above average in the sixties. And then when you look at his numbers, when he was targeted, opposing quarterbacks had a quarterback rating in the upper eighties when targeting Fabian Morrow. So this is somebody who could potentially be in the mix and battle over the coming weeks with Caleb Evans. Byron Murphy is set. Shaq Griffin is set. But if their second group of cornerbacks is Caleb Evans and Fabian Morrow in a league where you usually need at least four to five solid cornerbacks,

then this solidifies the room. It's not Makai Blackman. It's not what they hoped Makai Blackman's upside would be, but it is someone who has played a lot of NFL football and can be relied upon to do his job and under the right circumstances can be okay for a defense. And that's where he's been for really his entire career. And if you're talking about signing someone on July 30th, put it this way. This is like cornerback Dalton Reisner. This is the way I would look at this, where if you're signing someone late in the process, it's not going to be a game changer, a superstar that you're bringing in. You're not holding a press conference at the Mall of America when you sign Fabian Morrow.

However, you are bringing in someone who makes you better than you were yesterday. And what has become quite clear about the way this team feels about Andrew Booth Jr. is that he is just not somebody that they want to rely on as part of the mix. And he gets presumably pushed down and then players like Dwight McClothern can develop more. He's been getting a lot of work out there, he is not an NFL veteran he's an undrafted free agent and so they want to have him get his opportunity to grow on on what he started to do but not someone that you want one injury away from being starting now if Fabian Morrow if there is an injury to Byron Murphy or to Shaq Griffin then you know the guy who comes in can do his job and play well enough.

If there are opportunities to make some plays, he does have a history with some picks, some past breakups. Last year, he didn't give up a touchdown on a defense for the Broncos that was just okay or maybe not good at times, and he was one of their better corners uh of course pat sirtan is is their best corner but he played okay and when you look at the list of players right now and we can point to a signing where we say he played okay there isn't much better you can do than that analysis of the guy that the Vikings are bringing in.

Not super ancient either. Like Stefan Gilmore. My assumption, I haven't seen the contract. If you guys see it, put it in the comments is that Morrow is not going to be all that expensive either. And I can call up this man's entire journey here on pro football reference

because he is a journeyman cornerback for sure but an experienced one and we can talk about him but also what this says what this signing means to the Vikings defense what it kind of says about them which I'm always interested in trying to pick up on any hints or indications of how the team is approaching their timeline and where they stand in the world and with Fabian Morrow uh there's not a huge giant takeaway for that but it wasn't going out and paying Stefan Gilmore 10 million dollars at the last second or whatever he's looking for to come in I'm sure if they offered him that much, he would at least take that phone call. This is going to be more of a, let's find a solid player, plug a hole where Makai Blackman gets injured. And they've got a chance to do this now where he can still learn the defense

by the time they get to the season. And he can also battle with a Caleb Evans because what you're trying to find out is how much you can trust a Caleb Evans in this role and as of right now I would have him in the spot where when they want to have a nickel corner when they want to have Byron Murphy Jr. playing that slot corner I would guess that even though they just signed a veteran a Caleb Evans will be in there if someone is out, that he will be the next man up. It's going to be Shaq Griffin, of course, as the starter. We assume that, I mean, that battle's going to go on, but Shaq Griffin and Byron Murphy have been the starter since OTAs, and then Griffin gets a little banged up. So that's one and two, and then you bring in Morrow,

who might have a little more positional flexibility than a Caleb Evans. A Caleb Evans is just a straight up outside corner. Maybe he could do a little bit more since he's a veteran. He's been around for so long, but this just adds a little bit more depth to the cornerback room to where if someone gets hurt, you're not going going what do we do now jay ward you're in buddy or again andrew booth jr is just seemingly not in this discussion i'm sure that if we asked they would say that he's competing but it doesn't really feel like it and even last year at the end of the season there were opportunities to play andrew booth jr a lot more than they did, or really just as the entire season went on, and they didn't play him very much. He ended up with about 150 snaps,

and considering that Morrow, over the last three seasons, had 16, 11, and 11 starts, 11 starts last year for the Denver Broncos, played in every single game for them, had an interception. He doesn't have a ton of picks, as almost nobody does in the NFL these days over his career, but has played just a lot of football. He was with Washington from 2017 to 2020, then Atlanta, then the New York Giants, of which I don't remember how he must have.

Did he play against the Vikings? I didn't remember his run as a New York Giant, but he played there. And then with the Denver Broncos last year. And as far as the big picture goes, this allows, you're right, Duke Shelley should also be mentioned in this conversation, that he was brought back as a member of the depth group as well. But Fabian Morrow is one that I think splits the difference between, okay, we're all in, we're bringing in Stefan Gilmore. He's going to start Shaq

Griffin's on the bench and we're going to expect a thousand snaps out of Stefan Gilmore and spend a bunch of money on them or whatever. It's not quite that, that would have been a little more of a, we think we're going to win now type of move, which we know where this team stands, that that's not really the case as far as they don't, I think, believe that this is the season where they're truly chasing the Super Bowl. This is a, let's get to the playoffs and see what happens, or let's get J.J. McCarthy out there and see what happens or let's get JJ McCarthy out there and see what happens. This is that kind of signing. You can't really go into the season with this few cornerbacks and feel really good about it. So they had to bring in somebody like Fabian Morrow. They want

veterans around as well as young players with Brian Flores' defense, which a veteran player who has done it before should fit in okay in that. But also we shouldn't expect him to be a starter either. They're not trying to go out and get somebody that's going to be a huge difference maker, which means that a Caleb Evans, and I'll throw Andrew Booth Jr. in there just in case because there's weeks to go in camp but it means that Caleb Evans is still going to have his opportunity to prove where he stands on this team and get in the game and make plays if he can and show Brian Flores that he can be a future part of this team because right now when you look at this cornerback group and go okay who's going

to be here for the future it doesn't look like necessarily Shaq Griffin a one-year contract for four something million Byron Murphy's a free agent after this they could definitely resign him he seems to be a good culture fit still Andrew Booth Jr. not going to be a part of this it seems a Caleb Evans is really the only one which I thought it was important to sign someone where they could still give him that opportunity uh Xavier Howard's name was thrown out there I didn't want any part of that but if they had gone out and got a Gilmore and Xavier Howard and a Dory Jackson then you have to play those guys because you're likely paying them to come in and fill important roles. Whereas Morrow throughout his career,

early in his career, he was more of a role player. Let's see in 2020, he only started one game. So he's been more of a role player throughout his career at times and then has earned a starting job the last couple of seasons but even if you look at those defenses that he earned a start on Atlanta 2021 not exactly special the Giants last year was decent or in 2022 was decent and then last year with the Denver Broncos he's kind of had this role as the, in case of emergency, break the Fabian Morrow glass. He's going to start on the outside and give you average play. That's who he is. And now you know that if Griffin gets hurt, if they have multiple injuries, that you have someone in Fabian Morrow who can take that spot and you don't feel like it's going to be a total wreck that's if he wins a job even a

role and gets a roster spot but based on his history and the fact that he's not ancient I suspect that he will he is 30 years old which does make you think it's likely not a signing that is we'll come in here and then see if we like you and then we'll sign you to a long term this is more of a one-year thing that maybe could turn into a two-year thing if they really like him but he's got to make the team first they've got to decide on what he's going to be so overall the Fabian Morrow signing fine not a huge huge needle mover, not a game changer. It's not going to lead NFL network and ESPN. Can you believe the Vikings signed this average well-traveled corner?

But if he provides them with average play when he's called upon, or maybe even could act in some sort of role because Brian Flores tends to find roles for people then that's that's good then you're all right then and they got a guy who they very likely didn't have to pay a whole heck of a lot and is a placeholder until they can find more corners but I think the the big takeaway is just that that that this doesn't mean that Caleb Evans is off the table for playing a significant role. We'll see what happens with Shaq Griffin's health. He still wasn't practicing today. Another guy that we'll see what this means for is Jay Ward.

Does this mean that Jay Ward is going to stay at corner? I think that he probably is because they signed Bobby McCain and Bobby McCain is a free safety and he's been largely a safety throughout his career. Also nickel corner played both of those, but has played a lot of safety in recent years and played a lot of safety for Brian Flores. I don't know the exact snap count between nickel and free safety, but he is,

he is a safety more now in his career. So does that mean that Jay Ward's not going to go back because they signed Bobby McCain or was he just practicing there the last couple of days because they needed a dude to practice there. And he had some experience playing cornerback before that we will find out as we go before um scott says in 2023 they kept five corners including naji who's your five yeah naji thompson is dealing with an injury not sure if he's going to be able to start the season or not if they only keep five corners then it would be byron murphy shackq Griffin, Caleb Evans, Fabian Morrow, Duke Shelley, and then cut Andrew Booth Jr. Or maybe keep him. I guess it depends on how they decide that Duke Shelley looks coming back. Because last year, Duke Shelley didn't get a whole lot of work. And he was really good in 2022 in a very small sample of play,

but he was really good in that small sample of play. We don't know how he's going to fit in with Brian Flores' defense, but all of a sudden bringing in Mauro means that there is competition in that room and it looks like it's a bunch of average. That's what it really is. It's just a bunch of average corners. And if you have five average corners, you can survive when you have three above average or well above average safeties and three edge rushers who can get after the passer. All of a sudden, two linebackers that are quite good, and Ivan Pace Jr. and Blake Cashman,

if they can play average football on the back, then you're going to be okay. If they can't, then it's going to be a long season no matter what the front seven ends up doing. Oh gosh, says if you look at his advanced stats, looks like he is never below 50% completion of quarterbacks against them. Well, most people aren't as far as 50%. That's not surprising.

His numbers look exactly like an average cornerback's numbers. There are a couple of seasons where he's over 100 as far as quarterback rating on targets. Last year, he was at 88, which is okay. It's not special. It's just all right. And if you look at the grades, almost every PFF grade is 64, 59, 62. But there's a lot of snaps, and there's a lot of him playing football and not getting his doors blown off. And that's kind of the point about all these guys.

When you look at Byron Murphy Jr., it's the same thing. It's this guy's played a lot of football and he doesn't get his doors blown off. And when you look at even Shaq Griffin in his recent performance, he was very good early in his career but has been average since then uh and uh you know even going beyond that a Caleb Evans last year half the season he was average and Duke Shelley has not played a ton of football but was pretty good when he got on the field and then Andrew Booth Jr. is still fighting for a spot. But I mean, maybe that's part of the headline here of Fabian Morrow is that he is still. You know, pushing down someone like Andrew Booth Jr. by signing him. It isn't just a random undrafted free agent guy who bounced around because if they had gotten someone who just was meh and had been cut by someone else and they

picked him up and it was a camp body then we would probably say all right it seems like they're feeling okay about andrew bruth jr and he's going to be the backup but when you sign someone like fabian morrow and you expect him to play then this kind of means that Andrew Booth Jr. is really fighting for a spot here. And maybe part of it is that it's going to be a motivational tactic as well. And when you sign a 30 year old who has been a starter for three straight seasons, then that says to Andrew Booth Jr. Now you're going to have to beat out that guy if you really want this, because when it comes to Caleb Evans, we know he's on this team, and so is Murphy, and so is Griffin, and with Shelly, we'll see how that ends up working out, but it is somewhat of a message,

probably in a way, to Andrew Booth Jr. that he's going to have to fight for a spot if he wants to stay on. Folks, U.S. Cellular noticed that the way we use our phones has gotten ironic. We try to put our phones down for dinner, but the menu is on a QR code. That's ironic. We hit like on social media posts that we don't actually like. Ironic. Which is why U.S why us cellular created us mode to help us reconnect with each other and use our phones. Less ironically, a phone company wanting people to use their phones, less ironic.

Let's find us again with us mode from us cellular visit us cellular.com slash built for us to get started. Takes opinions, Fabian Morrow, there's a cornerback here. What do you think? Should they have gone more all in and tried to get a bigger name, tried to get Stefan Gilmore and maybe back up a Brinks truck for him? Or just on the other side, should they have done less? And should they have just left a spot totally open and let the young guys completely battle for this and not spent any money on a veteran who's unlikely to be here. Very interested in your guys' opinions of this signing. And of course, any other things that you want to know about training camp, unfortunately, it was not a padded practice today. And I had a theory and I'm half

kidding. So nobody get upset. I thought that Flores' defense whipped them so bad yesterday in the first padded practice that they needed to take the pads off. Okay. Back to basics. We weren't ready. I'm mostly kidding. I'm sure it's just a thing about how much workload they put out. They pay a lot of attention to the workload, and it looks so much different to my eye than in previous years before Kevin O'Connell got here. And when I walked out and they didn't have pads on, I was like, what? What do you mean you don't have pads on?

But they have trackers in everybody's pads, and they pay very close attention to the amount of workload. It's a 17-game season. I wanted to see another padded practice. But let me go back and take a look at you guys, what your thoughts are on this, and then any other questions when it comes to quarterbacks, any other position.

How's that guy looking, which is always good, and we'll go from there. AG says, I feel like he will beat out Evans. That's possible. Caleb Evans is a hard one to figure out because he, I think, is pretty good at tracking wide receivers. He moves really well for his height, for his length, but he has never been very good at playing the ball from what we've seen his first year, his first training camp or last year. It is not his skill

in college at any point of playing the football. And I saw that Ben Gessling wrote about this in the star Tribune that Caleb Evans worked with a guy that actually has been on this podcast, Cody Alexander working on his X's and O's in the offseason, trying to better understand Brian Flores' defense, where he's supposed to be at all times, and be a real tape guy, an X's and O's guy, and try and enhance his game more and more, taking it seriously, this opportunity that is probably his last

to earn a significant role. But with someone like Fabian Morrow, I always have some skepticism of any person that was still on the market at this point, because that means 32 teams assessed him and said, yeah, you know, we're probably just good here and we don't need you as a guy like Morrow who's been around and has started so much. You would think that there would be a spot for him unless there was a reason for that. I'm sure that he will say he was just waiting for the right team, but there's a,

there's a reason why a team would not have signed him. And sometimes when we have to look back a year, two, three years and go, okay, well maybe this 30 year old will keep being okay. Sometimes they're not. And that's the Kendall Wright theory. The Taji sharp is that sometimes a guy may have fit into a role a few years ago that he necessarily doesn't have it in the same

way that he did before. If that is the case, then the younger guy, Evans will end up beating him out. Evans also has two years in this defense and that's quite an edge as well. But if Morrow comes in and looks good, looks like a solid quality veteran player who was the same as he was last year, average to a slightly above average, then he's going to be the guy. We may not find this out really because he might just just be a backup and if the starters stay healthy then then we won't see him a ton but i think at some point we will get an understanding of where a caleb evans really stands it will probably have to be when there's an injury to see that because evans is the next man up right now does that suddenly become Morrow and will we get

even a sense of that in camp because Griffin's going to come back and then Evans and Morrow are going to be the second team corners and I suppose third team ish or rotating in would be Dwight McClothern and maybe Jay Ward if he remains at corner or maybe Andrew Booth Jr. if it's not over yet. But, oh yeah, when I was naming the cornerback room, I should have included, Jay Ward is not a corner yet in my head and also not officially anyway because he's just been a couple of days,

but Jay Ward would also be on that because he's a special teamer as well. So Chocolate Thunder says, you get a cornerback, you get a cornerback you get a cornerback the oprah meme uh get another one competition is a good thing i agree with that i agree with that when you sign fabian morrow you say to a caleb evans and you say to andrew ruth jr you guys are going to have to compete we're not just riding it out with you guys and you're gonna have to fight for this over the next couple of weeks i do think that it's a good thing.

And I've talked about this a little bit in the past with different positions that sometimes it's about the bar that gets set. So if you have just an undrafted free agent that a Caleb Evans needs to beat out, well, okay, he's probably going gonna win that job. But if you set the bar at someone like Morrow, who's been around and he's a veteran and has proven to be reliable in the NFL, all right, you have to top that in order to be ahead of him on the depth chart. Well, that's going to be the challenge for a Caleb Evans,

but it certainly does raise the question of whether Andrew Booth Jr. will actually be here or not. And at this point at training camp third year, I feel the same way about him as I do about Louis seen, which is. Man, I thought for a second that maybe Booth Jr. would get more opportunity here and that they would say, all right, let's give him that chance. And he would take that little step to be someone who could be depth for them. But making a signing

like this more or less says, no, we don't really buy into that. And it would take him having an excellent training camp the rest of the way in order to get a chance. But whatever it is with Andrew Booth Jr., it hasn't been injuries that's the thing that's if you had told me two years ago that it didn't work out for him I would have said oh he must have got hurt right because in that first year he got injured and he had said that he was injured in college but I think it is maybe as much of just a scheme issue of you know being drafted for Ed Donatell's scheme and and being picked out to do what he wants his cornerbacks to do. And Brian Flores asked them to do something completely different.

I don't know about anything else beyond that, but at this point, it looks like a Caleb Evans, Fabian Morrow, or the backup corners to Byron Murphy and to Shaq Griffin. And then Duke Shelley may very well be on this team. He can also mix into the nickel. Josh Metellus is really the nickel player still that, that, that doesn't really truly change. And that is maybe your cornerback group. And Booth Jr. is just going to have to show something before it's worth talking about again. But at this moment, it looks like that was just a miss and we go forth. Uh, bad bow says, uh, Flores defense only works. If corners could play man to man, we have zero shutdown corners or man to man.

Well, Shaq Griffin is still fine. He just got banged up for a couple of days, or at least as far as we understand. And Shaq Griffin's thing is man to man coverage. That's what he's always been at his best. They do have that. I don't think that it is a strength of a Caleb Evans by the data. It was really not a strength. He was one of the worst graded in the NFL and man to man coverage last year. That's something that would have to improve massively for him. I think Murphy's okay at it, but is certainly not a next level star. I have not checked yet if someone wants to do it, what Fabian Morrow's man-to-man coverage is. The question for this cornerback group is if everybody played like a C, not even a C plus,

but if everybody was just a C, Murphy, who C plus, but if everybody was just a C Murphy, who's a little better than that in his career, Griffin, who has been a little better than that at times, but those are best case scenarios. Let's see. Let's just say the average scenario for everybody for Morrow, for Caleb Evans, just what they've been in superimpose it into Flores's defense. Can you survive with average, average man-to-man performance or below? C, I don't know, is C average or C below? C is below average, right? What is average? B plus? B minus? I don't actually even know what is considered average. C plus? Whatever. My point is, if it's just okay and it's not a catastrophe

and opposing quarterbacks are not demolishing this group, but they're certainly not struggling because of it, can you survive as a defense and still be plus on defense when you have the edge rushers who are good and when you have the safeties that are good and when Flores' scheme does have the ability to mess with quarterbacks at the line of scrimmage if the corners are in the right places or if quarterbacks are flustered or frustrated or confused enough can you get by that's really the question is

can you get by but i don't think that your statement about the man coverage is really true. I think that it's more of they wanted to increase it. It's not that they're playing man all the time to succeed. That last year, they most certainly did not and had a good overall defense. It was not elite, but it was good. It was average to above average last season, depending on whether they were playing a good overall defense it was not elite but it was good it was average to above average last season depending on whether they were playing a good team or not whether they're playing good receivers or not that could be a problem can you get by and cause turnovers get sacks difference making plays

from the safeties and from the defensive line and if we go by just a pure perspective, this might be the most simplistic way to look at the Minnesota Vikings defense to try to answer this question. Can you get by if it's a Caleb Evans, Fabian Morrow, and Byron Murphy, if Shaq Griffin got hurt and that's your defense. And it might just be to count up how many good players you have on defense. Grenard Van Ginkle proven well above average players at their best. Dallas Turner's on his way. Can't truly count them yet, but let's count them anyway. Two linebackers that have been above average, at least for a single season in Ivan Pace and Cashman was really good last year. All right. So maybe we've got five guys there. Harrison Smith, Josh Metellus, certainly above average.

You've got seven there. Cam Bynum had a good season last year. I'd say he's more of an average-ish, above average-ish. I don't know if we could quite count him on this. My point is the majority of the defense is somewhere between pretty good or really good for the players across the entire D, but the defensive tackles are questionable and the corners are questionable. If you get okay, play from them. You can be an above average defense. You're not going to be elite. You're not going to be San Francisco or Cleveland, but you can be decent. And that's about as far as I could go.

That could give you a chance to win games. That's the best I can do with this set of cornerbacks. But at very least, if one injury happens, you have another veteran to be able to step in what they need long-term. It is so clear since Andrew Booth juniors is not going to be this guy. They need probably a first round corner next year. And of course, we're going to talk about corner versus defensive tackle when we get there way down the road into the draft or a big spend on the cornerback position, because you mentioned man to man coverage. I look at it more as you need someone who is a difference maker. You don't always need a sauce gardener, but you do need someone that the other team has to think about.

You need someone who is either great on one side of the field that makes it hard to go over there, and they've got to think about it before they go to the right side of the field or the left side of the field. Or you need the opposing wide receiver on the other team. Let's say that it's, I don't know, Stefan digs, you need Stefan digs to be talking to the media that week going, yeah, man, I can't wait for this big matchup against Billy, our corner. That's what you need. That's what they don't have in order to be an elite defense but i don't

think that the corners as they're constructed right now are so poor that you can't play with them i think you could play with griffin you could play with murphy you could play with morrow and you don't have to just lose instantly because of it i saw uh it mentioned the 2020. Go back and look at the 2020 secondary. This is way different. That was Gladney, Dantzler, Holton Hill, someone named Chris Jones. That was different than guys who started many games and have been okay in the league. That's quite a bit different. So if they keep them relatively healthy and don't end up having to play the undrafted free agents it can maybe get by and that's as hot as i want to make that take it can maybe get by uh seven dragon says we need stefan gilmore my question i guess is

whether stefan gilmore would want to play here at 34 with maybe only one or two of chances left for him to potentially win a Super Bowl and also just where he stands now physically. Being 30 as Fabian Morrow is different than being 34 as Stephon Gilmore. Austin says Gilmore is washed. We know we're not competing for a Super Bowl. We want to build around JJ's rookie contract and take advantage of saving 30 mil. Well, I mean, the thing about Gilmore versus Fabian Morrow is, I mean, it's not like either one of these guys is here long-term. Maybe Morrow could be here for two years, possibly if he plays well and they like him and he's good, solid depth. Stefan Gilmore was definitely only going to be one year.

It doesn't really change much other than that. Byron Murphy and Shaq Griffin are going to be the starters. It says that they didn't sort of desperately spend a bunch of money for Stefan Gilmore and went a little more practical with Fabian Morrow. That's, that's, I think what we've got here. Uh, any questions are welcome, by the way, it doesn't have to be the cornerbacks. We've spent now a good amount of time on Fabian Morrow, probably the most, maybe it's a record for YouTube.'ll have to find out is it the record for the most conversation regarding fabian morrow in the history of any nfl show it could very well be uh i shot you 99 says the noise regarding mccarthy pushing darnold for qb1 is starting to get louder it seems is it true one padded practice one padded practice. What is the noise? Who is making the noise? You remember, you have to tell me when you say things like this. Who is it? Is it conversations we're having? Is it me? Have I been doing it? Who's doing it? Who's this noise coming from? Well, and Kevin O'Connell talking about it today. No first team reps, still again today.

That's important to factor in. And one padded practice. There is a very long way to go. And I don't know how that's going to play out. Sam Darnold had a tough padded practice. J.J. McCarthy was slightly better, but with the second team. And his situational drill was also against the second team that is in no way proof that kevin o'connell is pushing the big mccarthy button anytime soon now

i'm gonna have a conversation on the youtube channel coming up after this with will raggetts where we go into a lot of depth on this subject but my opinion is just let's take it day by day you don't have to as vikings fans you don't have to as Vikings fans you don't have to start getting anxious and overexcited for this because this is a long-term play over a number of seasons is what you're looking for with McCarthy to build a winner around him and develop him and play that out it doesn't have to be today. I don't know that JJ McCarthy is nipping at the heels of Sam Darnold in the team's mind. If that was the case, then he would be getting first team reps already. As of right now, it appears that they are just sticking to the

script and they are not going to react to, well, yesterday's practice was bad. I mean, Kirk Cousins had a lot of bad practices over the years, especially against Brian Flores' defense and Cousins was downright unhappy last year with Brian Flores, it seemed, because the defense was causing them so many problems early in training camp when they were first getting the pads on. So it's not a shock that when you're going up against really good players on the other side, two great linebackers, the edge rushers and Flores, who was putting the pedal to the metal that Sam Darnold would have a bad practice. I'm not jumping to the conclusion that the noise is getting louder and that it's becoming wildly more likely. My percentage chance that he starts has not changed

from where it was in minicamp i've kept it at 25 and i'm going to keep it there because i feel like it's a safe place for me to just sit and let it ride out mccarthy i think has looked good and probably just about as good as i could have expected him to look. But that doesn't mean that it just needs to be thrown in there right away or throw out the plan. And he's QB one. Take a deep breath. I don't think that there's noise yet. Not until not until first team reps are getting taken.

Then there will be. But I think what everyone wants to hear is just like, how does he look? And the answer is pretty good. That's about as good as you could have hoped for. So you don't have to push the rest of the stuff. The, well, he's got to beat out Sam Darnold today. Sam Darnold could still, after one bad pad of practice, he could still end up starting a lot of games for this team this year. And that would be totally fine. Hey everybody, I know it's summer, but might I suggest a quick trip to Las Vegas

to stop into Circa Sportsbook in Nevada, because guess what? The Circa Million and Circa Survivor Contests are back. For the Circa Million, you pick five teams against the spread every week, and the winner takes home $1 million, and the Survivor survivor contest is legendary. You pick one team straight up to win each week. If you go 20 and 0 or you are the last person standing to win, then you bring in huge prize money. Last year, four winners split $9.2

million. That is $2.3 million to each winner. to each winner it costs 1 000 to enter but if you win then you are a literal millionaire but you have to register out at circa in nevada las vegas henderson or the sparks reno those are the places you have to go and you have to do it before obviously the nfl season starts september 7. Two o'clock is the final moment that you can get into the Circa Million and Circa Survivor Contest. But if you're headed out to Vegas, make sure you stop by because you're going to want to get in on this for the football season. For more information, go to CircaLasVegas.com. Again, the Millions and and survivor contests are back. I don't want to get to the end of training camp and have fans go, well, you guys told us McCarthy looked great. And why is Darnold still starting? And when we don't need to do this, this doesn't

have to be controversial. And here has always been my thing is when the team tells you how they're going to do it under this administration they just do well kevin o'connell has told us here's how i'm going to handle this we're going to be very patient i'm going to have the boxes he needs to check it's going to be a high bar to reach i want to make sure he's fully ready that's what he told us from day one i have no reason not to believe him i don't think he's going to go, you know what? That was a really bad practice from Darnold. I'm playing McCarthy. I don't think it's going to be that way. They told us that they were, you know, going to do a certain approach to the team building and they did it. And they told us that, you know, kind of when and where they were going to spend their money and

all those things that they laid out for us with the team's plan. So I don't have any reason to think, as this is such a huge part of the overall competitive rebuild plan that they put together, that through six practices, one of which was a walkthrough, that they would suddenly start to go, you know what, I don't know about this plan of ours. But they do have to be pleased with J.J. McCarthy. They do.

Because he has looked confident. He has looked in control. He has not looked like he is swimming, as Gary Kubiak once said of Irv Smith. And that is the biggest part right there, is to just get to a point where you can say from the sideline watching or if you're up in the stands and you're going out to training camp and you watch McCarthy and you can look at him this should be an easy eye test for any person any person who likes football to just look at him and go okay yeah okay I see it looks pretty good out there it's hard to figure

out all the rest because you can't be on the sideline and go, wait a minute, that was supposed to be a seven-step drop and that was five and a hitch because we don't know that stuff. That's what Kevin O'Connell does know when it comes to his entire offense. Seal says, any UDFAs turning heads? Definitely Dwight McClothern for me just the the fact that

he's gotten a lot of work out there and he's got really great size owen porter is another one but i also heard kevin o'connell shout out gabriel murphy today who was their top udfa signing said that he was impressed with some of his pass rushes once the pads came on and i have probably mentioned joshua jones too many times versus the actual number of catches that he's had but i like how he moves uh those four guys have been the ones oh and bo richter who you know i may have uh cracked down a bit earlier just sort of said like oh yeah well we'll see if a guy like bo richter makes it uh but bo Richter is very jacked and has gotten some good reps we'll see more as they start to get the pads on every day or maybe they'll just do it every other day I don't know uh Scott says

limited number of padded practice days I think right oh I'm sure there's rules but I don't know what the rules are for if you could do them back to back, if you cannot do them back to back. They didn't send me that memo for exactly what the rules are. And, of course, there's a limited number of padded practice that you can use overall. It's just I don't know if they had to go non-padded today. It wasn't a real criticism. It was just we took away so much from yesterday. Oh,-padded today. It wasn't a real criticism. It was just, we took away so much

from yesterday. Oh, first padded practice. We saw this guy and this guy and this matchup. That's real football. What they did today, not really real football. And I thought it was a better practice for Sam Darnold. Got off to a good start and then had a pretty rough goal line drill. But I don't know. It becomes becomes once you've seen the pad at practice that everything else, because I don't know, I don't know what to say about that because they're not rushing the passer. And when they're rushing the passer, even though they can't hit them as the quarterback, you absolutely feel that. And the pocket collapses and you've got to make a play in there. You've got to step into it. And that's what real offense, real football looks like.

And those are the ones that I'm going to, from now on, take the most from. Austin says Booth was a stud at Clemson. I wonder if coaching made him less grabby, backfired, and now he's too cautious. I don't really have a good explanation for this. Sometimes a guy, he was really good at Clemson. Sometimes a guy just doesn't fit with a team. And sometimes, and I'm not suggesting because I don't really know, but sometimes it's not a fit personality-wise.

And sometimes it's not a fit how he plays. One of the things might be that they want more physical corners here. They want guys who have to run up and make tackles. They want people who could get up on the line of scrimmage and really be pushy with those wide receivers. That's not really him. He was more of an off corner that mirrored extremely well and maybe he hasn't developed in the way that they wanted him to and that's what you end up with uh oh gosh says is it is jaylen williams still there yes yeah he is uh he's third string according to the espn depth chart i don't know how often that they update those or how accurate those depth charts usually are but he's still there yeah and he's been

getting in aj green's another guy who's been working in jaylen williams is sort of a practice squad type um i think c is average okay we're confirming that c is average well i started i started thinking about what like wait a minute c seems bad to me but i guess c is average which is how i got through high school uh but yeah jaylen williams falls under the category of kind of just a guy and if you end up needing jaylen williams to play that means that a lot of things went wrong and there were injuries but i do think it's funny how many of you are making sure that I knew that C is average. Is it because today, why is someone, why is F like, why does it go A, B, C, D, F explain that to me that I don't know. I've never even thought of that because I was thinking in terms of standard deviations. So this is going a little bit off the rails, but in baseball,

they have this scouting system where they go 20 to 80. And at first you go, well, why don't they just go one to 10? Why 20 to 80? And the reasoning was because of the standard deviations. And so it made it easier to put 50 right in the middle because of, you know, from 10, from 20 to that was why, I don't know there was some mathematical explanation so i was like wait is c average or is it something doesn't matter doesn't matter uh scott says the nfc north has dudes at wide receiver i'm not sure a grade c gets you by that might be true that might be true this year against these teams it probably does have to be better can it get you by well it

depends on what you mean like can it get you by in the way that it gets you into the final two weeks of the season you're in the hunt because that's where they stand right now as a team as you're working toward getting a rookie quarterback in there and you're finding yourself as a roster filling spots with a guy like Fabian Morrow at the last second. And you have some very, very good players like Justin Jefferson and Christian Derrissaw and Jonathan Grenard, who has really impressed me by the way, the more I've watched him. And then you're still developing some of the most important pieces, which would be Dallas Turner and JJ McCarthy. And then there's just holes and there's too many holes for you to be great, for you to be truly outstanding and phenomenal. Then you would need that shutdown corner to be truly fantastic. You

need Jalen Ramsey to be on your team. And that's the type of move that you make next year or that you make it the trade deadline at some point. But if you're talking about where the expectation, where the bar is set for this year, what would be a good year? And it's nine wins. C can get you there. It can't, very unlikely, unless something crazy happens.

It probably can't get you to being a Super Bowl team. But I agree with Edwin that the pass rush is key. We can't throw that part out of it. The blitzes, how do they work? Last year, there was a really crazy stat thing about the Vikings last year with their blitzes is that their blitzes didn't really work. But as far as statistically their success of their blitzes, how often they created pressure, how often they created sacks. They were not great. They were not above average, but what they did was they seemed to make the other team always very twitchy about whether they were going to blitz. So then when they showed the blitz and dropped out of it, that was what seemed to really mess up opposing quarterbacks. And so it's not just the pass rush of whether it gets there

on the blitzes, but also how do you combine the pass rush with confusion from the quarterback? And to your point, how can you create pass rush without having to send extra people all the time? That's another one. Seal says DT over CB. In my opinion, for the draft, we will address that when we get there, my friend, which is a long time from now. Thank God. Uh, after this last draft season, I'm all drafted out for quite some time. Uh, we'll mock draft again, eight months from now, but what's the bigger weakness? What has the bigger upside? It's, I mean, both positions are very valuable. I really like highly drafted defensive tackles. It may be easier to cobble together a decent cornerback group with players better than they

have now, but, or at least one, one or two players better than they have now. It is almost impossible to find a defensive tackle who is great outside of the top of the draft. So we'll keep that in mind as we go forward. Intrepid Fool says Bynum is better than Metellus, but counting either as a good player for your exercise is fine. Well, they play different positions. I mean, I think that Metellus is more valuable to the defense than Bynum, but it is different. They do very different things. You could call them both safeties, but Metellus is one of the linchpins of this entire operation

because they can do so much with him that if he's not there, they're developing Theo Jackson, which I'm working on a story about that. They're developing Theo Jackson to be that guy. But if you're talking about who's harder to replace, it's Metellus. Bynum, there are a lot. And again, yes, he's a good player. He belongs on the good player list. But you can replace the Bynum role as more of a deep safety. There are only a couple of guys in the whole league who can do what Josh Metellus does. So I put him on a different echelon because of that but he is a different spot it's a line backer it's a nickel corner it's a a blitzer it's a pass rusher edge rusher sometimes he has to do

so much so i i put him as a more valuable player in this defense than i would say can buy them uh but again i agree both good though is we're going through the good players. They both belong on the list. Bad Bo says only having one pick in the first four rounds. Wouldn't you trade that for a late first for a second rounder? I don't know, guys. I don't care about the draft. I do not care about the draft and trading draft picks.

It is training camp. Again, thank goodness. thank goodness we don't have to talk about pretend things for people who might never make it we get to talk about real players we're on a practice field love that uh seal says why is it desperate to sign gilmore if we need to fill cap space anyway well you don't need to fill cap space anyway because you can carry over cap space but i guess if the guy was the one-year deal, it doesn't really matter. I think what it shows you is it's a little bit nuanced is if they were to sign Gilmore, it would cost a lot of money.

And if they spent a lot of money to sign Gilmore, they would have to give him a starting position right off, which would kind of come across as being, and it would automatically, this is the point. If you sign Gilmore, it would automatically push everyone else down. And I mean, a Caleb Evans, someone who matters for the future. It would push him down and Shaq Griffin's probably a backup along with Byron Murphy there. But when you sign Fabian Morrow, then a Caleb Evans could still have a chance here that it's more of a half in half out

it gets you a player who's a veteran doesn't cost a whole heck of a lot but also leaves the door open for someone like a caleb evans to still be on this team still make a difference that's where it would be uh that's where i think the nuance between signing those two players. And it's much more of an all in thing to sign Gilmore because you would be giving him so much money and giving him a starting position. Whereas Morrow is less of that when you're still saying, Hey, Caleb Evans can beat this guy out. And then maybe you're part of the future. Jason has Garrett Bradbury alleged increased size been noticeable in any way on the field or during practice has he thrown anyone around well they've only had one days uh one day of one-on-ones i think we're done evaluating garrett bradbury and we know exactly

what he is and i think he's a solid center that yeah would you take the next Jason Kelsey who's the best center in the league now that Kelsey's gone would you take the best center in the league over Garrett Bradbury yes but there's a thing about and if you look at the PFF grades you can kind of see this on paper the way I think of a center that there are probably five centers in the league who are true difference makers, guys that get extra push, guys that have extra mobility, total game changers. And then there's about 10, 15 centers who are solid and sometimes they're going to get shoved back. And most weeks they're going to be pretty good.

They run the offense pretty well. They're veterans. They know what they're going to be pretty good they run the offense pretty well they're veterans they know what they're doing and then there's about eight more who are just awful and their teams struggle because they have very bad centers it's a really hard position to play Bradbury is most certainly in that second group I don't go into a week this is since since Kevin O'Connell took over I don't go into a week outside of when he's playing against kenny clark and go oh man they're just going to get crushed at that center position when he plays against kenny clark absolutely yes but aside from that and i looked at the numbers

on this before they played the packers that one game against kenny clark garrett bradbury was right in the middle 10th 12th somewhereth, somewhere in that range. He was doing better as far as pass protection goes. He's established himself as an okay player. And for what they pay him and for the leadership that he brings to the room, but I don't have expectations that are different. I don't suddenly expect this guy to be crazy different. And the thing with Bradbury is his main strength of being the zone blocker that was getting out there and being a screen blocker has not really been utilized these last two years. But I also feel like the more shotgun and less under center has

been easier for him to survive as a pass protector, but you would take him on your team well over a lot of other players in the league at the position, but not over the best players at the league at the spot. I just don't think, and you were asking about, did he put on weight? I can't tell from the sideline. I didn't pat him down and say, hey, Garrett, it doesn't feel so squishy here. That would be very weird. Sometimes it's really obvious if someone jacks up, but maybe that's what they were looking for.

Get a little heavy, heavier power through more power running. I think he is who he is. And to have him leading the group, to have him working with the quarterbacks, that's more important. And then just be okay. Be good.

Be solid. Be the Fabian Morrow. This might be a thing on the show. Be the Fabian Morrow. Be a guy who can the show be the Fabian Morrow be a guy who can start every game and be a C or be a C plus I think Bradbury's better than a C he's probably more like a B uh oh gosh says uh that 2020 DB room was tough anybody remember Cordaea Tankersley oh of course of course I remember Cordaea Tankley. I think he actually did get in a game. Uh, Joel says, how much would Zimmer love JJ giving his charisma and interest in

wanting to learn about the defense and his leadership, his natural leadership. This is something that Kirk cousins does not have, did not have when he got here, when Kirk cousins got here, he said, well, this is a, this team belongs to Eric Hendricks and Harrison Smith and so forth. It came a little later where the whole I'm a dad thing actually started to work because the players were 10 years younger than him. But it was not a natural people gravitate to this baller with Kirk. It was a different type of thing, And it was a big struggle in 2018, 2019, 2020. The Kirk just works here thing was more of then than it was under O'Connell, where O'Connell kind of forced Kirk to be in that role. And it worked the last two years.

And maybe if Zimmer had just leaned into that a little more, guided him a little more in that way. And maybe if they didn't have so many veterans who had gone to the NFC championship that he could have established himself better. I think the players did like playing with Kirk at the end of the time he was here. But when Zimmer was here, it drove him crazy that it wasn't just the Teddy Bridgewater natural leader or even Sam Bradford kind of had his own way of, of doing that. Uh, but I do, I do agree with you. I think that JJ McCarthy is very much a Mike Zimmer kind of quarterback and maybe he'll, uh, and also he ran the ball, came from a running offense. Maybe that was a thing. Uh, I don't know that there would be a coach that wouldn't like JJ McCarthy, honestly, from

watching him, the way he works, the way he acts out there with his teammates. I think that he is, I mean, Jim Harbaugh wanted him as a starting quarterback on a national championship team. That pretty much says enough about what JJ McCarthy brings to the table from that perspective. Matt says, is it possible they could trade Darnold if he continues to struggle, continue? They've had one pad of practice.

Don't say continue to struggle one pad of practice. And before that it was fine. And I thought today it was mostly fine. A little more up and down, but if we're gonna start if we're gonna do this we can't be just saying that we can't just be like oh man he's just been just been a nightmare out there that's not what's happened the padded practice was pretty brutal because brian flores defense was really good and really confusing and things were moving faster

than usual and they just installed the things that they're trying to install. That's, I mean, he's played all the snaps with the first team. That is very important because it's always what they do rather than what they say, or even what we see. If it's first team all the way for Sam Darnold, then he's the starting quarterback right now. Now, if they get five or six padded practices in and they all look like that and they can't get done things done on offense and they're starting to play McCarthy in the first team, well, then it's going to be a different tone. But I just would not say he struggled. I think he had a bad practice in the padded practice and he still hit like a-yard bomb to Jalen Naylor, which Kevin O'Connell brought up

and praised him for the other day. So anyway, it's just, how about we phrase it this way? Could they trade Darnold if he struggles and J.J. McCarthy wins the job? The answer I think is no. I don't think it would be a good idea to just get rid of Sam Darnold. They're paying him a backup quarterback salary.

He was a backup quarterback on a team that went to the Super Bowl last year. I mean, not unless you're talking about somebody else gets a quarterback hurt. So let me not completely dismiss it. If J.J. McCarthy was clearly winning, this could be the Carson Wentz in Philadelphia. So let me not completely dismiss that. I just wanted to dispel the, like, oh, he's been struggling. It's really just the first pad of practice gets so much attention

and it wasn't good, but I wouldn't make that a broader statement just yet. We'll see how it goes. To your point,, that to answer your actual question, the Carson Wentz, Sam Bradford scenario could absolutely play out here. It is very possible. I'm not saying it's likely, but it is possible that if JJ McCarthy just simply outplays, uh, Sam Darnold through all these practices. And by the time they go to Cleveland, J.J. McCarthy's taking QB1 reps. And then somebody else loses their starting quarterback and gives you a call and says, hey, we'll give you guys a third round pick for Sam Darnold.

I think, yes, you do it. But that also could mean if J.J. McCarthy struggles, you have no one else to go to, or you may let him battle through the struggles no matter what it looks like kind of Bryce Young style but JJ you know Josh McCown was in Carolina last year did he like that that they just let him go through all those problems last season and if he gets hurt at all you have to actually watch Nick Mullins play. And I don't know that Kevin O'Connell wants to do that because that could result in a pretty tough season, which, you know, would be a higher draft pick. But if someone was offering a second round pick, okay, well then it's the

easiest question in the world. See, there's some times where we just have too much information. Uh, glint puck says Reichardt wins the kicking job and then probably misses his first two kicks today. Yeah, I know we have too much information. Social media has just allowed for us to know way too much. Both kicks were over 50 yards and then he nailed the other one. It's the sixth practice. I mean, I just don't know i don't know it's fine will reichert's had a really good run and they had

him kick some absolute bombs today and he missed them just wide right bust i i don't know what are we supposed to talk about that um it's just and i know i i am to blame i am to blame but sometimes you're just like okay let's say we don't need to talk about that just a couple of missed 50 yard kicks he'll have a lot more chances at that he didn't like promptly forget how to kick when he goes out there the way you put it as if he just wandered out there and started shanking them uh ian says how did jj look today as good as yesterday uh yeah he looked uh fine today it wasn't the most intense practice where he did look pretty good and has consistently looked good is in the red zone drills. That's where he is often looked comfortable so far during training camp. And there was one throw that if I could try to just recreate it for you, where it was a tight window to his right side and he kind of turned and just snapped off a throw

that went right through a couple of people and hit the guy in the chest so hard you could hear the thud like boom it hit him and that was just one of those oh yeah that's that's an arm that is an arm when he lets it loose uh but yeah he looked fine today tomorrow maybe they'll get the pads back on we'll'll have a little more intense takeaways from the practice and see, this is where it's hard. Like Brandon says, how does the first team offensive line look? I'm just going to need to see more because four of the guys we already know though.

So I haven't really done a whole lot of assessing of that because we already know four of them and Blake Brandel already played in a game last year or a couple games and was okay. I'm just not really watching when they're not using pads because the guys can't put on their actual moves when they have the pads. Then we'll see. And I wasn't watching so much of the left guard as the quarterbacks when it came to that first padded practice. But the offensive line, here's what we know. It's not flawless, but it's really good at the tackles. And if it survives in the middle, it's good.

It's going to be a good offensive line. If it doesn't survive in the middle, then it won't be. I thought actually one small takeaway was I didn't think that they won a lot of the running reps. It didn't look like that to me when they that they won a lot of the running reps. It didn't look like that to me when they were doing the run blocking on the first day. That'll be something to keep an eye on because the improvement in the run game is very important. David says, I think the cornerback tell, as we exchanged about previously from who they brought in and how easily they were available definitely as they look to 2025 and beyond i'm good with that yeah me too i'm definitely good with that bringing in fabian

morrow have a look at him versus a caleb evans if he looks a caleb evans looks better than morrow and they feel better about evans then it's totally no big deal. If he is higher than Fabian Morrow on the depth chart, like that's good actually for the future. Uh, it's not like, oh man, they blew that signing. It's like, no, that's a, that's a good development, but it also means that he beat out a veteran and that veteran has been starting before. And if he can't beat out the veteran, then we'll wonder, all right, is he actually going to be a part of the future or not uh phil says how's our punter looking uh scott says will we get a punt off i believe that we will guys i believe that we will actually get this punt off i think seth

vernon kicks the heck out of the football it is very high and very long and there's your punt analysis they were doing punting today one thing that i kind of look for is just how the punt returner reacts to it uh is there a lot of fair catches do they look like they're kind of chasing it a little bit because it's falling out of the air uh both guys can kick the ball extremely far it will more likely be how they punt in those preseason games if there is indeed a punt off that is going to tell us what we think of those punters. But it's there. And I think Vernon's legit.

I think that he is very talented. Cade says, when do you think we will see JJ work with the first team offense or has he already? He's not already yet. When do we think? This is actually part of the discussion, the podcast we're going to run a little later tonight with Will Raggetts and I had a lot of conversation about that. So make sure you keep an eye out for that on the channel. But my guess is that at some point after the first preseason game, we start to see him mix in. That it's going to be Darnold up until then, and then we see him mix in a little bit more after that if he plays well in the preseason game.

I'm just envisioning you get to the preseason game. McCarthy plays a lot in that game. If he plays well, all right, now you're giving him a little bit more and a little bit more. It could be before that could be as soon as next week. Kevin O'Connell is not tipping his hand is definitely not tipping his hand really at all about when he thinks McCarthy's going to get first team reps. But that's what I would say is get to that first preseason game, have some actual work against opponents where you can assess this is where he really stands in some game action and i don't think under these circumstances that

it's trivial i think it does matter how he looks in a preseason game because we saw with kellen when he went out there and played against san francisco and threw a terrible interception right away as well. Okay. Yeah, this is, it's not like he's going to be a gamer or anything. Um, so I think they want to see that at first before they do first team reps, but that's really a total guess because Kevin O'Connell has not made that very clear at all. Uh, it could be earlier if, if Sam Darnold does struggle more than just one practice and they can't get things done on offense, then it might be a message too.

Like, all right, Sam, this job is not given to you. Fluid, call it a fluid situation. Pete says, will you actually be traveling to London or the New York Jets for the New York Jets game? At this moment, I do not have plans to travel to London. I am going to, well, Cleveland is an extra road game essentially, because that is for the joint practices. So then the Purple Insider budget has enough to go to Green Bay in Chicago, as I always do. Always hold out a little

bit for Detroit at the end of the year, because if they're playing for a playoff spot then i will go to detroit at the end of the season uh we've got jacksonville uh old friend of the show intern paul hodowanek lives in jacksonville we're gonna play some golf down there before the game they're in la so i'm gonna travel there that that's uh most of the games on the road the london trip might be a little bit too much of a stretch there for the old budget, but not planning on it right now. We'll see if I decide to change my mind. Actually, if you subscribe, like the video, go over to purpleinsider.com, sign up for the newsletter, tell all of your friends to subscribe, and then they all do, then maybe

we'll have the budget to go to London. Can you explain how the cap works? If they have $20 million in space, why not use it all? Does it affect next year's cap? It does. Yeah, you can carry over the cap space. Now, it wouldn't really make any difference if they use that space on a corner unless they used void years or something, which they probably wouldn't

in this case. So they could sign Stefan Gilmore for a one year, $20 million contract. And then that cap space will come back to them when he hits free agency. So unless it was a multi-year deal or unless it had other layers to it, like void years to fit it under the cap, which it wouldn't need those. So they could have. They could have spent all the money if they wanted to. This does leave them open to do more if they want,

and they didn't spend a huge amount on him. But you also do carry that cap space over, which is important for a team that's going to want to spend the cap space. I think it's more about Stefan Gilmore's 34. What's really there after this? They would go with fit as well. Brian Flores knows better than me about who fits. And it's more about, I think, giving a Caleb Evans an opportunity

to win that position on the depth chart and still be a player for them while having a just in case option. If you sign Stefan Gilmore, then Shaq Griffin is now a backup or Byron Murphy is now a backup and a Caleb Evans is essentially not seeing the field. That's the difference between signing Stefan Gilmore and signing Fabian Morrowrow at least the way i look at it not as much i mean when we talk about if you sign somebody cheap it's always worth noting and they probably will um let's see uh sloth says is there anything to make of going on the road for the joint practices i think they've always hosted yeah they have always hosted at tco uh maybe just wanting to go on the road as a team a little

bit there. I don't really know. I think Kevin O'Connell did talk about this at one point and it could be just scheduling and their situation. They're playing Cleveland at Cleveland and they've only got two, they only got one home game. That means that the Raiders is at the Raiders at home that they would have had to agree to do a joint practice and maybe they didn't want to. Uh, there's a lot of moving parts there, but you know, it doesn't matter either way. All it means is that I'm going to Cleveland rather than staying in my house. Um, anyway, great chat guys, good as always. Another player move to react to. And as I mentioned later on tonight on the YouTube channel,

my really fun conversation with Will Regetts, where we dove deep into the when will J.J. McCarthy take first team reps. We also talked quite a bit about his five players, or maybe we did four that have really stood out to him. And we went into each player and why their performances have stood out so far. So make sure you keep an eye out for that later on this evening, but another super fun chat. We've got a practice tomorrow. Hopefully there's pads so I can stop saying we don't have enough padded practices when you guys ask questions, but you know, tomorrow we'll be back same place, same time. And I think it's a day off Thursday,

but every night that there is a practice, there will be a live show following including the night practice, which was really fun last year. And we'll do it again. So thanks everybody for all your time and all your great questions, like subscribe, send me personal checks, whatever you want to do. Take care, everybody. Football.