Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Theo Jackson signs an extension, what does it mean????

Episode Date: March 7, 2025

Matthew Coller talks about the Vikings giving a significant contract extension to Theo Jackson, which may mean Cam Bynum or Harrison Smith isn't coming back. Also intern Clay takes us through a ton of headlines around a busy NFL leading up to free agency.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Hey everybody. Welcome to another episode of purple insider Matthew collar here. And guess what? We actually got some real Minnesota Vikings news today. No, it wasn't quite the news that everybody expected a Sam Darnold contract or news that Sam Darnold wouldn't be coming back. Although I was just watching Ian Rappaport on NFL network, and he was going through the scenarios with the Vikings

quarterback situation. And he got around to talking about, well, would there be a competition in training camp? And he said, well, if there's any team that could kind of work it out, then it would be the Vikings based on just how KOC handles things. And Sam Darnold did well with it last year. And I thought, I'm not really seeing why Sam Darnold wouldn't take a job where he doesn't have to compete. So we're still sort of in the same holding pattern

of people just talking their way through it. And I guess we'll all find out soon enough and there will be an emergency podcast at that point. But until now, or until then, I should say, we have some news and that news is that Theo Jackson signed a three year contract with the Minnesota Vikings. And he was a restricted free agent,

but this is not just a tender. This is a contract extension for him. It's gonna be over $12 million. And it shows, I think the Vikings cards a little bit here in one way, because it shows you how much they like Theo Jackson. And this is something that the purple insider podcast has been telling you about for some time.

And I know Theo Jackson hasn't played a whole heck of a lot, but he was somebody that impressed them a lot from the time that he got to Minnesota. Remember you had that interception against the Eagles kind of stepped right in after the Lewis scene injury I think that's how that played out. Maybe I'm getting am I getting my timelines, right? Yeah, that's right He stepped in as a special team or after the scene injury That's why they picked him up from Tennessee's practice squad And then it was the following year that he ends up getting the interception in

2023 against the Philadelphia Eagles last year, he has a great training camp. He's all over the place. He may have been the best player in training camp all off season last year on the defensive side. And then he just doesn't get to play because you have Josh Mattelis, you have Kam Bynum, you have Harrison Smith, and there wasn't a whole lot of space

to mix him in too often on that team. And then he does get in, gets a game ceiling interception against the Seattle Seahawks. And one thing that I observe about just the way that the locker room reacts to him coaches is that there are a lot of Theo Jackson fans inside that locker room and inside that building because of the way he's approached the game. He plays the special teams.

He does what he's asked to do. And then every time they give him an opportunity, he makes a play. This sounds like a lot of previous safeties that the Minnesota Vikings have developed, including Cam Bynum, who was picked in the fourth round. And then he didn't play his first year. He gets in, did he get an interception

against Baltimore, I think, and in his first opportunity to play. And if I recall he had been practicing at the other safety position, and then he went into that or whatever, however it went. And then buying them proves himself wins the starting job after the team drafts a first round safety. And then we go on from there and he's established himself as a very good player. But the thing is when can buy them established himself as a very good player and then his free agency that increases the chances that somebody else is going to want a very good

player. And it probably does signify that can buy them is going to hit free agency and that another team is going to pay him a significant sum of money because it's not a lock. But I don't know that you pay the Jackson quite this much on the RFA tender if you're not planning on having him play. It also might tell us something about how much they want or don't want to go into the free agent market. I don't know if it's telling us about Harrison Smith or not. I would lean much more that it would be telling us about can't bind him because the two guys play a similar position.

Theo Jackson is a flexible player and I wrote about that at purple insider dot football. I tweeted out my article from training camp earlier today if you you want to check that out. Uh, but he is a flexible player. He is cross-trained to do the Josh Mattel is role if he has to, but I think his natural job is a deep safety. And that position you think about even the history of it in recent years, next to Harrison Smith, Anderson Dayho, special team guy who then becomes the partner for Harrison Smith through 2000, what 18 and then it's Anthony Harris

who ends up playing so well. He gets franchise tagged at one point and then can bind them comes in after that. And everybody has had success playing in that deep safety spot. Theo Jackson has the playmaking skills. We've definitely seen that the high IQ, he's been willing to play the special teams. So you're going downhill and tackling people like a crazy person.

So he fits all those boxes that the Vikings are looking for for that position. And if you're talking about a contract that's worth $4 million or so per year, versus maybe the 15 or so that you might be talking about with cambynum if he ends up getting the top of his projected market then it's just a much better deal as much as they like cambynum and as well as he fit in and he was a playmaker for them he's a good tackler for them he could play in a lot of different ways

But that's also a spot when we talk about what is easy or hard to replace in the NFL Left tackles are hard to replace. Justin Jefferson's hard to replace deep safeties There's always kind of a next guy in line who has been developing at that spot. So Theo Jackson, even though he has not played a lot of football, has done a lot to show everybody in the organization that he belongs. And this is also an opportunity for them to sign him to a contract now, put some money in his pocket, but it might be a really good contract a year or two from now,

if he turns out to be as good as can buy them. And we've already seen this with Josh Mattel is remember Josh Mattel is they had one train camp and this is how much training camp tells these coaches because these highly competitive training camp practices, there's only so many of them that you get, but when they're out there doing it, the coaches know what their assignments are. They know how they're supposed to handle themselves. They see them in the meetings every day. And you can simulate pretty well with a lot of accuracy if someone is really good in training camp

and impresses the coaches, not just us on the sideline, because we sometimes don't have all the information. But when Theo Jackson intercepts like eight passes in training camp, like, okay, I don't need of need more information this guy's making a lot of plays. What when the coaches can go back and watch the tape every single day there's a lot of data points there that get built up and when they see the players behind the scenes. The jackson i think was the ron jones told me that the all he called it the four horseman was part of the safeties that all sat up front together by them, Mattelis, Harrison Smith and Theo Jackson. So you could see why they would believe that he could be that player if they need him to

be if cam by them ends up going. And the fact that they did that with Mattelis already after just watching a training camp and they ended up having it pay off with Josh Mattelis. This is easily a good move for them in my opinion from what I've seen from everything I've heard from everything that they've shown us about Theo Jackson and his presence here makes it a lot easier to part ways with Cam Bynum. Now the next thing on the list is finding out about Harrison Smith and I saw the other day it's just obvious that the Vikings would need an answer from Harrison Smith very soon that I think Alec Lewis wrote that they need an answer by whatever

day maybe next week or something like that. And yeah of course because they need to know whether they're going to get another safety or not. If Harrison Smith decides to retire, then there are a lot of safeties on the list. Javon Holland from Miami has twice ranked in the top five by PFF. Justin Reed from the Kansas City Chiefs, he's a free agent. Trayvon Morig from the Raiders is kind of a downhill box, tough type of safety. I'm into that idea if Harrison Smith wants to walk away. Do I, Mike says, do I feel like a Theo Jackson somewhat helps make up for the Lewis Seen miss?

Well, it's actually funny about that 2022 draft because Lewis Seen will always be the face of the 2022 failed draft. He's the first pick, he's the guy they traded back for. I don't know if you've heard this yet, but Kyle Hamilton could have been picked. However, he's really the least impactful of those top draft picks because,

and Mike mentions Jay Ward. I've, I mean, I've seen some good things on special teams from Jay Ward too. This is a safety factory that they have going on here. And Cam Bynum, who beat out Lewis Seen for that job, turned out to be a really good player on really good defenses. I mean, the last two years,

what did they finish? Maybe 12th or something in 2023, and then last year, top five defense, and he's playing 1 1100 snaps out there. I mean, that's a ton of value that they got from a fourth round development project who was originally supposed to be a cornerback and then got moved back to safety and had to learn that position and worked out really well.

And then Josh Mattelis, the door opened up for him because Lewis Seen did not come through. And Metellus becomes this hybrid safety linebacker, blitzer, D lineman. He's a really valuable piece. He's playing a thousand snaps. And then because Seen gets hurt, they end up going out to get Theo Jackson, who now looks like he's going to be a starter for the team. It's the least impactful bad draft pick that they had.

It actually is the same exact way with Phelan and Diggs. When Phelan and Diggs, they were on the team when they drafted Laquan Treadwell, but they didn't look like they did in 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019. And those guys were the fifth rounder in the undrafted versus the first rounder. And that's why I always say, I don't care where the guys come from. They just need to be here and they need to play. No one ever asked John Randall where he got drafted. And they just said, John Randall's sack in the quarterback, right? Now it's a better bet that you're going to get stars in the first round and you

want to hit on your first round picks. I'm not saying it's fine, but it doesn't matter one way or the other, as long as you get those players and they make an impact. Now, the rest of that draft, though, that's where we're still seeing the trickle down effect. If the Vikings had hit on that right guard, well, they would feel like they were in a great place right now. And one guard position, sure, fine. Or maybe they would make a change at center or something. But now they have to find two guards and they might have to invest more draft capital That one stings a lot to not even get through that third year as a starter that one hurts a lot

Andrew Booth jr. That's another one that hurts them a lot because what are we talking about? We're talking about the cornerback position potentially paying Byronron Murphy Jr. a ton of money, which is okay with me. And I think that they do need to also seek a more physical man-to-man shutdown type of corner to go along with him. But there are multiple spots here in the cornerback room that are gonna need to be filled.

So if they bring back Murphy, Mackay Blackman continues his development, gets back on track, you sign another guy or draft another guy. Okay, now you're in a pretty decent spot there, but still if Andrew Booth Jr. had turned out, well, then you would have Blackman, Booth Jr. maybe you bring back Murphy,

you feel like you got a heck of a room. That I think as you go farther down the line, Brian Osamah, that one was kind of replaced by Ivan Pace Jr. But you feel like some of these really had much more of an impact than it did Lewis Seen. And Theo Jackson is a reminder of that. And also just how unpredictable the league can be, right? Theo Jackson went to Tennessee.

He was drafted by Tennessee. I'm sure, well, I know I'm sure because I talked to him about it, that he thought, I was drafted by Tennessee. I'm sure, well, I know I'm sure, because I talked to him about it, that he thought, I'm Mr. Tennessee. Like, I'm going to be here and I'm going to establish myself. He gets cut out of training camp. So they didn't really see it with him. And then he's just on their practice squad and the Vikings, I don't know what they saw. This is why you have the scouting department. This is why, and this is why it's funny when I'll get asked about scouts sometimes and it's like well they may the team is missed on some draft picks in the 2022 draft, but then again, they found some players who we never would have expected.

Ivan pace, Theo Jackson is another one. So I don't know. Are they good at their jobs or not? But you know, you go out and find somebody like Theo Jackson, who somebody identified that was even during Donatelle. So we can't even give a Flores the credit for finding him, but we can for developing him to the point where they're ready to let him play. And if they do end up moving on from cam buying them, good for him, man. I mean,

that's a guy that brought a lot to the organization and you always root for players to get paid, but having that development player, it sort of highlights, this is one of the few positions they actually have that. They don't have this at a lot of positions where if somebody leaves, the next man up is right there, and then they can fill in behind him.

Safety is probably the only position on the entire roster that they could actually say, all right, can't buy them, we can let you go rather than investing a lot of money and you can plug in somebody else. If the cornerback situation was like that, maybe they would be going with Murphy Jr. And that's the other part of this too, is does this tell us that Byron Murphy jr. Was their preference in comparison of the two, is it harder to replace a deep safety or a corner who plays 900 to a thousand snaps easily deep safety is the

easier position to replace. And I also think that in terms of intellectually, like scheme wise, mentally, that Brian Flores puts a lot on the plates of the cornerbacks. And this is why, yes, I think if Bayer Murphy comes back, they will have to overpay to keep him at the same time. If he understands all the things that Brian Flores wants to do defensively and is a key part of that, that's worth some money versus just, Hey, this other guy had a better PFF grade, which Murphy was in the top 20 by PFF and they usually don't splash plays

make a difference, but they usually, if it's a interception on an overthrow where the guy did nothing, they're not going to give him extra credit. So I think we have seen Murphy come along in his career to the point where he's gonna play his best football here. So if Bynum ends up going, that may signal that they've got the space and the money to invest in Murphy. And I would still look at corner in the draft.

I would still look at corner in free agency. And there are a lot. So there's kind of, it's a weird thing with free agency this year. There's a lot of players that I look at and go, that guy could be a good deal and he could be a good role player, but is he a difference maker? So DJ Reid is a difference maker, but there are 10 other corners who look like they could be started like a Shaq Griffin caliber player.

And if you end up with someone like that and Byron Murphy and Mackay Blackman develops and you draft somebody that looks like a much deeper room. And we can't forget about Dwight McClothern either, who made a really positive impression on them in training camp. And so maybe McClothern will be that guy who takes the big step forward next year and ends up taking up that spot. So the bottom line is that if they are saving money on the safety position, they can invest it in the other positions that I think are harder to find somebody

who you can really lock in as a starter. Uh, Carlton Davis is a, is a great name who I would like to see as well. But even the next level down, my point is the next level down has like a Mike Hilton or something. Somebody who's a little older, but had a good season last year can still play veteran type of a Terrence Newman kind of type where you bring that guy in and he can fill a spot, but you're not relying on him to do everything.

That is how I feel like Shaq Griffin played for them last year and he did a good job. Is it going to be with if it's just Byron Murphy, Mike Hilton, Mackay Blackman, Dwight McClother and if that's your whole room, is it going to be a top five cornerback room? Probably not. You would likely have to draft somebody if that was gonna be the case in the first round, which I am not against at all. There are a couple of corners in this draft

that I think could be that type of starter caliber player. So that's where we stand in the secondary. I'm not guaranteeing that Cambynum is going to go. It doesn't have to mean that and this could be just a bet on it's a three-year contract so buying them could still return I think the tea leaves would pretty clearly tell you that alright it's a better deal to have Theo take that spot but it's always possible that they could lock him up knowing that Harrison Smith is going to retire eventually we

just don't know when but but eventually he will retire. I would lean heavily toward this means that someone else wants to pay can't bind him a lot of money and congratulations to him. He has earned it. Uh, Alex, uh, thrown out Darius sleigh. I agree. Uh, the Darius sleigh, the Mike Hilton, the veteran player. I mean, Stefan Gilmore was this for the Vikings last year.

Stefan Gilmore was the guy that when he signed with the Vikings, it's like, oh, can he still play? It's pretty old. And I don't think that Gilmore had a defensive MVP year, but it was pretty good overall. And it helped them get to a top five defense. So that type of player is going to be out there for the Vikings to get. And then that room looks fairly solidified at that point.

So how about this 20 minutes? No quarterback talk other than just starting out with a tiny little update. Refreshing. I know I've gotten some some emails and some tweets, like can we talk about some other stuff? And yes, absolutely we can. If you have thoughts that you wanna throw in there about the quarterback position, then I'll absolutely take them.

But otherwise, if you have questions about what's next, who they're gonna sign, what's already happened, I told intern Clay that we would get him in earlier because the other night Monday night We had the breaking news We also had sniffle gate with clay where he was behind the scenes and he was We were hearing his sounds didn't know where he's coming from and we thought it was a ghost and it was just clay blowing his nose But I forgot to mute him. So that was that was my bad. I took responsibility as a leader, but I said, all right, well, let's get you to the show a little earlier. We also have

a ton of updates. So toss some questions in. I'll bring in Clay here in a second and we'll go over kind of hot stove stuff like what's going on around the league, what things might impact the Minnesota Vikings. Here's a good place to start with that, which is B3 lakh says, what do we think about signing Tyler Lockett? We need more depth at wide receiver. This has been on my mind. So Lockett would fall under the category of like an Adam Thielen going to Carolina.

The example that I always go to in my brain is Antoine Bolden, the older wide receiver who gets still kind of play not as well as he used to, but he could definitely help somebody. Tyler Lockett would fall under that same category. It just can't be for much though. And the same with when Cooper Cupps name was out there. I think that the wide receiver three position, they need somebody who can get open fast and underneath.

And that's just not Jalen Naylor. Jalen Naylor proved that Kevin O'Connell's love for him was justified. He made plays. He had the touchdown against the Packers early in the season. He had a few huge catches when Jordan Addison was banged up. He could play in the NFL, but he's a certain type of receiver. He's not this quick short area, like drop back, three step bang. And if JJ McCarthy is the quarterback,

I do think they need a little bit more of that and that that position should be something to keep an eye on. Chad says, is there any other surprising cuts from other teams that Minnesota should pay attention to? So I would say, uh, Jonathan Allen, that there was a report that he is going to get cut and that's why I didn't like the idea of trading for him because all these teams are putting it out there. Come trade for our guy that we're definitely not going to cut and say,

okay, I see what you're doing. You're trying to get the offload that contract, but it hasn't worked for anybody except for Debo Samuel who can still play, but it hasn't worked for anybody. Um, when it comes to, uh, Jonathan Allen though, I would not want the Vikings to sign him as a player that makes it so they don't sign or draft a defensive tackle. a player that makes it so they don't sign or draft a defensive tackle. If you get Jonathan Allen, you'd still want defensive tackle toward the top of your list to draft, to develop, but they just haven't had a lot of that

rush for, and if Jonathan Allen could still bring some of that, he is not the type of player that you want now playing, you know, 900 snaps or something like that. You would much rather him play 450, but it's on third down and he's rushing four and he's, you know, getting after the quarterback and he kind of has one job. And maybe that job's worth like $8 million. Maybe he could be a name.

Manju says, Derasa update. For some reason I'm worried about him and need peace of mind. KOC gave us an update on him at the combine, said that he is coming along pretty well. So I'm gonna just assume that that's correct. I haven't heard anything to say that he's not, but the proof will be in the practice when we eventually get out there at

OTAs and things like that I'm sorry. I don't know how to pronounce your name. Is it Cologne maybe sorry your criticism of nailers off base can't blame him for the routes. He's asked to run I I don't think that it is off base. I've seen how many, what do we got now from Jalen Naylor? How many practices, how many games, how many, I, no, I don't think it's off base. I think it's exactly right. I think that Jalen Naylor is a type of receiver. He is a long speed wide receiver who tracks the ball usually

really well. He dropped that one against Tennessee, but who tracks the ball well overall. And who is not the fastest quick Twitch type of player that is just going to face up with a nickel corner and roast them off the line. He's not a Wes Welker. He's not that shorter underneath quick type player, the Jerry is right. He's much more of a run a deep post. And there's a reason why they have him running those routes

because that's what he does well. And when they hit on them, it's really good. And teams have to pay attention to Jalen Naylor deep. He's not a quick Twitch guy. That's just who he is, but that's not a criticism. It's a description. What you want is versatility in your wide receiver room. You want different types of players.

I think they thought they had that guy in Brandon Powell and then it just disappeared last year. That underneath guy that you can go to on a quick out, a little slant, something like that, but they just didn't have it last year. I didn't say get rid of Jalen Naylor. He's terrible. I said, he's got long speed. That's who he is.

He's a downfield wide receiver. Look at him in college, look at him in the NFL. That's who he's been. So it's not, I mean, describing someone can't be taken as like, oh, I'm criticizing him. I think that's different. It's what do you need to make your offense as versatile as possible? They need an underneath guy.

A Greg Dorch is a name. Learn that name. Greg Dorch. I did think about, I had Tutu Atwell on my list of free agents and he resigned today for $10 million. The guy had like 30 catches last year. This is a point about Justin Jefferson, by the way. Christian Kirk got moved after signing a crazy big contract

as a very average receiver and Tutu Atwell just got $10 million. Is it a good idea to pay the best wide receiver if you got them? Oh yeah, because if you go into free agency at some point and try to find a top wide receiver, you are screwed. They just don't get there. They get traded sometimes and they forced trade sometimes,

but they are just not available for the pickin'. And that's why you keep them forever when you got them. Caleb says, make believe the Vikings stick at 24 and pick O'Marian Hampton. for the pickin' and that's why you keep them forever when you got them. Caleb says, make believe the Vikings stick at 24 and pick O'Mary and Hampton, how do you feel? There's four positions that if they pick at 24 and they take them, that I'm gonna be pretty happy with. Running back is one of them

because if they take a running back at 24, that means they think that guy is way up there. It would be surprising based on what they have here in this draft and Caleb Johnson remains my best fit type of player who can do it all. Catch the ball to the backfield bigger guy. I'm sticking with my Chester Taylor comp for Caleb Johnson. He's probably even a little more talented than that, like raw talent than Chester Taylor, but Taylor's that kind of guy. He's not the blazing-est fast, but I don't think that explosive runs have to necessarily mean what your 40 time is. Oftentimes it's reading blocks, breaking tackles, getting into space, that kind of thing. And then, you know, there are very few Adrian Petersons and Chris

Johnson's and Saquon Barclays in the world. So he's not that, but if they think that O'Marian Hampton is a Saquon Barclay type of player, then put that guy in this offense. And what have you got? Now you've got some very, very dangerous weapons around. And when they had Delvin Cook, there was a lot of attention on Delvin Cook. There had to be.

Even when Justin Jefferson was on the team with Delvin Cook in 2020 and 2021, there just had to be. There was no other way to go about it for defenses. First down in 10, second down in five, they had to pay attention to the backfield. They have not in the last couple of years, even as good as Aaron Jones was early on in the season. That kind of showed you because it faded later on, but early on in the season when Jones was averaging five yards a carry, teams were having

to pay a little attention to him and when they didn't, he was getting big runs, but he got banged up and he got slowed down and the offensive line lost its mega star left tackle and and it got harder. But Hampton with this type of offense, I think could be very, very dangerous. And I would say, all right, well, more weapons. You're not going to get me to dislike more weapons. That's like when you ask about, hey, what do you think about Tyler Lockett? It's like, well, more weapons. I don't know. go for it. I mean, the more people you can hand the ball to, throw the ball to, is always better. And as great as the Eagles defense was

in winning the Super Bowl, and they deserve full credit for that, you're always gonna need a great offensive performance from your team. You're always gonna have to have many options on offense. The Eagles, they didn't get much out of Saquon Barkley in the Super Bowl. They threw it downfield because they had great receivers

downfield, right? I mean, you kind of have to have a lot of everything if you're going to be that team. Nathan's Variety Hour says, how important do you think wide receiver three is going to be, especially with Addison potentially missing a few games? I think it's very important. That's why when earlier the question about Tyler Lockett,

it's like, yeah, I mean, I think he had 49 catches last year. If you get that type of guy to give you 50 catches, kind of what KJ Osborne did for them a couple of years ago, but it slipped with him. But that option who you know can step in and start for a couple of games if you need them and who brings something a little bit different to the table who could get open underneath who's a good route runner like those

are the types of things that I do think could really be helpful. Evan says agree about wide receiver three. What does that mean for nailer? Do we trade him? No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. You don't give away people who are good. Like nailers good.

That's what I was saying. It's not an insult. I just means the type of player. He said that he's a downfield type of receiver and you don't give away your downfield receiver. You want your downfield receiver. You don't trade him or give them away. You keep him, but you add to that group.

And also no one's trading for a guy who caught 20 passes. It just doesn't, teams don't do that. They don't give up any sort of draft capital for somebody who's like a 20 catch guy. It's not gonna happen. If you want to swap sixth and seventh round pick, then maybe, but teams all have their own Jalen Nailers who catch 20 passes I'm talking about adding to the room to add

versatility to the room not add and then subtract for something different Jmulls do you agree that free agency has more interior offensive line and the Vikings should go heavy for that and free agency then go heavy on DTRB and the draft because both these positions are really good and deep. So this is kind of a moving target a little bit because if they went out and signed two guards Will Fries and Patrick McCarrey and they gave them each 15 million million a year. Well, you're not drafting an offensive lineman then, but if they went out and got Kevin Zeitler and Will Hernandez or something, two guys that you can definitely win with for next year,

I would still consider that lineman in the first round. And I know we all want to solve the problem right away and throw that guy in there right away, but you know having more depth and more options and more competition is something they haven't had much of the bit What's the biggest camp competition at guard in the last five years? Well, I mean is it Jesse Davis versus Ed Ingram truly who's the biggest competition? They have never had competition of all the years that I've covered this team. This is how grotesque the handling of the guard situations has been. I don't remember

any year where we were like watching one-on-ones and we're down there looking at the reps going like, oh, he got this many reps. He got that. Dalton Reisner was supposed to compete for a spot and then he got hurt. and then we never saw that happen And then he comes back and ends up getting the job, but there's very rarely been competition So my point is that's not your question exactly But I'd like to see them have more than just oh two guys problem solved move on If you got two guys and drafted another one, no one here is gonna complain about that But it has to impact how much you're investing.

Are you drafting a guard at 24? If you have paid two guys, 15 million over four year contracts, like, no, probably not. You're looking later on. So it really depends if they go short term and 24, it's still there. Uh, another part of it too, is the depth of the positions where DT and RB Could both still be good in the third round or if they trade down Multiple picks where if you want somebody who's gonna be a difference-making guard you might have to

Draft that player in the first round and I have noticed recently that we're just seeing a lot of those guys Who are those first round picks kind of be the only ones who can hang with the freakish talent at defensive tackle. So that might be something that they have to do. Jason says it must be harder to build an offensive and defensive lines than one might think. The Vikings have been trying for years. What's the missing piece? The missing piece is, well, one is luck. They've invested all high draft picks in those positions. Left guard was Ezra Cleveland with the second round pick.

Right guard was Ed Ingram, Garrett Bradbury, who has become an average player, but a below average pass blocker. That's a first round pick they invested. That's not what you're looking for from that. I mean, it's just ironic. You know, they spend a second on Brian O'Neill star. They spent a mid first on left tackle star, but they've

invested this draft capital in the middle and nothing has happened. A lot of times, you know, that's kind of a random or bad break type of thing there. And usually that's why teams look toward the free agency to get these guys because they have sample sizes of them playing. But Josh Klein played for a year, didn't play the full season. Alex Boone had the one year and it was okay. And that was really it for times that they've gone out and they've invested a lot. I think investment is the reason. If it's all about that, if you invest on a free agent guard if they had gone out

Who's the biggest free agent guard recently? Robert Hunt is coming to mind Damien Lewis guys that got kind of overpaid last year, but if you go out Oh, how about the last time Joe Tooney signed so he got moved to the Bears and We're gonna talk about that shortly someone asked about that We're gonna talk about that with clay and the different things going on but. Joe when joe to sign with kansas city i think the vikings made an offer but it wasn't enough and they couldn't get him to come play for the vikings and. He has a turn out great that's the next most money that the vikings have spent that would have been the most by. And the second most would have been like $5 million a year. Like they just haven't spent in free agency on that spot.

And they're actually their decision-making would have been justified years ago. And I did a story on this not that long ago. Uh, if you want to check it out, purple insider dot football. I wrote about how the data shows guards getting worse at pass blocking. Like they're not getting worse. The competition's getting harder is what's really happening, right? So maybe seven years ago when they signed Alex Boone,

then you could just kind of replace that guy because there were many guards who were doing fine. And it was considered a non-premium position. Anybody can kind of pop in there, hey, Joe Berger, you go play guard, it'll be fine. And it was considered a non-premium position. Anybody can kind of pop in there, hey, Joe Berger, you go play guard, it'll be fine. It's just not working that way anymore. And that's why you see that investment. So sometimes the league is just a moving target

and what made sense in 2016 does not make sense in 2024. So I think that's the biggest thing is that they have to actually spend money or high draft capital on it. Reconnected with the question I get every single day, which is about quasi Adolfo Mence's contract. And all I can tell you about quasi Adolfo Mence's contract is that sometimes things take time and I haven't heard anything at the moment that would push me

toward, I don't know, maybe he's not going to be the GM or something. I haven't heard anything like that, but it's an eyebrow razor. You can't see my eyebrows on the hat. It's an eyebrow razor. That's as far as I can really go. Because I know Ben Gessling wrote this and I heard the same thing. I was like, Hey, you know, contracts take time. Sometimes Mike Zimmer didn't sign his one year, his extension when he was going to be a lame duck until right before training camp. Was that maybe 2020? Yeah. I think that was 2020 after they

had won a playoff game. And there was some drama obviously with that whole thing, but it took all summer to work out the eyebrow razor is clearly the timing with the coach, but it's also if he's doing the draft and he doesn't have an extension past next year, that just seems uncomfortable to have one guy, Kevin O'Connell, super locked in. And then another guy, not at all. And they're doing the draft together. I don't know if it affects anything. It's just not what you would expect, but it's March.

They're working through a quarterback thing. They're working through a bunch of different contracts. It could just take a little longer throughout the summer, or there could be something that, I don't know, could be something that we never see coming. I just feel like from a Wilf perspective, when you say like not sold, the bigger picture on this franchise just couldn't be better.

The biggest drama that they have is which good quarterback do they want to keep? Right? That's their drama. Do we keep this quarterback who had 102 quarterback rating last year or the kid that we love that we drafted the first round? What do we do? Oh, we just got second place on the NFLPA survey. Dang.

We wanted first like this organizations at a good spot. It seemed the timeline that they laid out, they accelerated that they've got cap space. They do need draft capital, but they're right in the, in the mix. I was looking up today where they are in terms of, it's going to make a difference who the quarterback is, but just in terms of Superbowl odds,

they're like a second tier Superbowl odd team. And we'll see what happens in the off season. But I mean, it doesn't feel like a team tier Super Bowl odd team and we'll see what happens in the off season. But I mean Doesn't feel like a team whose GM just ends up walking away But the Vikings always have a way of surprising us so I can never say ever hey This is a guarantee guaranteed. It's going to be like this or there's nothing to see here. Like, I don't know Sometimes this surprises us uh Cosmic consciousness. It's better be good. I thought Jefferson is that quick twitch guy.

He's kind of not though. So Jalen Naylor would be a good fit next to Jefferson based on what you described. He is. He is a good fit next to Jefferson. Jefferson is not a quick twitch guy, which I know sounds weird because he's great at everything, but he's like a long Strider. We'll bring in clay clay plays football clay play D. Well, I mean, intern clay play D one. We'll bring him in to talk about this in a second because Jefferson has these long strides,

which is I think one of the reasons they run him downfield so often. He's so hard to keep up with because of that. And he said he's powerful and he's a contested catch guy But and he's also a technician but as far as when I think quick twitch I think of slot receiver I think of like this lightning kind of juke enos not necessarily Hey, this guy is moving full speed downfield and somehow this is what Jefferson does He's full speed downfield and somehow pulls off a move that you would need to slow down. I asked the phone Gilmore about this.

Gilmore said that normally guys tip their hand in their routes of where they're gonna go. And Jefferson is so good at not tipping his hand. He also runs a four, four, seven. So he's fast as heck. And at full speed, if the corner can't anticipate where you're going Plus he's a technician in the way that he understands offenses defenses

Where the ball is supposed to go how he's going to get played like he's very Intellectual about that position and then contested catch nobody is better I'm not saying that Jalen Naylor can't run routes. I'm saying that Jalen Naylor can't run routes. I'm saying that Jalen Naylor has a role, which is to be a deep type of player and stretch the field. A lot of teams have those type of guys, but that's not a slot underneath type of player. How about Donovan Edwards?

Like him had a great, great combine really kind of re-emerged. Uh, son of a beaver says between, uh, Powell and Trent sure field. Who do you think has a better chance to come back? I would say sure field for sure. Uh, sure field was a really, really good special team or excellent special team. Okay. Uh, so I guess we're going to argue about Jalen nailers routes, route tree in college, uh, all night.

We don't need to do that. We have a sample size of him playing NFL football where he's very clearly a deep guy and what he did in college truly doesn't mean Jack once here in the NFL. I was just saying that that was his reputation coming out when he was drafted. I was here. I listened to talk about it. I watched his training camp. The first thing they did with him when he got in the game is threw him a deep ball.

He's a good receiver. But to have more diversity within your group of receivers as Addison is a downfield guy and Jefferson is a downfield guy It would be good for them to sign somebody underneath. That was the point. I didn't know that we had like Jalen Naylor Like anger people out there like who I want to throw themselves in front of a train for Jalen Naylor, I'm not even disrespecting him strange strange stuff. Anyway, first comment section that's ever been weird. What do we got?

David says, from what I commented and you acknowledged before, you have three quality safeties to be the backbone of the defense, no matter what happens with Harry. Bynum needs to be back or taking one free agency. No, I, I agree that if you have, well, if Harrison Smith retires, then they definitely need to go to free agency. If he does not,

then they can play Harrison Smith, Theo Jackson, and Josh Mattelis. And if anyone gets banged up, then they can move Mattelis back to the regular safety position. I know you don't necessarily want to do that or jay ward who's been developing for a couple years so it's really only if they lose harrison smith to retirement do they need to go into free agency but they've got players upon players you don't hear anything about jay ward because he was kind of passed by by the jack, but still had a good season in special teams last year. So they just have guy after guy at that spot. So they probably don't need to go out and get somebody in free agency unless Harrison Smith retires. But if Smith retires, there's a lot of guys in free agency who could be a difference maker.

A quarter Mike says, should the team invest more in depth than top end top guards? Uh, well, I mean, the thing about trying to get depth at guard is that it just doesn't really exist. There's not 64 guys who are good at this at guard. There's probably 28 who can really play and there's probably 12 who are difference makers at guard.

Uh, unless you mean, oh, unless you mean the rest of the roster. Oh, I think I I'm sorry. I think you mean the rest of the roster as far as the depth goes. No, I think they need guards. I think they need guards. Like this is now a league with so many freaky defensive tackles, so many stunts, so many twists. Somebody told me that they got stunted on the defensive line more than any other team in the league last year. And the reason the teams were doing it was

because they figured those guards couldn't sort it out, especially with a new left tackle in there. And they were right that those worked against the Vikings. You need some good players in there to invest in. And if they go out and they overspend on a Will Fries, if they overspend on a Will Hernandez, a Patrick McCarrey, one of the top guys that's out there, that's fine with me. I mean, I'd rather see them overspend on that position and at least give themselves a chance

than just continue to kinda, well, maybe this guy who they move from tackle to guard will be fine. I don't mean prospects, I mean, a sixth round player who they've done twice. We're just gonna throw Oli Udo there, it'll be all right. Throw Blake Brandle there. Guys who are really much more of rotation type players,

or I should say sixth lineman type players, fill-ins in case of emergency, trying to start them over 17 games. That has gotten exhausting and it just doesn't work anymore. Uh, cam scat about like them. Scat a boo like them. It's good. Third round though. I wouldn't go higher than that.

Uh, Let's see Scott says Kirk is still on the team without quasi that might be true. That might be true Are we giving up on Tristan Jackson Tristan Jackson is now an Arizona Cardinal I think I believe the Arizona Cardinals came in and picked up Tristan Jackson. How about Thielen coming back? I'm good. I'm all set there. Uh, Thielen he's been banged up.

He was banged up again last year. We just don't need to do the thing. I saw Daniel Jeremiah saying, Hey, maybe they should bring Kirk back. And I was like, all right, we really need the free agency to start. Cause now I'm done. Now I'm done. But yeah, I mean, we really need the free agency to start cause now I'm done. Now I'm done. But yeah, I mean, I think if just a real quick, updated ranking after any move,

we'll do this after any move, anything that happens, we'll just update ranking of need. So now that maybe we've sorted through a little bit of the safety situation, I never saw safety as a real need unless Harrison Smith retires, then it's on the list. It's only at the top of the safety situation. I never saw safety as a real need unless Harrison Smith retires. Then it's on the list. It's only at the top of the list if they get a big time player at that position like Jevon Holland, but Gard is by far number one, then Corner. You could also interchange

them because Corner is a huge need for them. And then defensive tackle after that, running back after that, because there's going to be options options in the draft and then that's where safety probably comes in. Do we know how long Addison's suspension will be? Do not but it's pretty easy to project project based on past DUIs I think it's usually two or three games I think three was the last guy who got a DUI and then got suspended I believe got three. Alright Clay,, clay not only is a former D one wide receiver, but he's also been tracking our rumors and moves and everything else around the league. That was your job for this week.

Clay. Uh, how are we doing my friend? I'm good. Nice to, nice to be back. And I'm glad we finally have a plethora of news instead of trying to just get creative on on some questions. We had a busy few days so I'm excited to get into it. Well, we also have we have opinions about wide receivers and I am of the opinion that if you can create a situation where you could put certain people on the field and do different things with them, then it opens up other stuff around that type of player. And I think Jalen

Naylor has really one job on this team, and he's pretty good at that job. But they could use a little bit more. What can I don't need you to study the Jalen Naylor tape right now, but I just stylistically, I think it's important to have the Jalen Nailer tape right now, but I just stylistically, I think it's important to have multiple different types of wide receivers. Yeah, I, I agree. It's, it's imagine having three, six, five jump ball guys. Like that would be great in the red zone, but in other parts of the field, you would be lacking speed and other traits as well.

So it's the same thing you You want guys that do different things I think CJ Stroud touched on it a few off seasons ago when um uh, the Panthers receiver Ligette was getting drafted. He was defending him. Some people said oh he doesn't do this Well, but he's a free athlete that could push the ball downfield. Like you want guys like that in your receiver room. So a quick Twitch guy would definitely be better than Nailor, Nailor, Nailor?

Nailor, yeah. Just because Justin Jefferson and Addison already do a great job of spreading the field and pushing the defense back. And it's why we think they need a running back end up beef up the run game. It's so then they could bring those safeties up, bring those deep defenders up, and then attack that leverage. So that's why I think a guy like Chris Godwin would be awesome in this offense because he's really good at the short intermediate stuff, he might not be a quick Twitch guy also, but his IQ and his awareness and his experience is really invaluable. And I think Kevin O'Connell would have a blast with him.

We do see different types of that wide receiver workout. Like I mentioned, Anquan Bull, then he averaged like eight yards of catch at the end of his career. Cause it was all underneath stuff. It was not with quick Twitch. It was much more with just kind of being a tank, boxing people out. So there's different ways to win in doing that. I'm thinking about yards after catch and how this team had to literally heave the pigskin down the field through the air.

And the farther you throw it, the lower your completion percentage gets. They just didn't have a lot of those. Take the snap, get rid of it quickly. Guy goes scoot, scoot, scoot, scoot, scoot, scoot, scoot, and gains a bunch of yards. I mean, they might have been. I don't know if they were last, but they would have been very low on the list

in terms of yards after catch per play. They were very high on the list in average air yards. So I would like to see them, especially if McCarthy's the quarterback and he is a better, in my opinion, underneath over the middle type of passer than Sam Darnold, at least in his skill set. We haven't seen it yet, but in his skill set that if he's able to do that, then they need somebody who can help him do that. That's the point. So I'm going to just real quick, I'm going to answer questions and get the headlines that you're talking about at the same time. That's like call and plays and clock managing timeouts.

But Dan asks, you think they might try to extend Van Ginkle? I do. Yeah, I could see that. It might depend on how they feel about Dallas Turner. They might think that that's going to be the Dallas Turner role, but Andrew van Ginkle is still not that old, but yeah, he's approaching. He's approaching being able to talk about him is a little bit old. Certainly, he's underpaid from what he performed last year, and I think he's the type of guy that you do want on your team long term because he doesn't have to be just an edge rusher. If he was just an edge rusher and they spent the first round draft pick on an edge rusher,

I would say, well, that's kind of why you did it. But the fact that he can move back to linebacker, he can move around, he can rush over the guards, he's done just about everything, makes me think that it would be a wise move to try to make him a Viking for as long as possible. But they don't need to do it right now. But I think he signed a two year contract,

so it's not a bad idea if they do. So let's go to your headlines, what's going on around the NFL, and we can talk about some of those things and how they impact the Minnesota Vikings. So what do you think? Yeah, so it seems like every single player acquisition window

There's rumors involving DK Metcalf. I feel like Personally, I thought he was gonna get moved at the trade deadline last year. Somehow. He didn't he survived But this time it seems like it's official that they're gonna be separating. Where do you think he'll end up? The earmuffs everybody think he'll end up at? The earmuffs, everybody, Green Bay. Green Bay doesn't do this move. And I just wonder if it's time for them, if they've reached the point where,

kind of like us with guards, where, and I follow a bunch of Green Bay people, I keep my eyes on them. And everything last year, last off season was, oh, we got a lot of good receivers. It'll be fine Was it fine though Green Bay? not really but the thing is just how I was talking about Christian Kirk and to to at well and Mediocre wide receivers who get a bunch of money in free agency. Well, the Packers know that and

They know how hard it is to get a number one receiver Actually the best way to acquire a top wide receivers for him to get mad at his team somewhere else. It's number one is draft them number two is for him to be mad and then you can trade for him but usually there's a reason even for that. Would dk met calf still very much in his prime the way i see it you're the receiver you can tell me your opinion on him. I think he is not the Justin Jefferson He's not the elite all-around type of receiver But if he did end up in a place like Green Bay, the other place is Buffalo Buffalo last year another team that sold everyone on Oh will be fine without digs they get into the playoffs They don't really have that go-to guy. They tried to trade for Amari Cooper

It didn't work out the way that I think everybody thought it was going to. Those two would be the teams that are contenders and it's smart to give up draft capital for a great player. And they really desperately need DK Metcalf. Yeah, I want to take it back to what we were talking about with the getting different receivers in the room. I also thought about the Bills and with their Khalil Shakir extension and

then they love to get James Cook the ball short. So DK could be that guy that opens up the defense because he is a great deep threat. I think he's one of the best in the league. Not one of the best route runners, but his physicality and speed is just, it's tough to handle. Which is why I think the chargers need to make a move for him. I think DK and Ladd would be one of the best receiving doers in the league with Herbert throwing to him.

Because I think back to Mike Williams and his time in L.A., he has some good seasons and I think DK could do that role just at a higher level. I agree. I think with both of those guys, the key is or all of them actually. I mean, Jordan love Josh Allen, Justin Herbert. What do they have in common? They got huge arms and nobody to hook that pigskin deep to. So all those teams should be in on that.

And it is funny, you know, the ins the insider game is something that has really become quite a sport for us to all sit on the sidelines and gawk at recently. And the insider report on DK Metcalf was, well, they want a first and a third round pick or something like that. I was like a first. I don't know that anyone's giving up a first round pick for DK Metcalf.

Hey, if they do, okay, that's fine. I don't think it's similar to Tyree kill. I think it's much more what did, what did Buffalo get back for digs? Was it a second round pick from Houston? It might've been a second round pick. This that's much more of the speed is a second or third round draft pick to trade for Metcalf because you're taking an unhappy player off

of the team's hands and a contract. And he's going to need an extension, which lowers the price. So you're not giving up a first round pick unless you're getting a really high ranking player at his position. Sorry, I was looking at the dig straight. I think he got traded for a second round. Okay. That makes sense.

Yeah. So, uh, is there anyone I'm missing there? So you mentioned the chargers. I think that's a good poll. Those aren't to me. Those are the top three teams for DK. Yeah, really? I think just the top teams in the AFC. I think the Chiefs finally showed weakness and they could potentially be on the decline, especially handling their salary cap situation.

So I think it's time for these top AFC teams to take their stab and open their Super Bowl window. So, yeah, I am sorry. I did forget to mention Kansas City. I just don't know. Like they have made Super Bowls with wide receivers that are kind of scrap heap guys. Are they now feeling like, ah, that was what the missing piece was, or are they going to try to invest everything they have in the line? This is not a great year to try to invest everything in the line because I've seen Kansas City people saying, well, yeah, I mean, they could pay Cam Robinson like 18 million. I'm like, that's not no, that's not a good idea at all to do that, to lean on him to try and save your team, which is what the Vikings did and did not succeed. Who is our next either moving player or rumored player?

Well, we got a bunch of them because the Jaguars are getting rid of everybody. They traded Christian Kirk and let go of Evan Ingram, Ronald Darby, Josh Reynolds, and Evan Duvernay. Are you interested in any of these players potentially becoming Vikings? What does Duvernay do? Do I? He's a special teamer. I think he made a pro bowl or two.

They do need a punt returner. Let me look him up. This is Jaguars. Let's see. How's it spelled? Is it D V E N V E R N A Y D is it spell it again. D U V E R. Oh, okay. I got it. I was like, uh, it is the EVI and all right. Let's see. Cause like, they do need a part return. So is he good? No, he is a good part return. Not last year though, but he has been okay. Sure. How about that? I mean,

all those other guys know the hard pass pass Ron Darby's been with about 11 different teams. Evan Ingram is bad. I mean, he's just this underneath like six yards per catch type receiver, like a comical number of receptions and not any yards. The Vikings don't need a receiving tight end who can't block they already have one. And who was the other guy? Oh, Kirk got traded to the Texans, didn't need that in my life. So yeah, no, I think we're good.

All it says is just that the new group took over and was just like, this is bad. We need to completely overhaul and that is what they're doing. And you wonder about, the only connection I can make between what they just did and the Vikings was when the Vikings brass took over in 2022 and I know how different it was But they said we're gonna keep it all together and we're gonna run it back Where this team is saying we're gonna cut everybody and we're gonna totally revamp this thing in our vision

The Vikings danced the middle in that and actually made it work Whereas I think that the Jaguars are taking the path more traveled, which is to just cut everyone. There's like a, I know for someone your age, the Simpsons are not as important as they are to millennials, but there's a Homer Simpson where he's coaching football and he's like, cut, cut your cut, your cut. Hey, congratulations.

Your cut. That's kind of the Jaguars right now. I think, I think we're all set there. Yeah. I don't think it's a bad move to try and cut out, uh, the old phase and set up the new one. Cause culture is going to be something that is talked about a lot in that locker room, especially with a Cohen coming over as a head coach. So it's, I think it's a good idea to bring in their own guys and save some money. The only really thought I had was the curt trade. And it was why? Why? Was it worth the seventh rounder to give your division rifle another weapon? It's like, yeah, you could hit on that pick. But

what if somebody else outbid them in free agency? I don't know. It was just, I don't know if you want to give the Texans who are at the top of your division, another weapon. The only thing I can think of there is they saw Christian Kirk play for the last couple of years and maybe know that he's not going to hurt them. But I agree. I mean, anything that helps your division rival is probably not a smart move, but clearly, I mean, quasi dot flamenca traded with Detroit a couple of, but clearly I mean, quasi-da-file meant to trade it with Detroit a couple times and clearly teams don't always care about this. It's Christian Kirk.

So maybe they don't, but I generally, I generally agree. I wouldn't want to help them at all. Maybe Jaguar is still going to Jaguar. All right. What's next on the list? I don't care any, any more about the Jaguars. So next the Chicago bears traded for two offensive linemen, the big name being Joe Tooney.

How do you feel about these moves and how will it affect their draft? Joe Tooney and Jonah Jackson, they traded for and they did not give up a whole heck of a lot to do it. As far as their draft, that pretty much means they're set there. And I think they might go on the defensive side on the draft as much as they have now. I mean, I don't know, maybe they're not set a tackle. Maybe they could go tackle, but I think they do need pass rushers. So they have Montez sweat, kind of nothing else. Jalen Johnson, kind of

nothing else. Uh, briskers had the injury issues, so they need guys who can get after the passer. I think Ben Johnson should care a little bit about that, as they're going to face, you know, the Vikings offense and the Packers offense and the Lions offense a couple of times a year. But the bigger point that connects to the Vikings is that I think a lot of people wanted the Vikings to make those moves. And I'm kind of yes and no on that. Like I get it for sure.

The Jackson was good with Detroit a couple of years ago and just didn't work out with the Rams. And Joe Tooney has been a great player for a long time. Joe Tooney, I think is maybe 32. Jonah Jackson has been banged up several years and has really not, at least by the PFF grades, been a difference maker outside of that one year for the Lions, which if you're playing for the Lions, you're talking about playing with a lot of great

offensive line talent around you. So I'm not sure that that's the greatest move. I mean, for the Bears, they just need bodies and they need people in there and they need to win right away and they need to get to the playoffs. They need Caleb Williams to not get sacked 68 times I'm also not terribly sure it's gonna help that much because and you're working on an article on this Their line didn't play as bad as people made it out to be at least by the numbers It was really the quarterback took an immense amount of responsibility for those sacks and pressures

So it will help them. I don't know that it makes them some sort of juggernaut. And we're really talking about, Tooney is very much on the older side. They clearly picked Trey Smith over Joe Tooney. Jackson, his own team invested a huge amount of money in him and then immediately went, eh, now we don't want that guy anymore. Those aren't really that attractive of options to me versus if the Vikings were able to sign a Will Fries.

Is he as good as Joe Tooney? Right now, no. Is he as good as Joe Tooney was three years ago? Not even close. But he's like 27. So you're looking at four or five years out of that player as opposed to just one year and a big expense. If they want a one-year guy, Zeitler went for 6 million bucks last year. Those one year older guys usually don't make that much

money. Yeah, I'm I'm conflicted. I think it's always good if you could trade late round pitch for starters. But the thing is we don't know if Jonah, like, Tooney, we can pretty much guarantee he's going to just slot in and be good for the season. But Jonah Jackson, he kind of reminds me of Tevin Jenkins. It's like, good player, but the question's always going to be,

can they stay healthy? So it's, I don't know. It's a little questioning, but I'm just happy they're they're addressing the their needs and being aggressive about it. And as far as draft wise goes, I think Will Campbell or Memboo were like everyone had the Bears taking one of them in every single mock draft I've seen. But after this, it kind of opens up some more flexibility. And for me, I'm kind of looking at Ash and Gentie. I know they have a lot of other needs, but it's not often you get a

generational player like that. And especially with Ben Johnson, who lives through the run game and through the offensive linemen. So I think that made sense. But if you do that, that D line is looking rough. And maybe it's just because I don't know a lot about Mike Green or Mike L Williams yet, or some of the other guys that are kind of projected to be up for grabs at 10. But I don't know, Gentie seems intriguing to me now. Gentie is a wild card of the draft. I guess the is the hype really going to live up to it?

Is it going to be a Jameer Gibbs type of situation where he is drafted high and he's the exception or Bijon Robinson? I guess the recent years has proven that there usually is a team that wants to do that. I was thinking, if you're the Vikings, what do you want the Bears to do? Do you want them? Because there's a part of me that says yeah You want them to ignore all their defensive needs and spend it on a running back? But then you got as I said the night they drafted Jameer Gibbs

It's like I know Vikings fans are kind of laughing at the Lions for drafting Jameer Gibbs But you have to play against them and if he's good, it's gonna be a problem So I kind of look at it the same way and they can use tackle. I mean, they kind of need a lot of stuff. Ben Johnson is not taking over a team that, hey, like you're ready to go, you're all set. They have a bunch of needs. What else you got?

Who's next? Rapid fire. So Joey Bosa has been released from the Chargers. How do you feel about him as a player and who do you think will be interested in grabbing him? I think Joey Bosa at his peak is one of the best players in the NFL, but his peak was just so limited by the injuries and that stinks. It just kind of reminds me of, you know, some old school guys like a Terrell Davis or, I

mean, if you go way back, like running backs are kind of this guy a lot, like a Gale Sayers, you know, like you just have through history I don't know why those are the names that came to mind, but through history you have a lot of players That's why it's so hard to make the Hall of Fame Who flash and are great for a short amount of time or even a decent amount of time? But they're nowhere near a Hall of Fame caliber player and that's probably Bosa, that you would have ranked him as a top five pass rusher. He was, I think he reset the market when his contract came up the first time.

And then it never worked because he just kept getting injured time and time again. He's not somebody that, I mean, I know the Vikings are very set at that position. He's not their type of guy, but he's not somebody that you would wanna give any kind of big contract to. It's just too risky. And he'll go under that list of if only he had been healthy Bo Jackson is another one

If only he had been healthy, what type of numbers would he have put up? What type of career? I think it would have been a lock for the Hall of Fame had he remained healthy But nonetheless ends up injured and that contract just didn't end up working out for them. Yeah It's crazy how at one point in his career, it's like if he were to hit the open market, the NFL world would have gone crazy. And now it's kind of like, eh, he's 30. He's only played 28 out of the 51 regular season games in the last three years. So it's like, where does he really fit in? And I would love to see him just go to San Francisco and play with his brother,

just because I had an older brother who played sports and my parents always talked about how was their dream to see us on the field together. So I think it would just be cool for them and their family, but also on the football side, they need help too. So, but if that doesn't happen, I would hate this for this to happen, but maybe the Eagles, um, Brandon Graham's old and Josh sweat might leave. And I don't think they need some super stud off the edge, but I think they

need a rotational guys that can go get good reps. And I think he could do exactly that. That's the type of thing that somebody like Joey Bosa does and sometimes historically it's worked really well where a guy is at the end of his career and just sort of shows up on another team and like Chris Long did that with the was it with the Eagles where he showed yeah in 17 where he showed up and won the Super Bowl with them and it happens all the time with these veteran type of players the Patriots. The Patriots used to do it with a bunch of guys.

Yeah, Robert Quinn, right? Where they would just pick up somebody at the end and give them a shot. And it worked out. And that's kind of like one of the benefits of being that team that's attracting top players is that you can also get some guy to say, how about for five million bucks I just show up? I got lots of money. I really want to just try to win a Superbowl with you.

You're trying to be that team if you are the Vikings. All right, next up. Next up, I have a Javon Hargrave because he was released by the 49ers. Is he someone that the Vikings fans should have their eye on? I think that they should, yes. And someone asked about that earlier and that's I knew he Was coming up so that's why I didn't answer your questions, but I

Think so so last year he got hurt two years ago He was a beast and what I really like the combination of is on the defensive tackle Group having a veteran and that's why I brought up somebody like Jonathan Allen as a very small type of contract to bring in but i look at the same way here where it's a one year type of contract you bring him in. And you hope that you get your seven rate sax and then he finds it and he stays healthy but you're not investing a ton and you also draft a guy. a ton and you also draft a guy. So you have someone developing someone there to take over that spot and they've been developing like Levi Drake Rodriguez. They've been developing Jalen Redmond who is good for them in a very small amount of

snaps last year. But those guys are long shots for being huge difference makers. So you want to draft one fairly high first three rounds and then bring in a veteran of some kind who you know Can guarantee you some pressure and then you just have to hope that Hargrave does not get hurt But when he was a hundred percent healthy, he was really good I think one of the biggest and one of the most difficult things for all these teams this year is One of the biggest trends in free agency is how many guys miss 2024? I mean like like Asante Samuel

Jr. There's a bunch of them. Will Fries is one of them. James Daniels on the offensive line is another one. Will Hernandez who I've brought up. I mean there's a ton of these guys who have all had the injury last year that is kind of one of the reasons that they're ending up in free agency. So I think it's totally fine that if they want to go out and get someone like Hargrave, I like that idea, but I, I wouldn't pay a ton for it because we're talking about someone who is 32 years old, maybe 33. Yeah, he's 32. And I feel like a bunch of free agents this year have that,

but like, like they, they have a group, they're, they're a good player. They have great history, but, but they got hurt or but this. So he's just another one of those guys coming off the torn tricep, but he rushes the passer really well. And I think that's going to be what NFL teams target more, especially after the Eagles situation. So I think he's very similar to Jonathan Allen. He could come in, be a rotational guy, but I don't think he's the sole problem solver. And Scott mentions that Hargrave is not part of the comp pick formula. Thank you, Scott, for paying attention to that.

As all of you know, that I try not to and just wait till they announce them. But anyway, so just because he was cut. There we go. Hey, how long did it go? There's the sirens. I tried to get a quick mute. It's becoming a staple of the show. Is your nose running tonight? Are you good? No, I think I'm doing. Yeah. Oh, okay. All right. Those are becoming like your thing. You know how on the office? Are you good? No, I think I'm doing Yeah. Oh, okay. All right. Those are becoming like your thing. You know how on the office? Are you an office guy? Have you watched the office? Okay, fair enough. We've moved. It's funny. Like now all of a sudden, it's like an old show. And in my brain, that's a newer show, because the old show is like

Seinfeld. And that's how it'll work for you someday. But in the office, the intern says or the temp in the office, the intern says, or the temp in the office says, my main goal was to never be known for anything. And then he starts a fire while he's cooking a panini or something in the microwave. And so then they start calling him, you know, something. And now he's known as the guy who started the fire. So like you're the guy who has the sirens and the runny nose or whatever. But anyway, let's let's move on.

I think we agree on Javon Hargrave. He would be a good target for the Vikings. Who's up next? Yeah, I think sniffle gate will go down as all-time purple insider conspiracy. But the next one you touched on Tyler Lockett earlier, but there's so many free agent wide receivers. I was just who would you like to see the Vikings target?

Well, who's on your list here? Because we got we got locket. There's and I Mentioned let me let me look and let me go to over the cab the trustee over the cap Yeah, which if it didn't melt computers, I would have it up all the time But I you can you only get like 30 seconds before I hear the fans come on in my computer You can, you only get like 30 seconds before I hear the fans come on in my computer. So, oh, while DeMarcus Robinson is an interesting name, he kind of torched the Vikings. Darius Slayton is about to get a lot of money. Elijah Moore is only 25, but also might not be any good. Um, yeah, there's, you know, there's a lot of these players who I think you wait till, you know,

who I actually do like for them is Diami Brown he's another one of those like I was talking about earlier there's that quickness that get the ball in his hand we saw that from Washington they might keep him because of that because he really emerged at the end of the season that that position for me is like wait until three weeks into free agency and then you got some guys with agents who are going, all right, we don't have a job and okay, we're gonna need to go somewhere.

Oh, how about a $2.5 million on a one year deal? And you bring in somebody who's got some talent. Jim asked if I heard anything about the Vikings in Breeze Hall. I mean, I haven't, but I didn't see whatever rumor maybe you saw, but they do have to investigate the trade market or any way that they can get running backs because running back is not a position that free agency is stacked with. I did see that there are

people now who think that Najee Harris is not going back to Pittsburgh, but he is likely in my mind to get overpaid. And just a dude asked about Najee Thompson. I don't know about a return for Najee Thompson. Sometimes with a guy like that, you know, they're in the league kind of just barely and they get an injury and it's hard to get back in. So I don't know. Yeah, Seinfeld did wrap up 26 years ago.

Not only that, but also Curb Your Enthusiasm also has had a long run and that wrapped up. So now, I mean, we have that whole Larry David, his show, and then his second show and both of them are done. So it's, you know, it's been a long time. You're getting old, Matt. I know, yeah, no, it's absolutely true. But I think that there's a point where you just are like, okay, that's fine. Like that's how it's going to be.

I think where you go kicking and screaming and everybody who's, everyone who remembers Seinfeld can chime in on this. It's probably like 34, where you go, all right, I'm good. Like, I'm like, okay, a little, a little creaky. Okay. Maybe some players in the NFL sons got drafted who I remember, but like, we're good, we're good. Hey, there's still some players who are my age in the league.

You get to 38 and it's like one punter and Aaron Rogers are the only people who are older than you and you go, all right. I, you know, and like you said, I mean, 26 years ago was the end of Seinfeld and I'm still making Seinfeld references. Uh, I made some joke about uncle Leo's eyebrows the other day and, you know, had to explain that to my wife and like, yeah, that wrapped up a long time ago. So yep, I, that that's when, and once you get past that, and then it's, whatever, man. And when you're the intern,

that's like part of the rite of passage is to listen to the old man explain to you, back in my day, Dan Marino threw a heck of a ball. That's how you learn. I don't know how we got to this from old people, Jevon Hargrave, did he do this to us? What else you got? Oh, receivers.

Yeah, so somebody you like. You're trying to get past being sniffle guy and onto receiver guy. This is our goal tonight. So who do you want? Yeah. You're not getting Chris Godwin. That's not happening.

But I think in the same kind of bracket or lane as them are guys like Keenan Allen or Tyler Lockett. Because I'm thinking about JJ McCarthy and you mentioned how they throw bombs to Addison and Jefferson. So it would be nice to have one of those older vets that are just know the game, know where to be and be his right hand man. But if not, I wasn't thinking about Dorch. I have a hard time saying that name, but Dorch is interesting to me. Where is he at? Marquise Brown, some of these fast guys

that just have a bunch of like natural talent, but haven't really seen a lot of production in the league yet. I think Kevin O'Connell could turn those into great third receivers. So so Jake says Najee Harris is extremely overrated. So the hard thing about I'm not disagreeing with you, but the hard thing about running backs and evaluating them with their stats.

And I've seen him play a little, but not like watched 100 games. So we're looking at the numbers with someone like Najee Harris is that environment impacts these guys so much. Like if we look at Saquon Barkley, what was he averaging before he left the Giants? I think 3.9 yards per carry. In this year, he had one of the most prolific years ever.

Now I'm not saying Harris is that, but he was a first round draft pick and the Steelers have not thrown the football effectively since what year? I mean, literally 2018 was the last time they were a good passing game. I do wonder how that affects Najee Harris's numbers. Not, I don't wonder enough to pay him $15 million a year.

I just wonder if there was a team that maybe, you know, had the top receiver in football and didn't face very many heavy boxes and stuff. And I have to look that up on the next gen stats, how often Harris faced the heavy box. I'll do that. You get to your next player, I'll do that. I'm gonna look that up.

Okay. Well, my next player is actually my last player, unfortunately, but we have Trey Hendrickson. The Bengals are allowing him to see trade options. And I was wondering where you think he'll end up at. I think Trey Hendrickson. OK, so I've got the Najee Harris stat. One, two, three, four, five fifth most heavy boxes, which means eight players in the box, fifth highest percentage in the league. The only ones that were higher were Gus Edwards

of the Chargers, I imagine he was their short yardage back. He didn't run a lot, a hundred times. Jordan Mason, so the 49ers always face heavy boxes. Derrick Henry and Ray Davis of Buffalo were the only guys higher than Najee Harris. And let me see if I can find where is Aaron Jones in this. It can't be very high. Yeah, Aaron Jones.

So how about this? This is crazy stat for you. This is why running backs are weird. I'll get to Trey Henderson. Najee Harris, this is why I love stats. 30, no, 26% of the time, 27% of the time faced eight men in the box. Aaron Jones was only 18% and Cam Akers was only 18%.

I think that that matters to the conversation that he was one of the five guys that was facing the most defenders because no one takes Russell Wilson seriously as a quarterback. And he probably did have, and another thing that affects yards per carry is short yardage as Nano Joe brings up.

The Vikings did not use their running backs at all in short yardage, which is gonna help your yards per carry. Like, oh, he averaged 4.5, that's pretty good. Okay, but they never used him on fourth and one, third and two, second and one, like to try to get a first down. They used Harris all the time in those spots.

So that's just the kind of caveat second and one like to try to get a first down they used Harris all the time in those spots, so That's just the kind of caveat when we talk about someone being overrated or not as good as we think that environment affects that Trey Hendrickson and where can he go? Did you have targets thought up before you asked about Trey Hendrickson? The main one and this is kind of why I brought up Gentia 10 earlier, was the Bears. Even though the biggest concern with that move is that they kind of turn into a win-now team if they make that trade, because they already made the two trades for linemen. This one would cost them even more than a fifth, and a sixth, fourth, and a sixth, fourth and a sixth. So it would kind of change the mindset of their team, I guess, but I think it would fit perfectly in that defense, especially with the familiarity

with Dennis Allen. They need pass rush badly. Whether you're win now mode or not, I mean, depends on how much somebody's willing to trade for him. I think that when you get this far in the off season, it's hard to peel away a first round pick from anybody. So you're not giving up the 10th overall pick

for anything almost, because you wanna draft that player, you want that rookie contract, you want that to be your shining star of your future if you're drafting in the top 10. You're looking for a pro bowler if you're swinging in the top 10. And the amount of money that you have to pay someone like Trey Hendrickson is lowers the price because you're saying, okay, well, yeah, we can get this great player, but we're not getting them for free. We got to pay him a bunch of money. And that means second round, third round picks.

If you're Chicago, yes, it does jolt you into win now mode, but I think they have to be. I think when you get historically second, third season for young quarterbacks, you're in the league. It's time. Like there's third season. What I found, I researched this one time to try to look at, it actually might've been looking at Sam Darnold or like what the odds were of somebody taking the jump past their third season. They're not great by the way. It doesn't happen very often. Usually though, they need at least three full years for us to tell like that, you know, is he good or is he bad at the quarterback position? So I think with Caleb Williams I mean full year of starting already you hired a new coach who's supposed to be there like you should be in that

Add as much talent as you can and not only that I mean that team has just been such a laughingstock for so long at some point You've got to do something to try and make that work the Montez sweat-Sweat trade kind of worked and it didn't, like it did in the way that he's good, it didn't in the way that it didn't change their fate. But Sweat and Hendrickson drawing the attention, like I think it's a good idea for them. And it just kind of, also another team is the Lions.

The Lions with their D line, if they can find a partner across from Aiden Hutchinson, well, he's still on his rookie contract or he's gonna sign, did he sign an extension yet? Whenever he signs his extension, he'll be expensive, but he won't be expensive right away, which kind of keeps them in their window to win. And as long as they're in that window

where they could still spend some cap space, those guys are either just starting the contracts or not on those contracts yet. It's go time for them They were trying to chase down miles garrett. They went and got zedaria smith last year Like you can guarantee they'll be in and this just speaks to I mean the vikings they're in tough like this division is tough because every single one of these players that comes up The lions are involved the bears are involved and it would make a lot of sense for either one of them. Brett says, how do you think Vikings interest is in?

Cousin Jeffrey. What am I thinking? Oh, Seinfeld cousin Jeffrey. I'm going to have to think on that reference. I'm only I'm only like a B plus on Seinfeld. I'm an A plus. I think on early Simpsons, cousin Jeffrey. I'm gonna have to look this up.

You got no other players? No other rumors? I'm busy. I mean I had Max Crosby and Zach Bond but not much to say other than they got paid. Raiders are a little interesting. They also made the move for Allerge Kappa so I feel like they're kind of making waves in the right direction. Sorry, cousin Jeffrey like the really boring guy. Yeah, okay. Okay, I gotcha. Sorry, you're gonna have to watch some old TV. Yeah, the Raiders, what are they signaling

by getting Max Crosby? That was my only thing is they got him to agree to this pretty early before free agency. What did they know? And then he comes out and says, yeah, I'd love to have Aaron Rodgers here. What does he know? Are they going to bring out

and they're going to bring her in? I mean, may God have mercy on whatever team decides to do that. I was going to do it. I just his overall performance on paper was not that horrendous in comparison to other quarterbacks, some of the really bad quarterbacks, but it was bad. It was, we saw it, it was not good. He doesn't have what he used to have.

And if you were gonna bring in a quarterback, so this happened to Favre. Favre went to the Jets and he got injured and he didn't have what he used to have and they didn't have a lot around him and they fell apart. And then he comes to the Vikings, he's healthy, they've got a great team, they've got a great offensive line, Favre has this great year.

And so when it looked like he was completely washed, he was able to reinvent himself the following season. It's not impossible that Rodgers could do that. At the same time. What are the Raiders going to do for him that gives him a chance in that division? One of the toughest divisions in football. Oh, yeah, the Patriots. Hey, that's another team, the Patriots. Like, how about how about we do this impromptu before we wrap up the show?

Impromptu list of the teams that will be, let's do five, that will be mentioned every single day for every single free agent, every single trade to the point where like, can we just get the free agency? Because I'm tired of hearing about my number one team is the Raiders for just being the rate like us talking about, can they tag and trade? I got tired of myself talking about Darnold to the Raiders. But even yesterday I did a radio hit in Vegas where they're asking me, that's an appearance, where they're asking me like, hey, you know, should we get Darnold? That kind of thing.

Like I'm sick of the Raiders. My guy Q Myers, who's the host out there, is a rising star at ESPN. He's a great guy. So I was happy to go on his show, but like I'm so sick of the Raiders. They haven't done anything since oh two. Forget them. They're they're number one. Who's number two? Who's your number two? Oh, number two. See, I have a team. I don't know if they're

number two. I was thinking of the Cowboys. Oh, yes. CD Lamb and Dax just reconstructed their contract. It gives them a lot more money to work with. So I feel like they have to be aggressive now. So the Cowboys are a great answer because there's that meme with the Undertaker where he's in the coffin and then he pops back up. Hopefully that's at least a recent enough reference on the internet that you'll get. Yeah, I got that.

So it's like the people in the national media who can't stop talking about the Cowboys ever. And then they create cap space and they're like out of the coffin, like we're back. We're talking about the Cowboys with every single player again. You're like, Oh, I wish you stayed in there. And then CD lamb said something on Twitter, maybe about how he, when he restructures contract, someone said,

well, why would you do that? Well, first of all, a lot of the restructures are written into the contract beforehand. It's not an unselfish move or anything. They could just do it whenever they want. Don't tell anybody. That's the truth. They used to do that. Some team tweeted like, what an unselfish move by our player. And like, it is a contract. Anyway, not the point. The Cowboys doing that though, probably is for a reason. Because what comes along with that normally is cash.

Usually it is a conversion of what is it? Base salary to bonus, which means that you've got to give the guy the cash. I think that's how that works. But usually it's if your ownership is willing to put the money upfront to restructure the deal, then you can do it. So why are they doing it?

Whom are they doing it for? Do they have a trade in mind? Do they have a signing in mind? So I think that is a good selection. The Bears we've talked about already, they would be on the list for me. The Patriots would also be another team. Frabel takes over.

You know he's not the same way we're talking about with the Bears. As soon as you have that rookie quarterback past his first year is go time baby. So they need to be in on everybody and they probably will be. Who else are we missing? You got some nominations. I think the Vikings should be in there The play if they will I don't know but they should be in that conversation They if assuming Donald leaves, but especially if Donald leaves and we're talking about the future cap space

they will be in on every player maybe not as much on the trade stuff because This is another thing when people said well You know, why didn't they trade a draft pick for this guy or that guy? You're like, oh you already don't have a lot of draft picks I don't know if there's too many more that you want to part ways with if you ever want to draft and some of Us have draft simulations to do here. I Just did one today purple insider football. So Oakland Raiders Evan says that's what they are until they win a playoff game on this show

Well great stuff clay. good job. Appreciate it a good list of players that are in the news that we could break down with Vikings angles and For tomorrow I did say I'll go live every day until they figure this out I was kind of hoping it would be faster So maybe we'll see Friday nights usually not that great of a night to go live people have lives. So we'll see about tomorrow if there's any news though, even even a Theo Jackson signing level news, and I'll go live tomorrow but if there's no news pertaining to the Vikings, probably not and we'll go from there definitely Sunday night. As we're on the precipice of free agency for sure Monday night free agency That'll be a big big big show recapping everything that happens on Monday. It'll be awesome So great job with your extended airtime clay. I think you earned it did did well and will certainly be more of that on the way as well as your writing over on the oh, you know what I

Forgot to tell people about the hair thing. I forgot the, you almost see, this is one of your jobs. See, this is, you gotta be able to multitask in this league, Clay. One of your jobs is to text me and say, don't forget about that ad read. And also the comment section, this is your job too. You guys didn't do that either.

So I will say good night to Clay, and then I will inform our good listeners about our sponsor and uh, then we'll put a wrap on it. But so if anybody's got last second questions, this is your time. Throw your questions in there. Thanks, clay. I appreciate you, man. Thank you.

Great job. Intern clay doing very well. It's it's winners only with the intern position. There's a lot of pressure on him. My last two interns did great, so he can't screw it up. All right, so I got to tell you about hims. You notice the ball cap? Well, you know, we're talking about being old, the hairline, it comes for everybody, or at least a lot of people. Clay will get there someday. of people, clay will get there someday. But it doesn't mean your hair has to disappear.

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Restrictions apply. See the website for details and safety information. So there you go. He must've used the hair tie. Well, yeah, that's like Clay's got the hair of like the Homer Simpson episode. He threw a way back there when Homer grew his hair back. That's what I think of that every single time with him. It's a great episode. The guy gives him the hair stuff.

Then all of a sudden he's great at work and everybody respects him and loves him. And then his hair loss, you know, goes back and then no one respects him anymore It's great episode go watch it from 1993. I think Is the Colts defensive tackle who got let go worth a look in free agency Rayquan Davis? I think it was and the answer is probably not There's a lot of at the defensive tackle position

There are a lot of just guys and the Vikings have had just guys for a very long time. Just he's a guy and he's in the league and he can sort of do it. But is he a difference maker? Is he a game changer? Like, not really. And so there's a lot of that. At that position, Rayquan Davis is just another one of those types of players. So the way this is going to play out for the Vikings, I think we get an answer very soon on Byron Murphy Jr.

This may have been our answer on Cam Bynum may have, we should get an answer on Harrison Smith. There might be a, I don't know. I don't know if there's a press conference on Harrison Smith or not, if he's coming back. He He he just isn't that guy. Like he's not a he's not going to do the Jordan thing where he sends out a fax and it just says I'm back number 22. Like that's not Harrison Smith. It's not what he does.

It would be baller if he did. It's a good suggestion. If Harrison is taking suggestions to do that, but I just don't think he's going to so we'll just hear it'll be like Tom Pelser tweets Harry's coming back and that's it and then we'll just hear. It'll be like Tom Pelserro tweets, Harry's coming back and that's it. And then we'll talk to him in OTAs or something. Or if he retires, hopefully there is a press conference

so we can hear the whole thing so we can talk about it and all that. But we will get these news items soon. And Aaron Jones, same deal. We're gonna have a lot of information over the next couple of days. I have no plans to leave the home I've got a sub shop around the corner you guys know I got Taco Bell and so I'm gonna be maybe stepping out to go there

but nothing else this time of year the schedule is totally clear and by the way if you get a chance to watch any of the Big Ten tournament my wife is broadcasting it in fact right now she's doing a game on Big Ten Network. So I am going to go watch that so get a chance and Reminder one more time the Friday mailbags coming out tomorrow purple insider football. It's a great way to support the show Sometimes you guys ask how can you do that sign up for the newsletter over there? So thanks everybody for your time and We will catch you all very soon. Depends. If we get news tomorrow, then, then I'll be back. Um, so really appreciate it and take care of everybody football.