Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Trey Lance traded to the Cowboys reaction

Episode Date: August 26, 2023

Matthew Coller reacts to the news that Trey Lance has been traded to the Dallas Cowboys, ending months of rumors and speculation that the Vikings could be a team to make a move for the former No. 3 overall pick. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hey everybody, welcome to another episode of Purple Insider. Matthew Collar here. I am inside the Vegas airport. I just finished up a live podcast inside Circa Hotel. Just finished it up, wrapped it up, pushed, finished, got my stuff, got in the car to go to the airport. And you're not going to be surprised by this, but there was some breaking news as soon as I got in the car to head to the airport, which turned out to be Trey Lance actually being traded to the Dallas Cowboys and not the Minnesota Vikings. So you have probably been listening to me talk about that for a couple of days. And now we finally have resolution as soon as I am about to leave. But I figured I had a couple of minutes here and there is some sound in the background, maybe some slots ringing and stuff,

but we could just talk about it for just a second. But I just want to thank the karma viking football gods who constantly break news right after i've done podcasts it's been a while since they have done that to me but here we go so anyway uh i think that the biggest opinion here to have is that if you wanted trey lance before and you saw that the cowboys only gave up a fourth-round pick, you probably are feeling right now like they should have done it, like the Vikings should have pulled that trigger and made that trade. But if you were against it, you probably look at where he went, the team that he went to, to likely, I mean, be a backup for sure for this year, but I'm not even really sure entirely of the logic of the Cowboys

unless they are thinking in the future that dak prescott is eventually going to be too expensive or if it's some sort of message to dak prescott i really don't understand quite their logic but maybe they're just giving up a pick with the you never know type of mentality which again if you're for the vikings doing something like this, then you're going to look at this and say, then they probably should have because it wasn't that much. But from my perspective, I think that the train had left the station

for the Vikings to do this with their timing. If they had given up a fourth-round pick, I think the way I would have felt is, all right, that's fine, and it's going to be a bit of a distraction for a few days. But aside from that, it's not going to be that big of a deal. It's not like they gave up a ton and, you know, I guess he's just going to be the backup and we'll see what happens in the future. But, you know, it wasn't a second round pick. It wasn't a third round pick. It's still at the same time, I don't think that there should be any

regrets that they missed some huge, incredible opportunity for the next great NFL quarterback. It doesn't really change my mind based on who traded for him because it seems more like Dallas traded for him just in the case that somewhere down the line, who knows when, Trey Lance could someday be their starting quarterback if Dak Prescott gets hurt, if they move on from Dak Prescott. There was a bunch of teams that could have easily topped this price that could have looked at him as a potential future starting quarterback, like, say, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers or somebody like that. And I'm sure that every team had a discussion about whether this was a good idea and all the teams that are without

future answers, a quarterback decided not to match this price and a team that is already does have an answer. It decided they wanted to pay the price. So, I mean, I guess it says to me that yes, the Vikings could have made this happen had they really wanted to. They must not have really wanted to. They must have evaluated it as well and said that it was more about the player and the potential for him to become a starting quarterback down the road for them that would move them against it. And also the fact that you have to sit him for a year, which means another year of his rookie quarterback contract wasted. Of course, Dallas is going to do the same thing, but that's what it would be, right,

is a whole year of him just sitting behind Kirk Cousins. And you could say that he needs to develop, and that is true. And I am sorry about the background noise. But that is absolutely true, that he does need to sit behind someone and develop, I guess. But he also needs to play. That's what he needs more than anything. So he's not going to a place where he's going to get an opportunity to play right away. I don't think that's that great for him either.

If there's anything there, it's going to come eventually when he gets a bunch of reps, a bunch of opportunities to really, truly find out in games. But it seems like nobody in the league believed that giving him that chance was the right way to go about it. And I think that so the Vikings were probably in alignment with most teams and not making this deal. And now we move forward. But now we know that this is not the answer, that Trey Lance is not going to be the guy

for the Minnesota Vikings in the future. That dream is dead. That dream is dead. That discussion is dead. And I was laughing about a couple of things. One, how many hours we spent talking about this possibility. And then there was a real legitimate chance for the Vikings to actually do it. And they decided, no, we're not going to do it. That's not for us.

We're going to move on. So all that discussion, I guess, was something that was never really considered or at least past maybe March where it would have made a lot of sense. Had they done it then? Had they sent a fourth for Trey Lance in March and then traded Kirk Cousins? I would have been all in on that decision and play him for the entire year, find out if he can play or not. But once we went past that, I think it was over for the idea of Trey Lance coming here because Kirk Cousins was going to be their quarterback for the season, and then you're almost done with his rookie quarterback contract,

and it just doesn't really add up unless he becomes the next great quarterback in the league, which seems so, so far away from actually happening that, I don't know, I don't think that all good swings or all swings are good swings, and I think this would have been a bad swing. I doubt we ever hear a lot about it again. And if we do, then I'll be surprised. And, I mean, you hope that he does make it that he does prove everybody wrong including the san francisco 49ers who now gave up three first round picks for a fourth

rounder in return and yet still um have one of the strongest rosters in the nfl so that kind of speaks to their uh team building i i guess but uh anyway so r.i.p to that discussion but i have to give credit to a twitter follower who at the very moment that this news broke, tweeted at me, well, it's time to talk about Dak Prescott to the Vikings in 2024. And this is our world. I mean, obviously, it's tongue-in-cheek, so don't crash your car or vomit or whatever if you don't like Dak Prescott. I personally think that Dak Prescott is a really good quarterback, but you know, I don't know if that would make a lot of sense in the future.

Although we've talked about Kyler Murray as well, but that is going to be your life. Anything related to quarterbacks for the next year. I mean, for a while back in 2020, we had skull searching. And Trey Lance was in that discussion too, where we talked about, and that's for the OG listeners of the show, where we discussed different quarterbacks all the time and their options.

And we even had the spinning the wheel of quarterbacks at one point when Kweisi Adafo-Mensa and Kevin O'Connell took over. And that's not going to change the uncertainty of your future at the quarterback position now that Trey Lance is off the table. At least we know one thing that is not going to happen, and that is Trey Lance coming to the Minnesota Vikings. So I figured I would get this take in just before I have to board to head back to Minneapolis to cover the preseason game. We'll discuss this more with Dane Mizutani after the game, because I imagine we won't be doing a super hardcore breakdown. So look forward to that. But I also talked with Vikings fans at Circa with a lot of really fun discussion, not about this because it hadn't

broken yet, but a lot of fun discussion about lots of other topics. So I'll bring that to you now. I won't be whispering at that point and there won't be airport noise. It's just going to be a regular broadcast. So I'll bring that to you now. Thanks so much for listening. And I will see you all back in Minnesota. Hey, everybody. Welcome to another episode of Purple Insider. Matthew Collar from Inside Circa here in Las Vegas.

And I just got back from Stadium Swim. And if you've never heard of what that is, it is a gigantic football-sized, football-field-sized television and a bunch of pools and just a place that is like nothing else you've ever seen before in your life. So that was pretty cool. And I've been hanging out here for a couple of days,

but I'm on my way back very soon, actually right after I do this, to get back for the preseason game. And I know that you all are excited for that post-preseason game podcast, but I will be live on the YouTube channel with Dane Mizutani after the Vikings play the Arizona Cardinals. And we can always talk about what is left to learn going into that game. The answer is not a whole heck of a lot,

but I'm sure there will be some points of discussion as we come out of it. I've also gathered a bunch of Viking fan questions that have been emailed to me, and I'm trying while I'm still doing live broadcasts to also keep doing the fan style that we have done over the summer and everything else where people go to purpleinsider.com. They email their questions or send me a DM on Twitter. So I've gathered a bunch of those to go through. But also, of course, the comment section.

You guys are always welcome and we'll be responding to any of your comments, questions as we wrap up the summer. Really? I mean, you know, after this, after this weekend, it's the cut down day and we'll have the reaction to that and then as soon as that is over with then we're talking about a hardcore vikings bucks preview and we get into week one and then we go from there and then we're off to another season and i always kind of love this time of year where we've just cut we just kind of get a breath we get a second to to just reflect on everything that happened in the summer, take a look at where every team stands, and then all hell breaks loose on that first Sunday. And just going over the Vikings schedule a little bit,

today we were talking about the Survivor Contest, which is one of the reasons that we're here, is that they're promoting their Survivor Contest at Circa, which is insane because they give out $8 million to the winner. That's nuts. And, you know, I've given you the details on the show and so forth, but you have to sign up in Vegas before September 9th and then play from anywhere throughout the season. So back in Minnesota, if that's where you live, but if you've got a chance to make it out here for a real quick trip or coming out here on business or live out the West coast, uh, great to stop by and, you know, jump on into this circus survivor contest. But, you know, we were talking about it earlier and I was just thinking about week one and whether that's a good

idea to pick the Vikings as a team that could survive or not. And the Vikings are going into week one, I think with really their complete team. And that's something to think about too, as we were talking about yesterday for evaluating how this all went and what it meant to the start of the season to the future. And that's where it's kind of broken off into these, these different ways, these different avenues of thinking about what we've gone through this summer with the Vikings. And in one way, you could look at it like the entire team has stayed healthy. They stayed the course with not playing their starters in the preseason. They didn't suffer any major injuries during training camp or during practices, as has happened a handful of times in the recent past under Mike Zimmer, where you would have some sort of injury or whatever

that would alter things or guys just get banged up in practice. It wasn't all his fault. I mean, sometimes random things happen. Offensive linemen get hurt. Nick Easton was out for the year and so forth. So they haven't had that happen. And they're going in as the full version of themselves, which also means that we should evaluate them as the full version of themselves, which also means that we should evaluate them as the full version of themselves and look at this season as you should compete. You should compete for a division. That's the standard that you set. And you're really going in with no excuses for not. And everything that we evaluate on what happens this year, I feel like we've got a fair shot at it, right? When there's an injury or when there's something that happens that really changes the course of a season during training camp, it feels like you are set back from the very outset. And with this offseason, that hasn't been the case. There have been a number of players that have not risen to the occasion during training camp or have not been available that we were looking for them

to take another step and so forth. But nothing else has happened that I would say changed my mind about where this team should go, the bar that we set for them, the wins that we expect from them, but also not a lot changed to really alter how I feel about the weaknesses of this team either. And where they stand in the potential to win the NFC North and all of that. So that's kind of like I was thinking about today as we go into the final preseason game. Just like, all right, let's kind of take a look back and how we feel about it as a whole. And T. Kubler, you're right. James Lynch would probably be unhappy with that. But I think if James Lynch was changing the outcome and again, you know, it's, it's pretty

ruthless toward James Lynch. He was having a good camp and he was going to be a run stuffer for them and part of their defensive line depth. So I won't dismiss James Lynch's role in having that season ending ACL injury, but that shouldn't really change things. And I think that that is a good way to look at this camp, though, and maybe Kevin O'Connell camps in the future, that previous iterations of camp were very intense with Mike Zimmer. And I respected that about Zimmer, that he wanted an intense and super competitive camp. And day after day was like 11 on 11, 11 on 11, run it out there again. And it was reps after reps, after reps, live reps over

and over and over again. And, uh, again, I totally understand why he did that and that that was his style. And it was the style, you know, when he was coming up in the league to be that intense. But also sometimes they went into seasons tired from training camp or banged up from training camp. And I'm not sure that was always the best way to do it. And, you know, with this year and last year, the camps have been largely without a whole lot of controversy or drama to talk about. I mean, the most drama has happened just within the last couple days. Leaked to a reporter that TJ Hawkinson wants a lot of money. You know, breaking news for you guys that that's why he didn't sign an extension yet.

And Justin Jefferson hasn't signed his extension. These are the biggest stories we have other than, well, the backup running back situation is a little questionable. Well, we kind of knew that going into this training camp. Brian Flores has been very aggressive, and it's looked like that defense could be improved just by him and his mentality and his schematic approach.

I think we kind of expected that. And the offense looks like it could be better than last year because of Jordan Addison. And I think we mostly expected that, except for Jordan Addison was so good so quickly. And I've noticed that there's a little psychology to this as Vikings fans because, and you've, you've been beaten down enough to be this way. So I'm not picking on you, but once Jordan Addison was doing really well in training camp, it was like, okay, that's all set onto the next thing.

Let's all talk about Louisine. Let's all talk about the guards because that's all set, but there could be a potential. And I say potential because we don't know once we get into the season, a potential profound effects of him being a successful receiver in the NFL to this offense and to where this goes, maybe not in the same way that Justin Jefferson is, but in the way that having a wide receiver duo, in my mind, is one of the most valuable things in the NFL. And it's not there yet because they haven't done it in the regular season. But that draft pick is looking like there's a better chance than not that they have a receiving duo that they could build on for the future. So that there are things like that that have maybe changed the course of how we feel about them long-term. I guess I assumed that Addison was going to immediately take on a big role

and it would be more notable if he didn't, if it was like Jalen Naylor or Brandon Powell was playing wide receiver three, then that would have been a bigger story. So since we all expect a top draft pick to be good right away, it's much less of a hot topic than it is the guy Louis seen who's struggling. And that's more intriguing that someone is struggling because you ask, why is it the coaching staff? Is it how he's used?

Is it his injury? Is it whatever, whatever, whatever, whatever. And with Jordan Addison, we're not having to ask that question. Maybe there's a Trey Lance point about that. Like when somebody Jordan Addison, we're not having to ask that question. Maybe there's a Trey Lance point about that. Like when somebody is good, you just don't have to ask what happened. So anyway, but I'm very interested in any of your questions and feelings about as we get to training camp, kind of what you took away from this camp. Because my big takeaway was there's always an opportunity in that six weeks or whatever it is for your path to be diverted from where you were headed going into training camp. And the biggest feeling that I'm

coming away with is it wasn't. It was not diverted from where I thought it was going to go. So that's my question for all of you watching live on YouTube. And I also pulled a bunch of questions from emails that I'm going to answer as well. But let me know in the comment section, did this camp and the preseason, which it's over, declaring it over even before the Cardinals game, did it change the way you felt about this team in some way, in any way, about anything? Let me know in the comment section.

I'm going to answer a couple of other questions and then I will circle back to the comment section on that in just a second. So Trey sent me an email and said, by my count, the Vikings play four top tier quarterbacks this season, Hertz, Herbert, Mahomes and Burrow. Which team do you think they have the best chance against? I think the answer is a pretty easy here that it's Justin Herbert. Number one is I think Justin Herbert is wildly talented and I enjoy watching him play football when he's letting loose. But I also think that there is an element of Justin Herbert that holds back a little bit from cutting it loose sometimes. And maybe it's offensive line. Maybe it's scheme. I don't know. But even when the Vikings played against the Chargers, there was a little bit of that where

he made some incredible throws. This was 2021 in Los Angeles. He made some incredible throws. And at the same time, I didn't feel terrified of him. I felt like a lot of it was very standard stuff, a lot of underneath stuff, and then the occasional wild throw. But when you play Mahomes, there's like an inevitability about Mahomes. No matter what you do, he's going to find a way to beat you. And when you play Joe Burrow, he's got receivers that are so wildly excellent that how are you going to cover them? And with Jalen Hurts, how are you going to pressure him? How are you going to cover them? And with Jalen hurts, how are you going to pressure him? How are you going to stop their running game with their offensive line? So there's more surrounding those guys than with the Los Angeles chargers.

And I also feel like, I mean, Jalen hurts, we'll see long-term how good he truly, truly is. But the current iteration of Jalen hurts is a guy with the best supporting cast, probably in the entire NFL. And Joe Burrow's got a case for that as well.

And that, to me, is going to be really, really difficult for the Vikings to battle against, more so than Herbert, even though that's not to downplay. Like, I'd take him as a franchise quarterback based on his talent. But I think that if you're just knocking someone down a little bit, then Justin Herbert would be the answer. And if you throw San Francisco into that, we don't know how good Brock Purdy is going to be, but that would be the other game where yeah, that's a hard one to pick. I did pick, I recently ran back through the W's and L's to see if I would actually come out with 10 and seven, because I've been telling you guys that I'm staying there. And I still did come out with 10 and seven, but I picked the San Francisco game as a win this time. I don't know if I picked it as a win last time, uh, because it's at us bank

stadium and, and because I'm just not really sure how Brock Purdy is going to look or if Sam Darnold is the quarterback at that point, or maybe Trey Lance, maybe they won't trade him. I saw Peter King was on the San Francisco station and he was saying that he wouldn't trade Trey Lance if he was San Francisco. He would just stick with it and see what happens because you can never really predict what's going to happen. I don't know if that's the case or not. I'm sure Trey Lance is asking to be traded, but maybe Peter's got a point. That wasn't really the question. But I think San Francisco is also a notch down from Mahomes, Burrow, and Jalen Hurts. Dave sent in the question, I know how you feel about paying running backs, but is paying a good, not great tight end that much better? Well, so here's the thing about tight ends.

Number one, where they differ from running backs is that they last longer. They don't have this steep and severe drop off the edge of a cliff like running backs. If running backs were able to sustain their production, then signing running backs would actually not be a problem because, and this is why the running backs don't matter thing is so nuanced is because the reason that the Vikings matter thing is so nuanced is because the, the reason that the Vikings moved on from Delvin cook, wasn't just that he's a running back and he costs money. If Delvin cook was doing what he did in 2020, this year, he's worth $10 million or probably more than that. Running backs are valuable. Having a great running game is

valuable. It's really about going forward. I mean, the Titans with Derrick Henry, like have they gotten everything out of that extension? By the age you extend a running back, you're talking about the guy probably going off the other side of a cliff. And that has happened so many times because of the punishment that those running backs take that you don't really want to invest in them. And when it comes to drafting running backs, that's a little more complicated as well, because so many running backs have come from the mid part of the draft to be successful that when you spend a super high pick, and then you realize that a lot of it's out of their hands for one. And the other part is that there's so many that

are mid round picks that have turned out to be good that you probably just shouldn't spend that pick and you should wait. So there's a, there's a lot of complications there with the running back versus the tight end. The way I look at the tight end position as well is that there's, there's tiers to the tight end position that you have your very, very top tier guys who are making the hall of fame. So Travis Kelsey, I don't know if George Kittle is a hall of famer, but he's an all pro. He's a great, great player. And then the next level down has TJ Hawkinson in it.

And you can argue over whether Dallas Goddard is slightly better or whether Mark Andrews is slightly better or very similar. I think they're very similar to what Hawkinson did for the Vikings. And those guys, I think, are hard to replace. I don't think there's very many of them. There's maybe five. And then there's a big guys, I think are hard to replace. I don't think there's very many of them. There's maybe five. And then there's a big gap, I think. And you have a bunch of replacement level players. And Dave wrote a longer explanation of what he means and sort of said, Hey, isn't TJ Hawkinson like Tyler Conklin or something? I don't think that's the case. I think that there is a lot more to TJ Hawkinson than yards per reception. Number one is he didn't break a big run after catch. But the other part of it too,

is that Hawkinson's intelligence and his versatility where he can move to a lot of different places outside wide receiver slot. I mean, these are not things that you can just sort of say, Oh, well that's easy to do. And his chemistry with the quarterback, I don't think that you just sort of, you know, create that out of nowhere. And even though his yards per reception were not that high, there was a lot of successful plays in there where Jefferson's going down the field and you need something else underneath. And it just sticks out to me in my mind. And he had a ton of targets and catches, but I don't know why it sticks out so much. But in Washington, I believe his first catch was like a seven yard reception. And if I told you that, you'd say, well, there's nothing special there, but it was like third and six. And this

is the opposite of kind of some Kyle Rudolph years where you need seven. He was getting you five. It seems like with TJ Hawkinson, if you need seven, he gets you eight. And then there is a run after catch element that did not happen with the way things were designed with the Vikings last year. But he is capable of that. He is capable of being kind of a freight train with the football. So I look at tight end is it's very valuable if you have a good one. That's what linebacker is like. That's what safety is like.

The positional value thing is kind of broad, but at the very top, at the very top level or the slightly second tier down from the top level, I still think those players are much better than a mediocre or average tight end. I think there's a big gap in value there. And that's where TJ Hawkinson exists. Also, when we hear that a player wants too much money, we immediately start to think of reasons why it's not a good idea to sign him.

I think that's like a natural thing to do. But everybody watched TJ Hawkinson fit into that offense last year, right? I mean, there's all sorts of objective measures we can look at. And I laid out the other day, the reason they wouldn't want to make him in that top tier that they wouldn't want to put them with the George Kittle or the Travis Kelsey and

why he is on the second level down. But we all saw how important he was to the offense and how difficult it was for opposing teams when you had multiple wide receivers and him as legitimate weapons. So I don't feel the way about tight ends that I do about running backs about running backs. It's pretty much, even if the guy's the best in the league, I still can't really justify paying him with tight ends. I think that you do. And you know, I know Tom Brady, the Patriots, like maybe our most obvious example of anything to use,

but even, I mean, look at those teams we're talking about like Dallas Goddard. That's a great team. Uh, Travis Kelsey, it's a great team. George Kittle, great team, Rob Gronkowski and Tom Brady over the years, great teams with great tight ends that are really effective. Uh, I think that it's a really, really challenging position for defenses when you have a great one that, or, or a really good one. And that's what we see from that group. So I would not look at it the same way I look at running backs. I don't think you could just find one anywhere. Um, go look at the second half of the league's tight ends beyond that top six or seven. Who are these people? Right. I think there's just a lot of ineffective tight ends playing out there. And, uh, and maybe it comes down to how they feel

about Josh Oliver, or maybe it was just a ploy to put a little pressure on TJ Hawkinson. I also have to consider that as well. Brayden sent me an email that says, how much does the worry of a player being signed for another team increase their chances of making the 53, i.e. Jaron Hall, Tristan Jackson, Luigi Villain? Very few, very few situations. Very few. Maybe one per year. One, if you sign somebody, you've got to put them on the 53.

I think if you completely release them, then someone can sign them. If they end up going through waivers, completely released, and they don't go to your practice squad, I think you can just sign that. Like if they end up going through waivers, completely released and they don't go to your practice squad, I think you can just sign them. But waivers is where other teams can pick them up. And if you pick them up off waivers, then they are going to your 53. So a team has to be so committed to one of your players.

Like, are you so committed to Jaron Hall? If you're another team that you're going to pick him up once upon a time, Kansas city was that committed to Tyler think pen, but how many times can we think of this actually happening? As long as I've been here, there was a linebacker who was a seventh rounder a few years ago. I forget the guy's name went to Kansas state. I mean, I don't know. Like, did you miss him? It's, it's pretty rare. It's pretty rare that anybody picks up your guy now where I think so. Tristan Jackson. I don't think anyone would do that.

Luigi Villain, especially since these preseason games, they're not really showing a lot of cards. The one guy I'm very interested in, though, that this could happen is Andre Carter, the second. That is an interesting one because a lot of teams in the NFL were intrigued by him as a UDFA. So would someone try to pick him up? That's like a rebuilding team, maybe. But he looks so raw this year. He looked really nowhere close to being an NFL player. And I think if you look at the preseason reps, no one's going to say, oh, yeah, wow, let's pick him up.

We've got a chance here. So I think he'll get cut as well. But, yeah, I mean, there's always a chance, but I don't think it's a very big worry. Most of the time I remember hearing, or maybe it was said out loud. I can't remember about Tashaun Bauer. And one of the reasons that they cut Brian Robinson is because they thought Tashaun Bauer might be picked up. So even then worrying about it is just not even a good idea. Most of the time, I can't think of too many players who were those waiver pickups that ever turned out. So I don't think that's a huge, huge worry, uh, from Paul. Is it at all possible that they will

free up a roster spot by keeping three at running back Madison, Alexander, or I'm yeah, that's his name, Madison Chandler and ham. Um, yeah, I'm trying to think like how they would, well, so they could, yeah, they could do this for the 53 purposes for cut down day on Tuesday, they could keep three running backs with plans to have more put someone on the practice squad, but also acquire another one, uh, whether it's a trade, probably not a trade. Usually they happen before the cutdowns, but maybe a trade or just picking somebody else's running back up that they dropped that the Vikings evaluated because they're evaluating every team's

preseason and what's said in practice reports and everything else. They're paying attention to all that stuff. So if there is a player that they liked and have evaluated previously that they liked, who's had a good preseason at running back, and they think that's going to be more effective than what they have now, which is a very questionable room, then I could see them doing that. So cut down the 53, then pick up somebody else the next day. We, we always react to the 53 and then by the next two or three days, it usually changes. And I wouldn't be terribly shocked if they did do those cutdowns.

But I also think that Kenny Wong was on the team and I, I'm going to have to remember the rule here, but I think the guy has to be on the 53 and then you could send him to IR. If you want to, if that's his issue, I don't really know how long he's going to be out. We haven't known the whole time. He just hasn't practiced at all. I still have a tough time seeing them just straight up cutting Kenny Wong Wu. Somebody asked the other day about

surprise cuts and Kenny Wong Wu was the only answer I could really come up with. His injury has been certainly a problem, but he's the best. I don't know. Is he the best, the top five kick returner in the league? I can't name the other four. So, but he's one of the best kick returners in the league. He's a guy that's good. That can get you a couple of scores a year, potentially at a, at a great season, but is a weapon back there. And I don't think that the kick return rules should change it at the same time. this was his big chance to play in the backfield and he was just out the entire time can you cut a guy because he was out i mean maybe if they're that frustrated by him being out i would rather have him on the team to kick return and

then be an option in the backfield even if it takes a few weeks for him to come along then just cut him to keep something else on the 53. A few more of these, and then I'll get to you guys' comments. Don't worry. Trevor says, well, you're very plugged in. Curious why you don't seem to, quote,

break news on the show. Are you trying not to step on the toes of your colleagues, most of whom contribute to your show? Yeah, I think that there's, well, the second part is, no, of course not. That's not the issue. Well, there really isn't an issue. There's a lot of different ways to do this job, to be a reporter. And one of those ways is to be like Tom Pelissero, who used to have my job at 1500 ESPN. That's where he broke in. That's where I broke in. And so there's some, I don't know, some synergy there with Pellicero. I'm very happy for him and all of his success. And what Tom has done over the years is he has worked really hard to build himself a network of people in the league that he can talk with. Right. And so he gets a lot of that information. And this Adam Schefter, Ian Rappaport, all of these guys, same thing. They get it all the information going on with the team at a given time.

So we're talking about watching all the practice, going to the press conferences, interviewing the players, interviewing the coaches. And that's a different kind of path. And, of course, I talk to people. And, of course, there's a lot of things that are told to me and so forth that shape the way that I do the show. But I'm not trying to report transactional news. So if the Vikings sign somebody or whatever, that's not really the goal for me. It's to really paint the entire picture of the organization to you guys and bring back things to discuss that are really interesting to me and then go live and talk. And it all takes a lot of time to gather all that

information, write it and everything else. So that's where I'm spending my time. I don't generally talk to agents and try to get them to tell me when the Vikings are signing this player or that player. Most of the work is done kind of boots on the ground and then have a good time with you guys talking about it. So it's just a different style. There's lots of different types of reporters. There are columnists who go from team to team, like a Chip Scoggins or something,

that they just write their opinions or write features, and they're not breaking news, but they're focusing on their features. So there's space in this game for all sorts of different types of reporters, but that's, that's really the main reason why it's not transactional news, but it's certainly a lot of news that I bring back to you guys that I've gathered. I mean, it's things that people are saying it's practice reports on what's going on. Um, it's real barometer of the team on a daily basis, which does take, you know, talking to a lot of people and being there every single day. So yeah, it's just a little different. It's a great question. It's just a little different from what something like a breaking news reporter will do. Head coach 21 asks if Darisaw plays all 17 games, will he make all pro this year?

Depends on Trent Williams and his health. If Trent Williams is healthy, then it's always hard. Andrew Thomas has become one of the best in the league. I think he's got a chance. There's five or six guys who are fighting for it, but I don't, I really, I mean, it doesn't matter whether he does or not. I mean, I know you're asking because you want him to be recognized for his excellence, but what you have there is a foundational franchise player. And I have not seen anything from training camp or heard anything

that would make me think it won't be like it was last year. Um, Derrisa is a very hard worker who has put in all of his preparation to become the player he is. And he's gone from kind of a raw type of player when he got here to very quickly a refined left tackle. And you just cannot replace that. I mean, let every, there's a trickle down to everything. If you don't have, just for example, if you don't have a running game, then it stresses your passing game. Like this is how football works. If you don't have a just for example, if you don't have a running game, then it stresses your passing game. Like this is how football works. If you don't have a left tackle, it stresses everything. It means you have to try to help them, which means you can't maximize your tight end, which

means that you can't give help elsewhere, which means that, you know, teams can rush you from other places. And if you have any other weakness, you're screwed. We've seen that with like TJ Clemmings in the past. Having that player is so important and so valuable to just put them on an Island. And this is the impressive things about a guy like him is that I always try to contextualize those PFF grades that we talk about so much. And, you know, you would think that the competition that someone like Christian Darasov faces would

bring those down and it doesn't. I mean, that's, that really tells you how good he is. You're putting him on an Island and you're asking a lot from him and he's still able to handle it. I think that that is really, really, really impressive. I've got a few more, but let me get to your comments here.

And we'll, we'll run through some of your questions as well. Dizzy says, I feel like if Kweisi had more goodwill stored up i'd have more sympathy to his moves but i'm super hesitant right now on things like not paying tj the bag well i mean one thing is i'm not sure why he wouldn't have goodwill at this moment. Okay, so one draft class didn't go well. His first round pick this year has been a monster in training camp. His third round pick is starting an outside corner and has looked very good in training camp.

The team appears to be on a clear direction, meaning that they have gone into this competitive rebuild and handle it as such and have set themselves up to potentially make a change in the future at quarterback and give that quarterback a lot to work with on offense and then rebuild the defense with the cap space created. And I mean, he hasn't extended Hawkinson yet or Jefferson. So maybe that's what you mean by goodwill, but they also won 13 games last year based on the way that they put together the roster in a competitive season and so their goal was to compete they won the division they won 13 games and they're one drive

away from winning the playoff game so i don't know like that was the goal and they accomplished it and this goal this offseason was to get themselves healthy for the salary cap in the future and leave them as much flexibility at the quarterback position as possible. And they've done that. They just haven't extended people yet. But it's also August 25th. It's not the beginning of the season. It's not next year. So I don't know.

Like, I mean, I agree with you that they should pay TJ Hawkinson. They should sign him. But I'm not sure what you mean by not having goodwill. They went 13-4 and then had, to me, an offseason that moved them in a direction that could eventually get them to the place they want to go. So I don't know. I guess I feel like right now that every time we log on, there is a harshness about some of the criticisms of Kweisi Adafomenta

that I'm not sure I fully understand. The 2022 draft is like mentioned every single stream. And OK, I like I get it. It didn't go well. And we've been over that time and time again. But I also think when you say he doesn't have goodwill, it's like, wait, I mean, they won a lot of football games so far. They've completely changed the culture to the point where the NFL PA survey has them number one in the league. And then they executed a lot of things that they set out in their path to go about. And I haven't been too confused about too many moves and where I stand on the Vikings general manager is pretty straightforward. I need a bigger sample.

I need to see a lot more. I've always said it's easier to tear it down than it is to build it up. I need to see how they handle the quarterback position. I need to see how they rebuild the rest of this defense. I don't, I mean, if they miss the playoffs this year, then I think they need to be held accountable for that. Because if you miss the playoffs,

then what, then what did you do this for? Like, why didn't you tear it all the way down? Why did you tear it halfway down? But sometimes I guess I feel like it goes a little too far to be talking about it as if it's going like really badly. And I understand this. There's a Viking fan mentality of like if there's if there's nine things that are right and one thing that is wrong the one thing that is wrong is the thing that will just be pounded into the to the earth which we've seen from the guard position it's like you have the best left tackle the best receiver a really good

offensive minded coach and it's like but what about that guard i mean i i get it like that's that's how it works i guess i just think that to me it it's been exactly what they said it was going to be from the start. And they've set themselves up to potentially have success in the future. And that's what they needed to do at the outset of this offseason, especially at the quarterback position. So I don't I don't know. I think like saying that you're unsure about where it's going is OK. But to say that there's like no goodwill there, I don't know that that seems a little aggressive, uh, from bland toasts.

When it's a training camp, thinking that this was just a transition year, feeling it's more competitive with Hunter back Addison looking good and Flores scheme, uh, compliments. Yeah, I agree with you.

Bland toast. That's, um, uh, not a bland take. That's a good take that I agree. I think where I had them, the way I did it was I set the bar at where I thought they would be if everything went the way I thought it was going to go or the way we expected it to go. So 10, I mean, Will Raggetts has them at

11 wins. You could, you could make that case nine, whatever. But I think that they're a double digit win team before training camp before we find out anything and then when questions get answered we can move that around and with flora's scheme being what it is and how well people look like they fit in so far you know whatever i don't know how it's going to play out but how it looks right now that hasn't moved me down Jordan Addison fitting in as well as he has that was the expectation he's been that has not moved me down and Daniel Hunter came back which I was very like 50 50 on whether he would come back or not uh the last day when there were some reports he'd get traded I changed but mostly 50 50 throughout the entire offseason and then he returns so you have

enough talent to be a division winning team. So yeah, I could see where you would look at it as there's no reason you shouldn't be there in the playoffs, whether you can actually beat the top teams. I don't know with this current group, unless some guys take some huge step forward during the season, or if Jordan Addison is Chris Carter, he does some things like Chris Carter, but it takes a lot to be Chris Carter. But you know, some things are going to have to go really right to be better than a 10-win team, but it hasn't brought me down really at all. From Topaz Morrison,

I had a friend who drove a Topaz when I was in high school. What's an even better outcome when Addison recovered to this point after making a mistake? It's still early and he's done the right things after messing up. Yeah. The driving incident was not the right foot to get off on. And, you know, I just, I just saw a story, I think it was in Duluth about a speeding

incident that, uh, was, you know, went very, very, very badly. And I hope for his sake that after that happened, enough people came into the, uh, to his life to let him know how badly that can go for you. It can go Henry Ruggs bad if he continues to do things like that. So I hope that he learned from that incident and yeah, there hasn't been any more and hopefully there aren't any more because that's something that could, you know, be dangerous to the rest of the Twin Cities, not just Jordan Addison and his career. But as far as a football player, we can move on from that. We all know that that was a huge mistake. That was not a good first impression. But as soon as he stepped on the field and he started to play, you saw exactly all the things you needed to see from

a first rounder. And I think if he wasn't getting the playbook or something like that, we wouldn't see him taking the number of first team reps that he is. And it is very clear one, two, three, there's no, well, this guy's mixing in or not. No, no, it is Jordan Addison solidified starter. It's going to play a ton. I mean, that that's like set in stone and there's no guarantee when you start training camp that's going to be the case we certainly have seen that from laquan treadwell from lewis seen in the past so for him to do that is such a huge step to just be in the starting lineup to prove that you belong there right away and that presumably means you're handling yourself professionally so yes that is a good point that i don't know if like recovered lineup to prove that you belong there right away. And that presumably means you're handling

yourself professionally. So yes, that is a good point that I don't know if like recovered is exactly the right language, but without incident, I guess is part of it. From Thor, good to see you Thor. Honestly, the Vikings suffered a few down years without a good tight end. You talked me into signing TJ. Thanks, signed Kw, Kwesi. Yeah. Well, look, everything is an economics equation. It just is. That's why Kwesi's here. That's why economics people are running sports is because everything from a front office perspective is an economics equation. It's how much is this asset worth? But there are other elements to this as well. And sometimes when you're trying to weigh that value,

it goes beyond just how much is that asset worth? One is your head coach could really use an effective tight end. That's number one. Where it fits in the context of your offense might be missing in the yards per attempt and that that's what i'm pointing out and also what it means to your organization and you know we talk about that nflpa survey a lot and i fully believe that this team handles its players as well as anything but if you play hardball to the point where no one could get any money then you start to get a little skepticism, I think, from your players about right when when even someone makes the Pro Bowl and plays as well as TJ Hawkinson and then they don't get their money. There is a ripple effect of that. And I think it does create some tension within an organization.

So there's like hold the line because, you know, that's the thing you want to do. And then there's but sometimes you have to be a little more flexible. And sometimes it might be a million or two to make it happen to keep your coach on track, to keep your offense on track, to keep the organization. And also, you've got to have flexibility as well. So don't miss that forest through the trees either, because flexibility is important. And what an extension gives you. I think I read this to you guys the other day, but Evan Ingram's cap hit, he's the contract we've kind of worked with, with like, Oh, maybe he wants to beat that contract.

Cause he's probably better than Ingram, but not wildly better. I mean, Evan Ingram's cap hits for the first two years of his deal are like five and 7 million. And then it goes up to 19, but you can restructure. So there are always ways to figure this out, to fit it within windows. And that's just what they have to figure out how they're going to do it.

Nick Muse would get picked up if we waived him. I don't know about that. I mean, maybe. Yeah, you might be right. I mean, he's had a good preseason. I don't know about that. I mean, he's a former seventh round draft pick. And if he does, you know, I don't know. I mean, he's a former seventh round draft pick. And if he does, you know, I don't know.

I mean, he's played well. I'm not like downplaying Nick Muse's play. He's played well in these preseason games. Very possible someone's looking at him. If someone had an injury, then I think that maybe they would look at him as someone who stood out in preseason. And, okay, now we're kind of at a uh-oh like we're got an injury what other tight end can we pick up it's nick muse but when you're talking about like you've already got hockinson who still i would still think that he's going to

sign an extension at some point that's another reason not to like start trashing everyone is because sometimes when stuff starts getting leaked out, it means it's getting to a point where it's either going to happen or not like a breaking point. And I still feel like he's a really good player and he's going to get signed eventually, but they just have to figure it out the price and the details and all that stuff. But if you've got Josh Oliver and you've got TJ Hawkinson, if you were to lose your fourth tight end, I, I just don't think you should be that concerned about it. But you might be right.

He's had a very good preseason. Topaz says Addison to this point has been an A or A plus based on his draft potential. He still has to do it when it matters, but it's a perfect early outcome when you factor in his response to a serious mistake. Yeah, it really is almost a little bit banged up there. When someone has to go in the concussion protocol, you worry a little. He came back very quickly from that. So maybe it wasn't super serious, but aside from that little

hiccup, which was not his fault, I'm not blaming. I'm just saying like how it went in total. You could not have asked for a better outcome from Jordan Addison for these summer months. And that's why when we talk about the draft, it's like, well, let's not forget that the player they just drafted looks like he could be really important to the long-term future of this team, depending on health, depending on how it goes in the regular season. But normally, and you can ask people who covered Stefan Diggs, Adam Thielen, you normally see it. You normally see it. You normally see it like Stefan Diggs would be a similar type of player where just a guy goes out there and makes a lot of plays and has talent that other people don't have. And that tends to translate. What's really hard about training camp is figuring out when you're talking about the margins of a,

like a Tristan Jackson versus a Brandon Powell, like, I don't know. I mean, both of these guys are four out of 10 type of players in the NFL. And one is a four and a half and the other is a four. I'm not sure. But with Jordan Addison, his talent is a eight out of 10, a nine out of 10. And so it's, it's pretty easy to see where you're concerned is when the talent, the raw talent as evaluated by the team in the draft is supposed to be an eight out of 10 or nine out of 10. And so it's, it's pretty easy to see where you're concerned is when the talent, the raw talent as evaluated by the team in the draft is supposed to be an eight out of 10 or

nine out of 10, and it doesn't show at all. And then you go, okay, that's going to be a problem. Um, Spencer says, Addison looking good is very comforting. This season should be entertaining. At least none of the games will measure up to last year's build. Oh yeah. Well, no, that's true, but I guarantee you there's going to be crazy. And, and look, the bills game was insane. The Panthers game the year before that was pretty wild. Like there's always, I think when Kirk cousins is your quarterback, you're always playing close games and it's always going to be kind of nuts. So I agree with you though, that you come out of, uh, the training camp. if you're the Vikings fan base in general. And this is just how I think of it.

And you're always going to have people who are concerned about the guard. And you're fine if you're concerned about the guard. I'm not making fun of you. But there are always people who I think get very anxious before the season and start worrying about everything that could go wrong. Because, again, Vikings. again Vikings but when you talk about like how everything went and whether you should go into the season feeling like oh I don't know I think this is going to go badly or hey a lot of things went really right for them and there's a you know a good chance that this turns into a playoff season I think it's much more toward the playoff season than the latter from Kubler, is it possible for a team to retain the rights to a player

and have them play for a season in the XFL or USFL? I hope so soon. I really hope so. I hope that they work out a contract with the XFL or USFL to have that happen, to have a player who you have the rights to that can play in those leagues and then come join your team in the summertime. I think that would be amazing for backup quarterbacks like for for Jaron Hall or Taylor Heineke got to do that and then came back to the league where we've seen it. Guys, PJ Walker, go do that. Come back to the league. Maybe we'll see AJ McCarron at some point who went there, played, maybe come back to the league.

I think that would be amazing for the development of NFL players. If they could go to those leagues, I also think it would help those leagues succeed. If you said like, we've got the rights to a player, he isn't signed, but maybe he's at least on a training camp roster or whatever in the spring he plays there. And then he comes back to your team, uh, where it would get hard as a Jaron Hall who you drafted but maybe maybe there's something to that as well I don't know I think it's very complicated but if it could work I think that would popularize those leagues more because there would be a lot of discussion about how those younger players look for this team or that team I love that idea and I think development is so hard in football. Think about think about baseball development. You get 162 games you play every day. Now think about football development. You play a couple times a year and then you practice the whole offseason on ransom. That's yeah, that's true. Let me just show you guys. So the room is basically empty now. Everybody's gone to stadium swim, but here's

kind of what it looks like. So there's this big board up there. My buddy, Eric Eager, you can't really see his face, but he's going to be up there doing a presentation. And earlier today, see where all these, these things are. That's where all the radio stations and stuff were kind of around. It's a giant ballroom is what this is. if you envision me like next to um next to like slot machines or something that would be very loud and that wouldn't be all that effective for being a radio row but all of these i'm like the last man here because everybody's up at stadium swim uh because i have to fly out in like a half hour also horse feathers t kubler digits you guys um i i just can't say enough how much i appreciate you guys showing up and having fun uh chatting vikings all the time i

feel like every time we go live you guys are hanging out and there's there's a lot of you you aren't the only ones but uh i really appreciate that i love that you guys show up to talk ball anytime it's a i just envision you just being like, Oh, it's ball time. And then like jumping on. So I really appreciate you guys for that. And digit says one year tag on Hawk.

Do not overpay, please. Yeah, I understand that. And I think that there is an argument for that. And then this is where I am on a lot of Vikings arguments, by the way, this has not been my hottest take summer.

Maybe the hottest I've ever been was out at stadium swim. It's like 103 degrees out here, but like the, it's not been the hottest take summer because the, the, my take on quasi da fomenta so far is I really need to see how this plays out before I can evaluate it. Cause there's been a lot of good and there's been a lot, a few things where I things where I don't know. And with the guard position, I've been more along the lines of saying you have everything you need to go win a lot of games with your offense, and I know the guard might be a problem. Maybe there will be some development there, but let's not focus too much on one position,

because in the NFL, you have to overcome some shortcomings sometimes. So that's not a hot take either. And on Hawkinson, I could see the team's perspective. If they felt the way that you do digits, I could see the team saying, you know what? With TJ Hawkinson, he's great and we love him. But when we look at the price of elite tight ends, and maybe that's what he wants, we just see his profile as being a little bit lower. And we see Josh Oliver as being very good. And, and if that's the case, then I understand it. I still, I still hesitate to give away good players. I mean, this is the thing with someone who's 26, they could be good through 32, 33. I mean, he could be good for a

long time. He doesn't have a significant injury history or anything. That's where I feel like you want a five-year contract when someone is 26 years old at a position that ages well. And so right now it might feel expensive, but then a couple of years from now, it's not, and you could fit it in. And so eventually you have to pay people. But if the sort of ethos is we're not going to pay anybody right now and we're going to wait till later. OK, but you've already let some talent go out the door that could like Delvin Tomlinson, who is on the youngish side and could be good for a long time. And if you let Hawkinson go, then that's more talent that's out the door. Right. So, yeah, I think that it's a little bit of a tricky thing when you have someone who fits so well as he did last season.

And maybe they want to see it again. Like, let's see a full season of it, then we'll decide. But once you've reached that point, then is he going to be willing to sign an extension? Very complicated. Very complicated. It's what makes this so interesting to talk about is that there's, I think if you are where digits is and you're like, Hey, don't overpay. I totally feel you. But then if you end up without him on your football team,

it's going to be probably hard to replace a top tight end. Cause there just aren't that many that are very good. Um, Jared says Oliver's big deal, clearly a backup plan for Hockinson. I kind of had the feeling that early on, early on that that might be the case, but maybe not. If this extends into the season, expect a lot of targets and bargain bin version of Hawkinson, but he'll still have value. Yeah, I mean, I think he's, it won't, his contract situation won't play into how they play

or how he plays at all i would not expect but um i i do think that it impacts sort of the way that he may feel about a long-term extension i guess that's really the only impact that it has because they have the right to play him through next year and then franchise tag him and that could be part of the bigger plan which i would respect so again like i'm I'm trying to stand strong on certain things, but at the same time, like I could, I could see it. I could see where the case is. If the number is too high, that there's gotta be a threshold for all negotiations. So, I mean, for example, uh, like if you are walking around looking for dinner and you're

pretty hungry and you know, you go up to a restaurant, it's like, all right, um, we're going to charge, you know, $58 for a burger. All right. That's just too much. I'm going to go somewhere else. If it's 20, like, okay, maybe I'm that hungry that I'll pay 20. You see like every negotiation kind of works fundamentally like that. Like, okay, this guy is a good player. There's no debate about that, but is he a $20 million player? No. Is he a $15 million player? Yes. And if you can't find some space in between that, then you end up with, uh, you know, somebody eventually leaving. I just, I think when you have young ish talent who could be here a long time, you want to retain it. That's the way I look at it. And if Oliver works out really well,

there is no law against having two really good tight ends and other teams hate that when you have two good tight ends from, uh, the purple heel, Dave McBride only has 12 carries preseason. I assume you mean, uh, one touchdown, a few receptions, no fumbles. I hope he gets more tomorrow. People like, uh, talk like he's trash and has no chance. Well, this has just been my feeling on Dwayne McBride. He hasn't looked to me like an NFL running back. It just in training camp just, just hasn't. He he's looked to me like probably the caliber of somebody who comes in as a camp body and then gets like, Oh, that's how it's looked so far.

There is no downside to taking someone who's a draft pick like that and putting them on the practice squad. Nick Muse was mentioned earlier. Nick Muse did essentially nothing in his first training camp last year. They cut him as a seventh round pick, put him on the practice squad. He practiced all year long and he's looked a lot better. And maybe a year from now, there's something,

or maybe he ends up on another team and does something, but he's got some talent. Clearly does. That might be the case for Dwayne McBride at this moment. I don't think you can play him in any way, uh, on, uh, against anyone, um, in a regular season game. So I think you're going to need another answer there and that he's probably got to be, um, you know, on the practice squad he has. Yeah. And he has 12 carries for a reason. I mean, they really only want to look at Ty Chandler, but in practices, he's just, hasn't looked like a guy to me who can play at this level at this moment. So that, I mean, that happens. That's a, that's 95% of seventh round picks are exactly

what I said. Um, okay. Let me just, uh, let's, let's wrap up here because I actually have to grab my stuff from my room and then run to a flight. So it's been a great time at Circa. And I just can't thank you guys on these live streams showing up in the middle of the day. I don't even know what time it is, central time. You guys showing up in the middle of the day, hanging out. I really appreciate that. And I also just can't thank Circa enough for having me out here. I said to somebody who works with Circa, like I hadn't been here before and now this is like

going to be my place. So it's, it's, it's, I think a little bit unique here in Vegas. I love being out here. I wouldn't have, I didn't have to do this. I just wanted to, cause I like coming out to Vegas. So it was a great time. And if you have a chance, if you're popping out here for any reason, uh, you should check out the million and survivor contests because there's a chance to win a whole heck of a lot of money. And I heard that the people who won last year were kind of hanging out here and imagine that like you just come out and then you win like a million dollars. So insane. All right. Let me answer one more question. Cause Anthony shows up here and I, I always appreciate you, Anthony. I think the

addition of Marcus Davenport is not being talked about enough. Everyone is just talking about the addition of Byron Murphy. Davenport is talented and Flores will get the best out of him. Yeah, yeah, you're right about that. He's had a good camp. He's been healthy the whole camp. He's moved outside and inside. That's where I'm really interested. How does he do as an inside rusher? Because he has not been an inside rusher before and he is very talented it could be uh there could be an impact there from marcus davenport this year that was unexpected um maybe unexpected in the way that like we didn't really know how he was going to fit in we'll see how many games he plays because that's been some of the issue for his career. But if he works out,

that will be an underlying numbers victory. I think Ivan Pace Jr. is an underlying numbers victory. So having some of those, I think does make it a good camp for them. A very good camp to have guys like that trending in the right direction. That's a good point, Anthony.

How much did I lose on the tables? I want to tell you a secret. So maybe if you're a longtime listener to the show, you know, I'm not a drinker. I'm also not a gambler. I'll tell you why. I get very upset if I lose. So even when I've played poker with friends, uh, just in like small settings, I just get super heated. If I don't win. I like the atmosphere. So I like to watch, I like to go to the sports book. That's super cool.

The giant video screens, everything else I love to eat because Vegas has amazing food. And I like to, I like to watch. So I was just watching Eric Eager play 21 and just like watching him. And it's, it's interesting to me, but I just,

I'm a little too competitive for that. So, yeah, it's weird. People say this to me sometimes, like, wait a little too competitive for that so uh yeah isn't it's weird people say this to me sometimes like wait you go to vegas all the time but you don't drink or gamble it's a cool place there's a lot to see here the mob museum is close to here if you've never been anyway so if you have a chance to stop by for uh the the millions or survivor contest if you're into that i highly suggest it and appreciate circa so much and all of you for joining. And I will be back in Minnesota on this channel again with a post-game recap of whatever happens in Vikings

Cardinals preseason action. And I'll try my best after that. And if you watch it, you know, maybe, maybe just watch a little, like you can't take it too much. Don't, don't direct your eyes right at the preseason is what I would suggest. All right. Thanks, everybody. Appreciate you all. And we will talk back in Minnesota.