Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Underrated Vikings camp storylines with receivers and offensive line

Episode Date: July 13, 2021

Matthew Coller and Sam Ekstrom are back together again and , yes, it's time to start previewing training camp. Over the next few weeks, we'll be breaking down the underrated storylines of each Vikings position and for this episode we talk Minnesota Vikings wide receiver and offensive line. Would Larry Fitzgerald be a good idea at WR3? Is there a chance that Bisi Johnson could either emerge or find himself on the chopping block? What if Rashod Hill is actually good? And what could the Vikings do on the O-line that would be totally surprising? Plus Kirk Cousins didn't get a top 10 nod from executives and coaches in an ESPN piece. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hello, welcome to another episode of Purple Insider presented by Scout Logistics. Matthew Collard here along with Sam Ekstrom. I'm back from a week away. I went to a couple of minor league baseball games. I avoided rain and I enjoyed visiting my parents in Buffalo. But now we're back. And now, Sam, the countdown begins to hardcore NFL training camp news. Are you excited or do you have a case of the training camp scaries where you can't have fun for the rest of the summer because you're worried about training camp? I'm not saying that I am or not, but I absolutely calendar turns to July. And then I just start getting like spontaneous shivers.

And I can't explain it other than it's the training camp scaries. I think we're two weeks away from report day, maybe two weeks in a day. I'm not sure exactly what day we're going to be out there, but it's coming up fast, man. And yeah, I mean, start the countdown to football. And if you're like a local sports fan, you're craving it because the local baseball team has done nothing for you. The hockey team made an early exit. Basket basketball is about to be done people are ready for some football we are going to have the minnesota state fair though so you will have that at least and this will be my first time since living in minnesota that i will not be

broadcasting at the fair so that was always a thing where i would have to go from training camp and then go to the studio get on a bus go to the fair do the show get get on a bus, go to the fair, do the show, get back on the bus. Like it was made for a long day. Fair fatigue, I think is what they call it. Yes. Oh, for sure. Fair fatigue. But fair food was also another thing.

So maybe I'll avoid the extra five to 10 pounds because of the fair. Anyway, so while we do have the Camp Scaries, it's only because we get excited about it. And there's so much to cover. That's what it is for me. There's so many things to write about. I'm always like overwhelmed by the number of storylines. So here's what we're going to do. And the way we're going to talk about some of these storylines coming up to preview training

camp is underrated stories. So for example, and we're going to begin with wide receivers, the most obvious wide receiver story is who is wide receiver three. But we've talked about that quite a bit, and there isn't a lot of new ground I can give you until I actually see people practice. Then we can give you new ground. So let's try to talk about the storylines with wide receivers that we have not discussed as much. And I'm just going to begin Sam with Justin Jefferson and how things might be different in year two for Jefferson. The article that I posted today on purpleinsider.com looked at Justin Jefferson's

quick passing usage last year, and it was lower than almost every other elite receiver by the PFF grades, not his performance by the PFF grades, but the top PFF graded receivers all had higher percentages of quick throws. And this is something that I don't think they're going to really truly reveal to us in training camp, but I will be kind of interested to study how Justin Jefferson might be used a little bit differently and just how he looks with a full training camp as the number one wide receiver because that was not the case last year I think when you look at someone like Devante Adams who feasts on short throws, the Vikings have to be aware of that

methodology when they face the Packers twice a year. They know how easy it can be to get five, six yards at a time with those little quicks to Devontae Adams. And I suspect Justin Jefferson is going to have many opportunities for that because number one receiver against the press last year that's got to deter defenses from you know really jamming him at the line of scrimmage there's going to be more off coverage slash zone coverage because he also shredded man-to-man I think he was number two against man uh coverage last year behind Devontae Adams. So he's going to have opportunities to take those quick screens and then bust it north and south for, you know, six, seven, eight yards, easy yards. I don't think it's impossible for Jefferson to sustain sort of the intermediate and deep

production he had last year, but it will be easier for him to duplicate his 1400 yard effort. If he is kind of getting a steady diet of those, those quick passes. And I thought the Vikings woefully underutilized that in the offense, not just last year, but I felt like the past couple of years as well. So I like that a lot as sort of a projection of where Justin Jefferson could get more yards this year to build on the 1400. And I think what I want to see in camp, well, let me just circle back. Uh, the deep production is going to be very hard to reproduce. He caught 14 passes over 20 yards on 24 targets,

which is a crazy high completion percentage. And even though he will continue to be good down the field, that is a thing that can fluctuate from year to year. And last year with every time they went down the field to Justin Jefferson, it seemed like it was a big time completion. We saw that even with Stefan Diggs, where from year to year, it wasn't always consistent. You don't know about the throws, the coverage, the opportunities. Are they there? And I also think if you're the other team, when you go into that game plan that week, you used to star Delvin Cook's name,

and I think you're starring Justin Jefferson's name now. The coverages, I think, are going to be rolled his direction for those deep passes to try and not allow him to get behind the defense and create 75-yard touchdowns. So that will open up more opportunities. Now, I want to see from a training camp perspective, how he competes in this training camp because mini camp. Okay. I mean, yeah, it's mini camp. They're not in pads. They're just kind of out there having a good time and getting the offense sort of figured out. And they're going like 60% speed, I would say out at mini camp. Once you

get to training camp and the pads come on, then you're running real plays. And what we saw in past years from Stefan Diggs was he would roast Xavier Rhodes so badly that they would get in a fight every year, or he would get in a fight with somebody. And you don't have to, you don't have to get in a fight with somebody if you're Justin a Jefferson, but we saw digs, I think showing those practices, just how great he can be. And with Jefferson last year, he was just trying to get his feet wet. And by the end of camp, I don't think any of us disagreed with him not starting. Now we thought he should have had a little bigger of a role, but it was like, okay, well, you know, there's no preseason games where he's going to show out and prove that he deserves this job.

And, you know, he's doing okay in practice. I think what I want to see from him this year is to absolutely shred practice and, and dominate in this year and sort of say, look, I, I am here. Throw me the football a bunch of times. Do not wait until the second half this year to throw me the football, but force Clint Kubiak to pay attention to him. Yeah. First of all, Stefan Diggs was the best practice player that I've seen in my time on the beat. Year after year, he would deliver so consistently to the point where it was almost hard for him to match that level of hype in the regular season

because he was so good in practices. Justin Jefferson in the one training camp and one offseason where we've gotten to see him in a practice setting hasn't been that good. I walked away from most of the OTAs really not having seen a lot from Jefferson, which doesn't mean he's playing poorly. It just means he's not making splash plays. Adam Thielen was making them a lot and Jefferson was not. And do I think that matters tremendously? No. Like I talked to Andrew Giannouko for a story a couple weeks ago, and he said that there was an observable difference, Jefferson in a game and Jefferson in practice. So I think some players are

probably just like that a little bit. They're going to hit that extra level in a game setting where the competitive juices get flowing. So I don't know if I need Jefferson to be elite in training camp, but I think it would, it would be interesting to see how he fares against like Patrick Peterson, you know, on a kind of a down by down basis because they're going to have some really good battles and I would assume that it'll be Peterson against Jefferson I'm counting on him getting the the top cornerback assignments most of the time which I think bodes incredibly well for Adam Thielen who kind of got used to to those CB2 assignments right when Stefan Diggs was that was getting a lot of those number ones um but Jefferson is not he's he's fast I don't know if he's like Tyreek Hill

fast like downfield where he's gonna burn um Peterson the way Diggs burned Rhodes down the field because Diggs was the ultimate practice deep threat I don't know if that's Jefferson um I'm not sure if that's his MO, but I think we're going to see a lot of slants where Jefferson takes it 15 yards from the line of scrimmage and then will run uncontested into the end zone and the crowd will explode and he'll be feeling himself. So it's going to be interesting to see how he responds to the crowd too

because remember last year, he didn't have any of that hype in the practice setting and that can sometimes bring the most out of players and the joint practices too that's going to be another reason for him to really bring it so that i think will be fascinating to watch yeah last year there was no energy whatsoever in those training camp practices and it was a kind of miserable to stand out there for the whole time and watch because it is exciting when a player makes a big play and everybody's there to see Jefferson to see the one on ones. And so that's sort of part of it in terms of the what storylines exist for Justin Jefferson that we haven't really discussed at all is how he's going to look and how Patrick Peterson is going to look relative to him. And eventually we'll do an episode on the secondary and underrated storylines

there, but that's a part of it. Every time those two match up against each other, I think we're all going to be watching really closely to see is Jefferson beating a guy who is an all pro. And then what do we think of that? Because Peterson is coming off of a self-admitted not great year in Arizona. So that's going to be something to watch. If we go, I don't have an Adam Thielen storyline because he's Adam Thielen and he's been here a long time and he's good. And I think we all accept

that. But if we go even just a little bit down that depth chart, BC Johnson and Chad Beebe, what's the underrated storyline there. Could it be a, that Chad BB is actually decent at being wide receiver. Number three, could it be that BC Johnson is on the chopping block or could it be C that BC Johnson can totally redeem himself in this training camp? Um, I, I remain uninspired by both options matthew there were three options but i look at i i look at bb and bc i like to call on that because of the alliteration um

bb does not provide a contested catch threat he does not provide a downfield threat his hands are questionable his injury history is questionable. I look at BC and I think in retrospect, I think the hype on him was, was way too, too big after the 2019 season, he didn't make one deep catch that year. And in the eight games after Thielen got hurt, he had more than two catches once like and he had I think he exceeded 40 yards once you know it was it wasn't like he was lighting the world on fire at all in Thielen's absence and he was the wide receiver too you should have more than two catches in in those situations like the best that I've seen from BC was the the three weeks of training camp last year where I thought he legitimately as you alluded alluded to, he earned the spot.

He actually looked pretty good. Beyond that, we haven't really seen it in a game from him, with the exception of a couple fleeting moments in 2019. So all that to say, I think that they are both, maybe not on the roster chopping block, but they're both in jeopardy I I think that they are both maybe not on the like the roster chopping block but they're both in jeopardy I think of being jumped by like the first young receiver that shows the ability to sort of like upstage them now have the Vikings created like a good environment for that to happen with the other candidates not really you know they've got four rookies dan shisna and kj osborne um i'm a

big osborne guy after what i saw in the spring he's kind of like my my mr mancato pick if he's eligible i don't know um other than that like our watt phillier and blake prole are they equipped to make an impact as a wide receiver three this year? I don't think so. Like, I think the only ones capable of upstaging BB and BC are Osborne and Amir Smith-Marset. If he can, and he would have to take a big step because he did not look very good in the spring. But again, I just think the Vikings were, the way that they totally ignored the wide receiver position in free agency. And it's not even about like who's wide receiver three. It's who's going to step up if Thielen or Jefferson get hurt. That's my,

my bigger concern because the wide receiver three is only going to play about 20 snaps a game. That's not like a, a gigantic role. So you can survive with a BB in that spot, but what if they have to play more? That's sort of my bigger concern. And if if it ends up being BB, I think that's more of an indictment on like the competition that they set up against him than it is that Chad BB is really good. Right. We talked about bars that you have to reach and how the Jake Browning bar shouldn't be that high for Kellen Mann to get to, which,

you know, we'll eventually talk about when we preview quarterbacks feel the same way here that the BC and BB bar is not super high, but when you only draft someone in the fifth round, two years in a row, uh, asking those guys to jump that bar might be too much to ask. And one thing you can count on with Chad BB is that he does get open in short area plays, which has looked good every single training camp and will probably continue to look good this year. I don't think I would trust him any more than I did last year to be wide receiver three. He's a guy that is totally fine with me on the roster.

And I look the same way at BC Johnsonson totally fine guy to have on the roster and mix in in a four wide receiver set because he has this one particular skill but relying on him for anything more this is where when we try to do underrated storylines it's hard because they all come back to the obvious storyline which is the wide receiver three uh and if we're talking about the obvious storylines it's how's how's Larry Fitzgerald going to look in camp? There you go. I mean, that's, uh, if there's a move remaining that the Vikings can make, there you go.

I mean, to improve that position group that they've ignored to this point, um, it'd be unfortunate to kind of pigeonhole Larry Fitzgerald into a Vikings wide receiver three niche, which is like, OK, they're expecting you to play 20 snaps a game and get 15 yards a game. But they have the money and there's the obvious local connection. And, you know, it conflict of interest, though, because his dad would have to cover him. I don't know how that would work out with Larry Senior. There have been a few press conferences before that have happened with Larry and Larry Senior. Would you like it, though? I decided that I wouldn't hate it if Larry Fitzgerald ended up signing with the Vikings,

just from a purely football. I mean, from a storyline, yeah, it's nice. But from a purely football perspective, mean, from a storyline, yeah, it's nice. But from a purely football perspective, I think it would be fine. I don't know how many better options there even are out there. There's maybe two guys who are still on the free agent market

that I would consider clearly better than Larry Fitzgerald. But everybody else is just, they're just a bunch of BC Johnsons that are running around. So I'd be good with it i think that that would be the type of move that you would have been thinking about from the very beginning of the off season is how can you get someone solid in this role and also when uh

larry fitzgerald played recently in a celebrity golf tournament he wore purple sam Sam. A sign. Oh, well, and you know who else was playing in that celebrity golf tournament? Adam Thielen. Patrick Peterson. Yeah, we got some Vikings connections there. I think there was also some, maybe some tampering going on, trying to get Rodgers recruited too. I don't know. I don't know.

But no, I'm good with the move. I would love the move, actually, because you mentioned it, the bar is like, like below ground. You don't need, you have the money. Um, and this is a, probably, you know, a twilight player. Who's not exactly in the prime of his career, but he still had, you know, 400 plus yards last year. He had 800 yards two years ago. And he's, he's not that far removed from being a thousand yard guy. So even though he is, he is getting up there in age, I still would prefer what he brings to anyone else. And it's not even close on this roster. Like you're, it's not as if I'm going to be upset that you're, you're blocking the way of a fifth round pick in Larry

Fitzgerald. I don't care about that. I don't care if you're impeding Amir Smith-Marset's progress. By all means, impede it if Larry Fitzgerald is the one who's joining the team. Right. And you're only impeding it for one year if you are impeding anything to begin with, because Smith-Marset's going to have to show us something before we can decide he's good. With Fitzgerald, one thing I would really like about it is that every person who on Twitter or email who sent any of us who cover the team notes over the last five years, hey, do you think Larry Fitzgerald would ever join the Vikings? That's what I love about it the most, because all those people would like get what they

so desperately wanted to ask that question. And every single one of us, I'm sure, said, no, I don't think that's going to happen. I don't know. I think he's going to retire a cardinal. So all those people who ask that question could be like, aha, he did sign with the Vikings. So that would be that would be fun. And it would just be fun to have him back here since he is a Minnesota legend. It does sort of raise my antenna a little bit that he's not signing that deal with Arizona because that tells me that, well, okay, Kyler's kind of in a pressure cooker. They have Clingsbury's kind of in a pressure cooker. He did decline last year and they don't appear to want him back.

You know what? They must know something. So you might be getting sort of the twilight. Not even twilight. You're getting like the sunset of Larry Fitzgerald. So you don't want to have someone that you feel obligated that you have to play. I mean, take the name out of it and the local connection, because the feel-good nature of it is awesome what if what if he legitimately can't play um and you've paid him five million dollars um that's sort of the pickle that you might find yourself in whereas now if

chad bb's not performing you can replace him you can like you know you can wave him you can like make him inactive. There's no pressure with your current situation who you have wide receiver three. You can go like based on who looks good in practice in a given week. If you want to with Fitzgerald, you can't do that. Yeah. You might end up with a Michael Floyd situation where we all write dozens of articles about Michael Floyd. And then he catches like nine passes the whole year. Real quick before we move on to one more underrated storyline with the wide receiver group and then we go to the offensive line. Who is your favorite ever washed wide receiver playing for another team? There's a

couple of nominations. I'll throw out one. Andre Reid, Washington football player is probably my favorite, but Jerry Rice, Seattle Seahawk is another one that you could throw out there. And well, I'll leave some more for you. First one that comes to mind is Randy Moss with the 49ers after he retired once. And you know what? He wasn't even like completely washed he had some good plays that year and made a super bowl and gosh i wanted him to win it um just you know see he could end his career kind of on on a high note never got a ring unfortunately he was on three of the you know best teams in like 15 years didn't get a ring that's unfortunate but um what else do you have also i mean randy moss t Randy Moss Tennessee Titan is also pretty

good I mean like this yeah what a bizarre what a bizarre like connection there does someone out there have a Randy Moss Tennessee Titans jersey how about I mean Terrell Owens Cincinnati Bengal is a little weird I think um you had some that actually worked out like Steve Smith, Baltimore Raven. Um, how about Tim Brown, Tampa Bay Buccaneer? That was a thing that happened. Yes. Very briefly though. I think he had like two catches Antonio Brown, Tampa Bay Buccaneer as well. Yeah. Right. That's an odd one as well. So this seems to happen a lot where people pick up like washed wide receivers at the very end of their careers i don't know if this how far it was into it but like keshawn johnson dallas cowboy um yeah there's there's a lot there's a lot of them that happens a lot brandon marshall

at the end of his career i'm going to pull this up who did he play for seattle at the end of his career brandon marshall had all of 11 catches for the Seattle Seahawks who remembered that one so anyway a lot a lot of options so Larry Fitz why don't you just come home it'll be fun all right uh your guy I'm calling him your guy someone that you had your eye on in uh minicamp was KJ Osborne he performed pretty well but who's making the team if BC Johnson gets beat like who is making it if even if they don't sign Larry Fitzgerald like if BC Johnson gets cut it's because blank exceed as exceeded expectations I mean I think this is a storyline that that position is up for grabs like wide receiver four wide receiver five Like it's pretty much wide open and BC is on the chopping block. I think who emerges there

is one of the biggest storylines underrated storyline. Sorry. Yeah, you might say that. So let me just put out there that the Vikings kept way too many receivers last year. No reason why you needed to keep seven. Tajay Sharp didn't play. Dan Chisna didn't play as a receiver. KJ Osborne didn't play as a receiver. Heck, BC Johnson played basically one game as a receiver when Adam Thielen was out with COVID. They didn't use three of them at all, except on special teams.

And one of them was you know just waiting in the wings for someone to get hurt so you don't need seven like if any this team could get by with five um and i suppose if you know if it's all about special teams i guess you have to look at it through that lens that they're just trying to fill like, you know, five, six, seven spots with special teams aces, regardless of position. So there's that, first of all. I'd be OK if they only kept five, to be honest. It's not a hard decision for me to cut a lot of these players. But if B.C. Johnson gets cut, I think Osborne is kind of the logical one, because second year kind of he's he's kind of uh improved with the mental side of the game with

the he looks more like more physically confident to me and i i think they still believe that he could be a punt returner and that scares me a bit because of what i saw last year but he was still taking reps in in otas at punt returner and he almost killed a guy trying to block someone without a helmet. It was bizarre, but he intrigues me a lot. And, and mainly collar because I haven't seen much from anybody else. There wasn't one UDFA that, that really caught my eye. What failure made like one really good catch. That's kind of all I can remember.

Myron Mitchell was hurt. Sometimes Blake pro did get some like odd, unsolicited praise from the coaches, even though I didn't really see anything from him. And Dan Chisna is Dan Chisna. I don't know. He might have a spot on the team. He might not, but it's kind of by default. It has to be KJ Osborne. Unless Amir Smith-Marset has like a very late surge in training camp where he maybe has a really good game or something just clicks for him kind of like BC Johnson did in his rookie year then I'm not sure who else has the capability to to step up and like pass somebody like BC

hey guys I know we have all had this conversation at home. Are you really going to spend the whole day out on the golf course instead of being with the family? Well, that's what makes Birdie Golf so great. You can make it a family experience at Birdie Golf, bring the kids, and still get in all of your swings. They have eight of the world's best golf simulators where you can sharpen your swing and have a great time. And you won't lose any golf balls either, which is a good thing for me. There's also a luxury lounge for private events, outdoor patio and scratch kitchen. You'll want to try the whiskey or beer float flights. And every time Sam and I show up to record our podcast there, they make sure we have a great meal before we leave.

Personally, I have become a big fan of the boneless wings. Make golf a night out. It's the perfect place to hold parties, events, fundraisers, and even your fantasy football draft. We've got a lot of those coming up. Check out Birdie Golf 494 in Valley Creek in Woodbury. Just a short drive from anywhere in the Twin Cities Metro at birdiegolf.com or call 651-998-2200. I'll see you there. Hey, everyone.

Training camp is on the way. Fans are going to be back in the stands, so you've got to be ready with all your Minnesota football gear. That's why you have to check out SodaStick. There are so many designs that you can get on hats and t-shirts, including the John Randall design, which is extremely cool. There is also the straight cash homie, Randy Moss homage that can't stop the feeling hats and a personal favorite, the old video game designs that Tecmo fans will appreciate. Check it all out at SodaStick.com. That is S-O-T-A-S-T-I-C-K.com. Everything's screen printed here in Minnesota, and I can tell you the shirts are comfortable,

and they last a long time. Because at this point, half of my closet is SodaStick, to be honest. Again, that is SodaStick.com, Minnesota sports-inspired goods. Keep your eye out also for our Soda Stick giveaways. I was going to throw that out there for sort of the last underrated storyline was just that somebody can make their bones here as a punt returner or a kick returner. And I'm interested to see if anybody does, because I don't think KJ Osborne should in any way, shape or form be locked in to that position, especially after he put the ball between his legs last year on a punt return.

Like just that automatically disqualifies you from owning that job. He just looked like he had no idea what he was doing on those punt returns. So it's the door is open for someone like Amir Smith, Marset, or anybody to establish themselves as a punt returner. And that could come from the receiver position and surprise us. All right. Offensive line underrated storylines. This one, I think begins for me with Ezra Cleveland as an underrated storyline, the obvious storyline being Darisaw, Wyatt Davis, how do they look? Do they win their jobs? That's it, right? How does the young offensive line look overall? But Ezra Cleveland, it feels like everyone's sort of written him in, in pen as good left guard, all set there. And I really want to see how that adjustment goes. And if this team made the right decision in moving him to guard, I think this is where the underrated storyline is. If Ezra

Cleveland isn't good at guard, then what exactly did you see there to never try him a tackle and then draft another tackle that that will be the one that eventually pops up. If that doesn't work out, if it does work out, then I guess they knew what they were doing. So bizarre to me remains bizarre to me. You're going to draft a guy in the second round. Who's got the exact same sort of like body type as Brian O'Neill, right? Tall, tall, lanky, fast.

And Brian O'Neill worked great as a tackle. So you're going to draft this guy and then wait the entire off season and never once try him at tackle ever. I mean, immediately with guards. And it, it was left guard, by the way, he started at left guard, um, in last year's training camp, got moved to right guard by default because people kept getting hurt. Pat Alpine got hurt. Drew Samia got hurt. Um, so now he's back at left guard. I don't understand it. Um, and like you said, it might work out and they might have sort of fallen into this this arrangement that turns out to be good for them long term. But it's it's interesting to me, the way it was handled. I mean, would you would you believe if the Vikings tried to tell you now, oh, yeah, we drafted him as a guard?

Like, what do you think that that decision was made beforehand or in, or like after the fact? Um, or did they like enough what they saw at guard that they decided to make it permanent? Um, I guess, I guess that's the other way you could look at it because he was okay. Like if you look at, you know, him compared to other rookies who played guard last year, he was all right. He stacked up decently. And I think he's changing his body. He's getting settled more into the frame he wants now. And this could be a good year for him. But in no way am I convinced that he's going to be awesome. He's got to work next to either Rashad Hill or Christian Derrissaw. That going to be um you know challenging I think because you're going to have a rookie or someone who's maybe not very good and Garrett Bradbury has his own

pass blocking issues that can be kind of a hassle sometimes for a guard so he's not stepping into like an ideal position here so I it's a question mark if I had to guess I would say that they said, okay, he's a tackle or guard. We see him better as a guard. And they were set a tackle and they had really almost no depth at guard as we saw from Drew Samia playing. So they said, well, that's where he's going to have to start because that's where we don't have depth at tackle. You have Hill and only Udo champion of all fans is still there on the team as well

so maybe they looked at it as like okay we've got these two backup tackles we just don't really have anyone we trust with brett jones and drew samia behind a guard behind pat alfline which is where we started last year and so hey buddy you got to start there and then they liked it that could also be another way that they just saw him with uh on that side with brian o'neill well now he's going to be with derisaw and they said well two athletes right next to each other are great run blockers and and ezra i thought was a very good run blocker and struggled in pass protection as vikings guards often do and uh then they just said okay well, well, he's going to stay there. We'll solidify that position and then we'll just draft this tackle. But if it doesn't work out as a guard,

it will be in Vikings mystery week, 2026 of like why he never tried to be a tackle. My next one is Rashad Hill. Underrated storyline is, look, he could start and he might be decent. Like, I don't, I'm not sure, but I know this from my reporting last year on Rashad Hill, where I talked to his trainer, Duke Manyweather, who is becoming really well known in the offensive line world for holding his offensive line masterminds. And he has become sort of trainer to the stars and a really interesting guy to talk with for the story. But he started training Rashad Hill. Rashad got in better shape. He got much quicker. He focused on his flexibility. He focused on all

these things that sort of held him back from being a starter. So Rashad Hill, decent starter is a thing that is possible. And I think that we're going to be watching that because he's going to start day one. And will he ever give up this job this year in training camp to Christian Derrissaw? The Derrissaw part of it is not underrated, but the fact that Rashad Hill in some world could be decent at that position is I think something that has not been discussed as a as a real possibility at all. Well, God bless Rashad Hill for coming back every year, knowing that he kind of exists to be replaced. And he seems to be OK with that role because he's been replaced before by Brian O'Neill. And now I think deja vu is probably

happening for him. And he seems to be comfortable with that. Rarely do you see someone who I think, you know, would be tempted to find a situation where he could have a better path to start. And granted, he didn't know they were going to go tackle in the first round when he did he did resign at the time he was sort of the guy, or maybe it was led to believe he would be the guy. Um, you know, I look, I look at what he did, um, in 2018 before Brian O'Neill took over and it wasn't phenomenal. Um, it wasn't TJ Clemmings either. Like it was, it was probably, probably,, probably somewhere closer to Clemmings than Brian

O'Neill, but it wasn't a, it was not a train wreck. So I think that he can probably hold his own. I don't think I would want him starting all 16 games this year. And it is kind of a tough position to be in as a player to know that upon your first like rough stretch of the year, you could very easily be replaced. And even the best tackles might have, you know, two bad games in a row. Well, for shot Hill has two bad games in a row, you know, see, you're getting the hook pal and we're going to put in the rookie and you may never start on this team again. You know, that's sort of the existence that he's signed up for. So maybe he plays with a ton of urgency or maybe, you know, that the mental strain of having someone

constantly breathing down your neck is kind of hard on him. I guess it'll be more, I think, dependent on Derrissaw, whether Rashad Hill starts or not. I don't think there's anything Hill could do to stop Derrissaw from starting if Derrissaw plays three preseason games and looks really good. Derrissaw is going to win that job. And I think the Vikings have sort of expressed that, that it is a competition, but that the rookies will have every opportunity to win those positions. And that's a tough place for Rashad Hill to be in because even if he plays well, he's not the one they're investing in long-term. It's actually Christian Derrissaw.

All right. Here's my only other underrated storyline that I wrote down for offensive line is what mind bending thing will the Vikings do with offensive linemen this year because if we go year by year I mean since I've been here 2016 my first year uh just like you look at them signing someone like Andre Smith to start at right tackle really I mean a guy who was completely washed and just all around just bad at that point in his career they're like no it'll be fine he'll start at right tackle and then they signed jake long who was actually good for a minute and then got hurt again and then you just go forward there's all this you know myriad of different things that they've done that sort of blew our minds including 2017 where they didn't practice

together as a full offensive line at any point during that training camp or preseason and then rolled out an all new offensive line to start the season um they were totally fine with tom compton starting at left guard when he had never started a full season before they were totally fine with dakota dozier and avion collins starting against each other in in camp and i mean they're just and then the ezra cleveland thing. So the underrated storyline is what unpredictable thing they will find a way to do with this offensive line. Yeah. I mean, I think probably in the 18 things that you just listed off, probably a variation of one of them will come to fruition. Like they will put Wyatt Davis with the threes all of camp just to throw us off the scent and then start in week one that's kind of something this team this team would do I

feel like just because of I don't know um some paranoia that other teams will scout them too heavily or or what but it like the one scenario 2017 where they weren't together at all that could definitely happen i mean we could see for the first week to 10 days of training camp we might see okay rashad hill and um and well yeah dozer sorry hill and dozer could be your starters in the first week or two of camp then Then maybe we'll see the other guys cycle in just a little bit. And we won't know. We won't know who is going to start until cut day when maybe they make some decisions. And then maybe Dozier will get cut on cut day.

And they'll say, well, we felt confident with Wyatt Davis. And then he'll maybe play with that group having not done it at all before that. So it's going to be weird. I'm counting on it being weird. I'm sure Mason Cole will play a part in this too. You just, yeah. You just jumped in front of where I was going to go with what crazy thing could happen is Mason Cole starting guard. That's what I've got for my like what weird thing that they could do play at center in all the

preseason games and then become a guard a starting guard yes that's very possible um okay so there are the underrated storylines of the wide receiver and the offensive line and uh what underrated storylines could emerge i am very excited to. I wanted to ask you about one other thing, which was the ESPN is ranking stuff because it's ranking season. And so they had the NFL's top 10 quarterbacks ranked by executives, coaches, players, and so forth. This is a Jeremy Fowler bit. And so the most controversial of this is the thing that i feel gaslighted by which is matt stafford and he ranks sixth on here where it's just like okay i mean matt i'm not saying matt stafford is bad or like a terrible quarterback but when you never win anything and you like get

offensive coordinators fired all the time and you have elite wide receivers through your whole career and you don't ever get anywhere really ranking you as the sixth best quarterback over Dak Prescott over Lamar Jackson over. I mean, even Justin Herbert is a little bit like maybe too highly hyped here, but Justin Herbert is ninth. Kyler Murray is 10th on this list. And Kirk Cousins gets an honorable mention along with a bunch of guys, Matt Ryan, Derek Carr, Ben Roethlisberger, Ryan Tannehill, Joe Burrow, Baker Mayfield, and even Carson Wentz sneaks into this list.

But I won't rant about the Stafford thing anymore because it's probably driving people crazy at this point. But does Kirk Cousins have a better case than the back end of that group to slip into the top 10 or is he rightfully in the ones that i mentioned the sort of honorable mention crew yeah i'm trying to remember what publication did it maybe it was pff did a quarterback power ranking not too long ago and they had cousins around 13th i want to say and at the time i said that's exactly right he's not a top 10 top 12 quarterback he's right behind them that being said i think you could make a case that he belongs above some of those other individuals, especially Matthew Stafford. And you've written some very good stuff about the comparison between the two.

And PFF would even agree with this, that Cousins is objectively a better quarterback than Stafford, whether it's win-loss, whether it's durability, statistically by many measures, he just has performed better over the years. And I think it's almost like Stafford was sort of part of a lovable losing team, or maybe not so lovable in Detroit, but he was part of a losing team. The people felt bad for him. They felt bad for this number one pick who was kind of stuck in this losing place for, what what 13 years and he was loyal to them and he did make the playoffs a couple times and people thought that was great oh Detroit's in the

playoffs that's adorable and now he's actually going to have expectations in in the next place and it was sort of like he flew below the radar enough that no one was looking too closely at Matthew Stafford. They just saw the highlights and said, man, we feel bad for that guy in Detroit. So you said this was a poll of executives because it makes me question just sort of the judgment of people in these high places of decision-making power, if that's the opinion that so many of them have too. Hey, everyone, I want to tell you about our friends at Scout Logistics. And I really do mean it when I say friends.

They are fans of Purple Insider over at Scout Logistics. And since they reached out wanting to support this show, I want to tell you about what they do. Scout Logistics is just-in-time transportation for full tractor-trailer loads. And if you're wondering what that means exactly, well, if you own or work for a company that needs shipping solutions, they are the preferred carrier of fortune 500 companies across North America. And we have quite a few of those in Minnesota, right? They can ship perishable, non-perishable FTL or LTL, and they have on-time delivery rate of over 99%. So if you're like them and you enjoy the show and you have shipping needs,

check out scoutlogistics.com or call 855-217-2688 extension 232 to connect with them directly to find out how Scout Logistics can minimize risk and over-perform and go the extra mile for your company. This happens every year where when Jeremy Fowler does this list, executives and coaches, they just give the edge to more physically gifted players, not players who actually perform better all the time.

They left Mitchell Schwartz out last year, one of the best right tackles in the NFL. They just left him off their list because he's just not flashy. He's not huge. He's not's just not flashy. He's not huge. He's not exciting from the combine. He's not a top draft pick. One thing that is very clear is these people never get overdraft status. Never, ever, ever. And here's what makes it clear is when first rounders bust, they always get like three other jobs. If you're a bust as a fourth rounder, you're never getting another job in the NFL. It's just over for you.

First rounders, they're always like, no, no, no. I saw something in that guy. And every once in a while, once a decade, it works with somebody. But usually it doesn't. Usually we see Laquan Treadwell, Atlanta Falcon slash now Jacksonville Jaguar. It's like it's not going to change the fact that he's bad, everybody. And this one feels the same way where it's like, there's a guy who has this huge, huge arm and he's super gifted and it's very easy to go, well, he was the number one pick and

he's got this big arm and it's all Detroit's fault. So that's, you know, that's kind of the rant. But I think Kyler Murray has to prove it to me. Justin Herbert has to prove it to me. Justin Herbert has to prove it to me. And even like Josh Allen is getting top five billing now. I think he's got to prove it to me, but also at the same time, these other guys, Derek Carr, I thought had a good season last year. Matt Ryan continues to put up good PFF grades, but also be bad. So that's kind of a weird thing that keeps happening. Ryan Tannehill deserves more respect on this list.

I mean, he's just had terrific statistics the last couple of years, Baker Mayfield. I don't know. Carson Wentz, just, you know, again, you're going to have to prove that you're not awful and Joe Burrow, who knows. So it's, we're in a really interesting place in the league where you have three dudes who are way better than everybody else. And then you have other dudes who could be great or could be not and have some questions. And then you've got the most predictable group from year to year, the Matt Ryan, the Derek Carr, the Kirk cousins. Now even Tannehill's

becoming this way year to year, you know what you're getting, but they're not, they're too flawed to be up there with those other guys who are elite so it's an interesting group of tiers that quarterbacks are breaking into so all right yeah i i think kirk is sort of like a third pitcher in the rotation he's gonna you know he's gonna have some games where he flirts with a no hitter into the eighth inning and he's gonna go like he's in the month of june he'll go five and oh with a 1.8 era but by the end of the year he's gonna be 12 and 11 3.7 era and you say man if you could just bottle like that one month that that guy pitched he would be an ace so you're saying he's nick blackburn basically oh my. I was literally going to mention Nick Blackburn as the comp.

And I thought, no, that's too that's too deep of a pole for collar. And wow, I disrespected your twins fandom. Holy cow. Yeah, I know. I know my older twins. I mean, you could throw Scott Baker out for this. Maybe maybe Jake Browning becomes a scott diamond at some point nick blackburn pitched one of the great clutch performances in twins history in game 163 of 2008 and they lost

the game one to nothing i'm still upset for nick blackburn now uh pitcher win loss record bad quarterback win loss. More debatable. Pitcher win-loss record. Very bad. Very bad. All right. Well, I appreciate all of you listening. And we will be doing this throughout the next few weeks as we get close.

We'll usually do maybe two positions per episode. Underrated storylines. And sometimes we end up talking about the obvious storyline as well. So we'll catch you next time on Purple Insider.