Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Viking legend John Randle talks London trip and his legendary pass rush approach

Episode Date: May 17, 2024

Matthew Coller is joined by NFL and Vikings legend John Randle to discuss what he'll be doing in London this year as well as his career. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hey everybody, welcome to another episode of Purple Insider. Matthew Collar here and joining me on a very special show, NFL legend, Minnesota Vikings legend, John Randall. What is going on, John? How are you? Man, I'm good. I'm feeling excellent, feeling awesome. Nice round of golf this morning and now here to talk about big game travel and by Minnesota Vikings. What more could you ask for? Well, normally, John, when we have a sponsored appearance, we wait till the end. If you're talking about crackers or candy or something.

But in this case, I think we should start right with it because it's the Vikings schedule. You are going to London with big game travel, big gametravel.com. And you're hosting a travel party. Have you been to London before? Is this your first time? No, I've been to London before. I've probably been to London about, I'd say, at least 10 times. Every time I've went, I've enjoyed myself.

I got to meet new fans. I got to meet fans that I have turned into Vikings fans. And I also got to meet fans that I have turned into Vikings fans. And I also got to meet people. And I'll usually bring a couple of extra Vikings jerseys to hand out to encourage them to believe in the Purple as much as I do. Now, here's what I want to know. When you host these trips, are people intimidated by you? Like, are they like a little afraid at first?

Because your reputation is such as a nice guy. But if you watched you play, you were not a nice guy, John. I know. Well, that was me on the football field. And I'm no longer on the football field. The one question that I get asked multiple and multiple over and over again is, where's the eye black? Where's the, do you have a, can you put me in the eye black?

Can we get – can we take a photo of you in the eye black? That's the question I get asked most of the time. But usually fans are not afraid to come up and ask me questions because I'm pretty down to earth. And before I played, I loved the game as much as the fans do. Now I'm back on that side of being a fan so I just like being around around mostly Vikings

fans who appreciate the Vikings as much as I do and to root on our Minnesota Vikings together what more could you not ask for with John Randall rooting on our Minnesota Vikings and London I'm part of big game travel where they bring you in, they fly you, everything is taken care of.

That, to me, is the way I like to travel. I don't like to have to deal with all the unnecessary stuff, the car, the food, the hotel. So for me, being a part of this is wonderful, but being able to root on my Minnesota Vikings in London to let people know that the Viking pride goes across the water and uh man that's that's right up my alley yeah and I think uh nobody in the NFL quite travels like Vikings fans everywhere I go when I cover road games, it's incredible how purple everywhere

is. I want to know though, what is it like to watch a football game with you? Are you intense? Are you calm? Are you like the opposite of what you were as a player when you watch the game or do you kind of go crazy a little bit? I'm calm because for me when I'm watching a game, I usually

go from just watching the game to watching the defensive lineman, watching as each guy looking to see what he's doing, seeing how he's trying to take advantage of that offensive lineman, trying to see which guy out of the defensive lineman is getting the advantage. And I just I kind of get zoned out into it. So I'm pretty calm about it because watching it as a fan, not playing the game anymore, there's less pressure on you. You're not thinking I got to make a play every play. And now I sit back and I go, this is the way I like to watch the game.

It's calm, relaxed, no coaches hollering in your ear telling you you got to make a play, telling you let's go. We got to go at it. We got to do this. So I'm pretty calm by watching it. Every former offensive or defensive lineman I've ever met, they just watch the trenches when they watch the game. There's no watching the football. It's always who's winning up front,

which will tell you most of what you need to know about where the football is going. They're playing the Jets in London. Interesting matchup because it's Aaron Rodgers versus the Vikings. I don't know if there's a revenge game angle here with Aaron Rodgers because he did a lot of damage over the years to the Minnesota Vikings. But do you how do you feel about the Vikings facing Aaron Rodgers? Like when he's in a different uniform, do you still have the same emotions when you see him?

Of course. Of course we do. I mean, you know, he was a Green Bay Packer. He was a guy who we played twice a year. And I think for Aaron, being a part of the Packers, you always believe that you want to have a good season, but you always want to beat the Minnesota Vikings. And now since he's playing for the Jets,

he'll still have that same demeanor of beating the Vikings. And I think once he's playing against us, all the emotion will come back, just like when he was with the Packers. But I see him also trying to go out there and from that Achilles, trying to come back and have a year where he missed out on so much. We saw him before the games last year after his Achilles. He was throwing the football, showing us how he wanted to be out there with the Jets.

But to me, he's going to get out there. He's going to try to do his thing but I don't think it's going to go well especially against our Vikings but I'm encouraged to see a quarterback of his stature coming out there, playing hard trying to show the younger

guys what it's all about about being a legend in the game which Aaron is and trying to go out there and trying to do as much as possible for his Jets because now he has new fans, which are Jet fans, supporting him and trying to do something that the Jets haven't done in a long time,

which is get to the Super Bowl again. Yeah, I mean, even just a competent quarterback season from the Jets would be profound. From that franchise, they've really struggled to find good quarterback play. It's week five, it from the Jets would be profound from that franchise. They've really struggled to find good quarterback play. It's week five. It's the Jets. It's London.

You could go over there with Mr. Nice Guy John Randall, biggametravel.com. Maybe I'm the first person ever to say that about you, but it should be a very cool trip for Vikings fans that want to come along. I want to ask you about pass rushing specifically because the Vikings drafted a first-round edge rusher. We call them edge rushers now. I don't know when that happened. It was always defensive.

I don't know. Defensive ends outside linebackers, but that's what he is. In your career, you mostly rushed inside, but there were times where you would kick outside. What was the biggest difference for you because i think that dallas turner is somebody that they do want to move around a bit they want him to rush uh you know in the middle they want him to rush on the outside i have an image of of you in my head of you looking like someone who's about to take off and like a hundred meter dash

from the edge lining up way outside even though that wasn't your main spot like how how was that when it came to switching between the two positions? Well, when you're playing defensive tackle, you don't have outside containment, which is when you're playing defensive end, you want to keep everything on the inside. So when you're inside, you have more freedom to rush the quarterback. But at the defensive end position, you you're more control say anger or pass rushing but you are allowed to come on underneath or inside the tackle and when you're outside you you have a little bit more time to get to the quarterback as opposed to the defensive tackle

where you're thinking defense tackle you're thinking two seconds you want to get to that quarterback. And for our ends, I think the way we're going to play this year, I think we're going to look for our defensive end to – one of them is going to have to step up and say, hey, you know what? There's no more Daniil Hunter. I'm the new Daniil Hunter. I want to go out there. I want to prove it.. I want to prove it. And I want to show our fans why you drafted me, why I'm here.

And I'm going to show you how, and not to say it in a mean way, but I want you to forget about Daniil Hunter and look at me as a future, as a guy who's going to take this team and and be the guy that you can put the team on my back and look for me to make plays and to change up our uh to be the guy that you look at say hey you know what he's going to make plays he's going to be the guy that we're going to look to to say that he's going to be the guy that that is to be the – we call it putting the crown on your – putting the crown on him and being the guy that we look to to lead our defensive line. What does it take to be a great pass rusher?

Is it a mentality? We know with you – I don't know if it's ever been brought up. It wasn't exactly size that made you a great pass rusher. But is it a mentality is it technique is it a combination of both like it if you were to pinpoint one thing that made you great at it what would that be i think for me it was the being able to get to the quarterback quickly uh when you are a defensive lineman i was i have this come i've had this conversation with bruce smith i've had it with daneman, I've had this conversation with Bruce Smith.

I've had it with Daniil Hunter. I've had this with Everson Griffith. I've had this conversation with Alan Page. I've had this conversation with Lawrence Taylor. When you're a defensive lineman, a pass rusher, your instincts are, I've got to get there now. And it doesn't matter if it's third and long or whatever, but you want that quarterback to realize that you are around him.

And I used to do that to Peyton Manning, which was, I had a mat for when I got close to him, I would touch him. And people say, why are you trying to touch him? Well, I want him to realize that I'm close. I mean, you would breathe on him. You would even just try to just come up to him and, like, smell him, let him know that you are around him. And so the pass rushers, you feel as if you've got to get there.

And if you don't get there, you're not helping your team. And so the defense lineman, I'd say it's a crazy mentality, but you think in such a way that, man, I've got to get there, I need to get there, and I need to do it now. And so the other part about it is hand techniques. When you can take an offensive lineman hands away, knock him down, man, he feels so vulnerable. And so pass rushers, you rely so much on your hands and you kind of have a calmness when you're going against

an offensive lineman because you feel like when you knock his hands out, he's a vulnerable and you can just take advantage of him. And a lot of times, guys from deep in the lineup, you watch a lot of film on the guys. So you figure out what he's good at, you figure out what he's bad at, and you try to repeatedly do that to him over and over again to where he's all of a sudden looking at the guard,

trying to ask for help from the guard or help from the tight end. And when you realize that you got a guy thinking that way you get a big grin on your face like it's Christmas time because you're about to open your presents well John my audience loves inside the game stuff so I'd love you to take me through if it's third and ten and you got to use your best move, fourth quarter, you need a pressure, you need a sack. What was your go-to? What was like, I'm going to my best move against this offensive lineman because I got to get there?

First thing I would do when the ball was snapped or as the ball was being snapped, you take a step, a hard step to that outside. And when that offensive lineman, either he's going to fire out or he's going to back up or he's going to step out. And's going to back up or he's going to step out and usually the offensive linemen were afraid of speed so you would take that first step outside and you would hit him up in that chest on the inside of his with your inside hand

pick him up i call it an old reggie white move hit him inside and once he falls out you come underneath and you go right after that quarterback and a lot of times when you would either you would do that on the first play and if he was call it biting looking for that inside move then he was you would step outside then go inside and spin back out so we call it setting him up and i would set him up on the inside go back out out. But most of the time, my favorite move was going in that A gap because a lot of offensive linemen don't think that you can get inside on them. And I love doing something that they thought was their strong point was to prevent me from going inside.

And when I took it, man, I took it with authority. I took the guard. I took the center with me and put my hands up reaching out even though the ball may have been thrown i was still trying to reach out and touch him screaming and hollering letting him know that i was there so how would you set up those offensive linemen throughout the game i mean sounds like you would show them a lot of different things and then wait to hit him with something else yeah it, it just depends on the yardage. If it's something, you know, when offensive lineman, if it's short yardage, he would try to sit there.

So in practice, I would work my moves. Whatever moves I was going to use in the game, I worked them in practice. But a lot of times from watching film on offensive lineman, you realize you know what he's going to do and so if he was always setting short I would put my hand in his chest as soon as he goes to reach out swim over the top tap him on the ass and go around the corner yeah you know I really think that the underrated part of it uh is because I think when people think of you, they think of just your, your quickness and the violence to your game that made you successful, but the preparation and the technique elements just can't be underappreciated.

I think with all the great edge rushers, who did you like the most? Like when you were studying other rushers and defensive tackles, of course, when you were studying other rushers, was there somebody that you were like man wish i could be like that guy or somebody who you you like to try to take their moves oh my god i would take moves from everybody back then we had howie long we had reggie white

we had um keith millard and there's numerous guys but what what I would do, whoever my guy played against, I would go back and watch all that game film, figure out what he did good, what he did bad, and what I would do, I would put it in a file and I would have all things that he did good, he did bad, and I kept this numerous files of offensive lineman, defensive tackle, like, I mean, Reggie. I would study what he did

good, what he did bad, and just added to my repertoire. And it was just things that I would just work on, but watching guys like Howie, Reggie, Keith Millard, I would just say to myself, I wish I was

taller. I wish I could stand here against with an offensive lineman looking face-to-face, eye-to-eye, but I was so short that I'm looking up at these guys, talking to them. But I think a lot of ways they gave me an advantage because being shorter, I could get my hands underneath them and I could push them over. And a lot of times they didn't realize how much, how strong I was and how much capacity I could take and push them out and come underneath. But, you know, I, like I said, I studied all offensive,

me offensive lineman, but defensive lineman, I studied so many guys, Micah Dean Perry, and just little things I picked up to improve my own, to improve my own game. And I don't think I would have been the player I was if I didn't watch them on the guys who came before me because NFL, defense linemen, it's an exceptional game, but there's so many guys who come into the game

who were good at certain little things. A guy named Micah Dean Perry, he was good at snapping the ball. He could see. I have a conversation with him. I would ask him, what do you see? And he said, I could tell you when the center is going to hike the ball. His hand would get all tight. As soon as the ball would move, I would move.

From Howie Long, Howie, he could tell you, he could look in the backfield and tell you which way the ball was going. So it's just so many little things that I picked up from guys over the years while I played, and I just kept them, wrote them down, and occasionally would go back and look at it just to make sure that I was honing my skills and that I didn't forget anything in the game. Michael Dean Perry, you're really talking about my childhood of watching football.

I don't mean to make you feel old, but Bronco and Brown's legend, one of the best defensive tackles to rush. I want to ask you about, so the Vikings are in an interesting spot with where they are with their roster. It's a new quarterback, and they're trying to build this thing around. You had the front row seat with the Vikings to build all the way up to that 98 team one of the best teams of all time and through the years it was kind of one piece here one piece there was yourself emerging it was Chris Carter it's Jake Reed and then here comes Robert Smith and here comes Randy Moss and

the pieces kind of came together what do you what do you think makes a great team like what do you think makes a complete team like you guys had in 1998 I will tell you what the first thing that you got to have is everybody's got to kind of put their egos to the side because you know you got guys come in who feel as if they are well we know receivers always like divas so we had chris and randy and jake reed but the thing that we all did we put out our egos to the side and we said hey we'll go in practice we're gonna have the guys push us by treating it just like a game so the db would would would uh cover chris carter just like he was in a game,

and you couldn't get mad about that they were holding you or whatever. And the same for myself. In practice, I had to go against a guy named Randall McDaniel, who for the Vikings history had, what, at least 18 Pro Bowls. And so going against Randall, you had to have your best stuff. And most times when you're in practice, you don't want to go hard. And I knew going against Randall would make me better. So I had to put my ego to the side, put my Pro Bowls to the side,

and play against him or practice against him to my best practice every day because I said, if I can go against Randall in practice, the game will be much easier. And that's the way we all looked at it, from Chris, Randy, Jake, Robert Smith. We all put our egos to the side. But the second thing was to go out and practice as hard as you could. Number three was always be on time. Never be late or anything because you didn't want the young guys to pick up bad habits.

So we always did that. But most of all, at the end of the day, was go out there, play the best you could, but always, when you got a chance to make a play, make a play, because you don't realize what that play could come to. That may be the winning play. That could be the play that changes the momentum of the game and uh i think like i said before i've had these conversations with uh many hall of famers and they always said the same thing even to the point where when you're talking to hall of famers you ask them hey if you could go back and play could you go back and most of them majority of them said no because they left everything on the

field they don't feel as if they could go back and they could do more yeah for sure and i think that uh having veteran presence to bring young players along is a really important thing i think this this team does have kind of a good mix of that. Harrison Smith coming back is important for them. When you watch Brian Flores' defense, what do you see? Because I see bodies moving all over the place in ways that I've never seen before. I know. You see them blitzing.

You see the way they hide things when you can't tell if they're blitzing or if they're just playing a regular coverage and i think when for brian coming here he changed our defense completely i think the previous year we were ranked very low in our defense and but his it just wasn't his coaching but his his presence and the way he convinced guys that they were better. And a lot of times that's what you need as a defensive player, is a coach who believes in you. Even though you may have had a bad previous year,

but when a coach comes in and can pick you up and tell you, hey, we can get better. And I think when you talk to Harrison and other guys on the team, they would tell you the same thing, that his mentality, his, I'd say his cockiness, but his confidence. When you go out there, play like you're Minnesota Vikings football. Play like the history of the Minnesota Vikings. Go out there and destroy everybody because you can,

but it's just confidence. And we know when you're playing with confidence man that can take you to so many places that you wouldn't believe you know there's something about when a coach can identify a player's particular skills i feel like this really applies to you in your career as well when you don't look at height weight you look at what they can do as opposed to what they can't do and i feel like florist just did a tremendous job of that with players like josh metellus players like ivan pace who's five foot ten but you know exactly find a way right yeah because you know you once again you can you can measure height and you can measure weight but you can't measure heart and a lot of times

we know from a lot of guys who went and drafted high in the draft, those late round guys, those are guys who always say in the back of their mind, all I want is a chance to play. I just want a chance to show what I can do. And a lot of them will tell you that, you know what, I was doubted in high school. I was doubted in college. Now you're doubting me again but once I get on that field you're going to see things that going to make me look like as if I'm 6'6

or I'm running a 4'2 40 or I'm I'm catching every ball that's thrown to me by just giving me a chance and I think that's the one thing that I can say for myself and that I love about those late-round guys is I'm like, there's going to be somebody every year that's going to surprise us. I mean, even if you look at Brock Purdy, here's a guy, Mr. Irrelevant, that you would go, yeah, his chances of making the team, they're not good. But he just didn't make the team. He started on team being a late round or the last

guy drafted to saying once again the draft doesn't really necessarily know who's going to be a great player it's not until you get on that field and you get a chance to play okay john i could pick your brain all day about old 90s players, the team, and everything else. So I'm just going to ask you one more question. What's it like to sack Brett Favre? Oh, my God. What's it like to sack Brett Favre is like going to play against your high school rival on their field, and you're surrounded by their fans,

and their fans are telling you that you're going to lose that you're not going to get to their golden guy but when you get to their golden guy and you take him down and you look at their sideline and you have the biggest grin on your face and you go see I've done it but then if you do it again and you see them and they're so mad at you, to me, there's no better thing than to look at them and just say, yes. It's almost as great when you go to Green Bay to play and you beat them on their own field. And it's about two minutes left and you see them on their own field, and it's about two minutes left,

and you see them walking out of the stadium, and you scream out to them, come back. You still got a chance. Just come back. And when they leave, and you know that you won and you beat them, man, there's no better feeling. Your trash-talking ability still top-notch, John. I really appreciate the time, man.

It is biggametravel.com. You can go to London with John Randall so you can hear more of this. What you just heard, you can spend time with John Randall. Week five against the Jets in London. John, just an absolute pleasure, man, to talk with you. Hopefully I see you around the facility. I know the legends are around so we can meet in person at some point, but again, a pleasure to have you on. Thanks for taking the time, man. My pleasure, and you definitely will see me around the Viking facility,

even at training camp. Let's go, baby. Let's go! Folks, we all have smartphones, and we know that they are pretty amazing but they can also be amazingly distracting especially when we're around other people so us cellular wants us to reset our relationship with our phones by putting down our phones for five that's right a company that sells phones wants us to put down our phones and see what we can find. Learn more at uscellular.com slash built for us. That's uscellular.com slash built for us. All right.

Hope everybody enjoyed my conversation with John Randall. Got to say that was extremely cool to be able to talk to one of the great pass rushers in history. So hopefully we'll have another reason to catch up with John Randall. Got to say that was extremely cool to be able to talk to one of the great pass rushers in history. So hopefully we'll have another reason to catch up with John at some point. He's around the Vikings from time to time. I haven't met him in person. Maybe I was intimidated a bit, but not now. Very friendly guy. So let me answer a few questions here that you guys have sent in my attempts to keep up with the fans only questions that I get emailed and if you want go to purpleinsider.com where it says contact me you can send an email there or on twitter at Matthew Collar shoot me a dm my dms are open then that is

how you get your question on the show if you can't join the live broadcast. So let me get into this one from St Anthony Edwards and an appropriate name for what is going on right now with the way that Anthony Edwards performed in game six for the Wolves. But here's the question. A question about Dallas Turner. Suppose that he's not a starter at the beginning of the year what would you expect his snap count to be by the end of the year hunter was at approximately 1 000 last year and grenard was around 650 so i pulled up in preparation for this question what rookies did over the last few years at the defensive end position or outside linebacker edge rusher whatever you want to call it. And usually we don't see guys playing a thousand snaps as rookies. Only a handful of pass rushers played even more than 600 last year.

So just last season, there were only three pass rushers or edge rushers that were over 600 snaps. And most of them were somewhere, the guys that played a lot, between 400 and 600 snaps. So even like Tyree Wilson, top draft pick of Vegas, played 493. Will Anderson, 629. Lucas Van Necks, 366. I think it's reasonable to expect that Dallas Turner, if he looks good in training camp, if he earns the trust of the coaching staff, etc., that he would be a guy that will play on the upper end of this. line to be playing as much as they did last year where it was just entirely hey daniel hunter go out there and play every single snap of every single game this gives them the option to create more pass rush snaps for turner to get in there especially early in the year not that he can't

stop the run he was actually really good against the run in college, better than a lot of college pass rushers. But it's a lot to ask, hey, go out there and play three downs right away. And I think the fact that they can move Van Ginkle around and Turner a little bit. But again, you'd kind of rather have him just be in pass rush situations to start and then learn how to play in the league. So if he's playing 30 snaps, 40 snaps to start, we get a lot of Andrew Van Ginkle. They can rotate them a little more with Gennard as well. He doesn't have to play every single snap. I think just possession by possession, it might be different based on what they're seeing

out there, matchups and so forth. But I would guess somewhere in the ballpark of 600 snaps and Van Ginkle, maybe 800 and Gennard 800 as well they also signed you know defensive tackles to get a little more rotation in there I think than asking Bullard and Phillips to just play every single snap of every game so it gives them a little more versatility and allows them to have not just one guy doing all of the pass rushing as it was for last year. But it might be a progression that starts off a little bit slow. Say he plays 25 snaps in the first game.

Don't freak out. That's kind of what they do. And then we may see it grow throughout the season. That's at least my expectation for right now. Next question comes from at JR Hutton 67. Can the Vikings be better than third in their division? Yes, I think that is possible, but it's an uphill battle. I mean, when we're talking about Detroit and Green Bay are by far the favorites here. long as Jared Goff is healthy and Amin Ra St. Brown and their offensive line is healthy really hard to see Detroit anywhere else except the top they got better not worse their defense made improvements at the positions where they were getting roasted at cornerback especially with

Carlton Davis and Terry and Arnold they added DJ Reeder which is a big one for them because defensive tackle was a weakness. And so now they get a little bit of help with Aiden Hutchinson. Like that's a really good team that is aiming for 12, 13 wins with the Packers. There is a little bit more of regression possibilities. Jordan Love was so hot in the second half of the season. They might end up not taking some huge step and maybe being a similar overall team to what they were last year but that's still if we're talking about a healthy Jordan Love likely a 10-win team maybe even a little bit more than that so then you're

competing with the Bears for the third spot but to your question can you take down one of those two teams with an injury yes without an injury that might be hard I don't really have a lot of belief in Green Bay's total roster being as good as say like San Francisco or Detroit so if they get a couple of injuries maybe that might hurt their depth if those receivers are not as good as they were in the second half of last year or just even if Jordan Love runs into some rough patches it could open the door uh yeah we never really know so I went back and I was trying to think of like how close are our pre-season predictions normally and I went back and looked at ESPN and their NFL Nation reporters and how they power ranked last year right before the season and they had Green Bay

20th and they were a few plays away from being on the doorstep of the Super Bowl they had Tampa Bay 30th and they went to the playoffs and got a win they had Houston 31st and they went to the playoffs and got a win as well so I don't think that we're very good at looking at the landscape right now and saying this team will be that we can usually identify the very good teams though and Detroit and Green Bay probably do qualify so I would say the answer is like can they of course they can I mean Case Keenum won a division and nearly took this team to the Super Bowl Brian Flores's defense I think is going to keep them in a lot of games, but it is a pretty darn difficult schedule, and that's going to make it not the easiest ride for them to get to. I mean, the other night I picked them at nine wins, and a lot of people were saying

that's too much. You're going too far. So maybe seven or eight is a little more realistic, maybe eight. That's going to be hard to be second in the division unless they have a lot go right. Maybe all the other teams will fumble instead of the Vikings this year. I don't know. Next question comes from JTMN Skull. If you had to pick up a wide receiver in free agency that's still out there, who would it be? Well, I think that Terrell Owens had said that he still could play football. He's in pretty good shape, right? Seriously, there's not much. And I know that some people are putting Hunter Renfro on the Vikings. I can make sense of that because a

couple of years ago, Hunter Renfro was kind of that unstoppable uh slot receiver where they just kept going back to him and he could get open and he was a derrick carr favorite but what's weird about guys like that is sometimes when they fall off they just totally fall off the map remember when they signed kendall right or even how about tajay sharp these guys had histories of good seasons and then it was just over and they couldn't do it anymore i don't know why maybe injuries pile up or age catches up or you were in the right situation with the right team to rack up a bunch of receptions but weren't actually that good maybe that's the case with hunter renfro if they sign him that's totally fine and no problem with that but i think i've also come around to being okay if they don't sign anybody

and just roll the ball out there and see what happens kind of like that scene in batman where he breaks the pool stick and throws it on the ground like that's just a football for wide receiver three and wide receiver four in training camp. There it is. Fight over it. I like Brandon Powell a lot. I don't mean to downplay Brandon Powell as wide receiver three. I think that you'd prefer to have somebody who is a little bit more of a, I shouldn't

say complete player because he can run routes. He catches the ball. He makes plays. He's not so much of a downfield threat like Jordan Addison and Justin Jefferson. So if either one of those guys is out, you just don't see Brandon Powell as someone who can fill in and be effective for either one of those two. And, you know, Jalen Naylor is somebody that I think they've had expectations on for a couple of years and we keep waiting.

Trent Shurfield somewhat interesting there and then everybody else who could possibly emerge maybe the next Adam Thielen is somewhere in this group I'd rather find out though and see if there's a guy here then make a signing that's not gonna have a whole lot of total overall impact. Next question comes from JPLloyd0419 on Twitter. What role do you think Kyrie Jackson will play this year, considering he progresses enough to play right away? If he's ready to play right away, I still wouldn't see a huge role for him, unless he's ready to play right away i still wouldn't see a huge role for him unless he's ready to play awesome right away i mean if he looks spectacular like ivan pace jr did last year in camp then

okay well start him at outside corner and that is the best case scenario for him eventually would be that someday he could potentially be a starting outside corner for year one somebody like jay ward played mostly special teams and if he plays special teams and then acts as depth and learns for a year and then you see where you're at with him that's not a bad outcome if he was really ready to play it's likely in a rotational type of role, maybe a dime package role because he is really good, or at least was in college at tackling. He's aggressive. He can play the ball in the air. Those are all things that will work pretty much anywhere. But the tackling part of it, could you be in and kind of a, he act like a big nickel ish. I don't know because at Oregon, he was an outside corner and he was the guy that's going

up against the top wide receiver, running down the sideline, trying to make plays. Not everybody is versatile. They'll say that for everybody, but not everybody is. And I think that what Flores is good at is usually identifying which guys can play a bunch of different positions, which guys need to play one specific thing. I don't know what that is with Kyrie Jackson. So it's hard to figure out what that would be, like what that role exactly would be if it's not just him being a rotational outside corner. That's probably the best case scenario for him this year

is that he's in there playing 15 snaps a game on the outside. And then if someone gets hurt, then he can be trusted. All right. Next question here from RGLions54 on Twitter. Was Sam Darnold their best option? I'm going to say yes, that Sam Darnold was their best option. And they paid a healthy amount for Sam Darnold was their best option and they paid a hand a healthy amount for Sam Darnold to have him be their best option because there is some potential upside there

and it's not at all by any means a guarantee on my part that Sam Darnold will suddenly become the quarterback that everybody always dreamed of and the Vikings will have this quarterback controversy of Sam Darnold played great but they want to give it to McCarthy and all that I don't know that that's ever going to happen my expectations aren't that high but you also don't have to be a total crazy person to think that Sam Darnold could be pretty good you watch the way he played for San Francisco the way he played at the end of the previous season for Carolina. It was not disaster football from Sam Darnold in most of those starts. Now he's got a pretty good situation to work with and you could see him being as good or better than a lot of the journeymen that have ceilings or just wouldn't

make any sense here. Like Jameis Winston, Jimmy Garoppolo, Mac Jones. Like these guys, I don't know if I would want them in locker rooms with the young quarterback trying to build that relationship. I think Darnold is a guy who's clearly willing to do that, as he did last year with Brock Purdy. And, you know, Gardner Minshew would be, Jacoby Brissett. But there's really no ceiling on that. You are guaranteeing yourself eight wins at absolute best if you have those quarterbacks. And I could also see Darnold making throws that those guys can't make to Justin Jefferson. So I

think I would far prefer to have Sam Darnold versus a lot of the other quarterbacks that were available this offseason. Last one from James O.W. and lots of numbers. Robert Tunyon signing an indication of concern about Hawkinson or just a depth move. Yes, the Vikings added Robert Tunyon to their roster. And I think it's he's the tight end, if you don't know, probably probably a little bit of both I don't think they have very many tight ends on the roster anyway and last year they kept four of them and they wanted to run a lot of two tight end stuff and did with Josh Oliver so you add another guy who's been around in the league a down season last year with Chicago didn't get on the field maybe as much as he would have

thought after being kind of a bigger player with Green Bay maybe there's something there let him battle it out with Nick Muse also with Hawkinson being out for the offseason you need enough tight ends to practice I mean you need to have numerous guys out there who know what they're doing to run first team second team team, third team in these practices. So maybe it's one of those, Hey, bring him in and see how he looks. And if he looks good, then at the beginning of the season, maybe you're looking at, you know, Johnny Munt, Tanyan, Oliver, and Muse as being your tight end room. And then when Hawkinson comes back, you'll make a move there and decide what to do

with Muse versus Tanyan. Maybe that's how it goes, but I think that's really all there is to that signing. Just a little bit of extra depth and a little extra body there for the summer program. And we'll see if there's anything there

that's more than that. All right. Thanks so much for listening. As always, lots to discuss. Next Tuesday will be another open OTA practice, but of course we'll have more shows between now and then, but definitely that one will be one to look forward to

from TCO Performance Center. So thanks again to John Randall for joining the show and for your questions, feel free to send them anytime and I will be happy to answer them. Thanks, everybody. Football.