Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Vikings beat reporter Dane Mizutani: "It's not not a rebuild"

Episode Date: June 9, 2023

Matthew Coller is joined by Pioneer Press Vikings beat reporter Dane Mizutani to talk about the bigger picture regarding Dalvin Cook's exit. Where are they on the rebuild meter? Does Dane see this as the right direction? Why this year could be the most interesting camp in a long time. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Purple Insider is presented by Oakley. Express yourself. Build a look that's made for you. When you wear Oakley, there really is more than meets the eye. Try it for yourself. Oakley is not only the best looking, but the best quality. So head on over to oakley.com for more information today. Hello, welcome to another episode of Purple Insider. Matthew Collar here and joining me, the Minnesota Vikings beat reporter for the Pioneer Press. Not splitting duties anymore, not hockey anymore. Well, sometimes every once in a while they send you over there. But Minnesota Vikings beat is now yours, Dane Mizutani.

And my favorite person to play golf with. What is up, Dane? How are you? Not too much. I'm doing good. I'm still trying to figure out, you know, how to fill in and follow in the footsteps of Chris Thomason. Not sure I'll ever live up, but we're trying our best. Big shoes to fill.

Big Air Monarchs to fill. There is absolutely no filling those shoes. You know that, and so does everybody else uh there are some suggestions i could make but um i'll just talk about those when we're golfing but uh you know i think the first the first step though is when there's breaking news you have to call at least 13 former vikings which was chris's style so have you gotten Chuck Foreman's take yet on Delvin Cook being released? Have not called Chuck Foreman, have not called Robert Smith, have not called Adrian Peterson's father. You know, I haven't, I'm dropping the ball. I think our readers at

the Pioneer Press expect a certain level of coverage and I'm not bringing it right now. So I mean, we're going gonna have to change the way that that we cover breaking news a little bit Barry Word you could talk to Terry Allen you could go Moweldy Moore I mean there's all sorts of uh guys Ontario Smith well yeah maybe if he's gonna pick up his phone uh and as long as you don't ask him about anything controversial from his time. But anyway, I'd like to get your reaction though to Delvin Cook being released because I think that there is a debate to be had

of how rebuildy this is. So let's just say that you had a meter that was like those air quality meters that we're all seeing now on our phones. That was like blue is not rebuilding at all. Blue is Kansas City. You're trying to win the Super Bowl. And yellow is like mostly trying to win, but maybe still taking a little bit of a long term outlook. In the orange is you are really taking more of a long-term and in the red would be like

what Chicago did last year. You are actively trying to lose. Where would you put the Vikings in the rebuild meter? I think not quite in the dark orange, but like not far from it. I don't think they're actively trying to lose, but I think if you read the tea leaves or not, you don't even have to read them. They're just presented for you right now with what they've done this off season. I'm not sure how invested they are in winning this year. Like they're going to say they are, they ran it back with Kirk.

So I think that, you know, I think you're invested in Kirk. So you're invested in probably not winning a Superbowl, but probably being a little bit better than horrible um you have Justin Jefferson so you're he's gonna like win new games by himself or you know with the attention he he brings uh but you look at what they've done so far this offseason Adam Thielen I get it he he was trending downward eric kendrick's as well but you're those are still nfl players who who can produce at least at a level that a nfl player should be able to produce that and you look at who's coming up filling those roles i i don't know like brian asamoah sounds

cool and we he's fast and can he play middle linebacker for the Vikings? Can Jordan Hicks play middle linebacker without Eric Hendricks helping him along? Like, these are all the things I think about. Like, Jordan Addison, obviously, they brought him in to fill the Adam Thielen role. He hasn't practiced throughout OTAs. It doesn't sound like we're going to see him until rookie training camp. Is he camp uh is he good I don't know is he gonna be healthy I don't know KJ Osborne's I like KJ but he's fine right like I think he is a good pass catcher alongside of Justin Jefferson but what I'm saying is basically like I think it's closer into the dark orange because

I don't know how good this team's gonna be next year um and I think last's closer into the dark orange because I don't know how good this team is going to be next year. I think last year, obviously, the 11-0 and one-score games during the regular season, you're going to have some regression at some point because you're just not going to be perfect in all those scenarios. I know this isn't how it works, just just turn three of those wins into losses then you're 10 and 7 right and if the team was 10 and 7 last year snuck into the playoffs loss in the first round and they did every single thing they've done this offseason I would be like they're gonna win six games they might win five games right because they you're going from a 10 win team at that point and taking away a lot of talent, a lot of experience, and replacing it with unknown commodities and no experience.

So I understand that's not how it works. They won the games, so they get to call themselves 13-4 and losing to the Giants in the first round. But I'm just saying, a lot of the ways they won games last year they were punching above their weight class if they took if you took away those wins just because some of them were just unfathomably insane um and and you did everything you did so far this offseason we would be seriously considering like are they going to be under 500 so So yeah, I think it's close to dark orange, maybe closer than people would want to say. Yeah. And you know, I think that there's then the other discussion is whether you want that

or not, or whether you like that or not, or think that it's right. Personally, I think that it's exactly what you should do. I think the reason you hire someone with Kweisi Adafomens' background is to see through the 13 win total to what they really are. I mean, if you want, like go to, I know people were upset with football outsiders and Aaron Schatz last year, because he kept putting out content saying like this guys, this isn't for real. This isn't for real. All of my numbers say that. And then what did it turn out to be? It turned out to be in the playoffs, not for real. And I think you want Kweisi Adafomenta to understand that everything that football outsiders understands and everything

that PFF understands and all the data to be able to project what they would be with and without those players. And I think if you ran back Adam Thielen and Delvin Cook on the offensive side and Kendricks, and we'll see on Hunter, but Z'Darrius Smith and Delvin Tomlinson, what is the difference in results you're going to get? Are you going to get better results than you got last year? And I don't even just mean wins. I mean like a better point differential or, you know, you don't have to win all those one score games. And the answer for me is probably not because one thing you can't control is your schedule. So even if you brought back all those guys and then there's the regression

of those guys as they get older, I mean, it's not insignificant. And sometimes I feel like it's almost treated that way that like, since we knew that they were going to do some of this, like, oh, well, they're moving on from feeling, but Addison will step right in. Like, okay, well, I guess we'll see. That might not be the case right away, or they're moving on from Delvin, but he didn't have great rushing yards over expected. So these other guys will be great. Like, I don't know. I want to find out, though. And I think it's very smart of them to treat this not like they won 13 games and they're

trying to get back to that, but almost like at the end of 2019, they won a playoff game and then they acted like they needed to do that again and made moves to do that again and then miss the playoffs. So they're acting like you're kind of going back in time and changing that the way that they approach that to be smarter. I think that's the exact right way to go. I could definitely see other arguments to that though. I don't know if you have other arguments to that because I've been kind of advocating this for a long time. So when it happens, it's just like drafting Jordan Edison, where I wanted them to draft a receiver for so long when they do it, it's like, great move.

Is it a great move? I guess we'll find out. But is there, is there some other argument? Are you feeling any differently from what I just said? No, and I'm not feeling any differently. Obviously, you know, I think we were on the same page about Kirk Cousins, um, just as far as like your ceiling with him um i will say like in a way like he's proved me wrong a little bit like i just kind of thought he wasn't a very good quarterback like early in his tenure

with the vikings he's an above average quarterback like if you just lopped off the you know top 15 quarterbacks in the league top 12 he's right's right in that, that area. My argument with him is he takes up so much of your salary cap space and for, you know, a return on investment. That's not necessarily super bowl worthy. And that should be the goal, right? Everyone here should be trying to, it's like in the NBA when everyone golden state was on their dynastic run and everyone started building their teams in in the ilk of like how the hell do we beat Golden State right uh you should be trying to build your team with like how do we beat Kansas City or you know how do how are we going to even

compete with them because if you if you're a Vikings fan if you're a diehard Vikings fan you look at it honestly you went 13 and 4 last year and you had no chance of beating Kansas City if you were to meet them in the in the Super Bowl right like it started to feel like oh team of destiny and then you watch the games and you're like there's just no way they could have beat Kansas City so long-windedly like yeah I'm more on your side where like I think in a lot of ways Kirk has been what you signed him to be like I don't think he ever lied and said he like he was like gonna be a top three quarterback in the league like that was a move at the time they thought okay we did well with Case Keenum we need to upgrade

and he was the only player in the, like, he was the best player available that, that offered an upgrade. Um, but I think this is running its course right now and you're seeing what the ceiling is. And I think to your point about Kwesi, like he understands what the ceiling is and he can see it kind of through more of like a, a different prism as someone like, you know, a real football guy who's like, oh man, we just need to add, you know, a couple of grinders and we're going to be all right. Like I think he understands last, last year was a bit of a statistical anomaly and understands like long-term

what's the most important position on the field quarterback do we have a guy who who takes us over over the top and can make up for certain deficiencies elsewhere because the vikings have a lot of them no i don't i don't think he does and we saw it last quacey said the quiet part out loud last year and he got crushed for it but he wasn't wrong he was wrong that he said it but no they don't have a patrick mah, they don't have a Patrick Mahomes. They don't have a Tom Brady. So I think the search is like you go find one. And if you don't end up with a Patrick Mahomes or a Tom Brady,

likely you won't. At least you have a guy on a rookie contract where you can build the team, you know, and, and, and fill in holes elsewhere. Because right now, aside from Kirk cousins, the ceiling you have with them your ceiling is limited not only because he's your quarterback but because he's taking up so much of your salary cap the funny thing about there's a few things that you said there that I want to touch on I mean the funny thing about the USA Today comments that he made about Kirk

being a good quarterback and you usually win great quarterbacks is number one, Mahomes won the Super Bowl. So he's right. He's just dead right. The other part is that nationally you had people going, what is Kweisi saying? And locally it was like, oh yeah. I mean, because we've seen this happen over and over again. And the funny thing about a ranking of quarterbacks is when you say that someone is the 12th best

quarterback in the league or the eighth or the ninth or something, you sort of almost think that there's even standard deviations between each of those gaps. So there's a gap between number one and number two and number three and number four, and it's equal down to number 12, but it's really more like number one through five. And then this huge amount of gap and then number six, seven, whatever. And the difference between number 12 and number 20 is way different than the difference between number one and number 12. The NBA is this way as well. Peak LeBron and the 12th best NBA player are nowhere near each other. Right. But yet, the 20th best NBA player is probably close to the 12th best NBA player are nowhere near each other, right? But yet, you know, the 20th best NBA player

is probably close to the 12th best NBA player. And we think of offenses this way too. Well, they were the eighth best offense, right? But there were a hundred points behind the best offense. And that is like four games worth of scoring that they didn't do versus the best teams. And you also look who's in the Super Bowl. It's always the best teams that are scoring. And

so, you know, I think that, um, but of course, you know, last year's defense was an atrocity, no doubt, but how else were you going to do this? Another thing I thought of is, uh, that, um, Kwesi Duffel-Mentz seems to have wanted to do everything at his price or not do it at all. And this is another approach that I respect. And it's like Delvin Tomlinson. He went to the combine and said, we want Delvin Tomlinson back in the worst way. And then Cleveland came in with a lot of money and they were like, well, have a good, have a good time by the lake, you know, just, and that seemed to go for everything that Delvin cook would not take the, um, you know, pay cut that it seems like they wanted him to take. So they're like, okay,

Patrick Peterson wouldn't take the, the, the pay that they wanted him to take. So they're like, okay, Patrick Peterson wouldn't take the pay that they wanted to give him. So they were like, okay. And they were kind of, it's almost like they went into the off season with this idea that they would bring it back, but it was only if it wasn't going to hurt them in the future. And it was only at their price, but their price was way too low. And they probably knew that for all of those guys, including Delvin cook. And that's kind of how we ended up here. How else would you want him to do it though? Because if he starts spending, and I feel like they did this with Rudolph,

they did this with Cook in the initial deal, where it's like, if you're constantly spending exactly what the player got. And I remember writing an article about this. Like they overspent for every single move they did, whether it was trades or whether it was signings, everyone got the highest price. I don't think you want your GM to operate that way,

especially if you don't feel like, hey, this year's our year and you're going to win the Super Bowl. Yeah, no, I don't think you do. And I think like the idea that the salary cap's a myth is a myth. Like it is. Like at some point the chickens come home to roost

and we saw that with dalvin cook set to take eat up 14 million dollars of your cap space like it looks cool when you do like oh you know the extension he you know we restructured the contract so we only have to you know dalvin cook's only taking up four million dollars of our cap space well like in three years you see what happens he takes up 14 million dollars of your cap space well like in three years you see what happens he takes up 14 million dollars of your cap space so yeah to your point about you know previous you know the front office like the way that they kind of team build was just like we're close we just need to keep kicking the can down the road and it's all going to work out for us. And you're starting to see with Quasey, like it's,

it seemed like last year he was just kind of like content to see what he had. And now he sees what he has. He can kind of understand like through his eyes, not just from like an outsider's perspective, watching the Vikings, but like as the guy in charge of running the Vikings, like I think he has a better understanding of like what is in the building and while like it's been weird to watch him cut bait with like faces of the franchise like Adam Thielen, Eric Hendricks, Dalvin Cook

I don't have a ton of issue with anything he's really done this offseason if you're just talking about trying to set up a long-term winner now Daniel Hunter might be a different thing like if they trade him and they don't get like a haul in return or they're unable to kind of figure out a way to to get him under contract long term then I'm starting to okay like if you can't hold on to Daniel Hunter that might be the first move that kind of sounds a little bit of an alarm, like what's going on here? What are you doing? On the flip side of that, though, I do see you don't want to give just a ton of money to a 28-year-old who's had two serious,

serious injuries in his time. And while he closed strong last year, and I think he was top 10 in pressure rate, there's reason to believe that like the decline of Daniel Hunter might come quicker than, than maybe the end of the contract. So the Daniel Hunter one is something I'm obviously keeping an eye on, like Justin Jefferson and TJ Hawkinson, like they're going to get signed. And then that's, they've been really clear about that. Like Kwesi, you know, talk to anyone in the building,

and it's pretty clear they're going to figure something else out. Like, the fact that he's prioritized what he's prioritized this offseason, the front office as a whole, but obviously led by Kweisi, I kind of think they know what they're doing. Like, honestly, like, does anyone know what they're doing? Do we know if any? But at the end of the day, like it's hard for me to, from a like 30,000 foot perspective, like really, you know, look down on any of these moves

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get yourself a pair of everyday glasses that will be sure to change your look for the better. When you wear Oakley, there really is more than meets the eye. Try it for yourself. I've worn sunglasses in the past and I can assure you that Oakley is the best looking and best quality out there. So go on over to oakley.com for more information today. Oakley, express your style and build a look that's made for you. I think the complicating factor remains Kirk Cousins, that he's still here for you. I think the complicating factor remains Kirk Cousins that he's still here for one, because you're going to win games with him here, because as you mentioned, he's a very good quarterback and there's clearly a floor that he gives you. And we saw that in 2020, that was a bad football team and still got them in the hunt at the end of the day, seven wins at the end of

the day. And so it won't be worse than that. More likely than not, it would have to really go horrifically for cousins. And I think that him and his relationship with O'Connell, their past first offense, I mean, there is a floor to what this team should be and it's probably seven or eight wins. So, you know, I, I think that that makes things a little more tricky to call it like the full rebuild or put it in the red of a rebuild when you still have him as your quarterback, but then you're also asking the question. So what kind of comes next at the most important position? And you mentioned drafting a quarterback next year. That seems the most obvious. The restructure is a weird kind of sore thumb in this thing

because it creates such a massive cap hit for next year. But if you're Kirk and you're looking around and he's a pretty, I think, knowledgeable guy about football and he knows what's going on and he's seeing Thielen go and Cook go and Hunter and everything else, he can't be thinking, oh yeah, this is right on the cusp of being the next Super Bowl team. And seeing some of the desperation for moves from teams this year,

how much the Jets had to give up to get Aaron Rodgers or Jimmy Garoppolo going to the Raiders. There's always going to be teams, Derek Carr to the Saints. There's always going to be teams that are a quarterback away or something like that that might not come to fruition this year but it did kind of remind me a little bit of the Eagles when they went from Sam Bradford to Carson Wentz I know the Vikings don't have their Carson Wentz right now but they had Sam Bradford going into that season and they were just like nah now we're good we're rebuilding this thing we're gonna play Wentz instead I don't know if they would make a move in the middle of June clearly though they're not afraid to be making moves in late May and June they don't have a timeline here I just wonder

where you think that Kirk sort of fits in in this entire equation I think he fits in just like he's he's in the building and I don't think like they've got if i think if he would have if quacey would have gotten an offer from say like the niners that he really liked um maybe trey lance is involved maybe he's not like i don't think quacey's necessarily like afraid of being bad for a couple of years or you know i think he has some good job security i think the 13 and 4 record helped with that um the only thing i i would i would kind of caution against against being like really bad is like you don't want to piss off justin jefferson and he has kind of a finite amount of years but he's 23 and he's not even his prime yet like like if you just tell him like chill we're gonna get you a quarterback we're gonna try our best to get you Caleb Williams, whatever. I think Kirk fits into the equation in the sense that like he, they didn't get what like a big enough return on invest or like a big enough

like offer to make trading him make sense. And now he's just around. I think the most telling part of this off season is that they didn't restructure. They didn't extend. They didn't give Kirk the Kirk that you know the term that he wanted and his camp clearly wanted um just being content to kind of let this thing run out um I don't think he's he's in the long term like I don't think the Vikings are long for Kirk Cousins so I think if they could have moved off him sooner, sooner as in this off season for something that made sense longterm for an asset, a couple of picks, maybe a young player, I think Casey would have seriously considered doing it.

But I think because he is there and because he is under contract and because you have restructured a couple of times now, it's just like's there he's he's a lame duck quarterback he's say what you want about Kirk he's very content being a lame duck quarterback he's done it a few times talking to us at the beginning of it was right before OTAs or right around the draft like he didn't seem too miffed with it. He was just like, whatever. I've done this before. So I think he just fits into this year's equation because he's there. And if, say, I don't know, say someone blows their knee out in training camp

and the team is willing to give them a first-round pick for Kirk Cousins, I think Quasey would do it. I don't think he's long for Kirk Cousins. I think Quasey would do it. Um, I don't think he's, he's long for Kirk Cousins. I think he's kind of proved that, um, with the comments he's, he's made on him throughout the years, you know, since he's taken over, but also with just like, obviously not giving him the long-term extension that he wants. So, uh, I don't think he's part of the equation long-term. I think in, in a couple of years here, you'll be like, Hey, remember that year that they, uh, you know, let let Adam Thielen go then let Eric Kendricks go then released Alvin Cooker on training camp and then like the next year Kirk Cousins wasn't even the

quarterback anymore and I think we're gonna remember that like he'll be a part of this like changing of the guard um just just like not right now yeah and i don't think that that's a bad thing uh because i mean two things about kirk i mean number one is that uh the things are so unclear with the nfc north that you could actually mess around and still win it um i know i know for some people they want the top quarterback but you're unlikely to be in the kayla williams conversation anyway uh but you know the lions are one liony thing away from happening. Maybe half the team gets suspended for gambling or something. Could happen.

Or just Jordan Love not being good, or Justin Fields taking no steps forward. And these are very realistic things on all fronts that the Vikings could still be the most competent team. Maybe Brian Flores is a little better. Maybe these young players are a little faster. And even if they make some mistakes, they make more plays as well than they did last year. And this aggressive defense works. Like, I don't think that this team has to at all be bad and could still be right there. And the other part of it

too, is that you get to evaluate everybody. So you get to see if Jordan Addison can play. If you put Nick Mullins in there and I respect him as a backup quarterback or Jaron Hall, then you'd be completely lost. Probably. If you threw a rookie into the situation, can you even evaluate Jordan Addison? And I mean, you mentioned Justin Jefferson. I personally think Justin Jefferson only really cares that much about winning, but at the same time, if he had a backup quarterback who couldn't get him the football and gave his team no chance to win, I, that would be a completely miserable experience for him. I still think he signs an extension this year and it's going to be a short-term extension.

And so he'll have a couple of years to see where this thing is going to go and get all the money in his pocket that he deserves. But I think that you don't want him fuming mad, even if there are some benefits to losing. But I was just looking at early career Atlanta for Matt Ryan and how he came into the league and they won a bunch of games, but they had a dip of a couple of years in a row where they took a step back and they came out of that and ended up in the Super Bowl and he ended up with an MVP. Now, that can't happen with Kirk's age. You don't have time for that.

But it's just the point that you can kind of find a lot of franchises. And that was with Julio Jones, some of that. You could find a lot of franchises that have these dips and then come out of them. I mean, even Green Bay with late Rodgers, like they fire McCarthy and then, you know, Lafleur comes in and, you know, kind of takes them back up on the upswing. So these ups and downs are kind of always happening, but they don't feel very good for anyone in the moment. Right. And then that's what I was going to ask you is like, what is this year going to be? I like, what is the crowd going to be? What is the feeling going to be? Because last year, I think everybody knew when they brought back Peterson and when they kind of Because last year, I think everybody knew when they brought back Peterson,

you know, and they kind of kept the whole roster together. Everybody knew like this, they're here to win. And let's, let's see if this new coach can win. And he could, but in crazy fashion, but those wins, you don't have to give them back. So I, you know, the crowd and the fans, I think were really behind what they were doing. But this year when, you know, Kirk runs out there and it's like Kirk

cousins and they're like, well, yeah. Okay. All right. I guess he's still the quarterback. You know, like, I don't know. It just feels all kind of like this weird. I don't want to call it purgatory because purgatory is where you try to win and you win seven games instead. So they're moving in a direction, but I think it's a very strange year. I've been saying transition, but I guess I just wonder how people are going to feel about this. Yeah. I think that'll obviously be dictated by like the first four games of the season,

right? Like the bucks game should be a win in the season opener, but it could be a loss. And if it's a loss and then all of a sudden you lose to the Eagles and then you lose to the chargers and then you're oh and three going into the panthers game like i don't think it'll take very like apathy is probably not the right word because football is king and it will always be and people will just care like always um but i think you'll get a really restless fan base and um i think the magic of last year, it was just like, I didn't expect them to be this that good. Um, but every week they kind of just latched you,

like hook you even more. And like, I started to fall for it. Like, I was like, okay, like, are they good? Like, I don't think they're good, but like, they're kind of good. Like, could they win a super bowl? Like, I don't think so um i don't think you're gonna feel bad this year um i think your point about the schedule is a good one like it's just a harder schedule it's a first place schedule now so you have to play those teams that's not gonna be easy um but i think transition year is probably a good way to phrase it because it's it's not a full rebuild, right? Like it isn't like bears rebuild last year, be the worst team in the league. Let's just trot out like a not NFL roster,

but it's, it's not, not a rebuild. They didn't try and improve on the team last year. So I think there will be frustration from the fan base at some point um and i think it's all about how that's sold um not necessarily i don't think quacey's gonna ever come out and be like i'm gonna take you on a weird rabbit hole there was a weird like the rain new york rangers because i used to be a hockey guy um they they wrote and like i remember when they did it i think it was jeff gordon um their former gm they he wrote like a a letter to the fans and the social media team tweeted it out and was like we're gonna rebuild

and it was like middle of season and they're like we're gonna get bad just a heads up like we're we're not as good as we want to be we're gonna get bad just a heads up like we're we're not as good as we want to be we're gonna get bad like i don't think and then it worked like they got you know like they're new york so they attracted free agencies they got capo caco and turned it into whatever now they're one of the better teams in the east i don't think it'll be something where Kwesi's writing Vikings fans, like an email to post out on, on the Vikings social media page. But I think there will be frustration from fans this year being like, what are we doing? Or like, why are we not as good as we were last year?

And I think those fans, some fans will, will understand that like, okay, last year really was like an aberration. Some fans will just, you know, you know how it is. They'll just be like, Oh, you know, let's fire everyone because that's just how it goes in the NFL. But I think with people are able to take a step back this year, because again, like I keep saying, I don't expect them to be as good this year. I think you'll understand like maybe there's a longer term goal in mind and you'll be able to kind of start to see a year or two down the road. It's hard to do that right now. It's May or it's June. So like no one is looking at 2024 right now

because you're barely looking at 2023. But I think midway through 2023, if you're frustrated with this team, you're going to probably at least be able to see like, okay, well, if I'm a fan, I can say like we have Justin Jefferson under contract. Presumably it'll get done by then. TJ Hawkinson under contract. I'll assume it's going to get done at some point. All of these pieces and then a ton of cap space next year. And then maybe the potential to draft a quarterback.

I think fans are going to be frustrated this year, but I think over time they're going to be able to see kind of the longer vision in mind. So I just want to say that, you know, how every team has their, their like phrase or saying, or whatever it's on their jingle for the year so the twins that one year did this is how we baseball and of course they got roasted for it yeah that's not great uh but yours or for this year or they should take this from you it's not

not a rebuild is what they should like this is where the shirts it's not a rebuild yeah i like that i'm gonna use that that's gonna be the headline for this podcast is it's not not a rebuild because I think that's exactly the way to put it is that because what it's really not is it's not a tank. Like there is a difference. And I wrote this and I think that that's what we need to understand is there's not tanking or Super Bowl. Now, people talk about those places you want to be, but you don't have to be there. I mean, that's Philadelphia 2020 did not tank, but they rebuilt and they took that year

to step back. And I think that there are similarities and you could probably find a bunch of teams that had the same thing where there was a step back year that was not a tank, but it was a, all right, we're going to have to deal with some things with the salary cap. As you said, no one knows how real that thing is more than the Minnesota Vikings. And they do everything they can to manipulate it most of the time. But this year they really haven't. And it's like almost refreshing. It's like, oh, they're not messing with the cap and ruining their future. And they're not June 1st thing, everybody that they can, and they're not pushing money down the future and everything else. But I think that that's really a smart way to put it. And, you know, that happened when I was in Buffalo where their

general manager, after they traded away some guys who were a big part of what they were doing, Thomas Vanik, Jason Pommenville, Minnesota fans would know these guys and their GM came out and said, there's going to be some suffering so then when he said suffering everybody latched on to that and i will say though i want to give fans credit for understanding these things much much better than maybe they ever could before uh i think that baseball kind of changed the way everybody looks at this i also think that fans are just super informed and they pay such close attention to their team that they get it. That I don't think there's going to be a whole lot of fire.

Oh, Connell, what is he doing? I think on game day there will, and you'll see it on social media and it will kind of twist how we feel about it. That, you know,

there'll be a lot of criticism because it's not fun to watch a team struggle. And it certainly wasn't fun to watch the 27th best defense last year. And if it's that bad again, because there's all these young players, there will be times where it's not all that entertaining to watch. I am constantly amazed, though, how the Vikings, no matter what, no matter if it's a 7-win or a 13-win season, every game is close anyway. So I still do, and I guess we can sort of end on this,

I still do expect it to be an entertaining football team and a very interesting football team. It actually might be, well, last year was interesting because of O'Connell, but as far as the roster goes, we weren't learning anything new about any players last year. We knew who Patrick Peterson was. We knew who Delvin Tomlinson was everybody else this year. I don't, I have not covered the team in a place where I needed to learn a whole lot about people since I moved here

and then had to, you know, learn if it was Eric with a K or C for Eric Hendricks. Right. I mean, like it's, it really has been the same guys so much that there, there has been a lack of this type of intrigue that a roster refresh brings along so i think it's the most interesting training camp in kind of a long time from a roster perspective i agree with that 100 like yeah it was like for the last better part of the last decade it was like you know who's going to be a middle linebacker it's eric kendricks you know adam thielen's going to be a receiver uh you know so-and-so's going to play corner. Obviously, the last couple of years it's been Patrick Peterson.

I don't know who's going to play corner this year besides Byron Murphy. Like, I don't know who's going to play middle linebacker this year. Like, I don't know who's going to be, like, I would assume at some point Jordan Addison's going to be healthy. If he's not, I don't know who the third receiver is because outside of KJ Osborne. Maybe it's Jalen Naylor. He's been playing well throughout OTA. I think it'll be a fun training camp for fans who come to TCO Performance Center in the baking sun

and watch it in the bleachers to just pick a guy. I used to do this when i don't watch baseball i'm a caller but when i used to watch baseball and i grew up in the suburbs of chicago i would pick random players to latch on to this was when they were like pretty good it was before they got you know the chris bryans thezo's and all that. I used to love a guy named Ryan Terrio because he, he was, he was just a random shortstop. And I was like, I don't want my favorite player to be like the best player on the team. I'm just going to pick this guy really latched onto a guy named Ryan Terrio.

Everyone can find their Ryan Terrio this year at training camp because like just pick a guy. Do you, okay. You want to pick Jalen Naylor as your guy that you're going to follow if you're a fan this year, and he's going to be your guy that you latch onto at receiver. He might play this year. He might play. He might score a few touchdowns this year.

He might get loose, and he's got speed. He might be out in the open. You want to pick, I don't know, who else do we have? Nick Muse. If you want to just pick a tight end, okay, not TJ Hawkinson, not Josh Oliver. Nick Muse might get some snaps this year. You can pick any of the corners because, like I said, we don't know who's going to play there. It's just going to be a fun team to follow in the sense that we don't know a lot about them yet.

And you're going to learn a lot about these players um that's partially our job right like if say josh metellus really pops this year like then you're going to learn if you're a fan and you're following along who the hell josh metellus is and like what's his story um we know a lot of these guys stories or we had in the past um how many more adam thielen features could we have written? How many more Eric Hendricks features could we have written? Like there's a lot of stories to be written. And from that, like a lot of fans can kind of latch on and learn a lot new about this

team. So I think that's a really good point. Maybe they're not going to be good and maybe they will. You know, maybe they're not going to be as entertaining as last year. Cause they're probably not going to win 11 one-score games and be perfect. But they're going to be entertaining in the sense that, like, it's new. It's different.

And then sometimes, like, new is just fun. Was it Ryan Terrio and Mike Fontenot in the middle of that infield for the Cubs? Yeah, what a time to be alive. So, I mean, that's a hell of a pull. Yeah. I feel like I'll watch the twins when they decide to start scoring some runs again, and then maybe I'll check out target field this year. But I wanted to say before we wrap up, cause I appreciate perspective, a lot of fun to get together and talk about this,

but people should follow your work because you are one of the most creative reporters that there is in, in the Twin Cities. And I mean that. You always find interesting angles, strange things about players, weird hobbies that they have or things that have happened in their past and write really, really interesting stuff about them. So when you said get to know these players, you are a great person to follow. So if people had not followed you on the wild beat because they got tired of first round outs there, and they'd rather watch first round outs here, they can now follow you. What is it? Is it just Dane Mizutani on Twitter? Is

that your Twitter? Yeah. At Dane Mizutani. There can't be that many of you out there. No, there's not a lot of them. Okay. Well, make sure you follow his work at the pioneer press. Cause it's going to be good. I promise. And I mean, a bunch of new players at training camp is like a festival for you. So it should be a lot of fun for us to cover and bring people these storylines.

So thanks for your time. And we will definitely be doing it on a semi-regular basis. Can't wait. Yeah. And I can't wait to hit the golf course tomorrow with you and, and shoot a 120. Mizutani golf. We'll, we'll see how it goes. Can't wait. Yeah. And I can't wait to hit the golf course tomorrow with you and shoot a 120. Mizutani Golf. We'll see how it goes. I've been hitting the range and it hasn't changed anything. So we'll have some fun, though.