Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Vikings camp recap, Day 11: McCarthy bounces back, talks preseason start (Part 1)

Episode Date: August 7, 2025

Matthew Coller talks about JJ McCarthy's improved day on Wednesday and what he had to say about playing in the first preseason game of 2025

Hey, everybody. Welcome to another episode of Purple Insider, Matthew Collar here. And it was day 11 of Minnesota Vikings training camp. We actually were going through it today trying to remember and a wait a minute. How many days is that we're at that point. We're like, wait, the night practice that counts as a day, but it's actually a night. But 11th practice for the Vikings that was open to us. And so we got to see a bit of a J.J. McCarthy bounce back. I would not call this the most intense practice of the year. We saw some receivers mixing in. We'll talk about that and what J.J. McCarthy looked like. And also what he had to say about his first preseason game. We'll bring you all of that. But first, let me just get a couple of news items out of the way here.

T.J. Hawkinson was back at practice. So whatever happened the other day was, the groin or the back or the groin back leg, whatever it was, Kevin O'Connell was trying to say. It's okay. He was back at practice today. And it didn't seem serious.

There was no read on it. The day that it happened that screamed, oh, this is a really big deal. And T.J. Hawkinson said that he was okay walking off of the field. And he missed basically just the night practice and then was back out there today. I was not practicing intensely today, but just was back.

and you assume that it's not going to be a big deal. Of course, he will not be playing in the preseason game. And we'll talk about that. I'm actually very curious to see who will be playing in the preseason game based on some of the lineups that we saw today in practice. So that was one thing. And then also, you know, Jordan Addison talked after practice. And he said that he's not going to appeal his three games suspension.

He's just going to leave it as is, take the three games suspension and move on. And, you know, I think the stuff that he did off the field may have made for a good argument to try to reduce that from three to two. And, you know, him being on the straight and arrow since last year's incident would also have been a fairly compelling argument. But I think when it comes to the substance abuses policy, it's pretty clearly laid out that what he did here, the plea deal, the, you know, all that whole process. is a three-game suspension. So that's what Jordan Addison will face. And now that is locked in

that he will not be there for the first three games of the season. So off the bat here, wanted to bring you what Kevin O'Connell had to say some interesting commentary regarding Jordan Addison and his growth from last year. There's been a level maturity that, remember, we, you know, this is, I don't know exactly how old he was down to the day but this was a young player when we got him and he's a guy that has an absolute heart of gold and loves his teammates and we get to see him in the moments here on the grass and in the meeting rooms and with his teammates where you know quite honestly he's always at his best but what we've where I've really seen the growth is Jordan you know away from away from

the facility and just how he prepares his body how he's got such a mindset for for where he wants to go in his career and he knows it's all a part of it. Now, look, it's it's no secret. Like I'm a huge fan of Jordan Addison and the and the relationship that I've built with him and that he's built with other people and players and our organization. We're all in his corner, but Jordan's going to continue to need to operate the way he has and which has been exactly what we had hoped, how he would respond going back to when this initially took place. So there you go. Kevin O'Connell talking about Jordan Addison and the way that he has responded to what happened last summer and the consequences still following Jordan Addison to the start of this season and the entire

organization, I'm sure is holding the breath, crossing their fingers, putting on lucky charms, whatever it might be that Jordan Addison really has grown up over the last year. And I would think that after a mistake like he made to face the not only just the consequences of missing games and hurting your team, but also the fact that he's had to go through this with constant headlines about when is he going to be suspended and his court cases and having to go to court and like all those sorts of things. I mean, it's, uh, you know, that's a lot that he had to deal with because of what he did. And I imagine he doesn't want to go through that again. So there's the latest just with Jordan Addison, three games locked in. And I have noticed, I,

I think with Jordan Addison and just the way he's presented himself this year, but also the fact that he was willing to go work out with Justin Jefferson and maybe follow Justin Jefferson a little bit more. Guys, if you watch the show all the time, you know that I'm a hat guy. But if you're wearing hats to cover up for your hair loss, then I've got something that can help you. It's called Hymns. If you've lost your hair,

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who will determine if a prescription is appropriate. Restrictions apply. See the website for full details and important safety information. So here's what happened with J.J. McCarthy today. I thought that it was a pretty solid bounce back day. As I mentioned, it was not a day of extreme violence. There was no J.J. McCarthy trying to fight an edge rusher or anything like that, no pushing and shoving. It was kind of a five out of 10 type of intensity of practice.

That doesn't mean that they weren't trying. It just means that it didn't have that same sort of feel of, you know, the offensive defense getting under each other's skin. or as much intensity as maybe some other practice. I think what they really need is a preseason game. And I think what we all need is actually a preseason game. Maybe even my operating system here needs a preseason game just to get us, you know, going with some new information because we've learned so much about the team through the first couple of weeks that we are at the point where there isn't a whole lot

left to learn in tomorrow's practice. It's time to go play a football game and then see what J.J. McCarthy looks like. see who he throws to, see how the offensive line responds, see how the defensive players who have been looking good in camp take a step forward. I'm going to talk about one in just a couple of minutes. And then we'll have, I think, a starting point for how far they've come over the first couple weeks. And then who has made a name for themselves or who has pushed their stock up a little bit, you know, and things like that. So let me see here. Let me get back into my notes. So the practice started out pretty good for j j mccarthy where right off the bat 15 yard completion to

jordan addison and was like this is what he does where even though there was another you know bad practice the other night in the night practice still able to come back the next day and not have it stack bad practices and this has been a thing with j j mccarthy even going back to last year where bad possessions or bad practices that they don't seem to pile up on him. And he doesn't seem to ever lose his positive attitude or ever get down on himself or ever get rattled or anything else like that. He tends to jump right back into it and have a pretty solid practice. So starting it out like that, I thought was a bonus for him. And then he had a little later in the practice one of his, I thought, best throws of training camp where drops back

and has to throw a little bit with anticipation on an outbreaking route from Jordan Addison. So I was watching Addison on the play, and he ran a phenomenal, phenomenal Jordan Addison, first round draft pick type of route, broke it off, comes back toward the sideline, and the ball arrives just as he's coming out of his break, right on the money, and that like first down, 20 yard gain, something like that. And then later in that same period of practice, he fit one. in between two defenders that were playing in a zone as Addison came across. So all of his best throws or a lot of his best throws were to Jordan Addison today. And they kind of have been

over this training camp that his chemistry with Addison has just shown up time and time again, which of course, then he's got to miss the first three games of the season. But Addison has really been the number one wide receiver here. Well, Justin Jefferson has been sideline. And I think Addison has been, this is only a guess, but Addison has probably been doing a lot of the things that Justin Jefferson normally would have been doing in this offense and getting the football quite a bit. And, you know, there's a few plays here or there that Addison maybe might want back from J.J. McCarthy, whether it's, you know, an overthrow or some, you know, ball went through his hands one day. But on a day like this, you really saw it. Like Addison is just such a good route runner has such great hands. He's open all the time if there's man coverage. And McCarthy has been looking to him a lot. So a couple of those kind of highlight level, not freakish insane throws, but throws of the offense is what I would call them. When they run a play where it's like a bubble screen or something, you know, like,

okay, well, you know, I don't think much of that. When they throw a bomb and it doesn't get caught, okay, well, you know, it depends on the coverage, you know, that kind of thing. Like, did he get it down there kind of matters? but most of the throws of this offense are the intermediate type of throws. And when you go back and look when Kirk was a quarterback and not Sam Darnold, who, uh, yeah, I didn't know the meaning of intermediate. It was deep, deep, deep.

But like when it, it came to Kirk running this offense, only 8% of his passes went over 20 yards in the air. Where cousins really lived was between 10 and 20 yards, which is where those deep outbreakers are, where those deep in cuts are, you know, you'll see all the time, those clear out routes where guys are running, you know, way down the field. And then somebody cuts underneath them. So they, you know, drop back with the safety and then someone comes open underneath. And you got to have the vision and the timing. And I think that J.J. McCarthy is really growing in that area and is really comfortable in that area. And what Kevin O'Connell should be getting here, I think, is a pretty big sample size of what throws he feels very comfortable with. I haven't seen a ton of deep

intermediate throws across his body to his left that I've liked, but I have seen them to the right where he seems to be very comfortable at stepping to the right and throwing that particular type of pass on those outbreakers or comebacks. And certainly if someone is coming across the middle, whether it's a slant or whether it's a deep in cut or something, I mean, He just is on point with those. He sees those well, and I think that they ran a lot of that at Michigan, and he's comfortable with it. And then you grow with the rest of the throws.

Now, when it came to the red zone, there was one throw to Addison that was not so good. And just he was open and completely missed him. And then the other down moment today was an interception to Blake Cashman, where it seemed like he wasn't quite on the same page as he was scrambling. And this is where his biggest mistakes, I think, have come in training camp, which is where he's trying to kind of make a play and show that he's a playmaker. I'm going to get outside the pocket. I'm going to keep my eyes down field. I'm going to take a shot at something. And that's where some of the interceptions have come early in camp. He threw one to

Jay Ward. And today he threw it kind of right to Blake Cashman because I don't think that Jordan Addison really anticipated the ball was going to come to him as he was coming underneath. And then he throws an interception that was, you know, those kind of one or two downplays a day with J.J. McCarthy, which has been really his training camp. It's been a lot of very good things, a lot of comfort with certain concepts and certain throws. And then a lot of pressure, which came again today. And I think at this point, there's been so many pressured reps and so many blitz reps that they're just kind of playing through it. Like, okay, well, you know, he was pressure there might have been sacked there so step and throw right just step and throw anyway and he's been

doing that um if they ran out this version because ryan kelly was not there today if they ran out this version of the offensive line on week one i'd be pretty concerned with michael jurgens at center and just at school at left tackle uh initially when they signed school i thought well they could have you know pretty good depth here if he could step up and uh with jurgens last year they had him active instead of Dan Feeney. So again, like, okay, maybe this will work. But seeing it in practice, and I know that a lot of it is against the ones, but some even against the twos, they need their starting five in order to be a really good offensive line. I think Blake Brandel could go in and fill in at either of the guard positions to be okay, but center and tackle are not in a great

situation. Also notice Walter Rouse was at left tackle today. He's been bouncing left and right for most of camp. And I know the other day that I had him on the 53, maybe getting cut and then keeping Logan Brown. Now, preseason will determine a lot of these types of things, these last roster spot. I would probably go back and switch that. I might have gotten a little too rambunctious on Brown having a couple of days with the twos. He's been a little more with the threes lately and Rouse is consistently with the two. So that's just like a housekeeping 53 man roster detail. But as far as other performances today, Isaiah Rogers had a great pass breakup. And this is probably the third or fourth time that I have thought that's about Isaiah

Rogers, where he's jumped up and he's knocked the ball down and made a play in the air. And when he jumps, he doesn't jump. He levitates. He, I don't know what is maybe some of you can look it up or something. I don't know what his jump was coming out of college, but it's got to be. an NBA players. He has explosiveness to him. He can play the football. And this is a guy who every time he's gotten in the game, as far as his numbers from year to year, has performed pretty well, Isaiah Rogers. And I think we're seeing that this looks like someone who should be a starting

outside corner and could potentially even be a good outside corner. I have felt like he has had a really, really good camp. And then he made another great play today. Rondale Moore and Thayer Thomas both got a lot of work, and this is something that we'll be watching closely in the preseason game is who is J.J. McCarthy throwing to. Is J.J. McCarthy throwing to Jordan Addison? I don't know about that. I don't know if you want Jordan Addison playing in a preseason game. Maybe just because he's not going to play for the first three games of the year. So that's possible that he does. I know that O'Connell's philosophy has usually been don't really want a whole lot of the starters in there. But maybe, maybe it will be.

Jalen Naylor did not look like he practiced a ton today. So I don't know maybe Naylor's the one that's not going to be in. We know, of course, Jefferson will not be. But Thayer Thomas and Rondale Moore both worked in. Ron Dale's best play of the day actually came with Sam Howell, where he just, I've talked about this before, and I finally wrote that story. I've been telling everybody about today.

So purple insider dot football, go check it out because my sit down with Rondale Moore and Keenan McCartle about Rondale Moore is finally up on the, the newsletter, but that he's got the scoot, like he's got the speed, it's there, and he was matched up with Dwight McClother, and it was actually a Sam Howell throw that was pretty good and dropped it in the bucket in the back of the end zone. Rondale just ran right by him because his acceleration is still very much there. 40 inch vertical for Rogers, I am not surprised by that, not surprised by that. just from watching him, he looks like a guy that's probably like 510 and can dunk.

He really, really has some hops to him. But Rondale had, I think, maybe four or five catches today. Some of them were not the most accurate, kind of had to lean down for one of them from Sam Howell that was not a particularly great throw. And he made the catch on that one. I think Ron Dale's going to get a ton of reps on Saturday. As a guy that if, you know, you read my article and what I talked with Keena McCartle, in the off season, they had this conversation about we could get a guy who adds something a little

different to our room. And McArdle said, hey, now he's not a gadget guy, but he's a guy that can do some things a little differently than our other guys. And he's just getting back into the swing of things because he didn't have OTAs in minicamp. And a practice like today really popped for me for Rondale Moore because I thought that looks like an NFL wide receiver who could be. bump up into a wide receiver three type of role with Jordan Addison out for the first

couple games of the season. So there is still time for him to do that, especially if he looks good in the preseason games. So keep an eye on Rondale Moore as we go forward. And also Thayer Thomas, him and Lucky Jackson are two guys that every single year, they come to training camp, they perform. And Thayer got in there for a number of first team reps just look great. I mean, he made a number of plays. He jumped up and caught one over somebody. He gets open. He's got short area quickness.

And he's never going to be the biggest, the fastest or anything like that. But he's got footwork and he's got hands. And I don't know that he's got a great chance to make this team as it's currently constructed. But at the same time, every single opportunity that Thayer Thomas gets, he performs pretty well. I would not be surprised as someone who's been. in the offense for a couple years if he is out there a lot with J.J. McCarthy when it comes to Saturday's game. Brett Rippin took quite a few snaps with the twos.

And what it's been the last couple of days is, okay, Rippin goes in there for one series or something. It was more than that today. It was a couple series from Brett Rippin. And I guess I'm wondering, is there a competition for QB, two right now between Sam Howell and Brett Rippin because if you just watch today's practice, you would have said, yeah, that's two guys taking second team reps, not just one guy. And Brett Rippin had a pretty decent day today. I didn't think that he killed it, but he played pretty

well and he looked pretty competent. Sam Howell had that great throw to Rondale more. But aside from that, there were a couple of rollouts, couple throws out of bounds, you know, just still not really looking all that impressive. So I assume that the first guy off the bench is going to be Sam Howell, but we're going to be, we're going to be looking at snap counts. Like how much did Ripon play? How much does Brosmer get in the game? Actually, Brosmer finished practice today with a really nice throw down the field to Dante Fleming seems to do something every time he gets in there. But we might. I mean, Brett Rippin has been a backup in the NFL before. This would not be the first time ever that he was a QB2. I just never thought that there was really a competition until today where I went,

it is, is there a competition? Maybe there is a competition. So we will see on that. I also wanted to mention that, you know, Xavier Scott stands out to me every day. I've probably mentioned him every day as a guy who's catching passes, but he is one that I've got some curiosity about when it comes to the preseason game like how well does he perform versus maybe you know a tie chandler and i will tell you the guy who i decided today is crushing camp just just today i feel like i have a big enough sample size to say it this guy is crushing it out there and that is levi drake rodriguez because this week uh jvon hardgrave has not been practicing we're going to have to get an update on that i guess you know we've missed

that one today. But he was not practicing on the night practice and he was not practicing today. And the guy that was coming in for him was Levi Drake Rodriguez and every opportunity he's gotten. And he's playing a lot with the twos, which means he's also getting chances against the ones because they do a lot of first team offense versus second team defense. And he's been in the backfield for all of camp. I mean, he he's just been powerful and quick. And, in the quarterback's face and blowing up run plays and being a little bit too aggressive sometimes. And today he had one where he got through and then kind of did like a matumbo finger wag a little bit after. I mean, he's feeling himself out there. It has been a big

training camp for Levi Drake Rodriguez so far. So that is the update there. And we'll see if, you know, he steps up in preseason as well. But it looks like he and Jalen Redman are really the guys there in the middle. And then, you know, I would also say that Tyrian Ingrid Dawkins has stood out more than I thought he was going to right away. I thought, well, this guy is a project, but he's been in there quite a bit. I still think it's probably more likely that LDR and Jalen Redmond are the two guys. But Drake Rodriguez could be in there, uh, quite a bit. I think because when you look at this rotation potentially, you're not going to play Hargrave and Allen 900 snaps. You're going to mix and match. And Levi, I think, can play the similar role to someone like Harrison Phillips,

but he's got a little jolt to him also has a lot of strength to him. It might come down to getting assignments right and not just, you know, the raw talent, but he is in the backfield all the time in these practices. And I think Levi has had a really, really, really good, really good training camp so far. All right. So J.J. McCarthy and I will get to your questions momentarily. J.J. McCarthy was at the podium today and talked with us, the assembled media crew, about his first preseason game in a year since the one he was injured in last year and just how that's going to feel. So a couple interesting comments from him that I wanted to bring you guys. What was the reaction when they told you were playing Saturday? Oh, I was fired up.

Yeah. I just like, you know, obviously last year, it was the last time I put. played football for that year and, you know, just to be out there with the guys again and see those live bullets before Monday night, you know, it's extremely huge. And yeah, just absolutely fired up for it out for it. What are the big things you hope to get out of it, just the experience of playing? What are the big priorities for you and your development from a game? The biggest priorities, I would say, is, you know, just the overall, you know, choreography of the offense and, you know, making those right decisions and being able to function as one unit, one heartbeat, and, you know, be all on the same page, execute and, you know, just fall on our football philosophy and have it come to life. And I think the same thing. I mean, we're going to judge J.J. McCarthy, of course, in his preseason game.

And there's some people out there based on recent reporting and discussion that maybe will decide based on his preseason game, whether he's going to make it or not, you know, because I know that some of you have questions about that. And that is something I've ranted a little bit about recently. But, you know, there's going to be a lot of judgment of, well, does he throw accurately and does he make any mistakes and does he, et cetera, et cetera, but what we should also be looking for, the main thing is does it look like he is in control, in command, running the offense, the way it's supposed to be run, just like he did last year in the preseason game.

You know, there was an interception in the preseason game last year. okay, well, that's not that big of a deal. That's something that you learn about that throw and the next time you're not making that throw or you're leading your receiver a little different or your receiver helps you out because he's Justin Jefferson and not Tristan Jackson or something like that. But, you know, you learn from that and move on. Mistakes, okay, if it happens, it happens. But running the offense, getting people lined up, where's the motion supposed to go?

What are the blocking assignments that are supposed to happen? If he's not playing with Ryan Kelly, which he will probably, not be playing with Ryan Kelly, then that means that, you know, he's going to be a little more in charge than maybe he would be. But that's good for him to learn more about how to do that. You know, I'm sure that they'll have some conversations about getting some blitzes in there just to get him those types of looks. So the operation is more important than, oh, you missed this one throw or he had this number of yards with this number of completions. It's the comfort. How comfortable does he look because in practice most of the time he looks comfortable two minute

drills he looks comfortable red zone is still a work in progress as we saw again today and other parts of it have been not as sharp and the accuracy has been a little bit spotty up and down where some days it's really good other days you know maybe air mailing some people and things like that that's those are things that can continue to come along as you practice and go forward but if by now he doesn't have the operation set and there's confusion and there's wrong routes and there's bad blocking assignments and et cetera, then there's going to be a lot more work to do because that's the stuff that you should start to be getting down a couple of weeks into camp and then you're refining as you go forward. So here's a little more JJ on starting in

the preseason. Where does actually getting back into a game, even a preseason game sort of rank as far as that check mark goes? The ranking, it's high up there. You know, because it's live bullets and, you know, feeling the rush and feeling a couple of hits and bouncing back and having to make those smart decisions after those hits. And, you know, I just feel like the crowd noise, even though it's at home, it's still loud in there. All the different little things that you have to, you know, kind of adapt to as an offense. And, you know, it's our first little test run. So when it comes to playing J.J. McCarthy in the preseason, I think one of the biggest reasons to play. play him in the preseason for these first two games, not the third one after they've had the

joint practices, but the first two games is just to have the entire day, like, simulated. So you're QB1 and you're getting in your car and you're driving to the stadium and you're going to your locker and you're getting your helmet. You're getting ready. And I know he went through this last year, but you're walking out onto that field at US Bank Stadium. And I'm usually up in the press box, but there's been a couple times over the years where I have walked down on the field for one thing or another. And let me tell you, man, I mean, that is some kind of intimidating feeling when you are down on the actual field and you look around, 65,000 people are going to be in their seats

waiting for every single play that J.J. McCarthy makes. So yeah, does it, you know, completely simulate what's going to happen in week one against the Bears and Soldier Field and Monday night football and all that's a no of course not of course not it's not going to have the same juice it's not going to have the same consequences if you make a mistake it's not that big of a deal but at least it is kind of like the for those Nate fielder fans if you watched his show there like doing the flight simulator it's like doing the flight simulator where you can at least simulate what that experience is going to be like as the starting quarterback officially now these days

as the of the Minnesota Vikings. So I think it'll be a good experience for J.J. McCarthy to do that. All right. Let me get you some sites from training camp today and we'll start answering some questions. Sorry, I felt like I had a lot of notes there today off of all this.

But every day, you know, a lot to say from training camp. So let me get into your questions. and let me scroll back to when we had the black screen issue. And I was clicking around and playing the intro and everything else. So, okay, all right. So let me find the first question and not you guys blaming the dog, which the dog is upstairs right now. The wife is back home.

The dog is upstairs. It was not his fault. Not this time anyway. Nick says KOC is called. jay mccarthy that joker or joker several times now is this a kevinism or is our quarterback a bit of a prankster is there a story here i don't i don't think so uh maybe i have not heard that i have not heard if there's some sort of story behind him calling him i thought he called it i thought it was sucker that he called him the other day i thought it was he said he's a competitive sucker um you

know what that probably is is Kevin O'Connell when he talks in regular football language with not a mic in front of him probably has other words that he uses for stuff like that as opposed to and then he has to calculate with his brain what word is it that I'm going to use what I'm talking about J.J. McCarthy here because it's not the one that I might use in the meeting room or something. Ron says Rusini and Coward say that the media is hyping up JJ. Yeah, you know, I've gotten more messages about, I don't know, it must have been a Diana Rossini appearance on Colin Cowherd. You know, it's very clear to me that this is now a situation

where the Vikings are a talking point in the national media and debate shows. And that's a good place to be because that means you're supposed to be relevant. It means you have the coach, the quarterback, the roster, the franchise to be talked about on those shows. If you didn't, then they would just ignore you. You would be the Jaguars. Did they ever bring up the Jaguars? Probably not.

I'm guessing, unless it's like a AFC South segment and they're like, oh, you know, Jacksonville, they got a new coach. I guess we'll see. Like you have to earn your place on those shows. But the other side of that is that the hosts of shows like that are going to plant flags on opinions and they're going to have hot takes, if you will, because that's what their audience is looking for. That's what their audience likes. The Purple Insider audience wants to know if Levi Drake Rodriguez looks good. If I was on a national TV show and said, hey,

you know, guys, LDR is getting in the back. I mean, they would think I was a crazy person, right? It's a different type of scene. The one thing that is a little bit, a little bit, reflexing is when a reporter who spent many months banging the drum for another quarterback to be here, then, and I didn't see the segment, but if they are insinuating that they, you know, have special knowledge of McCarthy and so forth, that's a pretty tough sell. That's a pretty tough sell. But, you know, I'm now probably on, I'm going to say my 30th practice of seeing J.J. McCarthy and being in that building every single day for the, this is the 10th year. So I feel pretty good about my knowledge about J.J. McCarthy and how he's looked in practice.

And, you know, my assessment of the whole of J.J. McCarthy so far, what we've seen from OTAs to mini camp to training camp, is that there is pretty consistently progress. It's just not every single day gets better and better and better. And part of that is just putting J.J. McCarthy underneath the spotlight every single day. Like, you guys want to know how it looked. I want to tell you how it looked. But sometimes that can be construed as, well,

he's just, he's just all over the place. He's up and down. It's great. And it's not crazy for the first two weeks of training camp to have some plays look great and some plays look bad as they still try to get things together. The idea, and I saw that thrown out there by somebody, The idea that he's behind where they expect him to be and et cetera, et cetera, I haven't heard that. And if there's evidence of that, I think I'd want someone to show me in practice. Like, where is it?

Doesn't seem to be struggling to run two minute drills. Doesn't seem to be struggling to get people lined up. I tell you the two areas where he's struggled, one of them is in the red zone, number one, which I think is a real speed type of thing. there's a lot happening and it's all happening really, really fast and it's getting comfortable with everything happening in small areas. So a lot of his best throws are to wide receivers who get really open. And in the NFL, they don't get really open. They just get a little open. And then you have to try to make them really open with your arm. And again, he's got to get used to doing that

by practicing it over and over and over again. But I think when you see him run a two-minute drill and he looks like he's in control and command. He's got the offense moving. That looks good to me. Certain throws look good to me. He hits every day. He hits some deep out route to the right side, which looks good. Every day he hits line drive throws to the middle that look good. But there's probably some throws out there that I've thought are a little inconsistent. One of them is funny enough. Like one of them is kind of the checkdown where it's all right, no, no. And you got to hit the check down. And sometimes he doesn't get the feet set. or get something in alignment and it's just a little off again these are things that you got to work on

and then maybe his biggest issue has just been when he decides that he's going to make a play outside of structure he has thrown a couple of pretty bad interceptions or balls that maybe could have been intercepted and these are things that he has to realize in the NFL you're not going to get away with it all that often if you try this throw or that throw and that's what practice is for to some extent. But now, like, these practices matter. And you, and you've got to learn from those incidents pretty quickly. But he's probably going to do it in a game at some point where he's going to make a mistake. But I don't see this is some sort of catastrophe so far for his progress. It's about where I expected J.J. McCarthy to be at this point where he's got a chance here to play in a

preseason game and then turn a corner where we start to see real consistency. Oh, yeah, by the way, Justin Jefferson showing back up would be a pretty big deal, just throwing that out there that he's had this entire camp without Justin Jefferson. That kind of matters for the progress. But I also think that, you know, in today's world, you kind of have, like there used to be a thing. And maybe it was never a thing, but at least that's what they taught us in journalism school was just about biases and stuff like that. And, you know, I think that what we have now is that all that's out the window. So you don't check your biases at the door. You just keep driving the same stake into the ground deeper and deeper and deeper until you hit gold, I guess, because

that's what it seems like a lot of people do. And I've said this about quarterbacks. I won't give the same rant again twice in a row because I kind of ranted on it last night. But I've said this about quarterbacks many times that unless you're talking about Mahomes, you can pretty much pick any quarterback and either say he's amazing or sucks and you're going to be right a lot of the time just a good example like if j j mccarthy is justin herbert and he's really really good sometimes and then has other moments where he's not as good he will become a constant argument point for people like this and kind of like lightning rod player like this because the the fringe really good quarterback is the easy

thing in sports to argue about. Easiest by far to argue about. Just go to any bar, go to any party, and just start asking football fans, hey, what do you think of Justin Herbert? And people will argue about it. And TV shows know that. It's like this is so people do this.

But I don't think that the reporting from anywhere else but us watching it is going to be anywhere near as accurate as actually being there and actually watching it. So anyway, that's, that's the whole thing. This is why you guys follow Purple Insider, I guess, is because I put the gas in the Honda Civic and go out there every day and try to bring back the best info I can. Jude says, do we know when Justin Jefferson will be back? Because I'm hopeful that he can play in the joint practices and build the connection with McCarthy. There is no, like, hey, he's definitely going to be back at the time. this point, but Kevin O'Connell seemed like today when he was talking, like hint, hint, wink, wink,

it's time to get back out there. He made a joke about, you know, Jefferson tackling him when he comes out there. And I think you can maybe see it in my video in the first video where Jefferson's throwing a ball up in the air and running after it, like a little kid and stuff like that. It's, he's looked to me on the sideline, like he's pretty much ready to get back into football activities. and we'll see how soon that is, maybe next week or definitely by the joint practices. I think the joint practices are very important, actually, for Justin Jefferson to start playing in a real type of environment with J.J. McCarthy. So that that's my expectation.

I agree with you that I think that it's important that he gets back by the joint practices, but there's no specific exact date because you want Jefferson to be comfortable. And if they said, if the trainer said, don't put him out there until the week before the season, I'm sure he'd be fine because it's Justin Jefferson. And we all freaked out in 2021 when he had a shoulder injury that kept him out until the start of the season. He came up, you know, right into the game and ripped everybody up. So, you know, chemistry with Justin Jefferson is important. He does run his routes a little differently. And quarterbacks talk about that. But also if you put the ball in the general vicinity, you should be in pretty good.

shape and and that's that's another part of trying to evaluate j j mccarthy until he has jefferson we don't really know what this thing truly looks like because that's what all the plays are designed to do like breaking news let me let me sources told me that kevin o'connell's offense is really directed at throwing the ball to just the jefferson so if he's not there it is a different ball game than when he is in practice uh tricky ricky says with Hargrave and Alan both being below average run defenders, our run game looking great in practice. Should we be concerned about our run defense?

Isn't this the forever question of training camp? When you're playing against yourself, it's, hey, if, hey, if, if J.J. McCarthy looked flawless and Lucky Jackson and Thayer Thomas were roasting every corner, we'd be like, shouldn't we be worried about the corners? And, you know, but I think it's, well, one, they have Redmond and. and Levi Drake Rodriguez look at pretty good. And that is helpful because both of them, at least project, Redmond was a good run defender last year.

At least they project as being good run defenders who can rotate in. So how often will you actually end up having, you know, all three of the starters on the field at the same time? Or will it be, you know, in a rundown, maybe you only have Harrison Phillips and Jalen Redmond on the field or Harrison Phillips and Levi, Drake Rodriguez on certain. and run downs. Like maybe it's, you know, first and 10 or something like that. And, and you're throwing those guys out there and then second down in 10, then, then Hargrave and Allen come on to the field and maybe Harrison Phillips comes off. I think what you're going to see is that it

looks like a train station with people just coming on and coming off all the time in that front seven. And they'll try to match it up with being able to stop what the other team is doing if they're succeeding in the run game. The other part, too, is I agree with you that, Hargrave Allen might not necessarily be above average recently in their run-stopping abilities. But everybody around them is. So Mattelis, Pace, Cashman, the corners, like, they're all good run defenders. The safeties can come up and make stops. And if you sacrifice a little bit of the run, maybe except for against Philadelphia and Detroit,

but aside from that, if you sacrifice a little of the run to get a lot in terms of pressure. I mean, think about this last year, I mean, they got no pressure whatsoever. They could end up with just statistically 70 more pressures from their starting defensive tackles than they did last year. They got almost nothing from them. That I will take a lot more pressures than, okay, you're giving up a handful of runs that get to the second level and then guys get tackled. But yeah, I mean, it's a, it is somewhat of a concern. I also think that this interior offensive line can actually move bodies. Donovan Jackson to me has had some struggles in the past pro for sure, but it's looked like a difference maker in the run game and so

his will fries. That that has to be factored in as well. I also don't know if someone like Jonathan Allen in early August or Jvon Hargrave is saying, let me sacrifice my body for this run stop in training camp. I mean, that could be a little bit of it, but I think the run game has looked really good. Kit Fausto's dental plan says, I'm just going to go by kit from now on. Let's see. Yeah, it does, sorry, it does get buried sometimes on the screen. If I talk for too long, it kind of disappears on me. Do I expect JJ's inconsistent play to carry into the season? If so, would it manifest game to game or drive to drive? I mean, none of us really knows exactly how it's going to look, because what you're doing right now in training camp, in the

the first two weeks of training camp is you're trying to lock in the very vital parts of your base offense. So just for example, the crowd was great today. The stands are packed with people. There's lots of people who are taking cell phone videos and putting them on their social media and everything else. They're not game planning for the Chicago Bears today. What they're doing is they're running base stuff that if any person saw it from the Chicago Bears, they'd be like, yeah, that's a whatever route combination, which everybody runs. And like, that's part of their base offense. But all the dressing up and all that sort of stuff, all the game planning, who you're attacking, who you're trying to identify in the other team, what type of eye candy you're throwing at

them, all that stuff is to be determined. And that's why I don't want to make too much of inconsistent and practice stuff because you're trying to get down the basics. And then when everybody's gone for two weeks before the season, that's when they really put in the game plan based on all of that stuff. And McCarthy may look a lot better with the actual game plan and against the Chicago Bears defense that I expect to be average or below versus a Vikings defense that I expect to be in the top five to seven defenses in the NFL and also Jefferson. And also like so how inconsistent he really is is kind of tough to put a

finger on. But to your question, if I'm trying to figure that out, game to game, drive to drive, it's all, it's all on the table. I think what we're going to see is sometimes there's going to be a decision, there's going to be a throw where you go, oh, not no, that's nope, that's not, nope, and they're going to have to overcome some of that stuff. Or there's going to be somebody running wide open and he's going to overthrow them and it's going to be frustrating. But they've, built a roster good enough to overcome things like that. So there will be some inconsistencies and there might be some bad games where you go, what happened in that game that hasn't really happened?

I mean, it certainly did with Kirk for sure. So it hasn't happened in a while, at least since Kirk was the quarterback. But even in 2023, Kirk was pretty consistent early in that season. So it's really been since 22. And they found a way to win a lot of the games where Kirk struggled. And I guess that's why we think of this. offense is creating a real level of consistency, but I just think being a young quarterback in the NFL, stuff like that's going to happen. The most important thing is that you, if you're

JJ McCarthy, if you overthrow a deep out route or something and it goes out of bounds, like, okay, or if you had somebody open and you didn't pull the trigger and you slide for five yards and you have to punt, okay, but if you make decisions like he did today, which was he's rolling to his left, So he could clearly scramble for a couple yards, kind of tries to turn back, find his guy, and then it gets intercepted. That's the stuff that's actually going to hurt them from winning games. But I think he runs this offense well enough and throws the ball well enough,

especially with his timing. This is why it's kind of frustrating when, you know, he takes sacks, but they're not take sacks because he's hanging on to it forever. It's because guys are getting through in two seconds. His timing with his throws has been pretty good, drop back, hit the foot, let it go. Like, there's a lot of that. I was thinking about today because we were talking about Ben Johnson and his absolute lunacy so far in training camp in Chicago. And we were talking about that.

It's like J.J. McCarthy would have been a good quarterback for Ben Johnson because he does a lot of the things that Jared golf does, where he sees where he's going with the football and he gets it out with fairly good timing. And like that's what's going to keep him more consistent is just getting the ball out with good timing. But, yeah, I mean, anytime you have a first time quarterback and also not only that, but if you have a veteran quarterback who has inconsistencies, you're going to notice it way less or bring it up way less than when he's a young quarterback. So if, you know, Kirk Cousins, airmails a throw and has a tough game, it's just like, well, what did the other team do well?

Or did Kirk melt down or something? It might just be a little bit inconsistency from somebody like, I used to call it the Kirk coaster. So this kind of exists in a lot of different ways. I don't know exactly what that's going to look like. I have a feeling for it early on, but I don't have it like this is exactly what his inconsistency will look like. But you can smooth it out with great defense, great running, and great punting. And I think they'll have at least two of those things.

T money says they should just have Rondale and Naler just book it down the field with J.J. and Hawkinson running between until free three comes back. Well, I mean, Ron Dale, I think actually Ron Dale, if they feel good about him and there's steps that need to be taken for Ron Dale Moore to prove that. Number one is locking in the offense. He's a guy who couldn't participate in OTAs in mini camp, so he's still coming along in that. Locking in the offense is pretty important. And then just, you know, making place in the preseason games to prove that he can be a difference maker in this offense, but he can be somebody who you throw the ball to six yards down the field and he turns it into 16. I was just looking at some of his stats today.

And in 2023, he was in the top five in the NFL. And I know this is a little, you know, a little like picking out one stat that kind of works for my narrative. But it's not exactly that. It's this is how he could be for this offense or the best version. So in 2023, he was in top five for receivers yards per reception if he caught it between zero and 10 yards. So a short pass and he was turning those into extra yards with the best of them in the NFL with Jefferson downfield a lot. There's a nailer downfield a lot. There should be opportunities.

And I think, you know, that's part of your point is that there should be opportunities for someone like Rondale Moore if he can show that he, belongs to come in and, you know, catch two or three passes and get some yards after catch. Hawkinson being healthy, huge deal for J.J. McCarthy because there's so much attention down the field that Hawkinson is someone you can live on. And Hawkinson is also a consistency guy. Like, it's really not that hard to complete an eight yard pass right at someone who's standing there in the right hole in the defense. And whenever you need to get a bucket, you know, if you're a basketball, player and you're cold and you need to get a make well you usually go to an easier place to shoot

the basketball well that's the same kind of thing with t j hawkinson so there's things built in to help with the inconsistency of j j mccarthy as he progresses throughout the season and i think in an ideal world you imagine it being like at first there is some of that and they're trying to work through it with running with defense and, you know, grinding out a couple of wins early in the season. And then you start to see him take off in the offense and get more and more confident. That's how I think it's probably going to happen. But that's why they play the games. Ken says Rippin may be the number two. I mean, I wouldn't completely count it out. At this moment, I would not completely count it out. I think, you know, Sam Howell is

still in the lead there, although Rob mentioned the today's depth chart is unofficial, my friend, is the unofficial depth chart that is usually put together by not the coaches. So we can never pay too much attention to the official depth chart. But as far as Sam Howell, he is still QB2 as of right now. That hasn't changed. It's still Sam Howell. What's changed is that Brett Rippin's getting a lot more run. And when Rippin has gotten in, he has has looked okay, he's definitely throwing the ball more and getting it in the general vicinity. Actually, Brett Rippin is kind of reminded me of Nick Mullins recently with the way that he's thrown the football. That's kind of how it looks. Like it's not pretty flying through the air.

It's not damnarino out there, but the ball's coming out and receivers are getting to make plays when he's in the game more so than they have with Howl. Howells look better the last couple practices. I think that it is huge for him to show out in preseason and huge for him to turn the corner coming out of the preseason game if he is going to be QB2. I don't think that that decision can be made yet by the coaching staff. So he's got to prove it. I don't think they have enough information to decide. I think they need some of this preseason action. But if he's not, then it might be Brett Rippin because when you go through the other options, not pretty, not pretty. Matt says they need more to be a factor and they need the running game to be above

average to compete as an offense this year. Yeah, I mean, I would agree with that. Like, again, we don't really know how it's going to look exactly. But when it comes to having a complete offense, I think we know that that asking J.J. McCarthy to do something that even, you know, Kirk Cousins wasn't capable of, which is just put an offense entirely on your back, sometimes, it makes me laugh that it's used as a criticism for some quarterbacks that they can lean on a run game or that they can lean on a top receiver or that they can have an offensive line that helps them. This is the Jalen Hertz thing that I just think is so funny. Jalen Hertz, he's just not, he's just not that good. You know, he's got a good offensive line. He's got to go, well,

what do you want him to do? Say he's sorry? I mean, he's been to the Super Bowl two of the last three years. You want him to apologize to you? Like, I mean, in the best, in the best case, scenario for the Vikings, Colin Cowherd will still be screaming at the top of his lungs as the Vikings win the division that J.J. McCarthy's not that good. Like, that's the best case scenario because that means that their offensive line, their defense, their running game has been fantastic. And all of those things. So this is, you know, as of this moment, one of those camp vibe things. When you look at these guys go out there and play for now the offensive line, you just haven't seen the whole thing yet. Uh, because Darisaw, you know, not.

participating a lot so far. And it's, you know, we'll see when we can sort of say, is it week one possible or not? But, you know, every other position outside of the O line where Kelly's a little banged up right now and doesn't sound serious, but didn't practice today. And Darisaw's on his way back. So we have to use our imaginations there. But running game, defensive line, linebackers, corners, safeties, receivers, when Jefferson comes back, I think we can project him pretty well.

All this stuff is really, really, really on point for this team. And then someone like LDR stepping up, you go that now they got another one. And this has happened a few times with different guys where, you know, Theo Jackson's had a great camp. We're kind of unclear on that.

Rogers has had a good camp, Isaiah Rogers. So we were unclear on that coming in. the secondary, and that's been good. So they really have everything there set up, including a play caller who has gotten the most out of, you know, Sam Darnold and to some extent, Kirk Cousins in the past. And it's a pretty good setup. It's a pretty good setup.

But, I mean, I don't disagree. You have to have a complete offense for this to win. You can't just say, hey, throw 45 passes a game. You'll be fine. No, no, I don't, I don't think so. Nick says Tyrian Ingram Dawkins and LDR remind me of McLeod Bethel-Thompson, something about the, oh, the hyphens, oh, the three names, McLeod-Bethel-Thompson. I was trying to follow that on CFL quarterback McLeod Bethel-Thompson with the three names.

But the difference is that Bethel-Thompson, my understanding, I was not here yet, is that he was kind of a training camp legend a little bit. And I don't, I don't think that's going to be LDR. I think that LDR is going to be someone who plays and we'll see with Ingram Dawkins about how he might develop here going forward. So let's see. Demad is Harrison Smith 100% healthy. Any questions about his playing time?

You know, Harrison Smith's a guy that you just don't even worry about it all in training camp. Don't even really think about him. He's not someone who needs a lot of training camp to ramp up. And this franchise is just smart. That's why when I see Ben, Johnson, you know, taking out medieval weapons and attacking his players with him or whatever and running Oklahoma drills, whatever madness is going on there in Chicago.

When I see that, I think, I don't know, man. I think the Vikings approach of having Aaron Jones only take a handful of reps or Harrison Smith take a lot of veteran days. And that may be the case with Javon Hargrave. I assume it was the last couple days. Just get these guys rest. These are pros, man. They're spending 365 on this.

you don't have to push them to the limits when they know what they're supposed to do when they get out there in week one. And this team has a lot of those guys. Matt says, does everybody know what they're doing is about all you really want out of the preseason? It'll probably look fine stat wise.

Yeah, no, I agree with you. I agree. It's just that sometimes, you know, they go out there for preseason. They have a bad drive or something, go three and out. And it's, oh, man, oh, man, you know, we got to react to something.

Like, that was the Trey Lance stuff. for the Hall of Fame game. Like, I must react to something. I must react to Trey Lance playing football. I cannot help myself. The moth to the flame. Someone played football. And look, I'm not making fun of you reacting to J.J. McCarthy playing football.

It's a huge deal for this team. You want him to look great, obviously. You want him to go out there and light it up the same way he did last year or even better. It's just that it's a preseason game. So if the operation looks good and a handful of plays happen and you move the football a little bit and everyone goes home healthy, then it's a win for you. This is, this preseason game is everybody put on their pajamas the right way, get out there, play a real football game again and, and feel like J.J. McCarthy is officially this team's

quarterback, get him reacclimated into doing that at U.S. Bank Stadium. And then, you know, if it's just okay or not that great, then the second preseason game, you want to see a little more. Because even though they're not going to game plan, I think that Kevin O'Connell wants this to look good. I think he's going to throw in a cut last year, he threw in a couple wrinkles. There was a play last year,

because I reviewed this before training camps. I was bored where Trent Sherfield kind of faked run blocking and went up and I really did like a run blocking stance and then took off. And the Raiders assumed he was run blocking, play action, throw it up over the top. easy catch. You know KOC put that in for the Raider. They weren't expecting that in the preseason. He put that in just for them just to, you know, get McCarthy an easy throw. I think he'll do some of that to just get, get some confidence going for McCarthy at U.S. Bank Stadium,

which considering all that he's been through to be here would be really good for him. But, you know, if the stat line is seven for 13 with 68 yards or something, We're not, we're not saying McCarthy's behind progress. He's a bust or anything else like that. It'll probably just be like, well, how did it look? How was the feel? And if it doesn't go well, then all of a sudden, maybe it does get turned up a little bit of the tension, but it would have to go catastrophic, I think, for that.

It's one step at a time through this thing. It's like I like to think of things as we'll know when it's time to panic. Dystopian utopias says Red Zone doesn't look sharp because they have. him working on specific things in those areas in a game he'll just run it in well yeah when you're doing a seven on seven you will just run you know you can't just run it in because there's no defenders to stop you from doing that um but also yeah i've seen a lot of red zone drills and these you know these old eyeballs have seen a few red zone drills in my day they usually look better than this seven on seven guys should be open a lot of times in the red zone drills but

it doesn't like that's just an area where it's got to be better and he's adjusting and uh you know rob mentioned about jeremiah surl's talking about these practices where they're working on stuff like that's that's of course it's true but when you're working on something you want it to work you don't want you're like well i'm working on something so i threw four picks on purpose no that's not what you're doing but we can overreact like crazy uh to something like that and that's why i'm saying the areas where he needs to be better to me are clear the decision making when it comes to out of the pocket needs to be better the red zone stuff needs to be better when they're doing 11 on 11s in the red zone ones ones that's not working on something that's

trying to score and it hasn't been successful very much so far it's August 6th and they've got a month to continue to work on that it's just I'm saying to this point what needs to be next steps what would you like to see him do in the preseason game my thing would be see him throw in a touchdown from the red zone like find a touchdown in the red zone, kind of get a little confidence going there and also get that sense for how quick things are moving. I think throwing the ball in from the 10 yard liner in is super hard unless you're talking like pop passes or something just because the windows are tight, everything flat. I mean, this is this was my big thing about, you know, Sam Darnold last year

asking him to throw in every touchdown. Like that's hard, man. That's really hard. That's why you needed Jordan Mason this year. That's why you need to Will Fries this year. Don't ask J.J. McCarthy to get to the five yard line and throw the ball in every time, but he's going to have to do it at some point. Tommy says, how do you compare McCarthy's performance now to where Sam Darnold was last year? That was a little bit difficult because Sam Darnold has so much more experience. So I think the throwing was clearly better. I mean, just clearly more refined. the you talk about layering and accuracy and all those things i mean sam darnold has been in the NFL since 2018 he's just much more refined with those things and is a great thrower great

great thrower so he was putting on a laser show but i don't think going into the first preseason game i he had really started so the schedule is just a little bit different than it was last year uh going into the as far as like joint practices and the night practice and stuff i think had to move the night practice back because of rain, so that's messed with my brain of like when the different steps to things are. But because the night practice last year happened after the first preseason game, because that's when we found out J.J. McCarthy was hurt. But this year, obviously, it's back to the normal where it's the night practice and then the first preseason game. Anyway, but just to your question, it was probably the three or four

days, three or four practices before the first preseason game, where Sam Darnold just looked worked great. And I remember, I think it was Nate Tice came out to a practice and we were chatting about Sam Darnold. And when he left, you know, he said, you know, from Yahoo Sports, now Nate Tice and Mike Tice's son, great, great media personality, definitely worth following. He had said something like, that was a really good practice from Sam Darnold. I think it was right around this time. So I would expect for J.J. McCarthy to start to get more consistent, to start to get more comfortable to turn a bit of a corner and to get Jefferson back, that was the other thing is that chemistry between Darnold and Jefferson. I remember the first time that

Darnold practiced with Jefferson. It was in a mini camp because he signed his contract. And the first, one of the first throws he made to him was probably a foot too far. And Jefferson reached out casually with one hand and just pulled it in easily. And it was like, I think this is going to work, folks. And we just haven't had a lot of those moments because he hasn't been out there. So when he comes back, this is my expectation for him is that he'll close that gap between what it was for Darnold last year and what it is for McCarthy. But remember, even with McCarthy last year, it wasn't until right before those joint practices and right around the first preseason game that we all started talking about. Oh, oh, J.J. McCarthy's making

some things interesting. He's starting to get the first team rep. I mean, it took time for both of those guys last year. It's just that, you know, when it comes to Darnold throwing the football, that's a unique, that's a unique thing. It's a unique thing. There's not too many dudes just throwing, just standing there and throwing a football who can do it quite like Sam Ken. Rob said, any big surprises for you with the initial depth chart released today?

Yeah, the thing is that that is so unofficial. I don't even look at it. But I guess I should. I guess I should take a look at the Vikings, uh, unofficial depth chart and see if there's anything that sticks out to me. But I usually don't really even look too much. Maybe I did a podcast about it last year and I, and I may have put on a scroll. I think I need to do that if I'm going to look at it.

Okay, I'll take a look at it. Why, why not? Why not take a look at it? It is unofficial, though, guys. That's what you got. Let me, uh, let me screen share. So we can all take a look at the unofficial depth chart. Well, no, that's not it.

I just share. No. That's not it. How do I make that stop? Okay. I want to. Okay. All right.

Well, so I screwed up sharing the screen. Let's see. All right. That's not working. And I keep ending up with this. Wait. Okay. So let's forget about it.

it. We'll just go through it. And I got to figure out how to stop this. Yeah, the operation is still in preseason mode, guys. So let me just go through it and see if there's any surprises. I mean, not when it comes to the quarterback situation. Brosmer has clearly been the fourth quarterback, even though he's played pretty well. You know, Ty Chandler has more experience than Xavier Scott. C.J. Ham is still your top fullback one of one. As far as backup wide receivers on both sides, it looks, it looks about right for backup wide receivers where Ty Felton has been taking a lot of the two reps, Lucky Jackson and Rondale Moore, Tim Jones, Jashon Jones, Thayer Thomas, Silas Bolden, you know, the undrafted free agents are going to be farther down

as far as on the pecking order. You know, they do have some oars in here. Oh, they've got some oars. They've got the T.J. Hawkinson, along with Josh Oliver's the backup. And then, then Ben Euresec or Giovanni Ritchie by Bryson Nesbit or Nick Vinette for tight end. So we've got and then that actually is reflective of the snaps. So maybe this, maybe this is pretty close to what I think the depth chart actually is because Yurasek and Ritchie have been working in and out for the tight end three position. Derisaw school,

Brown is right what I would think like Brandel, Michael Juergens the backup. Yeah, I don't, I don't really see too much that's very surprising. on here as far as uh this goes so oh richter yeah well you know they really did this i think but okay maybe inside linebacker it says eric wilson and brian awesome law then cobi king and austin keys coby king is taking way more second team reps than brian ossema it's not even close king is taking way way more reps so that that one i would dispute a little bit and then aside from that looks uh looks pretty legit actually so there you go we'll work on that screen share feature anyway here's some more video from practice

and we can answer more questions um let's see sloth given rassini's embarrassing rogers reporting this summer i'm inclined to believe the exact opposite of what she says is true uh yeah i don't like to get too deep into what reporter is saying this and what reporter is saying that because that just starts, starts beefs and I don't know whose information is coming from anywhere. What I know is that this is, there's a reason why we do things like go to practice every day, talk to people out there every day to try to get the closest information we can to the truth. And when it comes to the national reporting on the Vikings, there's been a lot of not truth

over the last two years. It's just a fact. It's just a fact. There's been a lot of stuff that has been a winged. in a nod rather than real reporting. And I think that that's important to remember, too. It's like, what's going on with Quasi? That's not a report.

That's, I mean, you're not reporting anything. You're just, you're just speculating. And so I, you know, maybe there's some of that, too, of just speculating or just giving opinion or whatever it might be. Somebody mentioned that there was some sort of like, you know, the media is hyping up J.J. McCarthy. I mean, I haven't felt that way on a nightly basis. I've come in here and broken down every single practice.

this almost throw by throw. And I know I'm not the only the only one who's doing that, you know, that there's quite a few of us who are kind of talking our way through it, the ups and downs. If you read Will Reggets recaps or what Alec Lewis has written. And, you know, that's kind of how it's been. So, you know, I don't know. Everybody has got their own thing. They create their own niches. They get their own sources. And I don't know whose sources or who. I can only tell you what I see. It's very similar. But, but our track records, if we compare. them who's been right who's been wrong i mean we've been a lot more right on this show than anybody outside the building so unless justin jefferson does get traded for malik neighbors i'm still waiting

for that uh skull city blues darnold one 14 games pushing the ball down field kirko 113 using intermediate routes so what offense are you anticipating cousins intermediate or darnal deep sprouts or a combo, probably a combo of both of those. I think that just playing to the strengths that J.J. McCarthy throws really well intermediately, really well. If you're especially talking about across the middle, that's where he is fantastic at throwing across the middle. Now, you know, I still think that whole layering thing, which is something I'm going to

write a story on, like that whole. is something that needs to continue to grow for J.J. McCarthy and, you know, the touch on the fastball. And he was even talking today about, you know, moving his head too much as he was making throws and trying to keep it still like a golfer, you know, right? There's little details that are getting worked out. But from the ones I see the most comfortable from him, it is from 10 to 20 yards where he can hit the back foot and the ball comes out. And then what I think he could do a little bit better than Cousins and probably even a little bit better than Darnold, his run. Can he be a 700 yard runner?

Probably not. But can he be a 350 yard runner? Probably can make a lot of plays if something's not there with his legs. And I think that's where he tries too hard sometimes throwing the ball where you can just take it and run. And he was talking a little bit about that today as well. I would expect more intermediate stuff, but, you know, it's not like his downfield ball has looked bad.

And when you run play action, a lot of things. times there are shots downfield. And that was Kevin Stafansky's, uh, his theory was and Gary Kubiak was you run a lot of play actions. You are going to get, you know, the deep crossing routes that come open and stuff like that, which I think J.J. McCarthy is very comfortable when he's running play action. But I still would expect that they run a lot of what they call dagger concepts where it's a deep in route and somebody's running a clear out and you put the safety in the linebacker in a bit of a bind. Usually there's an underneath route that's sort of holding the linebacker. And so he's got to kind of lean up. And if he doesn't, if he drops back,

you've got a wide open underneath pass. But if he leans up, then you've got a pocket in the defense. And some quarterbacks are amazing at throwing up and over. I think McCarthy still right now is throwing right through people, but he can fit it in these windows. He did it today on a throw to Jordan Addison, where he just ripped it into a window because he has really good arm strength. And I thought it was an interesting answer from Kevin O'Connell today when he was talking about, well, there's differences between pure arm strength and arm talent. And right now, you know, there's McCarthy's checked every box with the arm strength. And I don't mean to put words in his mouth, but I think, like, I think we know that the,

the talent part of it is still coming along and it's going to only come along with reps and just chances to run these plays time and time again. And that's where that consistency could increase as the season went along. Nick says, how concerned should we be that the O line has not been in much? Will they have time to gel?