Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Vikings camp recap: Jefferson returns (Part 2)

Episode Date: August 19, 2025

Matthew Coller talks about Justin Jefferson's return, the uncertain nature of Jalen Nailor's hand injury, their current receiver room. The Purple Insider podcast is brought to you by FanDuel.

Now, I did see you guys reacting in the comment section to the discussion with Mike Sando, and I think it's a lot of what we've talked about throughout this year and throughout this offseason with J.J. McCarthy and what happened in the earlier part of the spring. In my mind, what went on with discussions about bringing back Sam Darnold that happened internally, discussions about Aaron Rogers are very normal when you have a young quarterback who's never played before, one of the best rosters in the NFL, and the guys coming off of an injury that kept him out for the entire season, which I'm sure they wanted to see in OTAs and in offseason workouts, does J.J. McCarthy come back well from that injury. Does he put

the weight back on? Does he look like he's strong and moving around? And are there any other setbacks because there was the one additional procedure that happened. Where I do get a little bit on the frustrated side is with insinuations that something else was going on there, that there was something nefarious behind the scenes that only certain people know about, but you don't know about, but I'm not actually going to tell you what I'm referring to and stuff like that. It's, to me, it's either if you got something to say, then say it. And if you don't, and it's not corrupt.

then what are we talking about here? And I feel like in all of the national reporting, there has been a little of, well, you know, did you hear they almost didn't go with McCarthy? But from the facts that we have, everything to me matches up exactly with what their plan was. And Mike mentioned, well, you know, the beat reporters are telling you everything is fine.

And it's like, that's because we heard about this plan from Kwezi Adafelmenza a long time ago. I mean, we heard about this plan. from Quasi, I mean, was it 2023 that got brought up initially? Maybe it was even when Quacey got here when he first said you win, and I don't think he meant to say this to a reporter, but he did when he said you win the Super Bowl with a great quarterback, and Kirk is a good quarterback.

It kind of tipped us off then, but then Quacey was very clear throughout how he was building this team. And then they were also very clear when they brought in Sam Donald. how many times did you hear Kevin O'Connell say about Sam Darnold, hey, you know, it's great for him and he's got a chance to show the rest of the league that he can be their quarterback. They never committed in any way to Sam Darnold. And then if they did give him an offer, it wasn't as good as what Seattle could offer him.

And yes, it's true that he could have signed the Seattle deal and they also get Will Fries and J. J. Von Hargrave and so forth. But why would he sign that deal when J.J. McCarthy is here? they would have had to franchise tag him, realistically, if they wanted Sam Darnold to stay. And where the rubber meets the road for me, and you guys know this, that I always look at what they do more than what they say and what they do even more than the whispers you hear. The same thing was happening with Quasi Adafel Menta for what, two years, where it was like, oh, did you hear they might fire Quasi? I was asked about that a bunch of times. When he didn't have the contract done, I was asked about that from a lot of people,

people in the league, media people, hey, what's going on with Quasi? It's like, is he not going to sign that deal? Are they going to fire him? Should they look for other GMs? And then Mark Wilf came out and said, no, we're going to sign him. And then they did. They've done everything they said they were going to do. They said they were going to sign Jefferson.

They signed him. And so the whole rumor and innuendo about other stuff going on behind the scenes, well, would they trade Justin Jefferson for Malik neighbors? I mean, I think what we can, I think what we could pretty clearly figure out is that these things get talked about by NFL teams because NFL teams talk about stuff. It's what their job is. Their jobs are remarkably similar to our jobs where they talk about football stuff. They go into meetings and they say, should we get Aaron Rogers? And then, well, what's your opinion?

What's your opinion? What's your thought? Somebody probably did say at some point. Someone probably did say at some point. Hey, should we like try to trade Justin Jefferson for Malik neighbors? because we're going to, neighbors is really good and Jefferson is, you know, going to be expensive. Someone probably said that in a meeting. And that's a thing someone should say in a meeting because you need to have that conversation, but then it gets out.

And then it's like, oh, they were trying to do it. And it feels the same way with the Rogers thing. Rogers calls Kevin O'Connell. I think we could put this together like we're in court, right? Calls Kevin O'Connell says, I want to play for you. I can help you try to win the Super Bowl with Jefferson and your offense, and I can do it with the team that you got and I'll do it for cheaper. And you go, boy, Aaron Rogers throwing that football still at 40 years old. He's pretty good at it. $15 million to bring him in. Like, that might be, that might be interesting.

It's sort of like this. The San Francisco 49ers had a conversation. This got out later about bringing in Tom Brady and making Brock Purdy sit, and then they ended up going to the Super Bowl with Brock Purdy. The Philadelphia Eagles had a conversation about trading for Russell Wilson. Like, this stuff happens. So I guess I look at it that way, but it also maybe doesn't move the needle as much. It's not as exciting to say, like, yeah, they have conversations.

And you know what? I'm sure that they had the same conversation we did about, hey, J.J. McCarthy's lost a lot of weight. Like, is he going to be ready? We got to, and he said, you know, we got to see him. Like, yeah, wouldn't you want to see him? And the other thing is to have this conversation now about stuff that happened, you know, a long time ago now in football years, it feels like it was 10 years ago when they were talking about which direction they were going to go a quarterback. Now it feels much different because we can actually look and see the results from J.J. McCarthy at practice where he has been very good, very good at practice overall.

I mean, if we were just, if we were grading the entire camp, because it's basically. over. The camp is basically over. There's two more days of practice tomorrow and Wednesday, and those are probably going to be hard practices. But as far as my evaluation of J.J. McCarthy, that kind ended at the joint practices. I don't really, because now they're starting the preparation. The practices are close to the fans. They're really getting into their real plays that they're going to run against the Chicago Bears with the first team. So this isn't like a, hey, let's install the offense anymore. This isn't even how does J.J. look to me. Like, that's kind of over. I'd give him a B plus for his entire training camp.

I'm waiting the joint practices very heavily, but I would give him a B plus for his entire training camp, bordering on an A, but there were some days that were pretty rough, night practice was pretty rough. The accuracy, I think, still has to be proven in real games, but it was certainly on point during the joint practices and how he deals with real game situations is yet to be known. But I don't think inside that bill,

right now that, and of course they're going to be nervous because it's a first time quarterback, I don't think anybody now would be saying, ah, you know, maybe we should have got Rogers, not the way that J.J. McCarthy has handled himself during this training camp. And so I would say right now that they made the best decision based on the information that they had at the time, based on the options they had at the time, and the other ripple effects, which means who else they can put on the roster, how much they can put around him, how they're going to be able to coach him and all those things. But what I thought about that conversation, I know some of you guys were getting heated in the comment section. I thought it was a back and forth between an outside

perspective and an inside perspective. And the outside perspective has been a lot of, do they really believe in JJ or did they want to do something else? And they just sort of had to settle with him. and I don't think that that's the case. Does that mean that I think every single person inside TCO Performance Center fully and completely 1,000% believed that there was no other option in this world? No, of course not. Of course not.

And all decisions, all decisions have to come down to what information you have at your hands right there and then, and then you have to go for it. So as of right now, it looks like they are in very good shape with McCarthy. I am concerned about the wide receivers as we talked about a lot in the first hour of the show.

Curious if you guys would do since we settled on what the Vikings draft capital actually is, if you would do Adam Thielen for a fourth round pick, would you make that trade? And let's just say that Carolina has to throw in a sixth. So how about Thelan and a sixth

for a fourth round pick from the Minnesota Vikings? Would you do that trade? So I can get to other things on your mind, you know, Caleb Williams got brought up. So it's really funny because when I have a conversation like this with Mike Sando, the first part of it, you know, the comments are getting a little mad at Mike Sando. And he's given, he's just given his perspective, guys. And that's why we had the back and forth, right? And then he says that nobody in the league believes in Caleb

Williams. And it's like, you know, so I thought it was a good back and forth. I thought it was a really good discussion. And I would say, you know, don't take it personally. Like, this is a conversation that we've been having at practice and things like that. And, you know, within our group chat of the media throughout the entire offseason is what's being said about McCarthy versus what we know about McCarthy. Like, are we missing something or what did you hear about this or that or the other thing? And I think that our job as the local folk is to be as precise as we can possibly be. That's, that's the key. And sometimes that means what you hear. Sometimes it means what you see, but trying to get it the most accurate for what's

actually happening inside the building and what we're actually seeing on the field. And to me, that is the results are in. The Vikings didn't go with Aaron Rogers. If they didn't believe in J.J. McCarthy, they would have franchise tag, Darnold, or they would have brought in Aaron Rogers, because those are darn good options for this football team. Those are good options. I mean, Rogers, the second half of the season, you look at his PFF grades, his big time throws and all that, you look at the way Darnold played. Excellent, excellent overall season from Darnold. And that's how high the bar was to reach to go to McCarthy. They went with it. So I'm going to go with, yes, they had these conversations. I don't think anyone debates that. But the way

those conversations were presented by certain people in the media, I don't think was wholly accurate. I think they were normal conversations that an NFL franchise has, not reflective of we don't believe in J.J. McCarthy at all. So that's just my viewpoint on it. On Caleb Williams, also something that kind of made me chuckle was last night watching everybody talk about Caleb Williams, no matter how many times you have to go through it. And no matter how many times everybody tries to tell you the moth to the preseason flame it's undefeated man it's incredible it's no way you know this preseason i'm not i'm not overreacting i there's no way i would never overreact and then caleb williams has a good drive and it's like caleb williams

looks great out there and it but guys the bills weren't playing their starters one of my favorite preseason the the lock lock it in to i will never care about preseasoning results from key players. I care about them for third and fourth guys. Absolutely. Those guys are playing their tails off. Absolutely. But for starters, never care about this is if you, if you Google this, Ryan Leif defeated Peyton Manning in a preseason game and outplayed Manning handily. And, you know, there's there's some, you know, I think if you Google it, there's an article about like, well, Ryan Leaf really showed him who the top pick should have been. It's like, come on.

But when we're talking about backups, no, it really does matter. I mean, if you see, just for example, like, if you see an Elijah Williams pop, well, that's, I mean, that means something because he's playing against a bunch of guys who are trying to win jobs for their team. The New England Patriots players, like, they're going as hard as they possibly can. And if you're winning those reps as a third stringer versus third stringer, like, that's your one shot. Those guys are going as hard as they can.

Max Brosmer, for example, the way that he's a. played, it has not been like just some sort of goofy, you know, a great point about the Lions O and 16 team going, oh, four and oh, in the preseason. That's funny and true. But, you know, even with someone like Max Brosmer, where it can be very hard to gauge the second half of a preseason game because he's not playing against the best players in the NFL. So then we have to kind to make a different adjustment, which is, well, what are the things? that he's doing, and are those things repeatable? For me, there are repeatable things for Max Brosmer that look good.

There's getting rid of the football, going through reeds, throwing with anticipation, all those sorts of things. I think you're misremembering it a little bit, David, with Case Keenham and the 2017. It was actually camp. He was struggling in camp. It wasn't preseason. It was actually preseason when Case Keenum made his case. if you will.

But there was a competition before that. It was Taylor Heineke and Case Keenum. And then the game against Buffalo, Keenham was great, went, led a scoring drive. And then they got going. And that's what we thought we saw was Sam Howell, but then, you know, big step back.

There was Sam Howell in the last game. Practice is always going to be super, super important. But when it comes to third and fourth string type of guys, this is all you have to really go on because we don't see them having a lot of reps. so that's the best we can really do is to evaluate where they stand with preseason and try to figure out is their upside, what are they doing? But when it comes to, just to drop back to where we started, Caleb Williams' performance against the bills means absolutely nothing.

And it's almost laughable when the Bears blow out Buffalo. I mean, who cares? Who cares? I mean, because when you're looking at Buffalo, like that's a Super Bowl potential team with the best quarterback on earth and they're playing their backups against the Bears starters and wow, he was able to drive the field.

I mean, it just doesn't tell us anything. I think that there's a good chance that Caleb Williams is better. And some of the stuff that they ran, it looked like Ben Johnson stuff, open receivers in the middle of the field, running slants and things like that. But you're not talking about any of the level of talent

that they're actually going to face or game planning that they're actually going to face. And I just, I almost felt bad because Sean McDermott after the game had to be like, that wasn't up to our standards. Come on. Like, what? It's a preseason game. So anyway, I was just, you can't help yourselves.

It's like Shadur Sanders averages six yards an attempt. And it's like, he should win the job. And Joe Flackle won the job, which does open the potential Kenny Pickett conversation, I guess, for the Vikings, if they like Gabriel and Sanders as their backups. And they shouldn't even consider ever playing Kenny Pickett. That's a franchise that needs to find out. about its young quarterbacks. Yeah, I did, I did see I shot you 99 that the Vikings signed running back.

I'm going to guess that's Exavian Validae is how it's pronounced. It's X, A, Z, A, V, I-I-A-N, Exavian Validae. He has played, I think, maybe a special team's rep or two in the NFL. He's bounced around a little bit. So the way I was trying to read the signing, was, well, does this mean that they don't want to play Xavier Scott in the last preseason game? Because remember, KOC is extreme.

The X and Xavier is for extreme. That's what O'Connell is when it comes to not playing his starters in the third preseason game. He goes deep into the roster and only, who was, who was playing last year? It was Matt Corral. Do you guys remember that? Matt, no, of course. Why would, you shouldn't?

If you do seek help. Like Matt Corral was playing in a Vikings preseason game last year. Like that's that's where we're at with the third preseason game. So I'm guessing that it is possible. They just, they're not going to play Ty Chandler. They're not going to play, of course, the starters at all. And maybe Xavier Scott. But if Xavier Scott doesn't play, that means that means he's probably on the roster.

Or they don't want to show him to anybody else. So they cannot prove. There's a box score somewhere that says Matt Corral, and I think he got strips sacked while KOC was on the broadcast. I didn't actually go back and watch that. I'm going to, I'm actually, I'm not going to Tennessee because the Purple Insider budget for road games is only for regular season games. So I'm not traveling to Tennessee.

Hopefully they'll do more of the KOC on the broadcast so I can see what that's like. He was very, very good last year. But yeah, Matt Corral. I think you're right. Mo Ibrahim got in the game. I mean, come on. Like, that's what we're talking about in the third preseason game. I recall there were big debates about Jaron Hall's third preseason game.

And then he made the 53, then they cut him, and Seattle picked him up, right? It's not something to over-evaluate. I am interested, though, in some things in that game we can get into as we go along. I did see that that Elijah Williams made the. baldy breakdown. So I was having trouble with figuring out a way to get Elijah Williams onto the roster. He does have the highest PFF grade of any Viking defensive player through the first two preseason games. But if we go through the defensive line, so obviously Phillips, Alan, Hargrave, Redmond, Levi Drake Rodriguez has been banged up. I don't know how serious that is. But assuming that it's

not that serious. Then you have Levi Drake Rodriguez and then Ingram Dawkins. So there's six. I believe last year they kept six. Can you get another one, another spot there? They do kind of have a free space with Jordan Addison. I used my, I made my 53 today over a Purple Insider dot football. And I used my free space on Xavier Scott to get four running backs. And my justification for running backs, one fullback. My justification there was Scott is interesting and could actually have some sort of role as coming out of the backfield and catching the ball. He could play a lot of special teams. And I'm not so sure about getting rid of Ty Chandler because Ty Chandler is a guy that can do the kick return. And he can be kick return two with Ty Felton is kick returner one. And if

Ty Felton struggles or, you know, the issue with the fumble in the game. If he has problems like that, then you can always switch Ty Chandler in, and Chandler actually has experience, and I thought he was pretty good as a kick returner. Not great, but pretty good. His best return was, what, was it last year against, he had one against Green Bay that he brought back for a touchdown or something, and then it was called back, but it was a really good return. It had nothing to do with the play.

So he's got, he's got a lot of talent there. And I also think that you'd rather have Xavier Scott coming out of the backfield than doing a lot of the stuff that running backs do, but Chandler has still got that. I don't know. It's, I haven't felt like there's a ton of evidence that they're cutting Chandler. And we have to remember, too, that even though we have liked Xavier Scott and Elijah Williams, what are the chances that they actually get claimed by someone? Because then they have to go on their, their 53.

is that going to happen. I think with Joe Huber and Logan Brown, well, those are two guys that have gone in different directions for me during this training camp where Joe Huber has been really good in the preseason games and he graded again really well in past protection. It was less so against the run. But in past protection, he was good again for a second straight game. And I think that tells you something about him.

He's taking all the reps with the second team. I still can't find a spot for him, though. That's the problem. can't find a spot because normally the Vikings keep nine offensive linemen and you're not I don't think you're getting rid of Jurgens as much as we were kind of talking about as it possible they look for an upgrade there Jurgens knows the entire offense I don't think he's been bad during the preseason it's been a good run blocker he's had his issues at times with past protection that's who he is but you train him all through the last two years in this offense you'd rather

have that guy than just randomly going and getting someone else. So he's on there. And then Walter Rouse, I think Rouse started out a little rough and they were having him at left and then having him a right. And there was the talk about him playing guard and that just never happened. I don't know. Maybe his body isn't fit for a guard. But though, I think those two guys are on.

And then just in school, I would be shocked if they cut him for as many first team reps as he's taken. He might need to start in week one. So they're not going to cut him. and then Blake Brandel is your best backup offensive lineman. So where does that leave you? It's hard to fit a Huber on there. And then with Logan Brown, I mean, I just don't really know what happened there.

He started out looking pretty good and was getting second team reps. And he was bouncing back and forth with Walter Rouse. It looked like it was a real battle. And in my, I had him on 53. I made a 53 where Logan Brown was on it and they were cutting Rouse. And then all of a sudden, it just flipped. And Rouse took all the snaps, didn't come off. second team and Logan Brown was out there in the fourth quarter. So I would expect him to be

maybe a practice squad guy, but that is it. I don't think that he's going to actually make the team. So, Matt Corral played, and according to ESPN, he had zeros across the board, except for a strip sack, PFF grade of zero, which I've never seen before. So that's cool. Well, thank you, Jude, for the research there. I think I have seen a zero before. Let me think. When was it? I want to say, and maybe they adjusted it, so they probably adjusted it. But they used to put out the first initial grades and then they would adjust them.

But now I think they just do it faster than they used to. Maybe they have, I don't know, a different process or something. But I believe Garrett Bradbury in the initial grading got a zero in one of those games against Kenny Clark. And we talked about that so many times like, yeah, Kenny Clark. would just eat up Garrett Bradbury year after year. And I believe that he ended up with a zero grade for one of those games. Or maybe it was a zero in pass protection because he gave up something like six pressures for a center, which is kind of unfathomable.

We maybe don't talk about enough. It was a reminder last week as the Vikings D-Line was doing really well that, yep, they made the right decision as long as Ryan Kelly can stay healthy. But even if they didn't, I think Michael Juergens is just like having. and Garrett Bradbury in there. Yeah, the dude, I think that they did just sign Valaday because they're not going to play. My guess is that they're not going to play Chandler, so it will be Scott as the starter, then Trace Stewart, and then if somebody gets hurt.

Because if you only go into the game with two running backs and then somebody gets hurt, you're talking about one guy is the only guy left. and then if he gets banged up, like, who's playing running back? Are you just throwing some wide receiver back there? So they, I would guess sign a guy just to see, just as kind of like a, yeah, we need someone to come in here. And then maybe he impresses. I don't know. Is Kenny Pickett an upgrade from Sam Howell is a question that feels very dark.

But I think, I think the answer is yes. I do think the answer is yes, that he is a better version of, I mean, he was a first round pick, which I know doesn't mean anything, but he's won games in the league. And that's something that we can't really say for Sam Howell. I think Howell is much more volatile than Kenny Pickett. Like when we look at Kenny Pickett's career and we go back to even last year and what type of passer he's been, it's just been very, very, very conservative. I mean, he's averaging 6.3 yards per attempt.

I mean, last year he threw, what, 42 passes. 60% completion percentage, 6.9 yards per attempt, 86 rating. I mean, he is, he is the definition of your play it safe backup type of quarterback. And I think that I would feel better about a play it safe backup quarterback who could just get the ball to the playmakers, run the ball, not turn it over. I mean, how many times, hold on, I'm going to pull this up, his turnover worthy plays over his career in 870. 35 dropbacks. He's only had 20 turnover worthy plays, which is a 2.2% of his snaps. That's really good, I think. Let me look at what the best were at last year at not turning it over. Just to get you that right set. Yeah, 2.2% would put you in the top 10 for not turning it over.

I mean, that's enough to sell me on Kenny Pickett as a backup if Cleveland cuts him or again, if they want to trade some sort of seventh round pick swap for him. If they want anything more than that, then, you know, we know the Vikings are saving that fourth round pick for Adam Thielen, but you wouldn't want to give up a lot. But he, he really is the definition of what I think of when I think of a backup quarterback, a, remember the year Kyle Orton or Rex Grossman, like those guys winning with the Bears? And you go, that guy, how did he even do it? Or how about the year that Gus Ferrat came back? Was that 03? No, was it? No, not 03. He came in 08. Yes, 08. Gus Farrot 08 when he came in and he just sort of game managed his way. He

got a couple of interceptions, but just fought his way through the games, got some wins there. We've seen plenty of examples of that. I think Kenny Pickett can do that. I don't think that Sam Howell can do that. I think he's going to turn the ball over like crazy. Is he better than Brett Rippet? I mean, I don't think it's even close. Like his numbers are really not that bad when it comes to Kenny Pickett. And I'm talking relative to backups, not relative to starters. So 2022, he had a 75.5 pff grade, 18 big time throws, 11 turnover worthy plays, 76 quarterback rating, but not turning the ball over, to me, is the big thing there. He took a fair number of sacks, but it's not egregious, had a good amount of scrambles, had some first downs, scrambling.

none of this would make me say, oh, my gosh, he could never win games. And you know what my standard is. My standard is that the backup quarterback has to be able to win two out of four games. So if Kenny Pickett was thrown in to four games, could he win two with this team? Yeah, I think he could. Could he win 11 if he had to play the whole season? No. But I'm not convinced of that with Sam Howell, not from what we've seen, that he could win

two out of four games. I have not been. Answers to, I agree, Gus was the perfect backup. How is he different from Brett Rippin? I mean, he's much more talented, just raw talent. But also, when Brett Riffin played in real games,

he turned the ball over like crazy. I mean, I, that's, he knows the offense really well, but that's the issue. What about his hand size? I'm not too concerned about his hand size. He does have a connection with, Jordan Addison. In fact, Jordan Addison is probably really responsible for him being a first round

draft pick overall. Jacob says, I'm sure it's asked, and it's annoying to repeat over and over, but how did J.J. to Jets look? So actually, Jacob, you are the first person that asked that because there wasn't a lot of J.J. to Jets today. It was really just J.J. to Jets during walkthrough was the only time that they were working out together when it came to the 11 on 11s and 7 on 7 Jefferson was on a separate field catching passes from Brett Rippin and looked great to me as far as his speed how he's getting down the field how he was catching the ball but not fully ramped up yet so it was just when they were doing their like one quarter speed here's what we're going to do against this defense slow motion walk through that was the only

time they were actually working out together today uh you're right you're right freedom thinker that addison got both picket and williams over draft i well williams probably would have been drafted high regardless but jordan addison certainly did not help or i did not hurt uh jacob how much stock can we put into williams yesterday to my untrained eye the bill's defense was vanilla also if jj perform like that i'd be over the moon so a double standard no you're you're absolutely right about the double standard. But the difference is that if J.J. McCarthy played like that, we haven't seen McCarthy really at all.

So we're working with, does he just look like he's in charge? Is he executing the offense? And then you would have said, hey, it looked the best it possibly could. And that's all we have to work with right now. It's different when we're evaluating Caleb Williams, where yesterday means absolutely nothing. The guy played an entire season already. I mean, come on.

And look, their coverage, if you're at the game and you're the reporter and you're talking about it after the game and you've got to do your post game podcast, what are you going to say? Caleb Williams looked great. He did. He did look great. But if you go as far as to say, wow, he's really getting it, folks, like this is going to happen. That's where it's ridiculous.

But you can tell the amount that every, the media outlets want it to happen because, you're he's a celebrity player. I mean, he was a huge superstar at USC. It's a massive market, but I think if we're being fair here, an entire season, plus a rocky training camp, and it sounds like Ben Johnson and him have maybe gotten a little bit closer to each other as the camp has gone along because at first it sounded like Camp Krusty for you folks who love the Simpsons. And if you don't love the Simpsons, bad, just sounded bad at the beginning. And maybe it's come along and maybe this is evidence of it coming along but the bills played nobody and played nothing and so of course you could do whatever you want out there uh it means i put no stock in it

personally zero absolutely none Caleb Williams has to show it in real games if Caleb had done that now here's the thing this is where the standard is different if he was a rookie and he did the same thing I would say a little bit I'd say a little bit because we just have nothing to work with and that that that would be, you know, a good step for him as a rookie. But once somebody's actually played in the league, we're not using preseason as an evaluation. I saw that Joe Burrow has ripped apart defenses in the preseason. Like, great, we've got years of Joe Burrow playing. Like, we've got a year of Caleb Williams playing, and we know what he looks like.

Need some more answers for that Fanduel question of the day. Is it a better bet to go with Knicks over 3,500 yards or J.J. McCarthy over 3575. Who do you think, really the question is, the Fandu a question of the day is who do you think will end up with more yardage this year passing Nix or J.J. McCarthy. I also wanted to bring up my 53

and just talk a little bit about that. I made that for the website and I used my free space, my Jordan Addison free space on Xavier Scott. As of right now, I'll just go through the positions and just kind of tell you guys about, I'm still working on that screen, share function, but I'll just tell you guys about some of the questions that I have at each

position. So quarterback obviously is Sam Howell going to be the guy. And the other options I came up with, I will read them to you and you can be maybe sad. Carson Wentz, Skyler Thompson was an option. I like, this is where you're at with the backup quarterback situation is when I wrote down Skyler Thompson, I was sort of proud of myself for remembering Skyler Thompson. I was like, oh, yeah. He's had a good preseason. He's with Pittsburgh and they don't need him and then I'm like, what am I doing? This is why we try on the show to avoid talking too much about QB2. Because at some point, you'll be alone in your house at 11 p.m. like happy about remembering who Skylar Thompson is. That's a, that's a sad and dark place to be in. But that's what I was doing

last night. So Skyler Thompson, Kenny Pickett, as I mentioned, obviously Joe Flacko won that job. Tommy DeVito, James Winston I don't like is an option. Mike White is one that's sort of interesting. Kyle Trask and Sam Ellinger were the other guys I came up with and didn't feel great about any of them, but I have Brosmer making it over Rippin right now.

I just think with a quarterback who's played as well as Brosmer, it's probably going to be a little bit hard to get him onto the practice squad. Nix is the better bet, Nick says, since we've seen him do it already. Yeah, that's fair. I think that's fair.

LDR believer, I would feel like Knicks throws for more if he had a wide receiver one, so got to go with JJ. That's true. Scott says JJ will go over 4,000. I mean, like he should,

he should go over 4,000. We just don't really know yet, right? I mean, 4,000 is still a lot in the NFL. JJ is going to have a more run-centric offense. At the beginning, now, that's true. that that could be true that that could be true that they end up running the ball more especially if they get ahead in chicago if caleb williams is struggling against the defense turns the ball over a couple times i mean you could end up with i remember the game

where kirk had 10 passes and they beat the falcons i mean you could end up with something like that in a game against chicago atlanta and cincinnati though just thinking about the start of the season and is it going to really be a slow handoff a lot make sure you don't turn it over. Those teams, those teams can score. I don't think that there's going to be a lot of slow ramp up for J.J. McCarthy. I really don't. I think Kevin O'Connell is going to run his offense. He's going to throw the ball a lot. They'll mix with the run, a lot of running on first down, and then play actioning off of that, and then off we go. I just don't see O'Connell ever being on that sideline with that headset and thinking, I don't know. I think I should really

play it safe here with with running the ball and punting it away or whatever it just seems like he's always going to say when he's in the moment this is kind of how you can think that you're going to do something but then when it actually happens you just sort of go back to who you are and I think that's a good approach still it's a little bit of a riskier approach but I mean who knows maybe they'll run for 200 yards in the first night and we'll all say well KOC figured out how to run the ball. And sometimes these things just have to develop the way they're going to develop. If the offensive line is crushing people in the run game, then they'll do it. If they're struggling in the past game, they might have to lean more on the run.

But as of right now, I think KOC is going to be KOC. That's how I'm viewing it. So the backup quarterback situation, I still have Sam How was the backup. It was just five passes the other day. It was not pretty. That question remains out there. But I'm going to have to still make that. at the case and then Max Brozmer.

I use the free space on Xavier Scott and put five guys in the backfield. That's the one I felt the least confident about. Definitely felt the least confident about Xavier Scott making the team. Because as good as he's been and as much as I've liked him, that's a guy who tends to find his way to the practice squad. And someone asked earlier who Mr. Mancato is.

I'm sorry, I lost that comment. but who Mr. Mancato is. For me, it's Xavier Scott right now. Lucky Jackson would have been in that mix, but if Xavier Scott makes the team, he is 100% Mr. Mancato. Like, that's what Mr. Mancato was made for, was the Xavier Scott story.

So I'm trying to, I'm trying to slip him onto the roster here. I'm not sure that it's going to happen, but I've really liked how he's looked in camp and in the preseason games. And just somebody who can catch the ball. Oh, no, you're right. That's a good point, Hunter.

Max Brozmer for Mr. Mancato. That could also be decided in this last game. Brosmer's been pretty good in the preseason games, and he has to make the roster too. It could come down to that. Brosmer is definitely a good choice for Mr. Mancato. Zemaya Vaughn, I think what Zemaya Vaughn needs is a pick six in a preseason game because he's sort of just been a guy out there.

And in practice, he's been good. And in practice, they've leaned on him quite a bit. but and you see from the second team reps day in and day out and then the preseason games shows you what they think of him but Mr. Mancato is not really a what they think of him type of award it's who who gets the fan fervor and that's probably Max Brosmer that's a good point I mean coming out of that first preseason game it was Xavier Scott but it probably is Max Brosmer the fact that Scott's been playing earlier in games gives him a little bit of juice there we'll see if either one of them makes the team but

It almost seemed like a lock that it was going to be Scott over Ty Chandler, but then based on the kick returning, I'm not really sure. This is why we play. This is why we play these games and try to figure out the 53. The wide receiver room, I mean, I've got Jefferson, obviously Addison is suspended. Naylor, Felton, Lucky Jackson, and I threw Miles Price on there because somebody's got to return them punts. And hey, if Miles Price makes the team and he gets another couple of long kick returns,

he's got a Mr. Mancato case as well. He really made that last time. Let's see. I shot U.99 says, do you even think it's possible for how to be dropped as QB2? Like how bad does it have to be or does experience completely overrule QB competence? Oscar Chapman for Mr. Mancato is a great, is a great one. Elijah Williams definitely has put his name. in the mix. This has been an exciting Mr. Mancato race. Honestly, Elijah Williams, just showing up

in these games, showing up on a ball these breakdown. You don't see that. But is it possible for Howell only if somebody else like Kenny Pickett becomes available and they make that move? That's the only way that Sam Howell isn't the backup. And even if it was Kenny Pickett, who I would be in favor of, just because he plays like a backup should play and not we just go throw the ball up in the air and get it intercepted and I thought it was sort of funny that O'Connell wasn't really sure if that was to a receiver or if he was trying to throw it out of bounds. Of course, if you're Sam Howell after the, you know, after in the meeting room, you got to, I just, I was trying to throw it out a bounce. But it kind of looked like he was throwing it toward a receiver. I don't know.

It's, it's just been a rough ride for him. And I think there will be other options. What it comes down to is, are they going to value him getting all these reps in the, off season or not because he hasn't really looked like he's mastered the offense so would they or would they just go with rippin because he looks so much more comfortable in the offense um do you think uh brett rippin knows he's getting cut yet i i don't i don't know what they're going to do i honestly don't know what they're going to do i don't know if they're cutting bret ripin because you could see a case for rippin is just better when it comes to knowing the offense and they decide to go with him instead.

So at receiver, you know, I've still got, Felton is clearly a lock, Naylor, Lucky Jackson, and going with Miles Price as right now, because I got nothing as far as who else could be the punt returner. He's the one that's shown something as a returner. And really the question there is just as somebody else on the way. And we've talked about that quite a bit. But Lucky Jackson, you know, may have possibly played himself

out of a spot there where in practice he was pretty good, but he gets in the game, drops some passes. And I thought that O'Connell insinuated a little bit that, you know, we like some of these guys, but we need him to make some plays and they haven't made plays. How big is price? Not very. He's not very big. He's muscular. He's strong. That's why I made that muscle hamster comparison with Doug Martin because he's probably only five, nine. But I would not want to run into him. He would knock you over like a bowling ball um Viking nation says uh has Felton looked good I've heard that he hasn't looked that good well you know when it comes to Felton I think it's a little bit complicated uh for how he's looked because he's looked exactly how I expected him to look after

minicamp he's looked like a young wide receiver with a lot of talent who needs work and he looks like if you had to put him in the game for a 10, 10 play package of games, I'm sorry, of plays. You had to put him in the game for a 10 play package of plays. There you go. He would be okay. And he could catch a screen pass. He could run a deep route. He could do stuff out there. But he just needs development. He needs more work. He needs to be a more precise route runner. He needs to track the ball and he just needs reps in doing that. And I thought he's tracked the ball on a few plays pretty well, but I think he just needs more reps doing. He's got to be more precise with the routes. He's got to work on the releases. Like all those little things,

clearly he's good with the ball on his hands. But there's just stuff that you have to master for an offense in order to be trusted out there. And that's why I've been talking a lot about veteran receivers because they've done it before. Even a Josh Reynolds or somebody has done it before and has been out there and proven that they can play. But, you know, it's, it takes work. Like a lot of these guys who are drafted late in the third round or something, fourth, fifth, very rarely are they Stefan Diggs where the first year, he gets out there and he like roasts Akib to leave and you go, what the heck was that? But Diggs was a little different story. He was, I think he was a five-star recruit, wasn't he? And it was kind of a weird

thing. Has he got late hands? I have no way of telling you that i don't know i don't i if i if i that would be that would be something that you could probably spot on the tape if he has late hands as fast as it's going out there on the real practice field it's kind of did he catch it or not and sometimes you're not even 100% sure what happened when a guy gets it uh some of us five nine guys catching stray as well as as six foot one and a half sorry uh but miles price could uh throw me across the room he's very strong. So that, that helps his case because being able to run over people is necessary. Do they still need a wide receiver? I mean, I think the answer is clearly yes,

but those wide receivers are going to, it looks like to me, and this could change in an hour, it looks like they're getting one more chance in this third preseason game and then they're going to make their call. Remember last year it was around this time where they went and got Nick Mullins, not last year, 22, and then last year they went and got Stefan Gilmore right around this time of year. So you kind of want to keep those Tom Pelliser and Adam Schefter and Ian Rappaport alerts on if the Vikings do decide to go get another wide receiver. VA Viking, they should cut, does that say LDR or I'm sorry, which is that what you're talking about? I don't think they'll do that.

I think they're going to keep them. every year there's a surprise cut would have to be howl or chandler i don't know if those guys the surprise cut is always hard to figure out like is it actually a surprise if we're talking about it um then maybe it's not a surprise when it comes to chandler he's such a hard one to figure but the returning element i think is important that he actually has experienced doing it and we have to remember that he has come in some games in his career and played well it's not like he's never done anything that's why he's still here. So I'd be a little surprised if they cut Chandler now at this point,

but he's certainly on the block. If they move on from Chandler and go with Xavier Scott, that will say a lot about Xavier Scott. Cordero Patterson solves a couple of issues. I mean, only if Cordarral can still play. If Pittsburgh's cutting him, is he still able to be an impact returner? Is he still able to be an impact receiver?

that guy was really built on burst, right? Size and burst. Does he still have the burst in his 30s? I'm not sure. Vinyl Scratch just got here. Did McCarthy look good today? They were just in shells today. So, you know, he had,

the one play that did stand out to me was Isaiah Rogers breaking up a pass, but they were, they're not, I mean, it's a three-quarter speed type of practice when they're in shells because they can't really be physical. He threw an interception. I don't really care. I mean, for me, the how did J.J. look ended at the joint practices because this is now onto the game preparation and they've moved on from that.

So they're practicing, they're starting to practice what's going to happen week one against the Chicago Bears at this point. And it's no longer this big evaluation, no longer this JJ had a good practice, JJ had a bad practice, at least for me. Other people may still be kind of doing that for two more days, but I'm finished with that. I'm going to focus on some other things at practice, and I've already decided what I think of J.J. McCarthy. What I think of J.J. McCarthy is that he's ready to start in the NFL for the Minnesota Vikings, and I think that he has the potential to lead a very good offense. And that's where I can go with it. I don't think I can go much farther based on what I saw. I don't think I can go to, oh, guys, I would start getting that guy who makes the Hall of Fame busts to be working on

J.J. McCarthy's head. Okay, let's not go there, right? And even, you know, can he be a pro bowl caliber quarterback if that still means something? I'm not sure. But there's the potential and we've seen it in front of us against another team that he can lead this offense, even when it's not his best players on the field with him, that he can get rid of the football, that he can command the huddle, that he can scramble and make plays, that he can throw with enough velocity, that he can throw with enough accuracy. Now, maybe it's not always the most consistent, but he can't. We've seen all that. He's proven a lot to me in this camp. That doesn't mean I think that he's going to be a superstar. That is going to have to be earned. But I think he's proven a lot in this

camp that they have made a good decision to put themselves in a position to chase something here. That's how I feel coming out of training camp. And there's two more practices to go. There's nothing else that he could do in those practices after seeing the whole picture of camp to this point and the best evaluation tools in those joint practices and a little bit of preseason action where I thought he was fine. So that's kind of where I'm at right now. Is that Logan? Sorry, I have the chat is very little on my screen these days. I got to make it bigger so I can read it better. It looks like Logan. Assuming Elijah Williams makes the who on the D-line gets cut or sent to the practice squad.

I would not assume that Elijah Williams makes the 53. I definitely think it's possible. But, I mean, if Levi Drake Rodriguez is injured and they have to put him on short-term IR, that opens up the door for that happening. And they've praised him and they've clearly liked him. And they might be concerned that he's played so well that someone might pick him up. But an undrafted free agent who's played in third and fourth quarters of preseason in games just rarely gets poached.

That's a guy you can feel really good about and also really good about getting through waivers to the practice squad. But he's done everything that he needed to do. Harrison Phillips, yeah, that would be, see, that's where when you ask the question about a surprise cut, this is where you try to hit the mark in the middle. Because if you go with a Harrison Phillips, well, they just gave Harrison Phillips a contract extension. He's their best run stuff early.

They're not going to do that. that would be senseless, but it also can't be Ty Chandler, which has been something that's kind of been signaled all offseason that was possible, because then it seems too obvious and it's not a surprise. And I'm trying to have, like, the biggest surprise cut that I can ever remember was Brian Robbinson. Brian Robeson was the biggest surprise. I never saw that coming.

I thought, okay, B. Rob's back and, you know, Hunter and Griffin, and he's going to have his role and everything. And then, wait, what? they're going with an undrafted free agent instead of B-Rob, really, with his experience? So that was the one time. That's, I think, the definition of a surprise cut. 2017, when they cut Alex Boone, kind of the same way, looked like he was going to start. Yeah, Blake Brandel would be a surprise cut, but that would be really goofy if they did that.

I don't, I don't think that they're going to do that. Let's see. Jude, can you give us a grade for the most recent draft class for the Vikings from what you seen so far. So do I get to count undrafted free agents? Some of you guys get really serious about that if they're not draft picks. Um, well, let's see. Donovan Jackson looks like a starting guard. And it was a big sign for Donovan Jackson that he did not play in the preseason game. Because if he had joint practices and then played, then I would have said that's, that's a red flag. because I think Ingram played after joint practices, and it was a red flag.

And it sort of told us, I also thought Jackson took a big step forward in the joint practices. He didn't have a good first day and then had a really good second day. And that made me think, like, is that the corner being turned? Like, those joint practices really, really are a nice evaluation tool of where you stand versus a real other team who's coming at you. And so, I mean, I don't know. If I'm supposed to judge Donovan Jackson's camp, I don't think it's been a

amazing. But I also think that he might be on the upswing. They should feel good about that draft pick still, starting left guard. There's never been a question. There's never been another rep from anybody else. There's never been a, yeah, you know, we're just going to give, and Brandl's right behind him. So if they wanted to do that, they could. There's never been a, hey, maybe we'll just see what Brandl can do. There's never been that. And that's, that's good news for Donovan Jackson. Felton, if he's going to kick return, and then be depth for wide receiver. I think his camp's been fine, but it's, it just hasn't lit your socks on fire because that's not the, where he's at in his career.

He had one big season for Maryland. It was Maryland. That's not the Vikings offense. It's not the complexity of it. And it's not a first round draft pick that you're asking to play right away. So I think that pick looks fine. Bartholomew getting hurt really hurts. the undrafted free agents coming up with a backup corner in Zemaya Vaughn is a good

player to land there. You know, maybe if an Elijah Williams becomes a development player, I think, you know, I think for a very small draft class, Ingram Dawkins has been very good and O'Connell talked about him today. He might end up having a role. And I think the fact that they cut Brian Osamlaw midway through camp tells you how they feel about Kobe King. So I think things have been going well for this draft class.

It's small, and you've got some UDFAs, but overall, I think I would say it's probably like a B at this moment. Tom says, still wondering if they can manage the huge cap hit they have deficit they have next year. Tom, remember how if you were watching earlier when I said, man, over the cap has really changed the game in such a positive way for all of us. This is the negative way. It is August 18th. We haven't played a single game yet. don't worry about next year's cap did you see the other day that they just signed the NFL a deal with YouTube however much you think the cap's going up it's going up more i promise it'll be fine

next year's cap will be fine they they don't plan rob brisinski and the vikings don't plan a cap for one year they've planned this out there are deals that are going to get restructured they're not 65 million over the cap because the cap's going to go up more than over the cap dot com thinks it's going to and they've set up these deals to get reworked it's going to be fine you're not going to have a big there's players who are going to be released that are on their contracts it it'll be all right don't i mean if you're worried about that right now i don't know what to tell you that means like this team really is in your head that team is really in your head they are going to keep this core together they're not going to have to shed a bunch of guys that's that's not how the

A lot of the numbers for next year are dummy numbers that are going to get adjusted. And the ownership's going to have to pay some cash to do it, but they'll do it. Once you're in a winning window, you just treat it differently. That's where you do all those cap adjustments. But Ivan Pace would be a surprise cut. Yeah, but that's just like no chance of it happening. Pace is still a major part of this roster. So that's not going to happen.

He started every single snap in the offseason. Who's got the punting job is? suddenly interesting. Oh, I kind of got like totally derailed on the 53 I was going over, by the way. And I didn't know what to make of the punting situation. We'll just jump over the defense and all the other. It's, uh, Oscar Chapman's been punting that football. I mean, he's looked good. And if he can hold, I think that they brought Chapman in because they weren't really that sold on Ryan Wright. And that might be something that they do. They might go to him, uh, because he's got that Australian style of punting.

And he might have a little more touch on the football. I mean, it just with Ryan Wright, it's always seemed like the booming leg is great, but the touch and the confidence, even, the consistency can just be a little up and down. And if he proved himself as a holder, we'll have Matt Daniels later in the week. But here's what we know.

Remember we were going into that, I think it was a third preseason game. 2022, Matt Daniels told us that there was going to be a punting competition. And then there wasn't. They cut the punter right before the game. If Oscar Chapman makes it to the third, well, you know, they can't really get rid of him because of the international thing. But like, let me build this up anyway.

It's a third preseason game. Just look like, let me cook. If he's still there, it's real. There's a punting competition. I think it's, it's way more real this year than it's been because Chapman's done a really good job when he's gotten out there. Might depend on what they think of that the trust of him as a holder. Might depend on like how they kick in this last game.

but it's a lot more about Chapman than it is right. They know exactly what they have with Ryan Wright and how Chapman handles himself. And we'll see. But hey, that's the drama. That's the big drama of the third preseason game. Or if Matt Corral shows up and gets a zero PFF grade. For tight end, I had Ben Urisack as the third tight end.

Don't feel great about that. Maybe it's Nick Venet who played well the other day. Could be. He did lie. You're right. You're right, Brian. He did lie. I've never forgiven him.

never forgiven him for lying about that punting competition couldn't trust them so yeah i've got ursac right now could be vannette could be somebody else we were talking about the tight end three a lot going into camp but then bartholome you getting hurt really took the wind out of the sales of that competition on offensive line we talked about that a little bit school rouse brandle and jurgens just such a lock for those positions positions it seems huber would be the guy that i would put on if there's a 10th, but he'd be the only guy I'd think about, maybe Henry Bird, if they like what they've seen from him. Bird is a guy who never gets talked about, but has been here a couple years.

D-line is where I'm having trouble finding a spot for Elijah Williams when you have Redmond, and Levi Drake Rodriguez, and Ingram Dawkins. They usually keep six D-line. It would be surprising if they kept seven. There's no question about where they're at linebacker. Chas Chambliss is the one guy who's kind of stood out to me as, someone who's going to be interesting for the future. He's played well in these games,

and he played both inside and outside linebacker. Anytime you see Brian Flores using a guy at multiple positions, you lean in. You go, wait, what's that guy doing? Because that, I mean, that's like the way you know he likes you or something, is if he thinks you could play inside or outside linebacker. But Chambliss also played more snaps. This is really getting out the microscope here for Chas Chamblis.

But this is where we're at right now with this team. He played more special team snaps than anyone else in these first two games. Maybe a hint. But that outside linebacker room is pretty set, I think. The only other question is, is McLeodern staying? And is there a special team specialist on the roster? Right now, someone I think it was Jude asked about the cornerback, like, what's the order? It's clearly Murphy, Rogers, those guys are going to play the most, then Okuda in the nickel, and then Blackman, Vaughn, and I'm not sure about.

about McLeodern. I'm not even sure about Blackman and Vaughn of that order. I still think it would be Mackay Blackman. I know he hasn't played well, but I still think it would be him because of his experience. I love how many bring back Ben Sims. Yeah, one of the great catches in third preseason game history. Ben Sims got picked up by the Packers right after that. Hey, that was a poaching situation. I'm always sitting here saying there's not much posting, but there was a Ben sims poaching and yeah right so you got to watch out for that uh brand shocked to see a viking named chas play well right yeah as soon as you saw that he was on the list you like that there's only one franchise he could play for uh christian says this team is giving me vibes of the 2016 dallas

cowboys dack and zeke's rookie year with the top five offensive line if that's how it turns out Christian, I mean, that would be incredible for them. They have to stay together. They have to play together. They have to be healthy on the offensive line. Derisaw's got to come back at 100% hit the ground running. Fry's has to come back at 100%. I think there's been some times in the offseason where I've thought,

I'm not sure fries is all the way back yet. And Donovan Jackson's got to be a beast right out of the gate. One thing I can say for sure about Jackson is his athleticism is a difference maker. I can tell that off of the bat. I can't tell you whether he's going to give up two pressures a game or three. That's impossible. If he's going to hang on for that one extra quarter second so McCarthy can throw or if he's going to get beat, that's hard to know by watching camp practice.

What I can tell you is that when this guy gets out on screens, he can freaking move. And it was maybe the play of the joint practices when he decked two Patriots on a screen pass. But he can really move. He's been doing that all year. and I think he's going to make a difference in the run game when they run outside zone stuff. So he can make a difference in at least some areas, which is not something that I could have said about some of the previous guys.

The Ezra Cleveland, the, you know, Ed Ingram, like even with Garrett Bradbury, it seemed like they utilized them a lot in 2019 with some of that stuff and then just didn't do as much of it, didn't use them as much on the screen game. First name, last name was someone like Chambliss, you could probably plus. I probably play him from the practice squad or a couple of weeks. Then see, yeah, you're right. Yeah, now with the elevations. Yep.

And that's why it took some of the wind out of the sales of the cutdown day. Cutdown day used to be pretty intense. There were 10 practice squad spots. And if somebody didn't make it, who you liked, it was like, oh, you know, I don't know. Let's see if they, you know, get them back or what's going to happen there. And there's only a couple of spots and everything. but now somebody goes to the practice squad you're probably going to see him i mean if if he's one of the top guys they can elevate them and that makes it pretty darn easy for someone as you said

like chambliss if he's a special team specialist to decide whether you like what you see or not same would go for someone like elijah williams so uh do not forget to answer that fan dual question of the day for those of you just kind of popping in um which was Bo Nix at 3,500 yards, would you take the over on that? Or J.J. McCarthy over 3,500, which one's a safer bet? That is the fan dual question of the day. I am ever so slightly leaning toward McCarthy, even though I've seen Bo Nix and he can do that. I think the weapons and the mentality of the coach are difference makers there.

But do not forget to answer that if you haven't had a chance. You think McCarthy's the safer bet? I would have thought people would have said Nix was the safer bet just because he's played before. Nick says, how will the Allen Hargrave Phillips playing time be split up? I think that it will be combos that as far as snap counts goes, maybe all of them are aiming for 6 to 700 snaps is ideal and then mixing in Jalen Redmond. But I think it will be in just for example, okay, it's first down in 10. and it's a passing type of game situation.

Let's say late in the second quarter, team is down seven points. Like they're going to be throwing here. Okay, that's Allen and Hargrave. Maybe it's second down and three in the first quarter, early in the first quarter. It's a running situation. Okay, it's Phillips and Redmond.

And those two are going to be in. And then there's some mixing and matching based on what they want to do. So sometimes Harrison Phillips, this is a fun thing to watch if you get a chance this year, like take a, take a second and try to focus on Harrison Phillips and watch all the movement he does. It's kind of interesting because they might also have specific rush plans that involve

combinations of guys. So maybe you want Jonathan Allen to run a stunt with Harrison Phillips, where Phillips is jumping across to his left and trying to bring the guard with him so Alan can swing around. Well, Alan's a little quicker. Well, maybe, maybe Hargraves a little quicker, but just stay with me there based on what they want to do so alan maybe hits that gap a little bit better this is the level of specific brian flores gets i i think but if it's a different circumstance and you want to isolate jvon hargrave one-on-one with a guard because he is so freaking good at it well maybe you've got harrison phillips with him where he's moving somebody and grenard is rushing wide with a blitzer so you can isolate it like there's so many different things that are very

specific. But if I had to whittle it all down, I would probably say between 600, 600 and 700 snaps for Phillips, Alan Hargrave. And then Jalen Redmond gets maybe 400. And we'll see about the rest. I'm confident that Redmond can really play. The other guys, even including Levi Drake Rodriguez, I think have to kind of prove that. Or it might be if there's, you know, guys who get banged up. brand says donovan jackson almost seems too nice in his interviews i want an angry man at guard i can tell you from a lot of experience with this off the field versus on the field doesn't mean a thing for anybody you know who i just had a great conversation with today really nice really really nice guy josh oliver

josh oliver's a nasty nasty football player i mean everybody like you guys on his own team this is the article that I'm doing. He's like, what's it like to practice against Josh Oliver? Guys on his own team are like, it's not fun. Josh Mattelis called it terrible to practice against Josh Oliver because he's so strong. Grinard was talking about how violent he is with his hands. This guy has a conversation with me. Niceest guy in the world.

This is probably the second or third time I've chatted with him. It's just not, there's no correlation whatsoever. Somebody mentioned in the comments, Christian Derisaw. Derisaw is such a nice person. Truly. How many franchises? guys left tackles are as approachable as Darrasaw, probably not that many. Not very nice.

There's your Josh Oliver mentioned. Yes, it took two hours and 24 minutes, but we got there to the Josh Oliver mentioned. I'm just using him as an example. There's been plenty of guys over the, you know who's really nice? Daniel Hunter's really nice. That guy would rip your head off and punt it through the goalposts. I mean, like, if he's actually out there, it goes for a lot of guys. that's it's their profession versus who they are in person i make nothing of that whatsoever i think

with uh jackson that he is going to need some time to learn to impose his will uh but we saw it on a few run plays we've seen it on that screenplay like it's in there it's in there but it's it's definitely not something that's connected no um not a twerk 200 yards a game for mccarthy easy be it might depend on just how the game scripts go but the teams that they're playing i agree with you i agree he should go over i did see that oh you're right aaron jones is the nicest erin jones is also the the toughest but he's not scary erin jones isn't scary deneal hunter's scary deneal hunter is a scary scary scary human being like when you stand next to him and when you see him because in practices we can stand pretty close to where the defensive guys warm up

when you see him making his moves and getting warmed up whoa that's some violence there and yet very very friendly human being guys are just different off the field so i did see that uh dalton risner got a workout with the bengels i mean they should get themselves some dalton risner they need exactly that they don't they shouldn't care about running they're just going to throw it all the time uh mike you're exactly right enforcers in the n hl are often very nice uh i used to do a radio show with a former enforcer, Andrew Peters, great guy. Yep, that's totally right. I mean, those guys have to have a little more screw loose.

I think that NFL players can be ground. Some of them can be grounded, totally normal people. And a lot of them have like Josh Mattelis, you know, is a very educated guy or you saw with Josh Dobbs. For some reason, there's just a line with certain guys. Like Josh Mattelis, another very nice guy was our media good guy last year, Corey Stringer Award. I mean, he's playing linebacker at 210 pounds last year and just throwing his body into people.

It's just, it's very, very different with football. And there's also some guys who I've met along the way who are crazy, angry people who go out there and play crazy angry football. It's just that not all of them. They know how to turn it on and off. I think with the fighters, there is a screw loose in every single one of the fighters because you just don't get to be that guy unless you're nuts. Football players are kind of more technical about it. so a random question who are the three most jacked up guys this year hmm hmm i mean josh oliver is always going to be on that list you can make fun of me for another josh oliver mentioned

but i mean he is insanely jacked he is a huge person his hands are twice as big as mine i mean that's why he is so good at what he does he's he's enormous i mean these it's it's you'd be hard I mean, Jordan Mason is so such a, so just thick muscle. Like you can tell why guys don't want to tackle him. And Eric Wilson. Eric Wilson is so freaking jacked. It's great. Eric Wilson has that like cartoonish six pack muscle kind of like he's very jacked.

Those are probably the guys I'd go with. Anyway, Naylor did get bigger, but I don't think he's quite. Oh, Bo Richter is very jacked. Yeah. Laura coming in trying to get this conversation back on the rails they're all pretty big guys they're all pretty big

they work out a lot I think Jonathan Allen yeah I mean if you name a player and he's on this team he's probably pretty cut Steve Hutchinson was a monster but yeah with with feeling it's got my vote to bring him back it just depends on how to work it out Harrison Smith

as far as niceness goes is a different kind. Like some players are very, very outgoing. Harrison is nice, but he's more reserved. So he's not the loud guy in the locker room. He's not the loud guy in meetings. He is much, much quieter. But, I mean, I've had many good conversations with him. It's just he's not like gregarious.

He's a little bit. I think Hitman is so perfect for him because he's a little mysterious, you know, talks quietly. it's got you know you think that he knows something that you don't and he does a lot anyway i should probably get working on my uh recap for today and uh on the written side purple insider dot football and if you're watching the replay of this wow you made it a long way and uh go ahead and uh you know don't forget that fan dual question of the day tomorrow i think i'll bring out the jefferson one that we were talking about and so we'll have two more practices

then I'm not going to Tennessee so I'll be going live after the game giving you my thoughts from the studio here after the preseason game got a couple of guests lined up hoping to get Alec Lewis on the show we were talking about that for maybe Wednesday or Thursday doing a recording

so I've really loved the format here of doing live shows and including interviews and that's going to continue oh I've also got a fantasy roundtable coming up with Ian Hartett's from Fantasy Life who's awesome so that's going to be Wednesday day night. Well, we'll do the usual recap and chat and then that'll be. So lots of good stuff. I'm very excited about this week and also very excited to have the preseason come to an end and we

can start turning our sights toward real football. So thanks so much, guys, uh, for all the conversation tonight. Great comments. Really appreciate it. Um, and to people rewatching, like, don't give Mike Sando a hard time for giving his perspective on that stuff. We had a, we had an intense conversation, but it was good. Uh, so thanks so much. everybody and we will catch you all very soon we'll be back here tomorrow night probably seven o'clock i'm thinking all right football