Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Vikings center competition confirmed and an episode of 'How's that guy look at camp?'

Episode Date: August 7, 2022

Matthew Coller and WCCO Radio's Paul Hodowanic talk about Kevin O'Connell's comments on Garrett Bradbury and the competition at center and then Paul asks Matthew "how's that guy looking?" about a number of different players, from the depth receiver to the veteran players like Za'Darius Smith, Danielle Hunter and Adam Thielen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hello, welcome to another episode of Purple Insider. Matthew Collar here, along with WCCO Radio's Paul Hodwanek, who, if you follow the newsletter, also writes a weekly column as well. And last week wrote about how the Vikings compared in position rankings by PFF to the other teams in the NFC. So make sure you go to purpleinsider.com. Check that out, sign up for the newsletter and all of those things. But we have a little game for you today. We're going to call it, how's that guy looking? Because 89% of the tweets that I get during training camp are, how's that guy looking? And of course we'll answer fan questions and things like that on other episodes. But I want to know, Paul, who you are most interested in, how most guys are looking. And since I just came off of the practice field with the Vikings

that I'm actually sitting inside TCO Performance Center right now, I think it's the perfect time for you to ask me how guys are looking. So where do you want to start? Well, you're wearing a sweet polo, by the way, which I, you know, usually we're doing these podcasts. You're in your basement or somewhere. You just got to teach on it. You're looking fancy. I like this. I like the polo, by the way, which I, you know, usually we're doing these podcasts. You're in your basement or somewhere. You just got to teach on, but you're looking fancy. I like this. I like the polo. I like the training camp, uh, fits that you got going on. I want to know. I mean, it's obvious,

right? I want to know how Garrett Bradbury is doing. Um, because I would say how he did in his first few seasons, not great. So this is kind of his make or break, uh, season. I think he would say if he, if he's even allowed to play. So tell me, how is Garrett Bradbury looking so far? It's funny because just yesterday we had a conversation with Kevin Seifert of VSPN and I asked him if he thought it was a thing that Chris Reid had been taking second team reps and that Bradbury had looked pretty rough in some of those one-on-ones and he said, I don't know. I don't think it's a thing just yet. And after today's press conference with Kevin O'Connell, he said, can we rerecord that? Because now I think it's a thing. And I do too, because so far, I mean, Bradbury has been exactly what you think he is. Like when you see him in run blocking, it looks pretty good. They haven't

done a ton of screen stuff, but when he's moving, he moves really well. But when it comes to those one-on-ones that they designed to have somebody powerful rush over him, not just the one-on-one battles as far as the drill one-on-ones, but even when they're doing 11-on-11 situational stuff, it's really exactly what it looks like. And I think that sometimes we're a little too harsh on him about the overall picture. And Kevin O'Connell said, a lot of centers are not going to be able to handle one-on-ones like that. So we're going to try to scheme to get him help. But he also said, we've challenged him to improve some technique and to anchor better and things like that. There was a lot of couching and there was a lot of talking around the fact of the matter. And, you know,

when he was asked, is there a competition there? He tried to do the, well, there's always competition, but it's like, there's no competition at left tackle. There's no competition, right tackle, quarterback, wide receiver, running back. There's a lot of positions where no one's competing with Z'Darrius Smith. So no, there's not always competition. But I think he didn't say no. Bradbury is set in that spot. So I think that leaves the door open for the possibility of someone else playing there. The problem is that Chris Reed cannot snap the ball to the quarterback. I mean, the ball has been hitting the ground way too often, and even watching them practice the snaps, it didn't look very good. So then it's like, well, Austin

Schlottman has played guard and not much center in his career, and he hasn't snapped the ball particularly well either. So you're kind of looking at, do they go outside the building if they don't feel confident in Bradbury after these next few weeks but it's really hard to think that they could just say to him oh you just do this and then you'll be fine it's like uh no I don't think at this point there's going to be much of a change so that has been kind of one of the biggest developing stories of training camp as far as how that guy looks. And I think all of us are kind of saying, maybe you should have asked us before you made the decision to

keep him, man. I mean, you just have to wonder like, why, why, why would you not bring in a little more legitimate competition? If you looked at the tape, you looked at the data, like everything says that this issue is not going away and uh only a few padded practices in i think maybe four padded practices in you've got the head coach saying yeah i mean when they go after him he loses like kind of thing and then you know o'connell talked about a lot of other stuff around that but you don't have to read too deeply in between the lines to say, how's that guy looking? He's looking like this is kind of it for the Garrett Bradbury era. Yeah. And I mean, he's not getting blown up by like Daniil Hunter or Zedaria Smith. He's getting blown up by, I mean, Harrison Phillips, but other just inexperienced kind of unproven guys

right up the middle. And yeah, I mean, none of this should be shocking about the way he's playing now and the way he's played in the past. I mean, literally all, all years of his career, he's been last in PFF blocking grade. He's been top five and pressures allowed in that time. Football outsiders had this stat in their almanac. He was in 2020, he was dead last in blown block rate. So just all these things are just adding up and they're telling you over and over and over again, he's not a good pass blocker. And then the saving grace has always been, well, he can run block. Well, he's ranked basically just average in run blocking right now.

So great. You're an average run blocker. That is not where you need to be if you're a starting center in the NFL. And yeah, it was always puzzling why they hadn't addressed center at all. They kind of left that position open to him, but there's also still right around, I think over the cap says around $10 million, they still have left. Now I think we often overhype the amount of cap that you have in, in a training camp. Like that doesn't always end up leading to signings. But in this scenario, if you don't have a center that you trust and the rest of your

offensive line, you're feeling okay about, but you know, offensive line is a weak link system and you have the resources to go out and try for someone else. Just do what you did at right guard and throw a couple of bodies at it too. Like you don't need to go out and get JC Tretter, although that's an option. You could just go out and get two other guys that you can try to have battle it out and see if one can work this doesn't need to be throwing your eggs and all in one basket but you darn sure shouldn't keep all your eggs in the garrett bradbury basket because they've been there for three years and it hasn't gone well yeah the other day we were talking about what's the date on when we would

start wondering about why lewis seen isn't getting a lot of first team reps, which by the way, got a handful today, uh, in one series in particular, he was playing alongside Harrison Smith and then combine a mixed in with Lewis scene as well. So I think this is maybe the starts and of course we'll watch day to day, but the start of the process of him working toward being the first team safety. But I think you can do the same thing date wise with Garrett Bradbury. It's like, put a date on it. And if this continues, which it will,

but like what, at what point is the last possible day that they could go out and get somebody. And I think that that day is coming fairly soon that they've got, it's a stretch of seven practices in eight days and they've got a preseason game coming up like it's getting late early. So you have to make a decision soon. But I think that everybody kind of knows where they stand on Bradbury at this moment, that he is the weak link in a weak link system and it has to be better or there's going to be some of the same

issues. Who else would you like to know? How does that guy look? Well, you touched on Lewis in a little bit, so we'll go another direction. I want to know about the wide receiver three battle. How has Amir Smith-Marset looked? How has BC Johnson looked? Where are we at right now? Yeah, there's no battle for wide receiver three because KJ Osborne came back looking great. No, no, four. No, no, we wondered though, like I think I even wrote an article, like will there be a wide receiver three battle? And I probably wrote like, likely that's not the case,

but it's a new coaching staff. It's a new system. And KJ Osborne is going to have to adapt a bit here. And he's going to have to look good to hold off these other wide receivers. And he has absolutely done that. He has been head and shoulders above the rest. But with everybody else, it's kind of been your ups and downs. I think BC Johnson is the most sort of even player where every day you can rely on.

He's going to catch the ball when it comes to him. He's going to get a few targets in a practice. He's going to run the offense the way that it's supposed to be run. And I don't know every assignment or if any, you know, Keenan McCardle, the receivers coach is watching any of his routes and saying, oh, well, that was a wrong detail or something like that. But just with BC Johnson's reputation combined with the fact that he's usually catching passes in practice and you don't see any coaches throwing their arms up at him after that. It's like same old BC Johnson, what you would expect. And the other guys have to clear that bar. And thus far, I've sort of seen some other guys lower on the depth chart stand out, which has caught my eye.

Dan Chisna, surprisingly, has made some good catches. Jalen Naylor. And I don't know that Naylor is anywhere close to being ready to play or be on the active roster necessarily, but he has made a couple of catches the last few days that caught my eye. You have Elber Wilson in this mix who is, again, he's that veteran, solid player. You know exactly what you have. So it's kind of like the door is open for Amir Smith-Marset to kick it down and take wide receiver four and have them either cut BC Johnson or cut Elber Wilson. But I haven't seen a whole lot to tell me, okay, well, this is the

breakout year of Amir Smith-Marset. He's going to have to prove that. And part of that's going to be in the preseason games. I mean, they have three, those extra wide receivers are going to get all sorts of work because I doubt this coaching staff is playing Thielen or Jefferson. And honestly, I think KJ Osborne is really earned not playing that. I didn't think there was a higher ceiling for KJ Osborne or a big next step, but it was like, he was good last year. 655 yards receiving is very good. And if he can just be the same guy and get the offense down, then he's going to be good to go. And it's, it's been that like he's made catches. He's been open. He's, he's made big plays. It's like, okay, you know what you have there. And I went back and

looked by the way on wide receiver three, uh, KJ Osborne's last year was the best in terms of receiving yardage for a wide receiver three for the Vikings since 2014. And if you can guess who it was, I will Venmo you 15 American dollars out of my pocket. If you can guess who the wide receiver three with more yards than KJ Osborne is wide receiver three was in 2014. Oh man, 2014. I'm trying to think who's quarterback then. Okay. I mean,

Jarius, right. Seems too obvious. So I don't feel like it's Jarius, right. But that's where that's always where I want to go with a wide receiver three. Right. Because he was effective in,

in 2017, it was Charles Johnson. I was like, I had a Johnson, but I was like, there's no chance I'm going to know his first name right here, right now. And Charles Johnson, that makes sense. I remember him. And I guess that tracks, but that just tells you how much Zimmer didn't prioritize a third wide receiver. And one, just in terms of the talent that they'd bring in there. And also just the emphasis that

they had in the offense. It just was not a part of their offense. I don't know how much you're getting to look at the training camp right now and how often you're seeing them in 11 personnel and things like that, or how much you're even allowed to say about all that stuff. But I'm interested to see how much more they use because the Rams, I think it was like 84, 87% of the time they were in 11.

So you'd have to believe that'll be a big part of this offense, but have we seen that much? Have you seen a lot of wide receivers out there on the field together? Yeah. Yep. It's been three wide receiver sets, almost exclusively. Sometimes CJ ham mixing in, uh, you haven't seen a lot of two tight ends. I don't think, but it's almost exclusively the three wide receiver stuff, which means that the guys that are behind Jefferson and Thielen and Osborne are relevant because anybody gets banged up at all and it's the next man up. And I think it'll be the next man that they trust. And not only that, but Kirk Cousins has

twice in press conferences mentioned how much he likes playing with BC Johnson. That matters too, as they're trying to have communication feedback with Kirk cousins and with Adam Thielen and with the other players who he trusts the most is going to really matter. And Smith Marset just has not taken that next step, but you know, I'm kind of intrigued by some of the other guys. Like does somebody rise to the challenge here and force them?

I mean, Dan Chisna the other day had a good day and this guy, I mean, what a story that would be. He basically only played special teams in college, was a track runner at Penn State. I think he had maybe three career catches in all of his college career. Comes here, wins a job a couple of years in a row as a punt gunner, and then has continued to develop as a wide receiver to the point where he's actually making plays in practice. I'm not saying he's going to make the team as a receiver necessarily,

but he's sort of raised my eyebrow with a few nice plays in recent days. And I would even say the darkest dark horse that they have who has made some plays is Tristan Jackson, a guy that was actually brought over from the Rams. He had been with them maybe in a practice squad capacity, Syracuse receiver, but he's made some plays too. So I think that there are guys actually pushing from behind and remember that this group is not tied at all to anybody like that. They, the previous regime drafted. So they could always say like, well, you know what, this guy has proven it and he's going to get more chances. But I think in past years, those preseason games were like 98% formality because we knew where they stood on everybody. We're seeing way more mixing and matching and way more like twos versus ones,

ones versus twos. And sometimes it can be hard to figure out like, wait, is that you kind of judge by the offensive line, but it's like, is this the second or third group or like who's out there? Because there's a lot of mixing and matching and guys getting opportunity. So right now it does seem like Smith-Marset is there as far as one of the top six receivers, but could anybody come up and take his job? And, you know, Albert Wilson has looked good enough, I think, to say, well, okay, he's going to be, you know, that kind of guy. So that kind of veteran that we've seen before, but maybe there's a little more there than say a, like Tajay sharp or something.

But yeah, I think the wide receiver group right now is probably the one that I watch the most on a daily basis to see who's sort of rising and falling. And as we get into the dog days here and the preseason games, that battle could be legit for everything behind KJ Osborne. Yeah. And the Amir Smith situation kind of just reminds you that like the last thing we see in a season just carries so much weight in our eyes because it's the last game you're looking at.

It's harder to take a holistic view. So Amir Smith's smart set lights it up at the end of the season. Even Cam Bynum towards the end of the season does really, really well. Now, Cam Bynum, from all accounts, has played pretty solidly in training camp, but it's just when it's the last thing that you look at, it probably holds a little bit too much weight in your head throughout the long offseason. I think Amir Smith-Marset was just kind of penciled in as the number four,

pretty clearly ready to take a boost. Can he challenge KJ Osborne? And now he's just fighting for that number four role. It's kind of like in the NBA when it's like the last 20 games of the season, some tanking teams just have guys that score like 25 points. And you're like, how much did this actually matter? How much does this mean? It needs to happen again in meaningful games when you're not playing the bears or you're not, you're not in week 17 or something like that. So yeah, that'll, that'll be interesting to see. And then also, you were speaking on the twos and ones, and someone who's right on the edge

of that is Andrew Booth with the corner position. Him, Cam Dantzler, seem to be fighting for a outside spot there. But most particular, I'm interested in Booth, how he looks like he's running around, how he feels like he's acclimating. What have we seen from Booth so far? Folks, training camp is here and there's no better way to represent your purple fandom by going to SodaStick.com and checking out all their Minnesota sports inspired goods. The best football designs, in my opinion, are Randy Moss's disgusting act and the purple

people eaters look but look there's lots more for you to check out at sodastick.com s-o-t-a-s-t-i-c-k.com t-shirts hoodies hats whatever you're looking for use the promo code purple insider at checkout for 15 off your purchase yeah the way that i think of it with Andrew Booth Jr. is what you wanted him to do was show the skill of a potential first round pick that only dropped because of injury. You wanted to see that he was healthy and that the stuff that you saw in college was transferring over. So how he moves his feet, how he plays the football, his confidence, his competitiveness, all of that stuff you've seen flashes of. And it, you know, I haven't watched every single player on every play

because my eyeballs can only work so much at one time. I'm not a, what is it like a spider who can has a bunch of different eyeballs. He could watch every player. So, uh, but yeah, yeah. But, but I, there hasn't been a lot of evidence that that's a competition is what I could say. So you've seen the raw skill that's there. And so far he's remained healthy, which is good through padded practices, very competitive. And you see the person that's there, which is somebody who is a high competitor and things like that. But they have given Cam Dantzler all the first team reps with the secondary. And so right now the secondary looks pretty set outside of Lewis

Seen that it's Cam Dantzler and Patrick Peterson on the outsides. And then it's likely, I still think likely it's going to be Lewis Seen and Harrison Smith. And then you'll have Shandon Sullivan is the guy who's going to be the nickel corner. And some people have asked how Shannon Sullivan looks. If that was on your list, I'll answer this now, which is okay. I mean, nickel corner is hard to say, but they haven't mixed in anybody else there. So that looks like he's going to be their guy. The reason it's hard to say is because assignments for nickel corners, there's you, there's like a lot going on there, you know, like adapting to routes and how deep you're supposed to drop if you're in a zone and all like a lot of details that it can look like somebody got beat

and maybe it was a miscommunication or something else. So I've seen them get beat a few times by good wide receivers, but there hasn't been like, Oh, today it's Sullivan and this guy and this guy and Harrison hand or Perry Nickerson. No, it hasn't been that it's been exclusively that group. So I think what Andrew Booth jr has done is he has flashed a little bit early on and he's shown you maybe something is here, but that's as far as I want to go for padded practices in. Now, if we watch him in preseason games and then he does great and you start seeing a little, OK, he's going to get this first team wrap. Dantzler is going to come off then.

OK, then we have to start talking about this might be interesting, but I think you're in a great spot if he is your depth. But throwing him to the wolves and sitting down Dantzler when Dantzler has so much more experience and at times played very well last year, I think that would probably be getting way too excited about a rookie and a couple of good practices that he's had. But I think what that one shows you is as they attempted to rebuild the secondary, you did not draft someone who's completely terrible right away. And this matters because a lot of times in training camp, you'll get in a guy who's a rookie

and you'll be like, oh, okay. Were they looking at something else? Or like, how did this happen? I mean, we've seen plenty of draft picks pretty much blow up right away where you knew that it was just not going to be a thing. For Andrew Booth Jr. I think it's a thing. I think that he could be a major part of the future, but right now you want him as just another guy who can mix in with Patrick Peterson if he needs a rest or something like that. That's where I stand right now. But all of these things go along with like, feel free to change my mind, but until they change how the reps are doled out, that I'm not going to change my mind that andrew booth jr is going to be behind cam dancer ideally i think andrew booth jr plays the amount that like cam bynum played last year where he

doesn't really play much at the beginning of the season and then whether it's injury or someone's not playing that great then he steps in uh and that's kind of where you want it right in that depth area where you can get him a couple hundred snaps, but nothing crazy where he's going to get exposed, but he gets a taste of it. He gets to continue learning from Patrick Peterson and the secondary coaches, Harrison Smith, every, everyone back there, he gets a little taste of stuff occasionally,

but he's not relied upon to do major work all the time. That's where you want Cam Dantzler. He's kind of entering that right where you're trying to maximize him for his rookie contract. And right when a corner starts to really kind of like, Cam Dantzler is going to be good long-term. This is a year where you start to see him put it together and you say, okay, Cam Dantzler is a legit guy that can be on this defense. You can pencil him in as a two, a number two corner, maybe a fringe number one, if you get rid of Patrick Peterson and you don't feel desperate about putting

Cam Dantzler, like that's if he's going to play well, the trajectory that he's on would tell you that this year would be the good year for Cam Dantzler. So I think that's, you want Cam Dantzler beating out Andrew Booth right now, and you want Andrew Booth playing well as a depth piece and just a nice kind of luxury item to have when you need to go to him at certain spots. And you hope you're not going to him because Patrick Peterson's getting burned, like Brashad Breeland got burned. Like you're hoping that's not when he's introduced, but it's better to have that guy and kind of the caliber and just background of a

like fringe first round pick that you're bringing in instead of Harrison Hand or Chris Boyd as the guys you're bringing in like that's an upgrade if you're bringing in a guy with the pedigree of Andrew Booth uh to come in and be your depth corner so it's good that Dantzler has kind of won that job or has that job pretty handily at this point. Right. And we'll see if that changes at all. And just, you know, you always want to caution with rookie players, like let's see a bigger sample size to have an idea of where they stand. I mean, I remember that even in his first year, there was like Mackenzie Alexander hype when he had a good preseason games, like, Oh, they drafted this great second rounder. And, you know, he

turned out to be an NFL corner, but he was limited in how good he could be and how much of an impact he could be. Now, I think the ceiling on Andrew Booth Jr. is higher, but I always kind of want to say, let's give it a little time. Let's give it a little time. Even Justin Jefferson did not win the job right out of training camp. He probably should have, but did not win the job right out of training camp. He probably should have, but did not win the job right out of training camp. Took a couple of games before he could get in there.

And with the rookies in general, I'm just going to hijack how's that guy looking and just run down a couple of the rookies here to go along with that. So I mentioned Louis Seen. He had a great pass breakup the other day, and that's kind of one of the only plays that I've seen from him,

in part because the passing has just not been very effective from the quarterbacks. It's been a little more in the last couple of days, I think with Mannion and Mond, but it's had its major ups and downs. And so we haven't seen like a lot of opportunities for Lewis scene. I remember watching him on seven straight plays or something like that, seven or eight and every play, like the ball came nowhere near him because the ball came almost nowhere near anybody. It was just like fumble, snap, fumble, snap, bad throw pressure. And somebody runs or checks down pressure and somebody runs, you know, it's just like, give, give Lewis seen some things to work with here. Uh, so, so I don't want to make too many assessments on him before he gets

more chances to play with the first team, which I think is probably coming at some point soon. And as far as Brian Asamoah, he's getting a ton of chances. Asamoah is working in a lot with the second linebackers. There's been a rotation there. There's clearly a battle with the second group of linebackers. Blake Lynch, I'm going to keep banging this drum. I think Blake Lynch is a decent NFL player. I really do. Like he's gotten in games before and hasn't looked bad. He's made some plays and keeps winning jobs. So I think that Blake Lynch will probably, because of his intelligence, maybe emerge a little ahead of someone like Troy Dye, someone like Chaz Surratt, and it leaves Asamoah in there to,

can you use him in certain packages and where, where does he fit? But it looks to me like they're trying to give him a lot of experience playing against the twos to see what they have there. But he just, he's just really quick. I mean, quicker than most linebackers, maybe part of it is his size, but there's an explosiveness to his game that I think they like. And then with Ingram, he was getting in with the first team when Jesse Davis took a day off and Kevin O'Connell mentioned him as part of a competition at right guard. I would not be shocked at all. If he ends up winning the right guard spot over Jesse Davis, that they sort of went out of their way to get a just in case, which may be, Hey, the Viking should have done last year instead of relying on Wyatt Davis.

But they got a just in case with Jesse Davis and with Chris Reed. But if you draft a guard in the second round, you want that guy to win the job. And the fact that Chris Reed has been playing at left guard when he's not at center sort of tells you that Ingram is nipping on the heels of Jesse Davis. And there's a decent chance that he ends up taking that job away. And plus, anytime they've asked about Jesse Davis, it's been kind of like, yeah, you know, veteran, veteran played in football games. Knows how to play the game. True professional. professional football you know right guy in the meeting rooms you know big guy really large he really is really large so so so

if uh ingram can prove that he's got the offense down he's got a higher ceiling you draft second rounders to start like end of story so if he doesn't then i'd be surprised but it looks like there's some nipping of the heels already with ingram and Davis. And I, and I guess that's the, that's the rundown of the guys that have a chance as far as some of the other ones and, and feel free to reach deep. Where's your Caleb Evans update. Come on. You know what, actually a Caleb Evans is getting a lot of second team reps. Not all of them, I think, but a lot of them. And so I, you know, I think that they want it to be Booth Jr. and Caleb Evans as their number, what that'd be

four and five corners because the other guys, they know what they are. Harrison, Ty Smith, Perry Nickerson, like these guys have been in the league. They know what they are. So maybe you want one experienced guy beyond those and you keep six corners. I think that makes a lot of sense, but they're going to have those guys, the fourth rounder and the second rounder are going to be on the team. I think there's no doubt about that. So no reason to give them third teamers. Like why not give them as much experience as they can possibly get?

So sorry for taking that one away from you. Who is the next guy you want to know? How's that guy looking? We should have made it song. True. Just quick question. Based on do I, either of those guys,

like if Chen Sullivan either struggles in the nickel or gets hurt in the nickel, is there any, have any of them been lining up there with the second team in terms of who could conceivably fill that if that guy goes down or what happens? Cause there doesn't seem to be a lot of experience behind him. So for someone that could come in and play that slot spot, How's that guy looking? How's he looking in camp?

Let's see. Has it been Ty Smith? I'm trying to think of who the, who the backup has been mixing into that nickel spot. Maybe it's been Hairston. Look, it's just not good. Like they don't have anybody who really is that guy behind him. And Andrew Booth Jr. is not a nickel. Patrick Peterson is not someone you can move to nickel.

He's played his whole career on the outside. Cam Dantzler does not project as that guy at all based on his body size and the sort of requirements of that job so if Sullivan struggles or gets hurt I mean even if he struggles he's got that job if he gets hurt I honestly don't know right now who's moving into his spot I would think that it would be either I because it can't be Evans because he's been an outside guy and he's raw so I think it would either be Smith Hairston, or Nickerson. And those guys have experience playing as backups and journeymen in different spots. So one of those three,

but yeah, I mean that it's one of those, like when we look around at the roster and we go like, what bets that did you make where we kind of wonder, could you have maybe added a little bit more or did you kind of overlook that? Like center is the one that we start with. But nickel corner, having no other option outside of pretty much Sullivan, is one that if he gets hurt, we could definitely be looking back at it and going, well, you kind of did only give yourself one guy to play in the nickel. It might actually be, honestly, it might actually be K it might actually be cambina right i was just gonna mention yeah yeah because he can move around and he could be a

high iq player um and he's sort of shown that even on a moment's notice he could jump in for harrison smith i wouldn't be surprised if if that ends up being the case all right i want to know let's get off fringe starters i want to know about some starters i want to know, let's get off fringe starters. I want to know about some starters. I want to know about Zedaria Smith and Daniel Hunter. Tell me about my, my terrific two, whatever they want to go by. I don't know what they're going to, what their name's going to be, but tell me how they're doing. How are they recovering from the injuries? How do they look? Well, why don't we talk about just the olds? How about that? Just all the old, I love the old. Well, the number one thing was Z was the Darius Smith I mean he's a scary human being I mean he's just so big and so violent and I think that his reps against Christian Derrissaw it's actually been cool to see with Derrissaw because he's not beating

Derrissaw all the time but I want to give credit to Derrissaw as much as I'm giving credit to like Z'Darrius or or not taking away from Z'Darrius, but saying, giving the credit to Christian Derisov for doing well against Z'Darrius Smith. The biggest thing is he's not on the injury report. He's taken from what I could tell all the reps that he's needed to take. He hasn't had to have like multiple veteran days or anything else like that. He's just been out there and he's taken a lot of snaps, which is, that's what you're looking for. They're rotating in Patrick Jones and DJ Wanham on the second team. And Patrick Jones, the fact that he's getting those first reps off the bench kind of says something about

the depth chart. I would have expected it to be DJ Wanham, but Jones ahead of some of the other guys. But Zedarius, if he's healthy and he's taken all these reps and you're not saying, oh, he's had two days off in a row, maybe there's a problem. Like we haven't had any of that. And that matters the most. Daniil Hunter looks great. I mean, he just, what's interesting about both of those guys though, is that there are times where they're dropping back in coverage.

And I'm not sure either guy has any idea how to do that. Like I'm sure they would tell you, like, oh, it's fine, or we'll work around this or that or the other thing. But these guys do not drop back in coverage. If you look at their statistics for their entire careers, I think Daniil Hunter's maybe done it like 15 times. And Zedarius Smith, even though he's played this multidimensional role 10, 15 times a season, this is not something that these guys do. So if you're asking them to do it too much, then you're, I think, taking your life in your hands. Cause these guys are pass rushers. I don't think they will. I think they'll do everything they can to

possibly not have to have those guys drop back almost at all. Um, so both of them, yeah, they look like what you wanted them to look like. And the Vikings defensive line overall has just looked pretty good. As far as Adam Thielen, I think that may be the biggest one where you wondered how he would look like coming off of the injury that ended his last season. You know, his age has been discussed when we talked about it for draft season of wanting to pick a receiver. But in training camp, he's had multiple big time touchdowns, roasted people on a regular basis. Like looks like he's still doing Adam Thielen things. And the funny thing about Thielen is he was never a guy that really blew

me away in training camp because he doesn't have these insane physical gifts. It was always digs and it's Jefferson this year. Who's just making every catch as you might expect, but feeling is creating separation. He's open. He looks quick. He looks like he's healthy. Again, a guy who hasn't missed any practice at all. And, uh, Eric Hendricks, same kind of deal there. I don't know with a linebacker, like, is he, is he 1% slower than he was? Or I, I mean, I'm not really sure. But Jordan Hicks just looks pretty good. He's made some plays out there, had a couple of interceptions the other day.

So that combination seems to be coming along well. And I think that as far as the whole roster, when it comes to the olds, it's at this moment, August 6th, best- case scenario that they could have asked for. Everybody's healthy and nobody looks like they're mad and nobody looks like they're completely lost. Everybody seems to be fitting in pretty well. Now, there are, I'm sure, details of that that we can't know unless we're watching back the tape and unless we're told this guy or that guy is struggling. But health-wise, and at least from what I've seen performance wise,

the olds are holding up pretty well through practice. Great. What about the less olds in the middle of the defense? Our friend Harrison Phillips, Dalvin Tomlinson. I mean, I've, I've seen Harrison Phillips,

like random YouTube highlights and like a little bit of film, but not much at all. So what are we seeing from him? What are we seeing from those interior guys? Because you mark that up as at least an average spot or maybe above average with those two guys. Yeah. I mean, Harrison Phillips is very large and very strong. And those two things are going to matter.

Don't Chris read this for him. You just did. Yeah. So you got to. Well, he's and and and that's like a hot hot football analysis right there defensive to tackle big and strong uh but i think above average when it comes to strength and probably above average when it comes to he's not like weighty but he is large like he's got long arms and he's got a giant barrel type of chest that kind of thing but as far as the camp practices i mean you're talking about two guys who do not have these

insane pass rush moves so it's not like you're watching an aaron donald or chris jones or cam hayward you just go like whoa he just took the soul of this you know guy it's not like that it's like well they're probably supposed to stuff those gaps and that's kind of what they're supposed to do. And that does bring you the question of how are you going to rush the passer outside of Daniil Hunter and Zedaria Smith? And I don't think that there's an answer to that. It does look like they have packages on third downs and things like that

to move in DJ Wanham, to move Daniel Hunter and Zedaria Smith around. And that on those big situations, they'll have those guys off of the field and it will be other rushers. But teams pass a lot of first and second down. So can they get anything going? Can they push the pocket? Like I think they've done because both of them are big, giant, strong dudes and the interior of the Vikings offensive line is.

Yeah, not so great. So they they've had success in pushing the pocket. Will that matter against Aaron Rogers? Will that matter against Jalen hurts? Who's a running quarterback? Will it matter against somebody who's gigantic, like Jameis Winston,

who they play or a short pass offense like miami like there's a lot of questions there about is pushing the pocket that effective uh i'm not sure but as far as like how they look i mean looks like they fit they both fit in i mean they're having to make adjustments and that's another thing too is the adjustment details are to the inch when it comes to defensive tackle so So that's something I couldn't possibly tell you. Like, is he getting his hand placement right? Like, I have no idea from the sideline. If he's doing that, the coaches might be like, man, he's screwing it up. These two, but these two are smart players who have adjusted defenses and things like that before.

So they're kind of guys that you really don't think a whole lot about it's what's behind them where it's like t.j smith's getting a lot of run you're like who is t.j smith and i'm yep that's right he was on the team last year uh we've seen a little jonathan bullard season a little james lynch season a little um the t.y mcgill like they are kind of throwing everybody out there. Sorry. Say that again. It was like Andre mince. That's one of the guys. Oh yeah. Yeah. Andre mince. Yeah. He's been, he's an edge rusher. So he, he actually did get some first team reps with a drill where they were doing like the third down stuff. And he's one to watch too,

because he actually made Denver's team last year out of camp. And I'm kind of intrigued that they like handpicked him at Donatello, Vic Fangio, that connection, like he must know Minty. And that was his first time that I've seen him get any sort of those reps. That was only for a couple of plays, but it caught my eye. But it looks to me like other than Armond Watts, everything else is wide open. And maybe like I mentioned before, like maybe more wide open than it would have been in years past.

All right. I think it's time I've waited. I've restrained myself for 37 minutes. Give me my Zach Davidson update. I need it. I need it. Like I need air to breathe. So give me my, how's my Mr. Mankato pick doing? I need to know. It's got to catch the ball. I mean, it's really comes down to that. There's just been. So the other day, Kirk Cousins made some kind of throw like he, I think he might've been sacked or whatever, but you don't actually hit the guy and you keep going on the play, but Cousins rolled out to his right. And Cousins is actually surprisingly good when he's rolling out, still throwing the football and he rolls out to his right and he throws one down the sideline and his anticipation on it was amazing because Davidson's

coming across the field. And it was like one of those where it's an NFL films. You could see the quarterbacks throwing it on the run and they've got the ball coming toward the guy and the receiver appears in the picture and what a play and he dropped and you know that even the Vikings tweeted out the other day a video of Patrick Peterson getting an interception which came on a ball that hit Zach Davidson right in the hands this has been a problem I don't think he has soft hands I just don't think he catches the ball very well and if you're going to be the one-dimensional pass catcher you have to catch the ball better. And that's just been a problem.

Like Erling Kemp has had far too many drops. You really can't drop that many passes and have the trust of your team. I don't think that Johnny Munt is anything more than what we think he is, like a blocking tight end who could catch, like a David Morgan at best who could catch the ball in the backfield a little bit. But, I mean, Davidson's getting his his chance and it's handed right to him. He's got first team reps. He's out there with Kirk cousins on those, especially those like third down drills where they need a receiving tight end. And he's getting all those chances and he's made some plays,

but he's got to catch the ball more. And I don't know if they really have any options aside from him, like from the outside. But once again, Kevin O'Connell was kind of like, well, let me get a look at these guys first, and then we'll kind of decide. It was not like, oh, yeah, no, we love these guys. We're all set. Jared Cook's still out there.

Eric Ebron's still out there. Jimmy Graham, anybody, Jimmy Graham, anybody want Jimmy Graham in their life? Come on. He's, he could end up with, uh, almost every team in the NFC. If someone wants him, I think that a lot of these things are going to be determined. They'll have an off day. Uh, let's see in a few days of the night practice. So like there's going to be some of these things that go on where all right that's kind of the moment where you have to decide are we going with this or not and i'm not confident that they will but also it depends on how irv comes back because if irv's ready to go and he's back out there he's

got like a thing on his thumb that's covering it up but kevin o'connell said that they're going to be able to get him out there in, in not live reps, but in walkthroughs and in other things like that. So they'll know exactly when he's ready to come back. They may just look at it and go, yeah, well, you know, Davidson is not really ready to take this on, but if it was one week and we have to survive with mostly Johnny Munt and Davidson for a few plays, and then Irv comes back or if he's ready on week one, then that's totally fine. So I'm not convinced that they'll go outside the building,

but also I'm not looking at your guy and saying, Oh yeah, this guy is the answer. He's got it all locked out. All right. Cause yeah, I'm it's a rollercoaster ride on Twitter when I'm just getting, when I'm getting plays one,

one play, he's making a great play. Then the next he's dropping passes that are getting picked off. I'm just so up and down, uh, that it's getting to me. So I appreciate that. I appreciate that. Um, cause I need to know, but if you had to pick very, very early for padded practices in who would be Mr. Mankato, who's who are you most impressed with at this point? I, uh uh don't know that i have an answer yet all right i think that he stumped it i mean since andrew booth jr is a second round pick he can't be eligible for this i think for a linebacker to be mr mancato asamoah has to like make preseason plays and

that's where a lot of things will be decided. But maybe one of those receivers who's behind Smith-Marset, maybe it's Tristan Jackson or maybe it's Jalen Naylor. Hey, if one of these guys even makes the team, then that means that they did something to get there because there is a bar to get over. The Albert Wilson and Amir Smith-Marset and B.C. Johnson bar, those guys have played in the league, and if you're

somebody like Naylor or Tristan Jackson who hasn't, and then you get a chance and receiver is always a great position for that. Ty Chandler is another one who they got some reps when other guys have been out. Kenny Wong Wu has been out. So Chandler has gotten a lot of work in there, but I don't know if I have somebody so far that you just never saw coming and has been like, Whoa, this guy is blowing everybody away. I think,

I think we really get to that night practice and the preseason games when everybody's got eyeballs on this. And then we start to get a really good sense for who that is. But I guess early early picks would be, let's keep an eye on those backup receivers and probably Ty Chandler. All right. All right. I mean, I'm not, like, getting any betting in, folks.

They don't have any lines up for this. But, you know, I needed the inside scoop. Do you want to talk about Greg Joseph? Can I? I feel like the more we talk about Greg Joseph, the more, like, just like juju, like, yeah yeah bad juju we're putting on him i mean but maybe this is the way to approach it just be so matter of fact about it like no no no greg joseph's gonna be amazing he's been amazing this will be his best season ever he's making

everything which he sounds like he is uh but it just feels like we're just building him up for some some sort of drop but maybe that's just the longtime minnesota resident in me that can't that can't shake it so yes give me my give me, give me a Greg Joseph update, unless you have a long snapper update for me. I'd take that. I haven't seen Greg Joseph miss a kick this year. I think he missed inside us bank stadium. I think he missed one from plus 50 and has made everything else. And yes, I understand bells and whistles just went off, but I just want to finish our show here by reading you the responses to when I said camp update. Greg Joseph is making everything. I think he's made like his last 11 or 12 kicks in a row.

And Matt Daniels said he was something like 92% for the entire offseason going back to the spring. And last year he made, what was it, 85, 87% of his kicks. The guy's like good at kicking. So here's some of his kicks. The guy's, like, good at kicking. So here's some of the responses. Patrick on Twitter just said, stop it. John Shipley, our friend for the Pioneer Press, there goes the no-hitter. From Ramsey on Twitter, how much you want to bet he misses the first of the season from 30 yards?

Okay. Just a lot of scar tissue. Can't wait to see his performance in the conference championship game in january he always makes them in practice like that's not true man i've covered kicking competitions that's not true uh let's see it sounds like gary anderson of course uh oh one one reasonable person said if it wasn't for that miss in Arizona, his last year would have been talked about more. Now, that's actually true because he had a really good season. Overall, he did.

It was one bad miss that he had in Arizona. Let's see. Getting our hopes up just to miss a 25-yard field goal in the playoffs. I'm ready for it. This definitely translates. Dude, it does. It literally does. Like if guys, I'm telling you, if you can simulate anything, it's a kick. Right. And they, well, it's very windy

out there at TCO performance center. It's probably harder kicking outside. It's harder kicking outside than it is in us bank stadium. I mean, geez. Uh, good to hear after watching Daniel Carlson kick last night because i guess he made a long one for the raiders or something uh this would be the biggest news of the offseason he was good last year no it wouldn't uh so anyway anyway like those someone just said ha what what do you want me to do you didn't grow up with this you didn't grow up with the folklore of gary anderson and everything it's just you gotta you gotta chip away through so much so much scar tissue to get to get them to actually feel something again it's just uh

i i know you're i know you're of the youth paul and i did grow up mostly with a great kicker christie but there was a famous super Bowl in the city that I hail from that had some issues with the kicker. So, you know, laces out is what they say. So anyway, well, there's your kicker update. And there's your update on how all those guys are looking. So if there was anybody else, I thought we covered a great deal of the roster there.

But feel free to send the fans-only questions. I'll continue to answer those, get you more from the press conferences. And Paul and I will continue to carry on. Make sure you check out his columns every Tuesday. And we'll do it again soon. Great stuff, Paul. Thanks for your time, man. Thanks, Matt.