Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Vikings cut Brian Asamoah, Rondale Moore out for the year (Part 1)

Episode Date: August 13, 2025

Matthew Coller reacts to the Vikings news that they are releasing Brian Asamoah and that Rondale Moore is officially out for the year. What's next at WR? What does this say about Kobe King? The Purple Insider podcast is brought to you by FanDuel.

everybody welcome to another episode of purple insider matthew collar here and uh you know i wasn't necessarily planning on jumping on live tonight but you know there were a couple of news items today that i thought were of interest to minnesota vikings fans one a former draft pick of Quasi Adolfo Menz is being cut. And the other one, we got the official news on Rondale Moore. So I thought, well, you know what? When there's Vikings news, this is what we do around here. So why don't we break those moves down? What they mean, what they say about the linebacking group, the wide receiving core and where the Vikings will go from here. Plus, of course, taking your questions and comments. And also I recorded a segment with Maggie Robinson as well

or later on in the show, and she's got some headlines and some quarterbacks around the league and preseason to talk about. So let's get right into it. I mean, the biggest news of the day is that Rondale Moore is indeed out for the season. We all knew it the minute that it happened, the second that he went down and then the cart came out. It looked like it was a season-ending injury. And when Kevin O'Connell called it heartbreaking, then you had a pretty good sense for what had happened to rondale more and he will now be out for the season there was maybe some hope that hey maybe it wasn't as bad as we thought and he could come back but no they announced today that he will be out for the entire season so that means that the wide receiver room as

it is constructed at this second is jefferson addison out for the first three weeks then jayland Naylor and it looks to me like Lucky Jackson and everybody else outside of Ty Felton is competing for spots on the practice squad. And if they want to go out and get another wide receiver, then there's an opening there with Rondale Moore being placed on season ending injury reserve that they could bring in someone else. My thing about bringing in somebody else is if it is the middle of August, how good do you feel about a wide receiver dropping in with just a couple of weeks to go before the season starts in a offense that is not the easiest for wide receivers to pick up? And when we look at those guys that are still free agents, when we look at potential

trade targets, Adam Thielen being one of them, of course, the conclusion that I usually come to is does doesn't all this sound a little bit like Michael Floyd right remember in 2017 the vikings picked up Michael Floyd and all we did after that was talk about Michael Floyd is going to be their pure deep threat here's how he's going to fit in he's going to do this that the other thing and so forth and what ended up happening he got a couple of catches and that was it and even Buffalo last year when they traded for Amari Cooper who's still out there now everyone went crazy including me. I thought, oh, man, this is a really good trade for them. Well, it turned out that Amari Cooper wasn't able to come in and make the type of impact that the Buffalo Bills expected.

And so when you look at a lot of these type of acquisitions that are the last minute laid in camp and how many times does this happen? How about this? There was an entire, I've got a whole, a whole bevy of these. Maybe Aldrich Robinson might be the best one that they ever pulled off. how many of you before the Vikings acquired, Aldrich Robinson even knew who he was. And Josh Doxon got an entire press conference dedicated to him because he had played with Kirk Cousins before. So we threw six or seven different questions at Kirk Cousins about Josh Doxon. I think he had one snap as a Minnesota Viking, the Tajay Sharp, the Kendall Wright. I mean, there's been this type of receiver who's done something in the past and the Vikings kind of go out and pick them up.

and hope that there's something there very rarely is there you're usually better off just relying on the guys that are there already in your camp because they've been building chemistry with the quarterback they've been learning the offense and i do like some of the ideas and we'll get to comments and everything out soon i do like some of the ideas uh when it comes to you know, going out and getting some players that maybe have been here before. So the, you know, okay, the Adam Thielen thing, I don't know if Carolina is going to move away from Adam Thielen. But, you know, when we talk about like a Tristan Jackson, somebody brought up, okay, I like that idea. KJ. Osborne is a name that gets tossed out there from time to time.

Who was the other name that somebody? Oh, and Brandon Powell, Brandon Powell, I think would make a lot. lot of sense to bring back unless they were just deeply unhappy with how Brandon Powell performed last year. But, uh, you know, I think he's a guy who could catch punts. He can run routes a little bit. Uh, he was the guy who caught the game winning pass in the Josh Dobbs game. I mean, you know, like there's just not that many, um, there, there's not that many wide receivers who are going to be out there that know what they're doing enough to join KOC's offense and then to make an impact. So you may have to just survive the first couple of weeks, see if they can get

Ty Felton involved in the offense, see if Lucky Jackson can do enough to make an impact. Possibly Oh, Tristan Jackson's on IR 2? Okay. I did not know that. Well, that's an idea off the table. But Brandon Powell and KJ. Osborne, like those types who have been here before, would make some sense for the Vikings just because they're easy to plug and play. They're, they're guys that can, uh, you know, jump right back in and they know the offense and they've been here before. So that would be helpful. But aside from that, unless there's some sort of big acquisition that they would be able to make, I have a tough time thinking that there's anyone outside of, you know, a Trent Sherfield caliber type of player that they're

going to be able to bring in to replace. Rondale Moore. It's going to be somebody who gets cut down or somebody who is in route to getting cut from another team where maybe you're doing a seventh round pick swap in exchange or something for a player that somebody was going to cut anyway. But I don't really love most of the options. And when you think about can you survive three games and then Jordan Addison comes back. And then it's also not like Jalen Naylor hasn't done this before. Yes, they do run a lot of 11 personnel, but it's not like they only run 11 personnel and this third wide receiver spot is incredibly valuable to them. I mean, they have other personnel packages. They have the

bigger tight ends. They have C.J. Ham to throw in there. I don't think it's any reason to panic. I think the reaction for me for Rondale Moore going down is more just hurts for him because I had and some of you guys saw the story. I had a conversation sat down with Rondale Moore last week leading up to the game. And man, he was so excited about getting back. I mean, he had been through so much. He was reflective about all the things that they had learned, that he had learned kind of along the way when it came to going through that injury

and seeing the game from a different perspective. And, you know, also he talked about, I mean, of course, if he's a little guy, he's going to have a chip on his shoulder, but he talked a lot about, you know, learning to have positive body language, positive attitude going forward. I think he also saw it as kind of a last chance for him. And I asked Kina McArdle about that for the story. I asked Keenan and I said, does this feel like a last shot for Rondale Moore? And he said, I don't know that because I can't, you know, predict the future. But if I was going into this, then I would be viewing it as potentially my last shot and he called rondale more tough as nails and you know

unfortunately um he ends up going out for the entire season he is tough i think that he's going to fight his way back to the NFL and he's going to get another shot because he is an explosive player and he does have a lot of guts it's just sometimes football is so harsh and so brutal and that's what we saw but i don't think the other side of that conversation is oh they need to panic and go and run and go get another wide receiver. You know, maybe. So, you know, people ask about every night about the Adam Thielen idea. And I really go back and forth when it comes to, uh, the Adam Thielen concept.

Because I can see where you're coming from. Uh, Thielen can still catch the football. He knows the offense. It probably wouldn't take a lot to get him. And he's a veteran player who could help a young quarterback. All of that stuff checks the boxes. I don't know if Carolina's going to move him. My initial thought was, I don't know, why would Carolina move him if they are trying to do

everything they can for their young quarterback, Bryce Young? And they're trying to evaluate him. Wouldn't you want an extra wide receiver? But it is also possible that some other guys have beat him out in training camp. And then, you know, then it's the next man up and they would be willing to move him. So I'm not completely against it. I guess what I've seen, you know, what I've thought. is it's probably unlikely, but when you go around the league and go, well, who else could

you get? Who else is going to be a better option? Maybe there isn't one. Maybe that is something that they should consider. But I also think it's three games. Can you survive for three games, get through against the Chicago Bears, the Atlanta Falcons, and the Cincinnati Bengals? Like, get through those first three games. And then you get Jordan Addison back and you should be good to go from there. I think that they probably can. Also, maybe there's a part of me and not just because he came on the show last night. And if you missed it, make sure you go watch it. But there's a part of me that really wants to see Lucky Jackson get his chance to be wide receiver three. Because for several years now, Lucky Jackson has been a guy that you go into training camp not thinking a

whole lot about. You're like, okay, they picked up some XFL guy. Fantastic. You know, I love that. great. That's what I love the XFL for. Some guy's going to get his his dream shot, right? But most of the time, even with those guys, training camp is fantasy camp that they're never going to make it work. But really from the beginning with Lucky Jackson, he looked good. It was like, oh, okay, like this, this Lucky Jackson guy. All right. You know, maybe you got something here, right? And then last year, he was very close, I think, to making the roster. Tristan Jackson performed really well in that preseason game. You guys remember that. And Tristan just ended up, I think, ever so slightly ahead of Lucky last year.

And now he goes in while Justin Jefferson is out and is performed really well. And then he goes out in the preseason game and he performs really well. And I kind of want to see it. Like I totally get the argument. I'm not anti trade for Adam Thielen. Don't necessarily love as far as the, you know, contract, the injury hits. history of Adam Thielen. He's been banged up quite a bit over the years. You get the hamstring injuries and things like that. So, um, you know, like there is concern there with Thieland. And

then there is a price tag to getting Thielen and what does Carolina want for him? Do they have other offers, all that stuff? But there's just this part of me saying, you know, Lucky Jackson is in his prime. I think he's 27 years old. He knows this offense inside and out. Like, what's the difference really going to be i mean feeling is is still a good receiver he could still catch the ball he could still get open he's tough he can block all that stuff but i kind of want to see what the guy in his prime can show over the first you know a couple of games just to see if they've got something going forward here so um yeah i i i think that they should stick with it and they should also give some other guys a shot too like just john jones uh he was practicing

with the ones the other day. So kind of caught my eye of like, oh, is that something that they're considering is potentially rotating him in there? I don't know. It's up in the air. There's some options. They're not great options. And it's really only for the first couple games. But there is an unfortunate part for the offense with Rondale Moore going down, which is when I talked to Kenna McCardo, he said to me, you know, the reason we wanted Rondale Moore was to try to get something that we hadn't previously had in the offense. And that was a playmaker, an underneath type, get the guy, get the ball in his hands type of guy. Now, that could be Ty Felton. It certainly could be Ty Felton. But, you know,

Ronnell Moore is lightning crazy quick. So they wanted him as an underneath type of option. You remember in that Rams game, I think a lot of us felt like, gosh, they just run everything downfield. There isn't anybody to get the ball into their hands quickly. uh in the playoff game and that may have influenced them to go get rondale more so if you go trade for a thielan that's fine he can certainly fill in jalen naylor's role or jordan addison's whichever it is or if you bring back a kj osborne also you know totally fine osborne has not really thrived outside of year but might be able to come back or even a brandon powell but they will miss that element that maybe was only going to result in i don't know 20 catches or something but if it was

handful of first downs, an explosive play or two, maybe a handed to him in the back field, something like that, then, you know, maybe it would have been an experiment that worked. I kind of thought it was going to work. And then the punt return element is important as well, because now they're really left kind of up a creek at the punt return position. And they need to find somebody who can do it because I like Silas Bolden as much as the next person, but he's never playing the NFL before. I don't know if you want that for going to Soldier Field.

your first game ever, you're returning punts. I mean, that just has Soldier Field Viking stuff written all over it, doesn't it? Now, the other part, the other news item today, Brian Osamaw being released. And, oh, O'Dell Beckham. Yeah, I mean, I saw O'Dell Beckham's name getting thrown out there. The thing about this situation specifically is that once Jordan Addison comes back, whoever gets signed should not think that they're going to get catches. this is why you almost need an Aldrich Robinson or a Trent Sherfield much more than you need an

OBJ or an Adam Thielen because you're really talking a short period of time. Now, if one of those guys got hurt later in the season, then it's a very different story. Then you're going to need somebody. I don't know. Also, OBJ seems like the type of guy who wants to show up on a team halfway through the season and just hope he wins a Super Bowl. That's kind of where he's at in his career. And I don't blame him for that. Maybe like, who used to do that way back in the day? Like, Andre reason. Didn't Chris Carter come back as a dolphin somewhat similarly to that? Dion Sanders showed up as a raven. It kind of kind of has that type of feel to it. Sometimes that works. But to the other piece of news of the Vikings releasing Brian Asimwa, yes, I know what the first thing on your mind is, is,

wow, you knew that 2022 class was tough, but holy moly, like the 22. 22 class is almost all gone. And it could be if the Vikings released Ty Chandler. You know, the funny thing about that is that when the Vikings staff first got here, a similar thing happened to the 2021 draft class where what was, I mean, of course, it was Darrasaw, right? But then everybody else, the Amir Smith, Marsets, the Wyatt Davis is, the Kellyn Mons, they were all gone by the end of training camp. And that's how I feel. about kind of what Brian Flores has done here. And I don't often think about, hey, what if Ed Donatel had stuck around? Because that would have been insane. And they would not have won 14 games

last year if they had stayed with that type of system. And if they had tried to develop those players, it's pretty clear Lewis Seen has not latched on anywhere else. It's pretty clear that when Andrew Booth Jr. has gotten into games elsewhere, it has not gone very well. And he has not proven the Vikings wrong for getting rid of him. And I would be quite surprised if a six foot 220 pound linebacker can become a difference maker somewhere else. However, it does matter to the equation that if you remember when Dion Sanders got the job at Colorado, he had a viral video where he said, now I'm bringing my own luggage. You remember that? I'm bringing my own luggage. It's kind of that been that way for Brian Flores, where he's really brought his own luggage. And

if you were there before, you know, even a Josh Mattelis is kind of his because nobody before him was playing Mattelis anywhere. And then he decided and everything else on this defense is his, um, except what Harrison Phillips? Harrison Phillips was the previous regime. Try, I mean, Harrison Smith, obviously. Who else? Who else is the previous? regime and not too many guys so this is brian flores his vision and that vision never included brian awesemaw i think a major reason for that is in this type of defense because i did think that awesome was showed some flashes in his 22 season remember that game against the new york giants where you know he was quite good and caused a fumble and you know looked like he was

kind of flying around. But I think that the reason that he didn't fit is because Flores is not using a huge nose tackle. He's not using a Pat Williams. He's not using a Ted Washington, huge Gilbert Brown, Sam Adams type of guy. I'll just keep naming nose tackles, a Joel Steed. He's not using he's not using those guys. He is really using kind of three technique type players at the D.T positions, which requires the linebackers to fire downhill and run face first into a lot of traffic, a lot of guards, a lot of fullbacks, tight ends coming your way, not as many fullbacks as there should be, but, you know, those guys come in your way. And what we saw when Osama got in, I think it was 23 against Philadelphia when he got in was that he wasn't big enough to go

toe to toe with guards. And even though Ivan Pace is short, Ivan Pace is built rock solid. I mean, he is pure muscle. This guy is a fire hydrant. You run into, you know, Ivan Pace. You're not going to have a fun time, even if you're a guard.

And I've seen him throw his entire body at guards and slam into them and stop them in their tracks. He's also really good at knifing, like getting underneath them, getting low, being quick and getting around the corner of these guys who are pulling out or coming to the second level. I just don't think that that works for Asimwa. I think he was much more of a,

if you can stuff the line of scrimmage, which is kind of an idea in that defense, if you can really clog the line of scrimmage with your four, then you have sideline to sideline linebackers. And that's what you saw from Osamwa when he was coming out, was his sideline to sideline speed was phenomenal. So you think about when, just for example,

like Eric Kendricks is a great linebacker, for the Vikings, right? Would Eric Kendricks be great in this system where the linebackers have to take on a lot of violence? I don't know because where I thought somebody like Kendricks was so great was Linval Joseph stuff's the middle. This is why they love Shemar Stephan. Remember how much love they had for Shemar Stefan?

I think a big part was Shemar Stefan would just stop guards in their tracks. So they would just hold those guys up. And Eric Kendricks could go sideline to sideline, running backs bounce out. he's going to go chase him down he can get into those gaps and finish the tackles but in this system it seems to me that the linebackers this is a reason cashman gets banged up sometimes the linebackers got to go like in on the offensive lineman just can't really do that oh jerry ball great one great one and anytime you guys want to throw out a random nose tackle please do uh but i i just don't think that that's that's brian osama he could probably make it somewhere

else and he was a good special teamer and i got the sense that he was liked in the locker room uh that he had fit in well on matt daniel's group but they went out and got coby king and he's coby king is just so much more of a brian flores type of linebacker and once again you're talking about going out and getting your own luggage you're bringing your own stuff brian flores would have been i'm sure integral at identifying coby king in the draft and saying that's what I'm looking for that's the type of player that I want and all summer long we saw and this is what really sort of indicated it was over all summer long in practice it was Kobe King ahead of awesome law the whole time just from the start it was it was over as soon as

it started and then in the preseason game awesome law came out before Kobe King and I was like okay I think I got it here I think we're talking about a little bit of a showcasing situation just hoping that they could make a potential trade there. So, um, nose tackle from the chargers. Jamal Williams. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. John Madden would gush over him. Sure. Oh, there were, there were so many. I really loved Sam Adams, though. He was one of my favorites. The return for touchdown. A Keith, Keith, Keith trailer had one where he returned one for a touchdown. That, that guy's not here. If that guy was here, maybe Brian Osumwa could be the guy who cleans up tackles and then coverage is good.

and so forth. It just wasn't him. It wasn't a fit. And so when we look back at the 2022 draft, the context matters that, I mean, hey, maybe they would have been developing Lewis seen over a couple

years if Ed Donatel was here. But the important thing about blowing the 22 draft is when we look around and we talk about, like what they've been able to do in response to those draft picks. I mean, number one, here's where now these are going to be. trust me, these are backhanded compliments. These are not like, wow, great job for you. You cut the guy when he was bad. Like, congratulations. But so take these for what they are. But the way I look at it

is the draft is very random. And it's really funny because I was looking up today, just out of curiosity. I found, uh, my friend Marcus Whitman was not in on the 2022 draft for the Vikings. He gave it like a c minus and nfl.com gave it an a minus and yeah it's that's the randomness element of the draft right so it's random but i always think about how you respond to that and how you're able to deal with the randomness that is going to make the difference and also being able to evaluate your own draft picks because one issue that teams have and i think about this who is the the linebacker for the Steelers was it Devon Bush was the guy's name where they just kept playing him even though he's struggling because he was a draft pick. The Vikings have not done

that. As soon as they saw that Ivan Pace was a better fit, they just played Ivan Pace. Sorry, we know you're a draft pick too bad. They might be doing the same thing with Ty Chandler. Like, sorry, man, Cammakers is better than you. He's in. Or sorry, man, Xavier Scott's better than you. He's in. And Cam Bynum, I remember talking about, you talk about old takes that did not turn out to be true. So I remember talking about how Cam Bynum, who a player that I liked that draft pick and I like Cam, a ton, he's a great guy. But I remember saying, well, if Lewis Seen isn't better than Cam Bynum, I mean, like, what are we talking about here? He should be easy to, you know, to beat for Lewis Seen for that starting position. So, and it turned out that Cam Bynum,

A fourth round pick cornerback from Kale is a $15 million safety and Lewis seen a first rounder couldn't play. Who would have known? But you think about the response, them saying, we're not going to play this guy just because he's the first round pick. We're going to go with the better safety. And they got a lot out of Cambinem. I mean, when a guy gets signed for 15 mil in free agency, I mean, that says a lot about him. They got a lot out of Cambynum, huge part of really good defenses. they developed Josh Mattelis.

I don't know if Josh Mattelis becomes exactly the same as he has become if Lewasine ends up working out. Now the cornerback position, that one they really could have used. See, that's why I think of it. The reason I didn't love the Lewesine pick was not actually seen. I thought it was a good prospect. I was wrong on that. But what I didn't love about it was the positional value,

a safety in the first round. But then when they drafted Andrew Booth, Jr., I remember thinking, well, this is great. Like, that's a premium position. You should draft those guys high. They need a corner. They haven't drafted corners successfully high in the draft recently and et cetera, et cetera. And it just turned out that Booth couldn't play, that he just wasn't good. Now, maybe he would have been better with Donatelle.

But that was another situation where they just, they played Duke Shelley. They kept Patrick Peterson. you know, they brought in Byron Murphy and they didn't stick with something that wasn't going to work. And last year, even they gave him a shot and then they moved on from him and they got Stefan Gilmore and that worked really well. So the fact that they haven't stuck with these guys have also opened the door for some other players to develop and come in and become good players. That is the one that still hurts, though. I think from the 2022 draft, not Asimwa, not seen not any of the other guys that have sort of randomly come in and out.

I really think it's Andrew Ruth Jr. Because that was the top corner that they needed. They haven't had. And now they're kind of hoping that Isaiah Rogers can be that guy. So that's kind of where I stand with both of these news items. The release of Brian Osama, I think, says or confirms what we have seen from Kobe King. I've probably come back, I don't know, 10 different practices. feels like and said, you know, guys, I kind of noticed this Kobe King guy. I kind of keep code.

And I, uh, mentioned to somebody else that I know in the league, um, just like about this situation. Like I, I just like this Kobe King guy. And, you know, there were other teams that were pretty high on him as a third day prospect, high character. Um, he's got, I think a lot of power to his game and can contribute in some different ways. Maybe he becomes a run stuffer, probably a special teamer right away. They may have wanted to see that in special teams in the first game before they made this move. But Kobe King, I think is a player on the rise. Now, they're probably hoping to not have to use him right away just because, you know, you have Blake Cashman, you brought in Eric Wilson, but can he be the Eric Wilson eventually? I mean,

I think probably. I think probably. So, you know, they miss out. And that's the whole, are you good at drafting? Well, if Kobe King becomes a good and useful player, but you had to cut another draft pick, are you good at drafting? I don't know. But you don't, they don't, they don't hand out the rings for you won the 2022 draft. They handed out for, have you built the complete roster that could beat anybody in the playoffs and go all the way. And so they're responses to these draft picks that haven't worked out has been very good and they have crushed free agency, which has made up for these misses. So you can't give them a free pass because some of these were what happened there. I mean, Andrew Booth Jr. on draft night told us that

he had never been healthy. You're like, huh? What? You've never been healthy and they drafted you in the second round. Okay, I guess. And, you know, Lewis seen just never. really seemed to be all that motivated to be great and turned out that he wasn't. Those are big misses and I think Quasi Adolfo Mensa's reflection on that of trying to solve all the problems in one draft makes a lot of sense to me like everything that they needed. What do I always say? Don't draft for need. Don't and even it might be a little risky doing that with Donovan Jackson this year, right? Don't draft for need because if you do, you might regret it. And they tried to draft for all the needs tried to draft a starting guard in the second round

didn't work out so uh there you have it but at very least they didn't hang on to these guys they said you you're not working out and we're going to move on so their response to it i think has been good even if overall woof unless jaylin naylor ends up with i don't know how many catches this jela that's a funny question i'll get to the fandual question of the day in a second how many catches does jelan naylor need to make the 2022 draft class okay is the answer like 78 uh all right well he's he may be the last man that remains very soon so here is the actual fan dual question the day and then i'll get to your comments uh and we'll have a good conversation then maggie robinson later so fan dual question of the day is uh 14 teams 1 4 14 teams have better odds

on fan duel to make the playoffs then the Vikings which of these nfc teams that are ahead of the Vikings is the most dubious to you so these are teams that have better odds to make the playoffs right now on fan duel which ones do you are you not buying the packers the rams the commanders the 49ers or the buccaneers uh those are teams that are in a similar tier i think to the vikings but which one of those are is the most dubious i guess i would have to say the 49ers, but I'm also wondering if the Rams could be as well, depending on Matthew Stafford's health and also the Packers as well because Jordan Love had some surgery today and you're always kind of, whoa, surgery with a month to go on your throwing thumb. That's not exactly

what you're looking for. Let's start out here with son of beavers who says maybe a Gabe Davis type. I don't know where he's at. I mean, didn't have a good year last year. So is he somebody that can step in and provide kind of a similar role, like a deep threat type of player? It wasn't that long ago that Gabe Davis was good. It was only a couple of years ago that Gabe Davis was a pretty good wide receiver for the Buffalo Bills, not great, but a deep threat, a very similar to a Jalen Naylor type. But I think that they're looking or they should be looking for someone who's more of a playmaker, somebody who's more of an underneath type of quick game option that can make plays with his hands on the ball. But where do you get them? Like,

usually you have to get them fairly early in free agency. And they were looking at it with Rondale Moore of like, hey, maybe we found something. Maybe we found something really cool here with Rondale Moore. And only because he was coming off an injury, which seems to be one of Quasi Adolph. And this, look, it's a different knee. It was just bad luck or different leg. Total bad luck play for Rondale Moore. But it. It is kind of interesting that this has been one of Quasi Adolfo Menz's little cheat codes is to get players cheaper off of injuries and roll the dice there. And sometimes it's worked and sometimes it hasn't.

It worked with Van Ginkle. It did not work with Davenport. And obviously, unfortunately, it did not work with Brondale more. Also, I don't want to skip over one of the sponsors of our show, which is ZipRecruiter. Great to have them on board. I know a lot of you out there own your own businesses or you're in a management position where you're hiring people and it can be a pain. You get lots of resumes for people who aren't qualified. You don't know where to find the best candidates, but it's not that tough with ZipRecruiter.

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this exclusive web address, ZipRecruiter.com slash audio. The ZipRecruiter is the smartest way to hire. So there you go. Great to have them on board. back to your questions mac says i don't really get why we aren't okay with jalen naylor playing wide receiver two for a few games he looked good filling in for injury last year so i think that they are i think that they are okay with it and i think that they should be because nailer i can go deep down the field but he proved that he can also make some clutch catches as well if you remember uh last year against san francisco he had a couple of plays that were very impressive. He had a catch that was kind of back shoulder. Remember that? They needed a dagger

drive and they were looking for a back shoulder throw and he kind of leaned back and caught it. It was a great play. Nailer has had some drop issues. There were a couple plays that he probably wanted back last year. Definitely the one in Tennessee. But overall, I think Jalen Naylor is a competent number two for three games. I think over 17 games, that's probably not someone you would want as the number two. But he knows the offense extremely well. And he is a favorite, of course, of Kevin O'Connell's, as you've probably heard a bunch of times. O'Connell has mentioned how good he's been in camp and all that sort of stuff. So I think Jalen Naylor's fine. But it's who becomes Jalen Naylor. That's what we're really talking about here. For me, Lucky Jackson is, I think, of a similar

ilk because he has great knowledge of the offense. He can catch the ball when it comes his way. And then, you know, the biggest thing for him is just getting man to man coverage and beating it. Like he can do that because you know you're getting man to man coverage as long as Justin Jefferson is out there. So it's not that any person can play the number three wide receiver, but it's not the hardest job in the national football league is to be at the number three receiver when Jefferson is number one. So I don't think that anyone is worried about Naylor's ability to pop in just for a little bit. I think that it's more about, okay, you have very unproven players now.

More was the guy who was proven and who showed that he could do it. But now you don't have that anymore. There's no one who's proven on this roster. Sean says aside from 19, none of the old Viking options get me excited. I also think Lucky has earned the spot and should get it overpowering. or KJ. Yeah, things have just not really worked out for KJ Osborne outside of Minnesota. And that was a guy that going into 2023, I don't really fully understand what happened. Going into 23, he had played really well in 2022. Remember the comeback game. He was just terrific. But then going

into 23, it seemed like he put so much pressure on himself to get that big contract that he, I don't know, just maybe tensed up or something. He had more drops that year than I had ever seen from him before. And they didn't really use him in a way that was a playmaker with the ball in his hands, which is actually what I thought that KJ. Osborne was going to be. When he came into the league i thought okay this guy is a a punt returner and a playmaker and they made him into a more full complete wide receiver but there were also some shortcomings there if osborne it ends up out there who is he with washington if he ends up on the the chopping block that is a guy that makes sense because i think you're really looking for someone who can come in and fill in a small

role for a couple of games and then just be part of your depth the rest of of the way and it's not going to be a problem um with adam feeling like that's i mean you're making a trade for somebody to help you out for three games presumably because you really like where you're at one two and three and he doesn't bring anything that's really different from anybody else uh flick says was ingram dawkins practicing with the ones he's gotten a little bit with the ones yeah it hasn't been a lot but it's been enough to catch my eye and It has seemed like he has really caught on. He's a very good communicator, I would say.

I think he is a very good communicator. We talked to him the other day and it seems like a real bright kid. And he was talking about how Jonathan Allen was one of his heroes that he used to study when he was growing up, that kind of thing. I mean, you know, he, he's a player who could continue to develop. I don't think that right away he's going to be someone. that you're seeing a ton. As it goes on with the season, though, you might see Ingram Dawkins more and more. Max says Adam Thielen is a storybook, nostalgic target, and it would be stupid to bring him back.

That being said, give him whatever he wants and bring him back. I love him. That's funny. It sounds like you're a little conflicted on that, Mac. Yeah, and I think that I am too, because if you look at Thelan the last couple of years, he's still effective. It's just health is an issue for Thielen at times. He's had hamstring injuries throughout his career and so forth.

And you might be saying, well, look, you're only really needing him for a couple games. I feel like if you're going to do that option, you got to do it probably pretty soon. And I'm also not entirely sure if Carolina is willing to make that trade for Adam Thielen because he is a great locker room presence. he is great for a young quarterback and the other thing is and stuff changes but they could have moved Thielen at the trade deadline last year and they decided not to so does that mean that they want to keep him around now those are the things that I just don't really know uh son of beavers now has up to the game after last night trying to get as deep into the woods as possible

with NFL rosters um do you think that the BA release might bring in a vet for the L-linebacking core like Josie Jewel or Joanne Bentley had some overlap with B-Flow as a rookie. I do not think that they need to bring anybody else in. I think that their linebacking group is in good shape. Clearly, you spend a lot of time on over-the-cap.com looking at those free agents, which I respect very much. I'm just not sure that they need another vet to throw in there because you look at the four linebackers that they have right now, they're in pretty good shape. I mean, you know,

with the starters, obviously they are really good. And then bringing in Eric Wilson to me was a huge thing this offseason. It might end up being one of the most underappreciated things that they do was bringing in Eric Wilson because if the other guys get banged up and also he might rotate into a role or something like that. You know, so that's a big one. And then the way Kobe King has come along. It feels like. like they wanted to just make sure, like halfway through training camp, just make sure that what they were seeing with Kobe King early on was what they were seeing over a big sample size. So they did see that with Kobe King. He gets into the preseason game. He looked

pretty violent. He looked pretty engaged. And they decide to make this move. But I don't think that they have to go out and get somebody else. I don't think that they have to do that right now. So, uh, let's see. Max says, uh, still can't get over how Rick Spielman fumbled Brett Jones guy was a far better center and guard than the guy's starting, but as a Canadian UDFA, who cares? Well, here's something to think about Mac is, uh, the way that they have dealt with the interior offensive line. I hope that Brett Jones and that type of player is no longer haunting your dreams i look brett wow like what what a dude is he coaching somewhere he was incredibly smart like he was a guy in the locker room that you go over to and ask just about

random football stuff i did a story on qb sneaks before the tush push when the patriots were dominating that play and i talked brett jones for it uh and a number of other things along the way and he was a guy that i asked somebody else i was doing a story on which player would be most likely to be a coach after their career and and people said brett jones very very smart guy and similar to dalton risner where he really couldn't get out and do the athletic stuff but he could anchor and he could stick his feet in the ground and uh you know he could block but again this is why you spend 17 million dollars in a guard this is why you spend a first round pick in a guard so you just don't have to be talking about why weren't they playing brett jones

you know the udFA from canada right so uh wayne says did you see the report from the locked on patriots podcast where not only the offense is concerned about uh bflow oh we're not the only offense that's concerned about bflow's defense i see so you mean for these joint practices that their offense is concerned well you know that's what uh chad graf told me the other day is that they were game planning for a broad Brian Flores defense. Wayne says topic of conversation was how May is going to look against the great defense. Well, look for the Patriots, for the Patriots writers, you know, they've had, they've had their time in the sun over the years with Tom Brady and Bill Belichick and all the championships and all that sort of stuff.

But the last couple years, really going back to when, they lost to Buffalo in the 2021 playoffs. They got killed. And they thought at the time that Mac Jones was going to be a good quarterback. He had that good first year. Since then, imagine being a Patriots writer. I mean, you're just covering bad and bad and the decline of Belichick. And then, you know, Gerard Mayo last year, tanking, what, a couple years in a row now. It hasn't been very pretty.

So for them, this has to actually be pretty exciting that they're going to see Drake may who's looking to take a big step forward practice against brian for his defense it's not just us it's not just in this viking bubble that we come on here every night and talk about hey this is so unique in brian flora's defense it's so different and it's so interesting and it's so challenging to opponents and hey if he likes jeff okuda then fine go for it right it's people around the the NFL as well. They look at Brian Flores' defense as the most difficult to replicate, and

a major part of that is the personnel. Not every team has a Van Ginkle and a Mattelis and a Cashman and guys like that that are shape-shifting type of players. And now Dallas Turner into that mix. And not everyone can have a Harrison Smith and a Byron Murphy who are

highly intelligent players that you can teach to do a lot of different stuff and make a lot of different changes. So you know, I think it was, it was it'll be really fun i know where i'm going to be looking during the joint practices you know tomorrow and thursday i'm going to be looking at j j mccarthy so i might see less of drake may there will be i'm sure we'll talk about it tomorrow like how did drake may look against the vikings i'm going to see probably the two minute drills mainly and the rest of the practice i'm just

i'm going to be watching j j mccarthy so we'll have to see how much i can catch of drake may but it'll be fun to watch i mean i'm really intrigued i i spent so much i'm so much i'm so much much time leading up to the draft thinking, is KOC and KC going to pull this off? Are they going to trade for Drake May? So that's kind of the guy they didn't pick, but also with a supporting cast that is not so good. Red Bruno, any chance of Felton being the punt returner, Addison for Tyree Kill would fix the wide receiver depth. I'm glad that you threw an LOL in there. I would want nothing to do with Tyree Kill at this point in his career. Still fast, but it seems like that guy's got some problems. Lucky definitely better than speedy for wide wide receiver three. No, I don't, I don't think

I don't think that Lucky Jackson is better than Jalen Naylor for wide receiver three. I don't think that's a competition. It's just that when you're slotting up wide receiver four goes to wide receiver three. I think you feel okay with Lucky because he's been there for a couple years and he's played in these preseason and he's played in these joint practices. It's just you have to trust something that you've never really seen in a game. And that comes down to how good are you at evaluating your players? And so far in the KOC and Flores era, that's been a cheat code for them. And so if they roll with Lucky, you're kind of almost obligated to be like, okay, well, that that must mean that they think that those guys are going to be really good. I don't think

that Felton is really a punt returner. I don't know if he even did it in college. Did he even punt return in college. I know maybe a little kick returning. One of the reasons to like him as a kick returner is that, and I saw there's a guy who works for Sumer Sports, Sean Syed, who does some cool breakdowns. And he did an analysis of the Panthers kickoff and how they're trying to bounce it in a certain area. What you need is somebody's got hands to go chase down the football. If you got block hand kick returner, it's going to be a problem because there's going to be teams that are kicking in, pinballing this thing around it's going to be a bit of a circus i think with the kick return and maybe they're going to try to install some rules or something midway about you know pinballing the ball around

but i think the vikings are going to do it carolina's going to do it i i just i think that they didn't think some things through entirely when they put this kick return in this version which is not exactly the same as the xFL's version uh william says uh fandal question of the day Packers better than the Vikings, I think not. Susan's got the Packers, Rams, and the Packers and the Rams is the most dubious to have better odds. And the Vikings 49ers have an easy schedule. Frank says 49ers are not going to be good.

Yeah, the schedule thing and Nick's got the Packers or the 49ers. I would have had the 49ers as well. The schedule thing comes up a lot and I'm a little back and forth on it. I have a tough time believing the Vikings won't have a hard schedule. this year because look who they're playing at lamar jackson jalen hurts jaden daniels joe burrow like that's i mean they're not all going to get hurt right so those guys are going to compete they're going to be good and that will make it for a difficult schedule for the vikings i did do some research though earlier this off season where i looked up three different kinds of rankings for preseason strengths of

schedules i looked at it by the vegas lines i looked at it by the pure previous win loss, and I looked at it by an NFL.com yearly article about who has the toughest schedule that was just done by some dudes looking at schedules. And none of them were accurate to who actually had the hardest schedules. None of them, none of them got it right, exactly. And so sometimes when we say, like, oh, well, this team's going to have an easy schedule, doesn't always come true or when a team's going to have a tough schedule, doesn't always come true. So I'm not banking on that. And I think this is the year that the 49, kind of do hit the skids two years in a row.

Brian says maybe this leads to another pie chart question. What's the pie chart of season total defensive snaps for the Vikings starting linebackers? Okay, I like that. I would go the, let's see, well, Blake Cashman and Ivan Pace are going to play out of 100% of total snaps. So how many would that be like 2,500 total snaps between all. linebackers for the Minnesota Vikings. I'm going to say Blake Cashman plays 40% of those. And that equates to what, like 800 snaps. I think that'll be about good for him. And I would go with

maybe 50% for Ivan Pace, the 90% of the snaps and then 10% for Eric Wilson, or nine and a half percent. I just don't think Kobe King's ready yet. But I do think that Eric Wilson will end up needing to make an appearance, needing to play, and be more than just a special teamer. Man Juice, nice to see ya, says, should the O-line coach or Matt Daniels be on the hot seat this year, especially if they don't do better than last year? Well, Matt Daniels has a different role than just the special teams, which is a big part of it. I also think that Matt Daniels has, just by the way he talks some ideas that he's not really allowed to use so just for example there's a great returner on this roster his name is isaiah rogers but that guy's not

returning kicks or puns it's just not going to happen um that's a starting outside corner now so they they got him brandon powell they got him tie chandler they cut ken a wongwu which was a smart move because he didn't stay healthy last year but that was an elite returner that they sent packing so they haven't helped him a lot there if that's what we're evaluating it on i think the punter has been fine um you guys like really dislike the punter i think it's been okay hasn't been great hasn't offended me either and will riker was good last year i think he's got high expectations for this year but matt daniels is two roles on this team that are really valuable one is he's in charge of the teaching the turnovers and i know that this sounds like what do you mean

teaching the turnovers aren't they random but they're not not really. Like there's a lot of technical stuff that goes into taking away the ball and this team needs to do it. And he's the coach who's in charge of it. The other thing is development. I mean, Matt Daniels is, I think, really good at identifying talent. I think he's really good at developing players, helping players like, you know, even a Josh Mattelis, guys come along in their careers and get better and better. I think they're good at that. Like I think they're good at that from the special teams level and then up. far as the offensive line yeah there's very high expectations for this offensive line but if you go back okay last year they lost derisaw i don't know if there's any offensive line coach in the league that was supposed to help that if you go back and look at where they were as an offensive line with derisaw they were in the top five last year by pf but you lose your superstar left tackle i mean you're just not going to hold up and then you know things devolved from there uh over the years but or over the weeks of the year until they got to the playoffs and then they faced the nastiest

D-line in the league. That D-line for the Rams was so good. They got after Jalen Hertz in the playoff game against the Eagles. I mean, they were really that good. So, you know, I think that the offensive line has been a lot better recently over the recent years. It's just that, you know, when you're talking about losing Derasaw, that really hurt them. But, yeah, there is high expectations. for this team, I just, I also don't think that they are really a team that likes to

fire and hire coaches all the time. It seems to me like they don't ride the roller coaster of, well, hey, you know, you're running backs didn't perform that well last year, so you're fired. They've kept Curtis Modkins. Now, I wondered about that myself. I mean, now we're like way deep in the weeds. I wondered about that myself with Curtis. modkins like it shouldn't you bring in but you know they brought in another offensive line coach whose background is in running the football and so maybe they're doing it that way uh they moved their quarterback coach from a couple years ago to then fit in josh mccown and they have a very large coaching staff that's for sure but they're not a team that hey if you're not if this didn't

work out or that didn't work out you're fired i think they like the process and the players have always spoken very highly of chris cooper and i don't just mean to me like on the record with a mic in their face um they really like the way that he communicates and he's been through it himself um but look if you have this line and they stay healthy and they don't perform then yeah then you are talking about something like that uh s dot other words there sorry that's just too many letters uh could have sworn tie felton was the pick COC was happy about. What happened to that kid? Well, I mean, we're only at August 12th of training camp, man. What happened, you know, let's not, let's not be talking about Ty Felton as if

he's, you know, one of those 2022 draft picks that we'll never hear from again. You know, I think that with Ty Felton, that he's on his way. He had a pretty good preseason game and he's going to be somebody that's returning for them. And I mean, you see. saw the punt gunning rep that was pretty impressive you saw a couple of catches he had a third down catch for a first down that was pretty good i just think he's a guy who's coming along i don't think what you want to try to do is force him in too much uh i think it's more of you're trying to work him in and get him developed more and more as as you go along uh the the meticular says free agency or not quacy whiffing on draft picks isn't sustainable.

I've lost all faith in his drafting abilities. Well, you know, I think about it this way when it comes to the draft. I mean, we've been through this so many times I don't need to give the rant. Like, just does Jordan Addison count or not? Like, it seems like a pretty good pick. But I guess the people who obsess over the, the 2022 draft like to give that credit to somebody else. And also, how many drafts are we on? And how many draft picks has it actually been?

How many draft picks would you need to know that someone actually wasn't good at drafting? 2022 is clearly gone sideways. And we've gone over the explanations for that many, many times. But when you're talking about, well, free agency or not, what, well, whoa, hold on. They have one of the five best rosters in the NFL that just won 14 games and then got better. What is the goal here? for some of you the goal seems to be to draft well and however good the actual roster is well whatever forget that but the drafting let i mean last time i checked the goal of a general manager is to build

the best possible roster to give you the best chance to win and so if you miss on some draft picks but you find guys as a sixth rounder that they developed with this coaching staff of metellis an undrafted starter with ivan pace if these guys were draft picks you guys wouldn't have anything to say would you like can bind him okay wasn't their draft pick but they picked him to play that position and they developed him into a really good player or how about you know finding guys like cashman or grunard who were in their primes and on the upswing uh or even you know if it works out for isaiah rogers things like that like there there's been a lot of these uh players that they've been able to find that were either in house or that they have brought in gave murphy the other

day, but it's an undrafted free agent so you don't get any credit. I mean, I don't know. Where do we, where do we draw the line with all this? That's why I don't obsess over this guy was drafted in this round or whatever. Hey, look, for example, if Ben Eurasek turns out to be a good number three tight end and not Gavin Bartholomew, I'm not going to bring a fire quasi sign to TCO performance centers. Like, well, you got to find him somehow. And what they've done with the free agency, you can't say free agency or not, not with this team. not with a team that's brought in superstars through free agency and has become the premier place for free agents to sign and stay like Byron Murphy Jr. Again, does Byron Murphy Jr. not count?

Does that not count? That's a player who was it pretty mid when they got him. Andrew Van Ginkle pretty much unknown when they got him. Grenard had one season when they got him. Cashman had one season when they got him. None of that matters, guys. Because the Andrew Booth Jr. pick and the Brian Osamaa picked in workout. I mean, it just doesn't make any sense. You have to build a winning team somehow. And the Vikings cheat code has been in free agency. It's also been, well, they have a T.J. Hawkinson was a second round pick that they had to trade for him. Is that okay or not? Like, I don't know. And we'll see what happens with Dallas Turner. We'll see what happens with Donovan Jackson. These are guys who will also decide how much you get to come into comment sections and yell at everyone about the 2022 draft, I guess.

uh herm says any elijah williams rips got to tell you herm