Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Vikings draft primer: Mac Jones, playmakers and 14th overall with PFF's Anthony Treash

Episode Date: January 21, 2021

Matthew Coller and PFF Senior College Football analyst Anthony Treash talk about Alabama quarterback Mac Jones and whether he has the raw skills to be considered a first-round quarterback and how to evaluate Alabama players when there are so many great prospects playing alongside each other. Plus Matthew and Anthony do a draft simulation and look at 4 possible players who could be on the board when the Vikings pick. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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with Drizzly or Instacart, Coors Brewing Company, Golden, Colorado, and as always, celebrate! Welcome into another episode of Purple Insider. Matthew Collard here, and joining me from Pro Football Focus is Anthony Tresh. What's up, Anthony? How much? How you doing? Can you tell me, just real quick, before we get into a draft sim, which I am setting up here on the PFF website,

just what this year was like for you covering college football? Because, man, it was weird. It was really, I'll tell you the truth, hard to keep track of. Like, who's playing, who's got COVID, how the bowl games are working. And so for a lot of the season, I was struggling to figure out when the players I wanted to see for draft purposes were going to be on the football field. And then I kind of watched a lot of the, you know, the playoff, which was absolutely, you know, fantastic from the perspective of Alabama, but almost no one else. So I wonder about just, you know, the playoff, which was absolutely, you know, fantastic from the perspective of Alabama, but almost no one else. So I wonder about just, you know, covering this college football season

for you. It had to be weird. Yeah, it was weird and it was a grind. I mean, it seemed like I had a big preview article every week to come out. It was Thursday or Friday. I can't even remember at this point. And it seemed like every single week I'd write up a game, 10 minutes later notification, game's canceled. It happened at least two to three times each and every week I wrote that preview. You know, I loved it. But, yeah, it was hard to keep up with some of, you know, the game cancellations and some of the guys, you know,

you thought they'd play game day, you know, maybe 15 minutes before kickoff, like, oh, they're actually not playing. That's kind of significant. But, yeah was weird i was i was happy i was be able to cover college football and get to watch it um but you know i'm ready for a non-covid impacted season get things back to the norm and a little bit normal so hopefully next year uh we're better off in that regard yeah non-covid everything in this life would be great. And I've mentioned before on the show how much I deeply missed having fans in the stands at US Bank Stadium just because the atmosphere and everything else.

College didn't suffer from that so much. Some of their states were just like, you know, you go, you want to wear a mask, wear a mask. You don't, you don't. Who cares? And maybe that's part of the reason we still have the, that's for a different podcast to cover. So anyway, well, I did want to mention how much, by the way, I was watching the national championship game and thinking like this Alabama player would fit, this Alabama player would fit. I mean, this Alabama roster, I know that this is like the time is a flat circle or something with Alabama and draft prospects.

But I want to know this. Is it ever hard for you when you're watching these guys and sort of just thinking about how they might project in the future to wonder about, like, the level of talent that is around every player? Because even in the NFL where the talent is so much closer it's like if there's a left guard with a great left tackle it'll make that left guard a little better if there's a number two wide receiver with a great number one it'll make that number two a little better with Alabama it's like everybody looks like Superman out there and I think it's really challenging to figure out which guys can play at the next level yeah Yeah, I mean, that's a pretty fair point. You see it, too, a lot with pass rushers.

And, too, I mean, we're going to have a big conversation this year with Mac Jones, the quarterback, because of all this elite talent, which, you know, it's a fair point to make that he was surrounded by, you know, one of the best wide receivers we've come across in the last couple of decades with Devonta Smith, one of the best seasons. Had Jalen Waddell there for the start of the first four games before he fractured his foot and came back for the national championship game, which I really don't know why he did.

But, you know, some of that's kind of involved there. But, you know, with a guy like Mack Jones, I might as well say, I don't think there should be as much of a concern as what I think some people are kind of putting on that. You know, he doesn't have the big arm, doesn't have a cannon like Trevor Lawrence. He can't move like Trey Lance, but he does everything else at the position you'd want if you don't have those physical tools.

So I think that's kind of worth investing on, but besides that point, but yeah, that is a very fair point that, you know, it does make it a little bit tougher with a team like Alabama. I mean, honestly, this Alabama team, I thought LSU's 2019 was the best college team I've ever seen. I think this team may have topped thought LSU's 2019 was the best college team I'd ever seen.

I think this team may have topped it. There's realistically, there could be a scenario where we see seven, maybe even eight Alabama guys get drafted in the first round. I mean, that would be, that's the limit, but there is a real chance that that happens. Kind of reminds you of the old school Miami Hurricanes where you go through that roster and you're like, okay, it's just a bunch of pro bowlers who all played on the same college football team at once. Let's talk about the Mac Jones point before we get into this draft sim, because you've sort of piqued my interest there with your take. I, maybe this is ridiculous. Go ahead and call it ridiculous. But I saw the picture of him without his shirt on after the game. And I was like, nah, nope, I don't think

so. I don't think so. Not in the first round. Not in the first round for a guy who looks like me with a shirt off. And the reason why is not because I'm repulsed by his beer belly. It's that, look, that's what Sean Hill, former Vikings backup looked like. I mean, it's not what the star quarterbacks look like in the NFL. And if you're investing so much in a first round pick where you have to play the guy, this isn't someone who like, oh, let's just develop for a little while and see what happens. I mean, I think there's just a higher athletic threshold for the position than has ever existed before because the Tom Brady that we're going to see on championship weekend, I don't know if there's ever another guy who plays the position like Tom Brady. Yeah. I mean, I saw that too, and it was a little worse than I thought it would be.

He's listed 6'3", 214. It looks like he's a little bit bigger than that. I'm going to be curious to see what happens, you know, over the course of the next few months because, you know, he's going to get peppered with those questions. I mean, that's going to be the number one thing he's asked about just because he's already at a disadvantage with his arm strength, which he can get by with. And we haven't really seen him make, you know,

he's not going to be utilized in the design run game at all at the NFL level. You know, we haven't really, we've seen him kind of do some things off structure a little bit better than Kyle Strask, but it's still not great. Kyle Strask is the quarterback six, Mac Jones quarterback five for us. So, you know, it is a little bit of a concern. I will say once I saw that, I had him not draft actually come out earlier that day, had him as quarterback four, made me kind of question it. I mean, not too much, but it was

kind of like, I mean, that is a little bit of a concern. You know, can you kind of, you know, get down to that playing weight and actually make some plays with your legs from time to time? Well, and even the point about the arm strength and and I mean, Alabama, you are throwing to the openness of the open wide receivers. And I look at some of the quarterbacks who have sort of come up here, and I was always the person who said, hey, accuracy first, pocket presence first, over-athleticism even. I might have to change that around with what I saw from the game this year. I mean, you look even at what teams were scoring per game a couple of years ago and some of the

quarterbacks that were succeeding, and it just feels like it's changed. It feels like pushing the ball down the field and tight window throws and athletic plays are kind of going to have to be the future. And I will say that at least the way that Josh Allen looks right now, I was wrong about Josh Allen because I thought, I don't know how you work around the lack of accuracy. They have. And the same thing with even Justin Herbert, didn't love him coming out. I was like, I don't know. I don't really see it. And then he comes out and is throwing laser beams down the field. And then maybe that just has to be where the focus shifts a little bit. So I wonder if you think that there has to be a shift or if someone like Mac Jones can still be a really good franchise quarterback. And I'll just add on that what I have here in Minnesota that I'm covering all the time is Kirk Cousins, not a great athlete, not an elite arm talent.

But he also is like the peak of what you can be with a guy like that. And I think that influences the way that I'm looking at it. Yeah, I mean, if you're a team like, you know, the Chicago Bears at 20 come to mind, you know, they're in a bad cap situation. You know, they don't have a whole lot of draft capital. They're not getting one of the top four quarterbacks. They're playing, I mean, they're kind of building a team for their jobs next season.

I mean, that's kind of your best bet at this point. It makes sense for teams like that in the middle of the first round, I think even with the positional value. I did kind of think of him top ten. I think he's kind of fringed there. I wouldn't be surprised if, you know, a team like New England, it kind of makes sense there. You know, but, you know, the accuracy thing, like with Josh Allen,

like that was a complete anomaly. I mean, I don't think we will ever see – we will see it again at some point, but I don't think we're going to see it anytime soon. And Justin Herbert, he was very – he had a great rookie season, but I'm not completely sold on him completely just because a lot of that success came under pressure when he was in a clean pocket. I mean, he had a very concerning rate of quarterback faulted completions, whether it was an overthrow, underthrow, putting the ball too far in front or behind. I mean, I was actually pulling some data for an article I have coming out

tomorrow over at pff.com analyzing like the worst quarterback situations in the NFL. And I was referencing some inaccuracies and Justin Herbert was still up there in some uncatchable pass metrics downfield, despite, you know, he had some incredible highlight reel throws that I wasn't expecting this year. I certainly did not. I mean, you look back at his last year at know, he had some incredible highlight reel throws that I wasn't expecting this year. I certainly did not. I mean, you look back at his last year at Oregon, he was nowhere near making those kind of throws in the biggest games they had. So I've been incredibly impressed with him. But I don't think we're going to – I still would put accuracy above that.

I mean, the NFL is shifting to these more athletic guys. That's for sure. And I think that's what my – you know, a guy like Trey Lance, that's what I'm pretty concerned about just because he kind of reminds me of that Josh Allen type of guy where he has all the physical tools you could want. But he is incredibly inaccurate. I mean, we saw that in that one showcase game against Central Arkansas. I mean, he looked great on the ground.

I mean, he was making him look absolutely silly, trying to bring him down in the designed quarterback power game there. But he was incredibly inaccurate that game, and he was all in 2019. So I think that's my big reservation with him. And I would lean still to this day, whether, you know, if it's an inaccurate guy with elite physical tools or a guy with kind of not so great physical tools, but he's pinpoint accurate, then I'd probably go that route. And, like, with a guy like Mac Jones, the playoff was kind of a –

those were kind of bad games to watch just because what Steve Sarkeesian did, I mean, he just put on a clinic. He opened up throws from left to right. That was a game built around, you know, by Steve Sarkeesian and the supporting cast, not so much Mac Jones. He had some good moments in there, but, I mean, the big plays were because of the playmakers. But he still, like, throughout the year, he had incredible tight window throws downfield the ball placement continuously

was great and you know looking back his tight window three is that it is pretty good as expected but i mean you look at a guy like justin fields it's actually half of that i mean justin fields had the lowest tight window three in college football this year so that's kind of i would say that that is one concern with a guy like Justin Fields. And it also is with Matt Jones because it was still favorable. So, I mean, there's a lot of, you know, question marks, you know, with every quarterback prospect in this class, but I still think, you know, that top five, I mean, I wouldn't let them get past pick 20. So it's funny because even when you have great quarterback classes, you know, going into it, like probably only two of these

guys become great and maybe another guy becomes a starter and the other two become terrible. And that's just picking out which ones I think is almost impossible. I mean, in what was it, 2018, I loved Lamar Jackson and thought, I can't believe that he's dropping in the draft here for somebody who's such a special athlete. And I was very down on Josh Allen and more high on Josh Rosen because Josh Rosen had a lot of tight window throws and he had a very bad situation with changing offensive coordinators all the time and I thought that it was sort of funny that everyone said well he's he's too smart you know like well what kind of criticism is that he gets in the game and he's terrified everything's moving

too fast for him you He can't process nothing. And it's just like, nope, this ain't going to work. And it's crazy like that, man. It's crazy to try and figure out who's going to work. We all think that we have some magical power. I had a tweet, by the way, once upon a time saying Pat Mahomes would be the best quarterback in that draft class. Just saying. But I thought Rosen would be good, too. So it feels like you just kind of roll your dice.

I guess you make great points about how, like like maybe Josh Allen is more of an outlier. I guess I'm just thinking about how good defensive lines are and the athleticism or crazy arm strength that you could throw off platform, which some of those guys can, or you have to be insane processing. And, like, how do we know if Mac Jones is insane processing or not? I mean, because I have no idea how that's going to translate. Yeah, and, you know, that's a very good point because, like, I left that out because, you know, you look at like a guy like Matt Jones compared to Kyle Trask and their strength and weaknesses are a little bit similar. You know, you can look at the arm strength and the mobility. Those are the kind of knocks on it,

but I think Matt Jones has a step on him in both, but the big difference between the two is the processing. That's what I think is a differentiator of why Kyle Trask is a day two guy and Matt Jones is a, you know, a first round pick because he has that elite processing and Kyle Trask is a day two guy. And Smack Jones is a first-round pick because he has that elite processing, and Kyle Trask is incredibly slow. That's what killed him in 2019. He kind of had his hand held with Dan Mullen and Brian Johnson down there

in Florida. That kind of helped out a little bit this year. So that's what I'm kind of – I would even go as far as to say Jamie Newman's worth more of a second-round pick than a guy like Kyle Trask is just because there's more risk-reward there. I want to remind you about our friends at SodaStick. If you use the promo code PURPLEINSIDER, you can get free shipping at SodaStick.com

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Original Minnesota sports inspired goods. Code Purple Insider for free shipping. Before we get to the draft sim, I was going to ask you about Newman because he's just a guy I know hardly anything about. He was hyped up a little bit for he was going to transfer to Georgia and thought of as a big arm guy, good athlete. You're going to have to tell me more because I haven't seen any of him play. He didn't play this year, him opting out. This is a whole thing with the draft is this guy opted out, this guy didn't opt out.

How do we know how they would have developed? And it just adds an extra layer of randomness to it. But what is your thought on Newman? Yeah, I mean, this was the opt-out that kind of hit me hard because I really wanted to see him in that Georgia offense. I really thought Georgia, now seeing this Alabama team, I don't think they could have, but I thought they could have contended for the national championship with Jamie Newman back there just because, you know,

Jamie Newman played exceptional in 2019, but in a very, very bad situation. He's in a Wake Forest offense, very up-tempo, RPO-based, just really leaning on his legs. He's a great athlete. He has that mobility you'd want in the NFL, but they leaned a little bit too much on it, and they didn't utilize his arm talent. I mean, it's truly special, and you saw that.

I mean, even, too, going further with the bad situation, he had to throw into, we were talking about these tight window throws, he had to throw into we were talking about these tight window throws he had to throw into a tight window more than anyone in the fbs in 2019 it was somewhere i think it was about half his throws actually and like i said justin fields i think he was around eight or nine percent this season so i mean it was pretty drastic but still he ranked second to only joe burrow in tight window passing grade i mean you look at his accuracy his downfield touch and ball placement he understands you, the wide receivers leverage continuously attacks that. I mean, he had this actually the second or third, one of the two behind Joe Burrow, a deep passing grade,

20 plus yards downfield too in 2019. You know, he was going to this pro style system with Todd Mocken down there at Georgia. We really thought he was going to have a special season this year. Unfortunately, he opted out, which I completely understand, given the situation. Totally respect that. So he's kind of – he couldn't really get that first-round status that we thought he could possibly claim. So he's still hovering there.

He's going to be a day two, second, or third-round pick. But I think he's going to be – he has a chance to be a steal, but I'm not – I wouldn't, you know, put all your eggs into that basket thinking he's going to end up being the guy that pans out. He's just an interesting guy for me to think about for the Vikings because of their contract situation with Kirk Cousins. It's sort of, you know, they can trade Cousins at some point if they want to because he doesn't have a no trade in his contract. He's got huge cap hits coming up and his contract runs out after 2022 so if you were thinking okay you can't spend a first because you have so many other needs on a quarterback unless you're sure that guy is going to take

over for cousins but if you wanted to kind of play it halfway Newman might be your guy in the third round and of course the Vikings as has been mentioned on this show occasionally do not have their second round pick because they traded it for Yanni Kingakwe. So anyway, well, that's an interesting sleeper to kind of look for, for how, and plus, no combine, man. I mean, this is just like going to be the Wild West of draft scouting here, because you're going to have all these pro days and everything else. But Newman has always been the one that's sort of in the back of my mind. Like, could he get into that top five quarterbacks if he has some crazy pro day,

runs a great 40, all those things? I think it's possible, but, you know, I guess. So anyway, let me get to this draft sim. So this draft sim on pff.com, and if you go to just mock draft simulator, it's, I mean, just entertainment for days, Anthony. It never stops here. It's a barrel monkeys. And so of course, this kind of goes the way you'd expect it to. Trevor Lawrencerence at the top justin fields kyle pitts going at three to miami if they don't trade for deshaun watson are you that high on kyle pitts that's crazy no not that high i mean yeah that's some the randomness involved with that you never know what's going to happen on draft day as we as we've seen we have seen some pretty crazy things i I love Kyle Pitts, but I would still lean Jamar Chase.

If you're looking for a receiver, I mean, I'm still going Jamar Chase. Whether you need a tight end, but you're loaded in wide receiver, I don't care. Jamar Chase, Devonta Smith, then Jalen Waddell, then you get Kyle Pitts. I think Kyle Pitts has a chance to be a very special guy in the NFL, but I like those three receivers more. Yeah, I mean, even when you're just drafting anyone, I know that he's not your regular tight end, but at the tight end position, I think you're playing with fire there, drafting him in the very, very top, because unless you have Travis Kelsey, the overall impact of a tight end can be limited in terms of like your wins

above replacement. But Penny Sewell to Atlanta makes a lot of sense. Micah Parsons is an interesting guy. I was talking with my friend Chris Trapasso, who does a draft podcast, and he was thinking about Micah Parsons dropping into the middle of the first round to a point where the Vikings would be interested if they were going to move on from Anthony Barr. And this is another opt-out that makes it kind of difficult on everybody analyzing the draft. Yeah, I mean, I could definitely see kind of a scenario like that happening. I would support that and falling that far. It's not because I don't like Micah Parsons. It's just because the position is really not that valuable to be taken that early, even though he has, you know, he looks like the best off-ball linebacker prospect since Luke Kuechly.

Unless you could guarantee me that he is going to be Luke Kuechly for your defense, I don't think he's worth taking that early. So I would be, I would say more of like, you know, 12, 13, 14, somewhere in that area, you know, like where the Minnesota's picking at 14 would make sense for him. But yeah, I mean, the guy's an absolute freak athletically. The only knock on him really was just kind of lack of kind of ball production and coverage, which, you know, that's kind of, you know,

fluky year to year anyway. But he has, you know, the blitzing prowess, the run defense, the instinctual play to actually be an impact player. So I like Michael Parsons, but not too early given the position. Let me try to give a little just tiptoe up to a hot take about linebackers is like the middle tier of linebackers. Give me that guy or this guy or whatever. It's just not going to make that big of a difference. But that 5% at the very top, Eric Hendricks, Bobby Wagner, if you have those guys,

every team is trying to manipulate linebackers with their offense. And I just watched game after game the last two years of Eric Hendricks reading route combinations behind him, accelerations, stuffing run gaps and everything. And it made such a huge impact. He goes out for a game, and then they give up 52 points to the New Orleans Saints, whose offense maybe not as explosive as we thought watching that game. So I guess I think that, like you said, if it's going to be that very, very upper tier,

I think those guys still have a huge, like, wins above replacement value, but almost nobody else below them. Yeah, yeah, I would agree with that 100%. I mean, that's a good point to make. We get to 14 here. And, I mean, I feel like there would be celebrations inside of the Vikings draft room, just like there were when Justin Jefferson was not picked. Devontae Smith, Quiddie Paye, Rashawn Slater, Gregory Russo, and Christian Barmore

are my best options here for the Vikings. And now, on this show, I've mentioned more than once the value of a great wide receiver to go with Justin Jefferson for the future. But this seems like some great options here. We've got an edge rusher from Michigan who's a beast. Rashawn Slater, the Vikings always need more offensive line. Gregory Rousseau, physical freak defensive end. And Christian Barmore, who was unbelievable in the college football playoff.

Which one are you taking? So you said Devonta Smith was in there, right? Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I would say even though Adam Thielen, Justin Jefferson, they're absolutely great. Some of the highest grade wide receivers this year. You got to go with Devonta Smith. I mean, that would be a three-headed monster.

It's just the positional value at that point. It's not a need. Pass rush is a huge, huge need. But you look at a guy like Quidipe, who, you know, he's perfect for, you know, physical tools. You've been mentioning this. He has those. The athleticism definitely has those. It would just kind of be the pass rush toolbox we're kind of waiting to see. We saw that a little bit this year, but a lot of his productions, and he only played, I think, like four games. A lot of his production came against Indiana Tackles, and Indiana tackles were on Kansas' level bad.

They were a good team this year, but their tackles were absolutely horrendous. So, I mean, you kind of have to throw that tape out. He's still kind of a projection. And Christian Barmore, I mean, like you said, he made himself a lot of money in that college football playoff, a lot of money because he was looking like a talent, the first guy. We were expecting kind of that Quinton Williams-esque rise out of him this year.

Got off to a little bit of a slow start. But he looked like Quinton Williams did when he was at Alabama in the college football playoff. He absolutely abused Notre Dame's offensive line, and that's the best offensive line in college football, you know, outside of Alabama's this year. So, you know, I wouldn't be mad with any of those, but you have to go with Devonta Smith.

I mean, the guy is just hard to pass up where you're picking there at 14, kind of ignoring need there. And just, you know, this is a fan base that kind of is not all in on the idea of drafting a receiver because they're more of a run first type of offense. But I also think this is a franchise that once ran Randy Moss, Chris Carter, and Jake Reed out there, and went 15-1 with Randall Cunningham as their quarterback. Like, you can recreate a three-deep type of situation and lean heavily into the offense, and one of the things that we even see

with championship weekend is, like, look at these teams. Which one of these teams has the number one defense, the 85? Like, nobody nobody what do they all do they throw the ball like crazy effectively and at least some of these teams like the Bills and the Chiefs have all sorts of weapons to do it too and I just thought last year Anthony that when they got in a third and eighth situation they were throwing to their third tight end or something sometimes because teams were just doubling up on Jefferson and Thielen. And if you know the strengths and weaknesses of Kirk Cousins, he won't throw that ball when his guy is doubled.

Give him another weapon. But I also think that Mike Zimmer would probably have his top explode into a million pieces if they drafted a wide receiver with a defense that was 27th in the league. Yeah, I mean, that is a very good point. I don't think Devonta Smith's going to be there, unfortunately, but hypothetically I think that would be the right move. I wouldn't even rule out, did we have Caleb Farley and Patrick Sertango off the board?

Yeah, both of them went off the board, Farley at 11 and Sertango at 10. And this would be one where Vikings fans would lose it because the Vikings love to draft corners. But drafting corners is good. Exactly. And, you know, you don't want to give up on Cameron Dantzler. You know, Cameron Dantzler had two of the best games we saw by rookie corner. Outside of those, it was really bad.

Jeff Gladney, you can't give up on those guys quite yet just because, you know, looking back, our guy, data scientist Timo Riske, he lives out in Germany, actually from there. He had a great data study that I recommend everybody go check out. He looks at when do you expect, how much do you look into rookie performance? You should really look into year two before you start judging players. And it's very like that for defensive backs. It matters most for draft position too when you're trying to project careers after year two so i mean i would yeah it's kind of concerning that they haven't been producing all that well at all remotely close um but not to give up on it but

you still have to keep throwing darts because that's the position that matters the most on the defense that's how you're going to make your cheddar and kind of become you know go from a liability to something that's not you you know, bad at all. You don't have to have an elite defense, but you just have to make sure you can cover. You know, that's the biggest thing. And so you keep throwing darts. And I think after Caleb Farley and Patrick Chautain, this secondary class is just really, really bad. So if you're going to throw some darts, throw them early

because I don't think you're going to find too many gems late in the rounds. All right, everybody, the Super Bowl is coming up, and sure, we'll all be watching the game, but the best way to celebrate the biggest thing in football is to bet on the game. And we want to let you know about a great resource for sports bettors, the Action Network. The Action Network is where fans go to bet smarter and experience real financial gains. In fact, their Action Network app was recently named the best app in sports betting. And with an Action Network Pro subscription, you can unlock the very best of the app.

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I mean, Bruce Smith does not exist there. I mean, even Lorenzo Alexander for his one amazing year, like they don't have that guy. Jerry Hughes is okay. Everybody else is just a guy, but their secondary is fantastic. And they were a mid-pack team that when kind of push comes to shove in the playoffs, they've been pretty good when it comes to their coverage. I think that's what the Vikings could do because I just don't see like, oh, just draft this guy. And all of a sudden your pass rush is top 10. You have way too far to go. Christian Barmore isn't doing that by himself. I mean, you need like game changing players over years that are developed or signed. I don't think it's a snap

your fingers, but you can get to that point with a secondary when you already have Harrison Smith and two young corners that you're rising on. But give me what we should take away. If teams are drafting and they're looking at the most successful four teams and they're saying, you know what, we should draft this way because of blank, what would it be? I mean, it's, you know, you look at, it's not even drafting so much, but like look what the Tampa Bay Buccaneers have done. I mean, of course they brought in Tom Brady,

but they're attacking the receiver position significantly um you've seen Scotty Scotty Miller make some plays that was kind of a steal back in 2019 Tyler Johnson you know he had that great catch on this past weekend he's made some plays this year too you know Chris Godwin Mike Evans keep going and going going you know they kind of struggled early on with some jobs but they've been picking up getting on communication communication. It's just attacking the positions that really matter. Like I said, secondary, receiver, and quarterback. Those are the three most important positions on the field. It's the three most valuable positions on the field. That's what you really have to attack. You could see it with all three of them, like

at Buffalo with Stephon Diggs. They acquired him via trade. It's been a huge game changer for their offense. Tyreek Hill is the absolute cheat code for the Kansas City Chiefs, along with Travis Kelsey. And then with the Green Bay Packers, you have Devontae Adams as one of the filthiest route runners in the game, an incredible release package. I mean, him and Aaron Rodgers, that is almost an unfair duo.

I mean, that's why those teams are in the championship games this weekend. It's not because Rashawn Gary has just blown up the last three games for the Green Bay Packers. It has nothing to do with that. It has nothing to do, you know, with, you know, Devin White blitzing for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers or whatever it is. You know, it has to do with, you know, the most important positions on the field, and that's quarterback, receiver, and quarterback. And that's what you kind of have to address, especially that's very important, you know, not to commit yourself to need, you know, drafting for need early on. And I think a lot of Vikings fans would say that also you notice that some of

these quarterbacks have better pass protection than the Vikings have had in the last few years. So let me end on this. Slater, Rashawn Slater from Northwestern was the only guy that was in the section that I could have drafted in my draft sim. Is there someone that is not named Penesul who's worth taking in the middle of the first round as an offensive lineman? This is a question that every Vikings fan is desperate to hear your answer on, Anthony.

Yeah, you know, this draft is very, very interesting. I think there's three positions that are absolutely loaded and better than most classes that you'll see. Quarterback, wide receiver, and tackled. Every other position is very, very bad. I mean, you're going to be – they're very scarce. You're not going to get a whole lot of great value after the first round. But a tackle, you know, I wouldn't be – I would be okay with Rastan Slater,

Krishna Derriss, Paul Tevin Jenkins, or Samuel Cosme being the second tackle off the board. I'd be fine with any of those. And one of them is going to follow the second round. It's inevitable. And so there's going to be a team that's going to get good value in the second round. So, I mean, Vinny Sewell is the clear-cut best.

You know, he's going top five, should go top five. But after that, you know, any of that bunch is going to be, you know, you're going to get pretty good value. Are you suggesting that trading away a second-round pick for a guy who's basically a situational rusher type of talent on a defense that had a lot of, a lot of, a lot of holes was maybe not the best long-term player. Are you, are you hinting at that?

Yeah. I mean, yeah, I'll say it straight up. Yeah, that was, it was not a good decision at all. No,

it wasn't at the time. Still isn't now. No, the second, the recent second rounders for the Vikings. I mean, Irv Smith, good player,

Brian O'Neill, guy that they're going to pay. Who's really very, very good. Delvin cook. If you're going to draft a second round running back, have him be second in the NFL in rushing, and that's the pick you trade away. Not great, not great.

Well, what is great is your coverage at PFF. I'm sorry to laugh at this, but the senior analysts, you and I do have the same issue of not being able to grow facial hair yet, but I think that's because you're of your age. But you are the senior college football analyst for Pro Football Focus. You honestly do terrific work. Love when I hear you on the podcasts. So I hope we can get together and do this again during draft season.

I really enjoyed it, man. Yeah, thank you for the kind words and thanks for having me. I'm still working on the beard, hopefully. It's never going to happen. Hopefully in a few years. I know my, my friend, the tree is,

look at this. This is, this is several days, not shaving. Yeah. I'm the same way. My family tree, I look at everyone else and I'm like,

Oh, so you had to wait till you're 30. It's like, I got a few years yet. So probably not, but that's all right. That's all right. Uh,

focus on football and not facial hair. So we'll, uh, that's words to live by. We'll do it again soon, man. Thanks. Thank you.