Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Vikings draft targets: Quarterbacks and cornerbacks

Episode Date: April 21, 2023

Matthew Coller is joined by Minnesota content creator Marcus Whitman, who runs the That Franchise Guy YouTube channel. They talk about the quarterbacks and cornerbacks in the NFL draft and give takes on Trey Lance and Bijan Robinson. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hello and welcome to another episode of Purple Insider, Matthew Collar here and joining me on the show, someone's channel who I have just been directed to and now really like, and I'm a fan and subscriber of, that franchise guy, Marcus Whitman, a Minnesota content creator around the NFL and NFL draft. And Eric Eager and Thomas Dimitroff were on your show, Marcus, which is how I found you. And you do tremendous work. So I thought, you know what, we need to get together and talk some drafts. So what is up, man? How are you? Well, thank you for having me on, Matthew. I'm looking forward to it. I would love to hear a little bit before we get into it, just about your channel,

like what inspired you to start it, how long you've been doing it. Because you could kind of tell, you know this as a YouTuber, you could tell instantly if someone knows what they're doing as far as creating YouTube content, analyzing football and so forth. And I really appreciate that you get good guests on your show and do some really interesting things with film, breaking down prospects and stuff. So what's kind of the background of the channel? Yeah, so I actually just started it as a little pet project back in 2016. I was a St. Thomas grad. I'm sure there's a lot of UST grads listening to the show, so shout out, you know, roll Toms. But yeah, I started as a little pet project. I was actually initially a Madden channel. I was changing the ratings, the in-game ratings I always disagreed with and felt like I could do it better myself. So I would change the ratings. And then I just started kind of making videos on YouTube and talking about why I was making

the changes that I was making. And that turned into position rankings, draft talk, mock drafts, you name it. And over time, I just, you know, starting to make money from it. It was growing. People enjoyed it. And as as about two years ago there's no more madden stuff on the channel it's all just you know full circle uh nfl content 365 yeah and uh it's really good how far back do you go with madden because i have

if people are watching on the uh video stream right here with me that's Madden 2000 and so I still have all of the old Maddens with me I play them occasionally little Dreamcast 2k so how far do you go back as a gamer I go back I mean I go way back as a gamer but uh you know it's funny up until like eighth grade I didn't play football my dad was always worried that I wasn't going to be a football fan and he wouldn't be able to enjoy Sundays with me and I was always always out just, you know, either sledding out in the yard or playing, playing the PlayStation crash bandicoot or Jack and Daxter, something like that. But once I started playing like eighth grade, I, I started to pick up NCAA and Madden. So I would say like Madden, the one with, uh, I think it was Madden 10 with Troy Polamalu and Larry on the, on the

cover was my first Madden. So not, not quite old enough. When did they stop doing, by the way, I don't know if you're aware of this, but they had in like the old four through maybe Oh six, they had the, the training camp activities. And this was one of my favorite parts. We talk about this on the show sometimes about how there are football fans and we all benefit from this, uh, that like the off season more than the regular season. And that is not a criticism. That's just a observation. And so I would simulate seasons and then go and do all the training camp stuff and improve all the players, try to draft players in the fifth round who had 97 speed and make them into stars. And once that disappeared, they kind of lost me. Like the gameplay is fine and everything, but I loved all that offseason activity stuff.

And now they want me to do like game plans before games. It's too complicated. I don't care. But that was my favorite part. I feel like the game has kind of drifted too far away from that. Oh, believe me. You're preaching to the choir here. That was a big reason why I stopped making Madden content was it was just such a grind. The game

wasn't changing enough. Just spent too much time complaining about features not getting added. And I just, yeah, I'm happy to have that part of my career behind me but you are you are right they the game used to be better for us are us hardcore football fans than it is now it's it's getting a little bit better I would say but still not where it could be it's yeah it's tough I mean it's this incredible game and when I was growing up with Super Nintendo like you couldn't even get the players to be different sizes for Super Play Action Football and now here we are complaining, but they have made it too convoluted and got rid of some of the stuff that was maybe the best things. But obviously you're not here to break down Madden because we have NFL draft things to discuss. So I'll give you a dealer's choice here.

Would you rather talk about quarterbacks? The Vikings probably won't draft or cornerbacks. The Vikings probably will draft. Which one would you rather talk about quarterbacks the Vikings probably won't draft or cornerbacks the Vikings probably will draft? Which one would you rather start with? Let's start with the quarterbacks. Okay. So unless there's some shocking drop of C.J. Stroud or Bryce Young looks like he's going number one, we're only really talking about three guys for the Vikings

that could potentially go at 23. Even when a trade up scenario is discussed, it seems so preposterous that they would trade three firsts and seconds in the future and something to get to Arizona's pick. So unless we think Anthony Richardson is going to drop, I guess we can have that discussion, but I don't think there's much chance of that. Then it kind of comes down to Will Levis, Hendon Hooker. Do you think there is any chance though, that there's a total shock that the mock community is completely off on CJ Stroud or on Anthony

Richardson? I think Bryce Young is just going number one, but is there any chance that that should even be any type of discussion for the Vikings? You know, I think, I think Richardson is, is going to be a little bit more of an acquired taste. So if he gets past a couple of those teams that, that did like them, but then just decided not to ultimately pull the trigger on them, maybe he's sitting there like nine or 10 and you can make a move up for him. Stroud. Ioud, I have a really hard time picturing it. If it was me drafting, it might be possible. I like Stroud, but I could see passing on him just because I don't see him as quite the highest upside guy in the world.

But I do feel like Stroud is probably not in play. Richardson, you were quoting Dumb and Dumber to me before we started, so I'll throw him back at you. You're telling me there's a chance, maybe 2% or 3% that Richardson could be that sort of Giants-Bears trade up from 20 to 10 or whatever it was. Maybe, but probably not. Yeah, I feel the same way that you could go back historically and you could look at some trades up. But I also think about what San Francisco gave up to get Trey Lance and the Vikings have to go much farther to get up into that conversation. So unless and look at all the teams that have a really good case for drafting Anthony Richardson. How about Seattle? They're

not locked into Geno Smith for life. He's even on the older side. He's been around for a long time. And last year is kind of an outlier season. So you can't really, and even the second half of his season was unspectacular. You can't really make that your franchise quarterback. So they have a case for it. Vegas has a case for it with Jimmy Garoppolo being a short-term solution. I mean, you could just go through the teams. Yeah. Detroit, Detroit, Atlanta. Atlanta, are you serious with Desmond Ritter? Probably not.

You're more like, that's the guy we got, and we're hoping for something to happen. So as we get into that, though, it just seems so pie in the sky that we haven't really discussed it. And maybe Kweisi will completely shock us, but who knows? I don't really see it. So then we're having the conversation about Will Levis and Hendon Hooker are really the only other two that are even in this discussion. Are you a Will Levis enjoyer?

This show has not featured many Will Levis enjoyers. I don't know if you're one or not, but it seems like people are actually getting more and more down as the days go on on Will Levis. Maybe it's because he keeps making videos of eating weird things. I don't know. Yeah, I mean, the edibles for him are very interesting. But I am actually a little bit of a Will Levis defender. I've always been someone that really likes to put a lot of thought into the surrounding cast of a quarterback and what is truly possible for him to do on a play-to-play basis. And when you look at what he had at Kentucky, it was a complete unmitigated disaster between both the O-line, which was genuinely the hardest O-line, the worst

O-line, the hardest O-line to watch that I've seen in a long time. And I think that aspect is actually going to help him when he gets to the next level. All these guys are going to get to the NFL and they're going to have to speed up their processors. I think this is something that Zach Wilson in New York has really struggled with is he had all that time to throw up BYU and with Levis, he's going to be like, oh, wow, I can like set my feet and get to my second progression and like read this thing out. It's going to be night and day there. And I think that could be a big surprise for a lot of people is that I actually felt like he was pretty good getting through his progressions and

making NFL reads. He ran an NFL offense really, you know, he has his inaccuracies, but really sharp over the middle of the field, the kind of, you know, play action, snap your head around, hit a deep dig right over the middle of the field, the kind of play action, snap your head around, hit a deep dig right over the head of the linebacker. He had some really nice NFL throws in there. He didn't make as many stupid mistakes as I expected to find based on the way people talk about him. I think a quarter of his turnover where he plays came in the one game against Tennessee where he's coming, he's down four scores, just trying to make something happen in this complete disaster performance. So I expected

him to be, you know, not seeing safeties left and right, forcing stupid balls all year. And it just really wasn't true. Uh, I think the accuracy when he's throwing deep outside the numbers is a little bit inconsistent. And when you look at his pocket presence, he stands tall in the face of pressure, but it's almost to a fault where like, he's not seeing escape lanes. He's not seeing backside blitzers that are coming through. He's not as creative as a quarterback as maybe you'd like him to be for all those reasons. I actually see Stroud a little bit more of a high floor, lower upside guy than other people. And that's just not really what you hear out there. And I get that, but I think he's going to step in, be able to run the show. And, uh, you know, some of the

inaccuracy stuff will be a hold back and there's going to be some of those, uh, lack of playmaking opportunities as well. But I think he's going to be a solid NFL quarterback. I really do. And he would be worth worth it to move up in my opinion for for the Vikings if he's there 9 or 10, 11, wherever that may be. So I was reading just a bunch of different opinions on him. And one of them, I think, put it really well is they said he's like Carson Wentz for better or worse. And it's easy to forget that Carson Wentz did play good NFL football for like three years. And then I think the injuries caught up with him and maybe people also did not like him. And I don't know if Will Levis is likable or not.

I cannot judge that based on him eating a whole banana without taking off the peel. I wouldn't like someone who did that, but maybe he's cool. So what's, what is worse? Is it the banana? Is it the whole banana or is it the mayo coffee? What's, what's worse? Oh, I think it's the whole banana. That one the mayo coffee what's what's worse oh uh i think it's the whole banana that one really horrified me i mean uh well that mayo and coffee is pretty weird um i'm usually an okay person with kind of weird combinations if you put like diet pepsi and milk together it actually tastes weirdly good so yeah i'm okay i'm okay with some strange stuff

like that but eating the whole banana peel God did not make that there for that. No, he made that to be peeled. So that is just wrong. It's just going against science. Yeah, anyway, but certainly that is a red flag. What's interesting to me, so I watched just a little bit of Will Levis because I've never really considered it a Viking option,

although maybe I'll be surprised. People are mocking him to fall, at least some legitimate, if there's such a thing as a legitimate mock drafter maybe I'll be surprised. People are mocking him to fall, at least some legitimate, if there's such a thing as a legitimate mock drafter, I don't know. But you know what I mean. I've seen enough of him falling to have gone back and watched some. The one thing that a little bit concerns me is when we talk about toughness for a quarterback in college, a lot of times it's like,

did this dude get whooped and then just keep grinding and he was clearly playing through some injuries and things like that but also getting whooped all the time is bad and i you're a hundred percent right the offensive line is a disaster when they played jalen carter it was the funniest thing you've ever seen because he was just throwing them if you ever seen like mascots play against little kid highlights, that's what it looked like. He was the grown man mascot, just throwing children. And then, you know, getting after Will Levis. Still though, it always concerns me when someone is taking a ton of hits.

Because you mentioned that pocket presence, that creativity, that how do you avoid some of those? How do you escape and make plays? And I saw him just getting hit a lot. And I think that that is, it's like, that's where the Jake Locker comp or even Carson Wentz does that same thing where he has the athleticism to move and make a play, but instead he'll just kind of stand it. Yeah. I think the one encouraging sign there is his time to throw is very low. I believe it's the low hooker might

be lower. But of the other top four, I believe his is the lowest. And it was because he had to get rid of the ball. And I think the majority of those hits he did take were just bad offensive line situations. But I do agree with what you're saying. Like you don't want to. That has been a big deal with Carson Wentz is he has left himself susceptible to hits. But I, just from his play style, that wasn't really something that, that popped in into my mind. Yeah. I think it's in a way like just an elusiveness that you don't really see. And, and I know like my homes is just whatever, but that's one of the things with him is most of the

time he does get rid of the ball quickly, but he doesn't have to then he will extend extend and there's not really an extending of plays an elusiveness away from rushers or creativity there but if you're the vikings though i mean there's there's just this back and forth between whoever is a perfect prospect almost nobody that ever caught what trevor lawrence and even he had some struggles in his first year so nobody's going to be a perfect prospect when you're drafting at 23 but does the guy have things that he does well enough to fit and that you can resolve and for Will Levis I can make a case either way I think accuracy would really make Kevin O'Connell nervous in part because the reason Kevin O'Connell failed as an NFL quarterback was he was inaccurate. He's an incredible athlete.

Couldn't throw the ball accurately. That would concern him. He's like, that's me. That's why I failed. But I also think that the tight window throws, the arm strength, and the guy wins a Super Bowl with Matt Stafford. You're kind of like, can I put these dots together? And I know Stafford's like a much better prospect, number one overall. That is my high-end comp for Will Evans, by the way end comp for Matthew Stafford. Yeah. So what do you, so what do you think? Like

should, should they like him? Should they like him? I do. I really do. I think he's a great scheme fit with a lot of the play action stuff I talked about. That's when he's at his best. It's a good situation where he's not forced to start right away. I think just sitting for a year is good for any quarterback, no matter what type of prospect they are. And I really think it'd be a good home for him. Obviously you got, you got Justin Jefferson to kind of soothe that, that process along as well. You always want to put that help around them. I really would like the move, Matthew. I really would. All right. Well, let's talk about Hendon Hooker. Again,

the show has featured a handful of Hendon Hookerer opinions let's say all the time a lot because everyone mcshay and feldman and everybody all the big names have put the vikings in with hendon hooker and i feel similarly about him as i do will levis where you can talk me into it and you can talk me right back out of it if you want sorry i'm like the abe simpson gif of this thing where it's like i come in and i'm like okay i'm into this and then someone says do you know how old he is he remembers madden 92 like okay and now i'm out i mean i i've had a lot of trouble with this when i watch hennon hooker i don't see anyone ever covered i wish i had played for tennessee because I feel like as long as anyone could throw the ball 25 to 30 yards of the air, it would be to a wide open wide receiver who ran

it for a touchdown. Yeah, you're spot on. They run that kind of stack spread offense and free releases. They did a really good job protecting them. I swear I would love to get a Tennessee playbook in my hands because I think it might be like two or three pages long because there's I only remember them running like 15 plays and I'm sure it's more than that. But that's what it feels like when you watch him. So he he had that system down to a tee, but you can't just do that every snap in the NFL. Not only are the athletes better on defense and the coordinators are smarter but the hash the hash marks are closer so you can't spread things out like that so or the hash marks are are yeah they're further away yeah they're wider right yeah yeah yep so he's gonna

have to you know learn an NFL offense and I think he showed the like I said I believe he of the five did have the lowest time to throw. And that's a good indicator that they're sharp. They're, they're recognizing things post snap. Um, I, I think the, the accuracy deep is really good for him. It dropped off over the middle of the field. So if you want to talk scheme fit for the bikes where they are more of that middle of the field, Shanahan system, I think you might have some concerns there, honestly. Uh, especially cause he is a, he's going to be 26 years old by the time Shanahan system. I think you might have some concerns there, honestly, especially cause he is a,

he's going to be 26 years old by the time he's playing. So I don't know if that's going to improve a ton, but I would, I would despise the pick in the first round. Absolutely. Obliterate the Vikings for it. I don't think they're going to do it because I just don't know how you justify it for the reason you mentioned with the scheme it's gonna be a transition it's

hard to know what to do with it he's coming off an ACL and in the Vikings case that doesn't hurt quite as bad because he's gonna be sitting behind Kirk anyway but for a lot of other teams like he's not gonna be able to come in and compete for that starting job right away because he's not going to be ready to throw football until like you know maybe late august uh or or uh late july so like right when camp is just starting and like i said he's 26 years old so it's like by the time you get to a second contract he's already 30 years old i just think it's crazy that he would be in first round conversations to me he's he's very similar to that whole cluster of quarterbacks from last year's class with Willis and Ritter and and and Corral and it's like if you're gonna spend a first on hooker why don't you just call the Panthers

about Matt Corral or the Titans about Malik Willis and throw a fourth round pick at it I just it just really does not make sense to me. Yeah, I feel kind of the same way. I think the NFL.com comp was Desmond Ritter. I don't know that Desmond Ritter was as accurate throwing down the field, but I kind of feel the same about them also in the way that if we talk about a quarterback being mobile, he better be really mobile to be in the NFL for that to make any difference. And this was another guy. I was kind of talking about that with Will Levis. There was not an elusiveness in the pocket, a pocket. This dude just took sacks.

And that's really concerning. And when he got pressured, it was really bad. And this kind of reminds me of Ritter where everyone loved all the draft analysts loved. Oh, look at him, hit the back foot, let it go. Anything went wrong. He was kind of a disaster. And then he ran a four, four or something. And like, where was that on a tape?

Yeah. I didn't see that at all. It's like Josh McCown who ran a four or five or something, but you never saw it. He literally did. Yeah. He's Josh McCown has one of the highest athletic scores from the combine of any quarterback. You would never know it. just in the patriots try him at wide receiver

or something was that a thing he had a catch as a slot receiver for the lions yes that actually did happen um but uh maybe the best draft pick or the best uh you know you know that whole era of them drafting wide receivers that busted maybe mccown was actually better than whatever yeah he just didn't get his fair crack mike williams or whatever yeah that was it but yeah i mean like it doesn't mean much that you're a good athlete if you don't use it i don't see him really using it but here's the one thing i could see the vikings talking themselves into i can also scheme people open because i have justin jeff Jefferson and I'm a genius wizard man like NFL coaches do have that to their game oh he was making open throws well he's going to make open throws for us as well I don't like that logic all that much but I also think I could see an NFL

former quarterback being like I can scheme these guys open and this guy is accurate and also I think that matters a lot what we've heard about the reports of him on the whiteboard and remembering offenses, recall all that stuff. I think he's a better draft pick than someone like Kellen Mond, where there was just nothing there at all. But I agree with you that I don't think there was that there's so much more that this, that this late hype for him is actually going to come to fruition yeah and i mean if it does it's like the way you talk yourself into it is you know as the vikings we've been looking for this you know way to bridge out of kurt cousins he could be you know you get three

years of hooker and you know treat him as a bridge as a guy that can kind of maybe like i think he it's there's a world where he can reach like a Kirk cousins level be like, you know, the what's the number that's going to get the Vikings fans mad at me. If I, if I'm ranking Kirk here, like anything below 10. I mean, I think, I think it's well, it's pretty much well-recognized that anywhere in a given season from eight to about 14, depending on how the year goes. Yeah, exactly. So like, that's an absolute best case scenario, but then you're just right back where you were with him at 30 years old, like with the same problem. So if you're like committing to like, we are not giving him a contract extension. This is a, a loosen up the

salary cap, get Kirk out of here, and we will spend these next three years trying to find out who that great quarterback could be for us. That's kind of how you talk yourself into it in a bad draft class, but it's like still 23 is way too rich for that player. Second round, sure. Yeah, I agree. And if they only had a second round pick, which they don't.

But to me, that's just too risky to go for an older player. The ACL thing doesn't mean a lot to me. It's more, his pocket, you know, how he throws from the pocket can get better, but he has a lot of things you can't teach the hallucinate. Like you can talk yourself into even CJ Stroud, where at the end of the year against Georgia Stroud actually used his legs and his creativity a little. And you go, I see it. Anthony Richardson. It's so easy to see.

Well, this guy has ceiling on, you know, just it's unlimited with hooker. Like that is what you're getting that's it what you saw weaknesses strengths it's probably not going to change i don't think that they'll do it either now uh real quick before we talk about corners because i think they're much more likely than quarterback uh do you like the trey lance idea because this would be um let's see 700 straight days of someone asking me about Trey Lance to the Vikings. And boy, Ian Rappaport just lighting that on fire over the last 24 hours. So Trey Lance to Vikings. Love, hate, how do you feel?

Love it. Love it. I mean, it is complicated because, like you said, you don't have that second round pick. So how do you make it work? If I'm the Niners, I'm not trading them for a future second round pick. It just wouldn't make any sense. You don't know if Purdy is going to be able to play for you. I got Sam Darnold there. You spent all those picks on him. He's played like three games. So to me, it's like, I need the Vikings first round pick. I need the Texans 33rd pick. I need something about the equivalent value of a first round pick. That's going to help me this year as they're trying to win a Superbowl, if they're going to really

justify this thing. So for me, I do think it would cost the 23rd pick. Uh, and I tweet, I actually tweeted that out earlier this morning. I said, uh, I would do that if I were the Vikings, but I completely understand the hesitation because he hasn't played, but you're bringing him home. Went to Marshall, still 23 years old. I was up and down with him as a prospect, but he is incredibly talented, and he would get a year to develop behind Kirk. I think it would be a good investment for a team that, like we've been talking about,

they're not picking up at the top of these drafts. It's going to be tough to find the perfect option. You're going to have to risk and take some gambles to make this thing happen. And I would certainly be excited if they pulled the trigger on that. You know, it's interesting to think about. And of course, giving up the first round pick is hard because there's a lot of holes on the roster. Is that with, say,osh rosen for example someone drafted josh rosen and then spun him for a second round pick and then someone else acquired josh

rosen for a second round pick and they didn't like him and they just drafted someone else because he was bad like there is a scenario here where one of the things we talk about all the time is escaping the middle which as you know as one of us as a minnesotan your whole life they've just been in the middle outside of that far of time but aside from that right and the and the random case keenum it's always 10 and 6 it's 9 and 7 or whatever and with trey lance i think you get to escape the middle because he's either going to be awesome or he's going to be horrible and either one of those is actually better for you because if you trade for him and move Kirk after June 1st or something,

if you went real radical and just went all in on this idea, well, you're probably drafting high in 2024 if he's bad and you're probably winning a lot if he's good and feel like you have your franchise quarterback. There are only a few things that kind of get in the way of this idea for me. One of them is why is San Francisco trading him after having him there and him being young?

And hey, Brock Purdy is like played five games like that. That has to make you hesitant that that Kyle Shanahan is getting rid of a quarterback. I don't know if I really like that. The other thing is that they've already burned a couple of years of his rookie contract. That kind of hurts as well, because if, I mean, if they trade away Kirk, it doesn't hurt as bad on the salary cap, but if they let it play out and Lance was like Kirk's backup for next year, if they couldn't trade Kirk, I mean, you're talking about a year or two, maybe at best, then you're in like a Jordan love situation where you don't get to

take advantage of that. That would concern me a lot. Yeah, I definitely agree with those points. And that, that would be the other Avenue that I, I definitely agree at those points. And that, that would be the other Avenue that I almost kind of prefer what you said, where it's like, get out of the middle and maybe you can compensate some of that value. Can you get a second round pick from, you know, maybe Houston passes on a quarterback at two and they want, uh, they want a rental of Kirk cousins. Can you get, can you get a second or an early, you know, their, their, you know, third rounder, which is basically a second. Can you get that second or an early third rounder, which is basically a second? Can you get that back for Kirk, spend the first on Trey,

and you're doing a little bit of a pick-swap type of deal? I like that idea. If he sucks, he sucks. You've got a great quarterback class coming in next year. So, yeah, you've kind of talked me into it, honestly, that if you're going to go that route, let's just find out and not mess around with another year of Kirk. And of course, there's always the blazing hot Kirk for Trey Lance. And that would that would be.

And it's just funny because people have just brought this up in Minnesota for so long that if it actually happened, it would just be the funniest. Like all these years, I've just been saying, I don't know, guys, I don't know why either side would do that. And I, whatever. I think the Kirk and Shanahan love is overstated. And now it sounds like there was like legit conversation with the Vikings about actually doing that trade. Yeah. Yeah. You could see that too. You really could. You know, they go way back to Washington back in like 2014,

as I'm sure you've, you've made that point plenty of times. I don't want to count out anything. Let's talk about the more realistic thing, which is that nothing happens with the quarterback and they draft a cornerback. Now, it seems like everyone's mock has the same couple of guys at the top and then there's, but maybe the Vikings could get this guy. How does your order look like? Who would be that person? The Witherspoon, the Gonzalez, the Porter junior. Is there a person in that group that you could see as the most likely to slide into that range where the Vikings are? Yeah, I think there's, there's kind of a best case scenario just from the way I evaluate these guys. But,

you know, Deontay Banks is where I'm going with this I've I love Deontay Banks I've got him at um three right now but literally like neck and neck with Christian Gonzalez I love I love everything about him not just the athletic profile I knew he was going to test well but I didn't even know he was going to test that well man to man he's super physical you know Flores is going to want someone that can do that as a baseline but he was like one of the smartest looking zone corners I've seen in years honestly just the way he communicated passing off coverages there's times where you know the safety's kind of throwing his hands up and mid play Banks is like you know adamantly like you go and that you would see the safety latch on to the guy it's like he just has this understanding back there processes information

really well the only knock on him is like when he's when he just has this understanding back there processes information really well the only knock on him is like when he's when he's running down the sideline he's really bad at getting his head around and be a little grabby in those situations you didn't see a ton of interceptions for that reason whether that's coachable or not i don't know but if that's your only problem that's it's not the worst thing in the world so like i'm super high on him i know a lot of people are as well and i i don't know that he'll be there, but I think of the four, he's the one that's probably possible the board very early but um that to me is is where i'm when i'm making my mock drafts i'm consistently asking myself how can i make this happen for the vikings to get one of these four guys specifically just knowing what flores did in miami put such a

priority at that position you look at the roster they desperately need someone that can follow a number one guy around regardless of matchup and make it happen and I like Byron Murphy but he's a physically limited player if you're going against the Devante Adams of the world the Stefan Diggs of the world these these amazing height weight speed and incredible route runners Murphy's not gonna be able to keep up with those guys and and maybe that's Booth but I wouldn't count on it. I wouldn't count on him staying healthy. So just with the need and where this class is at, it's obviously a huge deal. Now, there is another guy that I really like for the Vikings that I could see happening

and might be one of those guys that's like, they took who in the first round? It would be Tyreek Stevenson out of Miami. Huge fan of his game. He's actually my fifth corner, and he's a tier behind that top four for sure. But if you're looking for that day one press man guy, he would fit the mold. He's really just rock solid guys, 6'1", 200 pounds, tested well, great technique. Got to see him down at the Senior Bowl. Just looks like the best corner of that group. Uh, so he's a guy that like, maybe you can move down a little bit as we know they like to do. And if you can't and you feel like you've

got to get a corner, you know, I'm totally fine with, with him at that spot. I actually have a first to a second round grade on, on Stevenson. So. Yeah. The, uh, back to Deontay Banks, where it's really interesting to me is, uh, his athletic profile just being through the roof. And I think that position specifically, if you go anywhere else, other than I'm sure you've seen relative athletic scores and things like that, anything less than somebody that's like that 90th percentile or above at the corner you just know there's going to be limitations unless there's you know Richard Sherman's always going to get brought up but that is such a unique case that almost never happens so don't even bother at that point just get someone in the second get someone in free agency if you're looking for someone who's going to be your elite your xavier rhodes the guy better be a freak athlete or he's just going to have almost no chance i also think too that that intelligence part is still we've kind of talked

about man coverage and how much brian flores is going to do it but he's going to do it like 60 percent of the time it's not gonna do it 100 of the time and teams are using you know condensed splits and motions and all these things i think cornerback has become more of a high intelligence position than maybe ever before in history where a lot of times it was hey you go lock onto that guy or if you're really smart we could play zone with you a lot i think now every single guy has to have incredible uh film study recall like understanding of route combinations communication because nobody can just be like islanding a dude the teams are working way too hard to get these elite receivers like the vikings do off of those island corners so that

that kind of intrigues me about banks stevenson is much more probably a trade down guy uh porter jr gets brought up a lot as potential for the vikings do you like him do you like that idea i like his wingspan it's absurd he could like dunk a basketball standing straight up yeah i i could definitely see porter as well i just i just don't know quite how realistic it is for for him to be there but there's definitely a lot of similarities like what flores had in Xavier and Howard with that, that big, big corner that even if he doesn't have the most ridiculous long speed and

he ran well, he, uh, what did he end up at? Like four, four or four, three, eight,

I think was, was his time. Is that right? Four, four, six at the combine. So, so yeah,

pretty good, but nothing crazy. Um, he's just so good at like, you know, banging with receivers down the field and using that length to constantly slow these guys down, where Zayden Howard, I think, was a 4-5-8 guy. But you're never going to hit top speed when he's covering you

because he's kind of sliding that hand in your hip pocket and making sure you can't accelerate past him. And you definitely see that with Porter. Now, he got flagged a ton. I think he got flagged like nine times in his last year. So he's a grabby dude, but a smart player, another guy that you could, you can go both ways, man zone and, and would, would, yeah, if you, like I said, if you can get any of these top four guys,

you are popping champagne in the war room for the bikes. It's funny. Cause I remember Mike Zimmer just talking a lot about how every single corner is grabby in college because they let you be. And it's a thing that they worked really hard to untrain. I did a story about this once of like how they try to train players to not get past interferences and the tricks of the trade. But it's really hard to do when they come into the league because they're allowed to

be so physical throughout the route in college. And man, if they weren't, every game would be like 70 to 70. You know, it can be sometimes anyway, but they would just run away from these corners. But that's it. So I kind of look at that and I read every scouting report of the corners and every single one says, well, he gets too grabby, gets too grabby. So I kind of dismiss that point. To to me it's just kind of the fit with a guy who's going to have to play a lot of man coverage and then you kind of go from there can he press up on a top receiver and things like that because i know that florist is going to want that an aggressive a smart player i but let me let me get your opinion on this though if they draft a

corner at 23 i think we all go like okay and there will be folk who show up in the live streams in the chats and in the comments who are like did we seriously just draft a corner again like what are we doing here like we just keep drafting corners and they keep not mattering and things like that i i don't i haven't figured out a good answer for that because you need a corner there's really no other way around it. And I think this class is different, but at the same time, I totally get it from those people.

I totally get it. It is the most snoozy draft pick that you're going to have. You're not going to make a single wave by drafting another corner. And they already drafted two last year. They had drafted, you know, I don't know. I haven't decided yet what I'm going to say,

if that's what happens. I think, yeah, I don't know. I haven't decided yet what I'm going to say if that's what happens. I think, yeah, I guess the convincing arguments would be this class is weaker. It's not, especially in the first round. I think it's a deeper class than we've seen. But it's a big part of that is because of these, you know, super, super seniors. There's a bunch of these six year players that are getting an extra look with more coaching. But anyway, it's a weaker class in the first round, and especially if you happen to get lucky enough to get one of these top four guys.

It's like you are walking out. If I look at my big board, Joey Porter is my 10th player in the class, and he's my fourth corner. So you are walking out out you are stealing value and i mean yeah like you said you need the position it you know it's it's uh you know sunk cost at this point you gotta you gotta fix it especially with flores's defense that puts a huge huge priority on it if you were going back to like a zone fangio style defense again it's like okay

yeah maybe we can risk it with these guys. But when you're talking about a system, that's going to blitz and put these guys on an Island, it's going to be a nightmare. If you don't have a guy that can hang. Well, and also, I mean, you needed a receiver when you drafted Justin Jefferson, Laquan Treadwell had nothing to do with this.

And the same thing is like, Mike Hughes has nothing to do with this. You really need a corner. And I think if you get a great one, it's worth worth its weight in gold because there's not that many great ones so if you get a sauce gardener your version like that i mean xavier rhodes did this from 2015 to about 2018 he it was a short run but man when you had him the whole defense was different because you had this one guy who could block on to great players. Jalen Ramsey has changed the math for teams. Like if you're not trying to cover everybody with a bunch of average corners and you have someone who's elite, I think it makes everybody else around him better.

And I also think that's one of the reasons it's so hard to pick them up in free agency because you don't know, was he on a bad team? You know, how much did that affect him? Or did he have a elite guy next to him? How much did that affect? Um, because you can give a lot of help there. So I think that it's a very practical pick. That's not exciting. Do you have a pick for the Vikings that would shock everybody or be, you know, people would lose their minds a little bit, but make sense. Is there like your hot take Vikings pick? Sure. Yeah. I mean, i think i may have already given you that with tyreek stevenson but uh not hot enough that's like not hot enough all right that's like 250 degrees on the oven you got to turn that thing up okay okay turn it up hot go hotter i think

is drew sanders hot enough for you that was the hottest one that i saw in that's pretty hot that's pretty hot or like jim simpson i could see it because yeah because the linebacker room i like i like i like the that position as a as a surprise pick i would say drew sanders would be a surprise trenton simpson is kind of the one first round linebacker in this class. I wouldn't be a fan of that, by the way. I'm just not a fan of first round linebackers. I've, I've gone on a lot of tangents about that position. I don't know if you want me to get into it or not, but I liked your Sanders as a, as a hot take there. Yeah. Okay. The most absurd hot take so far has been people asking me about B. John Robinson to the Vikings because they're going to lose Delvin Cook. Now, that one is an absolute.

That was too hot. That one's your kitchen's on fire. Nope, not going there. I think Drew Sanders is hotter. You think Drew Sanders is hotter? Interesting. Well, I mean, B. John's amazing, man. He is the best player in this draft.

I don't think he's going to be there personally i think someone's going to talk themselves into him in the top 15 to 20 i don't know if he gets past the chargers at 21 uh but if you're sitting there at 23 and the top four corners are gone and they're like well crap we can't trade down but we've got the best player in the draft staring at us dalvin's you know probably if he plays this year it's definitely his last year it's like screw it let's let's just let's just take him you can't get me there you can't because well even I mean I believe you and everybody else about Bijan Robinson it's just that it is such a bad value play for a running back right there's no denying this how

I mean if you if you drafted saquon barkley i mean even if he had been the 20th pick it wouldn't have been worth it right and saquon barkley had the same conversation and he's a great player we saw him just abuse the vikings last year but what does it really get your offense to have that guy so yeah yeah the difference between taking them two overall and 23 though though. Oh, of course. Huge difference. It's just that when you need a second wide receiver, when you need a number one corner, when you need edge rushers for the future,

because Daniil Hunter might be traded. These are a quarterback. These are all such important positions. The running back. One of the things that I wish they would find a way to work around this is the running backs who come into the league as rookies in the first round are already like the most expensive player at their position. And I don't know what you're supposed to do about that, but that makes it even worse because if you draft a corner or yeah, corner, he's 15 million cheaper than the top guy. If you draft a receiver, he's 12 million cheaper. If you draft a running back, he's like more expensive than 90% of the

league. That, that is where it kind of gets into i totally believe everybody about the scouting of bijan robinson but the value of him i just can't make it work yeah no and i'm i've always you know i'm i'm on team uh don't draft a running back in the first round but he he really is uh i mean he had i think he, I want to say, 204 carries. He had 102 missed tackles forced. So every other time he's touching the ball, he's making that first guy miss. So if you can get him into the second level, the amount of, like, 10-, 15-, 20-yard runs he's going to have is going to be notably higher

than what else you're getting. My comparison for him is LaDainian Tomlinson, and I don't do that. I'm not like the compare guys to Hall of Famers. He's the highest graded player I've ever done since I've been doing this. So I would do it at 23 because I think he is a different player than taken. And again, it comes back to the draft class and opportunity cost. If any of those corners are gone, absolutely run the card up or if the corners are there, run the card up, no doubt.

But like, if, if you're between taking Bijan Robinson and like, you know, Jordan Addison, who I think is going to be a solid number two receiver or, um, you know, a linebacker, which I would argue a linebacker in the first round is an even worse pick than a than a running back, because you look at the mid round linebacker, that's where the sweet spot is there. Like, I, I just I think you can justify it a little bit more once you get into the 20s for sure. Yeah, I think we would probably go the analytics GM not exactly following the analytics here. Yeah, I mean, that's that's the thing with B. John Robinson. I keep coming back to is I, again, I totally believe everybody, but I also think there's the,

this guy is different fallacy also because I we've Leonard Fournette, this guy's different. Like you got to understand this guy's different. I'm like, well, I don't know, because at the NFL level, the players are so fast on defense that it usually comes down to who's blocking well, right? Like who has the best running scheme, who's blocking. And the only guys who are really different over the last five years have been what really Delvin cook and Derek Henry, who made a tangible difference over multiple seasons versus what they like, how the blocking was and stuff. So that's saying basically this guy has to be as good

as derrick henry or prime delvin cook in order for it to make any sense that's where it's hard for me like i if if it happens and he's ladanian tomlinson the value is through the roof insane but kind of what are the odds that that works out if you don't block well if you don't have a right scheme if he gets hurt if he which these guys get hurt all the time there's just so many so many downsides that have nothing to do with the player. And I want to apologize to be John Robinson. Like you're great, man, but it doesn't make any sense. And that's exactly what happened to Saquon.

The injuries in the block and we're just not there. Yeah, right. Exactly. So, uh, Marcus, this has been great, man. I've really enjoyed having you on the show and we'll definitely be doing it again. And it's great to have a Minnesota content creator. So make sure you go check that out. That franchise guy is the YouTube page. You've got a lot of awesome stuff, film breakdowns of more of the corners than we even talked about, because I think it's realistic that they could drop back and maybe take somebody else

that we didn't discuss. So that's a great video. I just watched that the other day, your mock draft with Eric and Thomas Dimitrov, tremendous stuff. So you're doing awesome stuff. I'm glad that we didn't discuss. So that's a great video. I just watched that the other day, your mock draft with Eric and Thomas Dimitrov, tremendous stuff. So you're doing awesome stuff. I'm glad that we got introduced to each other and we'll definitely get together again. Thanks, man. Yeah, this was awesome. Thank you for having me, Matthew.