Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Vikings free agency Day 1 recap: Nothing happened and probably won't but maybe that's for the best

Episode Date: March 15, 2021

Matthew Coller and Sam Ekstrom break down a day of inactivity for the Vikings and answer Viking fan questions about what's next. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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I mean, if you bought stock on the Patriots yesterday, I feel like you're in a pretty good spot today. The Patriots just got a monopoly on free agency while the Vikings got I think we nailed it I think we said this was their top in-house free agent target and by golly they locked him up Rashad Hill is coming back for a mind-boggling sixth year on this football team that's the big move and really the Vikings got more bad news today than good news, because the report comes out from our colleague, Chad Graff, that Neil Hunter is still discontent on a bunch of potential targets, and albeit maybe pipe dream targets, but a bunch of targets go off the board, and they get Rashad Hill back. That's it. So not a ton to be excited about as of this recording i'm hoping we get some breaking

news during this recording because what's better than uh than reacting live like we're on the radio caller right uh with my luck in doing these recordings that's exactly what will happen is either right in the middle or right after we'll have big vikings news i just want to say this so i put it out there for people to ask questions on Twitter, and we got so many great free agency questions that I want to just go through them and start answering them. And even as we speak, James Winston just signed.

So like there's lots coming in. Carl Lawson just signed with the Jets earlier today. Joe Tooney goes off the board pretty fast. And we talked about that a little bit on our little YouTube Purple Insider Extra. I'm going to say this. From the people that I've been talking to today, the Vikings are in a bad spot, man. They have not had any good news for them in a long time that would make anyone want to come here. So here's what you have to do if you're the Vikings. You got to find people who don't have anywhere else to go and pay them a little more money

than someone else is offering. Or you have to say to them, hey, we have this position that other teams don't have wide open that you can come compete for because your team is not attractive at all. Not anymore. I'm sorry. I know that everybody wanted Carl Lawson and they wanted big free agents and here's the biggest names

and they should come here. When you go seven and nine and you have a quarterback who has taken a team from 13 and three to a seven and nine team because of his giant contract and you have Stefan Diggs dunking on your face 50 times this

season and you have Daniil Hunter wanting to leave and a bunch of other star players and free agents exiting over the last few years many of which were not super thrilled you're not an attractive destination so we kind of got to get over that hump to to talk about all the rest of this stuff for players that are big names and everything else. To get to this point that today is the evidence that this team is no longer the team that people want to come play for. And you've got to figure out how to work around that. Because when the Vikings are brought up as, oh, they were interested in this guy, they're interested in that guy. As of right now, Sam, I don't see how they're getting those guys that are going to make a big difference for next year that have big names. Well, and just to speak to a couple of those names, the Trey Hendrickson

and the Carl Lawson, didn't that feel like a direct rebuttal to Daniil Hunter? Like that was just leveraging through the media. That was just Minnesota leaking a couple names and saying, all right, I guess we'll go find your replacement, Daniil, if you're going to play hardball. Because I didn't see them linked to a lot of other people, but, oh, they're linked to these two, like, premier pass rushers. Interesting. The gleam of the Vikings is worn off a little bit.

Like, think about where they were at five years ago. Pretty new coach, building a system, new stadium, new facility on the way. Like everything was coming, you know, was ahead of you. And now it's all in the rearview mirror. And a lot of your success is in the rearview mirror. And the primes of many of your top players are in the rearview mirror. And there are good pieces. There's Justin Jefferson.

There's Dalvin Cook. The offense is pretty appealing on paper, except your quarterback, again, rearview mirror and there are good pieces there's Justin Jefferson there's Dalvin Cook the the offense is pretty appealing on paper except your quarterback again it doesn't have the gleam of potential that he once did so that might explain a lot of things it might also speak to the quarterback when you see the top two guards go off today to play for extremely mobile quarterbacks in situations where they're going to look good, the Zeitlers and the Toonies. So yeah, your point rings true, Collar. There's just not a lot of upside right now or money. Like, I mean, they're talking about restructuring Adam Thielen's contract as we speak right now, just to like be able to play ball with some of these premier

free agents. I don't know if they could have afforded any of these eight figure guys. The word is that the Anthony Barr restructure only saved them like 2.9, which isn't that significant. So I think, I think they've got some work to do just to like make one big splash in this free agency period. I agree. And that's probably the only way they can get somebody

is if they say, here's every ounce of our cap space, and I don't think that that's a very good idea to give every bit of cap that you created to one player. That seems like the same mistake they made for Yannick Ngakwe, who, by the way, signed a very reasonable deal today, making that trade look even worse. Like not only did he lead your team in sacks, he cost you a draft pick, he cost you whoever you could have signed last year, and he ends up signing for two years and 26 mil, which would have been a fine deal for the Minnesota Vikings for a guy across from Daniil Hunter.

That's if they have Daniil Hunter. I think that my point is not just I said you got to look forward and figure out now what to do when you're not a destination anymore I also think you got to look backward a little bit and you got to say how did we become not a destination anymore because coming off the 13-3 season I thought the Sheldon Richardson signing was one of the most, we are the team signing. Eight million for one year for a guy who is a star defensive tackle who just wants to come here and win and put himself on the map. That means you're the team. When you're Tampa Bay right now, you're the team. When you are even a team, even a team like Cleveland, who's got a

bunch of cap space, they can be the team that people want to sign with. And, okay, so you're that for that period of time. And that goes away after going 8-7-1 for the most part. But they didn't have these huge contracts come in after that because they didn't have huge needs to fill and they didn't have the cap space to do it. And now they're scrambling to make the cap space to try and take a run at somebody, probably a defensive lineman as a just-in-case for Daniil Hunter, but also even if Daniil Hunter stays.

But my thing is, how did you get here? Not just with Kirk Cousins, and he does play a role in this. That's why they don't have the money, and I also don't think that's an attractive player to go play with. I think someone like Trevor Lawrence might be exciting for somebody to go play with, somebody like Baker Mayfield who seems like they're on the rise. If these players look for those situations where quarterbacks are on the rise. Justin Herbert.

Seems like everybody wants to go play with Justin Herbert now. They've signed two big-name offensive linemen in Los Angeles. So, okay, that's part of it. And going 7-9 is part of it. But I also think that some of these disgruntled player situations have also played into this where you just aren't the team that people are looking for when you're battling Daniil Hunter with his situation and when you have the Stephon Diggs thing happen. I know for Vikings fans, they're thrilled to have Justin Jefferson, with his situation and when you have the Stefan Diggs thing happen.

I know for Vikings fans, they're thrilled to have Justin Jefferson, but that was on TV all the time with that player who wanted to leave you being great somewhere else. And also, too, the other thing is who's saying, I can't wait to play for that defense when they were 29th last year, and you're talking about not having Anthony Barr going forward. You're talking about disgruntled Daniel Hunter. Players know that playing with good players helps them look better and ultimately make more money.

So I guess my question is both for you to start, and then we'll get to all these other great questions from people who follow us on Twitter. But I mean, looking back, looking forward, what does this mean that you're not the team that's really here to play ball with these players or not a team that is a destination anymore? What have you done for me lately? The worm turns pretty quickly in the NFL, and staleness can set in. When you are a quarterback that's been somewhere for more than three years and you haven't really won much when you're a coach that's been somewhere now for an eighth

season having not won very much um sometimes when when a group is together so long you start to see some of the warts and i think that's's what happened with Stefan Diggs. The honeymoon period wore off after the miracle. And obviously with Daniil Hunter, who, and both of those guys, Collar, think back to 2015. We saw that draft class, you know, shoot up the ranks and turn into one of the great draft classes of all time. And it didn't seem like any of them were ever going to leave. Daniil Hunter and Stefan Diggs would have been the most unlikely people, I think, in about 2017 to ever kind of strong arm their way out of the organization. But things can change in a hurry.

And a lot of it has to do with wins and losses, frankly. The Vikings made decisions to kind of go all in in 2018, and I think the ripple effects of those decisions are still haunting them. You know, trying to extend the window another year in 2019, which they sort of did, and then trying to extend it even after the window was closed in 2020 without ever committing to the full rebuild, tear down, trying to put like a new coat of paint on it. I think that matters. I think when you try to run something back, tear down, trying to put like a new coat of paint on it. I think that matters. I think when you try to run something back over and over, and there is something antiquated too about the offense they run and maybe even the defense.

I don't want to be too hard on Zimmer because I think he has actually been pretty adaptive with his defense. I don't think his scheme is necessarily antiquated. It's just not fresh. I still think he's a great defensive mind. I don't think he's like super stuck in his ways. Ironically, that's more on the offensive side where he shouldn't be as involved as he is with his influence, but it seems to play a part. But I think that it's not really that new to people. And because those systems haven't won anything significant, it's just not that attractive

anymore. There's probably only so many headlines that you can handle before the perception around the league is, I'm not sure that's where you want to be. And they cut Kyle Rudolph. They cut Riley Reif. Those are two established and respected veterans in the league. And it's not that those are bad moves compared to what you were going to get in the future from Riley Reif and Kyle Rudolph.

But here we are again with last year a lot of players end up on their way out, and now here's more players ending up on their way out. That's what you're going to look like. And then when you have another guy who is your biggest name on the team in Daniil Hunter now getting all those little graphics from Bleacher Report or those you know short articles from Pro Football Talk saying oh here's the latest that Chad Graff our buddy from The Athletic is reporting on the you know the disagreement between Daniil Hunter and his unhappiness in the Minnesota Vikings. And when those have been your headlines for, I mean, basically a year now. And the other thing, too, it probably doesn't help that Xavier Rhodes went somewhere else and balled out.

Now, last year I would have said it was the right move to move on from him. But when people see that, are they saying, is that really where I want to be? Right. When Xavier Rhodes went somewhere else and he balled out. And Stephon Diggs went somewhere else and he played really, really well. I mean, that all to me, it adds up. And then you're right when you don't get more than seven wins, which we all know is kind of more like six wins because, I mean,

you're really counting week 17 against the Detroit Lions. When you are on national TV on Christmas Day and give up 52 points, like who says I can't wait to go help that football team? Detroit Lions, when you are on national TV on Christmas Day and give up 52 points, like who says I can't wait to go help that football team? And I think that we're seeing that a little bit today. And, again, I could be proven wrong because they could throw a Brinks truck at some big-name free agent, which I think would be a mistake in response to this. But I think now that you realize, okay, we're actually not that team who can just move space around and then get

a big name player. Now it's time to go the other way. If that was their plan, then they have to go another direction now. Can we just do a quick tally top of head about the number of potentially disgruntled current or ex-Vikings around the league right now because players talk to each other, and they're going to say, hey, how's Minnesota? And Stefan Diggs probably is not going to give a glowing recommendation. I think there's reason to believe Xavier Rhodes might have a little chip on the shoulder. Mack Alexander might have a chip on the shoulder. Everson Griffin upset because Mike Zimmer called him a good player.

Daniil Hunter, upset. Kyle Rudolph, who was like a pillar for 10 years, goes out guns blazing on a podcast talking about how he wasn't used in the offense. What is that, five or six just like that? I mean, there's not a lot of good feeling kind of being tossed around about the Minnesota Vikings brand right now. A lot of it's negative. And I think that can permeate when you have player A, you know, on the East Coast, player B on the West Coast. And that just sort of spreads this idea around that maybe the Vikings aren't quite the same organization they were. Whether that's true or not, the perception isn't great right now. now well and you have to look

even beyond the names that you named i mean yanni kingakwe yeah i mean he gets traded here talks about how he wants to be a viking for a long time and then like ah you know you're in love with your little cross chop move and you don't play it our way and you don't stop the run it's like well why did you trade for him then if he wasn't a that played, like he'd been in the league for long enough that you should know how he plays, right? And then, so he leaves and signs a reasonable deal, goes to a winning team. You know, the way that they treated Riley Reif with, you got to take a pay cut for Yannick Ngakwe, and that's another one.

And I'll even add one more that was kind of bizarre, but it's a small one and it's not a big name guy, but you talk about things getting around. The Pat Elfline one was weird where he just gets cut in the middle of the season. Now he got to go play with the New York Jets, but it just was an odd type of thing where he gets the injury and then he comes back from the injury. And I mean, look, he's not a great player, but could he have played left guard over Dakota Dozier I think the answer is probably yes and given them better play and yet they just say you know what hit the road Jack sorry buddy and so then he gets a decent contract with Carolina

today he's another one where you would say that's just not a happy player. And it's hard. Even Anthony Harris. Think about Anthony Harris. They franchise tag him in his absolute peak of his career year where he could have gotten a big contract and then he doesn't. And so this is the thing is that when you're desperately scrambling year after year to try to fit everything under the cap and you've got to take a restructure. It's like that Oprah meme. And you get a restructure and you get a restructure. We're going to screw you over with this contract. Oh,

you want more money, Daniel Hunter? Too bad, buddy. We don't have it. Like if you just keep doing those things and you have a coach who, like you mentioned, is very, very good at what he does, but has a propensity to agitate people. When you have that happen or manipulate people with things that he says or does, all of those things together say not exactly the shining utopia that everyone wants to join in free agency. So what this says to me, and then this plays into our first question, so I'll get to it. What this says to me is you're going to have to go find some very hungry human beings who really want to compete for a job. And you're going to have to put a couple of them up against each other and hope somebody shines. Maybe it's Rashad Hill and Kelvin Beecham, or maybe it's Chris Reed and draft pick in the third round X. And we'll get to that for a question. That's where you are right now. And I think this speaks even more to,

if you guys think 2021 is it, it's all pushing the chips into the middle of the table. Pretty tough approach to have right now when you can't attract some of the top guys like Carl Lawson or Joe Tooney. Yeah, I agree with you. It's feeling more and more like bargain bin approach will have to be the path. I'm not saying that they are flat out of big name options because they are out there still. I mean, this is only day one of unofficial free agency.

It really hasn't started yet. This is just the tampering period. There are names, so people don't need to hit the panic button super hard, but I think this could be a precursor, so you should all prepare yourselves. So let's get to the questions, Collar. I want to hear what the people have to say. That is ridiculous, by the way. Oh, the tampering period, it's not real free agency. Like, look, just call it what it is, okay? It's free agency.

Yeah. First question from Finnegan'sWake53. He says, I believe the Vikings' pursuit of big names is a positive thing, but am I wrong in thinking that if they get a few starters of free agency and the rest of the guys compete, it's a fine alternative to not landing Joe Tooney, Carl Lawson, or Shaquille Griffin? So meaning if they do not get the big names, which we're already seeing

most of them go off the board, that it can actually turn out well for them. I mean, I say the answer is yes. This was always the preferred approach is to take a bunch of shots and see if you can find some guys for the future, because I didn't expect that the big names would end up landing in Minnesota anyway. Yeah. I mean, I think you said it earlier this show, if you spend 100% of your cap on one guy, there's so many variables that could affect that one investment. We saw it with Michael Pierce who opted out. Maybe it's an injury.

Maybe it doesn't turn out to be a scheme fit or a culture fit. There's so much that can go wrong when you put all your eggs in one basket. So like the Zeitler contract, you know, super reasonable, like 7 million per year, that would have been attainable for the Vikings. You see some of these mid-level deals, um, that, that might be doable. And that might be what ends up happening is that they get a handful of those and then supplement it with some vet minimums, and then you've got your competition. Well, I think so too, and I think that if you take shots on guys, and I use Chris Reed as an example

just because no one's ever heard of him except for people from Mankato, but somebody who is ascending, who just had their first starting gig last year and maybe can take a step forward even in their mid to late 20s. We see that with undrafted free agent offensive lineman Joe Berger was that guy. Somebody like that times like four or five and you hope that a couple of them work out. And this has been something the Vikings have had work for them in the past where it's undrafted free agents or guys that they sort of bring in at random and some don't work a lot a lot don't work Jordan Taylor's

often don't work but sometimes they do and they become decent players for you so it's that's a better long-term approach than it would be to sign somebody who's just going to cause cap issues for you in the future did you have something else to say on that? No, go ahead. Oh, okay, because I was going to move on to the next question. Yeah, yeah. Because now, so Scott asks us if we're surprised about this, about the Vikings not being able to get players to get, you know,

take hometown discounts anymore or bring in the top three agents. Does it surprise us? Because he says he is not surprised. No, I'm not surprised either. And I guess what I would add to that, Sam, is it really feels like in order to get back to that spot, it has to take some big change. I don't know which one you're talking about, whether it's new coach, new regime, new quarterback, new something. Because if they sign a big free agent or sign a couple other guys

and they don't have all those draft picks step up and they don't go 11-5, 10-6, they don't win playoff games, then we're probably talking about being in the same spot next year. If it's 8-8, if it's 7-9, they'll be viewed as the Cincinnati Bengals at the end of the Marvin Lewis era. And I think that that's the feeling that I have right now is that was always the fear when you signed Kirk Cousins was if you end up like that team stuck in the middle, then people aren't going to view you as an attractive place to go.

And it's really hard to dig yourself out of that. So no, I've had that feeling that they're like on the cusp of that right now. And if they, if they, if they can't bring anybody in, it's going to feel even more like that. So I'm not surprised. It's extremely ironic that, that it would be the Marvin Lewis comparison would, would bear out here in Minnesota, just because that's Mike Zimmer's guy that he worked under for so many years. But this is how you attract free agents. Either you're really good already or you've got a new coach like Robert Scala in New York. I mean, that's how you get people to New York like Carl Lawson because the Jets were horrible,

but they're sort of the light at the end of the tunnel. And maybe Zach Wilson or Justin Fields. With Jacksonville, it's Trevor Lawrence and Urban Meyer. Okay, that's something to get excited about. And it's Jacksonville. Like, it's still really warm and like a, you know, a part of the country where you don't mind spending the winter. Minnesota doesn't have the geographic appeal. Minnesota doesn't have the shiny new quarterback or the new coach or the pre-existing success. So they're checking none of those boxes that could attract a free agent.

Right. And then you add the fact that a lot of people have been publicly not thrilled, that you're going to have to consider that as well. And that's with the next wave of players that they're developing here that is a question how so all those other guys who won with you the first time through they all ended up pretty not thrilled so how do you end up with Justin Jefferson namely being a happy guy next year two years from now how if Cam Dantzler is a star how does he end up a happy guy next year, two years from now? If Cam Dantzler is a star, how does he end up a happy guy two years, three years from now? More donut club, I think.

Right. I think that, yeah, I think that that's an important thing that they should be thinking about as a team, because I don't believe that the situation with someone like the Neil Hunter or Anthony Barr signing up to become a free agent after this year or all the other ones that we named. I don't think it's just money. I think that when your team doesn't win and you have those other things, then you go, look, I'm getting my cash or send me somewhere else.

Everyone sort of looks inward and says, let me make sure I'm doing the best for me. It's interesting to see in my Twitter feed, because I still follow people from Buffalo, oh, man, this guy's returning on a team-friendly deal. Like, happens when you go 13-3, doesn't it? Next question from Ryan. He says, favorite fit out of the remaining rumored free agents. So there's been a lot of rumored free agents. Do you have a favorite fit?

So is that rumor as in, like, fans rumoring or, like, confirmed rumors? Because the only two that I can think of seeing, like, from a real NFL source would be Trey Hendrickson remaining or was it Shaq Griffin, the cornerback? How about we just remove the word rumors? So who's your favorite fit out of the remaining free agents? Let's see. We can take Carl Lawson off the list. He just got signed.

Boy, I mean, I'm trying to think of what position I want to even go to because there's so many options here. Defensive line is key. I think they need to get a big defensive lineman in here. Maybe it's Carlos Dunlap. I'm looking at your top five targets. Dunlap is sort of that veteran who could come in and provide, like, a high floor, I think. Larry Ogunjobi, you know, that's someone who might come on a decent, like,

kind of a team-friendly deal and has a lot of upside. I like shooting for somebody like that. I think that's within the Vikings budget. And I'd go get a Daron Harmon. I think Daron Harmon is like my favorite safety prospect based on like what he did in New England, his playmaking ability. He'd be a good compliment for Harrison Smith. I think those are three at pretty significant positions of need that I'd go for. Hey, everyone. I want to tell you about our friends at Scout Logistics. And I really do mean it when I say friends.

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If you sign up for Sim Bowl, you also get updates emailed to you directly with the trends on which teams are on the rise. So check out SimBowl.app or follow them on Twitter at SimBowlExchange and check out the Marketplace for Sports today. So this is a good point that when you look over the free agent list who's still out there, there's a lot of players who could very positively impact your team and you could block for Kirk Cousins a little bit better. You could add a wide receiver three. You could rush the passer better. You could put somebody in Anthony Harris's spot next to Harrison Smith and add to the

quarterback group. It's just you have to change that approach from we're just looking for the big name. I don't like the idea of Trey Hendrickson because Trey Hendrickson didn't even play 600 snaps last year. He's been a situational rusher for the Saints where it all came together one time for one season. And you worry about that when guys hit that free agency and everything sort of matches up for them for one year. But we're talking about sort of less plays than Ngakwe. And I know he's a bigger guy than Ngakwe, but his team didn't use him against the run.

And so are you going to make the same mistake twice? And maybe it was just posturing to put out that name right when daniel hunter is tweeting about his agency or whatever uh so i'm going to say that my favorite free agents remaining austin blythe is definitely one of them he is the guard slash center for the ram so you can play guard here i think he's just a perfect fit for what they do system wise i've mentioned chris reed is a guy that I like. I also think that there's probably a bunch of those swings that you were talking about, like Kwon Short. He's been injured the last couple of years. Larry Ogunjobi's a good one.

There's lots of safeties who are still out there. Kendrick Bourne went off the list pretty fast today, but there are still guys out there i mean marvin jones has been hurt uh keelan cole is everybody's favorite he's still out there uh kelvin beacham no one ever seems to have a lot of respect for but is always very cheap and he feels like a guy uh ron darby did go off the board but brian pool and the kel robey coleman i got any of these players who suddenly have become overlooked because everyone was focusing on the bigger names, I think are reasonable targets. And when you have so many needs, just start bringing them in for whatever cheap price you can. And I don't know, see what happens. But Austin Blythe would be at the top of my list. I think he would be a very good fit.

All right. So Alex asks this. He says he wants to hear about potential cap saving mechanisms to go out and get a handful of those free agents, the ones we were just talking about. Says he wants to hear our take on Shaquille Griffin. I'll give you a real quick for me. Restructuring Adam Thielen is another one and signing Harrison Smith to a contract extension. Those are the two that stand out to where they could create more. Interesting to me that Harrison Smith has not signed a contract extension. That one I want to watch very closely because I've mentioned this to you before, but I think if Harrison Smith was to ever request a trade,

we would never hear about it until the day and the minute he was traded. He's just like that. Like he's not going to put anything out there in public. He's very quiet. Shaquille Griffin, I think, is a great fit. I mean, he's big. He's six foot. He's extremely fast.

And two years ago, played really well for Seattle. Last year, it was a bit of a down year for him. But he still wasn't awful. And their defense was pretty bad that he was playing with. But he's been healthy. He's not getting torched even in bad years in terms of his numbers. So, I mean, he just sort of falls under the category to me, Sam, of guys that probably won't come here because they're going to have a lot of offers.

Yeah, he's probably got some tackling issues that Mike Zimmer wouldn't be thrilled about. But I like him in coverage. I mean, he's a PBU monster. Gave up a lot of touchdowns last year, though. But his age, you know, 25, he's going to get paid. He's going to make eight figures a year. So if you're going to pay that, you better be pretty confident about that investment. I think you can do better.

I think you can at least get the same talent for cheaper if you just let sort of the process play itself out, see who filters down. I don't hate the player, and I like his speed too. I think that would be really appealing. He's a UCF guy. I'm sure they scouted him like the year before, you know, Mike Hughes came out. But no, I don't think that's, I don't think he's going to end up on the team. Granted, I mean, there was the leak. I think your guy Judd mentioned it this morning that he might,

they might have their eye on him. So who knows? I wouldn't rule it out. Well, I mean, he's one of the biggest corner names out there. I mean, they should. We've talked about this, about how just with the two cornerbacks, it's not enough. I mean, they should be looking at Jeff Gladney, in my mind, as a nickel corner for the future, and they should be hunting for another starting outside corner to go along with Cameron Dantzler because you can't count on anything from Mike Hughes. If Mike Hughes becomes a rotational player for you, then that's a big win because he's been nothing for you the last couple of

years. So, you know, I like maybe Shaquille Griffin more than maybe you do or some other people might, because I think that the demands that Seattle puts on their corners playing that cover three system are probably more than what Mike Zimmer likes to do with a lot of two deep safeties that teams really figured out how to attack those one safety back there with a lot of the play actions and things and I think that

those make guys look worse and I really do like the fact that he's only 25 years old that is a big deal for me because you could sign him to a five-year contract and actually feel like you might get five years out of that contract and you could get his entire prime, basically. So I like that idea. I don't like signing 32-year-old guys like Patrick Peterson's name comes up. I don't know. I mean, he just hasn't been good in a couple of years. So I'm not huge into that one. Well, I like, just to put a bow on this, I like that he's durable. Like, think about how the corners around here have just been getting beaten up. Like, Xavier Rhodes was perpetually hurt. Cam Dantzler has injury issues.

Mike Hughes had injury issues. Holton Hill had injury issues. Like, Shaquille Griffin's durable. So at least you kind of know what you're getting there. So I can see the appeal, especially when he's only 25, like you said. All right, next question. Do we think, this is from Jake, do we think Rashad Hill's personal opinion of Ezra Cleveland's ability to play left tackle was a factor in his decision? I love this. This is such a good question, Jake. I love this. That Rashad Hill was peeking over and being like, no, dude, can't do it. For example, if Cleveland appeared to Hill to be the next Joe Thomas in closed-door practices, does Rashad Hill re-sign? with the Minnesota Vikings if he did not believe he had a chance to battle for the starting left

or right tackle position and this is something that I have probably mentioned too many times like peeking in maybe being annoying about the Rashad Hill thing considering it's Rashad Hill but it's it is a thing that I was certain of that they really like Rashad Hill's progress and I could see them now drafting a tackle and having Rashad Hill compete with the guy just like with Brian O'Neill and having you know either Brian O'Neill move to left and Rashad stay at right or Rashad Hill playing left tackle where his numbers are actually a little better at left tackle I could totally see that yeah I mean I I don't know. I mean, who can be convinced that Ezra Cleveland is going to be the left tackle considering he just didn't

play there and didn't even seem to get consideration there last year. And this, yeah, I'd say that this does kind of signal that, or that he's going to be battling Rashad Hill will with Ezra Cleveland for a left tackle spot. Well, it does send the message that the team expressed to Rashad too, that I think he's going to have a chance. Now, whether or not he will after the draft is another question because the team still holds the information of knowing what they intend to do in the draft. But even if they do bring in a first round pick, I think there's still a chance for him to be the bridge like he was to O'Neal. And unfortunately, he wasn't awesome in that stretch before O'Neal,

which is kind of the longest stretch of his career. But he has been serviceable. And, hey, Rashad Hill hasn't played much the last two years. It's like 300 snaps, which is like maybe four games combined. The team, though, sees him in practice constantly. They wouldn't keep bringing him back year after year after year unless they felt really good about this guy. There's clearly some mutual respect there.

The team is fond of him, and they trust him. He's been their tackle three forever, for like half a decade now. So there's something there that the team is fond of, and I think that it bears out that they might trust him for a bigger role. And it could also signal Ezra Cleveland is a guard. Well, remember, they looked at their win-loss record with Rashad Hill starting, and Mike Zimmer brought that up. I will say, I talked to the guy who trains Rashad Hill in the offseason,

and he told me about the dedication that Rashad Hill has had. And I know, like, there's some skin in the game there, but you can see it. Like, when you look at a picture of Rashad Hill, you can see his body has transformed since where he was when he first arrived here. And he was just this massive, husky human being. But he looks, like, much more jack Jack now to go along with his long arms. And he's been working on quickening his feet, all these things.

And I think Zimmer saying that in his defense was like, Hey, we've actually won with Rashad Hill was an odd way of expressing that he appreciates the growth Hill has made. I mean, he's the one that started against Cameron Jordan in the Minneapolis Miracle game. And again, I know he's not perfect by no means,

but when we talk about linemen and, hey, just don't get killed out there, I think Hill is very good in pass protection by that metric, like not by some, you know, whatever, comparison to Joe Thomas. But can he give you the same pass protection as Riley Reif? At this point in his career, I think the answer might be yes. He's not going to be as good as a run blocker. But the door is now very wide open with Riley Reif gone and no big offensive linemen coming here to them drafting one of those big tackles.

Christian Derrissaw is probably the guy that comes to mind first. Rashawn Slater. Those guys, I think, shoot to the very top of the list of possibilities for our draft sims. All right, this is from Mark. What do you guys think is the best and worst and most realistic outcome for Vikings fans this week? I'm going to let you answer that one first. Okay. Best case scenario, I think you come away with multiple players that have a better than 75% chance of starting. If your candidates to start are the type like the Jordan Taylor types or the Tajay Sharp types or the Anthony Zel types, where you have to talk yourself into it, I think you probably went the wrong path. So I think you want to come away with a couple players that can start

without using up 100% of your cap space. Worst case scenario is it's not that you get shut out, because if you get shut out, well, at least you still have money for the late free agency period. You can still spend that money in June or July or August. You can extend Brian O'Neill and do whatever you need to do. I think that the worst case scenario is that you pour like a huge sum into one guy and it's not a good player or you reach like you get desperate and you reach on somebody um what was

the third option best worst or what realistic oh realistic i don't know i guess the best the best case kind of is realistic like that's what they're gonna try to do so i i tend to i think it'd be harder to screw this up than it would be to like actually put together a decent, you know, week here. But, hey, it's the Vikings. They've been known to kind of, you know, mangle these situations. Mangle is a great word. I will say this. The best case situation is not having the worst case situation happen. If the one you laid out, the worst case situation,

is that you pour a bunch of money into Trey Hendrickson or whomever, that you overpay because you're feeling pretty bad about the fact that everybody turned you down, so you're saying, oh, we got to make that splash. We got to get our one big player, and then we're going to talk about how this guy is the missing piece. That's your worst situation in my mind. So if that happens, that's the worst. The best is avoiding that. Because in the avoidance, then you get one of two scenarios. Either they bring in the players that you laid out, or we talked about like the Austin Blythes or the Nickel Robey Coleman's, these under-the-radar, solid, decent NFL players. If they end up with those guys, that's okay. If they don't,

then it all rests on the draft picks, which I actually think is an okay scenario, because you've got to find out for the future who can play. So in year two, if a lot of guys are asked to step up, if all those guys we mentioned and more over the last couple of drafts are all asked again to play and to develop and to show whether they could be a part of this, that's not a terrible outcome for you because you're in a step process here. When you go seven and nine, you take your big step back from being a team that won a playoff game the year before. So now you're taking steps forward toward the future to build up a roster, and usually that step is not pour a bunch of money into one guy.

Usually that is a multiple-step kind of thing that has to, it absolutely has to involve a bunch of draft picks hitting. So if those guys end up getting the priority again for next year, I know that people who want them to really go all in on a big move won't be thrilled with that. Oh no, we're starting rookies again. But it's kind of the next step in the process, I think. Well, and think too about where we're at with some key players. After next year, Harrison Smith might have his, he might be done here. We don't know about Harrison Smith. His money could be off the books.

Anthony Barr's money probably will be off the books because of his restructure. Maybe they accelerate Daniil Hunter's free agency like they did with Barr. Like what if, what if all three of those big contracts are suddenly gone? That probably puts you squarely in rebuild mode, but also it opens up so many cap possibilities. Like if that cap goes up over $200 million next year, and those contracts are off your books, or even two out of those three are off your books, think of all the possibilities that you could have with two consecutive massive draft classes comprising probably 40% of your roster and a bunch of money to spend.

That is, like you said, kind of the beginning stage of what could be a productive rebuild. Okay, let's look at, let's think of this in an analogous way. You are, it's, this is a little too aggressive, but I just thought of it and I like it, so I'm going to say it. Your rebuild bounce back process in a situation where it should be kind of clear to you that you can't really be too risky, at least in my mind. Now, the pressure on Mike Zimmer and Rick Spielman might cause them to act otherwise. But I think from an objective view, from an outsider, who's not going to lose their job if things go wrong next year, then I think you could see it pretty clearly. Hand the ball to Marshawn. Like, don't throw it. Don't take some risk now when you can kind of do the basic thing, and then you'll be in a better situation and the way that you laid it out there and I'm sure there's better analogies than that but I just thought like remember when everyone

thought the whole entire world why don't you just give it to Marshawn like it was so clear to everyone else except for Pete Carroll I think this is the same thing like it's so clear that you can be in a very good situation in the not so distant future unless you really mess it up right now and then put yourself in a spot where you're still fighting these same battles a year from now uh let me move on to this one from palpatine's robes which i think is a star wars reference why did the vikings risk pissing off bar to save a little more than three million dollars did they secretly hopes he would opt to have his last two years voided. I don't know if Barr's pissed.

I mean, if he has a good year next year and hits free agency, someone else will pay him. He's Anthony Barr. The Jets were ready to, you know, back up truckloads of money and pour them all over him and let him dance in money that was being poured on him. So, like, I mean, I think that that will happen again. If he has a good 2021 season, he'll still be, I think, under the age of 30 at that point. And I think that there's going to be a market for a multiple-time pro bowler to go out and get another contract.

So he probably looks at it as, great, anytime you can hit free agency, you're happy. And this deal was never getting passed next year anyway. Anthony Barr turns 29 on Thursday, which would mean that next year he'll be 30 going to the season. But no, you're right. If he has a good year, that's not going to deter his next team. They will still give him a sizable two- or three three year deal, I would think. There's a reason that players accept these accelerated deals, like Everson Griffin, who took this, I think he voided the last two

years of his deal, hit free agency earlier. Granted, it didn't work out for him because of COVID and the market froze up and he didn't get what he wanted to out of that. But that was an extenuating circumstance. Barr only had 7.8 dead this year, and that number was going to go down next year. So you're right. The odds of him not either getting cut or renegotiating next year were pretty slim. This enables him to go out and get probably eight figures guaranteed next free agency period. And if the report is true that they only cut 2.9 off of this year's cap number, well, he's still making like 12 million this year.

So I think this is working out pretty well for Anthony Barr. Yeah, I think so, too. I don't think he's mad. Otherwise, he probably would have not agreed to do anything with him unless it worked out in his favor. So I think this works out okay. This is from Taylor. He says, if the Vikings sign or restructure current players and contracts to guarantee a lot of money in the coming years, would that in any way be a signal that they foresee getting out from under Kirk Cousins' contract next year. I don't know that anything that they do right now is going to tell us about the outcome of that.

We can only look at it and say, let's use our little logical brains here and figure out that $45 million next year is not super tenable. So how are they going to work around that, even if the salary cap bounces back? Is it going to be a trade? Is it going to be an extension? How's this going to work around that, even if the salary cap bounces back? Is it going to be a trade? Is it going to be an extension? How's this going to go? Are they going to surprise us and draft a quarterback? I don't know that if they signed Trey Hendrickson or if they extended Harrison Smith or pushed out money on Daniil Hunter and guaranteed his next couple of years,

I don't know that any of that gives us quite the indication on Kirk Cousins because that's like its own entity. Yeah, they can't really overextend themselves with, as of now, like $12 million in cap space. Now, like for instance, the Patriots, who came into the day with $70 million, they pledged something like 185 million dollars today um so the tip off that i get from that is is that they're probably going to draft a quarterback because they feel like they're going to have cheap quarterback play for a while they're certainly getting it this year with cam newton and maybe a draft pick either way it's going to be cheap. They can afford to stack that roster with some bigger contracts, non-quarterback, because they're not paying one right now. And that's a clue, I think, as to what they plan for the future. The Vikings don't have enough money

to indicate what their plans are at this time. That could be you. You could be the Patriots next year if you decided to trade Kirk Cousins you could be looking at um hey there's a bunch of free agents out there who are good and they it's no surprise like they didn't just win because of Brady they did win because of Brady but they didn't just win because of Brady they always seem to have their finger on the pulse of exactly when the right time to get rid of people what dice to roll on on players like Randy Moss for a fourth round pick, things like that. Some of those blew up, but a lot of them worked too. And this makes so much sense.

They bring back Cam, who did not have any receivers last year and was not as bad as people think he was, but he's also not going to get a ton of interest. So you bring him back and then you get him receivers and you get the defensive players back. Guys come back from COVID and all of a sudden, Patriots are going to go 10 and six probably. And we're all going to go, ah, Belichick once again. This comes from Corey. Do we see any notable transactions from today as good deals or was it funny money thrown around? I mean, I'm not being funny

myself by saying this. The Yannick Ngakwe deal in Vegas is a good deal for the Raiders. I mean, you could get a guy who could get double digit sacks, strip sacks, makes plays for $13 million a year. That seems like a really reasonable and good contract. So that's probably, I think, actually the best one of the day. Yeah, that's a great deal. And also, I don't understand how Nelson Aguilar signs for the exact same deal as Yannick Ngakwe. Like, how are those two players even close to the same value? That was bizarre to me.

I thought Ronald Darby was a pretty good deal. I thought he was going to make like 12 to 14 a year he made 10 per year with the Broncos that's a good signing by George Payton Danico Autry pretty good value at 7 million per year with the Titans Jason Verrett I mean that was one of the guys on my list played like a top 10 corner last year after basically missing four years with injury and he signed like a cheap one-year extension with the 49ers. Thought that was a good deal for them, too. Folks, March is quite the month for Minnesota sports,

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I would say extremely low. Cordero Patterson begged the Vikings. I remember this because I remember writing about it. He begged the Vikings in 2016-17 offseason to bring him back, and instead they ran out in 2017. Laquan Treadwell is their number three receiver instead of a great playmaker and an all-time great kick returner. And if I'm Cordero, I'm thinking about who I'm going to play with that's going to kick return for touchdown again against the Vikings this year. I mean, that one was another one where we go, I don't get it.

He didn't demand a bunch of money from the Patriots. And when you mention Cordero, you should mention Super Bowl champion Cordero Patterson. This is how you should introduce him. But I don't think there's any chance that he comes back or anybody else that played for the Vikings because of what we talked about earlier. Steven Weatherly, yeah, but I don't think anybody else. No, I felt like 2016 Cordero was actually just starting to get it as a wide receiver. And I thought, oh, well, I mean, if he moves on to New England, he's going to refine his skills and be an even better receiver. Like he's only starting to grow, but I don't think he actually improved enough in that area where the Vikings would feel good about,

okay, like this is a new player. It's probably about the same player that they left in 2016. If they didn't want him then, they probably don't want him now. Are there any – this is from Ben. Are there any decent offensive linemen left in free agency, or are we rolling with Ole Udo in a draft pick? I can't wait until the year 2027 when I can say, Sam, remember Ole Udo and how everyone brought up Ole Udo all the time? Ole Udo is the new, he is the poor man's Avion Collins.

I love them both together. Yes, yeah, that's a good way to look at it. I say yes that there are some decent offensive linemen left, but there's not many. It's kind of like you better get them now or the fall off from the Austin Blythes of the world to after that is pretty significant. You've mentioned Kelvin Beecham a couple times. Great value potentially. Ty Niseki is probably the best swing tackle in the league, and he's like 35 years old, but he played with Cousins for three years.

He's probably like the premium swing tackle above Rashad Hill, I would say. I can't believe he's still on the market. Russell Oku, I think, is still out there. That's a potential starter. These are tackles, mind you. At guard, I've been on the Lane Taylor train. I think you go and take a flyer on Lane Taylor. That's a classic, like, low-guaranteed deal.

Bring him in to compete, see if he can bounce back from another injury but i think that'd be super intriguing all right uh this comes from vikings couch hello couch i'm curious what this day means to anthony harris uh well we saw john johnson get a pretty darn big contract with Cleveland, but that takes Cleveland off the list of teams who could sign Anthony Harris, and they had interest last year. Vegas needs safeties quite a bit. I am still hanging in the weeds here, peeking out at everybody with like, Anthony Harris might come back, because I just have trouble with certain players seeing other teams valuing them as much as the Vikings would.

And Harris strikes me as a guy who, unless he is upset, which is possible, if he's unhappy with the franchise tag thing from last year. And he, in terms of how he talked to us, changed quite a bit last year. Like just his general overall tone and body language and how comfortable he seemed just talking with the media after that franchise tag. I thought there was a different vibe there from him. So maybe he's not happy. And maybe he's saying, I'll go anywhere else. Sort of like Rhodes last year. Rhodes, they asked him to come back and he just said, nah, I'm going to sign for almost nothing somewhere else. But with Anthony Harris, if he does not have that issue, then I think there's a decent chance that he comes back because I struggle to see teams forking out a lot of cash for him.

Let me ask you this, though. Do you want him back after the way he played last year? Even if it's a bit of a bargain, he was not good last year. It seemed uncomfortable with that additional responsibility of playing with these corners who were very unpredictable and it seemed like he was caught guessing a lot and usually on the wrong end of it he was trying to undercut routes letting stuff get over the top stuff that Mike Zimmer hates happening and he was letting it happen quite a bit do they want him again after seeing what happened with sort of that unseasoned cornerback group? I think both safeties looked like they were pretty frustrated last year with

miscommunications. And this is why corners in Mike Zimmer's system usually play in year three and not in year one because of that. I say that Anthony Harris probably isn't going to be overall a different player if you sign him again. Not, I mean, from the bigger sample, like he's not a superstar like he played in 2019. And he's not a below average player like he played in 2020. He's somewhere in the middle. And safeties just have ups and downs because so much of their job is based on everything else that gets done and a

lot of times they're the guy who ends up looking bad where you think you have help and you don't or you're supposed to help this guy and somebody lets it go or I mean just the longer a quarterback can hold the football hurts the safety more because those are the longer developing routes and if you're sitting there and waiting and waiting and waiting those guys can cross your face and get open all that sort of thing so I think that he was just in a tough spot last year and is still a fine player when he gets an opportunity he also had something like seven pass breakups and no picks and the year before it was like seven picks and not that many pass breakups so sometimes things just work out that way I'd be fine with it just not long term but they don't have another answer if there was a developmental player behind him I'd be fine with it, just not long term. But they don't have another answer.

If there was a developmental player behind him, I'd go hand it over to that guy because you want to see what you have. They don't have that. And they also don't have so much draft capital that they can just say, oh, yeah, we'll draft Trayvon Morag and somebody else and somebody else and somebody else that will fill these other holes. So but I guess it's hard to pinpoint how Anthony Harris feels. If he is okay with coming back, I think it's fine. I think it's all right if he comes back. I also think it's, you know, something that these other players developed chemistry with Anthony Harris over, I'm sorry, Harrison Smith over years with Sandejo and with Anthony

Harris. So now somebody else has to come in and figure that out. So tons of tons of great questions. I could keep going because a lot of you sent them in and I really appreciate them. But we have gone on for a long time. So this was day one. Deep breath, everybody.

Day two, we'll be recapping that as well. Check out, by the way, purpleinsider.substack.com. Go there, sign up if you want to sign up. Purpleinsider.com, I'm sorry, purpleinsider.substack.com slash free agency will get you 25% off if you subscribe. So now you can go there and do that and not regret making it all the way to the end of this podcast. So thank you for your time, Sam. You and I will talk again very soon and check out our little youtube instant reactions we're always putting those out our little purple insider extras so if you go to

purple insider on youtube and sign up or subscribe i mean um i gotta get all these things right then you'll get those so thanks sam thank you football football