Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Vikings free agency special Hour 1: Jonathan Allen visiting Minnesota

Episode Date: March 10, 2025

Matthew Coller reacts live to news coming down surrounding the Minnesota Vikings on the opening day of free agency.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Hey everybody, welcome to the purple insider Vikings free agency special. It is time. We are just moments away from the legal tampering period beginning in the national football league. And if some of you have noticed, there's some social media issues with Twitter being broken, but I've got NFL network here to my right. I have blue sky to my left, which I haven't done a whole lot with, but coming up a little bit clutch right now is a lot of the newsmakers have turned over there. So I guess if you want a blue sky account,

there's some accounts over there that are tweeting out the news. And if you want a blue sky account, there's, uh, some accounts over there that are tweeting out the news. And if you guys see anything, or if your Twitter works, feel free to jump in the comments, I do suggest that you make sure that it's a real account, sending it out before you share it to everybody in the comments, but here we are an exciting day for the Minnesota Vikings. We may get resolution on Sam Darnold where he's going to go. We may see signings roll in for the Vikings at

all the positions we've talked about and all the players we've discussed how they would fit where the money is going to go so much happening and there are two news items to begin with. I'll start with the one I have less to say about, which is the signing of Ryan Wright, the Vikings punter. So they are bringing back Ryan Wright, but that doesn't necessarily mean that there will be no competition for Ryan Wright in training camp.

That's really all there is to say about that. Ryan Wright has been an average punter over the last three years in terms of his total. He was really good in 2022. I thought he fell off a bit in 2023 and last year just up and down for Ryan Wright and there's the whole opinion. There's some other free agent punters that maybe they could have gone with and instead they're bringing him back though. I'm absolutely certain bringing an undrafted free agent and have that person compete with Ryan, right? And we'll see where it goes. But one thing to mention with Ryan, right? Is that, and this is important when you have a kicker who has as much talent as Will

Reichard, they seem to have a good connection last year. And the holding is an important thing for the punter. So there's the whole opinion on Ryan Wright. Now, Jonathan Allen, this is the more exciting news. Jonathan Allen is going to visit with the Minnesota Vikings, according to ESPN's Adam Schefter and Tom Pelcero of NFL Network. And as far as Jonathan Allen goes,

a lot of you asked about trading for him. When Washington put it out there, Hey, he, we're going to let him seek a trade. And my thing was that is not really a contract that you can trade for. Uh, it's big and his numbers were not what they were a couple of years ago. But when it comes to a signing, that is different because they can control the price of assigning. So Washington was not able to find a trade partner like so many of those who tried the last ditch. We've given him a chance to go seek a trade.

Yeah, he's got an unmovable contract, but that's fine. Well, in this case, they did release Jonathan Allen and now he is visiting with the Vikings, which of course is going to go along with where does he stand physically? Jonathan Allen is 30 years old, so he is not ancient, but his performance over the last two years has not been the same as it was from 2020 to 2022. From 2020 to 2022, Jonathan Allen was hands down an elite player in the NFL. One of the best interior rushers in the league.

He had as many as 67 pressures in a season, which if you get that many, that's usually at the defensive tackle spot, putting you all the way up the top unless you're Aaron Donald. And over the last two years, he still had success as a pass rusher. And this is why I would be somewhat interested in Jonathan Allen joining the Vikings, because even though he has dipped in terms of his run defense, his tackling grade, things like that have gone down over the last couple of years. So his overall PFF grade has gone down.

He is still able to create pressure on the quarterback. He's not getting quite as many sacks as he used to, but can you be some type of impact player for a relatively decent price? So think about last year, our expectation for Aaron Jones. Now it turned out differently for Aaron Jones and he was fantastic, but our expectation for Aaron Jones last year was, Hey, you got a 30 year old player who's coming in and maybe splits and is a duo with somebody and you hope that he brings some percentage of what he used to, to the table.

And that's still a positive for you. That's how I would view Jonathan Allen. Now, of course, Aaron Jones hit and a home run, but when you're bringing in older players, it was this way with Patrick Peterson to the idea of 75% of what that player once was on a very short term and small contract is much better than going out and getting a below average player who maybe is coming off an injury or something like that. That's how I view, uh, Jonathan Allen and his potential with the Vikings is even 75% of Jonathan Allen for what he was two years ago would still be way better than what the Vikings have brought to the interior defensive line in terms of pressure.

If he was a rotational player, even if he had the Jahad Ward role from last year where Jahad Ward was a rotational rusher that came in on second down and long came in third down and was able to create a fair number of pressures, but I don't think he was as good as what you would expect from Jonathan Allen. And I think this also just signifies that the Vikings are very much in on the idea of creating pressure with four. That's the, the important concept here that even just bringing Jonathan Allen in, they watch the Superbowl. You watch the Superbowl. It is a hack.

If you can create pressure by not having to blitz and Brian Flores is always going to be super aggressive. He's always going to want to blitz, but I think that there are some third towns where he would love to just say, go get the quarterback and rush with four and not have to do anything else and dial up some crazy stuff coverage wise instead of always having to go after the quarterback. So Jonathan Allen is that kind of guy. He is coming off an injury last year. He still had 26 pressures in 421 total snaps, which is a pretty good number.

Two years ago, he had 49 total pressures. So he's getting into the backfield still and has a good amount of talent. But how much you're going to pay for that is a major question. And Dante bringing up DJ Jones, who was somebody that was on my radar. And I will have to give the speech here about prices at the beginning of the show that if DJ Jones was bringing in $39 million on a three year deal and DJ Jones is more of a solid all around defensive tackle, he's not a superstar type of player, that the prices out there for a lot of positions are going to be absolutely enormous and Already as some of you have mentioned Khalil Mack coming back at 18 million at his price and JC Horne signing for

25 million we're just going to have to recalibrate our brains with the new salary cap that is almost 280 million dollars. I mean that that is, that's really crazy. So do we got, is the chat, is the chat down? What is going on with the internet today? What is going on with the internet? The chat just dying out here on me and the page. Hold on, I'll have to pull up the myself here to see you guys in the chat.

Okay. Huh. Unfortunately, the chat in my window has gone down, but I have it still right here in front of me and we'll just do it that way. Uh, just everything on the internet exploding now because of NFL free ages. If you didn't already know how much the NFL operated the universe. Now I think you have a pretty good sense for it. So let's talk about a few other things that have happened so far. Uh, I discussed, yeah. Hassan Reddick, Hassan Reddick, just skipping out on last year and then still getting $14 million is okay.

Now the chat's working again. Great. So, I mean, just think about like how crazy these numbers are going to be, but there's not that much talent in free agency and everybody is going after the same couple of players that are all good. So when it comes to some of the other moves, Devante Adams going to the Rams, that is an enormous one very clearly the rams have to do stuff like that to go all in and the rams next year are going to be a super bowl or bus team again after a couple years ago twenty twenty one and then they had to rebuild it and last year they were pretty close to taking down the Philadelphia Eagles in Philly. Stafford comes back to the Rams and then these got puka Nakua. It looks like this means Cooper cup must be gone from the Rams,

but they get to Vonte Adams. He can still play, but maybe not the same level that he used to be one of those older signings that can still contribute, but just another signal that the Rams are not tearing it down. They're not rebuilding. They're going all in Khalil Mac staying with the chargers. Not that that was really something on the Vikings radar at all, but his price, I think shows you just what kind of dollar figures we're talking about here when it comes

to free agency and Grady Jarrett is on the market now and the thing about Grady Jarrett, I could call up his numbers as well. Uh, Grady Jarrett has not been the same over the last couple of seasons. Uh, last year he had 34 pressures played 744 snaps, 62 grade when he was at his best and totally destroying the Minnesota Vikings. He was grading by PFF in the nineties and getting 50 to 60 quarterback pressures, but that doesn't mean he can't contribute. Like I feel the same way about Jonathan Allen as I do Grady Jarrett.

If someone would pay a ton of money for Grady Jarrett, well, they can have them. I mean, that's not really something you want the Vikings to do. You want them to spend their big money on players who are under 27 or 28 years old, multi-year players last year should be very, uh, instructive, I think for how to do it, where the Vikings last year they went in and they got players who are in their primes or coming into their primes in the case of Jonathan Grenard and they signed After miles garret gets forty million dollars it really shows you just how good that contract for jonathan grinard really is and so getting him a kind of a high price. Add twenty two million dollars a year last year which seem like a little risky at the time because he only had one year as a top notch pass rusher. But then that ends up paying off huge dividends. So you're kind of looking for the same thing today for the Vikings to go into free agency and try to get players who can be here over multiple years.

And you mentioned Will Fries is someone that has been brought up a lot. It's probably the top target overall for the Vikings on the offensive line. That's somebody who's not very old, who could be here for a four year contract, if not longer than that, with a guard, you're looking to solidify positions for a long time. And when you talk about the drafting and they haven't hit on this player, that player, but if you could sign young ish or in their prime players to multi-year contracts, it does make up some of the difference Dwayne keeping me updated here that

Jalen Moore former 49ers signed a 30 million dollar deal for two years which with the Chiefs Well, I mean again that tells you I'm not even familiar with his game that tells you Just how much money is going to be thrown around today. No surprise Chris Godwin is going back to the Tampa Bay Bucks. That's been another theme so far is that players are mostly signing with their own teams that they haven't really tested the market. Uh, Chris Godwin getting three years, $66 million. He's been a good player. He's been banged up Tampa Bay, clearly trying to keep it together with Baker Mayfield and Mike Evans and Chris Godwin and, uh, continuing to be a competitive team in the NFC South.

I think that they're just kind of a, another team in the league that can make the playoffs, but doesn't have much higher of a ceiling and bringing back Chris Godwin's good for them. It's probably infuriating to all the other fan bases that talked about it, but there's another thing too here with Chris Godwin, who's a little bit older and a little bit broken down and the price he got and the expected price for Jamar Chase and also the DK Metcalf trade which I want to talk about. It all just points to Justin Jefferson, Christian Derrisaw, Jonathan Grenard, the big contracts. I'm sorry you guys are funny. Talk me into Jalen Moore being an actual

person. Honestly I was not that familiar with him. So, you know, maybe maybe he's not. I think I've seen enough reporting that he is. But when you look at those contracts that they sign now with the way that this has gone up with the salary cap and the way the prices have exploded, Justin Jefferson last year, there's talk about and not from anyone inside the Vikings, of course, or not anyone covering the Vikings, of course, but talk on the outside and within

fans of the go. Should we trade Jefferson? If you pay him too much, you won't be able to afford him. And then one year later, now all of a sudden, DK Metcalf is getting almost as much as Justin Jefferson. And in my opinion, those two things are nowhere close. I think Justin Jefferson is far better of a wide receiver than DK Metcalf. A couple of your questions, any steam on Mackay Bekton? That I don't know, because there is a connection with the new assistant offensive line coach

that apparently is not a positive connection. Bechton was a guy that I thought would have been a really good fit, but if there is an issue between those two from the past, then that seems less likely that that's going to happen. How did DJ Reid grade out last year? DJ Reid didn't quite grade out, I can call it it up as good as he did two years ago. Uh, I think some of that was the New York jets, maybe firing their defensive minded head coach. Probably not the best idea when they did it for the Robert solid, but still really good. I mean, DJ Reed is one of my favorite targets here. We just have to understand that that's going to cost a lot of money looking at

what JC Horn was just able to bring in. He graded a 70 last year, which is, which is solid. He has been so consistent over his career from Seattle to the jets, even when he was with San Francisco, but when he was with Seattle, he was grading consistently among the upper tier. I mean, you think about it, How many corners play in a season? It's got to be 120 corners play per season. And DJ Reid was grading among the top.

10% of that and has continued to do it. Slip just a little bit last year. I think penalties was part of it. Maybe penalties even in the Vikings game. But think about this for DJ Reid. This is why he's one of my favorite targets. He has never allowed in a full season, a quarterback rating and throws in his direction over 91.

So he also is more of the man coverage type of player. That's somebody that I really like. We got another punter signing here, JK Scott, oh, there's a punter target off the list. So, but just to circle back, the fact that Chris Godwin who has been banged up and who has struggled. Is getting $20 million a year. The fact that DK Metcalf is getting $30 million a year.

I mean, that really, really tells you that. Just the Jefferson's contract is tremendous. It's it's an excellent contract at this point and the way that they were able to work around it to make it so it's not that expensive early on. The update, by the way, on Aaron Jones, I guess last night that his first year cap hit would be 4.5, it's 4.8. So there was a, on Aaron Jones, I guess last night that his first year cap hit would be 4.5. It's 4.8. So there was a lot of Aaron Jones, they overpaid and then his cap hit for this year is $4.8

million. And if they move on from him next year, I think they'll have a dead cap of maybe 5 million or something, or they can restructure his deal. Always and forever. It's going to look a little different than the number and the dollars. And that is another PSA for today. As we talk about these signings is whatever comes out first, the player X has signed for Y dollars.

I am getting the Twitter updates now. I don't know if it's actually working or just, or just, they made sure Adam Schefters is working. So they're sending to my phone. Uh, so anyway, uh, you're always going to see these big numbers. This player signed X four Y, but a lot of times those are pumped up numbers as much as the agent can make it seem. And it's not always the structure and the reality of the deal.

The guaranteed dollars matter more, but they're harder to process and what it actually means. So I think that you, we have to be careful about sticker shock when we finally do see here and I say, finally, we're 15 minutes into this when, when the Vikings do make, uh, signings and so forth. We should at some point get some sort of update on what is going to happen at the Vikings quarterback position. But I feel like the quarterback position became a little, uh, anti-climactic.

It seemed like it was all kind of leading up to today and there was a lot of insider reporting, maybearnold will return. I could see a Darnold return and the Vikings are trying to work on something with him. And then. Right after Gino Smith was traded, there were so many reports that Sam Darnold was going to become a Seattle Seahawk that you just sort of shrugged like, Oh, well, okay. Uh, I guess he's becoming a Seattle Seahawk. And I know of course that it's really significant that he would be. Leaving and going somewhere else after a 14 win season, but it's, it took away the drama of, Hey, we all find out today.

Right. Like I think we already found out and Adam Schefter and multiple people reported that Sam Darnall is not going to come back to the Vikings, which is what I thought was going to happen after the combine from everything I had heard. And then all the insider reporters were saying that he could come back and I like my brain was not processing why that would be the reporting. But I thought, well, maybe something changed on my flight home. I don't know.

But now I guess we'll see. I did think last night though, if you're Sam Darnold, I think we can all agree on this, that if you're a biking fan, you should want nothing but the best for Sam Darnold, you should want them to go to a good place. You should want them to succeed because that guy came in as the bridge quarterback and provided a really fun season for this team. And just think about the throw in Seattle, you know, the game against the Falcons, like a lot, a lot of good football was played by Sam Darnold.

So you should want them to go have a good situation somewhere else and succeed because he put his name in that list of all, all the, uh, you know, the Viking quarterbacks of the past that have come through for like the Jeff Georges and the case Kenams. And I think that there's a really special place for those players in Vikings fans hearts, right? And so the Darnold should be that way. Uh, if he goes to Seattle, I think they're in tough a little bit.

They have Jackson Smith and the jig, but they've traded DK Metcalf. They do have a lot of draft capital. They could rebuild around him the same way that maybe Detroit did in a less super tanky kind of way, but only a mild tanky kind of way. But I did wonder if, and I saw there's some reporting today that Justin Fields is maybe going to go back to the Pittsburgh Steelers. But if you're Sam Darnold, you've got to consider if the Steelers are interested going and playing with George Pickens and DK Metcalf as a downfield type of passing quarterback. Uh, I am seeing now that drew Dullman is signing with the Chicago bears.

So that means that the bears now have acquired, and this should be no surprise with Ben Johnson as their head coach that they have now traded for Jonah Jackson traded for Joe Tooney and signed Drew Dalman. That is the interior offensive line that the, uh, Vikings fans really wanted. Right. Okay. Three years, $42 million from Adam Schefter on drew Dalman. Uh, I also have been interested that there's really no steam, if you will, for

the Vikings doing anything except for having Garrett Bradbury as their center. I guess we'll see if that changed, but you know, with drew Dalman, he was really the only needle mover as a center. And now he signs with the chicago bears but uh my intern clay wrote an article and i helped him with the data a little bit over at purple insider dot football about how much the improvements on the interior offensive line for the felt or for the bears are going to actually help Caleb Williams. Now it's going to help their run game because they just went out and got one

of the better run blocking centers in the entire NFL, Andrew Dahlman and Jonah Jackson. That's his thing. And look at their coach, Ben Johnson. And this is how things change in a yearly basis, right? Last year, the bears didn't have a difference making line when it came to run blocking. I think as far as their pass blocking

when they were mostly fine, except the quarterback, Caleb Williams held onto the ball for way too long. And that's what all the numbers show that it's it was concerning how often Caleb Williams was causing his own pressure and his own problems. So I don't think that drew Dahlman who has not graded that well as a pass blocker or Jonah Jackson, who has not graded that well as a pass blocker. I don't think that either one of those guys change.

What's going to happen with Caleb Williams. He's either going to get rid of the ball or he's not, he's either going to figure out how to run an offense, which for Ben Johnson, you have to run the offense. You see Jared golf being really good at it, running play action, using the intermediate areas of the field. Like those are things that Caleb Williams is going to have to do. But these offensive line acquisitions now, Tooney is one of the elite pass blockers. So, but Tevin Jenkins was also really good at pass blocking too.

These acquisitions do not change the ability to pass block that much for the Chicago bears. What they do is they increase their ability to run the football. And you know that coming over from Detroit, Ben Johnson is going to want to run the ball a lot and this is something that should be concerning for the Vikings that they're Going to have a coach who has a system that has beat them in the past and that now Their interior offensive line is going to be as good as it gets in terms of run blocking A lot of folks are saying just looking at the reaction over here on social media, that drew Dahlman is not worth that kind of contract and so forth. That's probably true as a run blocking specialist. But the Bears have the cap space and they have the coach that's going to run the football.

So it's probably a good acquisition within the context of the Chicago bears and their current situation. Uh, yeah. I mean, I think that some of the reactions on, you know, Garrett Bradbury, uh, no team is serious about winning. If it, if it starts Garrett Bradbury, I think that's probably too harsh. Uh, I've talked about Bradbury way more than I want to talk about a center on the show over the years, because he was a first round draft pick, but just one time I would be maybe curious to see, uh, Garrett Bradbury with the same offensive line next to him

and quality guards, uh, I think for his entire career, the Vikings have been patchworking the guard positions around Garrett Bradbury. And I know that he's not an exceptional pass blocker. And he's had better years under Kevin O'Connell than he did earlier in his career. And he's going to get pushed back by defensive tackles. But I think a lot of the issues at the end of last year were just confusion. Who's blocking who? Can you pick up stunts? Can you pick up twists things going on up front?

And if the Vikings were to add some beef at the guard position, I think that you can be fine at that spot with Garrett Bradbury now longterm next contract. You should look upgrade. But the thing about the center position is that when teams have a really good center, they don't often let that person go. And even if you look at on paper with someone like drew Dalman, because I know through this process, a lot of fans were saying, Oh, the Vikings should cut Bradbury.

They should sign drew Dalman and that kind of thing. But you look at them on paper and it's not a huge difference. Dahlman grades out batteries a little bigger when it comes to run blocking, but the pass blocking is still an issue. There's just not that many centers in the league who are going to be super stout when it comes to the pass blocking part of it. That's just the reality of that position. It's usually a smaller and a quicker position.

So with Bradbury, I think that if they did sign two of the bigger guards in the league that maybe you're talking about a little bit better performance because he would have something around him. And I really think of this a lot. I was looking at Kevin Zeitler's grades. He's a free agent that I am intrigued by because that Zeitler's in his mid 30s, but he could still play and Zeitler started to slip a little bit with his grades and that's how the Lions were able to get him so cheap.

And then last year he graded like he was one of the best linemen in the entire league. And I think what that shows you is that. Offensive linemen impact each other. And we saw that last year at left guard from Blake Brandle. Now, some of you have argued that maybe Blake Brandle should come back and should continue to be the left guard. And I don't totally disagree because he was playing well with Christian Derrassau

there. And when Christian Derrassau went down, his play went down. Um, I would prefer that they spent a lot of money on the right guard and left guard and they loaded that thing up with the best possible talent, but there are some limitations to what you can do in the interior offensive line. Dolman is off the board. Toony and Jackson both get traded to the same spot. Uh, Trey Smith gets taken off the board pretty early because of free agency.

So now you are left with guys like, you know, uh, drew Dahlman getting huge contracts and stuff like that. And will fries who has been a good player, but has not been an elite player throughout the years. He's been a pretty good player who's ascending and getting better. But I don't think that he is somebody who is a complete crazy game changer and he might get paid like that because of how sparse things are on the offensive line and the Vikings may have to consider looking at the 24th overall pick or wherever they would trade down to at the guard position. So let's say they only sign one guard and then look to the draft. That might be a better idea as much as some of their draft picks have not gone right in the offensive line on the interior recently. But when I look at a gray Zabel, I know Tyler Booker didn't have a very good combine, but he's still a good prospect.

There are some players who Kelvin banks from Texas who is a tackle, but has said he's willing to play guard. And a lot of people have kind of pointed to him playing guard. Even it would be crazy if Will Campbell dropped the LSU tackle, but if he's a guard, then maybe it's possible that there's more options coming out of the draft than I thought there were going to be because a lot of those tackles like me don't have the longest wingspan and the short-armed heroes like myself. I don't know if you could see them. They're not long. Those guys end up getting pushed into guard and now that guard is going

to be a position that's getting paid as high as it is, then you're gonna see tackles more willing to do it. Coming out and saying, okay, you know what? I don't mind being a guard. Those guys are getting 20 plus million dollars a year. Let's go. So I think that that might be the smartest plan, even if there's other things at the 24th overall pick that I would like the Vikings to do, which is Derek Harmon, you know, is out there as well.

Uh, but there are, as, uh, as Dwayne says here in the comments, there are some guys, Patrick McCarrey is an interesting one, Zeitler, Brandon Scherff could still play, Will Hernandez is somebody that I've looked at. So Aaron Banks is the one that I don't love because there's just not a lot of evidence that Aaron Banks is good. Aaron Banks is large. Oh, we got, we got a move here.

We got BJ Hill. One of my favorite targets off the board signing with the Cincinnati Bengals, so re-signing with his own team. Uh, so he's going to stay there. BJ Hill was a guy that I thought, you know, was a good target for the Vikings, um, but, uh, ultimately ends up staying with his team. And we, and we've got a lot of that. Uh, there's just been a lot of that so far in this free agency period of, you

know, these, these guys signing and staying with their team. So BJ Hill is off the board. This might be more motivation to sign somebody like Jonathan Allen. But, uh, just, um, just kind of, uh, circling back to that point with the guards that when you throw those names out there and, you know, I, I like those guys as, as short-term fillers, a Will Hernandez, a Zeitler, a brand sheriff, uh, but if it's Aaron Banks, I saw a report that Aaron Banks was going to break the banks, if you will. And I just don't really like that idea when we're talking about,

I was reading Brandon Thorne and he does the offensive line stuff. Uh, he, he has a great newsletter where he breaks down offensive line, things like that, um, trench warfare. And I was reading his rankings and he had Aaron banks as I think the 12th best offensive lineman in this free agent crop, which is not inspiring to pay somebody $20 million and he is young. Uh, and he could, but young ish and we have a big enough sample size with a similar type of offense to make me think that's not going to be a massive upgrade from somebody like Blake brand.

If you put the two next to each other on paper, their size, what they've done as far as their pff grades and their performance, it looks very, very similar. And if I can't find a significant upgrade there, then I don't want to pay that X number of dollars. There was a report that the Vikings could be interested. That would be one where I would say, and that might be a little bit of rich for my blood, uh, Javon Kinlaw going to the commanders. Okay. Uh, Javon Kinlaw was another one that I was kind of interested in, not super interested in, but just kind of for the

Vikings as a like low, uh, you know, low, uh, dollar signing. I don't know off to see what Ken lawns up getting here, but something that, you know, maybe is not a huge investment. That kind of player is somebody that I think the Vikings can use. So he ends up going to the commanders, replacing Jonathan Allen there. And I think as a rotational player, as Jeff says, rotational player for Jonathan Allen, I think he could be a good piece, but only pay for it that way. Only pay for Jonathan Allen to be that kind of player. Uh, Javon Kinlaw being one of the first signings is not something that I had

on the bingo board. I'm not surprised that drew Dahlman, but Hey, what Kinlaw being one of the first signings is not something that I had on the bingo board. I'm not surprised that drew Dahlman, but hey, what's the biggest sign of the first big signing? Like, uh, well, the Vikings kept their punter and Javon Kinlaw went to the commander's decent year for him last year. Uh, Hunter asking what the plan is at cornerback after JC horn signed his deal today, $25 million a year. The prices are definitely getting pumped up for corners. And I know we're going to say that a lot, but I think that when we're talking about what they're going to do with certain players, we have to ask, all right, it's fine to throw around your money, but how much of it do you want to throw around?

Who do you want to throw it at? And do you want to throw $20 million a year at DJ Reid? I think DJ Reid is close to somebody you want to throw $20 million a year at. And if he's close, then you should very highly consider it. I will be curious, too. I think we've all written off the idea that Byron Murphy could come back. I don't think that's over. We're already seeing some players.

Wait, Javon Kinlaw got 45 million. Oh wow. Okay, I'm sticker shock guy now. I'm sticker shock guy now. Javon Kinlaw got three years, 45 million. Whoa. So now I'm back to drafting a defensive tackle. Whoa, trade down, get a guard, get a defensive tackle.

Holy cow. 15 million a year for a guy who just was a bust in San Francisco and got four and a half sacks last year. Four and a half sacks is worth 15 million a year. I think DJ reads press in 20 now, and this is probably the reason that Byron Murphy Jr. Decided to test the market to see if he could get in that range. And I'm sure when Byron Murphy Jr.

Woke up today and he saw that JC horn just got 25 million dollars a year that Byron Murphy Jr. was like, OK, it's a great day to be great, I guess. Like and that's very likely why the Vikings weren't able to resign him. I know that they wanted him to come back. But if his price was up in that type of ballpark, that would be a little too rich for their blood, even with the salary cap space that they have.

So I do think, I don't know what Stephane Gilmore's plans are going to be. My guess though is just getting a sense from being around Stephane Gilmore last year. I don't think he's gonna make a decision until August. I think he'll decide who he's going to play for in August. It worked out just fine for him to stay in shape all summer and then come in as a mercenary

for a couple million bucks. So if he's going to play, I think that's exactly how he's going to do it this year. Let's see. Where does a yeah. Imagine what's going on in Milton Williams head, right? Adam Butler resigned. That was one of my guys that I thought would be an interesting fit for the Vikings. Milton Williams is another one where, wow, Ken Laws was 30 million guaranteed. Wow. So, right. I mean, it's gotta be a lot, a lot better for

Milton Williams, who just had an incredible Superbow Bowl that if Milton Williams can play at that level and create as much pressure as he did and be as much of a problem for offensive lineman that if Kinlaw is getting 15 that's as well over it has to be well over 20 million dollars a year for Milton Williams and he's going to be a top target of a lot of teams. I'm sure the Vikings are going to have that conversation. So what the Vikings have to do is they have to say to themselves, where are we going to overspend? Like which position is worth too much money to give to guard is probably

one of them because of the scarcity. I'm not sure the defensive tackle is with this draft. I don't think already, I think you have to look at the Aaron Jones contract and be like, I know these aren't running backs, but just. Okay. That's a pretty fair, reasonable dollar figure compared to what free agents are getting, and I don't know what his interest would have been elsewhere, but, uh, you're right.

Yes. It's probably kin laws, familiarity with the leadership in Washington, but still, I mean, to go first day on that guy with that much money and set the bar there, 30 million guaranteed 15 a year. That really says, and even BJ Hill signing after, or maybe a few minutes before kin law might've been and Hey, wait a minute. So I think BJ Hill's deal was $10 million a year over three years.

And that was something that I thought the Vikings might be interested in. But I guess BJ Hill wants to continue to be a Cincinnati Bengal as some people have. Said, but how about throw that out there while we wait? And while we have these conversations, we could circle back to the quarterback situation. I wrote about, uh, JJ McCarthy today over at purpleinsider.football. And would be pleased if you read that for why the Vikings can be confident that, uh, JJ McCarthy is going to be their guy going forward.

I could talk a little more about the one big news item so far, which is Jonathan Allen visiting the Vikings, but who would you overspend up? Give me that in the comments. If you're going to overspend either a position or a free agent, we could talk about, because we now already know these prices are crazy high, but the Vikings have cap space. So it's not like, I mean, you gotta spend it. You go into the store, just think about this. Like I don't, I don't know a lot of high end store. I don't shop at a lot of high end stores.

Louis Vuitton or something. What is that a thing? Uh, but how about just, it's like going to the mall. Okay. I love going to the mall, but you know, if you go to the mall to shop, you're paying more for a sweater than you would if you went to Target. The, and part of it is the experience of shopping at the mall to shop, you're paying more for a sweater than you would if you went to target be. And part of it is the experience of shopping at the mall. You're overpaying, but that's okay, because that's what you went there to do. And you've got the money. It's like, how about this?

If someone gave you a gift card to the mall for 500 bucks and you're like, well, you got to spend it at the mall. Like, okay, well, you know, maybe they don't have everything I want. And I got overspend, but someone just gave me this money. Like you they've been given the cap space. You've got the cap space. So who are you going to overspend on and where is it the smartest overspend? Also, also Aaron Rogers. Well, he's trying so hard.

Isn't he is Aaron. Raw. I just saw another report here about the Steelers getting close Is that from Aaron Rodgers or is that from just? Like an actual report. I don't know if it's for an actual reporter or if Aaron Rodgers is just telling everyone that he's close to signing with people Man, I wish them the best if they decide to do that just sign in the deal with the devil All right. Let me get some of your your ideas here where to overspend on the best if they decide to do that. Just sign in the deal with the devil.

All right. Let me get some of your, your ideas here. Where to overspend on overspend on cam by them. Well, now that they signed Theo Jackson back, are they doing that? I don't know if they're doing that after signing Theo back. I am interested if safety's on their radar though. One thing we don't know is what Harrison Smith's doing. It's kind of relevant. I mean, they could bring in somebody else just the way that this defense works.

You could still have Theo Jackson, Josh Mattelis, Trayvon Morrig, Javon Holland. You could have all those guys because Brian Flores is going to be able to do it along with Harrison Smith, but it would be nice for them to get an answer. So is this report? Wow. Is this report really real that the Steelers are getting close to Aaron Rodgers? Wow. Wow.

Okay. I just, it really shows you desperation when we're going to see what happens with Sam Darnold. So I could end up being wrong about this, but when Darnold had those two games at the end of the year, all I saw was Darnold just lost himself a ton of money. Darnold just lost himself a ton of money. And I just, I don't know, man, people are signing Aaron Rogers. Still he's won 13 of his last 34 games.

And yet that's clearly the Steelers are panicking. They got tired of winning 10 games and being eliminated. Very quickly, but. Going with Aaron Rodgers, I don't know, that sounds just like what the Jets did. We've got a good defense. OK. Good luck. All right. So've got a good defense. Okay. Good luck. Uh, all right. So overspending on buying.

Yeah. Overspent. Like if Bynum wants to come back, I mean, he's a good player and I've always been, uh, on the side of can't bind him because he brings a high IQ. He is healthy. And something we always have to consider big time with free agents and where you're spending your money is that can buy them as younger and he's healthy and he's a great culture guy and he's going to bring a lot

to the room. And now that we're seeing all these people getting overpaid, maybe it doesn't feel as crazy because the number that I tossed out there for potential for buying him was like 15 million. And now we're seeing all these numbers. Where guys are coming in that aren't even good like javon kinloch fifteen million so that's what they ended up giving by them and keeping it together i've been when you win fourteen games of the top five defense it's not hard to convince me to keep people around. I dj read really like him he still in his prime. How old is he? He's 28. So that would be like a three year type of contract. But if you paid three years and 20 million a year for him, then I think that's a good overspend. I would agree with that.

Will fries and DJ Reed, those seem to be the two top targets. Poulsen Adibo is one that I the two top targets. Paul Sinodibo is one that I really want to find out what his market actually is. Because two years ago, Paul said, and we're going to say this a lot on a lot of these free agents two years ago, Paul Sinodibo is one of the exciting young emerging corners in the league. And I remember going into the game, the one where Josh Dobbs actually shredded the New Orleans saints, but going into that game and talking about, Hey, this Paulson, a Debo kid is making plays left, right and center.

And then he gets hurt last year and he's put out videos of himself doing back flips and all sorts of stuff to show that he's healthy. That's a good bet to me because what I like and I'll look up his age right now. What I like in free agency is even if someone is getting overpaid, yeah, he's not even 26 years old Paulson to D-ball. I would absolutely overpay for even more so than DJ Reid. I think I think reads a better player right now, but somebody who's 26 years old. If you're giving them a four year contract, you're getting the whole rest of their prime.

That's the Jonathan Grenard contract is instructive overpaying for someone betting on them coming into their prime rather than getting someone who is 2829 whose team is letting them go or who's choosing not to stay. Steve says overpay on a number one corner and number one guard. Well, there's really, I mean, there's only one right guard spot. So if you're the, you're the starter there, it's different than the one corner. That that's the, there are very few number one corners. There are very few number one corners that are true.

Number one's Reed is close, but he even wasn't with his own team because that was sauce Gardner read was better last year than Gardner But Gardner's the guy there Sharvarious ward has been that in past years. Is he still that I don't know Jacob says what available guards would you be okay with overspending on? I think I would be really okay with overspending on an old guy for one year. So overspend $12 million for Kevin Zeitler. Okay. Like something like that brand and sheriff, how about, you know, 12 to $14 million for a year of him. That in my mind is a good idea.

And if you're talking about getting the top guy in free agency, Will fries. Okay. But what we have to all agree on, if they sign will fries for $15 million or something like that, I mean, uh, we got a corner signing Jordan Lewis to the Jaguars. Okay. And he's going to be the highest paid nickel corner in the league. Okay. Uh, Jordan Lewis has been very up and down for Dallas for the last few years.

So if you're, if you're paying will fries, we all have to agree though, that he's not going to meet the contract number that he's going to be a good guard, but he's not going to be worth whatever they give him. I think in some of these corners, they could be Paul Senedibo could be. He could be worth the overpay, uh, fries over a couple of years could also end up being fine and land in the middle of his position in terms of pay, like three years down the road. If you sign them to something like a four year deal, all these are kind of

considerations as we just break down the like, Oh, it just got the number in. And this is what he signed for. And that's going to be, but we all have to agree to not set the bar. As in every time the guy allows a quarterback pressure, we go, they spent this many of dollars on him. How dare he like you, you're going to have to make sure you're reasonable about the expectations. Uh, Evan says his bind.

I'm going to take 15 million anymore. I don't, I don't know with the prices that are out there the there is a decent chance that. He gets even more than that but i don't know how about how the high the bars gonna go because the thing is. That there are a lot of safeties that are very good justin read j Javon Holland, Trayvon Morig and Bynum might be the fourth safety. So it is plausible that Bynum could go to the market and find out. No, actually those other guys are the ones who are getting crazy overpaid and it's not going to be you. You are a second wave type of signing.

Now I have heard some teams who have talked about cam buying them do have him high on their list, but, uh, I, I don't, I don't know if cam buying them is going to get quite as much as some of those other guys, how long is the stream going? So my, my plan was to go for a couple hours at the beginning of free agency and then do a recap show live tonight, but I make the rules. So I'll just kind of keep going until something happens. Cause right now we don't really have anything happening with the Vikings.

And so my plan was, Hey, a couple hours when it first starts a couple hours later on, and then we'll see where it goes. Uh, the, the only thing we have first starts a couple hours later on, and then we'll see where it goes. Uh, the, the only thing we have right now, and I can circle back and talk about it again, is Jonathan Allen visiting the Vikings, not signing, but visiting with the Vikings. But again, no real rules. So I could end up sitting here for more than that. Uh, if we get some news and things are getting exciting, so we'll see, we'll just see how it goes. We're just playing it by ear.

Uh, Benjamin with the super chat. Thank you. My friend, Ben, uh, Roger's getting a job before Donald is pathetic. I think we all are pretty sure that Sam Darnold is going to be a Seattle Seahawk that they've already got something worked out there. It really seemed quite definitive when Gino Smith was traded that the reason they were able to trade Gino Smith was because Sam Darnold is going to the Seahawks.

So I think Darnold does have something there and they just have to work out the details. Uh, Jimmy Garoppolo going back to the Rams as a backup quarterback. Good for him. Good for Jimmy working out a backup quarterback. Good for him. Good for Jimmy working out a backup journeyman quarter. He's now got a really nice journeyman career. And you know, I respect journeyman. So he's got the Patriots to the 49ers,

to the Raiders, to the Rams. It's pretty good. Did Paul send a Debo sign? I have not seen that. Someone said he's signed, but I haven't seen that pop up I feel like that's gonna be a big one It was Jordan Lewis who just signed with the Jaguars Matt would overpay for a Debo and Carlton Davis Carlton Davis is another one who's who's really good

Yeah, I know Scott my guy BJ Hill resigned with the Bengals. I think he signed for cheap Why do people love the Bengals those Those guys, everybody seems to want to stay. T Higgins and Jamar Chase, BJ Hill stays there. Trey Hendrickson was saying the other day that he wanted to stay and they just won't pay up. Maybe because a lot of those guys went to the Superbowl a couple of years ago, but I think BJ Hill took a very reasonable deal that would have been nice for the Vikings.

Uh, as far as, um, overpay. Jonathan Allen is a guy that I would not overpay. I would want, uh, he's visiting as we'll, we'll talk about in just a second. I'm reading your overpays. Uh, Ron would overpay for Byron Murphy. I think when you look at it now, if some of these other guys fall, if DJ Reed goes somewhere, if Paul Sinodibo goes somewhere,

that now there's a report that Denver is working on a deal for Hufanga, who's the safety from San Francisco. I am very curious to see what he gets. If he is the first safety off the board, what kind of money that he gets, because that will relate to, uh, what can buy them is going to get. So who else would you overpay for? Uh, uh, yeah, now is a good time. Uh, great point, William.

Now is a good time. A lot of new people joining the stream. Welcome. This is our, uh, special here with, hold on, let me put it back up. There it is. Free agency Vikings, free agency special. And I'm so happy to be broadcasting with you guys today, coming along for the ride, breaking down every move, talking about what's going on around the league, how it impacts the Vikings.

And, uh, let me circle back to where I started the show, which was the first rumor of the day that we got that was that Jonathan Allen is visiting the Vikings. So let me make that clear. That doesn't mean that he is signing at this moment. It just means that he is visiting the Vikings. And when I look at what Jonathan Allen has done over his career, his age, the injury history and where he's at. I think that it pretty clearly signifies a short term, if not one year type of contract for him, maybe two, depending on how you want to make that work.

But I wouldn't want more than a two year contract for him. And I also wouldn't want Jonathan Allen to be the reason you don't draft someone or the reason you don't bring out someone else in. You don't want Jonathan Allen at 30 years old, coming off of two seasons that have declined over the last couple of years. And I'll read you the numbers here in a second that show that you don't want to make him the whole answer. They are developing some players for sure on the interior. They have developed Jaylen Redmond. I'm interested in him. They're developing Levi Drake Rodriguez, who I've continued to hear good

things about, got in the game against Seattle last year and immediately impacted a couple plays. But we're talking about somebody who's a seventh round pick and is developing an undrafted free agent who's developing usually with defensive tackle, you do have to put down the dollars or put down the draft capital. I would prefer for their plan at defensive tackle to be to sign one guy and then to draft someone either in the first or the third round or depending on how they trade down. I think you want someone young explosive who could get in the backfield and then

the veteran who knows how to do it. And, uh, Brandon Thorne, again, I'm a big fan of his, uh, from trench warfare. He tweeted out some video of Jonathan Allen over the last two years, rushing the passer clearly still has the technique Clearly still has the power but when somebody only plays 400 snaps last year and their numbers decline at 30 years old that's very risky to start to Put a bunch of money into that that player. So His grades over the last two years dropped from in 2022. And you remember

how much he crushed the Vikings that year in 2022, he graded over 80 by PFF and he had three straight years that were great. One of them included 67 quarterback pressures, which was elite that year. And last year was when he saw a pretty serious decline in his tackling and his run defense, but was still grading well as a pass rusher. That's 2023. I mean, and in 2024, he got hurt. He only played 420 snaps. 26 pressures is still pretty good. Pass rush grade was above average.

But you when you start talking about a 30 year old player and you have to go back to, Hey, two years ago, he was great. Hey, three years ago, he was great. That's not really what you're looking for for spending any sort of big money. Um, Based the giant says, uh, they need a nose tackle in the draft. Yeah. I, I, I do like that idea of getting the big giant fat guy. They don't have that Harrison Phillips.

Isn't really that I've been because they've done such a good job against the run with the way that they've set up their interior. I've thought more about the getting into the backfield and rushing the passer has been more of the emphasis, although what you really want, and this is why Derek Harmon is so interesting in the draft, what you really want is somebody who's playing three downs. That's why I liked BJ Hill because even though he's not this crazy explosive freak show, he is more of a three down type of player and that's what we're looking for.

Uh, Bradley says, will fries close to signing here? Okay. Well, you know, the Twitter is not working, so there's always the rumors between what what's fact and what's actually happening versus what's kind of being thrown out there by certain people. I saw Will Fries at the airport, used to be the whole joke, that kind of thing. So as far as rumors of people saying this and that, the other thing might happen. I'm usually going to stick to what has happened or what we actually know, uh, rather than the, Hey, you know, whatever random person on Twitter or now blue sky, I guess, uh, said something.

I saw Scott that, uh, Jordan Lewis, the cornerback sign. I'm curious about how much money he got. He's not one of the top names, but it does with every signing, we start to get a little bit more of the picture. Uh, Dwayne says that, says that it's frustrating to see the bears signing all these guys with the Viking silence. Well, they've only been silent for 55 minutes here, so we'll see what they do.

It hasn't even been an entire day. It hasn't even been an entire hour, I should say yet so far. But as far as the bears go, you knew they were going to do this. That when we go into free agency, this is what happens every year. When we go into free agency, every other team is also trying to do everything they can do to win. I think that the bears have improved themselves on the interior

offensive line in terms of run blocking significantly. I don't know how much they actually made themselves an incredible unstoppable offensive line. I think it's better i think dolmen is probably one of the more overrated. of the more overrated players that was out there based on his numbers. He was more looking like a Garrett Bradbury as far as his past blocking. Now he's better, but he looks a little bit more like a Garrett Bradbury was a good run blocker and not as much of a pass blocker. So here's the numbers on Jordan Lewis, a three year contract worth $30 million.

So that's pretty reasonable.