Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Vikings host Kareem Hunt for a visit -- do they need a veteran RB?

Episode Date: August 11, 2023

Matthew Coller and Will Ragatz react to the news that running back Kareem Hunt is visiting the Minnesota Vikings and talk about what they've seen from the running backs thus far and discuss Ivan Pace Jr. and the linebacker situation and the cornerbacks' preseason debut. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hey everybody, welcome to another episode of Purple Insider. Matthew Collar here, joined by Will Regetts of Sports Illustrated. And look, we were just going to record a regular old episode. We were just going to talk about our thoughts from last night's Vikings preseason game. And then suddenly, our friend Tom Pelissero from NFL Network just comes down from the heavens and says, Hey guys, you want something to talk about today? Here you go. Have this gift from me, a report that running back Kareem Hunt is visiting the Minnesota Vikings. Will, the floor is yours. Reaction. Go ahead. What do you think? Yeah, it's just the latest in a string of now visits that the Vikings are hosting with these established veteran players.

First, it was Dalton Risner, which obviously he plays guard. That whipped the fan base up into a frenzy, and they're still talking about it after watching Ed Ingram play football last night. Then there was Ronald Darby, which Ben Gessling of the Star Tribune broke a cornerback who's been seven eight years in the league and uh has been a proven start he's dealt with some injuries but that was another visit and now Kareem Hunt and it's like this is another position where the Vikings are a little bit unproven it's true at guard it's true at cornerback it's true at running back and I know that people are hey Alexander Madison is just going to step in and be the starter and everything

will be roses and great, but we haven't seen him be the starter before. So it makes sense to me at the very least that the Vikings would consider just taking a look. Kareem Hunt played in the NFL for six years, every single year. It seems he is ranks really highly in terms of yards after contact, missed tackles, forced receiving yards. I was just looking it up. He's 11th among running backs in receiving yards since debuting in 2017, and that's not even as a full-time player.

He's been sharing the backfield with Nick Chubb. So, you know, I get it. I mean, it doesn't mean it's going to lead to a signing. The Risner and Darby ones haven't yet. The Vikings could look at Hunt and decide that, you know what, we're fine with Alexander Madison and Ty Chandler right now. Ty Chandler, by the way, looked quite good last night. I'm sure we'll talk about that. But just to do the due diligence on these veterans at positions where you have some uncertainty, it cannot hurt. And to me, it's just another sign that the Vikings think they can

contend this year. This is, to me, you look at veterans to bring in to patch up your roster if you believe that you can content. Well, I think they should be very happy with how training camp has started overall. I mean, with Jordan Addison and people finally got a look at him, what we've been seeing every day in practice, making the catch that he did along the sideline. But when you see that and the offense coming together, Brian flores causing all sorts of problems on the defensive side you could see where the front office the ownership the coaching staff would start to say you know what we might have a division champion here on our hands if some things go right and we'll talk about the things that could go wrong as well that were on display in the preseason game

including you mentioned ed ingram starting, which I thought, I mean, best guess is that that's a message to Ed Ingram that he's going to have to pick that stuff up the way that he's playing, or they're going to find somebody to replace him. And that may have been part of the whole Dalton Reisner kind of thing is I, do you want to see a little bit more, see some of this preseason action, knowing that you can always circle back and potentially sign him. But saying on Kareem Hunt, I think that we can read this kind of one of two ways. Number one would be that Kenny Wong moves. Injury is more significant than we know about. We have not gotten an update from Kevin O'Connell. He's been very good since taking over as head coach about giving updates during preseason and training camp but he

doesn't have to so it's not something like he has to come off every day and tell us what's going on so we haven't heard any sort of timeline about kenny wong woo that could be part of this also could just be looking at ty chandler i thought he was very good last night you thought he was very good pff thought he was very good but that doesn't mean that he did everything he was supposed to do or has been during training camp up until last night, because that's going to matter to them, how these players execute what they're being asked to execute, not just, Oh, Hey, he looks like he's got a pretty good motor, which he did, or that he was physical which he was and this may have nothing to do with Chandler because he looked good last night it may be more to do with just we

want more than just this inexperienced former fifth rounder and by the way nothing from Dwayne McBride last night like just a very very tough performance from him I didn't think he kick returned well I didn't think that he made any impact in the passing game or the running game. You could certainly blame the offensive line, but if you're the Vikings, you're saying, we're like an injury away from having to pair that guy potentially with Ty Chandler if Kenny Wongwu either is out

or they don't believe in him. So it seems to me that it would make a lot of sense to bring in another veteran. And you mentioned it. They seem like they're pretty happy with how things are trending with this team overall so give me all of them give me Reisner give me Ron Darby give me Kareem Hunt like I think if you're gonna play to win then play to win and bring in these veteran players who could be like sort of low-key good signings at the last minute.

Yeah, they have the salary cap space to do it. I mean, they still have pending extensions with Jefferson and Hawkinson, but you can structure those in a way that it's not going to take up a huge cap hit right away. So if you have the room to do it, I think, like I said, just exploring it at the very least makes a lot of sense. The running back depth, you can kind of try to talk yourself into it and say, oh, Madison's going to be this quality starter and then tie chandler's a backup and then maybe they'll find something beyond that you can also go the other way pretty easily where you say madison hasn't been a starter before chandler's a fifth round pick who has barely had any um regular season action in his career i don't know if he's had any at all he's looked good in preseason games uh his first couple years years and last night,

but that's a whole different animal. So beyond that, yeah, I agree with you. Dwayne McBride didn't do much. Abram Smith didn't do much. Kanae Wongwu, we have no idea how bad he's hurt. I mean, we haven't heard anything from that. Kevin O'Connell gave us an update on Jalen Naylor a while ago, and he still hasn't been back.

So you don't really know with these injuries how long or how serious these things are going to be I don't even know I've never really even when he was getting uh first team snaps earlier in training camp like I've never really thought of Kanae Wongu as a serious part of the the backfield puzzle to me he's just the kick returner and maybe a gadget player and and if he does eventually develop into a usable running back that would be awesome because he's fun to watch. He's really fast. But I'm not banking on that at all. So I think Kareem Hunt, what he brings you is experience.

He can catch the ball out of the backfield. He can pass protect. And there was a clip of Ty Chandler having a good pass protection rep in that Seahawks game last night. But, yeah, without really without really like diving into the tape or even like talking to coaches we don't know exactly if he did what they wanted him to do on all of those reps or how he looked in that regard it's nothing with like an ivan pace jr where like he had a lot of flash plays this is a completely different position obviously but a bunch of flash plays like, do we know how he handled what he was supposed to handle as a in pass coverage in Brian Flores defense?

There were a couple of plays there where he looked maybe a little bit lost. But again, we don't we don't exactly know what the responsibilities were on each play. So it's the same thing with like pass protection and Ty Chandler. I just to me, it makes sense. I mean, you look at the team. I agree with your point that things are trending. Well, Jordan Addison looks like a stud. I mean, pace emerging at all is encouraging.

They've got guys up and down the roster at different positions that are having strong training camps. So yeah, go for it. Why not try to defend your your NFC North crown? Not that they haven't been thinking that way all off season, but it's just sort of building to it now with the season getting closer where you're like let's let's patch up some holes let's bring in some added depth to to protect against the possibility of injury and i i like the idea of bringing kareem hunt to at least take a look at him if you're whether they sign him in two days whether they sign him in a month or whether they don't sign them at all yeah i think that uh just in general like they have been willing up until this point to leave

some inexperienced players in spots that normally you would want veterans and one of them is the running back position i mean we know what alexander madison mostly is but we don't know what he is as a 17 game running back. It's a very different thing from, Hey, this guy pops up off the bench every so often fills in for Delvin cook and we all like him. Well, that doesn't mean for sure that he's going to carry the ball 250 plus times over a 17 game season. You're going to need other running backs. And I thought, well, okay, we've got this competition between Wong Wu and Chandler, whoever emerges will pair with him in some way. But even recently, like

maybe just the other day, I was saying like, he might end up with 300 carries the way that these backup running backs are playing out and the way that they're talking about Chandler. And I mean, it was an okay performance from Chandler, but it wasn't, oh my gosh, like he ran for 150 yards or something and just set the world on fire. It was okay. I thought it was fine. It looked like a decent NFL running back, but over a long season, I think that a position like this, that gets hurt all the time, you probably do need three, just like with wide receivers where you need four, you need a couple of tight ends. These guys get hurt on a regular basis. So you have to have depth. But if we're doing a counterpoint to bringing in Kareem hunt specifically. So conceptually, I think it makes

a lot of sense to do, but it, when you look at his numbers last year, it wasn't just a little dip it was a big dip he only averaged 3.8 yards per carry only 6.0 yards per reception which is way down from 8.6 for his career and 4.5 yards per carry and the previous year he was up at almost five yards per rush i mean are they like and then they haven't signed him so they're just bringing him in for a visit so you make the point like yeah you're going to take a look at him it seems like new orleans was ready to sign, and then they haven't signed him. So they're just bringing him in for a visit. So you make the point like, yeah, you're going to take a look at him. It seems like new Orleans was ready to sign him and then let him go out the door. And then he went to visit Indianapolis so he could sign wherever or nowhere. I mean, I guess everything's on the table depending on how he looks, but we spent a lot of time talking about how Delvin cook had fallen off the side of the table at a certain age because that's the running back life.

Well, you'll never guess how old Kareem Hunt is. Five days ago, the man turned 28 years old Hunt, who's been around for a while. Yeah, for sure. There definitely is. I mean, I think the nice thing about the running back position is whether it's a younger player, whether it's a veteran like Kareem Hunt, they're really not going to cost that much at this point I mean we're not talking about Jonathan Taylor here trading for him like I think Kareem Hunt you could maybe make the case that it's just kind of one down year and you look to his track record and say all right 28 he's not quite 30 I mean he was in that same vaunted 2017 running back class with Dalvin Cook but for his career I mean he's been four and a half yards per carry like you said big time receiver out of the backfield his PFF grade in every year up until last year had been at least 74 last year was 67 which is still fine he still had some decent

yards after contact numbers and things like that so I don't know if that's like with Dalvin Cook on a broader scale I don't know if that's a one year dip and then they'll bounce back this year or if that's the start of a kind of longer downtrend downturn. I'm not sure. I think you could definitely make the argument that the Vikings should roll with Madison, with Chandler, who's younger. Keep looking at like the Abrams Smiths of the world or maybe even slightly higher caliber, younger street free agents at running back. I just, I also think you can argue it both ways because of Hunt's experience, because of what he would bring in the passing game. To me,

it's just like, they did this with Reisner. They did this with Ronald Darby. It's just, why not take a look at these players, bring them in. Kevin O'Connell said with Reisner, you use it to kind of get to know the player and put them through a physical.

You can just kind of have their, have their number in your phone on speed dial. It doesn't mean you have to sign them right now, but then if they don't sign somewhere else and they're still available at some point down the line, you have that relationship and you know what you would be getting to some degree. So you can, it's much easier to then make that move and have a sense of of comfort and familiarity with who you're bringing in so it's yeah i mean i people with with all of these it's going to lead to a lot of uh discussion

and speculation and that makes sense it's the nfl that's why we're here talking about it but this doesn't necessarily mean they will sign kareem hunt it just means they're exploring the option the avenue of what that could look, what he would bring if they added him to their backfield. Which I agree is a totally right thing to do when you're unhappy with one of the positions groups or when you have an injury that you think is going to be problematic or both. I think in the case of the Vikings backfield, I come back to sometimes the idea that running backs are replaceable and they are in general that usually there's somebody else who's up and coming when your older guy is fading, but it's a little bit more of about like pay and contract and how much you're willing to spend and then projecting forward like it's a convoluted

thing the running back discussion but if you have a bad one they really hurt you and and so that i think would be my concern if alexander madison who we know is going to be pretty solid at his job if he were to get hurt and then you're just saying hey guys with no experience and clearly the coaching staff is not tremendously thrilled with your performance uh you got to go out there and carry the entire load i also think that if it was just about how you take a hand off and run with it uh there's offense that probably are like that i mean maybe tennessee is like that with derrick henry and whoever plays they had a couple backups play when henry was out and they were great. It's like, that's their thing. Take the ball, run with it. They don't use the running

back in the passing game a whole lot or whatever. In this case though, there is a lot more to it than just, Hey, can you take the ball and run with it? And that might play into it as well. I don't want to make this sound like it's about Ty Chandler, but if they were super into completely trusting him as their backup running back, then they wouldn't have as much of a concern or much reason to bring in a veteran. I think going into a season with two is probably good enough. But then anything behind that is just, you know, nothing at the moment. So yeah, I get it. I am a little bit skeptical, I guess, if he's going to be the guy that he was just a couple years ago.

But let's say that they do. Let's go down the road. I know you're imploring people not to go down the road, so I'm going to do it. We can go down the road. Okay. Well, let's say they do it. Let's try to project.

And I know, again, worth mentioning, they did not sign Kareem Hunt. He is visiting the Vikings, according to Tom Pelissero. So let's not say that he's on the roster. But if you were to have to project, let's say they sign him. How many yards would you give to Madison Hunt Ty Chandler for the 2023 season if he were to be signed by the Vikings? That is a good question. Because you could just kind of see him sliding into the role that he's held in Cleveland, where Madison is an extremely poor man's Nick Chubb in this situation. So I would say give Madison still like 850 yards or something like that, 900.

You give Hunt 500. And then give chandler the scraps i mean i if those two are healthy i don't really know how much ty chandler fits into the picture as a number three option i think he would just again kind of be there in the case of ninja i'd give him like 250 yards or something like that um i think ty chandler it's always interesting to think about like the timing of the news when these when it's always interesting to think about like the timing of the news when these when it's announced that these players are making visits we talked to a bunch about the dalton reisner one and how it came out the day after their first padded practice and we're like all right did you see something you didn't like with ed ingram or ezra cleveland and

and that's that's why i mean i have no idea if that's actually the case or if this has been in the works for a few days and it's just now being reported or whatever. But it's like, all right, I thought Ty Chandler was pretty good. But hey, now the next day we got news they're bringing in a running back. So maybe they didn't see it quite the same way. And you bring up a good point. Like Ty Chandler had a solid game. He didn't blow me out of the water.

I mean, he had 70 yards on 15 touches. He averaged like 3.7 per carry. He looked good as a receiver. He broke some tackles. He looked shifty, but there's so much that goes into playing that position in this offense that it's entirely possible that they saw some things that made them a little concerned. It's also entirely possible that Chandler's performance had absolutely nothing to do with the timing of bringing Hunt in for a visit. But that is how I would break it down if they do go down that road of bringing in Kareem Hunt. He's not going to be his rookie season Pro Bowl self when he had like 1,800 yards from scrimmage with the Chiefs and a bunch of touchdowns. But I think he can still be a usable complement at this point in his career.

Yeah, I mean, I'm right in the ballpark with you. I'd probably say Madison somewhere pushing 900 yards cream hunt, sort of like 400. And then everybody else kind of picks up the scraps there. But I mean, think about last year as a team, they were only around what? 1,500, 1,600 yards total. I know that Kevin O'Connell wants to be better than that this year on the ground. They have made an emphasis about that. They bring in Josh Oliver, who everyone got to

see block the heck out of some guys last night. It was quite impressive on a couple of plays from Josh Oliver. You see why he's here. I think defensive ends think that they're going up against it. Like, wait, they have an extra tackle on the field. Like this guy's so big, but it's very clear that they want to be better in the running game. So this could be a part of that. And it's very hard to know whether it's connected to Ty Chandler or not. I'm really just going back to a comment from Kevin O'Connell, where he said that there are still times where Curtis Modkins, their running back coach has to go up to Ty Chandler and say, Hey,

that's not what you were supposed to do on that play. And him telling that little anecdote is stuck in my mind of, well, maybe they don't think he really has the offense master, or at least enough to be in this position where they would rather have a veteran that they can trust. And we do kind of always look back to what the Rams did to get O'Connell's influences. And they would do stuff like this. They brought in like Sony, Michelle, somebody who is kind of washed up

and they got what, maybe a good year out of him, or he was a contributor for them, maybe on the team that won the super bowl. So they've kind of looked to team, you know, players like that, that maybe just can be a contributor. So I think it's fine out of the three guys that they've brought in, Will, Ron Darby, Dalton Reisner, Kareem Hunt, which one of those guys, if I said, Will, Kwesi just called. He's on the phone.

He wants to know, Will, I can only sign one of these guys. Who would you sign? Which one? Give me your advice, Will. All right, Kwesi. So I was curious when you were starting that if you were going to ask me which one do I think they will sign or which one would I choose to sign?

I think the one I would choose to sign would be Dalton Reisner. I just think he has a chance to make the most positive impact, the biggest impact of those three, I think. With Darby, I don't know. With the injuries just I don't know if he's going to be healthy um and it you can make a case for all three I would go Reisner just because man I was last year was already really rough for Ed Ingram and then he came out uh in his first preseason game this year and I'm sure the Vikings were hoping to see him kind of start to take that leap that's that's why he was the only starter who was playing because they they wanted

to get him more reps and see him and and like you said maybe send a message and I don't know I have to watch the tape back but it just it didn't look great and so I think if especially with all the hits Kirk Cousins took last year and the importance of the interior pressure and then what it can do to him. I just think Reisner has a chance to, to really have the biggest impact of those three. Now he only played a couple snaps, but did you look at Ed Ingram's PFF grade? Yeah, it was, was it in the, in the forties or so as it sure was. Yeah, it sure was as it was all of last year. So I think I,

I mean, I a hundred percent agree with you. I, I don't necessarily need a running back the cornerback. I do think they might need a 52.1, 52.1. We'll give them that. That was his overall grade. Pass blocking was in the forties.

And again, it's only a handful of snaps but still not at all what you want to see from somebody who's getting a message sent his way so to me the you know offensive lineman is uh more important if they can get him in here especially somebody that's proven over the years but i would go for all three can i throw out a completely idiotic idea that wouldn't it be crazy if this happened to you before we get more deep into the weeds of how people played last night what what if jim what if jim ursay called quacey and he was like but we are so sick

of jonathan taylor how about like a third and a second in 2025 for jonathan taylor you guys want him oh man i mean you'd have to at least think about it that's how good jonathan taylor is but it would it would it would really shock me and and a couple people have tweeted this idea at me it's not it's not that ridiculous at this point in the offseason to to think about but I just can't see Kweisi making that move just with the running back position being what it is and the fact that you have to pay him. He's really, really good, but to give up two day two picks like that, I just don't see it happening.

Never say never. Crazier things have happened. But that one would really surprise me. The one other thing I would say on Kareem Hunt, by the way, is that he was – Kweisi Adolfo-Mensa was in Cleveland. So there's some familiarity there. So that could also be a slight factor in this. But, yeah, with Taylor, I don't know.

Do you see that as a tiny possibility? No, nolor i don't know did you do you see that as a a tiny possibility no no i don't but at the same time i would have never guessed that the san francisco 49ers would trade as much as they did for christian mccaffrey and the one thing that you're getting out of jonathan taylor is uh you are getting him in his prime and with a running back, they can make a massive impact when they are at their absolute best. And he is one year removed from an 1800 yard season. I, there would be a little bit of the, you know, I mean, look, Andrew Booth jr. And Ed Ingram were second round picks. Sometimes we treat second round picks. Like it's always going to be the next dk metcalf or something and sometimes it's not and eric hendricks and brian o'neill and uh yeah and delvin cook delvin cook yeah

yep certainly you don't have the money you don't have the money in the future to pay him and he's going to want a contract that goes along with it it's not realistic i just wondered like that's sort of a how much viking football are you snorting right now after watching a pre-season game and just getting excited about training camp because uh you know are are you like hey what if they just traded for this great running back and then whatever but uh it's probably not a good idea to do if their defense was legit though i actually might argue yes because everything is about to me i started looking through everything and sort of an expected points added like how

many points do you add last year they were minus 27 points for the run game like it was a detriment and if you add jonathan taylor you're probably like plus 30 if you can swing your point differential by 50 points with a running back, I think you want to do that if you are in a position to win because you have a complete team, which they don't. So let's talk about some of those parts as well. We've addressed Ed Ingram, but how about the secondary and what we saw from them last night?

Makai Blackman plays quite a bit of Caleb Evans. We saw the return of Lewis scene, which did not, in my mind, go particularly well. Your reaction to the young secondary that was very much under the microscope in the first preseason game? Yeah, it really just solidified for me that those two guys, those top two picks from last year are not in a great spot right now and it's not looking very good for uh Kweisi Dapomense's first draft we already talked about Ed Ingram maybe Brian Asamoah and Ty Chandler will become the saviors but it's it's

not looking good for Louisine and specifically Ender Booth Jrr i would say um who has never throughout training camp despite what the unofficial depth chart that's completely meaningless might say he's never been in the mix for a starting cornerback job at this point he's just really far from that uh to me he's at best right now the fifth cornerback behind your three starters and joan williams who had a nice pass breakup in the end zone. The fact that Booth was even playing where he is is not where you want to be as a second-round pick going into your second year. Like, Makai Blackman and Caleb Evans got the first half.

They are clearly the starters, along with Byron Murphy, who was never going to play last night. It was Booth and it was Jawan Williams in the second half playing with the threes and fours, which shows you where they are. They're playing with like Jalen Williams, the undrafted rookie who had an interception and could find himself above Andrew Booth Jr. on the depth chart at some point, even if that sounds crazy to say. And it was Booth, the one real like kind of microscope rep that we saw. He's getting cooked off the line of scrimmage by

somebody named Jake Bobo who's a I believe an undrafted rookie out of UCLA uh for a touchdown and just it's just it's just not a good place for Andrew Booth man and and I still to some extent want to believe in in the college tape and the athleticism and and the dog in him mentality that he brings but when you can't stay healthy and when you are healthy and and this is what it's looking like after the two game sample size we saw last year against the bills and cowboys which was admittedly a tough assignment for him it did not go well at all uh it's just i've been thinking this for a while now but i think you kind of just have to forget about Andrew Booth to some

degree. And if he, if he surprises you, then that would be great. But this point it's like, does he, does he even make the roster? I think he does because he's a second round pick in his second year. But what if you want a roster spot for punt gunner extraordinaire, Najee Thompson, who made a couple great play? Like, I don't know, man. I just don't know. With Louisine, I didn't think it was like disastrous or anything. I think PFF did not like what he did as a run defender, but he had a couple

plays where he flew to the ball and you saw some of that, that burst and closing speed that he's supposedly known for. And he's, he's making the roster for sure. I don't think he's in as quite as dire straits, but at the same time, he's not, he's not in the mix to start at safety. He's, he's making the roster for sure. I don't think he's in as quite as dire straits, but at the same time, he's not, he's not in the mix to start in safety. He's, he's firmly fourth and has been all camp behind Smith and Bynum and Metellus. So that was kind of solidified for me. I thought Blackman did some nice things. He had a rep on a, on a slot fade where he was all over it.

That looked promising. Evans had a couple of tackles where he didn't use his head that looked promising evans had a couple tackles where he didn't use his head so that was good to see and uh yeah to me it just kind of solidified at the cornerback and safety spots everything that i had already been been thinking we saw some three safety looks from uh from brian flores too which was fun and with the caleb evans nothing changed uh nothing has changed with the caleb evans since otas i mean they decided this is going to be our guy on the outside and they have ridden that all the way through and kevin o'connell had a lot of praise for caleb evans the other day when

i asked him just about why they liked him from the outset and you see his his length his natural athleticism how good he is at staying with wide receivers I don't know if he could play the ball yet and he didn't get the ball thrown his way really at all I don't think I don't know if he had a single target last night because Drew Locke was doing Drew Locke things but Blackman yeah had some kind of ups and downs he needs the experience maybe more than Caleb Evans does but with Lewis, I just wasn't very impressed last night. I mean, not that I think that that says what his career is supposed to be or can be. He can have a long career.

He's still very young. They're not going to kick him out of the league after this year. He's going to have a whole other season to stay behind these guys, potentially get some opportunities to get in games play special teams and there might be a really nice warm development story there but in the time that you and i have covered the team if year two there aren't signs of that it certainly raises an eyebrow i mean like with christian derissaw ups and downs in the first year, but then the second camp he comes in and everyone's going, whoa, that guy he's over there. And I know there was like a social media clip that went around of Nick Bosa beating him.

We had a front row seat for him and Nick Bosa Derrissaw going at it, those joint practices. And he was doing, I thought great against the best pass rusher in the league. And so you saw it like, oh, there it is. There's that big jump. And we haven't seen that from Ingram. And we certainly haven't seen that for Booth jr. Not even anywhere close, not even a flash. And to me, scene had a nice tackle early in the game, but there isn't like this quick trigger that's supposed to go off in the great safeties heads. And there's no way to resolve that. It's like what you see from Harrison Smith when he plays is a no hesitation flying to the football. And I also think that

Harrison Smith, if he's wrong, he's going to be wrong hard and he's going to be wrong fast. And I think he's even said that in the past, like sometimes you have to just be like, well, I'm going to take a shot at this. And if it's not what I was supposed to do, then, oh, well, I see hesitation in scenes game. You see how fast he is like running wise, but I just see hesitation there. Was there anybody else on the defensive side that stuck out to you that you either did or did not expect to? Well, I mean, of course, we have to talk about ivan pace jr get your reaction there because suddenly the tape of grinder illuminati has started watching ivan pace and is uh you know showing all the highlights so aside from him though we talked a lot about him uh last night in his great game was there anybody else that you said like oh this is really notable that this

player played a certain way yeah the one that jumped out the most on defense for sure was, other than pace, was Luigi Villain, the second-year undrafted outside linebacker. I just, early on, there was a rep where he kind of pushed up towards the edge of the pocket and then crossed back over the tackle's face and got a quarterback hit on third down. I think PFF gave him four pressures, three quarterback hits. Late in the game, he hit Drew Locke's arm and forced a fumble.

The Seahawks recovered it, but credited with a sack. He, out of every pass rusher that was in that game, for sure flashed the most. And we didn't see a whole lot of, like, Patrick Jones. I think he played a couple series early and was fine. And Luigi Villain is certainly still behind Patrick Jones and probably DJ Wanham as well on the depth chart. But with Wanham specifically, I don't know. Villain, I think, would be one to watch in that kind of OLB4 competition

if we're assuming Jones is safe as number three. You would like to have some additional depth there. We've been talking about these visits with Darby and Reisner and Hunt. There's another position outside linebacker where it wouldn't shock me if news came across the X.com one day where it was, hey, the Vikings are hosting blank veteran outside linebacker for a visit just because pass rush is so important and having depth there and what does it look like if denis hunter gets a little banged up and misses a month uh oh marcus

davenport's never played 500 snaps in a season or whatever it is and uh patrick jones is unproven and dj wanham has 12 career sacks and he hasn't been blocked on any of them it's like I don't know I don't know I don't know that that would start to look really dicey so if you could have Luigi Villain sort of emerge not as some um like plug and play huge contributor but as just kind of watching his development arc in his second year there's a reason he made the roster as a undrafted rookie I mean that that tells you something right away that he made the roster last year and he he had some nice um numbers in his in his one year at Wake Forest and uh so to me that was the guy who jumped out uh defensively and pace as well was was just the flashes of of

downhill run defending shedding blocks blowing blocks, blowing up blocks, evading blocks. Just the, the run fits were, were fun to watch coverage. As, as I sort of mentioned earlier is something we need to see more from him, but that dude is, he's obviously making the rocks. He's pretty firmly the number three inside linebacker right now. So that's a, that's a fun story. Yeah. I mean I think that it looks to me like he's just straight up past Brian Asamoah and he's gonna start with Jordan Hicks I mean do you

feel that way or do you still think that Asamoah is in that no I I don't feel that way yet um I think it's entirely possible and I think I never expected it to even be a competition I think it's entirely possible. And I think I never expected it to even be a competition. I think it may well be a competition, but to me, Asamoah is still, still kind of locked in as that starter for now. I think like pace has been really looking good in camp and he looked good in this game and he's getting a lot of buzz,

but I don't think we should just kind of forget about Asamoah yet because before pace, like Asamoah is getting a ton of love as this second year breakout who who fits perfectly in brian flores defense i think both those guys are kind of in a similar mold where they're fly to the ball downhill make plays in the run game theoretically sideline to sideline range in the past game i mean we saw that asamoah play against the giants last year on Christmas Eve when he, when he stripped the guy, the tight end and recovered it all kind of in one motion almost.

And so I, I just, I wouldn't write off Asamoah yet. I think the fact that he didn't play really much at all yesterday kind of tells you that the coaches still, still view him as that starter for now. Like they're, they're a similar mold,

but to me there is a reason reason even if it doesn't mean much in the competition at this point it's the reason one was a top 70 pick and one wasn't drafted asamoah is a little bit bigger than pace he's like six foot compared to 510 he is a little bit more athletic than pace he's like a high nine ras guy relative athletic score, whereas pace is somewhere in the middle. And the size is a big part of that, but also Asamoah is just a slightly more elite athlete. When you look at the 40 and the 10 yard split and the agility and explosiveness and all those, all those combine drills.

So I don't know. I, I, I think it's fun competition all of a sudden, but I've still got Asamoah in there alongside Hicks week one. See, I'm very curious if Asamoah didn't play because of some injury, because I'm for, well, no, I've lost all the nights. It must be Tuesday night, night practice. Yeah. He was not out there for practice, but he was in his pads, just wasn't doing anything.

So I wondered if that was the reason he didn't play, because I would put him among a lot of other guys that are completely unproven on this roster that are 2022 draft picks. Since we saw Ingram out there, seen Booth Jr., I would have thought he would have been in that mix. But of course, until we have confirmation of why he didn't play or until we don't see him practice again when we get out there tomorrow we can't say a hundred percent for sure that was just my interpretation uh but i also think that uh ivan pace even if you say that asamoah is a better athlete that's true but i

don't know that the linebacker position is really about that i mean i i mean finn pace is fast on the field like we saw that he's also violent on the field like i kind i compared him to like a wolverine last night he was just violent going at like those guards wanted nothing to do with him he was just going after them and i think that his instinctual nature his reckless abandoned type of play in a good way how physically he plays they are both very undersized. It might come down to which guy can make more of an impact in those run fits and prove that they can play there. I'm not sure because we are still a month away from the start of the season. This competition is ongoing. I'm just leaning toward Ivan Pace at the moment, having that job

next to Jordan Hicks when we start the season against the Tampa Bay Bucs yeah and it it would not shock me at all because like you said Brian Asamoah is not like some fifth year proven starter he's a second year guy who played like 200 300 snaps down the stretch last year so yeah I think it's I think it's a competition and I think it'll be fun because both of those guys bring an exciting element of of just speed and downhill ability and you're right that like Asamoah has a as I said Asamoah has a little bit of a leg up in just like the relative athletic score but what's most important in playing linebacker in the NFL is having the instincts and the awareness to diagnose plays and then having the ability to just go make them. And that doesn't,

it's just going to come down to who can do that at a higher rate. It's not going to come down to who ran a better 40. So I think, I mean, Pace had a more prolific college career. He was at slightly smaller schools than, than Oklahoma for Asimov. But I mean, I don't know, know like it's it's right there I think I would still lean towards Asamoah I I keep I I keep forgetting to like pronounce his name the right way but um it would not shock me at all if that ended up being Pace's Pace's job in week one just he's he's fun to watch man he did that play where he blew up the the right guard and

basically tackled the running back with the right guard like that's not a play you see from a lot of 510 230 pound guys so um yeah that's gonna be something to watch uh joint practices these next couple preseason games and yeah hopefully we'll find out soon to your point if if Asama is dealing with some sort of injury okay last thing for you a little bit of a game here uh we all saw what Jordan Addison did I've tried to describe him on the show numerous times but people just needed to see it like that's what we've seen right there that catch that's super hard every day and yet doesn't look that hard for him to make it uh here's what I'm gonna do I'm gonna start giving you yardage totals and I'm going to go up and up

and up. And you tell me when to stop. It's like the price is right game for Jordan Addison for this year. Okay. So we'll start with two 50. 300. Keep going. Keep going for a little bit.

That's not how the game works. It just goes, it just goes, it goes like you've seen prices, right? Right. 300. Keep going for a little bit. That's not how the game works. It just goes and goes and goes. You've seen Price is Right, right? I don't know if I have. Oh, my gosh. What did you do when you stayed home from school as a kid? You didn't watch Price is Right?

No, I watched Nickelodeon and Cartoon Network. Disney Channel. Well, I didn't have cable growing up, so I watched Price is Right. And there's a game that they play where it's like, I think it's a little yodeler or something. He's climbing a little mountain, and then you have to say stop, and you try to get close to the price of the car. So anyway. That's like the thing they do at the Twins game.

Yeah, okay. Same thing. That's where they got. Anyway, all right, we were at $350, $. Same thing. That's where they got. Anyway, all right, we were at 350, 400, 450, 500, 550, 600, 650, 700, 750. All right, I'll stop you there. Okay, we're stopping at seven 750 i mean that right there i'm drinking a diet dr pepper you are drinking i believe it is kool-aid with jordan addison's name on it 750 yards is a lot well let me yeah it is a lot you're right and

and that might be that might be too much but i mean stefan diggs had like 700 yards as a rookie justin jefferson is a very different comparison he had 1400 yards as a rookie i just i think it'll all come down to roll i think if addison becomes that number two receiver and he's out there basically every single snap and like kj osborne comes onto the field when they're in 11 personnel, I think he's, I think you can do seven 50 because I think just Jefferson's going to get a lot of attention. Obviously Jefferson's going to get his yards 2000 of them or whatever.

TJ Hockinson is going to get his yards, but if the Vikings, they say they want to run the ball a little more, this is still going to be a really pass heavy offense. Jordan Addison is going to get a lot of single coverage looks. I mean, 700 yards in a 17-game season is like 50 yards, less than 50 yards a game. I'm bad at math. It's not an insane amount.

It would just come down to the role because if he's the third receiver and it's KJ Osborne as an every-down player, and then Addison comes onto the field in an 11 personnel, then I don't know how much, I don't know what the target numbers would look like in that instance. And obviously if he gets hurt because he weighs 175 pounds, then that's, that would be a problem too. But I don't know. Maybe I am drinking the Kool-Aid after watching him, but it's not just like,

you said, it's not just this preseason game. That was kind of our world. You see, you see what we've been seeing for two weeks it's every every day in practice he's making these these toe tapping grabs and and getting separation with his crisp route running and and just I don't know I've seen him drop a pass once more than once like I don't know um I'm a believer all of a sudden not all of a sudden I've been a believer for a couple weeks now yeah I mean what he did in the preseason game is what he's been doing uh maybe it is worth at least saying out loud that KJ Osborne is not playing and Jordan Addison was playing and that does kind of matter if they wanted to get him some reps uh Would you be good with him not playing another preseason game after this? Yeah.

I think you don't need to see anything else. I almost don't know that they need to see anything on Thursday night. It was definitely smart to just get him some NFL snaps and kind of get that out of the way and have him play a couple series. And if you want to do that again in, in eight days against the Titans at us bank stadium, get them out there for a couple of series with Nick Mullins, go for it. But I don't think, I don't think they need to,

I'm just excited to watch him in one-on-ones and team periods and stuff against the Titans and Cardinals in these joint practices. Cause those are, those are a lot of fun to watch. A lot to watch coming up this week. And of course you will have it at si.com and people should follow you at will rag it's on Twitter. And we're going to be doing this whole live thing all the time. If you are just catching on because of the news today and seeing the show

usually eight o'clock every night after Vikings practice, we're doing it. Although I'm debating, I think I should still maybe do like a live chat tonight anyway, at eight o'clock every night after vikings practice we're doing it although i'm debating i think i should still maybe do like a live chat tonight anyway at eight o'clock just to keep up the continuity is important in this league uh so thanks for your time will really appreciate it thanks for everybody who tuned in to sort of a random unscheduled live broadcast here on youtube but we'll continue to do that with breaking news. If they sign somebody, one of these guys they've had as a visit or whatever else happens in Vikings land, always here. So thanks for your time, Will. And thanks everybody for watching.

Yes, sir.