Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Vikings OTAs begin this week and post June-1 Vikings scenarios

Episode Date: May 22, 2023

Matthew Coller talks about what we're looking for at Vikings OTAs this week, some interesting Alex Mattison stats and fan questions including whether there's any chance the Vikings could still make a June 1 Kirk Cousins trade and what happens if they get off to a slow start Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Purple Insider is presented by Oakley. Express yourself, build a look that's made for you. When you wear Oakley, there really is more than meets the eye. Try it for yourself. Oakley is not only the best looking, but the best quality. So head on over to oakley.com for more information today. Hey everybody, welcome to another episode of Purple Insider. Matthew Collar here with you. And we'll start the show off by talking a little OTAs, which are happening this week.

And of course, I'll be out there at TCO Performance Center. As always, we've also got a new sponsored segment, which we're very happy about. And lots of your questions to continue to answer here on a fans-only episode. So let's just start out with OTAs. A couple of things that we're looking for. Number one at the top of the list is just who is there at OTAs. Now, remember, it doesn't become mandatory that these players show up until mandatory mini camp, which is in

June, but you still are very interested in who is in attendance here because at voluntary workouts, we did not see Delvin cook, Danielle Hunter, and Justin Jefferson was an interesting absence there. And we don't know if that is related to something else going on in Justin Jefferson's life or some other obligation that he had or if it is connected to a contract extension negotiation so it's hard to say on that but if we see no Jefferson no Hunter no Delvin Cook at OTAs then you start to wonder okay what's going on here with each one of them? I think with Delvin Cook, we've got a really good sense for why he would not be there. But with Daniil Hunter, is it a way to sort of push the Vikings a little bit toward a contract extension? Or if he is at OTAs, does that mean

that they are on their way to a contract extension? So that's the first place to start. And of course, with Justin Jefferson, same deal. It comes down to if he's not at OTAs, we start to ask, why is he not at OTAs? And if he is there, then, you know, of course, maybe we'll try to speak with him and see kind of how he's feeling about where things are with the contract extension and so forth. So that's at the top of the list. Also, you have the rookies, every rookie, all of them. Where do they fit in? Where are they playing? Which team are they working with? Are they working in the slot? Are they playing safety? And again, this is OTAs. So this is not training camp here where it means a lot, but it's an interesting first little snapshot of where things start.

I've always looked at OTAs and minicamp as setting the stage a little bit as a leaving off point for us to preview where everybody stands going into training camp. And sometimes there are players who have great OTAs and minicamp and they shine and the coaches praise them and talk about how great it is to have them around. And once they get to the third week of training camp we don't hear their name ever again so don't take too much away from this but we get our first little sneak preview of what some of these guys are going to look like playing together in some practices that mildly resemble football that's the best i can do for you but But how does Jordan Addison get out there? Where do they use him a little bit in these practices?

And there's only so much detail you can go into when we're talking about an OTA practice. But who's playing on the defensive side? Where are some guys lining up who they drafted? And that's about the best we can do. And again, as far as taking these things as a grain of salt, a few years ago in OTAs, they were throwing Brian O'Neill passes

and they never threw Brian O'Neill actual passes. Sometimes things get tried. Last year, they were using Delvin Cook in the slot and that became a big thing. All the fantasy websites, they all picked up on it. Oh, this means that Delvin Cook's going to became a big thing all the fantasy websites they all picked up on it oh this means that delvin cook's going to be a big receiving production and it never turned out really to be that way so i would not say that you know you take every report that comes out of otas

is what the truth will be come september but at least we get an idea of where they're beginning those things over the next couple of weeks that will usually be out there for one or two days a week when they have otas and then mini camp it's usually a couple days in a row and then we go into the real real real summer break so that's kind of where we're at uh now i mentioned that we have a new sponsored segment and that is more than meets the eye focus presented by oakley stats focus that is and we're going to look closer at the stats of alexander madison because i've gotten a lot of questions and it is often from the fantasy people about alexander madison and whether he can be the bell cow running back for the minnesota should they move on from Delvin Cook,

which could happen fairly soon. It is recording this on May 21st, so we've got only a few more days until June 1st, and if they don't find a trading partner for him, the expectation is that he probably gets released, which would then hand the ball off and are more than meets the eye stats focus to Alexander Madison. And I think when you look at Alexander Madison's efficiency numbers and grades from PFF, they really are interesting. And you can see why his coaches have liked him along the way. It is a little confusing actually for why he hasn't been used more. So last year he only carried the ball 74 times,

but was graded 12th best in terms of rushing grade by PFF. Of course, in a smaller sample, it might be easier to have a few big runs that PFF likes, and then you shoot up the rankings and you rank higher than somebody who carries the ball 200 times because your carries are limited. But what I really noticed was that he was averaging only 3.8 yards per carry,

which you think, oh, this is very concerning if it's only 3.8 yards per carry. But his yards after contact was still very solid, about middle of the league. And career-wise, he's only one-tenth off yards after contact from where Delvin Cook was what really separates them is Alexander Madison's ability to turn a good run into a great run so we saw this last year with Delvin Cook against Buffalo against Indianapolis the breakaway speed has limited Alexander Madison but when you look at his runs last year, 74 carries, nine of them turned into 10 plus yards. And so he's busting a lot of times these carries

that are successful and that are moving chains even, but are not going all the way because he does not have that same lightning speed to run away from people or top speed of Delvin Cook. So I think when you look at the accumulation of Alexander Madison's career, 4.1 yards per carry is maybe a little bit deceiving. And early in his career, I think it told more of the truth where he was averaging 4.5 and 4.6 yards per carry particularly because last year he was used so much in the red zone ended up scoring five touchdowns last season and was used in a lot

of different ways too when you looked at zone versus the gap running it was a little more even than it was for delvin cook by the numbers i think what they're getting, if Alexander Madison is the starter, is not the same type of terrifying threat that Delvin Cook was for opposing defenses. Opposing defenses knew, especially in the Mike Zimmer era, that at any given time when Delvin Cook got the ball, it could be a touchdown instantly. I don't think that Madison will draw that type of attention, but on a down to down basis, the numbers to me suggest that he can push forward for yards and be fairly successful. I still would think that mixing him in with other running backs who are faster is a good idea that handing him the ball all the time maybe not the best but when I look at times

where he actually had to carry the load this is very few last season so last year the max carries he got in a game was 10 which is wild that the Vikings did not use him more often based on how much they like him so we have to go back to other seasons, 2021, where he had a 26 carry game for 112, a 25 carry game for 113, 22 carry game for 90 yards. Oftentimes when he was used as that starter, he was successful. I think what he wasn't great at always is being a change of pace back from Delvin Cook. And now he gets an opportunity to prove that he can be more than that. So that was our meets the eye stats focus presented by Oakley. We will be doing more of those as the summer goes along,

where I just take a little snapshot of a player's numbers. And we talk a little about them. So now let's get into your questions. Got lots more questions. And if you want to send them, purpleinsider.com or hit me up on Twitter at Matthew Collar. My DMs are open. You can always send me a DM and I will make sure to throw it on the list. And I still have a long list of questions.

So I'm going to continue to go through those. Got some good guests coming up this week, but lots more to go with your questions. So this one comes from Eric Vikesfan28. What would it take in your mind for the Vikings to give in and give Kirk Cousins a multi-year extension, a playoff win? Yeah, that's a really good question. I mean, first of all, it's not out of the question that he could still get a multi-year contract extension before training camp this year. That if he goes throughout the summer, has discussions with his family, with his agent, and they come to the conclusion that it might be best for his future to sign a shorter term

extension with the Vikings and then maybe have it set up a little bit like Derek Carr's was last year so he could get cut if it doesn't work out and they want to move along or you know he can have some security for multi-years and some money in his pocket for an extension just in case of an injury and things like that there might be some discussion and that still could come to fruition. I do not want to count that out. There's also the possibility that the Vikings, I don't know, get high on themselves in the summer. They love what they see in minicamp and OTA and say, you know what? We need to make sure that Kirk is not a lame duck quarterback and they sign him

to an extension. That's still on the table as of right now no one has said that that's not happening also on the table is trading kirk cousins i again do not think there's any chance of them actually doing that but i just want to say that those options are available after june 1st with a potential trade could happen very very likely will not happen so if we just talk about this in a way where it's kirk cousins playing football 2023 goes all the way through the season what could he do a playoff win maybe but is it a playoff win like what happened in new orleans and then they go to san francisco and get smacked i'm not sure that that changes a whole lot. Like does a playoff win change the future?

Because when you sign someone to an extension, you don't sign them on the past. You sign them on the future. And it really stuck out to me at the combine how Kweisi Adafo-Mensah said, look, we're trying to project years out, but in the NFL, you can only project two years out. And with a quarterback that's Kirk Cousins age, can you even do that?

Can you even look in your crystal ball two years down the road when so many quarterbacks of Kirk's ilk have faded in their mid thirties, the ones that were not the Aaron Rogers, not the Peyton Manning's, but that next level down to the top 10 ish quarterback has often not survived past the mid thirties and ends up retiring around. Then I think of Jay Cutler where Jay Cutler had no issues medically. And I've probably brought up Joe Flacco, Matt Ryan. These guys were around the same age and Matt Ryan's a better athlete than Kirk Cousins was, much bigger quarterback, probably a bigger arm in his prime. And yet still, he hit that certain age and he started to drop off. And I think that you see that a lot.

So it's very risky for the Vikings to sign a mid-30s quarterback to a multi-year extension, even if he is coming off a good season and a playoff win. And I think the numbers will matter a lot too. This is an analytics GM. Are the numbers good? Is the efficiency good? Where is the team stand as a whole? Do they feel like, wow, we had all these defensive players

take a big step forward, we won 11 games, and we are ready to compete for the Super Bowl next year, then they might say, well, we don't want to do this rookie quarterback thing. That might matter as well. And so some of these things are kind of push and pull of, is it possible or is it not possible that they could do that based on a playoff win? It really depends on the context. If they have put together a top 15 defense where all these young players, Asimola, Lewis Seen, Andrew Booth Jr., they all look like they're the next great thing, then they might say, we've got to keep Cousins because we can't just turn it over to a

rookie and waste the year where we've got a chance in 2024 and maybe, you know, try to sign him to the extension that he wants. But if it's a playoff win where the defense ranks 25th and it just is kind of the same old thing and they, they win a playoff game. They let's say they were nine and eight. They get in, they upset somebody, they go get beat. I don't think that changes a whole lot. I think it would have to be not only how he plays, which I think we have a good idea after many years of how he's going to play, how he plays combined with where the rest of the roster is at. How much do you need to improve the rest of the roster? Because the money comes into this as well as like, how are you going to spend the money? And maybe an extension lowers his cap hit for next year or gives him a

reasonable cap hit right away. But there's still a lot of dead money to spread out over that thing. It's unlikely it'll ever be a reasonable cap hit for Kirk cousins, but maybe if they feel like they are right on the cusp of something great that they can't yeah and and also they won't be able to draft a good quarterback at the top of the draft if they have won 11 or 12 games and they've won a playoff game then you're talking about drafting all the way at the end of the first round how are you going to get a top quarterback prospect then I think that they could go back to him and say, all right,

let's have a conversation here. But if your cousins, do you take what they're offering? Or if you've just had another great season, do you punish them for not signing you to the deal that you wanted to sign and you hit the free agent market anyway? That's where giving in might assume that Cousins wants the extension, but he might not. He might want to see what's out there for him rather than just signing an extension to stay with the Vikings. So I've got to think that if they have a great season and all the young players look like they're on the cusp of excellence and Justin Jefferson's

thrilled with the future direction and everything else else that maybe Cousins would decide business-wise that it's best for him to stay. But yeah, I mean, I think that it really is kind of a small, thin set of circumstances that would have to go down in order for Cousins to sign an extension after this season, especially because he would have the option to go somewhere else. So if it doesn't happen by week one, the chances of it happening absolutely plummet. So great question, but that's this whole thing, this whole season, we're going to be asking all along, is Kirk going to stay here? Is there an extension? Is he not? What's the say about his future? That is a major part of the 2023 season is what it all means for the future at quarterback. Next question comes from at Swervin Mervin on Twitter.

Am I correct in assuming trading Smith had an effect on the 2024 cap situation as well? Well, we can look that up. I don't think it's significant though with Zedaria Smith. And I'm not sure that all the numbers are in yet with Zedaria Smith. I have not seen them so far, but I can take a look real quick. I don't think that trading him away

had a big effect on the Vikings 2024. And I don't know how much, and I'm looking right now, that he is going to bring about dead cap space because I don't know that that one was set up to take on a ton of void years so I'll look right now let's see so for this year as right uh right now what is listed on over the cap and I don't know if this is updated or not but it it's $4.5 million dead cap for this year. And for 2024, they don't have listed what Zadarius is going to mean to the 2024 cap. So I don't have a great answer for that as of this moment with Zadarius Smith, but I don't believe that it was a significant dead cap

hit that was coming with Zadarius. Yeah, Right now they don't have on over the cap listed as what the situation is because the Vikings reportedly took some of the money there back and kept some of the money on their cap, but we haven't seen all the numbers come out yet. So that's one I'm going to have to look later to figure out because I don't think that everything is out yet, but this is one where when I initially looked at the options for trading him away before June 1st, it didn't pop out to me that they were going to have to take on a ton of dead cap. This is why his contract was really more of a two-year deal than it was a three-year deal, which was announced. So if you remember, they announced

was a three-year signing for Zedaria Smith. But when you looked at the structure, it was absolutely two years because the third year had a super high cap hit and almost no dead money. So I don't have an exact number for you at the moment, but I can say that as far as I know, it was not going to be something that would have a major effect. But from your question, you don't want to see more players hitting the 2024 cap. So I totally get the concern there, but I don't think that's one to be too worried about. When that is updated and when those numbers do get reported, then I will swing back and be sure to mention that. Folks, I'm super excited to announce a new sponsor to the show that just made us a whole lot cooler. Oakley, express yourself and build a look that's made for you.

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and I can assure you that Oakley is not only the best looking, but the best quality out there. Head on over to oakley.com for more information today. This one is from at CJ McCauley on Twitter. What is the post-June 1st market for kirk cousins it's a market of one truly it's really a market of one because you have to remember and i don't know all the details for this but you have to remember that they he has a no trade clause in his contract how specific that no trade clause is i I'm not 100% sure. Is it a list of teams he doesn't want to go to, or is it a full no trade clause where he has to approve any trade?

But I really think that when you look around the league, almost every team either has their rookie quarterback, or they have their guy, or someone who is Kirkian enough that they would not be giving up future things for a Kirk. So for example, Tampa Bay, like Tampa Bay signed Baker Mayfield. He's not as good as Kirk. I'm not saying that, but he's Kirkian and he's a short-term filler for them. I think they want to kind of survive this year and look for a quarterback in the future. That's not a team that would trade for cousins, even though you could kind of squint and make that work like, well, they've got enough talent. So why wouldn't they do something like that? Like a Kirk for Baker Mayfield trade. Maybe he would accept that if they really wanted to do it, but I think that they should just be

comfortable with where they're at. And they've also got Tom Brady dead money. Like, could they afford bringing in cousins? There's really only one team that we're talking about when it comes to Kirk cousins. And if someone has other teams, feel free to send them to me or leave them in the comments or whatever, because I can't look at the rest of the teams and find someone where not only would they want him, but also he has to want them. I think San Francisco is it. San Francisco is the discussion post June 1st. Will the Vikings call the 49ers and say, how you feel? How are you feeling about Brock Purdy's elbow?

How are you feeling after OTAs and seeing some Sam Darnold, who I think Kyle Shanahan said he was like a legendary thrower of the football. He does have a great arm for sure. Maybe there's some Sam Bradford to Sam Darnold and kind of a resurgence or a surgeons of his career later on. I don't know. Maybe that could be under Kyle Shanahan, but let's say they're not very happy with that. And they don't like where Trey Lance is at. Let's just put all these things together or they're not very happy with that and they don't like where Trey Lance is at. Let's just put all these things together. They're not confident in where Trey Lance is at for being the starter.

Could they call up the Vikings and say, all right, you know what? We're not feeling great about this. We know your team is in transition with your defense and you have a lot of young players on offense. I mean, we just talked about Alexander Madison. Look around. Brian O'Neill's a veteran. Harrison Smith is a veteran.

But who else is on the Vikings? Most of the other players are pretty young. So if San Francisco called and said, you know what? Let's do this thing. We want Kirk. We'll give you Trey Lance. We'll give you some draft picks or something. I don't know.

And let's make it happen because we want to win the Superbowl. And we think with Kirk, we can win the Superbowl. That's the market. That's the post June 1st market. And if he's somehow traded somewhere else, I will be totally shocked and I will be wrong, but I think that that's about it. And I also think that that is very pie in the sky at this point a major trade into june is really unusual it happens every once in a while that someone has moved like that but a quarterback moved into june would be pretty darn surprising so i would not expect anything like that to happen but that's it it's is the san francisco thing going to come to life or is it not? And my

guess would be probably not, but that's it. There's if I'm Kirk, I'm not taking trades anywhere else. Unless of course someone gets hurt. I should mention this. It, there is the, another Sam Bradford connection, which would be if someone else got hurt and they called about Kirk and it was a great team and he wanted to go. Maybe if the offer is right, the Philadelphia Eagles couldn't turn down a first round pick when they knew that they were not going to be a championship contender. If the Vikings got offered a first round pick by a desperate team that was ready to win. And again, these are pie in the sky, long shot situations. But if you're asking

what the market is, this is the only market. So if that happened, then always, I suppose, possible that the Vikings could do it. But who's going to play quarterback for them? Is it going to be Nick Mullins, Jaron Hall? Probably not going to be something that the Vikings really want to do. But at least there were reports and rumblings that they had had some of these discussions at the Combine, which may have just been, hey, how you feeling about your situation? I don't know. I don't know how deep those conversations ever got. But the fact that they had them and the fact that they do not have an extension for Kirk allows the door to still be potentially open for anything. It's just, I mean, wow, that would really be a shock if anything happened right now.

I think what they want right now is they want to have a competitive rebuild season where they are in the playoff race. They're competing for the division. They're trying to win in the playoffs and hoping that this defense comes together and that Jordan Addison's great right away. The revamped running game is better. I think that's what they're looking for right now. I don't think they're saying, all right, it's time to move on just yet.

From Cousins, I think they're going to deal with that when they get down the road. But if it happens, wow, we'll have a lot of fun talking about it. That's for sure. All right at ivan carter nine given that kena mccardle coached digs as a terp and helped jj and kj develop would it be fair to expect that addison develops quickly and be a bigger factor than we think i think everybody's different um i i do believe Keenan McArdle is a special wide receiver coach. He was a special receiver in the NFL for Cleveland, Jacksonville, Tampa Bay, Super Bowl champion, and a heck of an insightful guy to talk to in my experiences. But I don't think that any position coach in the league guarantees you anything that by having him as

your receivers coach, it means that Jordan Addison will be great right away. I don't know that we can just put that on him because of who's coaching him. I think it's great for who's coaching him. And one of the things that I've heard about Jordan Addison is that this guy just loves watching tape. Like that's what he does. His hobby is also his job. And I think that will gel extremely well with Justin Jefferson. I think it'll gel extremely well with Keenan McArdle. And what we do know about McArdle is route running and understanding what receivers see

through their eyes and the right messages for them, how to understand offenses, how to run their routes, all those details. I mean, Keenan McArdle has to be great at it because Kevin O'Connell could have fired him and come up with somebody else to coach his receivers, but decided that he wanted to keep Keenan McArdle. That really says a lot about McArdle's coaching. So I would not downplay it at all,

but I think every position coach in the league would tell you if somebody's not ready, there's no magic pixie dust that I can sprinkle on them and say, all right, do this drill, now you're ready. Or you're not, I mean, there have been receivers coaches who coached Stephon Diggs and Adam Thielen who also coached Laquan Treadwell, and that didn't work out. really depends on the player and i and i always kind of go back to

i've had players tell me before you have to develop yourself you have to take what you learn and go home and work on it and go into the off season work on it and if you want to get better that's really on you and that's the mentality's the mentality Justin Jefferson has taken over the years. It certainly is for Stefan Diggs. And it sounds like that's what Jordan Addison is going to be as well. I mean, I've already come across stories and working on some articles about how, you know, it's late at night, sun's going down. He's still out there catching the jugs machine and then wants to watch more tape and all those types of things. He has that in his background. He has route running. He has ball tracking. Like there's a lot of things to like about Jordan Addison, but the NFL is very hard. And if there's an adjustment period for him, it might be different than other guys. Also Jefferson was a 97th percentile relative athletic score and played at LSU. And, you know, so that's the best competition.

And those things may be a little less surprising that he could step in right away and be a star. If he is not a star right away, if he's just good, give him time because he's going to have to put on weight. And that does take time. Maybe a little Brian O'Neill-ish to make a pick connection of somebody who is not exactly the right size, but found a way to become a very good player. So I wouldn't put that pressure on him right away. But I also do think that he checks off a lot of boxes for a player who could be good right away because he already has that in his nature to be a film junkie, a football junkie, love the details, love the techniques and things like that. So yeah, I do think that it's possible he could take that step forward and they have a really good receivers coach to help him get there. This question from at a Duke and a bunch of numbers in light of Jason Tatum going nuts.

So you can tell this question was asked we can put jimmy butler into this uh this was asked uh a little before jason tatum and the boston celtics struggled but in light of jason tatum going nuts in that game seven where boston actually won who is the best game seven player on the minnesota vikings i think that that would be, well, look, Justin Jefferson's the answer to who's the whatever on the Vikings. That's the best. It's always going to be Justin Jefferson because in the entire league of non-quarterbacks, where are you drafting Justin Jefferson? Top three, top five for best players in the NFL. So of course he's going to be the game seven player. But if we're going non-Justin Jefferson, somebody that it's a big moment for you, it's time to step up and make a play. Harrison Smith is going to be the guy. I mean, year in and year out. And we saw it again last year, even though he was not given the same level of opportunities to attack the quarterback, to make plays in the backfield and so forth. He still was coming up with big interceptions, big pass breakups,

the play that he made against the New York Jets. Harrison Smith has still got it, still their game seven player. Still, if you said, if another team is going to target one defensive back on the Vikings and you got to pick, of course, Peterson might've been that last year, but it's Harrison Smith. Now, I also think that Christian Derrissaw is becoming that guy. If a left tackle can be a game seven player, he, I mean, the only time he struggled against elite pass rushers was Micah Parsons. And he was coming off of that concussion and had another injury in that game. That's the only time that I can remember,

even against the best of the best, that Christian Derusaw was having trouble. And yeah, I mean, I think that those end up kind of being the guys on the Vikings right now. Who's going to become the next version of that is really the question. Is it going to be Jordan Addison? He certainly was in college. If you go back and look at some of his biggest games, clutch plays, big time catches at the biggest moments, like that's who he is in college. But will he be that in the NFL? I don't know, because a lot of guys are that. I also think that TJ Hawkinson came up with a lot of plays in big games last year as well. I don't know if I would call him like a superstar NBA player, make that comp. But TJ Hawkinson in that game against the New York Giants was fantastic

throughout the entire game that when Justin Jefferson was taken away at times, he was kind of that secondary player who could step up. So they've got a few. They've got a few. They need more, though. If you're going to win a championship, unlike basketball, one guy scoring 50 points can't happen. You need about 10 guys who play game seven type of football. Next question from at Joshua R. Smith on Twitter, our friend Josh Smith.

Pie chart on the 2023 carries for Madison Chandler McBride and Wong Wu. Good question. Pie chart. So what percentage of the carries will Madison Chandler McBride and Wong Wu get? This is of course, assuming Delvin Cook is not here. It's very weird to talk about a player not being here when he still is technically on the roster.

And I was looking through the Vikings roster the other day, just kind of seeing like, all right, well, what does this kind of look like? Who do I want to write about? Things like that. And I like scrolled past his name and I was like, oh, yeah, that's right. Delvin Cook still on the team. We've wrote him off already, but assuming he's not. I will go Alexander Madison 60 to 65 percent of the carries, then Ty Chandler 20% and the rest to somebody else. Now I could definitely see Dwayne McBride passing Ty Chandler. Chandler was just a rookie last year

and it seems like Kenny Wong Wu is a little bit out of this conversation. He has an opportunity not to be but whatever they saw last, they must not have loved in training camp and in practice as far as him being a running back. They love him as the kick returner. He has an argument for the second best kick returner in the league, not named Cordero Patterson, yet he just would not get opportunities last year. They don't do these things at random, coaches. This is one thing that happens all the time when we talk about it in training camp or

whatever they're not playing this guy they're not playing that guy why did they cut this guy in camp why why didn't they keep this guy these things are not just decided out of the air they always have reasons like they cut amir smith marset last year for reasons that they had which maybe one of them was he wasn't getting it with the offense. He wasn't connecting with the offense and Kirk Cousins in training camp, and they decided they wanted to go with someone else. That may have been what it was with Kenny Wong. That's only speculation since Kevin O'Connell would not say specifically what it was that

was holding him back. Mike Zimmer, I think, would have told us, but O'Connell did not say straight out. So I can't tell you for sure what's happening behind the scenes of practice that would have kept him out. If he does get in the game this year, I think there's a benefit to that. But I think that mostly it's going to be Madison and Chandler. If it's 65 and 15 or 65 and 20, and then the remaining 15% are those guys mixing in or some injuries or whatever it might be i think that's a pretty good mix and we get to see kind of what mcbride has mcbride is going to be a guy i think is just a pure runner at least to start i don't know that he's going to

be catching a lot or that they're going to want a rookie uh pass protecting so it has to be on kind of first down runs. Chandler has had a year to get some of that stuff down. And if he's better at those things, those details, then he's got a chance to play more. He has more breakaway type speed, high end speed than Madison, maybe kind of a change of pace there. But I think that bringing back Alexander Madison meant he will be the guy who's getting the majority of carries. If Chandler runs by him in training camp or McBride, then that has a chance to flip. Ask me this again. Ask me this question again in training camp for sure. And we'll maybe have a different answer. I guess we'll find out. From at brand SF 52,

not rooting for it, but what is the likelihood that the Vikings stumble out of the gate? Something like two and six. What would Casey's potential moves be to salvage what he can and prepare for 2024? There's not a lot. There's not a lot you can really do, but if they stumbled out of the gate to that point and another team had an injured quarterback and somebody was willing to give up some decent draft capital to

bring in Kirk Cousins for their playoff run you have to consider it if he hasn't signed an extension at that point you have to consider it it doesn seem likely. Usually when we get to the trade deadline, we're always talking about the million trades that could happen and one happens. And trading a quarterback in the middle of the season is pretty tough. I mean, Carson Palmer was the ultimate example of somebody who had got traded to the Raiders already in the middle of the season. It was a struggle for him at first. And then I think he came along eventually, but it was pretty ugly when he first got traded there. I think that's who I'm thinking of that had that happen. So if you're trading Kirk Cousins to another team in the middle of the season, asking him to play quarterback, that's hard. I mean, that's a lot to ask. It could happen. That would be something I'm sure that they would make some phone calls on if there was a good team with an injured quarterback.

But can it really happen? Are teams cap space situations in a spot where they could do it? Let's say it's Miami, though. Let's just say it's Miami and Tua has gotten hurt again. I hope that doesn't happen. But let's just say I'm just picking a team and they are at the top of the AFC East. They're leading the bills. They're ahead of the Aaron Rodgers jets.

They're feeling great. And he goes down. Let's just say it's an ankle. So we don't have to get into the injury history with him. He's out with an ankle and he's out for the rest of the year. I mean, they would have to make some phone calls, right? Like they can't ruin this great team that they've put together just because of quarterback injuries. And if the Vikings are two and six and you, if you don't trade them, that's just negligence from the Vikings at that point, because

in 2020 people were playing for their jobs and they thought after they beat green Bay, that they could get back in the race because the schedule was so easy. This schedule is not that easy. It doesn't have a run at any point where you go, oh, well, they're just going to cruise through. Remember, it was Jacksonville. It was Carolina. There was an argument for them to get back to 500, get back in the race in 2020 and not

trade away everybody. This year, I don't think they'll have that argument. So if they do start two and six and there is the very, very right circumstance, it could happen with trading the quarterback. If it doesn't, I mean, Harrison Smith decided to come back, I think in part because he wants to stay in Minnesota, wants to finish his career as a Viking. And he's not explicitly said that,

but you get that sense since he decided to stay this year. Would he accept the trade? How much you get for sense since he decided to stay this year. Would he accept the trade? How much you get for him? It's probably not much. I mean, it's at the deadline. It's a fourth round pick. It's a third round pick, something like that for Harrison Smith. Teams are usually not trading away firsts or seconds because those are very, very valuable. And for players that the team has to get rid of. But aside from that, look around. There's not too many other guys. If TJ Hawkinson does not sign an extension, I would put his name on this list. Marcus Davenport would also be on this list. If he

starts out pretty well, but the team is two and six, they might get phone calls. And if he tells them, guys, I'm not signing a contract extension here, I'm going to go hit the market, then they might have no other choice than to trade him away. So there's not a ton of options there. It's not like sometimes in hockey, a team gets to that trade deadline. It's like, everybody's going. Baseball, everybody's going. Football is harder to do with that. The offers aren't that good. The cap situations are usually tricky. And if a player doesn't want to go, I remember this story Rick Spielman told about Yannick Ngakwe that they gave Ngakwe the option of staying. They said, well, we can trade you or

you can stay. It depends on what you want to do. And that's why I bring up Harrison Smith. They would have the respect for Harrison Smith to say, hey, what do you want to do here? And if he doesn't want to get traded, then he won't get traded, even if it could get them a draft pick. But that scenario, if they lose in week one to Tampa Bay, that scenario becomes kind of in play for them because the start of the season is a very tough schedule for the Vikings. I don't see that either. And the likelihood is not that high that that happens of such a bad start that they have to trade things away.

But if they do, yeah, there's a handful of guys. But I feel like we're kind of way ahead of ourselves to be trading people away at week eight in May. That's where we're at right now. We're a little bit far ahead of ourselves, but an interesting scenario nonetheless. This question comes from Eric and a bunch of numbers. Do you believe, how about the people who are asking great questions, even though their names look like they're random bots on Twitter, but these are great questions. So you must be a real person. Good for you.

No one will ever guess though, because your number looks like it's something invented on a computer in Russia. So anyway, let's see. Do you believe that in the big business of the NFL, where players are cast aside with little to no loyalty, the Vikings are actually trying to quote, do the right thing by Delvin cook so yeah that was a report from jeremy fowler and i watched the video clip back several times to try to figure out what that was supposed to mean i don't know what that's supposed to mean to tell you the truth i i really i honestly don't i wish he would have expanded on it because I don't get what do right by Dalvin cook means if they're trading him to another team, that means the team wants to play him.

Is maybe there are teams he doesn't want to play for, but if someone is giving up draft picks to bring in a very expensive, older running back, that means they want him. So what, how would you be wronging him uh by doing that i i don't know i was very puzzled by that that language uh i do think that as we were just kind of talking about a lot of times teams will go to the player and have this conversation of hey we've got a couple offers this might be the best i could come up with because there wasn't a lot of details on what this was supposed to mean.

But I mean, OK, we've got three offers on the table. We could trade you for a little less to Miami or a little more for us to, I don't know, Arizona and a little bit more to this other team, whatever. Mystery team. If you're a baseball fan, you know the Scott Boris mystery teams. So maybe they say to Delvin, where do you want to go? We got three options. They're all going to play you.

This one's closer to home for you, but this one's maybe more opportunity. You tell us and then we'll make the deal. Maybe that's what they do with him. I don't know who is, if there are many teams calling up to have enough teams to even do that. But I think that that is the best that I can do in trying to discern that coded language. But if you're another team right now

and you're going into June, your roster is 95% set. You know who's going to be on your team. Are you doing this? The one thing that they could do is they could wait they don't have to cut him on June 2nd or they don't have to trade him just before that one thing they could do is they could wait and they could see if someone gets hurt another running back around the league but even then isn't Ezekiel Elliott still out there this seems like it's going to be a tough, tough go for them to trade him away.

It's always seemed that way. There were reports of some offers, some discussions. Nothing has come to fruition. I don't know how much interest there is in making a trade by that, but I think that's what they're trying to do. And the answer to your bigger question is yes, there is situations like that where teams have discussions with players. Do you want to be traded?

If you do, we'll trade you. If you don't, we'll keep you where it doesn't really make a difference one way or the other. And that's that Yannick Ngakwe thing where if he didn't want to be traded, then they would keep him and maybe sign him to an extension because he liked being there. But if they, you know, if he wanted to go and wanted to get a chance to try to win, that they would trade him away. That's having respect for a player that they clearly liked and had traded for. And veterans get that a lot, but that doesn't mean that it's across the board. Sometimes when there's a player that's

going to be drafted at a certain position, there's a story from Denny Green about calling Chris Carter and telling him, you know, I think we're going to be able to draft this Randy Moss kid. Is that going to be, you know, you're going to work with him or whatever, something like that. And, you know, Chris Carter's like, okay, yeah, for sure. If we can get him because he wants to win. There are discussions like that where they loop players in or give them some options. But a lot of times it is mostly just the harshness of the business.

And I think that could end up being what it is with Delvin Cook, either taking whatever offer they can get or just straight up releasing him. Or maybe it might mean also, I guess I think like, if they have a choice between releasing him or taking an offer for nothing uh or very little maybe they would say you know what we'll just release you so you can sign where you want as opposed to the only team that wants to trade for you is arizona and they can't even fix the floor boards of their gym so something like that uh this is from abhi saha sorry if i have that wrong uh 2023 trade scenario vik Vikings trade a second rounder for

Chase Young. Wow. Vikings trade away Hunter for a first or second and some picks. I'm intrigued. I'm intrigued. I mean, Chase Young has had a lot of injuries and he has been not a success. Hey, by the way, Washington maybe should take it a swing on that quarterback, Justin Herbert. I'm just saying instead of, oh, well, they got to take the generational pass rusher. Sometimes they're not generational. Sometimes they're just okay and get injured. But quarterback, now if that hits, that's pretty good. But that's a different discussion.

I don't dislike this idea. The only problem, I suppose, would be if Chase Young comes in, plays really well, and then wants $28 million a year from you and you can't afford it, and then he just goes, and what good did it do you? The timeline has to matter here. A second round pick for the Vikings, considering that they might need to trade up for a quarterback

next year. I don't know that they can really be giving away a lot of draft capital. I'm intrigued by your idea of trading for Chase Young because there could be so much more to his game. And if you're trading away to Neil Hunter, the older guy, getting the draft capital for him and essentially replacing the draft capital from a trade for Chase Young. I see your wheels turning and I like where you're coming from. That's my only hesitation is you might just want to hoard because right now the Vikings do not have a great bevy of draft picks. You might just want to hoard those picks uh to be able to trade up if that's what you're going to do next year in the draft that has to be a consideration and also you have to know like what is what is chase young's plans long term if he plays well

is he gonna stay i think marcus davenport would stay if the would stay. If he plays well for the Vikings and the Vikings come to him and say, here's a competitive offer, I think he'll stay. They signed him, they wanted him, and he might do that. I don't know if Chase Young would or if Chase Young would see this as just an opportunity to get a bunch of sacks and then get a contract with someone else. So if you're giving away something, you want to be in the win now mode, right? I mean, unless you have a really good sense that he's going to sign an extension with you if you trade for him because you believe in him and so forth. So yeah, I like fake trade offers. I really do. And I want to flesh them all out because they're always fun and interesting

and creative. So I think you are very, very creative in this offer and I don't dislike it. I just, I'm not sure that it fits perfectly with the timeline because had it been last year and they're going for it, then yeah, I think you want to do something like that. But next year, I am not as convinced that it fits where you're at, unless you know, you can keep him long-term. All right, let's do one or two more real quick from a rat trapping on Twitter. Uh, I just watched John Elway lineup for a pass on fourth and 10 in the 86 AFC championship. Good for you watching that. Um, and he ended up kicking a punt. Never seen that before.

Oh yeah. Yeah. That used to be a thing. Happens in college every once in a while. You never see it in the NFL anymore. It used to be a thing. This is how Randall Cunningham owns the record. I think he still owns it or at least set it at the time for the longest punt.

They were backed up in, it might've been third down, third and one or whatever, third and long at the one yard line. And they snapped it to Randall Cunningham and he just punted it. And then, you know, it just bounced and bounced and whatever. So this used to happen. It used to be a thing. It used to be a way to like catch the other team off guard. And of course your quarterback has to be able to do it, but okay. It looks like, what are they doing? Why are they lining up for fourth and 10? Do we put somebody back? Do we not? And then he catches it and then he just pooches it and it rolls down to the one yard line or something like that's the ideal play that, yeah, that used to be a thing. You'll see it every once in a while. I don't think it was a really super common play, but it was a way to

kind of catch the other team off guard and i have seen it in college a few times but the nfl you're just not gonna have patrick mahomes punt the ball if you because part of it is probably that if you had patrick mahomes punt the ball that everyone would lose their minds if he did not punt it well. I'm going to look it up. I feel like Tom Brady may have had one that Tom Brady may have done this once. I'm going to see if he did. It's is not something that happens very often. Did he have a career punt? He yes, yes.

Tom Brady has done this two times in his career. Yeah. In 2003, he had a 36 yard punt. And in 2013, he had a 36 yard punt. And in 2013, he had a 32 yard punt and one of them got inside the 20. So it has happened as recently as 2013. I do not remember the last time I saw it happen, but Tom Brady actually punted two times in games. What a winner do anything to win Tom Brady. Okay. Last one. Love that winner. Do anything to win, Tom Brady. Okay, last one. Love that question.

Love that you're watching a game from 86. Last question. What if Kweisi does what Ryan Poles did last year with Kirk and Daniil? So you mean that into the middle of the summer, Ryan Poles and right up to the season, even into the season with Roquan Smith, they just traded away everybody. They got rid of Khalil Mack. They got rid of, you know, was it gosh, the other edge rusher, Robert Quinn. What if he does that? Well, then you're going to

have a really bad season and you are going to compete for Caleb Williams. Is that, are you asking me to put odds on it? I don't think they're very high. I think that comes back to the ownership and their desire to win. I think it comes back to Justin Jefferson and his desire to win and their need to make Justin Jefferson happy. But if they do it, I will respect the absolute heck out of it, that they're actually going for it,

that they're taking a swing to try to win a Super Bowl by drafting a quarterback high next year and building around that guy. And it will be a painful season. If Kirk Cousins isn't playing and it's Nick Mullins out there and you're trying to grind out five, six wins in a year, it's going to be pretty tough. It would not be a fun season for almost anybody. A lot of bad games.

You won't pressure the other quarterback. The other teams are going to score 30 points a game. It's going to be ugly. It's going to be ugly. Are you guys ready for ugly? Maybe. Yeah, could be. Are the Wilfs ready for ugly? Maybe. Yeah, could be. Are the Wilfs ready for ugly?

I don't think so. I don't think so. But I will say that now that we see the whole picture, what does it look like with this roster? It looks like they did not go out and fill spots with a bunch of random veteran players and hope and pray. They did not extend Kirk for how long he wanted to be extended. That all looks like a future mentality.

It's not shredding the roster the same way it did with Ryan Poles, where it was a clear tank, but it was a very much future-based approach. We were a little confused at first, but the more we've gone along, the more that that's what it's looked like as a real eye on the future where they will be truly competitively rebuilding. So if any of those scenarios come about where, you know, the Neil Hunter doesn't want to sign, okay, well, you have no other option than to trade them away or a quarterback gets hurt and

the roster doesn't look very good. And they call with the first round pick. Like all these things could happen. It's all in the realm of possibility. I don't see it as something that is going to happen. But if they did it, I think they would get a lot of love from the Vikings fans who have just been through this so many times, time and time and time again with, hey, maybe we can win 10 and get in the playoffs and have some good stuff happen for us. I think that most people are done with that. And if they took this, we're going to get into

the rebuild boat and it's going to be a one-year drop back and then jump back forward with a high draft pick quarterback. I think that there's patience. I think that there is patience and we'd find out a lot too. We can find out about a lot of who can play on the defensive side. What does Brian Flores bring to the table? Who's going to be here? I think it would be a very, very interesting season and a very frustrating season for the coaching staff, for the ownership, for the GM, for everybody. But I would look at it as necessary and the right thing to do if they did that. They won't, which means you continue to play the middle. But I don't want to completely count out anything. We still don't have enough tendency on Kweisi Adafomenta and Kevin O'Connell

and their era to be able to say for sure. Great questions, guys. Super fun. And I really appreciate everybody who sent the questions. Again, purpleinsider.com. On Twitter, at Matthew Collar. Hit me a DM. I'll make sure to get it on the show.

Another really fun episode. A lot coming up this week. Alec Lewis from The Athletic is going to be on. Daniel Popper from The Athletic who covers the Chargers. We're going to have a discussion about Vikings chargers and where Eric Hendricks fits in there. So a lot to discuss this week. It'll be fun and OTAs as well.

So we will catch you later.