Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Vikings preseason game PFF grades that stood out (Hour 1)

Episode Date: August 11, 2025

Matthew Coller talks about PFF's grades for the Vikings win over the Houston Texans and answers fan questions from the game. The Purple Insider podcast is brought to you by FanDuel.

Hi, everybody. Welcome to the live stream. And I wanted to talk more about the game yesterday because I had a chance to go back and review all the PFF grades. So I have pulled up the grades that it's still preseason for Purple Insider. Yeah. I pulled out the grades that I thought were the most interesting from yesterday and the ones that stood out to me as maybe something I didn't catch or maybe something that confirmed what I was thinking while watching the game. And then I also just wanted to answer questions.

I'm sure that all of you had a chance or many of you had a chance to watch the game yesterday and had opinions, takeaways, questions. So I'll give you guys the grades that stood out to me. Fire me questions in the live chat now and dog ate my camera. That's good. Fire the lot, the questions up in the live chat. and I will be happy to answer them momentarily and we'll go from there. We'll have a little fun.

I decided I couldn't spend two days in a row or even one day not talking football with you guys. And of course, this is a very big week for the Minnesota Vikings. They will have practice on Monday. I'm not expecting it to be the most intense practice of all time, but they have a day off Tuesday. So we might see some stuff tomorrow and maybe even some lineup tweaks or changes based on what happened in the preseason game.

So it'll be on the lookout for that. And then on Wednesday and Thursday, those are the two biggest practices of the summer for this franchise that Kevin O'Connell has repeatedly talked about the joint practices. You've heard him bring it up. I don't know how many times that these are the practices that he uses as the biggest evaluation tool, even more so. than the preseason games. And that'll happen on Wednesday and Thursday.

And yes, there will be recaps right after that. You know, come on, answer questions, talk about how the Vikings perform against the New England Patriots. So that should be fun. All right. Let's get into the offensive grades that stood out to me. Here's, I just took five offensive grades that stood out,

five defensive, and then five that caught my eye is potentially concerning. And that's with all. the caveats that I understand this is a preseason game and if somebody didn't have the highest grade and I and just to tell you the truth I didn't pull out the grades of just say like you know somebody asked about Dallas Turner I'll give those to you but starters who only played a couple snaps on defense I'm not going to look at that and go oh my gosh you know Dallas Turner didn't get five pressures in the preseason game because those guys are established and they're said in their roles. It was really more about players that needed to perform at a high level

in a preseason game that I was focused on. So here's the offensive one, starting with the highest grade on the entire team from the game. That would be Joe Huber, who had a 94.7 grade yesterday. And I mean, I thought that Huber looked good. And I certainly noticed that there was room to run for Xavier Scott and that the pass protection wasn't too bad when he was in the game, but I did not expect to open up PFF and see a 94.7 grade for Joe Huber. And one great preseason game doesn't necessarily mean that, you know, Joe Huber is suddenly on the team. But it did make me wonder about the backup offensive line situation where just in school, I think, has had a pretty tough.

summer. And that's in part because he's been going against some really good talent. Even Gabriel Murphy, like, spoiler, Gabe Murphy's on this list on the defensive side as well. So even when he's been going against Murphy, he's been having success. And, you know, Jonathan Grenard, I'm assuming that school because of his experience will be there. But it also caught my eye that Walter Rouse played really well. He was second on my list at a 74 or a 78.4 grade. He played left. And and right tackle. And then Blake Brandel was playing right tackle yesterday. And that made me wonder, is there any consideration to the idea of trying to keep someone like Joe Huber and potentially cutting Justin's school if they don't like what they've seen over the summer and having

Rouse and Brandel as the backup tackles? I'm not ready to quite go there yet. I mean, they went out into free agency. They signed school. He's played before in the NFL. But if they like some younger guys and they know that Blake Brandel can always play tackle in a pinch as he did in 2022, then that might open the door for somebody like Huber or at very least if they end up with him on the practice squad. That's a guard to start developing as a backup into the future. Again, one preseason game, but usually you don't see too many grades that are that high for an undrafted free agent guard, even in this type of event.

environment. So Rouse had a good game. The fact that Logan Brown only played with the fourth teamers and Rouse played at both left and right tackle says to me that the 53 that I did the other day with Rouse being cut in favor of Brown is probably not right. Just five or six days ago, Brown was getting a ton of work with the two. So I don't know what happened there for why he had dropped out of that group. And then they had Brandel playing tackle instead. I mean, you never know about, hey, maybe they don't want to showcase this guy or that guy too much to the world because they might get picked up. But Rouse now having a year under his belt, a good training camp last year and playing this well in the preseason game bodes very well for him. No surprise here, Xavier Scott was the third highest graded player and the guy that, I mean, Scott is a Mr. Mancato dream right now.

He was somebody that has been on my radar, and I brought up on the show, and it's not his first year in the NFL, but I don't think he's actually played in any games. In my mind, that qualifies him for Mr. Mancato, especially when you come out and on the first preseason game, you show out like Xavier Scott did. That just screams Mr. Mancato all over the place. So the fan favorite from yesterday has also been someone who's impressing in practice on a day-to-day basis and performed very well yesterday, Xavier Scott. Lucky Jackson got the fourth highest grade. And this isn't just the whole grades on the entire team. This is notable grades for me. And Lucky made a really nice catch when Sam Howell was in there.

And JJ McCarthy talked about the throw that went over Lucky Jackson's head. and he had said that he was just a tick early in when he released that ball. And that's why it wasn't where it was supposed to be to Lucky Jackson. But that's another guy who has had a really, really good training camp. And Lucky is another guy where I'm like, can that be Mr. Mancato? I mean, he's been on the practice squad for a couple years, but he's never played. So I think the answer is yes. I wasn't thinking of him as a Mr. Mancato type of candidate.

and maybe you guys have in your heads what should qualify somebody for that. But I think an XFLer, and by the way, he's going to join the show tomorrow, an XFLer, a guy who's kind of been through it in the NFL and hasn't ever gotten into a game and hasn't ever made it. I think that he qualifies for that. And it looks more and more like they just trust Lucky Jackson as being that wide receiver three, as being someone that knows the offense and can get in there and can catch. the football when it comes his way, and to have a good preseason game, I think it, again, boated very well for Lucky Jackson. I mean, right now with what happened with Rondale Moore,

Lucky is on the team. It's really just a matter of, and we'll definitely get to this when we get to the Q&A, it's really just a matter of, do they want to go out and get someone else? Or do they think that they are going to be okay with Lucky Jackson? Because we haven't seen in a lot of him in real games, but as far as behind the scenes, I mean, they've been seeing Lucky Jackson for several years now. And in practice, they've been seeing him in a big sample size with Justin Jefferson out. And it's been impressive. So for him to grade well yesterday, there is a chance that they go into that week one with wide receiver one, Justin Jefferson, wide receiver two, Jalen Naylor, and wide receiver three, Lucky Jackson. And I don't think that in that

scenario that Lucky would play 50 snaps, I think it would be much more like 20, and then maybe you'd mix in Ty Felton, and you'd use a lot of Josh Oliver in that scenario, but it's not impossible that that could be the case. And then last on my list of notable, highly graded offensive players was Max Brosmer, and they graded Brosmer the way that you and I all thought that Max Brosmer played. And I got a few messages yesterday. like, hey, look, you know, we've done the fourth quarter legend in the preseason before. And that is absolutely true. And it is against fourth stringers. It's also with fourth stringers. But I think it was more for Max Brosmer about how he did it than it was with the fact that he did, right?

I mean, Brozmer threw the ball very well. He threw it on time. He looked in command of the offense. he looked like a real quarterback and what I'm always looking for is the preseason stuff to match up with what I see in practice. And so with Max Brosmer, I wrote about him after mini camp because I was impressed and throughout training camp when he's gotten out there, he's looked good. Almost every single time that he gets an opportunity in a practice period, he looks like he knows where the ball is supposed to be going. He's got a quick release.

It seems like he understands the offense at a pretty high level. And then he came out and performed like he did. I don't think anyone is calling him QB1 or I don't even think anyone should be calling him QB2. We saw that Sam Howell against inferior competition was very good himself. But should he make the team? I think there's a decent chance of that, especially when you play this well, then it does become possible that another team would try to swoop in and grab somebody like Max Bros. But there will be a lot more that we're going to see from him because after the joint practices, they will not be playing J.J. McCarthy. They will not be playing the starting offense. So there's going to be more opportunities in the second half of the game against the Patriots for Max Brosmer after this. But I thought for a debut, he was very strong. And what I really liked was that he threw the touchdown to Dante Fleming. And then they took the touchdown back. For those of you who stuck all the way through the end of the fourth quarter of a pre-

season game. Like you belong here. You get the neck roll for today. But I just really like the fact that Brosmer came back and threw a touchdown on the next play. And it didn't look like it was, and I don't know his reads, but it didn't look like it was his first read. It looks like he had to wait on something to pop open and then timed it perfectly with Miles Price in the back of the end zone. And he's been really good in those red zone drills. I know the red zone drill has probably had more conversation about it than I can ever remember. But the one guy who has been able to step up is Max Brosmer in those drills. And I think he processes well and he gets rid of the football quickly.

You see, he doesn't need a huge windup to throw it. So not surprised to see him on this list. Now, on the defensive side, another couple of non-surprises. I mean, Gabe Murphy was an absolute beast. Just a beast yesterday. He was credited by PFF with five total pressure. and three quarterback hits. I mean, that's, that's a lot of action for a guy in a preseason game.

And he was winning around the edge. He was playing physical with violence, just impacting the play out there. And all of a sudden, you know, we're starting to talk about now behind Dallas Turner, you might have another guy to rotate in. And we know that, well, Brian Flores does not like to rotate his secondary very much. he does like to rotate on the defensive front seven. And Brozmer said it was his four or three. Okay, I mean, that's what it looked like.

Yeah, that's what it looked like. I didn't, I was in with McCarthy and O'Connell. I didn't get to Brosmer in the locker room yesterday. So I'm not surprised by that, that he went through his reeds and he hung in the pocket. And there was some non-perfect pockets for Brosmer. And he just did a really good job. So Gabe Murphy, though, and this, again, matches up with what we've seen in practice. that he has been in the backfield a lot.

He's won a lot of reps. And he said yesterday after the game that it was like, thank goodness I got to actually hit someone. And it looked like he took out all of the frustration of not being able to hit the quarterback on Keaton Slovis and the other guy who threw three interceptions. I mean, they were all over the place, Gabe Murphy. And Bo Richter had a couple of pressures as well. Richter's great overall wasn't great because of coverage,

but he had three pressures. So they got a lot out of that group. And Murphy could potentially carve out something for himself. This is not a guy who's new on the scene to this coaching staff either. Last year, early in training camp, he really impressed them as well. Elijah Williams, another Mr. Mancato candidate here. He had four, yeah, four pressures yesterday and graded a 79.9, second highest grade on the defensive side. and this is a guy that doesn't really get a whole heck of a lot of reps in practice.

I know that the chat has been asking about him, and I can't really say much when I see him in practice because I've only seen him a little bit. They don't run the threes a lot in practice. So this, a preseason game for the guys who are the threes, I mean, that's really important for them to get out there and perform like Elijah Williams did yesterday. and to put up four pressures, this guy comes from Morgan State. He played in the HBCU All-Star game and dominated that game. He was phenomenal, and that's how he ends up as a Minnesota Viking,

and he showed it. He showed that there is some jolt to that guy. There's some juice. And after the game, it was interesting to hear Kevin O'Connell really talk a lot about Elijah Williams, about how he sits in the front in the meetings and how he doesn't really love to sit down and watch D-Line, individual drill film, but Marcus Dixon, the Vikings D-Line coach, was like, hey, I got, I got somebody that we need to take a look at.

So he's here. And the 53 would be very hard to make for Elijah Williams, but could be one of those development situations where next year we are talking about him. Another guy was Chas Chambliss. That one did not stick out to me so much live, but he played 31 snaps and he ended up with a 70.4 grade, didn't end up with any quarterback pressures, but did have four tackles yesterday. And Chambliss started out injured during training camp. And I don't think has had a ton of reps to really get ramped up, but was kind of one of those intriguing

potential practice squad guys when he came in that, you know, played at Georgia, was kind of in a rotational role, good athleticism, that kind of guy, but maybe doesn't exactly have the perfect specs as an outside linebacker. So he had a good game. And then Zemaya Vaughn ended up on this list as well with a 68.7 grade, not flawless for Zamea Vaughn, but was targeted a couple times. I think he was targeted five times. And he allowed just two completions. So nothing from Zamaa Vaughn that would make anybody think differently from what we've seen so far in training camp. And he got a lot of work. I mean, these guys actually a lot of players got a lot of work yesterday. Vaughn had 37 snaps, which was the second most on the team. So they really wanted to get

a lot of look at Zamea Vaughn. Dwight McLaughord ended up with 27. As of right now, I've got both of those guys on the roster, Vaughn and, and Jay, or I'm sorry, and Dwight McClother. So, yeah, that's the defensive side, Gabe Murphy, Elijah Williams, Chas Chamblis, and Zamia Vaughn. But a lot of guys got into the game and here's a couple of the stats that I thought were a little bit concerning from yesterday's game. And again, let me say that this is a very tiny sample. It's a preseason game. And the reality of PFF grades is they love the 1 to 100 system because it's really easy for us to analyze. They think of them like Madden grades and stuff. But if you make one a mistake in a preseason game, you're going to get banged for it pretty hard with the PFF grade

because there's only a handful of play. So if you get a negative, it's going to bring your grade down quite a bit. And I think that's the case with one of the guys on the list here that had one miss tackle and it brought the grade down. So here's the concerning grades, though. Donovan Jackson only gave 55.9. His past protection grade was in the 30s. And that would be another situation where he only played 12 snaps he got kind of run over on one of those snaps and that hurt his past protection grade still it wasn't exactly what you wanted to see from donovan jackson i'm not throwing up any red flags not hitting any panic buttons or anything else like that on jackson i saw you know in the comment section yesterday like hey man you know this this is pretty concerning

and okay well let's give it a little bigger sample than that it was just you know one that he kind of got got, but he's on the list because he's the first round draft pick, and he didn't come out and start throwing bodies all over like the Hulk. Michael Juergens had a fine overall grade because he was good in run blocking, and that was the case last year during training camp, where he graded very good in run blocking, but he ends up on the concerning grade list because he had a 53 pass protection grade, and he played a ton of snaps. He played basically an entire game's worth of snaps because Zeke Corell got hurt So Juergens had to come into the game, I think, right?

That was him at the end of the game who came in. And so he played at, I believe, 43 snaps in this game ends up with a 53.1 pass protection grade. There was also a couple of snap issues that happened while he was in, which may have been the quarterback, may have been him. But there has been a little bit of, you know, a little bit of an issue at times with the snaps in a practice. So, yeah, some of you are saying that his foot got. tripped up with the center i mean either either way like ending up on your backside and grading in the 30s by pf after your first game was not where you wanted to see jackson and i know that like getting getting your feet tangled with the center is still not good it's still not where you

want to be uh on that play like you don't want to end up your first time going out there playing having something like that happen i again like i don't know how many times i've say like i'm not saying the guy's a bust or that he's a failure, but also, yeah, I mean, you shouldn't be in a regular routine pass protecting play, just like tripping over your center. So there's work that has to be done with Donovan Jackson. It also does match up with what we've seen in practice, which is Javon Hargrave, Jonathan Allen, pushing him back into the quarterback. And you could say, well, you know, those guys are good, but NFL teams have good players at those positions. So I don't think that we need to, you know, throw our bodies in front of him for,

you know, not having a great first outing. This week will be really big for Donovan Jackson as he goes up against some excellent, excellent defensive linemen, Milton Williams and Christian Barmore, I assume, is out there as well. So, you know, and it is funny. Well, he did get bowled over. I mean, you could say that he got his foot caught on the center or whatever it is, but he ends up on his back on the play. I mean, you know, it is what it is. The point is that at least by the grading system that they use with PFF, they didn't like that either, regardless of whose fault you're going to say.

He ended up with one of the lower grades on the team. And Juergens has just not ever been a plus pass protector in these scenarios or really in practice either the backup center situation i've mostly just kind of shrugged my shoulders at like at you know i don't i don't know what you really do there uh he knows the offense and if you have to put him in then it's probably not a great situation if ryan kelly has to go out but with snapping issues that's where i would get a little bit more concerned because you can't have that in games you can get pushed back and you can lose a rep as a center against a good defensive lineman but you definitely can't have the snapping issues that you've had.

As far as Levi Drake Rodriguez, that was a guy that I was excited to see in this game because he's had a very good training camp. He's been really aggressive. He's been in the backfield a lot, create a lot of pressure. He ends up with a 47.3 grade didn't play a lot of snaps, but still did not stand out in the way. Let me look how many snaps that he ended up with. Didn't stand out in the way that I expected.

They had 22, 22 snaps, didn't have a quarterback pressure, didn't have a tackle, was kind of just another guy on the field. So, you know, I mean, again, where you could talk about, well, maybe his assignment was this or his assignment was that or whatever. But it wasn't, there wasn't an impact play from Levi, Drake Rodriguez, that I expected to see going into the game just based on where he's been at in practice. And I did wonder if, you know, guys like him and Jalen Redmond were a little overly amped up. up to start the game because that first drive by Houston was very easy for them to get down the field. There was no pressure. The offensive line won the reps in terms of creating running lanes and they had success there. So it wasn't the best outing for Levi-Drake Rodriguez. Mackay Blackman played a ton. He played 34 snaps in this game. And that really made me kind

of raise an eyebrow of, do they not feel great about where he's at in his recovery from the ACL, because somebody who has previous experience, somebody that they were ready to start last year, to play 34 snaps in a preseason game is a lot. As you saw, the guys who are going to be a big part of this were on the sideline. And then the guys who are also going to be a pretty big part of this, but somebody has to play, were out there for a very few snaps. Jeff Okuda only played 13 total snaps. So that's what I would have expected from Blackman as somebody that I feel like

showed a lot of potential back in 2023. But he's coming back from the ACL injury. And in training camp, he hasn't looked like he's had the same aggressiveness as he had before. And then in this game didn't grade particularly well and played a lot of snaps. So that's a little bit on the concerning side. And I threw Kobe King in here because there was a mistackle. He did have a pressure. and just didn't stand way out in this game.

I still think that King is a player that they like and has a good chance to make it over Brian Awesomelaw, but nonetheless, a notable draft pick player who didn't jump way out in this game and ends up with a 57.1 rating from PFF. So there you go. There is the most interesting grades, I think, from the game. If you're wondering,

his his was uninspiring it was i didn't even look very close at it it was like a 64 or something which which was fine which is exactly kind of where i had it yesterday it was a a fine appearance from j j mccarthy they accomplished what they wanted to accomplish and that's kind of how he graded sam howell graded very well and what that means that i'm not really quite sure because if you don't perform very well in practice and then come into the preseason game against the vanilla defense and do well, which means more. Now, if he uses this and has a good week and kind of picks up on the momentum of a good preseason game, then it will quiet all of the Sam Howell talk, all of the, hey, should they

look for another quarterback conversation? If he goes out and plays against the Patriots and looks pretty good and starts to turn a corner, it can be hard in this offense to learn it very quickly. and he just got here on draft day. So I think what Sam Howell did was bought a little bit more patience by playing very well in that game. And then if this week goes well, then you've got yourself a backup quarterback. If it doesn't, then we're still going to be asking that question. Is there somebody else out there under consideration?

All right. First, I have a sponsor for the show. And we've got our fan dual question of the day. Here is the Fanduil question of the day, my friends. There are five players that Fanduil is given a shot at 2,000 yards that you can bet on whether they will get to 2,000 yards. There's five players, Sequan Barclay, Derek Henry, Bejohn Robinson, and Jemir Gibbs. Now, I think only two of those guys have a real shot. I don't think Robinson or Gibbs can get there.

But those are the four players and I'm sorry, four of the five that the Vikings play all of them. So all the guys, four out of the five guys, the Fanduels giving a shot at 2,000 yards, Barclay, Henry, Robinson, and Gibbs, the Vikings are playing them. Here's what I want to know from you guys. Where will the Vikings rank in run defense? Fan dual question of the day, where will the Vikings rank and run defense, knowing that they are playing four guys that are on Fandul's list of players that you can bet to reach 2,000 yards.

So look forward to your answers later in the show. Where will the Vikings rank against the run? Mama wants to know about Bo Richter and Dallas Turner. So Dallas Turner only played a couple of snaps. He played nine snaps. I really don't think that's enough. I mean, his grade wasn't good, but it's nine snaps. I don't think that that's enough to really be talking about.

Bo Richter's overall grade was not very good, 52.1, but that was mostly because of coverage, where there were a couple completions into his coverage. his pass rush grade was a 72.7, which was the second highest on the team to Gabriel Murphy. And that's what I've seen from Bo Richter in practice, really the last two years. The guy just has a little bit of jump to him. He can get in the backfield. He can run people down. I mean, I don't think he's a guy who you want in coverage too much. And you really want him on special teams. He could be one of the better special teamers on the team for this year. but if he has to get bumped up into a role where he has to play,

this is now two years of preseason action where he's shown himself as a pass rusher. And if you go back and look when he came out, his numbers and his pro day were phenomenal in terms of athleticism, strength, speed, quickness. It's just that he went to Air Force and didn't have a lot of attention, but even his production was very good. And this is where I think the Vikings have just done, great job of finding these types of guys, like Elijah Williams, Bo Richter, Gabe Murphy,

Ivan, Dwight McClother and Samayvon, and where it usually starts is productive. They're usually productive players in college. And sometimes, even if the specs aren't right, the college isn't right, the height's not right, the arm length. People mentioned to me that Gabe Murphy was not drafted high because of his arms. He guys, the NFL's out there drafted and long snappers in the seventh round and not a guy with a bunch of sacks and pressures because his arms look like mine. That's always been weird to me.

Aaron says how did the backup corners play? McLeathern, Vaughn, and Blackman. We talked about Blackman. Didn't think that he looked very aggressive in the game. Vaughn and McLeodern played fine. I don't think McLeodern graded super high, but he was only targeted, I think, two times in the game. Yeah, 63 grade.

made 27 snaps and he was targeted, yeah, two times for 14 yards. So, I mean, not really a lot to write home about with Dwight McLeathern. It's been an interesting training camp to see him more with the threes than with the twos. And Vaughn has gotten almost all the work where with the second team, Okuda is playing outside corner on the second team, like their first second team, if you want to call it that. And then Vaughn and on the inside has been black.

which is also a little bit suspect to me as well because he was scheduled last year to be a starting outside corner and not just a nickel guy. And for him to be playing a lot in the nickel, it does kind of raise that question. Do they view him as just a nickel now? Or is this, has he been passed so much by Vaughn that and Okuda that those guys are more trusted as the outside corners? And for Vaughn to play pretty well, I didn't think he was dominant. And there was one, maybe mistackle, and there was one completion in front of him. But for him to play well enough with how good he's been in camp, I mean, this is just the NFL, right?

I mean, one day you think you're going into a season as CB2. And then the next year, there's some undrafted free agent who looks like they're ahead of you on the depth chart. But yes, I think that is the group of backups. It's going to be McLeather Vaughn and Blackman. I would assume that Blackman is still the first guy off the bench because of his experience. but in terms of the way that they've actually practiced, it has looked more like Okuda and Vaughn

is the backup outside corners. And Blackman is the backup nickel. Mama wants to know the offensive line grades. I could pull up a few more blocking grades for you just to see how those played out. I mean, Huber's really jumped out at me. 94.7 is ridiculous. And Rouse was the second highest after that.

And let me do it by pass. blocking snaps. Leroy Watson was fine. Henry Byrd was fine. Blake Brandel ended up with a 69.3 grade. That was okay for him, considering he was playing right tackle, and I don't know that he's played right tackle all year.

School was okay in past protection, and I thought, you know, he was fine. Will Fries didn't grade very well, but, you know, Will Fries is not somebody that I'm evaluating in terms of the preseason. And that was kind of it. There weren't too many. Logan Brown scored really well in pass protection, which I did notice a couple times throughout the game.

I'm just curious why he was playing in the fourth quarter and not earlier than that when he's been a little bit higher on the depth chart for a lot of this camp. Side to play says any chance that Kalef Halasi will make the roster after his two interceptions. I don't think that those two interceptions are going to suddenly make them say, a, oh, well, we didn't have you on the team. And now we do because you got those picks. They were kind of right to him. I mean, one of them was a tip, right? And the other one was literally thrown right to him.

It's nice to make plays on the football. And it's interesting that they, he was a corner and was somebody that they had identified that they liked, I think from the Browns. And they moved him back to safety. He, to me, is much more of a classic practice squad guy who's got a little positional flexibility. and they could trust in an absolute pinch to get out there. You know, Jay Ward is still ahead on that depth chart.

You have Theo Jackson, Josh Mattelis, Harrison Smith. Like, that's kind of the four that you're going to roll with. But keep him on the practice squad as someone who has played corner before, has played safety, has just been around for a little bit. Maybe. I don't think the two picks move the needle as far as like, oh, now he's on the team. But it's a good look for him. and it's a good look that he was comfortable in playing the safety position after

mostly being a corner earlier in his career. But that was definitely notable and good for him. To me, he looks like a practice squad guy. Son of beavers will soon, with soon to be three players going on IR, will the Vikings bring in any depth for the O line or receiver room? Yeah, I can almost guarantee that, that they're going to be looking for another guy who could snap the football. who was it that came well jurgens came in yesterday but also i think vashon lee did vashon lee play center

at all uh yesterday looking for that uh looks like vashan lee played guard who else played sound i think it was just it was uh korel and yeah just just jurgins and ryan kelly so they need maybe vashon lee can play a little bit of center as like a fill in guy but they need somebody snap the football zeke korel was the only other guy and they tried huber at it for one practice and that lasted maybe five snaps. He is clearly a guard and not a center. So yes, I think that's right. The wide receiver room is a little bit of a different conversation

because if Lucky Jackson hadn't played as well as he did and hadn't looked as good as he did during training camp, I would probably be like, I don't know. I don't know. Maybe they need to go out and get convince our, you know, Amari Cooper to come play here or see what brand. Brandon Powell is doing if he wants to come back and play for another year for the Vikings. And they might have to do that with the punt returning situation.

I don't know how many punt returners. There aren't 32 good punt returners in the league. How many are just hanging around in free agency waiting for a call? So that might have to be the case. The Adam Thielen thing continues to come up. It's possible that the Panthers would move him because their wide receiver room has gotten a little bit deeper with Teteroa McMillan and Coker looks like a good player for them. Hunter Renfro has suddenly been intriguing. Maybe that's on the table. I don't know. I don't think that they would do that,

but I guess that's possible. But someone needs to come in here who could part return because as of right now, it's Silas Bolden. Miles Price didn't get a chance to get one yesterday. They gave a few to Bolden. And Isaiah Rogers has returned punts before. That's about it. I mean, unless you're putting Jordan Edison back there when he was. returns. I don't think so. I wouldn't want Isaiah Rogers back there. So yeah, I think that they do need to look for a couple of guys to bring in here, especially a punt returner and especially somebody who can snap. I don't know how many decent centers are just hanging around. I'm sure that they have a list of guys that are kind of next man up that they make phone calls to. But I don't know.

I don't know if they would go for any sort of bigger play with the wide receiver, if they are happy with what they've seen from Lucky Jackson, but maybe, I mean, this is the type of year where you don't want to take that many rolls of the dice. Now, last year, look, when they missed Addison for a couple of games last year, Brandon Powell had a couple catches and Trent Sherfield had a couple catches and Johnny Munn. So it's not like they can't work around this for a few games and then get Addison back. But I think maybe the concern would be, hey, if Jalen Naylor tweaks an ankle or something, you're talking about Lucky Jackson is wide receiver two, and then Ty Felton is wide receiver three, and all of a sudden, then it looks a little bit more on the bleak side. So maybe I'll come around to the Adam Thielen return to Minnesota idea if the Panthers want to move on from him.

Thelan's one of my all-time favorite players to cover. So as far as, you know, from my perspective, would enjoy having him back. Uh, by the way, I forgot to do the ad read. I said I was going to do it and then I forgot. Got caught up with the, uh, fan dual question of the day. ZipRecruiter, and welcome them sponsoring the show. I know that you guys out there, a lot of you own businesses or you are in management positions where you hire people and it can be a headache.

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That is ZipRecruiter.com slash audio. ZipRecruiter, the smartest way to hire. Boom. Yeti says with Ty Felton emerging as a special team's ace and punt returner, do you see Khalasi being a fifth safety instead of having. Tavier Thomas or Jones on the roster. Yeah, I mean, with that one's a little bit tricky about Thomas because it's not just like punt gunner. Sometimes it can be everything, you know, a guy who is a good special team snapper.

It can play all the different special teams positions, like all, all those sorts things can be useful for special teams and not just that one position. but I do think that Ty Felton being as good as he was yesterday as the special team's ace does help them if they want to fit somebody else onto the roster. I don't know that it would be him just because he had the interceptions. I'm not sure about how they feel about him overall. Remember, those interceptions were against their fourth, maybe fifth string quarterback. I guess it was probably their fourth string quarterback who threw them right to him. So I'm not sure that that's going to move the needle exactly.

But if they can trust Felton, they probably don't need Tim Jones. If they can trust Felton to be that punt gunner guy that Trent Sherfield was so good at last year. And he certainly looked apart. I mean, the effort, the speed. And if you're a good wide receiver, then you know how to get off the line of scrimmage against guys who are pressing up against you and physical up against you. So I'm not sure about where Tavier Thomas ends up fitting into this. I don't think that Jones is a guy that looks like he's going to make the team to me.

But maybe those penalties aren't as important to them as they were to us when we were talking about it yesterday. Jones is more of the proven guy. And in a situation like this, they may say. And that's what I'm saying about like the Adam Thielen idea is even as good as Lucky Jackson's been. it's it's possible that they may say hey like we need somebody a little more proven but my thought is you better get going on that quick like I know that Adam Dillon played in KOC's offense before but if you're going to trade for a wide receiver who you want to play week one um it's getting late early like it's it's August 10th year you got a month to get somebody fully up to speed

and on the same page with the quarterback and that's where the, knowledge of Lucky Jackson plays in. That's why he's the one who's out there. That's why Rondale Moore wasn't out there much or Ty Felton taking those first team reps with Jefferson out was because Lucky Jackson knows where to be. And he's really a master of the offense at this point. That's probably going to be more valuable to them than trying to go out and get someone who's ever so slightly better. Now, if it's stealing and he's a quick study and he knows ball and he's been here before, then maybe. It'll tell us a lot. about how much pressure they feel

and also how they really feel about Lucky Jackson. I think they're buying. I think they're buying what they've seen from him so far. Son of Beavers. Do we think Xavier Scott has become RB3? So I'm kind of back and forth on this because to the other reporters in the perch in our little area where we stand and watch practice,

I've been the person yelling out Xavier Scott season every time he makes a play. And as you know, I've probably brought him up more than important players on this show. I think if you look at, if you went through the transcripts with AI or something, you'd probably find more mentions of Xavier Scott than like Jalen Naylor throughout this preseason and training camp because I've liked what I've seen. And it's, it's cool to see when a guy stands out in practice that he does it in the game as well. I'm not 100% sold on this idea of him being RB3,

but I'm like 60% sold on it. It's not. Ty Chandler had a moment for the Vikings in 2023. He was really good in the game against Cincinnati, and he was pretty good in their final game against Detroit. But last year, we are talking about a guy that didn't have any big runs last year and then lost the coaching staff's trust, it might just be that they've run out of patience for him.

And then when you see Ty Felton back there, kick returning, you go, okay, well, if they're going to have Ty Felton kick return and not Ty Chandler, and Xavier Scott is this guy who's catching the ball to the backfield and he's maybe past protecting better in their eyes and understands the offense better, he's hitting the right holes and going the right direction on handoffs,

then I think it's possible. I think it's possible. I think if I was making a 53, I might just go for it. If I was making another 53, which I'll probably do like next week after the joint practice. It's like a post joint practice 53.

I wouldn't be surprised if Xavier Scott is on there and not Ty Chandler because I think he's kind of becoming one of those camp darlings, one of those classic Mr. Mancato guys that you never really see coming going into camp. And then all of a sudden, wow, he can play. he had power he had burst and the guy has great hands as a former wide receiver uh beavers if you had to pick between gab davis and tyler boyd who would you rather have

probably gaber davis if he's healthy i think he was hurt last year he has been a more of a downfield type of wide receiver that fits with that role of jalen naylor because you got to think who he's really replacing if he's wide receiver three is naler because nailer's moving up to wide receiver two and addison is moving to the suspended list for three games davis is more of a that type of a wide receiver so i would probably go with him haven't seen a lot from tyler boyd in a while it's been a while for tyler boyd but gave davis it wasn't too long ago that he was a good downfield wide receiver um maybe uh kit given uh moore's injury who are the potential punt return and how would you handicap their odds versus a free agent to be named later.

As of right now, the only guys who have been doing it that I would think actually have a real chance to do it because Addison goes back and catches some balls, Naler goes back and catches some. So does Isaiah Rogers in practice. But it would be a very bad idea to have any of those guys. I mean, I actually think Jordan Addison could be a phenomenal part returner in the NFL, but let's not. Let's just not say we did. I think the free agent to be named later has the best chance to be the punt returner. I mean, look, Brandon Powell kind of fell out of favor last year, 2023 had that bad fumble. He was never really an impact player, but you just need somebody who could catch the ball and then get the offense back on the field.

It would be great to have Rondale Moore have been an impact player, which I think he had the potential to be as a punt returner because of his quickness, because of his burst. But, I mean, now you're talking about, can you just get someone who can catch the ball? And maybe there will be a punt returner who gets cut, who doesn't make someone else's roster. That's not a position where you really need to deeply study the special teams. Everyone probably has pretty similar punt returning. So they could wait and they could give Bolden a chance and they could give Price a chance and kind of go back and forth and see. I've liked Price a little bit more than Bolden. He caught the touchdown just in practice.

think that price kind of has some some energy to him he's got some power to him where bolden to me is so small uh but you know we got what one return from bolden yesterday and that was it i would like to see that uh those guys go back and forth but when you're talking about a situation where your your team has such high expectations and you're really trying to win i mean that guy's got to be great right it's got to be great if you're going to give him that job not just well, he was kind of the only one here. And we didn't, you know, you need him to be really, really good. Or go out and get a veteran who you're sure can at least catch the ball.

Ronald says, happy J.J. McCarthy. So happy J.J. McCarthy played and thought he played well. And thank God he didn't get hurt. You know, I think there was a little bit of debating yesterday about how well J.J. McCarthy played. Because all quarterbacks are some sort of. block test, right? It's what you see versus what I see. Like, what is your brain processing and evaluating and, uh, putting to the top of the list versus what mine is. So I try to listen closely to the coaches. And of course, Kevin O'Connell, who really does tell us a lot about this

whole process with McCarthy. I listen to him and what he has to say and then try to make up my mind with what I saw and what I thought of it. Because if, if, if, if, you were looking at it really cynically, you could say, well, that first bootleg was behind Addison. It's true. And you could say, well, he overthrew Lucky Jackson. That's also true. And, hey, you know, he scrambled, but, you know, you're trying to get a conversion there and maybe he didn't spot where the hot route was or something, right? If you wanted to look at it from a negative perspective, I think the best possible interpretation was that on a route like the to overthrow to Lucky Jackson, he, I think, learns from that.

That was not a great throw, but you learned from that about the timing of that particular route or that concept or that receiver, whatever it is. And as he said after the game, that he understood he needed to wait another click in the pocket before letting that ball go. And then he would have completed it to Jackson's just a little bit of a learning moment. The emphasis for me was really on how everything looked in terms of. of the ball coming out of his hands, the play call getting in, the pass protection, the snap, the general vibe of how it looked with him as QB1, I thought it all looked fine.

It wasn't a mind-blowing performance. It certainly wasn't one that made me really concerned. And you like to see him get out and run in his first preseason game after getting hurt. So I thought it was overall, it was fine. And as you said, it's an A-plus because there was no injuries. he's probably not going to play another training or another preseason game this is a huge week for him at training camp but considering that we are a month off still from the actual game and this is the first time he's been in since you know last year i thought it all looked fine

i thought it all looked fine i didn't expect him to be super sharp but the one throw that got debated was the one that was caught by addison where he had to dive for a completion and i thought that that throw was good. My initial feeling on it when I saw it was, oh, it must have been offline because he had to dive for it. But I thought that was in a good place. Sometimes if you have in the NFL a spot where your receiver has to dive and catch it, well, that's still an accurate throw in the NFL if you're throwing him open, which I

thought that that's what he did on that play. If you look at the release where he starts to separate his hands to throw the ball, Addison hasn't gotten out of his break yet. He throws it to a spot. the timing's pretty good he has to reach out and grab it big big play and and look if you got to throw it in the general area to Jefferson or Addison to where they have to dive or reach out to get it those are 90% completions for those two guys in that type of area that's just the NFL I mean you'd love to hit every single guy dead between the numbers flawlessly but a lot of

times that's not what open is the NFL because the coverage is good so I thought that was a good throw overall and he felt good about it as well after the game so yeah i thought it was fine but you're right if you want to give an a plus to mccarthy it's stayed healthy no problems and off you go uh be e says how about giving scott some reps at wide receiver and see what happens uh you know i on on mad and i would do that on mad and i would a hundred percent do that David Palmer. When I used to play video games with David Palmer, I would put him at wide receiver on some packages, and I would put him a running back on other packages. I would do the same thing with Eric McHath. And it was great. With Xavier Scott, he's a running back for a reason. I think he's got good hands out of the back field, but he hasn't taken any reps at wide receiver in years. He came out as a running back. He was with the Colts as a running back. He's been with the Vikings as a running back. If you're going to get another wide receiver, which is very possible that they will. They need to go get another real wide receiver, not just, hey, let's, let's hope that this guy can remember how to run the routes and learn something. Like, he's barely on the team

right now in my mind, much less asking him to have a different position. So I don't know if I'm quite into, uh, into that idea yet. Uh, Aaron says, how about the screen game? I know it's preseason, but screens looked better. Yeah. I mean, I don't know what to make of that. because you are talking about the preseason. But I did notice that with McCarthy, that one rollout went pretty badly for McCarthy to C.J. Ham. That's one where you got to dirt that ball. Just throw that right in the ground.

That play didn't work and move on. But I did notice there's a lot of play action, and there were some screens. And a couple years ago, when the Vikings played against the Bengals, and I'm not saying that there's a comparison with McCarthy and Jacob, Browning. But one thing I was impressed by with the Bengals, I would say the same thing for Matt LaFleur and Jordan Love is when Jordan Love was, it's probably a better example, but both did sort of the same thing and are both are from a similar tree of coaches where they really made

hay on play actions and screens. And I don't think that the Vikings can move the ball this year as well as they have in the past, unless they have a good screen game. They've got a more athletic offensive line. You want to talk about Donovan Jackson. Like this is a way to use Donovan Jackson and his athleticism is in that screen game. I get him going in that screen game and be able to get him out in space. You've got some players, Aaron Jones, Jordan Mason. I don't love the tight end screen, but to the running backs, these running backs are really good at it. So I agree with you. I think that it's a sign of a good coaching staff that you can convert on. You can convert on play actions and screens because most of the time those are entirely based on just how you've set

them up. Those are much more based on the play design and the way you maybe throw in something that's a little bit of eye candy or throws off the defense or you get it against the right look where you check into it or something. There's a lot of coaching to that. And with play actions, a lot of times it's open wide receivers. And that's why Kevin Stefansky and Gary Kubi ran it all the time with Kirk get the bootleg going get guys coming across the field open like those are easier throws for the quarterback and they need those especially early in j j micarthe's career so that was noticeable to me uh son of beavers i feel like we're still going to bring in cornerback depth with russell douglas or stephan gilmore i don't think so right now

i have not felt like right now that they need to do that if someone gets hurt then i would say yes. If they really don't feel good about where Okuda is at, then I would say yes, because Blackman just has not looked the same as he did a couple years ago. But all the reviews of Okuda seem to be that they feel really good about him in that position. And remember, like Shaq Griffin last year took over that spot. Or I guess Okuda is taking over Shaq Griffin's spot. I mean, that guy was cut by his own team last year. Like that, it wasn't like when they signed Shaq Griffin. It was this incredible signing. In fact, there was a lot of arguments over whether they gave up a comp pick or not versus, hey, actually, Shaq Griffin played really well for them in that spot

last year. It's kind of a rotational role because they're going to play a lot of three safeties. I think Theo Jackson's going to be on the field a lot. So I don't need that right now, unless somebody gets hurt based on what I've seen. I think they should still feel okay about having Blackman as a backup and the way that Vaughn has emerged as well. But somebody gets banged up and then you're having that conversation. By the way, I hope you guys got to answer that Fanduil question of the day.

I haven't scrolled down far enough, but just a reminder that where's the Vikings defense going to rank? I remember just now as I was talking about this, that I didn't answer it myself, the Fandual question of the day. I think the run defense will rank somewhere around 12th.

I still think it's going to be above average because when your defense is playing well, they're often playing from ahead and they're often putting teams in tough situations with sacks, pressures, turnovers, and even if they're playing some great running teams, if you put those teams into situations

where they can't lean on the run and they're not ahead, most of the worst run defenses are just terrible teams. And I don't think the Vikings are a terrible team, but I also think it's not going to be as good as last year because they won't be up by, you know, whatever number of points like they were, early in the season last year, when teams couldn't run at all because they were just way behind, like that Packers game or the game against Houston, Houston couldn't run at all against them

last year because they were down 20 points right away. So there is my answer. I look forward to your answers. Miles could Brosmer be what Washington had in Kirk Cousins? I mean, let's not get ahead of ourselves. I do think that Brosmer can have a career. I definitely think that Brosmer can have a career in the NFL. Because if you can make the throws and you can understand the offense, then you're 90% of the way there.

And he showed some leadership capability for them yesterday. His release is pretty quick. His velocity was fine on the football. It's not blowing my mind, but it's pretty good. I'm not there to say yet, okay, well, he's a future starter in the league like Kirk. I mean, Kirk has had a great career for a guy who's drafted a fourth round. Um, so I, I mean, that's, that's an outlier. That doesn't happen very often, but does he look like a guy who could play.

He does. He does look like a guy who could play. He looks to me like somebody who ends up in the league for 10 years and starts a handful of games and has a really good NFL career and then becomes a coach afterward and goes from there. Uh, Frank says, uh, Brosmer won't make it through waivers. They had to pay a premium to land him. Well, he especially won't if he continues to play this well.

And that's where if you cut. Brett Rippin, then I mean, I don't know that Brett Rippin is getting picked up by anybody. If you cut him, I think you could get him back on the practice squad. If you cut Brosmer, there's probably another team that had their eye on him that might try to pick him up and put him on their roster. Phil said, Chambliss looks the part. He immediately grabs your attention. Yeah, I agree. I mean, I thought he had some jump to him.

And he played a lot of snaps too. So he was out there quite a bit, got a lot of experience. that's another guy that I see or that I want to see more of in this preseason. I really want to see more of because he was hurt off the bat of training camp. And then when you're with the third team, there's just only a handful of snaps that you're going to get. So getting 31 snaps yesterday was really good for Chambliss. And he will get a lot more going forward here because they're not going to play any of

their starters. Cans like the way that Tyler Batty looked. He had two quarterback pressures, 64 grade. also another guy that play a lot and looks like the same sort of thing. Like it looks like the same sort of thing where he is going to be somebody that we watch a lot in the preseason and has a good chance to make the practice squad. Michael, long time listener to the show. Great to see you, Michael says the year is 2026. Purple Insider is booming and you need a defensive version of Tuesday morning left guard to add to the feed.

who from the 2020 to 2024 team are you choosing for Wednesday morning defensive back? So that's a good question.