Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Vikings preseason game PFF grades that stood out (Hour 2)

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.

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. If you're only giving me 2020 to 2024 and that makes it harder, because they had some pretty bad secondaries there.

But I think that there is a really easy answer. And I'm assuming that Harrison Smith hasn't retired yet in 2026. I don't know. Maybe he never will. Easy answers Patrick Peterson. Patrick Peterson is one of the most impressive people at breaking down the game that I've ever run into in my career. And I know that when he came out of college,

he was a physical freak. He lit up the combine, all that sort of stuff. but as he got older and he wasn't as fast, he was still really effective for the Vikings because of the IQ. And he's a great talker. He did some podcasting. I did a story about him with the podcasting. And he really enjoyed it.

Like he enjoyed that, that getting in front of the microphone sharing opinions. And I think I haven't seen it recently, him doing a lot of podcasting. He was doing it with his cousin Brian McFadden, who is Bryant McFadden, former Steeler, who's a really cool guy. It's actually a really great broadcaster for CBS.

So they were doing it together. I haven't seen a pop up recently. So maybe he stopped after his career. I don't know. When he was with the Vikings, every time he would talk on his podcast, it would become a headline. And maybe he didn't want that as he was moving on from the NFL.

But the offers out there, Patrick, I don't think I have enough money to pay Patrick Peterson, what he would want to do every week on my podcast. But it's out there for you, buddy. If you want to come back, we had a lot of great conversations in the locker. him for free. Sloth says, how did Taki grade? Yeah, that was one that actually stood out to me because Taki Tiamani did not play a lot of snaps in this game. He actually only played 12 snaps,

had one quarterback pressure, 57 grade. I just don't feel like there's been the same commitment to him this year. It feels like it's been Levi Drake, Jalen Redmond, and Tyrie on Ingram Dawkins have been the guys. So I don't know if that's a position that they really are thinking about is that true nose tackle. It seems much more that they're trying to get clones of the guys that they already have, which is, I think Levi Drake is much more of a Harrison Phillips. And then you have the other two that are kind of penetrating guys or great, great athlete in Ingram Dawkins case. And Redmond is more of get to the backfield in the run game. Fan dual question of the day.

In the run game, I think they're just going to rely a lot on their really good tackling from everybody else. Just hold serve up front enough and don't get steamrolled completely. And then Cashman, Pace, Mattelis, Harrison Smith, the corners, like the corners are pretty good tacklers. Isaiah Rogers for a small guy has been a good tackler in his career. All those guys are going to have to step up. Brad says potentially five UDFAs make the roster.

Eurasek, Vaughn, Brosmer, Huber, and Williams. I, uh, joining, uh, four former UDFAs on the roster, any team that comes close. I don't know, uh, in terms of how many other teams have for undrafted free agents. There are a lot out there because they fill out rosters and stuff, um, but I don't know about Yurasek. he got a lot of snaps yesterday. None of the tight ends made much of an impact. I would guess he makes it right now,

but that could be a scenario where they look to the waiver wire for a veteran. I don't know about Huber. I mean, he had a great game and looks like somebody who's gotten a lot of reps and has been pretty good during training camp so far. Really good game yesterday. But who's coming off at that point? Because are you keeping 10 or are you keeping 9? because if you keep the five starters

and then Brandl, school, Rouse, and Juergens, that's nine. So are you cutting school to keep Huber, the undrafted free agent? I don't know. And Elijah Williams to me is a practice squad guy that you feel great about. But fitting him in the 53 would be really hard to do.

Brosmer, I could see. And Vaughn, I think, is a lock right now. But I would probably go that maybe two and possibly three would be the ones. Let's see. Miles, your daughter is watching and knows the Vikings is the purple team. She wanted to say hi in hope of getting a shout out. Hi, Ava.

Thank you. Thank you for watching. Miles. I appreciate you as a regular listener and watcher to the show. And don't tell your daughter what's happened to the purple team throughout history. So maybe she'll jump on board with you and you guys can watch the Vikings together. let's see Kevin what happened to blackman you know I think when it comes to a blackman that it's just the recovery from the ACL injury and getting back to that aggressive

mindset after you've been through that I mean last year it was the first practice of the year and he goes up to try to make a play and ends up with missing an entire season that is that's a hard mental thing to deal with I'm only guessing on that. No one has said that. Brian Flores said, oh, I'm, you know, I'm happy with where he's at right now. And then sort of threw in a considering the recovery, you know, that kind of thing. I think that that's it. It's just not easy to come back from that and be back to your old self like snap of the fingers, not early in training camp or even midway through camp. But if he continues to play this much in preseason, then I'm really going to think, all right, there's, I mean, I've

already moved on from there being any competition there, but also maybe there's something a little off with the way that his recovery is gone or his performance this year, because it just playing 34 snaps alone is a lot for somebody who you would expect to be more of the next man up if somebody went out. So now you wonder if Okuda goes out, is it Zamaia Vaughn, who's the next guy up and not Blackman? That's how far it feels like it's fallen. But that can change as we go forward. Aaron, answering the Fanduil question of the day,

defense ranking 13th in run. That's about where I'm at. And, you know, the reason that I brought that up as the Fandul question of the day is because Fandul has five guys that have a shot at 2,000 yards that you can put your money on. And four of them play against the Vikings, Barclay, Henry, Robinson, and Gibbs.

I don't think that Robinson has a chance to go for 2,000 yards. but they also face running quarterbacks, and that matters too. I mean, if you ended up with, gosh, I don't know, giving up 100 yards to Lamar Jackson and 60 yards to Jaden Daniels and 55 yards to Jalen Hertz, that can shift where you rank in run defense. Doesn't mean your run defense was horrible. Those might be on scrambles, but it's all going to still get thrown into that same number. MC Sports, 14th for the run defense.

john says the run defense will be higher than the past defense rank and that's where it might depend on how things play out a bitter bruce has got 12th you guys are thinking right along the same lines as me uh not a twerk says run defense will rank 18th um past defense will be stellar forcing teams to run yeah i mean if they're playing a lot of close games then they could get run on more. If they're playing in games from ahead like they were last year, then they're going to force teams to pass. Will teams be afraid of passing the ball against this defense? Maybe not because you can look at it either way. Like if you run on first down and you don't get six yards, then you're setting up Brian Flores to throw whatever he wants at you on second down.

And what Flores makes him so interesting is that he treats second down and anything more than five as that's a pass down like i'm treating that as a pass down i'm going to send a bunch of blitzes and i'm going to you know i'm going to go after uh the quarterback on second down and sometimes that leads to tackles for loss where he's sending he calls them run blitzes i guess i would have to better understand how those work differently um but trying to guess on the run and blow up a play but if you get to if you get to second and eight he's going to send the house at you so maybe teams will try to pass a little bit more on first down I don't know. They're facing some serious run teams.

Kinetic. Canetic? Is Xavier Scott solely playing running back now, considering his time at wide receiver? Could he be a swing running back wide receiver? If he makes the 53, where do you see him fitting in? So he hasn't taken any snaps at wide receiver. It's entirely been running back. He's a running back. He's switched in college in his last year and played almost exclusively running back after that in the NFL. I mean, he's a big dude, and you can tell that he's put on some girth since the Vikings got him last year. Coming into the camp, he wasn't anybody that I was paying much attention to,

and he sort of made all of us be in part because he got bigger and certainly treated his body like, I'm going to be a running back. I'm going to take the punishment. As far as where I see him fitting in, I think there's a good chance that he makes RB3 on this. roster that they will end up trusting him, even though he hasn't played a little bit more than Ty Chandler. And I also think that he can play special teams snaps as well. And he can do different things on the special teams, whether it's the guy who calls for the snap or going

down and, you know, making a tackle or something like that, right? I mean, he might be someone who could play a ton of snaps on special teams that Ty Chandler, maybe they didn't feel as comfortable with, where Chandler was here as a returner, but if he's not going to be a returner, then what's he really going to be? If they're going to use Ty Felt, it just feels like, and even the way that Kevin O'Connell responded to the question,

he didn't really truly answer the question about Xavier Scott, but kind of the way his body language responded to it, it felt like he was excited to see that from Xavier Scott as well. Colton, as a Utah fan, love watching Vaughn. He was incredible, glad he's doing well. maybe you could tell me, Colton, and I know I'm way behind on the questions here, but maybe you could tell me why you think he didn't get drafted. I'm always so curious of why some of these guys have not been drafted.

I mean, the same thing goes for, you know, Gabriel Murphy where short arms, what are we talking about here? Short arms. It shouldn't keep a guy with talent from being drafted and who was really productive. against pretty good competition. I mean, I remember looking at those stats when he was coming out. And, you know, there was Layatulatu, who got all the attention is, you know, high draft pick.

And then the other top guys, Dallas Turner was one of them. And then here was Gabriel Murphy's name that kept coming up in all the production statistics. You're like, okay, well, why is that that he would go undrafted after producing? I know he's a little older and not, doesn't have the quite the quick twitch. but I mean, if you could get a guy who could play 300, 400 snaps beyond special teams, create a little pressure, carve out a role for himself, that's much better than drafting a punter.

Kevin said Will Fries has a small sample size of being good. Might want to keep an eye on that. So with Will Fries, yes, there's definitely some question there of he really had last year, those first five games were phenomenal. In the previous year, he was above average or around average a little above. Folks, I know a lot of you out there either own your own business or you are in a management position where you have to hire people and it can be such a headache. You have to sort through all sorts of resumes of people who aren't qualified and you end up

overlooking some of the best candidates. It's tough. But what is not tough is using ZipRecruiter for your hiring needs. ZipRecruiter finds amazing candidates for you and fast. And right now you could try it for free at ziprecruiter.com slash audio. It's just so easy that you have to try it. You can use their smart technology that finds great candidates for you, or you can use the invite-to-apply button that allows you to reach out to your favorite candidates.

There's a lot of ways that you can make ZipRecruiter your best recruiting tool. Ditch the other hiring sites, let ZipRecruiter find what you're looking for, that needle in a haystack. four out of five employers who post on ZipRecruiter, get a quality candidate within the first day. So try it for free at this exclusive web address, ziprecruiter.com slash audio. Again, that is ZipRecruiter.com slash audio. ZipRecruiter, the smartest way to hire. That does not mean necessarily it's worth $17 million. Yeah, I think that's a good point, that that's something to keep an eye on. But I wouldn't use the preseason game.

as evidence, just because, well, he is coming back from an injury and he's got a sample of actually playing. This is the point about Donovan Jackson, where, you know, I try to say, like, here's, here's the fact of the matter is that he had a 35 pass protecting grade in 12 snaps and maybe eight of them were passes. And a couple of the reps didn't look that great. That's all we have to work on with Donovan Jackson. It doesn't mean I'm saying he's a bus. It just means I don't think it was the debut that he was dreaming of where he's picking up people and throwing them out of U.S. Bank Stadium. Where with Will Fries, it's, well, I mean, it's a guy who missed some of the offseason

and he's got a couple of years of playing. But we will be asking throughout the year, is Frize worth $17 million? Certainly. Because we've already assumed that Fries is just a dominant right guard. Now, he's got to get ramped up still. He's got a month to get ramped up still. But if he doesn't live up to those expectations, it will not look great. And, you know, the same with, you know, asking Jackson to play right away.

That's not a proven method to have rookies in there at guard. So the idea was that you're surrounding him with four other really good guys. And then he could just do his job. But that requires fries to be good, requires Kelly to be healthy. Like, there's questions there. Yep. Uh, Joe Cordero Patterson was released from Pittsburgh. He was, he's not really a punt returner.

Has he punt return? when was the last time that Patterson punt return i think it would have been a while ago right i haven't uh i haven't checked if patterson has been punt return i also think that he's probably reached the point in his career where the burst isn't the same as it used to be that made him so special as a returner but uh maybe you're thinking about him as a wide receiver because well you know look if you're thinking about him as a wide receiver it is kind of the rondale more type of role i just don't think that that jolt is there anymore with patter but it is that kind of thing it is that kind of thing that he could be like that

scat back kind of guy i can't remember when the last time he caught punts though was maybe one of you knows that i don't think he's done it that often i the options aren't great like when you're talking about making a trade for adam feel in or you know going out and signing a tyler boyd who hasn't been good in a while i guess gave davis is still a free agent i wasn't aware of that until you brought it up. I assume that he had picked up with somebody. Cordial Patterson, like, none of these options are all that great.

Anthony says, Tim Jones not helping his special team situation with committing two penalties. Yeah, I agree with that. I agree with that. If you're going to be that guy, you've got to play really, really well. He's got experience.

So does Tavier Thomas. Are they going to lean that way? Felton's already on the team. So it's kind of, do you decide, do you want someone like Jones? and also like how much do we want to make of two penalties in a preseason game just two penalties it wasn't like devastating stuff that he did right so i i don't know that one whether they decide to keep a special teamer guy is a major question that i've i've been shocked several

times by that uh naji thompson dan chasena like sometimes you go oh well i guess they saw something in these preseason games or practice that we didn't see when it came to that. But the way Felton looked, he looked like he could potentially be an impact player on the gunner role. Kevin McDermott's Pinky, that's terrible. That's terrible. That's a terrible name. Come on.

If you're not familiar with what happened to Kevin McDermott's pinky, you can Google that. It wasn't great. Does Flores just play vanilla in joint practices as he does in the preseason? or will he throw confusion at Drake May? I think it will be something that they talk about because there's going to be fans in the stands for this. So you're not showing all of your cards. But also, I mean, you're trying to get the most out of these practices, for sure.

You're trying to get the most out of these practices. So you're probably not just going to run, sit there and run cover two for the entire practice. I think they will throw a lot at Drake May, but they will not show the stuff that they're working on behind the scenes in their walkthroughs and stuff like that. Like you're, from a reporter perspective, we're not allowed to video any of the walkthrough stuff because that's where they're starting, I'm sure soon, the game planning for Chicago will begin maybe, I don't know, next week or whatever. and some of the stuff that they don't want the public to see has already, I guarantee, begun behind the scenes, but they don't run it in practice in front of people who can videotape it. Because look, I mean, if you're, if you work, if you're the Bears, why wouldn't you send

somebody up dressed in a digs jersey to go sit there and videotape every play, right, in practice? So that is probably something that could be happening. And they won't show all their cards. But look, I mean, if you're running a double A gap type of list, it's still going to be pretty nasty and dropping somebody off. But that's not something that you can watch as an opposing team and go, oh, wow, I've got it all figured out of Flores defense.

And you don't know when they're going to throw those different wrinkles and stuff like that. And I don't think that they use, I would just guess the practice is open to the public. I'm guessing they don't use the hand signals that they use in the actual season. So that might be a little bit different there in some of the communication. but they I guarantee based on what we saw last year that they are definitely going to be throwing some stuff at Drake May like like the Patriots want to get things done too they want that they want him to have to identify stuff uh bloody soups as Amari cooper where is Amari Cooper at though you know I mean that would be uh that would be my questions where is Amari

Cooper at because last year he went to Buffalo had a first game that was good and then that was kind of it. Like, is he just done? I mean, can you bring him in now and have him be a part of the offense? They have to consider these things, though. They do have to consider all of them. And after Rondale Moore's injury, you know, I've kind of rolled my eyes a little bit at the idea of feeling coming back. But it's not the craziest thing because these are the types of receivers you're talking about is guys who are older or could potentially be cut by another team, somebody to just have as a backup plan because as much as I like Lucky Jackson as someone who can play on day one, that doesn't mean that Lucky Jackson, if he goes down or someone else goes

down, what's the option after that or that he's ready to be wide receiver two if he has to step into that position? Miles says can't trust anything past Jefferson or Addison. We might need to add two guys. Yeah, I mean, if Jackson hadn't been so good in camp and then in the preseason game, I would say, yeah, probably. I think Felton can get in a game if you need him to, and you saw him make a couple catches yesterday, but some, they need something, someone else. It's just, do they go with, hey, we're good with our group, and these are our three receivers to start the season, or are they saying, all right, with Ron Dale out, he was supposed to

be that veteran fallback type of guy, now we're going to look for someone else, would not be surprised if anybody shows up here and you know cooper or boyd or even the even the thiel and i don't want to i don't want to rule anything out i don't want to rule anything out with that wide receiver position uh tristan says no on silas bolden with a question mark well he only had two attempts yesterday the thing about bolden though is you're talking about a rookie here undrafted free agent who is very small and you're just saying go out there and be our punt return or handle the ball every time the other team punts. That's, that's a lot to ask in a situation where you're not trying to find out about guys, you're trying to win every single game. And what I'm sure haunts Kevin O'Connell's nightmares

is the idea of a rookie being back there and fumbling a punt and costing the game. I mean, Brandon Powell had one punt return fumble in his entire career against, Philadelphia. And I guarantee you, Kevin O'Connell wakes up at night and is in a cold sweat. Like, what if he hadn't fumbled? That's what you really want. And that's why Brandon Powell would make some sense is because he's a guy who could just catch it. Just don't do anything else. Just catch it. Tristan is Ty Felton, our kick returner one. Looks that way. Does look that way based on yesterday. They might want to try some other guys back there, but it looks like Felton. One thing that's going to be really important you've seen this in some other preseason games it's

going to be really important that when that ball is scooting around on the field that the guy has hands and could go get it so i think it's actually going to be important that you have ball skills now this it's going to be a circus by the way as the main drum banger of bring back the kickoff bring back the kickoff you know how everybody goes you know skull i was going catch kickoff that was my motion for come on bring it back i wanted it back really bad i don't know if i quite wanted this because this is goofy this is turning football into pinball on some of these kickoffs which means that i think you need a guy like ty felton to be back there who can pick up the football and has ball skills and is going to be comfortable with it.

Let's see. Mr. Mayor, do you know what KOC's nickname for Jashon Jones is? He forgot his last name. Oh, no, wasn't that,

I thought that was Oscar Chapman. I thought it was Oscar Chapman. Wasn't it, wasn't Chapman who he was talking about? I think it was Chapman when he said that he had a nickname for him and, uh, couldn't remember his, his name.

but that was funny uh we did not get that information maybe i'll be able to find it out um only we only have one one person with the uh the j j mccarthy you know can't throw accurately person here in the chat that's that's good that's good um because uh mill billy says um that he was inaccurate on both the 10 yard throws no i thought i explained that that I don't think he was inaccurate on the throw that Addison caught. I thought he was inaccurate on the throw over Lucky Jackson. And that's really been the story of J.J. McCarthy in training camp. It's been sometimes he has looked really, really sharp,

and he's led guys out in front of them, and they've caught the ball well and everything. And then other times, it's been a little bit of missed by this much. It's a little bit over somebody's head. it's a little bit short, it's a little bit. And that's still him getting to me acclimated. But I thought that that catch by Addison was just a confidence builder for J.J. McCarthy to that's a space you could throw the ball to and Jordan Addison will catch it.

And I promise you Justin Jefferson will as well. So remember that as you're dropping back in the pocket that, okay, the guy's not actually open yet, but throw it to a space where he could go dive for. Go ahead. And he's got to learn the timing in real game. and I'm sure you're sped up a little bit by just being in a jacked environment. He kind of blamed Flores' defense. But, you know, I thought the ball came out in a timely fashion from McCarthy yesterday.

Like, it was a lot of hit the back foot, balls coming out. There wasn't a lot of hanging on to it. I don't think he took any hits yesterday. Marleese is not impressed with the starting O line, gave up a quick pressure, which was concerning, but not surprising, considering the collective ages and injury history of the new starters. Yeah, I mean, ages of one guy, just Ryan Kelly is really. Oh, I mean, well, unless you mean the age of Donovan Jackson.

Okay, yeah, I get you. Like the two extremes, Ryan Kelly's going to be fine. Will Fries has to get back to 100%. It's good for him to get in a game. I'm not going to make it too serious about that. And Jackson, you definitely need to see Jackson this week perform well. That is what I'm looking for. One of the biggest things from Donovan Jackson is going up against some of these guys and looking like he belongs and not having pressures just blow up, you know, play after play after play for this.

But the offensive line, it's a little bit, it's a little bit suspect. Yeah, I agree. Because if Derisaw is not back for week one, I don't think Justin's school has played well. Right now I'm still fine with buying Will Fries getting back to. 100%. And Kelly has been mostly healthy. I think he missed one or two practices with an elbow thing, but he's fine because he got out there yesterday. We know O'Neill is good. There's just, there's a little bit of a walking on eggshell nature to the line. Like in order to be a great line or a above average difference making line, some things got to go right. They got to be healthy.

Fries has to be the version he was at the beginning of last year. Jackson has to, over the next month, really click in, really get it. And they need Darrasaw back as fast as possible. I don't know if it's week one, but it can't be week five that he comes back or that's going to be a problem. I'm assuming Trey Hendrickson gets his contract worked out with the Bengals, if that's who you're going to play, like that's tough. And Atlanta, I don't know what James Pierce is going to be, but I know he's freakishly

talented and speedy and that's what's been beating Justin's school every game. So there's, yeah, there's a little bit. I think there's a little bit of, yeah, Marley used the word wobbly. I think there's a little bit of wobbly nature there to the to the O line right now. I agree. KFT, QB running when he has wide open field and can gain 10 plus yards is the easy play. So missing a deep route hurts some, but making the easy play is not a bad thing. I think that the run from McCarthy and the fact that he did that last year and he has shown that in his past is really important.

it's really important. Sloth brings up on the scramble, a film breakdown. Glad we're breaking down, you know, the eight preseason plays on tape, but it is football. Let's see, the linebacker picked up the hot route and none of the other routes were broken off by the time he had to leave the pocket. Yeah, yeah. I mean, that's what it looked like to me.

I didn't know if there was somewhere that there was a hot route that was open. I hadn't looked at the film breakdown of it yet. I was probably going to go back and watch the game tonight, just see if I could pick up on anything else. But in real time, it felt like the pressure got there very fast and he needed to take off. My thing is, his natural clicking in his head, I got to take off, is very good. And it's important for him because he's fast and he can get first downs for them. And that was something that was just missing.

and we talked about time and time and time again over the Kirk Cousins era. And we saw it a little bit from Sam Darnold last year. I thought that Sam Darnold needed to do it even more with some of those like get out there. And instead of running backwards, just scramble a little and get a couple yards when there's pressure up the middle. But he always was kind of trying to go backward and, you know, squirreling around back there and taking sacks where I think McCarthy has a really good sense for how much time he has. has in the pocket and when he needs to take off and get out of there. And that was a big play for them. I mean, if that was a real game and he converted a fourth down on a scramble where

they blew it up with a blitz, we're saying a plus, great job. That was a big plus play for him. KFT, how often does a lineman that isn't stout becomes stout because Bradbury never did. Jackson is not stout. Oh, Jackson is more stout. No, Jackson's more stout. Maybe I have to look up the definition of stout.

Do you mean, now, like, now I'm trying, like, do I, am I misunderstanding what? Because I think, I think of Stout is big. And, or do you just mean in time, like, for the beginning of the season? Because you also might mean it in the way that, like, he's showing himself to be very good. As far as his size and athleticism goes, they're really good.

I think right now what he's learning is that NFL power is different. and he's going to have to anchor and he's going to have to fight and he's going to have to do everything he can to survive a lot of these plays versus NFL NFL guys. He did play tackle in college because of the stoutness of the size and the power and athleticism, but it's just different when you're facing guys like this and there's going to have to be an adjustment period.

So can you get through the first quarter of the season surviving and advancing at guard and not looking like at Ingram, but it's only a couple plays. And I want to see, does he play in the next preseason game? If he does, then okay, I don't know. If he doesn't, then

all right, well, they must feel okay with where he's at. Not sounding any alarms yet. I just didn't exactly love it from what he showed in his first game over a couple of snaps. Miles's Jordan Mason looked impressive. Get used to that.

I get used to that. If he's healthy, this year, I think he's going to be a huge part of this offense. He's been very impressive. Marley says, screen game, quick slants, some dump-offs to the tight end and running back as well. So there's a big balance there with what KOC wants as his offense versus some of the easy button stuff.

I think throws to the running backs are something that could be really, really effective in this offense. really effective because Mason can catch it and like they're not going to throw him a bomb. He can catch it on those swing passes, those checkdowns, and definitely Aaron Jones is one of the better receivers at the running back position. You'd like to see Hawkinson get leaned on, Jones get leaned on, Mason, and then build off of that as you go forward.

I don't think that they have to baby him. Like even yesterday, they didn't. Like he threw it over Lucky Jackson, but that's a 20-yard throw. and the throw to Addison, he's going to have to hit those downfield throws. But I think there's some easy button stuff that's, hey, throw a swing past to Aaron Jones, get nine yards, move forward.

Mibbley, Blackman has just not looked the way we all fooled ourselves into thinking he looked based on him being a third round pick and getting playing time. No, there's numbers on that. There's numbers on that that that can help us. And this is why we like the numbers on the show,

because they can give us the real facts on a guy so i could pull this up right now i don't think we fooled ourselves so in twenty twenty three this is mcky blackman he had 434 snaps 71.8 coverage grade and eight pass breakups allowed a 87.8 quarterback rating into his coverage i moved my other computer over here which is why i'm looking there so i can not try to type on this one and also stream on this one Anyway, those are good numbers. And his tackling grade was a 90 for 20.3. Those are good numbers.

And let's not forget that they were ready to have him be the starter last year based on what they saw from 2023. So I think that it's reasonable to think that he could have been good in this and could still be good. It's just he hasn't looked quite the same. a lot of us have not had devastating leg injuries though so you know maybe it's harder to come back than we think it is sitting in our houses next to our dogs um skull to the bowl says darnold also sucked at the quick pass not true not true i got numbers for that too i can get them it was not that sam darnold sucked as you said at the quick pass and and this is this is what's great about the numbers because we can get this right we can characterize these things

correctly. If we look at, I'm going to pull this up here, passing depth from last year, starting quarterbacks, short passing, okay? Sam Darnold was graded as the fifth best short passer in the league. That means one to 10 yards and completed 84% of his short passes 15 touchdowns, two picks. Those are great numbers. The thing is that his percentage of short passes was the fifth lowest. So when he did throw short, he succeeded, but he just didn't throw short a lot. And he probably could have thrown short more often in this offense. And I think that he did later on as the season went on and their running game started

to struggle and they did improve on that. They even had some screens that worked out as the season went on. But I think that it shows you there that, and I'll look at what Kirk did in the short game. I think the short game can work. It's just that they didn't use it a lot. last year. Let me see what Kirk did. So Kirk, yeah, he graded well too. Wow. Okay, 2023, Kirk was the second best graded short passer in the NFL in 2023. So this offense has the answers there. McCarthy can lean on them, especially early on, but it's always going to be a

Kevin O'Connell offense. And KFT says, still haven't seen the Vikings try a slant pattern. And, you know, that's, yeah, I don't think he's a big fan of that. In fact, I did an article with him in, in, it was 20, 23. I think it was 2023 where I sat down with O'Connell and we talked about Kirk Cousins and throwing different routes. And he did have in there, in the article, some concerns about slant routes. Like, you're kind of throwing it into a lot of traffic. There's a lot of deception there.

I think that they like Hawkinson underneath on things like hitches and quick outs from someone like Addison, a little slot stuff that's sort of a flat. Like if you send, if you have a bunch formation, you send two guys deep and you have somebody kind of curl off, that's more of his style. Tristan says, I see the Vikings having a top five defense easy. I don't think it'll be easy. That Fandul question of the day, if you haven't answered it yet. Five guys have a shot at 2,000 yards, according to Fandul.

Four of them play against the Vikings this year. where will the run defense rank? I don't think it's an easy top five because of the schedule and because of the opposing quarterbacks. I think that's the expectation, though. I do think that's the expectation that they are going to have a difference making defense. And that means sacks, pressures, turnovers, and if some of it is sacrificed in the run game, oh, well, I think you just sort of shrug your shoulders if some of it is sacrificed in the run

game if you're creating more problems for the offense. But one thing that is, it's hard to repeat the number of takeaways and sacks that they had last year, especially when you're playing quarterbacks like, you know, Jalen Hertz or Jaden Daniels who can escape and, you know, they run extremely well. It's not going to be an easy season for the defense. They got to be, I think they got to be a lot better than they were last year to have the same results. Aaron bring back Tristan Jackson on cutdowns if he doesn't make the Cardinals roster.

He has certainly, he's certainly been around, the Vikings for a long time. Is that different than Lucky Jackson and Ty Felton? Probably not. Didn't see much from Thayer Thomas. Yesterday, he was in a little bit, but not a ton. I think that there's somebody else on the way. Just who it is, I don't know. Could be at him feeling.

I don't know. There's nothing we like more than bringing somebody back to Minnesota. kit says i see the run defense fan dual question the day uh see the run defense as top 10 unit given the personnel additions even with a tough running schedule they may give up some hundred yard games but they're not a defense that someone can go for 150 against where it's going to be important i think is that guys like jalen redman and levi drake rodriguez rise to the challenge i think that that's going to be important that those guys end up stepping up and when they rotate them in that they play well because if they don't

and I didn't think yesterday either one was great if they don't it's going to be a lot harder because it's going to be a lot on Harrison Phillips as it has been the last couple years it's going to be a lot on Javon Hargrave a lot on Jonathan Allen they need those rotational guys to do something they need them to be able to stop the run they need them to be able to mix and match with different starters purple purgatory your favorite J.J. play for myself, the scramble. Well, you know, when I'm the person that banged the drum for many years about the impact of not having a scrambling quarterback, yeah, I would say there might have been a little snark from me, probably. There might have been a little snark in the

press box of like, oh yeah, you're allowed to run for a first down. That's kind of a big deal. The number of, I mean, I could pull this up too. The number of first downs that you can get from the best running quarterbacks. I mean, that stuff matters. Let's see. I might have to do some work on that to get the running. Now, maybe I could get this. Who had running first downs? I mean, you'd think about, okay, I can get this. So Jalen, well, okay, let's throw out Jalen hurts. Just throw him out because of all those tush pushes. But Josh Allen, for example, had 51 first downs last year running the ball. I mean, that's a lot. And even if we say, all right, well, he's not going to be Josh Allen. How about even Brock Purdy? Brock Purdy ran for 33 first downs

last year. I'm going to go back to 2022 and look how many Kirk Cousins ran for. And even Sam Darnow last year, I don't think he ran for a lot of first downs. He would scramble occasionally. I'm going to I'm going to have to use the 11 11. So in 2022, the last full Kirk season, he ran for 11 first downs. Like Brock Purdy was running for 30. That's a lot of plays. That's a lot of third downs. Sam Darnold had, oh, 23. Okay. So that's basically, that's pretty good, 23. That's basically what I see JJ making an impact on, you know, 20 or 30 first downs that you didn't have before because of the scrambling. And some of those are QB sneaks. Miles wants to add another wide receiver.

If Jefferson or Addison goes out for a chunk of the season, will be on shaky ground. I guess my question is, are you not on shaky ground anyway if you sign Amari Cooper or trade for, you know, Adam Thielen, Thielen's been hurt the last few years? Does he still have the juice? I mean, maybe.

But if you sign Amari Cooper or get Gabe Davis, like did those guys have good years last year or Tyler Boyd not really um so maybe you're just better off with the guys that you have i'm not against it i think they will i think they will go get somebody i just don't i don't know who yet and i don't think it just sort of solves all the problems but i'm sure today they're on the phone trying to look for that replacement for rondale more and if it's brandon powell it's fine like powell's played wide receiver before and was okay during 2023 season so he could be somebody that could slide in. That would probably be my first choice

because he can return punts. He'll be fine. He'll catch the ball. It'll be all right. And he can slot in a little bit for a wide receiver. Do I want to be the podcast that criticizes them for letting go Trent Sherfield? I kind of do.

I kind of do. I kind of want to be like, well, if you had Trent Sherfield, this wouldn't be a problem. Julian says with the way they have clones as backups for a specific starter, could Blackman be viewed as a Murphy backup clone rather than just being an outside corner? Yes, yes. I think that that's true that he is somebody that they want to play inside and outside, and

he has, and I'm not declaring it over for Mackay Blackman. It's just that when he played as many snaps as he did, in a game like that, in a preseason game, you go, um, okay, yeah, that's not something I expected from somebody who has a track record with this team, that I would have thought going into this. I would have had him ahead of Jeff Okuda on the depth chart going into training camp or at least by this point in training camp. And instead, he's playing a number of snaps that you would expect from an undrafted free agent. That's just a little surprising. But I agree with your theory that they do try to have guys who are prepared.

to take over that role. So if Murphy got hurt, Mackay Blackman probably is the next man up. That's probably true. Tour, T-U-R-E. Why is it the Ty Chandler, that when Ty Chandler runs the ball, the defender is already in the backfield,

but with other running backs, they seem to be able to get yards. Well, you know, I think that there's been some issues with Ty Chandler and knowing where to run and not just like it's it's not just the past protection it's also knowing where to go and there were several times when he played a couple years ago where you could tell nick mullins doesn't have it wrong i guarantee

it nick mullins does some crazy stuff with the football throwing it but he knows all the plays so he would turn to the left and then chandler's on the right and it's like what kind of reminded when i when i played junior high football or i wasn't really fully sure of what the plays were So it's kind of like, I think I was supposed to block to the left. We'll see. And some of that has felt like with Ty Chandler. He might just go down as a guy who kind of had a moment and that was it. And they might move on.

I would not be surprised. Rob, any interest in Alexander Madison, if he's released by Miami, I'm going to pass on that. I just don't think he was a great fit for what they did with this offense a couple years ago and just doesn't have a lot of. lot of a lot of quickness i i think he was good for a certain type of running scheme and that was with gary kubiak and with kevin sefansky the fullback was ahead of him and he worked out pretty well but i don't think that he was really a good uh i don't think he was really a good fit for what

they wanted to do in the run game and probably wouldn't be again uh no dack nets sorry on the name. If you're calling out concerns with first round picks, Jackson is first snaps or even JJ, who is almost the same situation, Dallas Turner far more concerning. I mean, Dallas Turner played nine snaps.

I mean, after a really good training camp, really good training camp so far, nine snaps is not going to move me. And they did nothing. That defense did absolutely nothing. They talk about playing vanilla, the starting defense,

they did nothing. Nothing to show anything on tape. no i'm not i would not be see with jackson though where it's different is dallas turner does have a sample size he does have a really good camp with jackson it kind of looked like it's looked in training camp i don't think it looked horrendous but it hasn't looked like he's anchored that well against power it hasn't looked really that sharp at times i think he's been good in the run blocking department uh which i thought it was fine yesterday so no i i would not say with dallas Turner that it's concerning. I think just in general, we all are waiting to see on Dallas

Turner. No one is guaranteed that Turner is the next Chris Dolman, but his camp has been really going in the right direction. And a lot of it is deception based, too, with him getting on the field with Van Ginkle, sometimes drop it back, sometimes rushing. So if he's just out there playing in a preseason game, when he knows he's going to be a big part of the defense, doesn't want to get hurt, I'm never really evaluating the guys who I already have seen and know. pretty well. It's mostly the players that we don't know well, like Jackson or even J.J. McCarthy. I shot you 99 with the super chat. Thank you so much for that. How do teams steal potential practice squad players? Brosmer look good so he might get some looks. Can he decline other

teams stay here with the Vikings if they want to keep him? No, I don't think so. I think if you get picked up on waivers, you get picked up on waivers. And what happens? is the team has to put you on the 53. So if they claim you, you claim a player and you have to put them on the 53. So if there was another team that, say, had two quarterbacks and hated their third, they used the Texans, for example, who should not be too thrilled with any of their other quarterbacks outside of their backup, Davis Mills, who's a good backup quarterback, by the way, if they're over there, if they're sitting over there going, okay, Graham, whatever's name is,

holy gal that was horrible and slovis looked pretty messy hey me if they if they wave that guy we're going to pick them up put them on the 53 uh yeah that i'm pretty sure that's how it works i don't think you have a choice you get waived someone puts in a claim they pick you up they're yours uh see i i just marley i just don't agree with this with that dallas turner's mediocre outing being like we have to you have to understand you have to understand like there are two forms of preseason okay the first form of preseason is when the starters walk out there and sort of pretend for a little bit to put on their purple uniforms and get out in front of the fans and run a little bit of stuff just to feel alive okay and then there's

the other parts which are bull richter and Gabe Murphy and all these guys Tyler Badi, Joe Huber, who are playing for their lives, okay? There's two different games going on out there. Dallas Turner's not playing for his life. Dallas Turner's putting on his pajamas and going out there for a little bit for one series just to, okay, I did it. I'm out there. He has looked really good in camp.

And I don't know what this season's going to be for Dallas Turner. I really don't. But we absolutely cannot judge us. This is going way over the top. to start being concerned about a guy after nine snaps where they ran nothing and just sort of stood there and allowed the Texans to drive down the field. So, Jesse says people that use PFF grades, especially in preseason, are lame. Well, you know, Jesse, I'm sure you know more about PFF grades than I do,

being that I wrote an entire book about it. But I will say that they have been useful in the past when it comes to players who were looking at that I was just describing, which are guys like Joe Huber or guys like Gabriel Murphy to put some numbers on what we saw. There are 90 players out there. It's very hard to track, not 90, you know, some starters route. It's very hard to track at the stadium every single player's performance. So it gives us a snapshot of who might have stood out and who might have struggled. And yesterday, there were quite a few players. I mean, when I went through that list, did anybody who read the list think, oh, man, what is PFF on crack? Like, no, I thought the list was

very accurate. I was surprised at how good Huber was, but they ran the ball well. Xavier Scott was good. You know, using those grades, I think, to identify some people that maybe we missed and some performances that we missed has been super useful to me in the past. And when it comes to the grades as a whole you're going to have to read the book if you want to understand how to use those in general but um you know i do agree with your next comment that no one should be assigning a red flag to dallas turner based on like nine snaps that's where we we need to make sure that we react correctly we need to make sure that we react correctly and if and i knew that i knew that it was going this way i knew that is going this way it was going to the quacy can't draft

because some of you can't stand that the team is so good because you haven't been able to complain about Quasi all summer. I figured that that's where it was headed and that's exactly where it was headed. Of course it was. Dallas Turner's had a really good camp. That's all I can tell you. It's had a really good camp so far.

And we've got to see it on the field for sure. But the role that he's been in, very interesting so far. A lot of deception, a lot of three outside linebackers on the field. I've really liked what I've seen from him, and I've really liked his mentality. So I'm not going to be concerned at all when it comes to nine snaps. Miles says, do you think Howell bought himself some time with the preseason performance? I do. I do.

It almost seemed like O'Connell was a little bit surprised. it actually did because he was like well you know that he played so well like i guess we have to see him in the game because it hasn't been good in practice practice means more than the preseason game but i think you're right in the the way you frame that kind of bought himself a little bit of goodwill there like okay when he's actually out there he did a lot of good stuff so that's good for him this week is big for him but we're also getting to the point now i look this up i believe it was august 22nd when the vikings acquired nick mullins in 2022 and decided to move on from um kellen mond and shan mannion so this next week is really big

for sam howe uh addison was held when he cut on the 18 yard completion jj was throwing to a spot okay well i mean i just thought it was a really good throw i like that throw i and look coming out of breaks guys get grabbed and held and you got to fight through that and addison did throwing to that spot, I thought was really good. He threw to a spot out of the break. And if a guy has to dive for the ball, if it's Jefferson, if it's Addison, I mean, that's, that's a completion. Like, throw to that spot. Throw to an area where he's going to be coming out of his break, throw with anticipation, and let him dive into the ball.

I mean, yeah, okay, if he gets, if he gets held, it's going to slow him up a little bit and so forth. But you're going to have contact coming out of those breaks. I just thought it was a good play. And maybe if he's not touched at all, then it's an easy catch and he runs for a few more yards. But I thought from a timing perspective, muddy pocket, where the area of the football was. And even if he has to dive, I'm not calling that an inaccurate ball in the NFL, where receivers should dive and make catches all the time. Slide to play says thoughts on if Brian O'Neill is out, who replaces him, school, Rouse, or Brandel. I'm going to tell you the truth.

I don't know right now. I don't know. Rouse has, to me, turned a bit of a corner in this offseason and played a lot yesterday, left tackle, right tackle. But Brando being out there with the second team at right tackle, he's the most experienced. I just don't know if I would trust school right now with the camp that he's had. I don't think that I would trust him at this moment. He is the most experienced, but I might go Brandel right now because I think he's just the best

player at that position uh stout as in a wall that doesn't get pushed back okay yeah okay that makes sense i always thought of stout as being like kind of big but maybe my definition of stout was more of like strong or or yours and i don't think there's a garret bradberry like immediately when someone doesn't have a great game we go is he ingram is he brad Okay, oh, deep breaths, deep breaths. He has had some issues with that, with anchoring, and he's had to fight really hard so far, and he's going to have to get stronger.

But when you look at his athletic profile, it's way different than a Garrett-Bradbury. And it's way different than an Ed Ingram. Much better athlete, much bigger. Much better athlete than Ingram, much bigger than Bradbury. I think it's just getting used to the defensive tackles in the NFL. Like, they're powerful. They are powerful.

slide to play did you hear the 49ers running back room is getting hurt left right and center always right isn't that always the case for the 49ers aren't they always getting hurt left right and center but you're right it is good that the um the Vikings with getting Mason is a great play I mean I just I couldn't be more impressed with with Jordan Mason so far great decision honestly like he's just looked like he's going to bring such a different element to them tied to skull is brosmer the new kyle sloder not to be snide he's doing great with the opportunities but isn't a success for him making the practice squad or am i wrong so i think that there is a difference i understand what you're where you're going with that um but i think the difference is that remember remember Mike Zimmer what he told us because he laid it all out there for us when it came to that situation is that in practice it didn't look good at any point for what was he there for two years it never looked good in practice and with Brosmer it's always looked good in practice and running around and scrambling and making plays in a preseason game is super

fun and was really entertaining and I give him credit for the athleticism and going out there and being a baller. And that's what you want to see, right? Like it's, you're showing up to the stadium and you're watching fourth stringers. Hey, this quarterback's having a lot of fun out there. So I always thought it was great entertainment. The difference is, though, that Brosmer in the pocket, going through the reeds, getting the football out, right places, good accuracy, good command, all that sort of stuff.

That's way different. That's way different than just being like a fun time. And as far as putting them on the. roster. I think that I would have said to you initially that, yes, making the practice squad would have been a success. But I think right now he's making a case that if somebody else likes what they see, then they might decide that they're going to pick him up because he's shown that much potential. Whoa, kudat. Thank you so much for the huge super chat. Wow. Thank you so much. I appreciate you. That is very generous of you. Thank you.

unnecessary. I do say to folks always greatly, greatly appreciate that. Just watching is supporting Purple Insider. And if you really want to support, that's a great way to do it. Or also go check out the newsletter. Purpleinsider. Football is a great way to do that as well. Okay. So I have to go and pick up my wife at the airport. and it's been a really fun chat just looking for any more of those fan dual question of the day answers if you guys want to answer those in the chat after when you're watching the replay where's the Vikings defense going to rank they're playing a lot of good running backs

so shoot me the answer there but really really really good chat really good chat today um wait just click the wrong one there we go did Chapman's funk he punts open the door for the competition no with with chapman so i don't think so but with chapman uh he's going to be around because of that exception so they can keep him as far as the roster goes so um no yeah the the kyle sloder thing was one of the weirdest i think it's one of the weirdest things i've ever had in terms of my my career covering because the fans really fell in love with him and he was a lot of fun he was entertaining and they loved the sloder house thing but it was never really a situation where he was going to

I mean some people were asking me back then like is he going to take Kirk's job is like what um he there was a there was a real fervor for him I I think because people were bored during those training camps. With Brosmer, there's a lot of real NFL stuff that he's doing that's, I think, good. I don't think he's going to take J.J. McCarthy's job. I think he could be a long-term NFL backup. That's what I'm seeing right now from him. And that's what I saw yesterday. But I hope he gets opportunities for all of us to evaluate that are against some better competition. It's not just the fourth team. Why do I think that none of the tight ends produced yesterday. I don't love the situation. As of this moment, I think Eurasek is going to get it.

I just don't love the situation for the tight end three. It's been an issue for a long time. And I mean this offseason that we've had this conversation for a long time, like going all the way back to the draft. And they pick somebody, and Gavin Bartholomew hasn't been able to get out there. And Eurasek's been the most impressive. but the fact that they went out and got another veteran to come in and play in the preseason, I think kind of tells you a little bit of where they're at with that. That might be a situation where they pick somebody else up. Mr. Mayer still think it was a little foolish to cut Bradbury instead of keeping him as a backup. I had that same thought myself.

I definitely had that same thought is it wasn't something that they necessarily needed to do. But maybe you look at it. it like Garrett Bradbury is a leader on the team for a long time and is truly, and I mean this, like one of the classiest guys you're going to run into in the league, you knew he was going to get a starting job elsewhere. And maybe they looked at it like, why don't we just take the guy we've been developing and Michael Juergens, who I thought looked good at moments, especially in run blocking. Why don't we just move him up into that position?

We'll let Bradbury get a starting job. I know it's not the nice football league. but maybe there's something to that of this team gets graded really high by players all the time and you're kind of doing right by the guy knowing that he's going to be a starter somewhere else. I don't know. I don't know because it wasn't a cap issue. That's the best thing I can kind of come up with. So all right.

Well, I will be back. Yeah, tomorrow, tomorrow night to recap tomorrow's practice and we'll see what happens there. And then later in the week, Wednesday, Thursday. They also will have Chad Graf on the show this week. We'll also have Lucky Jackson on the show tomorrow night. So you're going to want to make sure if there's no huge headline for tomorrow, then I'll probably start the show with my conversation with Lucky Jackson. It's a good discussion we recorded it the other day.

So we'll have that tomorrow night, live stream probably 7.30. I'm thinking central time. So thanks, everybody, for a great chat. Always appreciate you guys. And we'll talk to you again very soon. Say it, football. It's back, baby. Real football.