Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Vikings preseason recap: Jordan Addison, Ivan Pace Jr. shine, the 2022 draft class did not

Episode Date: August 11, 2023

Matthew Coller gives his major takeaways from the Vikings' first preseason game against the Seattle Seahawks, including being impressed by Jordan Addison and whether he needs to play any more. Plus Ivan Pace Jr. was the same player as he's been in training camp and the 2022 draft class did not have a good night. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Music Music into the minnesota vikings absolutely played a pre-season game which technically as i'm starting the show is still going on but it's the fourth quarter of a pre-season game and that's all i need to say about that right plus it's really late at night. And I thought a lot of you would want to get your opinions out there. And I wanted to start the discussion since we saw a lot tonight. So I will be, of course, keeping an eye on anything that happens in the fourth quarter. But usually it's the fourth quarter of a preseason game. But there actually is a lot to take away from tonight's game. And as we led up to the

Vikings preseason, one of my big kind of sticking points was, I think that this preseason is actually going to have something in store for us. And you know what it did tonight. And I think the biggest surprise started right off the bat. I've got a bunch of takeaways that I've written down that I'm going to post on the screen. Also, you guys are already lighting up the comment sections, including some pretty bad special teams play tonight. Did the Vikings hire Marwin Maloof back their special teams coordinator from a few years ago where it was pretty tough. So I'll definitely be responding to all your guys takeaways as we go through. Yeah, we all just watched at the end of the third quarter, Andrew Booth Jr. get beat for a touchdown. Louis seen was on the field quite a bit tonight. There's a lot to talk about

from the 2022 and the 2023 class, which gets to include its undrafted free agents who are really some of the stars of the show tonight. So I want to start off with who played and who didn't, which is always one of the biggest subjects when it comes to the preseason. And so, you know, they go out there, the offensive line. All right. I see only Udo Austin Schlotman. Oh, this looks like the backup offensive. Wait, Ed Ingram was in

and a first preseason game with no one else, which is an interesting development. Now I want to leave the door open to potentially the reason he was playing is just that they don't have a lot of depth at guard at the moment. I mean, when you look at Chris Reed was supposed to be their backup guard and he has not practiced at all yet so far throughout the preseason. So who else do you have that you would want to put out there with even the second group? Now that could be their explanation, but I think we can look a little bit farther into this one and say, all right, I think I know why Dalton Reisner was here and that they want Ed Ingram to get more and more reps and also potentially want to evaluate whether they need to figure something else out at guard based on what they've seen. I don't know of any other

way to read that. I'm trying not to overreact to one guy playing a handful of reps, but when nobody else plays and it's just you, we talked about this the other night that if somebody plays that you don't expect, something is almost always kind of up there. I don't think it was just a, Oh man, we're out of guards. Ed, can you just like suit up? You're all good though. I think they want to see more from Ed Ingram, more game reps after a really tough year last year. And so far in training camp, I'm honest with this about this with you guys that I have a tough time evaluating.

Is this offensive lineman playing? Well, is that unless they're getting absolutely demolished, but if the coaching staff feels like they haven't seen what they wanted to see from Ed Ingram, well, is that unless they're getting absolutely demolished, but if the coaching staff feels like they haven't seen what they wanted to see from Ed Ingram, well, this would be your kind of response, which would be to send a message by making him dress. Well, almost nobody else did on the entire team that were the starters and on the offense. Nobody did. If you consider Jordan Addison, not a starter at this moment still wide

receiver three right so uh other than Jordan Addison nobody else who was a starter was in the game except for Ed Ingram I think that's a little bit of flashing red lights around that uh also on the defensive side we saw the safety star we saw Cam Bum. We saw Josh Metellus get out there quite a bit. Louis seen played a ton in this game. And I will say that as much as Louis seen has been sort of bludgeoned with, Hey, why aren't you starting? You were a first round pick for him to get a tackle right off the bat against Jackson Smith. The Jigba was a good thing. And also is just great considering what he's coming back from the injury like we do have to keep in mind the injury that he came back from it could have been career

altering you know maybe not career ending for a guy that young but definitely altering and for him to work his way back get back in a game tackle a guy like that's good but the rest of it I didn't think was all that good from Lewis scene when you have a guy like that's good. But the rest of it, I didn't think was all that good from Lewis scene. When you have a guy out there who is a first round draft pick that runs sub four, four playing against a bunch of backups, you expect them to be flying around and making plays. And there's still this sort of lack of urgency or just kind of a delay in him accelerating to the football. And it was especially shown in the second quarter, middle of the second quarter where Seattle ran this kind of obvious Gary

Kubiak classic, like play action where there's a receiver coming deep over the middle of the field and Louis scene just didn't identify it. And the guy was wide open and ended up with a huge gain. And the broadcast actually gave a great view from behind where you could see him dropping dropping just not really knowing where to be and then running right in front of him so I didn't think overall outside of that first tackle that it was an impressive night for Lewis scene we saw only a little bit of

Cam Bynum only a little bit of Josh Metellus, not, not much else, but those guys were in the game. Um, a Kai Blackman played a lot in this slot. I thought that he had some ups and downs, really good coverage snap early when he got targeted, but then giving up the touchdown and committing a penalty, not exactly great for McKay Blackman, but it was hard to get too many guys with targets because it seemed like early in the game, Drew Locke was just checking down and throwing short all the time. So it's not like we had five or six or seven plays to work with. I'll be curious to look back and maybe focus a little more when I look at the replay of the game on where Makai Blackman lined up. Mostly,

it seemed like it was a lot in the slot which is interesting uh because i i mean he's vying for that outside corner position um but you know they've got other guys also mixing into the outside corner spots as well so i'll have to double check that but he did give up a very notable and obvious touchdown in the game kairos tonga and a caleb evans were the only guys who were starters outside of Bynum that played on the defensive side. Jordan Addison, I mentioned, played. Nick Mullins took the entire first half. Jaron Hall coming in in the second half, and it was a pretty tough start for Jaron Hall. Kind of what I expected based on what we've seen in training camp. I think when you have rookies, they're just slow to see and react

to what they need to see and react to. You need to play with a ton of anticipation as a rookie, and you just did not see that right away. So, you know, that's no surprise. And what you're looking for is just him to make progress throughout this preseason. Everybody knows Jaron Hall is not going to be ahead of Nick

Mullins. We saw why Nick Mullins looks like a competent quarterback who could get the ball to people. It's not beautiful, but it is what it is, right? It looked better than Sean Mannion or Kellen Mond last year. You can actually evaluate your wide receivers when you have Nick Mullins. So better to let Jaron Hall play the back end of these games and just get a little bit of work. Ivan Pace, want to talk a lot about him. He played a ton the entire first half, even into the second half. And Kenny Wongwu and Brian Asamoah, not great for either one of them as they battle for a position that they were not able to play.

So that's kind of the rundown of who played and who didn't. Let me just run through quickly some of my other reactions, and then I'll get to all of yours. I'll scroll back up in the comments, I promise. I thought Jordan Addison, he was only targeted a couple times. One of them, it was a catch. It's a highlight reel catch. You can show it on ESPN and NFL network as a catch because it was a catch

and it was very chris carter like in its catchiness he had the toes down flying out of bounds the kind of matrix type of catches that he's made over the first couple of weeks of training camp and i feel like every night i've kind of come on here and i've sort of said like hey there's something going on with addison i mean he's just really making these great catches I've kind of come on here and I've sort of said like, hey, there's something going on with Addison. I mean, he's just really making these great catches. He's kind of got this unique skill that I'm struggling to define, but it's natural and he's making a lot of plays. And for him to do it right off the bat, I kind of wanted to say to all of you, like, there it is. That's what I was talking about.

That's the thing. That's the type of play. And so he made that. And then he had a nice catch on kind of a wobbly Nick Mullins throw over the middle where he had to go and slide down. And so I thought it was a good night for Jordan Addison. He did not get hurt. That makes it a really good night.

And he looked to me like he played very, very well in terms of running routes, getting open by only a couple of series. But exactly what you wanted to see. You wanted to see a little bit of flash of what Jordan Addison has, and you also wanted him to stay completely healthy. Ty Chandler got a ton of work. Let me pull it up. I got the box score.

11 carries, 41 yards, and I don't think that was reflective of how well he played. We'll get to it in a minute, but I didn't think it was the greatest night for the offensive line, those backup offensive linemen. And there were a few runs that were blown up right away. But what you see from Ty Chandler is the motor goes zero to 60 very, very quickly. It's like he gets the ball and just is jolting. And I thought you saw that there was one play early in the game where there was a

little bit of, you know, kind of the oceans parting for him and he just shot right up the middle. And then another one where Josh Oliver did a terrific job of sealing the edge. And it was kind of a one-on-one for Ty Chandler. He put on a little bit of a hesitation and then got to the sideline for a pretty big gain. I think that we know that Ty Chandler can run. It's the other stuff that the coaching staff has questions about, but it was a really good debut running wise. I think he did better than what his numbers suggest. You know,

just overall didn't have a big, huge breakout run or something, but ran tough, ran into people. I think he showed that he wants to compete for this job tonight. Nick Muse Moss, the guy just straight up, just Randy Moss, someone in the end zone, Nick Muse tight end for, if you miss this, if you were like doing anything with your life and not watching the preseason game, and you just tuned in to see what I thought, I thought Nick Muse made one of the most ridiculous preseason catches I've ever seen.

I mean, he just straight jumped over a guy and brought the ball down. I think there's something there with Nick Muse, like a little bit. He's made some plays in training camp. I think he can play a little. It's good to have a developmental tight end. The Vikings have actually been kind of great with these. Ty Conklin, even Michael Pruitt's still around there somewhere they've just they've done well with picking late tight ends and making them into something more likely than not Nick Muse ends

up on the practice squad again but maybe there's like a next year for him not that I'm trying to make too much of this one great catch but he's still here after being drafted last year in the seventh round. He's out there fairly early in the game after a couple of series from Josh Oliver and Johnny Munt was mixed in as well. I would expect Johnny Munt to have that job and Nick Muse to be on the practice squad, but good for him. Again, Louis seen played a ton of snaps. It just hasn't ever been there to the point where you say, oh, wow, there's Louis seen making plays. And in this case, you really just have to see playmaking with Louis seen in order to believe it. He had the interception in camp. They didn't even have pads on that day, but it was a nice play. And we got a little bit excited about it. We started

talking about it. His teammates got excited about it and coaches have been saying that he's taking more professional approach and things like that. But I always kind of go, wait a minute. So that you mean last year, he wasn't taking this professional approach. It's hard for everybody. It's especially hard when there's pressure as the first round pick to step in. And then when you have other good players like Bynum and Metellus, it's not a situation where you're going to step right in for him, or you're going to have to actually be quite good to do that. But if you were looking for that big step, we still haven't seen it yet. And I didn't think we did tonight outside of one good tackle. I liked Ivan Pace Jr.'s game a ton. I mean, he was all over the place. The guy was making tackles left and right.

There was one play in particular where he just slammed into a guard. And you saw, like, the power of this guy where he just took on a guard one-on-one, slammed him back, and then made a tackle. He got a pressure up the middle on a screen play. He was running down running backs from behind. Very good night for Ivan Pace. While Brian Asamoah didn't play, Ivan Pace Jr. had a pretty darn good game from my eye. And again, you know, we'll always go back and look at these things. We'll see what PFF says.

We'll review it again. And so some takes are subjective, they're subject to change when we're trying to do it right, you know, right off the bat. But I thought that Ivan Pace showed exactly why he's been getting all those first team reps. The guy just plays kind of like a little Wolverine out there. I mean, he just is very aggressive and violent and physical, and he is got strength even though he is undersized so uh was impressed with his game and we'll see where this takes him but if he needed sort of that first step to show them yeah i deserve more of those first team reps i thought that he did it tonight uh how about naji thompson did you guys know about naji thompson i knew about naji thompson sorta uh mean, he's made a couple of plays in camp, but special teams are

the hardest thing to see in training camp because they can't really run them. They can't tackle people. But he made a tremendous play on the punt return, just shot by his guy, made a tackle. And we have seen players in the past make the team. Dan Jacenna was one of them. Chris Boyd stayed on the team for a while. Just based on being great on special teams, even Josh Metellus was able to develop over a couple of years. So again, not trying to get too excited about one play,

but Najee Thompson looks like a guy who has taken some pride in the reps that he's getting on special teams and made a very nice play and had another one, too. He was the first guy down on a Ryan Wright punt to stop the ball at the one-yard line. So he was a guy that shined. Another UDFA, Jalen Williams, had an interception. So it was a great night for the UDFAs. Andre Carter, for somebody who's been hurt and hasn't practiced a ton. Sure.

Got a lot of reps tonight. He got a lot of work. I don't see him as somebody who's really competing for a spot so much as he is just trying to get some work. And I mean, just develop. That's all you're really looking for from Andre Carter is develop whether they could actually cut him and put him on the practice squad. I don't know because I think other teams would be interested, but he's a guy that I don't expect if even if he's on the 53 because they don't want to lose him.

I don't expect to see him getting action this year, but you know, somebody to keep an eye on. I didn't have any noticeable plays from him where he really got after the quarterback or ran somebody down from behind. But just the fact he's out there, he's playing, he's healthy, and we'll be tracking it from here. And of course, my last note, kicking was good. Yeah, the kicking was fine. No problems with the kicking. A long field goal made by Greg Joseph.

He made the extra point. He did what he was supposed to do. And there you go. So those are my main notes for the evening. Now let me go back to the comment section and respond to what you guys are saying. Okay. So you guys have left a lot of comments. So let me just go all the way back up to the top and I'll work my way through from Hunter Jordan's toe tap that was called incomplete was a hell of a nice catch. It certainly was. Yeah, and that is, again, if you go into this game and say,

well, what did we want to see from Jordan Addison? Number one is just stay healthy. But number two was, let's see you do something. Because you knew they were going to try to get him the ball a little bit. And he made a tremendous catch. It's too bad that it didn't count. But I think that anybody who saw it knows that it should have counted and knows that that is not a catch that is just easily and normally made. That takes an extra level of talent.

From Danny, Ed Ingram looked lost out there. I'm going to have to look back at the tape. Sorry to sound like a coach there at how he did, but I thought overall it was not a very nice evening for the offensive line. I mean, they gave up a lot of hits on Nick Mullins, a lot of pressures. There were a few runs that were completely blown up. I didn't think that Blake Brandel, and this is just first watching, I didn't think he looked very settled at guard,

which is kind of out of position for him where he's been a tackle in the past. So, yeah, it wasn't a very good night for the starting offensive line or the, finger quote, starting offensive line. And that includes Ed Ingram. And, you know, right off the bat, it was like, here's a pressure on Nick Mullins. And that's not what you want to see. And remember last year, even when Ed Ingram gave up,

I think it was a sack or a big run stop early in the San Francisco preseason game where we went, oh, is this going to be a problem? Because he just got really burned there and it did end up being a problem. Uh, Danny says, RIP the 2022 draft class, you know, um, I don't want to declare anything, but it's not a good situation. And it's funny to see the 2022 and 2023 draft classes, like 2022 just continues to trend downward. Even just the fact that they're playing in the second half,

like how many teams 2022 draft picks from the first and second round are playing in the third quarter of the first preseason game? My guess is not many, but there's Andrew Booth jr. Getting smoked by some backup for Seattle. It's not, not what you were looking for from him at all. And Ed Ingram's out there. Caleb Evans did play. I expected him to play. He doesn't have a ton of

experience in the NFL. He's kind of the saving grace of that draft class. But then you have the other side. And Makai Blackman did have that one bad play that gave up the touchdown, which does matter. But Addison and then you have these UDFAs who are making plays. So this is the NFL draft for you folks, right on display of how sometimes it just doesn't go your way. And sometimes it does. From Alexander, scene needs to be consistent. He needs to play in all likelihood this is Harrison's last year he's going to play next year maybe I mean maybe I I don't want to get too far ahead of ourselves to next year for anything but I mean the way that Lewis scene looks right now is so hesitant and just not playing fast and loose and free at all, that to me is just not going to fly,

whether it's next year, this year, or he plays or he doesn't play or anything. It's not declaring it. If it looks like that, that's not going to start no matter what happens with Harrison Smith. It's got to get better. And he should play every snap of all the preseason games because he needs a lot of experience

and they have to keep taking swings at it to see if it clicks at some point. But aside from that first tackle where he did look confident, you know, chasing after Jackson Smith and the Jigba, uh, after that, it was just not a lot of impact. Um, sloth, did anyone see Jaqueline Roy? He was not at practice the other night. And I, we don't know why, because we haven't heard from kevin o'connell uh recently to talk about the injuries or recently enough since we didn't see uh jaqueline roy so he must have gotten banged up um at some point so yeah i mean not good because he was having a really good uh training camp so far so you hope that it isn't long-term because he was a guy, another guy from this draft class who was emerging,

but didn't expect him to play. Same with Brian Asamoah, who didn't practice the other night. Kenny Wong will either. These are all guys who kind of need to be out there and injured is injured, but you know, not, not great for them in,

in kind of where they stand to miss some time here from Alexander positives, pace and Addison look like the real deal. Josh Oliver shows that he destroys people. He definitely does. I mean, you see how big he is, but he made some really good blocks and a rager and Powell competed. Well, that is also in, in my recap as well, that I was writing during the game. I thought that both Jalen Rager and Brandon Powell made plays. Notable that Rager was the first guy back to return punts. I can't guarantee that that means he's ahead in that race, but they did trade for him last year to be a punt returner.

I have liked a lot of what I've seen from Brandon Powell, and I thought you saw him on a couple plays get open, make catches. They seem to be high on Brandon Powell, and I thought you saw him on a couple plays, get open, make catches. They seem to be high on Brandon Powell as well. I think that's a real race, and those guys in every one of these preseason games are going to be out there and competing with each other. But Rager had a good night. From Seven Dragons, Ivan Pace looks like he belongs in the NFL. Totally agree.

That is a great way to describe it, is that he looks like he belongs in the NFL. Totally agree. That's that is a great way to describe it is that he looks like he belongs in the NFL and it's hard. It's like you have to go farther to convince me when you are an undrafted free agent because we just don't expect that the whole league passed on you. And then suddenly you look good. And it could be an audical situation where the guy plays really well who's the other guy Edmund Robinson had a moment like that that happens but when you talk about the skills that should continue to carry over

and it's not just preseason being kind of a little wrecking ball is good. I mean, I thought taking on the guards like he did in the run game, that's the biggest question, and he did it really well tonight. From Alexander McBride, didn't do much to impress me tonight. Yeah, I mean, I felt the same way, that you just didn't see a lot of that, like, break tackle ability. I don't know, you know, opportunity plays into that. He's not a kick returner. I think that that's quite obvious.

I don't really know why he would be kick returning. You know, when you're looking at kick returners, usually it's somebody who's blazing fast and he is not blazing fast. So that's an interesting decision from them. I wonder why they decided to go with him, maybe just to kind of see what was there, or maybe just to get the football in his hands a couple more times. That might've been why they decided to do it as well. I don't know, but yeah, he did not have a big breakout game to start. Didn't seem like there was a lot of opportunity

there for him with the blocking and so forth. Luigi Villain, another great night. You're spelling, Alex, of Luigi Villain, not great, but he was good. He shows up in the preseason. He reminds me, the Vikings picked up a guy a couple years ago who always used to show up in the preseason. I forget who was the guy's name. Gosh, it was an edge rusher who always showed up in the preseason, and they signed him, and he got into a couple of games, and there wasn't anything there.

But Luigi Villain always does show up. I thought Patrick Jones was good as well. That's a guy that you're watching for. Is Patrick Jones now pretty much every preseason game? Is he in an actual rotation to get opportunities or not? Because it seems like DJj want him is kind of locked up that spot uh behind marcus davenport and behind um you know uh daniel hunter uh let's see it might be a dumb question i know the draft is random but this year's class looks significantly

better than last year's how much of the previous regime's scouting staff was part of last year versus this year um that's really hard to say who would have had what influence on what um you know i i mean you can i guess try to talk yourself into well it was a spielman draft because it was spielman scouts and that might be the case i don't know but rick Rick Spielman also drafted Justin Jefferson, Christian Derrissaw, you know, Daniil Hunter, Stefan. Like, he had a lot of great draft picks and a lot of bad draft picks along the way as well. And he and also the scouting staff didn't trade down. That's another thing to keep in mind. The scouting staff, it's not their job to figure out if Andrew Booth Jr.'s legs work or not. So I don't want to give a free pass based on, well, those scouts from before,

they were looking for something different. Now, I do think that this year, Kweisi Adafo-Mensa took a better approach. One, when a really good player was on the board, Jordan Addison, he just took him. And he didn't trade down just to trade down because that's what you think you should do as the analytics GM. I don't know. But, you know, the scouts would have had nothing to do with the trade value that they got back in that trade where they went down to get Lewis seen. And honestly, the scouts wouldn't have anything to do with you drafting bad positions. I mean, you know, linebacker guard, like these were not positions that they necessarily should have been taking on a team that's competitively rebuilding. You're always looking for the high value positions and instead they're taking guards. I mean, you know, not only

taking, but reaching a lot. So I think we need to look at the guy whose names are on the picks and also say that you can learn from year to year and you can grow from year to year and say, look, you know, I'm not going to do it this way again. I'm not going to listen to these people or I'm going to follow what I want to do. Or it could be just completely random. That could also be it as well. That look, if Louis seen look like an absolute monster, we would be talking about how genius it was. And was there not a good case for that guy becoming really good? Of course there was.

Look at his physical ability. But yeah, I mean, it just couldn't be more stark of what's happening right now with the 2022 versus 2023 draft class. And it's just, I, I have always just believed that in draft randomness that you just, you take the players that you think is right. And then whatever happens happens and draft grades are never really right. So that kind of tells us that our immediate reactions don't usually play out. And, uh, but 2022, I think what makes 2022 draft class stand out is that we all question the trade down and now it's kind of blown up. We all questioned taking a guy with so many injuries in college. That's blown up.

We all questioned reaching on a guard. That's blown up. And even the guy that everybody was on board with Brian Asamoah, a linebacker that is not working out at the moment either. Although that could be just because Ivan pace has been so good. Brandel never played a T Kubler says Brandel never played guard in college. Why switch him about three years into his NFL career? Because Blake Brandel is never going to be a starting offensive lineman in the

NFL. So if you're not going to be a starter, it's good to have the ability and experience of playing in multiple positions. It was miserable tonight for sure. I didn't think it looked good at all for anybody, but at the same time, I support trying to make offensive linemen more multiple and that's okay with me if that's what they decided to do. I'm not going to criticize the coaching staff for trying to create a more versatile player. The other thing is they just don't have a lot of guards.

They really just don't have a lot of guards right now with Chris Reid out. And I think Austin Schlotman would probably be the starting guard if there were an injury, but he had to play center. Let's see. Asamoah blowing up. That is a reach. Well, I don't know yet. I don't know if it's a reach or not. I mean, we'll see because he is, looks like he's lost his job to Ivan Pace Jr. as of right now. And if he's lost his job to Ivan Pace Jr., that's really not a great sign for Asamoah was what we thought he was going to be this year, then we wouldn't be talking about Ivan Pace as anything more than a backup. And I haven't seen them play at all at the same time. It's been entirely Jordan Hicks. So I guess

we made the right decision by going on the air a little early because as we speak it's uh 24 to 13 does anyone want to talk about jaron hall or would you just prefer not to i don't have any major issue with how jaron hall looked because that's what i expected that's the way that he's looked during practice for the most part just hesitant not really willing to like pull the trigger at the right times early in camp before the pads came on, he was hitting the back foot, letting the ball go, getting some nice completions, looking good. But once the pressure started, once the physicality started to step up and more got added to his plate, it's been kind of a rough go for him in training camp. That's what happens with fifth round rookie quarterbacks. And even if he's older, that he's never played in the NFL before,

so it's not going to change it. It was not at all really the debut though, that I think a lot of you were looking for a couple of sacks as we speak six for for 12, 37 yards. Didn't look all that good. That's why Nick Mullins is going to play a lot because Nick Mullins has to get these guys the football so they can evaluate what they have at wide receiver. And that's just the fact. Like, that's why he's going to play. So anyway, let's see. Sorry, just getting a text from our friend Jonathan Harrison. It is amazing how many of you are tuning into this at midnight to watch tonight and watching this reaction. It's just, it's an honor to have you guys here and having this conversation.

So I really appreciate it. Let's see, from Ale, is Hicks wearing the green dot during the regular season? They haven't announced who is the guy, if you don't know what the green dot is. It's the guy who gets the calls in his headset, calls out the defense. They haven't told us i haven't asked but i would assume that that is the case that he's not going anywhere he's going to be the guy because they have so many young defenders in that secondary you need somebody like jordan hicks to get everybody just lined up i mean it's the same as we talk about with previous quarterbacks in the preseason and

how someone needs to be able to get the offense lined up, just even start right there. And then you could start to execute things that defense is that way with a lot of young players as well. They need someone who's a veteran to bring them along as, especially if it's a UDFA linebacker who is playing alongside Jordan Hicks or even if Brian Asamoah does make a comeback in training camp. It wouldn't be shocking if that happened. But whoever is playing next to Jordan Hicks has barely played any NFL football. It is a discussion about how many linebackers they're going to keep and who's going to be here.

It seems like Troy Reeder is getting a lot of run with the second team. He was out there with Ivan pace early in the game. I would guess him. Troy die is a special teams guy and it was brought up. And I think worth noting that Troy die wears gloves. Now he didn't use to wear gloves. I don't know when that started. Now I'm going to have to find out when he decided to start wearing gloves. Hunter says, I think Jaron Hall has a really good chance to develop into a backup who sticks around the league for a while. Any more than that would be quite surprising. Yeah, I agree.

I agree. He can be a Nick Mullins type and maybe a little bit more. And that's about it. And I think we knew that when he was drafted in the fifth round. And that's probably why I've always kind of been against the idea of drafting a fifth round quarterback, because usually that's the ceiling is that they're going to be just the backup quarterback.

And, you know, we get excited about it. We watch his college tape. We talk to his college coaches and everyone says he's the greatest guy of all time. And then you see it against NFL players and you go, oh, I get it.

Even when he's standing next to Kevin O'Connell and O'Connell is tall and we all look short next to Kevin O'Connell, including me. I'm 6'1". I'm short next to Kevin O'Connell. But you see that Jaron Hall is just not very big. And that's just going to limit him.

I think his arm strength is going to limit him at some point from growing. But I also agree with you that you get this experience. He now can go back, take a look at what happened in this game, and go forward, develop. And it's always interesting to see what the rookie looks like. So we'll see if there's progress from game one to game two. He does throw the ball well when he has a chance, but it seemed like it was just a little too fast for him tonight.

So we'll go on from there. From Will, why was Kanae considered in the race for number two running back pre-injury when the coaches over the past two years have shown no faith in him and Chandler has looked good again, this preseason from the start, it looked like even of training camp that Kenny Wong Wu was leading in the number two, he was getting more reps with the first group than Ty Chandler was. And I think that when Delvin cook was the running back, nobody else was getting in the backfield.

And that's just how it was. I even look at Alexander Madison, look at games where Madison who is now RB one decidedly RB one, look at games where he was available and Delvin cook played. He never got in the game. I mean, three, four carries absolute max, but there was never a rotation. I also think that you're right, that they did not trust Kenny Wong Wu. They also didn't show a lot of creativity considering how fast Kenny Wong Wu is with the football. But I mean,

I agree with you. It just, it looked like from the start that he was ahead of Ty Chandler and whether that was actually the case, I don't know, but just judging by the reps that they were getting. And it seemed from the coach's commentary, like they weren't really thrilled with the way that Chandler had picked up the offense so far, even over the last two years. So I do think that, you know, Chandler was really good last year in preseason, but only had 15 carries last year,

a couple of big ones. And you know, you're going to end up looking really, really good. But I like, I mean, I like him on the ground. I like his burst. I like how quick he is. And I like that, you know, the guy slams into people when he gets a chance. It's just, I understand why there was talk about Kenny Wong Wu is RB2 and he might've been the starter out there tonight if it weren't for the injury but I think the injury is going to set him back so far that Ty Chandler will be RB2 unless he comes back soon and then has a great preseason game and maybe something changes but that is how it feels right now that he's going to be a RB too. From sloth,

what to make of low playing the entire game, getting him work or still not sure if he can play. It's probably both. I would say it's both with some of these guys. They just need football. And if they like somebody, they, I mean,

you can make an argument either way. If they like him, well, they're going to start them out there at left tackle and they want to get him reps because guess who's not getting reps at left tackle when it comes to the regular season vidarian low that's who and they drafted him so they're probably interested in trying to develop him and there's no better way than just playing him a whole preseason game i don't see why not only udo had a tough game i I thought. I think that he had a pretty tough game tonight. Again, sometimes I got to go back and look and see like,

oh, maybe I missed who that pressure was on, but didn't look very comfortable at right tackle. And we know in the past that he is a pretty good swing tackle, just didn't feel like he was there tonight. From Eric, is there something going on with scenes technique as to why he's not wrapping up and going low on guys seems like he was tackling guys high and got trucked several times i think that's a lot of things man i mean this is the craziness of the nfl so i was having a conversation with chris cooper the other day and the Vikings offensive

line coach. And he was telling me about certain techniques on the offensive line where instead of having your hand at this angle, like pointing straight up, your hand needs to be at like a 45 degree angle to make this certain block. Like that's the level of detail, this many steps, this exact technique. They spend half the practice focusing on very specific techniques. And sometimes I make fun of it because they're out there tackling bags or playing patty cake with each other. But that's the level of detail of the NFL.

So if you can't do that, or if you're not executing what they're asking you to do, as far as technique goes, that's how you end up as safety number four. So I don't know for sure. I've never studied tackling technique. But to what you're saying, to my eye, he was playing very straight up and down. And it didn't look like he was getting very low. And it certainly did not look like he was rushing to the ball, like he was playing with any sort of real aggression outside

of that first tackle and even that was a high tackle i thought that was sort of necessary because of that but you know with lewis scene it just looks like there is a what do you call it where it's got a click there there's like a delay where it's okay the play is happening and then oh you're supposed to you're supposed to and you didn't quite do it fast enough it's sort of like how jaron halls looked playing quarterback where it's got a click it's got it's got to hit the back foot and something's happening and you got to get the ball out it's the same thing with le scene. And, you know, I think that there is something to be said for the injury, but it was really that way last year as

well. And I think that's where the concern comes in is that maybe the brain is not clicking with the body to where he needs to be just by how the defense is designed or just to recognize things. I mean, if you're going to be a deep safety, which he was playing tonight and which he really is, you have to be able to recognize things very quickly and then bolt toward the football. And we just haven't seen that. I don't want to completely count out that,

like, oh, well, bad preseason game, it's over. But I just didn't love what I saw. And we'll see how that progresses, because maybe it could be just getting back from the injury, haven't hit people in quite a while, and then it'll start to go from there. But I think that what we've seen, the accumulation over the last two years and the beginning of training camp is I would expect him on special teams. Cam Bynum is going to start. Josh Metellus is going to be on the field a lot. And that's the story. And whether he can be the future safety that I don't know. There hasn't been much sign

of it yet. From Deontay, real question is, do we play Addison at all the rest of the preseason? LOL. I've seen enough. LOL. I've seen enough as well. Deontay. I feel the same way. There you go, folks. He can make a great catch out of bounds and that's enough. Now it really depends on how they feel because if they think, Hey, he was not really in the right spots and he did make that great catch, but because they know the plays and we don't, so they can look at what happened on tape versus what was supposed to happen in the playbook and go, uh, Lewis, I know you met or not Lewis, uh, Jordan, I know you made that play, but

you're supposed to be actually on the other side or, Hey, the quarterback had to line you up on every snap and that can't happen. Or they just wanted to get them a few looks on a real NFL field. He made some catches and then they'll put them in bubble wrap. We'll, we will learn which one of those two things it is based on whether he plays next time. But I definitely agree with you. I, I just think he's got too much talent and he's too important that there's no real reason

to play Lewis scene anymore in this preseason. Take them out. Just go forward and let's see more Brandon Powell versus Jalen Rager. Who's with me now? Okay. Well, maybe Tristan Jackson will come back. Maybe Jalen Naylor will come back and we'll actually get a little more of a receiver battle. Poor Thayer Thomas. I've been talking up Thayer Thomas on the show. Like, Hey, it looks pretty good in camp.

He gets a punt his way. It hits him and turns into a fumble preseason football. Everybody from David. I also think that there were some young defensive backs down on the depth chart who played well. Yeah. Juwan Williams had a great pass breakup. We also have pretty decent.

Oh, line depth outside of the guard position-ish. Yeah, the guard position is kind of important there, though, for the depth. But I understand what you're saying. Normally, Ole Udo doesn't look like that. I am totally comfortable with him having to start some games. Same with Blake Brandl if they have to. Definitely concerned about the interior with the depth. If somebody goes goes down do they even have a backup right now who could play three games and you feel okay about but i agree that the secondary i thought had a pretty decent night outside of andrew booth jr and mckay blackman both giving

up touchdowns that was not great but overall yeah i mean jaylen williams getting an interception another undrafted guy and it wasn't a really great night for the Seattle passing game outside of a couple of plays. So, I mean, you know, the Vikings, uh, by the way, if you were, uh, just following along and having this conversation, the game is finally over. We did start before it was over and they lose. Oh no. I, you know, it was fun.

I always like Mike Zimmer always wanted to play to win in those games and in these preseason games. And I never really understood it. Like, it doesn't matter. One thing I did like is how much fun Kevin O'Connell seemed to be having on the sideline. Hey, it's a preseason game. You should be talking with your players and having a good time

and make it a fun little road trip. So that's what he should be doing. talking with your players and having a good time and make it a fun little road trip. So that's what he should be doing. I always thought that it was just everything was just so serious in the past. And in a preseason game, it really doesn't have to be that way. David says there were some plays tonight that I don't believe were scenes responsibilities. Well, that's I mean, you don't or I don't know his responsibilities completely. But I do know if you're the deep safety and there's a there's a guy in a deep cross like you have to recognize that

faster when that ball is coming out I mean he was just going all the way to the parking lot he would have kept backpedaling until he just ran into his own car got in it and drove back to Minnesota he you know you need to be able to recognize route combinations at that position. I think his first game back was not bad. Yeah, I looked at it a little differently. I just, I didn't view it as a major statement from him that he's going to compete for a starting job. I just looked at it as, well,

that's kind of what it's always looked like with Louis Seen. Let's see, he could be a killer on special teams. Yeah. We'll see on that. Booth can't offer any of that. Yeah, I agree. I mean, Andrew Booth Jr. Giving up that touchdown playing in the third and fourth quarter, not, I don't know if he was in the fourth quarter, but third quarter, not good for, for Andrew Booth Jr. I think they've made it very clear exactly where they stand on Andrew Booth Jr. And that is not in a good place. That's where they stand.

From Lewis, Rager's route running definitely looked a lot smoother. It could be just running routes on backups. I mean, I don't really trust Jalen Rager as a wide receiver. I do think you can put the football in his hands and he can make some plays, but, uh, I don't really trust him as much as I trust Powell as a route runner, but either one, you probably don't want those guys playing a whole lot of wide receiver. What you'd prefer is that Tristan Jackson gets healthy and that he plays wide receiver in a pinch as opposed to those guys. Because I know, well, I guess, you know,

Tristan Jackson played in the preseason last year. I know he didn't play tonight and I don't know how long he's going to be out, but he's a real receiver. Like he runs routes. He plays all the positions. He makes good catches. He tracks the ball well. I look at Powell and Rager as both really just punt returners who could play in a pinch. And I would trust Powell a little bit more in terms of the route tree and getting the details right with the quarterback than I would Rager based on Rager's history. But either one of them, if they're playing playing then something has probably gone a little bit wrong um from arm let's see the game validated a lot why uh y'all are reporting from oh what y'all are reporting from camp that's why we go uh blackman looked a lot better and feistier than

booth yeah that's the thing about blackman i know he had the bad play, but he, he is a physical player and you could tell for sure when the one route that went down the field and drew lock, just airmail that because he's drew lock, but you could see how physical he was even running down the field. And he is good in man to man coverage, or at least that's his reputation. And I think that's what he's been during training camp, is physical and good at tracking wide receivers. He's probably just a better prospect at this point than Andrew Booth Jr. Hunter, could Booth be a surprise cut? Yeah, could be.

I mean, when you see a guy playing, I'd be surprised because normally you're not going to cut a second round pick after one year but if you can't play on special teams because he gets hurt on special teams like he did last year and he's injured all the time and they want to keep somebody else jalen williams had an interception the other night too like maybe there's somebody else they want to keep and they just decide you know what this is over and and's life. I would guess they keep them another year. It's better for your salary cap if you wait another year. So yeah, I don't know. I think that probably they wait and keep them on the team, but I is not a guarantee after what we saw tonight. From Lewis, do you think that McBride will get a heavier

workload next week? Might depend on whether Kenny Wong Wu comes back. I think we're going to find out what they think of Dwayne McBride as we go forward. Like, does he get more opportunity? I mean, he had six carries, 15 yards tonight, so not much to write home about. But yeah, I mean, I could see him getting more opportunity, especially in the third preseason game where he could get like all the carries along with whoever the other running back is. I don't know if it's going to be Ibram Smith or not, but whoever it is that's playing alongside him, he'll at least in that third preseason game, get a lot of work, but you know, he's seventh round running backs. I like the pick. I have

like some of what I've seen from him in training camp, but even in a position that's usually pretty easy to come right in and play, he is coming a long way from UAB to the NFL. Might not really be ready to take on a whole lot, so they might want to keep it to third and fourth quarters, have the other guys play. If Wong Wu is back, then I still think there's legitimate competition for RB2 between Wong Wu and Ty Chandler, even though I also liked what I saw again from Ty Chandler tonight. Let's see. Rager seemed to be better at getting separation than the other receivers battling for the number four spot, at least today. Yeah, I agree. He had a good night.

He definitely had a good night. He is a good night he is more talented he is more physically gifted without question than pretty much everyone on the team not named justin jefferson so he has burst explosiveness he should be able to get open there's just this there's just the the same issue there is with a lot of players but like he doesn't have the greatest hands the contested catch ability is really not there. He can't really go deep and make plays on the football. And so he's very limited as a wide receiver, which makes me wonder if with Brandon Powell, he could do a little bit more as far as the route tree. But Jalen Rager had a good night, no question.

Juwan was looking like prime Xavier roads there with that past breakup. I think even though Juwan has lost those first team reps, that it's very possible that he is the backup for, uh, like the, the, the first guy off the bench and he could still, depending on how things go, he could still fight for a starting spot with Juwan Williams. It doesn't mean just because you gave up first team reps a few days into practice that you can't potentially win them back. Is Brian Asamoah hurt? So the other night when they did a padless practice, Asamoah was just standing there holding his helmet. He had, well, they had shoulder pads and shorts. So he had like his shoulder pads on, but he wasn't doing anything. I don't know

what that means. And we haven't gotten an update on it. Maybe at some point soon. Well, not maybe I'm certainly sure that we will get an update soon if Brian Asamoah is not playing. But at this point, I'm not really sure what happened there. It looks like it was probably just an injury. Let's see. Luigi Villain flashed quite a bit. He always does. It's remarkable. That guy goes out in preseason and just makes plays. And I don't know if he'll ever get a chance to rotate in or not, but at least I think he's done enough to be a depth rusher on this team unless they go out and get someone. But with Justin Houston off the board, it's pretty much Melvin Ingram is the only other

free agent who could actually make a difference as a pass rusher. And there's been no word of any interest. And I think after tonight where Patrick Jones and Luigi Villain were good, then they probably don't have to do that. Where was Jaqueline Roy? He is also hurt. So he wasn't playing tonight. Again, waiting to see, waiting to get an update from Kevin O'Connell about what's going on there. From sloth, Greg

Joseph was perfect. Although that 54 yarder debated slicing wide right for a second there. They always look like that from the back, don't they? They always look like, oh, it's coming back. It's like all of my golf shots only. Instead, instead of just keeps going the golf shots. But yeah, that was, um, there was a little bit, a little bit wobbly. Uh, but I still think that Greg Joseph is your kicker, but we'll see if Jack put Lesney gets the next game. So Joseph got all the kicks tonight. We'll see if put Lesney gets the next game and see if we go back and forth. From Aram here, the Andre Carter kid is massive and has no idea what he's doing. You're absolutely right. And that is a guy who just needs lots of preseason reps.

And we'll see if it ever becomes something. He is huge and he runs extremely well. But that one's going to take a lot of time. That's why I was interested to see him, but not judgmental. We're judging everybody on where they're at in their individual timelines and their draft status and what we expect from them. So we expect Andrew Booth Jr. to be farther ahead now than he is. But Andre Carter,

he'll probably be doing the same thing next year where it's preseason action, not a whole lot else. And at some point you hope that he clicks and usually they don't. But if he does with that body, it's going to be something from Ethan Pace had an amazing game. He was everywhere. Ivan Pace is what we talk about with Mr. Mankato. That's why it exists is because sometimes a guy that they sign, and I know there was a little buzz from the draft people, but undrafted free agent, he's this little guy. You walk into practice. You're like, no, come on that guy. That guy's not a linebacker. He's a water boy, but because he's so undersized for that position. And yet now you watch him play.

And I call them Sonic the Hedgehog the other night. I'm going to stick with that for those of us who are at least in your 30s, maybe who played old school video games. He just hits people and chases people down and plays with a lot of edge and a lot of grit. And that stands out. That aggressiveness stands out. And it seems clear that he has made an impression with Brian Flores.

He got a ton of work tonight. And I thought he played very well. From Scott, it's very difficult to gauge running backs running behind an awful O-line. I agree. I thought that Ty Chandler played really well. And there were just a couple times where he got stuffed and there's nothing you can do. Hope McBride gets earlier carries next week. He definitely will, at least in the third preseason game.

I'm sure of that. But as far as next week, that might depend on where Kenny Wongu stands. And also, I think that everybody's competing for something different when they play in these games. Like Ed Ingram would be competing to show he shouldn't be playing. And Ty Chandler should be competing to show that he deserves to play a little bit alongside of Alexander Madison. And then there's other guys who are trying to compete to make the team. I mean, it's not a sure thing. Dwayne McBride makes the team. They could get

somebody else if they're not pleased with him. So he's fighting to make the team. So you have all these different battles that are going on, uh, throughout a preseason game that made this one pretty interesting. Jaron Hall is trying to battle to actually throw the ball to someone. I'm sorry. That's too much, too much. He it's a, he's a rookie. That's how it's going to be. Uh, arm says was encouraged by Pace, Blackman, Villain, Chandler, and Powell. Put Addison and Bubble Wrap until after Labor Day. Yeah, no, I agree with all of that, except for, you know, I think Blackman had a little more of an up and down with that touchdown.

It was not only a touchdown, but also a penalty. And that's the thing I think he has to worry about a lot is he is physical, but there's also penalties that go along with that. So maybe an up and down night for him, but definitely I think that a lot of guys in the first team played well that are backups. So really the second team, this, the people who played at the beginning, I thought there was a lot of good performances there. And then as it went along, along whatever it doesn't really matter the results after that uh but a fun night to have football back and i am in complete disbelief that

so many of you decided to tune in tonight and i cannot thank you enough for doing that so thank you so much and we'll continue our weekly let's see every weekday every night whatever we're doing here uh are we doing tomorrow night sure let's do every weekday every night whatever we're doing here uh are we doing tomorrow night sure let's do tomorrow night right here on the channel eight o'clock instead of midnight maybe uh i gotta finish up my article sleepy football so anyway uh well great stuff guys thank you so much for the really fun chat thank you so much for all of you who tuned in to watch and we're gonna have another preseason game coming up very soon a very exciting week of practice the titans

was that happening coming to town so um let's see anyway over under one over under eight and a half wins i'm still i'm going over just by a little, but I wasn't changed by tonight. Sorry, trying to answer a few more of these questions. Was them not challenging the Addison catch a mistake or, well, yeah, it's just, let's get on with the preseason. Who cares? Doesn't matter. What were my thoughts on Najee Thompson?

I think that he could be the Dan Chisena. Sometimes a guy makes the team by being a great special teamer who puts his whole heart into it. That looks like that guy. So anyway, all right, good night football. We'll talk eight o'clock tomorrow night,

right here on the channel. Thank you so much for all of you watching.