Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Vikings 'probably going to need to add' cornerbacks

Episode Date: July 28, 2024

Matthew Coller recaps Saturday's training camp including Kevin O'Connell's comments about the team potentially needing to add to their cornerback group. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

🎵 Hey everybody, welcome to another episode of Purple Insider. Matthew Collar here, just returning from TCO Performance Center, where earlier I was recording another episode with Alec Lewis of The Athletic. So we will have that later on tomorrow on the channel. And if you're listening to the podcast feed, I might put it there a little earlier than that. And another practice, a lot of intense work today, I would say, with J.J. McCarthy getting a ton of reps. So I want to talk about that. And also Sam Darnold having his worst practice so far as a Minnesota Viking, probably the worst one that we've seen. Now, what does that mean? Well, we'll talk about that as well. I wrote down every player

that I saw rotating into the second team. And let me tell you, I got a lot of numbers and we're going to talk about what they're going to do with the cornerback position, what I observed from training camp practice from the corners today and potential options at the cornerback position, what I observed from training camp practice from the corners today, and potential options at the cornerback position, which I will call up shortly after I play what Kevin O'Connell had to say about the cornerback situation with now even Shaq Griffin banged up. So the update on Shaq Griffin is that he has a soft tissue injury and they are going to keep track on it day to day might be a week but you never really want to hear soft tissue injury ever for a cornerback they seem to have kind of a lot of those actually and they will linger at

times depending on what it is but sometimes it can be something that keeps someone out longer than expected. Now, from watching Shaq Griffin walk off the field, from seeing him on the sideline, he was walking around out there today, didn't look like a guy who had gone through something very serious injury-wise. But as we were watching today, a reminder of the lack of depth because you had andrew booth jr moving up getting first team reps at times along with the caleb evans and byron murphy jr moving into the slot on some different reps that's not really ideal uh dwight mcglothern was getting a number of chances with the second team because who else is there to take those reps uh

duke shelly was mostly holding down the second team jaylen williams that's your cornerback group they don't have many other players other than that right now with mckay blackman tearing his acl so there will be likely an addition and we'll hear what kevin'Connell had to say as well but just the update on Shaq Griffin is it does not seem like it is going to be something that keeps him out a very long period of time and I would almost guarantee that they're going to take it slowly with Shaq Griffin because they can't afford to be without Shaq Griffin and again we'll look at some of those cornerback options in here just a second none of them are super ideal as we have been talking about throughout the off season when people ask, well, should they add at this position or that position? So we'll go through the names

that are listed on overthecap.com as being still available. And we'll talk about that as well. And just the overall recap of practice was quite intense. A lot going on today. But the highlight of today's practice was J.J. McCarthy in the red zone. I had five passes with four of them complete for touchdowns. And the other one should have been a touchdown. But it went off the hands of the guy who didn't play football when he was growing up or early in college, Sammy Reyes, Sammy's Reyes. I don't know how to say it exactly, but he's the international

player that's changing sports. And he was the only guy that dropped it, but the throw was there. And in the back of the end zone, there were several nice throws, including one where Jalen Naylor went up and got it. That's another thing that has developed over these first few days that a healthy Jalen Naylor is a good Jalen Naylor there is a reason why Kevin O'Connell has continued to go back to this over and over and saying if he could just stay healthy if he could just stay healthy then we've got a good wide receiver there this is why they believe in him because these first couple of days of practice have been a reminder that Jalen Naylor is a very talented player but when we talked to him after practice he said something he didn't

really want to hear which was about being banged up for really his entire career even at times when he was at Michigan and how difficult it's been mentally to go through all of the injuries. And that doesn't give you supreme confidence that the injuries are over for Jalen Naylor, but can confirm once again, that they're not just saying it to say it when they're complimenting how talented he is. So Naylor right now has been, if we were doing a winners and losers of training camp, can't really, it's only been four practices with no pads, but if we were, then Jalen Naylor would be maybe the biggest winner so far. And something else that I observed from practice today was that the two tight ends have been exclusively Josh Oliver and

Johnny Munt and that continued as they did all of their red zone drills and there was a touchdown pass to Johnny Munt Oliver seems to be getting work as a wide receiver as well and last year in training camp did show an ability to go down the field a little bit at times and had an overall positive season as a pass catching tight end they may look at Robert Tunyon as the tight end number three and if anybody gets banged up then they feel like they have a proven player or maybe he will at some point compete with Johnny Muntz and with Josh Oliver but it seems that the two guys that were here last year are pretty set as the starting tight ends. And they may end up using those guys even a little bit more than they did last year when it was TJ Hawkinson. And then you had KJ Osborne and it was all 11 personnel with

only the occasional CJ ham mixed in, but back to to McCarthy he had a very good practice in that red zone situation a couple of excellent passes to the back of the end zone that turned into touchdowns another one for Lucky Jackson who I think has had a pretty solid start to the training camp and then when we got into the 11 on 11s he got a lot of reps today it was a ton for J.J. McCarthy and the results were a little more mixed there had an interception to Theo Jackson that he probably should have identified something a little different that's what they'll go back and they'll look at you know all the uh you know the tape and break down what happened and what he misread. And then that's the learning process that's going on for JJ McCarthy. But in the end, it was a practice where he got a load of work and maybe they wanted to do that after

yesterday when Kevin O'Connell was away, it was totally a walkthrough that they wanted to put more on JJ McCarthy's plate so they could go into the day off saying, all right, we got him this number of reps through these first couple of days and see if he is ready to get a lot of those reps as the pads come on. And O'Connell said today that next week it is time. Pads are coming on. So those are a little bit of the things that happened at practice today it was not wildly eventful as sometimes it is sometimes it's not but certainly a highlight to see McCarthy succeed in those drills at the goal line and the biggest thing from J.J. McCarthy is that he day after day doesn't look lost doesn't look not in control sorry for the double negative didn't look indecisive when deciding where he was going to throw to which receivers going

through his reads. And he appears to be getting better and better control each day of what this team wants him to do schematically. When the pads come on, things get faster. The pass rushers start coming at you and it's the cornerbacks playing physically and more real plays from J.J. McCarthy but if you just laid out hey what did you want to see in those first couple days of training camp you wanted to see it look much better than it did in mini camp which I think that it has you wanted him to look like he's pretty confident communicating with

Josh McCown communicating with Kevin O'Connell and then you wanted to hear like he's pretty confident, communicating with Josh McCown, communicating with Kevin O'Connell. And then you wanted to hear that he's buying in and that he likes the way that they're approaching it. And he is willing to do what the coaches ask him to do and just take the process one step at a time. And all of those things, sorry for the cliche, but it's true. All of those things, I think he has checked the boxes. That doesn't mean championship or hall of fame. It just means that we are going to have to look at this in increments with JJ McCarthy. And today having one good situational drill where he nailed a bunch of

passes into the end zone, like there's another step because that's just something that as a quarterback, you got to operate that. And then onto the 11 on 11s, onto the full padded practices where it gets quite intense. And then we really see who stands out and who's a difference maker. And that will be easier to judge him versus Sam Darnold. But there was a bit of a juxtaposition today of Darnold not having a great practice versus J.J. McCarthy getting a lot of reps and looking very good in that one particular drill. There is your quarterback update for the day. Now let's go back to the cornerback situation and look at what Kevin O'Connell had to say about what they are thinking about the cornerback spot. Are they going to go out and get somebody,

or is it just going to be a battle between the guys that they have right now? How big of an opportunity is this for guys like Caleb, like Andrew, to kind of take the reps in or present it now? Yeah, you know, I think those, especially some of those guys that have some experience now, either one year in flow system or just a couple years here being, you know, in our program of, you know, here in Minnesota, I'm looking for those guys just to continuously show some improvement and comfort, use some of the experience that those guys have gotten in some pretty big time moments over the last couple years and just have confidence to show up every day with a plan to focus on some things to

get better and then when we get out on the practice field let it loose turn it loose and there'll always be some things we can improve on some learning moments you know I talk to our guys a lot offensively about shooting your shot it's the same thing on defense go try to make a play whether you're covering Justin Jefferson or it's a two-minute situation, third down. That's why we try to add the competition to it where we can. I'm very excited for next week as we transition into pads because it's been a physical start, even though we've just been in helmets and we'll be in some shells today. I compliment our guys on the energy, get off up front on both sides and really across the board. We've just got to see the depth that we do have right now when it's being tested in

some certain spots. Guys got to step up and we'll continue to assess what that position and others kind of look like as we, you know, see what may be something transactionally we would do to make our football team better and give us the best chance to win. So of course when Kevin O'Connell says see if we need to do something transactionally a follow-up question ensues and here was his answer about going out and potentially getting someone from free agency. Would you wait for that point to see these guys for a while or is that independent? Yeah I think everything is just kind of conversations, really healthy dialogue about potential players on our roster, maybe where their roles were if we were all healthy

and had everybody out there every day. Well, maybe does that possibly alter, maybe get some guys reps at other spots or different personnel groupings. You guys know Flo's got 1,000 of them. So just working through that, and then as you kind of get some clarity from that standpoint, do we need to potentially add to that room? And just knowing the type of camp I want to have, just from a calendar of work standpoint,

I do think we're probably going to need to add at that position just surely to make sure that we've got enough of a head count in that room to handle the rep load. But at the same time, there's could be some impact players out there that, that might be interested in joining our team. And that's what and his staff are working through right now. So there you go. A pretty clear that Kevin O'Connell wants to add a veteran cornerback, but who will it be? Well, I'm taking a look at the list here and I got to say it, uh, it does have some players that you've heard of, but it is not a list of people who have recently played well outside of Stefan Gilmore. Stefan Gilmore played a ton of snaps last year. Didn't realize this, that Stefan Gilmore played as many snaps as any other

starting cornerback in the league, 87% of his team's potential reps, which is, I mean, for somebody who was 33 years old last year playing for Dallas, they leaned on him very heavily last season and he performed solidly. He played like a starting cornerback in the league and was average to above average which the question would be is Stefan Gilmore if he wants to come here is he going to need to have the starting spot would that mean that you know Gilmore and Shaq Griffin start or would Stefan Gilmore be okay with playing in a backup role? Probably not, right? Not someone who's been the MVP of the league defensively. I can't see him saying, hey, I'm good. Just play me whenever you want to play me. No, that's a guy who is always going to

view himself as a starter. Would they be okay with Stefan Gilmore playing a high percentage of the snaps on the outside? And would he be okay with coming to a team that has quarterback uncertainty and maybe is not expected to win the NFC North or compete for a Super Bowl? When you look at the Vegas odds, this would factor in to somebody who's 34 years old. Now, if nobody else is going to give him a chance, then maybe if he wants to play and earn another paycheck, he could say, okay, I'll just come play for the love of the game. Unlikely though, right? I mean, if you're Stefan Gilmore, you're probably saying, I will wait until a team that has high odds to win the Superbowl has a cornerback get hurt. And then they will call me

because I am the best player here. And if I have to wait till week six for that to happen, then so be it because what you're not looking for the money. He's looking for the ring and an opportunity to potentially chase a championship. That's why I'd be surprised if Stefan Gilmore was at the top of the list, but there's some other guys that might just be looking for jobs. Oh, another one that should be brought up. I have not heard anything about this, but you know, Patrick Peterson is still a free agent. He, anybody still listen to his podcast? I wrote about it once. Is he still doing the podcast? Has he mentioned if he wants to play anymore or is he waiting for the same type of situation? Would he come back to Minnesota to play with Jefferson some more? Those guys are

really close. Or would he also be looking for a team and only a team that he could chase a championship with? When you get to Patrick Peterson's age and experience, you could just hang out and wait until halfway through the season, see who's playing great, and then say, okay, the 49ers need a corner. I'm going to go play for the 49ers for half a season or whatever. I could see Patrick Peterson doing that, or I could also see him a guy of his level of being multifaceted as a human being who might want to be a broadcaster in the future and is a really, really excellent golfer. He might just decide, Hey,

I'm just going to play golf and call it a day for my career. He's going to the hall of fame. There's no question about that. So he doesn't have anything more to prove outside of potentially chasing the championship. If he wanted to come back though, if he really liked Minnesota and thought all right you know bring me back to O'Connell's team then he's a good dude to bring back he played okay last year there's only so much that you can ask someone like that to do though you cannot ask him to just be man locked in coverage he was the only one that was really excellent at what Ed Donatel wanted him to do, which was to drop back in coverage and play in zones and read through the

plays and read the quarterback and read the route combinations and sit on them and then try to make a play. Well, he was great at it. But is that this defense this defense usually asks for aggression from the corners high tackling ability from the corners uh i guess i i just wouldn't think and he did uh yes he did switch a little bit to safety but i think it was more of an emergency thing for for him playing safety they got everybody hurt at safety and he had to just pop back there because he's smart enough to do it uh and i don't think that it was something they wanted to do, but you know, how, how quick is he still, can he still play corner against top wide receivers? If Brian Flores was planning on continuing to play a lot of zones, would that be okay for Patrick

Peterson? But the tackling, that was something that he was not an ace tackler at the end of his career. And usually from last year's defense, they would kind of create a bit of an umbrella and then they would attack. So underneath passes, obviously the run game, you would have corners kind of coming downhill. Murphy missed a lot of tackles because of it. I think it was a little different for those guys. Blackman thrived. And if Blackman was still here, it would have been quite good, but could you have, uh, or if he hadn't torn his ACL,

but, uh, it could you have Patrick Peterson play 500 to 600 snaps? Maybe there's that. And when you look at the other options that feels pretty good. So Steven Nelson played a ton for the Houston Texans last year. He is also potentially on the list. He played 90% of snaps last season for Houston. The fact that no one has picked him up is a little bit surprising. I would say that no one has picked up Nelson because he's kind of been around and I'm searching stuff and also talking at the same time. So please give me some grace there. And if anybody wants to add any thoughts and names to the list in the comment section, go ahead. But, you know, Nelson is one of those guys who has been around for a long time. 2015 was when he was picked. Or if you see a different list of

free agents, if somebody signed that i bring up um i haven't been paying that close of attention to the 30 year old cornerback market but now i am all of a sudden yeah for houston last season he had four interceptions for them played a lot of snaps started 16 games i guess it is a little bit surprising that Nelson is not employed at the moment. That could be it. Could be just the age and nobody wants to sign 30 year old corners, but he deserves a nomination there. Wouldn't be surprised. I guess if they looked at him, Akello Weatherspoon is another one that I would have thought would have had a job by now. He actually, I think, played pretty well last season. So maybe it's money.

And that's the one thing that we don't know is what some of these guys want. So what kind of money does Stephon Gilmore want to play? Is it a big paycheck for him? Because that's not something the Vikings really want to do. Or is it that nobody just wants to bring him back and thinks that he's too old? Old corners don't have a great track record of success. So Witherspoon last year played 17 games, started 17 games for the Rams, had a couple of interceptions.

Again, a guy that you just wonder why exactly, and he's only 29 years old. Does he not have a job at the moment? But I think the point is, and Adoree Jackson had a miserable year last year. He played, I believe, a different position than he usually plays, but he is also a proven free agent

that was pretty good two years ago. Fabian Morrow has been around. Eli Apple has been everywhere. I don't think you want much to do with JC Jackson. Kareem Jackson is also out there. And then after that, we get into guys. Bradley Roby is 32. He played a little. I think we talked about him last year. Kevon Seymour is a guy who's bounced around quite a bit. But as far as actual top options, there are four to five players that are veterans that have had recent success or recent solid play in the NFL. It really comes down to as they look for somebody to bring in because

Kevin O'Connell is saying there that we're bringing somebody in. So our question is, do you bring someone in that's going to cost you a decent amount of money that's on the older side, or do you bring someone in that might have maybe some upside or is younger or that you have had your eyes on. I mean, Kobe Francis was the first guy that they brought in and Kobe Francis is 25 years old and hasn't played much in the NFL. So they may view him as someone, Hey,

a while ago, we scouted Kobe Francis and one of our scouts kind of likes him or Brian Flores knows a coach that says he's got some potential so here he comes he's coming in is it going to be one of those guys or is it going to be someone like a Dory Jackson or someone like Steven Nelson I think and you're right that Jackson played terribly last season two years ago he's quite good but that's the Marcus Da davenport dean lowry usually if they get to a certain age and they go downhill there's not a backup swing for older veteran

players in the nfl cornerback is such a quick twitch position that once it's lost it's lost at the same time you're talking about beggars and choosers and so forth and uh you know they really don't have a lot of options here we're talking about four or five guys who have played in the league recently and they have to assess what their prices are where they are physically what their performance was like last year and who would would fit in Brian Flores' defense, and would they actually want to come here? Because I'm sure that multiple teams, as training camp goes on, will start to look at the cornerback market and go,

well, we got a guy hurt too. We need to pick up Adoree Jackson. We need to pick up Patrick Peterson or a Kella Weatherspoon. And those guys might be just sitting there saying, we don't have to sign right away if they've already been in the league for this long. But as far as the starting options, at very least, there are a couple and the role that someone is willing to play. I mean, Brian Flores does rotate these guys in quite a bit. Maybe someone would be like Steven Nelson or something that doesn't want to be in a rotational role, but rather would only take a position where he could be locked in as a starter. And that's what is unique, I guess,

about this where yes, Makai Blackman was a starter and got hurt, but they still have starters in Shaq Griffin and Byron Murphy Jr. And what they can do is they can put Josh Metellus at the slot like they did last year. They're a little more limited with Josh Metellus at the slot corner, but they can do it and they've proven that they can do it. And if you're on the outside, if you're Steven Nelson and you're looking at this position for the vikings and going do you really have a starting spot for me or is it just going to be 300 400 snaps or what's my what's my situation is someone going to be willing to take a spot that looks at first like it might be depth and where would this person end up fitting in with a Caleb Evans?

Because Caleb Evans, as of right now in their nickel package is the starting outside corner, along with Shaq Griffin and then Byron Murphy inside. Well, Caleb Evans did not have a horrendous season last year through 15 weeks. In fact, he had a pretty solid season through 15 weeks until falling apart and then struggling at the end but this is someone that they drafted and that they've been developing and has had his moments and started a lot of games for them last year and that's a somebody that if you're a Stephen Nelson or a Kello Witherspoon you're going to look and say well you've got a starter in Evans you got a starter in Murphy you got a starter in Griffin. You've got a starter in Murphy.

You've got a starter in Griffin. Where do I fit in? And they have to sell someone potentially on that. So is it going to be somebody way down the list that I am not familiar with? Justin Bethel, Kevon Seymour, Isaac Taylor Stewart. These are guys I don't know, but are listed as free agents. I'm way, way down the list that maybe you total draft freaks might have heard a little bit more about some of these players. Bethel's been in the league a while, but other than that, some of these guys haven't

played a whole lot. Bradley Roby played a little bit last year and Kareem Jackson is 36. He also did the thing with Josh Dobbs. I mean, none of this is all that inspiring, but somebody is going to come here and I don't know which one of those options is the best. Maybe it should be, maybe it should be somebody like a Dory Jackson, just looking for a job, looking for a bounce back and willing to take more of a role than an Xavier and Howard's not on my list by the way, because, uh, he's got this off field issue thing that is very concerning and has not played well recently. He is one that went off the side of the cliff and I don't think is ever coming back. So that's your list. It's not inspiring. You wouldn't have expected it to be, but there are guys with a lot of starting

experience in free agency that if they were willing to show up in the right role could help. It's not as exciting as what Makai Blackman was probably going to do. And that was when we were making lists before the season, guys who could take big steps, who could you know become stars during training camp and have a huge impact in the future mckay blackman put enough on tape last year to be right in the middle of that conversation we shall see what ends up happening at cornerback uh also one last thing will reichard kick the heck out of the. Every night somebody asks for an update on the kicking. Will Reichardt, 5-4-5 today, kicking the football in a kind of a windy day and looked really excellent doing so.

The kicks were between 33 and 47, 48 yards for Reichardt, but it was no struggle with the power. Isn't it crazy that a 48-yard field goal used to be a long one for kickers, and now Will Reichardt is practically kicking it over the goalposts? This is a different generation of kicker, folks, and I am curious to see how this plays out because he is the most impressive kicker that I have ever seen in training camp or mini camp that they have ever brought in. And yeah, I think that we can't declare anything about him just off of this, but it's been good. They drafted somebody with a heck of a lot of talent. So let's get to your questions, your comments, put anything you got, anything you want to know about training camp,

any player you're interested in and so forth into the comment section we'll chat for uh maybe a little less long deep into the night than we have before because it's a day off for me tomorrow and uh you know so anyway get some questions in and we'll have a good discussion here let me me scroll back up to the top. JP says, are McCarthy and Darnold playing that well, or is the defense not good considering the cornerback room? I think that Darnold and McCarthy through the first couple of days have looked pretty comfortable. Today was less so for Sam Darnold. And that when it comes to this type of situation,

they are in shorts, shells, not the full pads, not the full speed of the game, physical play from the corners. Quarterbacks should look good. If you're back there and under these circumstances, really struggling struggling when you don't even have shoulder pads on as a quarterback, then we got some problems. When you're talking about two guys who were drafted in the first round that are big and throw the ball really hard.

I mean, they're putting it out there for these receivers and they've got good receivers to go get it. Justin Jefferson, Jordan Addison, and we've seen some good catches from Jalen Naylor as well. And Robert Tunyon had one one day. But they could throw the heck out of the ball. That's why they were first-round draft picks. If they went out there in shorts and T-shirts and a helmet and looked like they couldn't manage anything offensively, it would be a big problem.

So I look at it as the defense is much more in a phase where they can't be physical and they're just trying to be in the right places, maybe make a play on the ball, but it's not as competitive or anywhere near than when the pads come on. And that's when on a daily basis, we'll get a little more serious about the breakdowns. So far, I've been tiptoeing into the breakdowns of the quarterbacks daily basis well mccarthy looked better or you know he had this drill that looks pretty good but when they put on pads we can treat those like evidence of stuff because i think that's how the team views it is before that we're still easing into it. They're getting some of the base stuff that they want installed so they can be

comfortable when they go to the pads. And then it's much, much more competitive. Then I could see what Dallas Turner looks like. Andrew Van Ginkle looks like pass rushing. Is there anybody who's stepping up like an Owen Porter or whatever from the depth group? You guys have asked about Dwight McClother. And in my thing is, well, he's big. I could see that he's big for a corner and I could see that he could stay with some receivers, but he can't do anything to them with his body yet. You're not really putting hands on guys when they don't have pads on, that would be bad.

You don't want, you don't want your corners smacking into your wide receivers when they don't have pads on. You're just asking for people to get hurt once they can do that. Then, okay. Now it is Jalen Naylor look good. Once the pads come on now does a JJ McCarthy and Sam Darnold operate the offense smoothly, complete deep passes, like look like they're a rocket and rolling. But so far, I think everything that you would have liked to have seen from Darnold and McCarthy, we're seeing. We're not seeing, uh-oh, this is going to be very bad with Sam Darnold or uh-oh, JJ McCarthy looks lost out there. We haven't had any uh-ohs yet and we'll see if we get them as we go forward. No Dak too many says,

what do you make of scene? Not practicing today. I don't know what to make of Louis C not practicing today. We didn't get any kind of announcement for why he was out. And we won't be able to find that out until Monday when we get back with Kevin O'Connell and we get a little injury update, maybe Tuesday, depending. I don't know which day we're talking to him, but'Connell and we get a little injury update, maybe Tuesday, depending, I don't know which day we're talking to him, but the next time we talk to the head

coach, he will update us on what's going on with Louis scene and why he wasn't practicing today. We saw a lot of Jay Ward, Theo Jackson, those guys were in there and Theo just always tends to look good out there. And Jay Ward has gotten a lot of those second team reps but this team doesn't really have third team reps it's ones and twos and then they mix everybody in and as I was writing down the numbers of people who are going in with the second team I realized I was writing in almost everybody on the defensive side it's much more of a rotation as opposed to the old Zimmer one two three sort of system and And so is he practicing with the second team? Well, it might be, but is he taking every rep with the second team?

And then, you know, how did the reps look and all that, uh, that went down somewhere. I didn't need it to go. Uh, but the point is that Louis scene had been practicing with the second team mixing in there. And sometimes it would be him sometimes it would be jay ward or theo jackson depending on what type of package they had but there was no feeling or evidence that lewis scene was going to swoop in and take somebody's job and elevate his way up through the depth chart it kind of feels like that ship has sailed. And when he's not at practice, it's not something that you really notice because it's the second team and you're used to seeing Theo Jackson play. And number 20, Jay Ward is catching my eye a

little bit. Okay. Let's see what he can do because he was a fourth round draft pick who they liked coming out for his versatility. He hasn't looked like he's been in much of a versatile role, kind of playing a lot of safety. But I'm keeping an eye on that to see if he's moving to different spots. If he's playing a little more corner because Jay has played corner before. He is one that actually played corner, not, well, he's a safety, but maybe he could do it. But no, he was a nickel corner in college and also moved around other spots. So I had my eyes out for that. Didn't see any of that

today. But I mean, if I didn't know that Louis seen wasn't there, I might not have noticed. That's just where he stands on the team at the moment. And I think by year three, personally, I just stopped talking about it unless the guy takes some big jump. There's nothing really more to be said unless I have to about Lewis scene. It just doesn't look good for him. And to miss any practice isn't great, but it's not like when he was out there he was doing anything to make me notice maybe in pads that will change maybe in preseason that will change but until it does it's the same stance for me wouldn't be surprised if if this is it uh for a lewis scene uh aaron says uh cornerback luck is not looking good for the vik How is Duke Shelly looked one of my favorites from 2022, his hustle and competitiveness was fun to watch. Uh, same kind of goes for how any of the corners have looked, which is until they can really play. It's hard to say, but what

I do know about Duke Shelly is exactly what you said is there are going to be limitations to his game because he is very small. When you see Duke Shelly in person, I've talked about before the opposite of this, the Daniil Hunter, the, whoa, you see him in person, you can't believe how big he is. Well, with Duke Shelly, you see him in person, you can't believe how small he is because normally NFL players, even corners, are not his size, which to me says that, well, he was good in 2022 asking for that in a bigger role in a full-time role would be a lot to

have to put him into. But as a depth player who mixes in and, oh, someone's hurt. Let's throw Duke Shelley in there. Seems like he's a good guy for that but as of today and this is only as of today uh shelly was not getting any first team reps it was andrew booth jr who was getting the first team reps with shack griffin not practicing uh and you had a caleb evans byron murphy jr and then uh Andrew Booth Jr. was in there and with Shaq Griffin back he'll probably be relegated back to the second team but he was the one that was doing it

instead of Duke Shelley of course Duke just got here he's got to learn the defense Andrew Booth Jr. has been here there's not a ton of belief in him either because of what we've seen in the past. Though I will give him some benefit that last year he stayed healthy and he played a bit of a backup role where he got in from time to time and it wasn't a total mess. That shouldn't be how we have to talk about a second round draft pick, but that's kind of where we're at right now. And there was a few plays where he out beat today, but I don't look at that as too much information about how he's going to play. If he is still in that spot going forward through camp,

then he suddenly becomes one to watch on a daily basis. Is he proving something to Brian Flores, or are they going to go out and get Steven Nelson and just say, no, thank you. No, thank you, Andrew Booth Jr. That's something that we don't know yet. What level of cornerback they're going to go looking for in the free agent market, whether it's a UDFA type or a deep on somebody's roster in the past type that doesn't have a job,

or if it's someone that has experience it sounded to me like kevin o'connell would have preferred the experience side over the kobe francis type the camp body type i think he sounded like he probably would have been more into somebody who has been around and that's understandable like why would you have any confidence really in what you've seen so far from someone like Andrew Booth jr, where he couldn't stay healthy in the first year. And then Flores was not a fan last year. He would have played more than he did even when they got banged up.

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then you bring in huge prize money. And when I say huge, I'm not kidding. $9.2 million were split between several winners last year that ended up with $2.3 million a piece. Cost $1,000 to enter, but you become a literal millionaire if you win. So you have to register in Nevada at Circa Las Vegas or in Henderson or Reno, and you have to do it before September 7th. So if you want more information, go to CircaLasVegas.com. Okay, moving along.

From Sloth, Naylor-related topic for the question portion of the show. Who's a 90s wide receiver comp who had injury issues early in their career and then going along as a solid contributor? I wish that you had offered maybe an example here. I'm trying to think who would have had injury issues early in their career and then eventually went on to be a solid

contributor. There's probably someone from the 90s. I'll have to think about that. If you guys have nominations for that one, then you can. I'm trying to think off the top of my head. I know that Johnny Morton is an example of a guy who didn't play much right away, but he was a high draft pick and he was very good. But when you talk about someone not playing much early in their career, and then really coming on and emerging, I think of Johnny Morton, he was being, you know, I think a first round draft pick that first year. Cause I remember looking at Laquan Treadwell when we were making comparisons, as there any receiver that didn't catch a lot of passes early on and then became good.

He was one of them. So if you guys have nominations for that, then feel free to let me know. As far as Naylor goes, it's not that unusual for somebody who is a sixth round draft pick to not contribute a whole lot early on and then eventually become something. This is the Adam Phelan path, if you will, where, yeah, he was an undrafted free agent from Minnesota, if you didn't know. But yeah, he was an undrafted free agent, but it took several seasons for him, not because of injury, but just because of development. But once he got there and once it clicked in for Adam Thielen, it never went back. He just continued to be a great wide receiver for them after that week five game against the Houston Texans in 2016, where he caught that double move against the

Texans for a touchdown. And it just never stopped from there. Continued to be a great receiver. I don't know if Naylor has that potential of Adam Thielen. Probably not. Almost nobody does. But can he be a solid contributor that becomes a KJ Osborne type of option? KJ is a good example. KJ didn't play at all in his first year

and then comes in in his second year as a big part of the operation. And the other thing is too, the Vikings have, and I have cross-checked this with other people. So this isn't just, well, the Vikings say they've got a great wide receiver coach. They have about the best wide receiver coach in Keenan McArdle. Somebody who understands the game. It's such a great wide receiver coach. They have about the best wide receiver coach in Keenan McArdle. Somebody who understands the game. It's such a great level of detail, connects with players, is very good at identifying players' talents and pushing them toward those talents in training camp. And we saw that with KJ Osborne. Nothing would really surprise me when it comes to this. Now we haven't seen very much of the deep roster

guys though. So it's been a lot of Tristan Jackson, who was on the team last year, Trent Shurfield, who they signed in the off season. This is where the competition tends to live, Lucky Jackson. And then the level down, Jashon Jones, Thayer Thomas, haven't seen a whole lot of them getting opportunities when it comes to training camp reps. And that's how we're going to figure this out is just the reps, but by the reps, Naylor is wide receiver three right now. And Brandon Powell is also in there as someone who can be a role player for them, but they would much rather have him as a role player than have to do everything for wide receiver three and punt returning. This one comes from, oh gosh, I know Gilmore is available,

but what do we think about Adoree Jackson? 28 years old on the small side, but he has played and is hopefully healthy. What you think about Adoree Jackson really depends on what you think of his season last year. It was truly awful last season, the way that Adoree Jackson played. There was also a change in his role, which matters. And there was also some strife when it came to the relationship of the defensive coordinator. It was Wink Martindale and the head coach, Brian Dable. They seem to be at odds last year. And maybe that trickled down to some of the results for the giants defense, which I thought was pretty decent considering how bad their offense was.

But when a cornerback has a season that is that bad, because I remember talking about us going through Patrick Peterson and saying, well, you know, he fell off in Arizona and struggled a bit and it's hard to see him bouncing back. And then he did, but Patrick Peterson is one of the best players of all time. So that's different. And also in Arizona, it was a really miserable situation. They were making him play a lot of coverage, which at this point in his career, probably not the best idea to do that. So they went to, let's play a little more to his strengths

as an older player. How much can you really adjust for someone like Adoree Jackson? But you mentioned he's not terribly old. And that's where I would be somewhat interested if they feel like he's a fit. Jackson did play against them when the Vikings played the giants two years ago. Uh, so I mean, maybe he, he would be on the

list and we would all look up those numbers from last year and go, ah, oh my gosh, those are really bad. And it would be the same kind of swing as it was for someone like Dean Lowry or someone like Marcus Davenport. But every once in a while, those work out because cornerbacks are so contingent with their performance on what happens around them. Unless you're Sauce Gardner. Sauce Gardner is going to be great every year. But even Patrick Sertan last year did not have a great statistical season, not amazing. And his defense was really bad at the start of the year. They gave up 70 points in a game. That impacted him.

The scheme, the pass rush, the play calling from the defense, the teammates. Do you play across from Sauce Gardner, or do you play across from someone who's bad, and they attack that guy instead of you, so your numbers look better like there's so many things that go into that cornerback spot and the evaluation of those pff numbers that we have to go deeper than that and that's what the vikings are going to have to do with someone like adori jackson but the fact that he is under 30 years old as opposed to Steven Nelson, who is 31, or Patrick Peterson, 34 maybe. Stephon Gilmore, 34, feels favorable in comparison, but not if he's going to play like he did last year.

Mo says, do you think Cam Dantzler is a flyer for the Flores system as a camp tryout? That's a hard pass for me. I system as a try a camp tryout that's a hard pass for me i just don't think he could ever stay healthy they called him the needle when he came into the league because he was so slender the problem is that being that slender means usually you can't play here because there's just so much physicality to the league. And he struggled. I think that what they're going to look for is guys who are high IQ. And I don't mean that as an insult to Cam Dancer,

but I thought that he struggled with some of the details. I don't mean that as a person. I just mean as a football IQ player, was he as high as some other corners that succeed on that? Probably not. I think he struggled a lot with the details so i i don't see any reason to do that other than just we know him but we also know his injury history and that he's never really been he had a slight run there at the end of 2020 maybe where there were some moments but it wasn, it wasn't all that great sometimes, but he's a good example though, because he had some decent numbers. I think it was in 2020.

And I saw some people running with this idea that he was going to be, well, that's their big draft pick. He was going to be this guy because he's got the small, small sample size of numbers where he was pretty good. But that tells you about more about the numbers than it did about Cam Dantzler. Cause the very next season, when he got more opportunity, it fell off the face of the cliff. Uh, that that's not what you're looking for. It really he's talented, but he is not a durable. And I don't know if he's a good fit for forest. And if they brought him in, don't play him this, I guess, because I just don't see how it's a really good fit.

No Dak to many says the biggest priority a cornerback is finding someone to play outside to keep Murphy in the slot. I agree with that because the more you can play Murphy into the slot for one, that's where he likes to play more than outside. Statistically, he's been better in the slot, but also it gives you more options. If you have someone that you can reliably play in the nickel like Murphy, and it could be above average there. And Griffin could play man coverage outside. If you have someone else who could play man coverage now, Caleb Evans is going to have to be that guy.

But if you're going out to the free agent market and paying someone, then you're going to want them to play. So if it is a kill a witherspoon, he's going to have to come in and play. And then you move Murphy for some snaps into the nickel. And you feel that you've improved because you actually have a nickel corner as opposed to last year where they really didn't act like they had one. I mean, Makai Blackman was an outside corner. He didn't play nickel just because someone is short. Doesn't mean that they're a nickel corner. Uh, so Blackman only really played outside. Uh, Caleb Evans is not a nickel at all. Uh, he's a, he is a taller,

lankier, not the quick Twitch, a short bendy guy. You really don't have one if it's not Byron Murphy. So he's got to play that position in maybe it's second and 14 or something. And you just don't want Josh Metellus to be playing all the time when it comes to that nickel spot, because you'd prefer to have packages where you're going into passing situations maybe even if it isn't that much of an obvious one maybe it's just second and eight where teams pass 70 of the time so you put the nickel out there maybe move metellus at times and take harrison smith off the field it just gives you a lot of different things you could do if you have

to play murphy on the outside you don't feel like he's quite as strong there and then you just don't even have a nickel and it always has to be Josh Patelis it's just a lot to ask Michael says scene why can't they get him going what's the issue well it's not it doesn't come down to the team uh the coaches this really comes down to Lewis scene can't play in the NFL sadly this happens happens a lot actually with first round draft picks just because they were talented in college. It's kind of like high school. If you're the valedictorian of your high school, it doesn't necessarily mean you're going to get straight A's and go to Harvard or something.

It might just mean that you were good in high school and the environment is so much different in college. Making the academic comparison, it might be overwhelming for you. If you go to those 101 classes and they're way harder than it was in your little hometown, that's kind of how it is with this. I mean, that Georgia team that Louis seen played for was absurd. Everybody got drafted. They won the national championship. He could play a certain way in a certain system that didn't ask what Brian Flores or Ed Donatell system, because yeah, I mean, say what you will about Donatell, but those safeties, they have to read and react to the route combinations.

They have to play deep and they have to be aware and react quickly to what's going on in front of them. And then with Flores, again, you have to react quickly because you have to either come downhill or you're talking about being a part of a blitz package or dropping deep or showing something and then playing something else. It's intricate. And if you can't master all of the intricacies of a defense and you can't read and react, it doesn't matter what four do you run if you don't react fast. And this is the thing about play speed versus track speed

is the reaction time to your brain evaluating something and then making your body move that way in the NFL has to be lightning. It could be no hesitation. And from what I've seen, if you told me, if you told me, Hey, one of these guys out here in the secondary runs a four, three, seven, I'd be like, I don't really know. I wouldn't immediately spot Louis scene because he plays so slowly that I might be like, I'm Jay Ward, Theo Jackson. I don't know because play speed is what really matters. And that comes to identification. And I don't know for sure about the other stuff, the work ethic, is he showing up? But I thought it was maybe telling that Matt Daniels said last year when we asked

if lewis scene was taking another step or what he'd seen different and he said and he started with saying something about getting to the meetings on time and right there you go that shouldn't be something that gets brought up uh but it might just be you can't read and react and if you can't do that then you can't play here it also could be part of it that uh problem with the uh the leg but i don't think that was really it but it might be some of it though is if you don't have the same speed after that leg injury i just wouldn't make that excuse because he was struggling so much before it's nothing anybody did that's one of the hard things about this it's nothing anybody did okay would you have rather taken kyle hamilton now of

course you would and for the record i did not want them to trade back in that draft i wanted them to pick either you know one of the defensive tackle or to pick kyle, or probably I wanted Jameson Williams. I would guess I wanted a receiver who hasn't done a whole lot himself, but still you picked a guy who had an excellent athletic profile, who played in a great defense and played great for Georgia. Sometimes these things just don't work out. I even thought that about Laquan Treadwell, that we all talked about his 40 time. And yet Michael Thomas had a slow 40 and was great. Well, I don't know. One guy got drew breeze. One guy maybe understood football a little bit better, dedicated himself a little bit better. I don't know. Sometimes there's no easy answer and nobody

did anything wrong. The guy just couldn't do it. That's how it works. Some people drop out of college because they can't academically do it even though they were good in high school. That is life. Mo says, do you think that Seen has the athleticism to translate to corner? Seen can't even play special teams, man. He can't play anything.

He can't translate. You can't switch him to receiver, tight end, corner, linebacker, punter, anything. He can't play here. At least, at least that's my view on it. And no, I don't think somebody who's six foot three, uh, that doesn't have a natural bendiness to them or quick Twitch would be able to, well, he does have a little quick twitch, but not in the same way as a corner, a shiftiness as a corner. That doesn't make much sense to try to change that guy to a cornerback. It's athleticism in a different way. It's like a powerful, you know, taller, bigger athleticism, as opposed to a bendy. There's a reason you don't see six foot three, six foot four corners, because it's very hard to be bendy. There's a reason you don't see six foot three, six foot four corners,

because it's very hard to be bendy when you're that size. But you also have to read and react as a corner too, especially in Brian Flores' defense. Wayne says, at this point, Sam seems to have a better command of the huddle and reads, but time will tell. I mean, yeah, well, he's a veteran quarterback i don't know like command of the huddle is of course like of course i think that jj mccarthy has done a really good job though

of going into the off season and not just taking a vacation with his girlfriend and saying oh i'm sorry i think he's maybe is is he married yet? Maybe it's fiance. Sorry. If it's fiance, I apologize. People who are engaged really like saying the word fiance. So I apologize if he's engaged, but he didn't just say, Hey, I'm taking the wife to be off to, uh, you know, Australia for a couple of weeks. We're going to hang out and then I'll come back when I get here. He, he really wanted to dedicate himself to being locked in with this playbook. And it shows because when you talk about command of the huddle, we can see when the quarterback gets the call and he goes to the guys and they come out of the huddle and he looks around and what that all

looks like. And it looks, it looks fine for a JJ McCarthy right now. But of course, I mean, Sam Darnold has been in the league. He started 50, 60 games. Yeah. He's going to be more in control of all those things. As far as reads go, I would assume so that, that he's also locked in with those. It's really just a comfort that right now, Sam Darnold is back in his element, comfortable playing quarterback in the NFL because he's done it so many times and JJ McCarthy's still learning it. But those are the things that you're going to see more and more progress from him, I assume, because of the work ethic that he has. That's at least what he's shown us so far. And I have reason to believe that he will continue to progress. That's the progression we're going to be tracking along the way.

First name, last name. Is Naylor getting all of the wide receiver one, two reps on the second team? Is that a better sign of who the wide receiver three will be than someone who's mixing in with the one? So it's not a static thing. Is static the right word? It's not locked in where here are the first team everybody with the wide receivers here is the second team it's it used to be that way with mike zimmer it

used to be that way it made things very easy from the sideline but now there's a lot of oh hey wait sam darnold's out there with lucky Jackson and Tristan Jackson or things like that. You'll see every once in a while, just, well, let's get these receivers into a rep with the starting quarterback. And they're not making Justin Jefferson take every rep in shells or in shorts. Cause that would be silly to wear Justin Jefferson down. He's taken a lot of reps, but it's not out there for every single one. So there's rotations in, but to your question, when they run three receiver sets, you want to see Jalen Naylor in with Jefferson and Addison because they would be trying to simulate what they're really going to do when the season comes right now, they're just trying to figure out

rep allocation, who they kind of like, what they see from and who's going to have to prove it to him, that kind of thing. But you want him in there as the wide receiver three next to Jefferson and Addison, because that's what his job is going to be. And as of right now, he's been doing that quite a bit. And he'll also mix in with McCarthy as well. So he could play the other positions positions kind of think of it this way here is your job if you're wide receiver three in an 11 personnel here is your job if you have

to pretend to be Jordan Addison for a week well he's suspended maybe or if you have to be Justin Jefferson for a week if the quarterback tries to kill him and he has to go to the hospital like you're doing two different kind of things as jaylen naylor there uh in training camp but he's been that guy quite a bit through these first couple of weeks and that means at least from my perspective that he's got the lead on that spot uh all day says has van ginkle done any teamwork yes today and uh i believe he did a little on thursday but he was rotating in lots of rotating folks you're gonna hear that a lot but there was a lot of rotating when it came to uh the edge rushers so it was grenard and van ginkle and then it was

and van ginkle was on one side and then he was on the other side. Dallas Turner, Patrick Jones was in there. They are going to keep doing the Patrick Jones thing, it seems. And maybe this will be the year that he's a little bit better. I saw Jihad Ward out there for a couple snaps. I saw Andre Carter out there for a few snaps. Owen Porter was with the second team. A lot of people got reps, but Van Ginkle did work in. No real concern about his injury with the fact that he started right at the beginning of camp

and now seems to be coming along. Steve says the red zone passes for JJ were impressive. I think three of them were outs to the left, which is something he struggled with in college. I guess people are videoing practice, huh? Must be that they must be tweeting out videos from the stands. Is that how you saw them, I imagine? So does that mean his mechanics are getting better? Well, I don't know. It's one drill. It was probably six passes. I don't think that that proves that his mechanics are getting better, but there was a good breakdown from Wes Phillips of what mechanics really are, which is if you understand the design of each one of the plays and you do

it correctly with the footwork and the timing, then the mechanics fit into place easier. So if someone is supposed to run an out route at whatever they start at the 10 yard line so back of the goal line out route and your drop is supposed to be five steps hitch and throw or whatever it might be i'm just making stuff up then if you get that right it will look better more likely than not, unless you're doing something really wild with your arm. JP, can we swing a trade of scene for some developmental corner that another team doesn't need?

Anything at all for scene at this point? Nope. Same way with Treadwell. I used to get that question all the time with Laquan Treadwell. Hey, can Laquan Treadwell be traded for a starting guard? No, probably not. I suppose I shouldn't completely dismiss it. I suppose it is plausible that if you were talking about our junk for your junk, our guy we don't want to play for your guy you don't want to play, then it's a nice swap. But is there a team that has a corner that they don't like, probably for a reason, that they want to give you that you might like? That would be a hard needle to thread. Kenny Wongwu running back three?

I guess so, yeah, I suppose. He's been getting a decent amount of reps. Miles Gaskin. I mean, the fact that they didn't add Cam Akers means that Kenny Wongwu, I suppose, would be wide receiver. Or I'm sorry, not wide receiver. RB3. Yeah. But maybe it's Miles Gaskin because he has more experience as a runner.

After the starting two, it really drifts off really drifts off i would say uh robert wood kyle says robert woods adam thielen cut candidate uh probably not maybe robert woods said not adam thielen they want their quarterback to succeed they're going to keep a receiver who catches the ball that's for sure. I don't see any reason that Carolina would get rid of Adam Thielen at this point. Robert Woods, I guess so. I would probably at this point rather just have Jalen Naylor than Robert Woods, but maybe O'Connell has some familiarity with him. I don't know if he was out in LA when Robert Woods was there. He may or may not have been. I want to say he was because I think Robert Woods tore his ACL or got hurt during the 2021

season. So he might, he might have familiarity with him if he gets cut, but why, why would Houston reduce the number of players that are veterans and can play. Wouldn't they want more of those? I suppose he will make the cut candidate lists. Conrad, following the rules from last night. So I, last night throughout there, you have to tell me where stuff came from. If you're saying someone else said something, you have to tell me where or give me a level of credibility.

Another podcaster said that Darnold has been very questionable at short intermediate routes so far. I know it's very early, but do you agree with this assessment? Not really. I mean, the wild throws have been the deep passes, but I haven't felt like he's spraying the ball all over the place when it comes to the short stuff. I mean, well, short, I don't know. What are we talking like three yard passes or check downs? I'm not really going to look too closely at that.

What I know from Sam Darnold's data, I looked at this closely the other day was that in 2021, when they just had a horrible team, his intermediate passing was terrible. But then in 2022, when he had more help more play action a little more from the receiver standpoint uh that he was much better at throwing from an intermediate perspective but he's never been insanely accurate he is under 50 or 60 completion percentage which tells you this is not the most accurate quarterback and i know completion percentage is not a perfect metric, but to not even get to 60%, uh, I have not felt like it's been a struggle for Sam Darnold on those intermediate routes, but it is also, you mentioned it, it is early. How many reps are we talking where he's had a chance to just drop back and throw something. There was a one today

that maybe he threw a little bit early for Justin Jefferson. I guess when you say it has been very questionable, that makes me think that's too far. It hasn't stood out to me as being amazing or bad. It just sort of is what it is. And then the wow throws have been really impressive. We just need more when it comes to that sort of stuff. The intermediate routes are a big deal, though, and that's where this team has a lot of success

and there was one that is standing out for sure in my mind where the throw was either a little bit off on the timing or a little bit out in front of justin jefferson that would have gotten him smacked in the face if it was the real game. Or I guess maybe Jefferson might have done some Matrix stuff and caught it anyway. Let's see. Let me keep scrolling here a little bit. Joel says, anyone that you've noticed from the later rounds are undrafted players that have been running with the twos. Almost everybody has been running with the twos.

That was my point, is that there's just been a lot of guys who were mixing in. Let me call up, uh, let me call up my notes here from today and tell you about some of the guys that I did notice going. I mean, Owen Porter was one of them that I am curious about undrafted free agent guy who was running with the twos. As you mentioned, Dwight McClother is going to get a lot of action. Uh, i saw malik knolls leave the field by the way i didn't mention that second year guy receiver uh but he mentioned he he left the field early i don't know that i saw him come back uh levi drake rodriguez getting a lot of work on the interior gotta i apologize for continuing going back today gotta put on the pads but i mean for to, they got to put on the pads, but I mean,

for defensive tackles, they got to put on the pads. Jaqueline Roy getting quite a bit. That wasn't your question. He's from last year. Um, let me see. Didn't notice too many more guys that are either undrafted or rookie players getting a lot of work. Those were a couple of them though.

A couple of guys though a couple of guys that were mixing in um but usually that's how it works with the second team is that you'll see a rep and somebody's in there for one play and then they come out somebody else comes in but owen porter i did notice uh getting a few reps there and kind of stood out a little bit to me at the start so that could be someone to keep an eye on uh as a rusher potentially uh conrad said at the rate that our cornerbacks have been dropping seen in booth will be our starters by the beginning of the season that could be that could be conrad i yeah i mean if they you know you you go from the acl tear then to shack griffin going down the very next day and even missing a few practices.

Like what, who is going to play here? Travis says, Marcus Peters, anybody is Marcus Peters still out there. I mean, is he, does he want to play?

How old is he now? Anybody have the stomach for Eli Apple? Why is it that Eli Apple's numbers over his career would kind of make you shrug. He doesn't look like someone that is good or awful, but everyone seems to dislike Eli Apple. Did he talk a bunch of junk at the beginning of his career? I haven't really followed any Eli Apple storylines.

I remember him being beaten a couple of times by the Vikings when he played for the saints uh loaded guitar says if nailer stays healthy the entire season will have the best receiving core in the nfc the san francisco 49ers with their tight end and receivers would have a discussion about that the chicago bears if roma dunze is good would have a discussion about that but if you talk about getting TJ Hawkinson back and Naylor starts the entire season then yeah they would have that potential but we can't say much about Naylor yet until he actually plays or at least you know does well in pads and gives some confidence to the idea

that he could be paired with Addison and Jefferson. Right now, I wouldn't be shocked to see a lot of two tight ends. I shot you 99. Have you seen anything interesting regarding the kickoff rules? Now, we were having this discussion in the media room. Will we see anything regarding the kickoff in training camp? Because we have not seen a single rep of the kickoff in training camp because we have not seen a single rep of the kickoff and I suspect they are doing a lot of it through their walkthroughs which is before we get

there and Kevin O'Connell said today that he thinks there's going to be a lot of returns as teams experiment but I'm starting to wonder if Matt Daniels has some stuff up his sleeve and does not want anybody, no fans out there, nobody watching what they're doing to see this is how they're going to approach it. This is how they're going to block it up. This is what they're going to do. And they might be totally doing it through walkthroughs or wait until after fans aren't there anymore and they can film from the stands or whatever. So nothing, absolutely nothing from the kickoffs. Probably the first time I see it will be in a preseason game and that'll be the first time you see it. And I can't wait to talk about it. I am so interested. Ken says, how do you think B flow will handle this thin cornerback room? If we can't get more quality

players the same way he did last year, if we think about where they were last year, it was Jawan Williams in camp. It was a rookie Mackay Blackman. It was Byron Murphy. It was a Caleb Evans, not a whole lot of difference from what they had last year there plus Shaq Griffin. But he kind of takes the spot of Makai Blackman from last season I mean it's going to have to be the same they run a lot of attempts of confusing coverages blitzes anything to just surprise the opponent and when they play good teams they will probably get smoked by the good wide receivers because you have to be able to cover them. And at the moment they can't cover them. Uh, loaded guitars says what's more important

next year, DT or corner. The answer is yes. Yes, it is both of them. Uh, defensive tackle is in my opinion, a more reliable position to draft. If you draft a freak, you got a pretty good chance that that freak will do freaky things. If you draft a corner in the first round, it can be very mixed. There can be longer development curves. Some of the best college corners I've ever seen have not worked out. Like Jeff Okuda was unbelievable in college, thought he was an absolute beast. It is more like the NFL to play defensive tackle in college than it is to play corner that it's a more complex position but the talent is so much different and it is different in defensive tackle but the job is the same which getting after

the passer is the same I feel like edge rushers are fairly predictable from college to the NFL if you're unreal and you get drafted at the top, you're usually pretty good. Whereas corners, I think it's more of a wild card because they can be physically dominant and just beat receivers that way and not be technically proficient. But I think if you're physically dominated defensive tackle in college, the guards are better in the NFL, but they're also still suspect in the NFL and you can beat them. I think it's safer to pick a defensive tackle, but the other thing is how do you find a top-notch corner? Otherwise you usually have to draft them in the first round. They need both. They're going to have one pick. It's going to be pretty high and the rest has to

come from free agency. There might be more defensive tackles available in free agency than corners. It might be a safer bet in free agency to go defensive tackle, but that's next offseason. It's a long way away, my friend. Gerard, if Marcus Peters was drafted instead of Trey Waynes in 17, the 17 defense would have been even more dominant lockdown corner on one side of the ball,

ball hawk on the other. Trey Waynes played well that season that was really his only good season but he did play quite well I mean I remember quite a few throws down the sideline that he was able to knock away he was very tight in coverage and what he never got credit for was as a tackler I don't think it's a guarantee that they're a better defense that year for one, how much more dominant can you ask for when they were number one in the run, number one in the pass. And I want to say number one in the red zone is just everything across the board. They were the best defense in football. Marcus Peters took a lot more risks than Trey Waynes and Waynes was a really good tackler. They would try to funnel things to the outside for

Trey Waynes to be there and Harrison Smith to make tackles. I don't think that Waynes had a better career, but he was a really good fit for that defense. I'm not sure that that really is the better choice for a guy who is when you're a ball hawk and you take a lot of risks, ball hawking, that can also mean a lot of mistakes as well. Uh, do you think, uh, Travis says, do you think they are still committed to developing Jaron Hall or does the addition of the new shinier young quarterback? Well, it's not just that he's shinier. It's that he is five rounds higher and uh or does that count as four rounds higher doesn't matter no no they're not i mean yes but no like yes as in okay if jaron hall could become the nick mullins as a backup that they like they will need a backup for the future. Sam Darnold's not staying here as a backup, even if it doesn't work out. And Nick Mullins might not be here long-term either.

They like Nick Mullins, but there's not somebody that you can really put into the game. If they felt great about Jaron Hall, then yeah, he could be somebody who became a backup. But even then with JJ McCarthy, they're not going to have Jaron Hall as his only backup next season. They're going to get a veteran or just keep Nick Mullins because it's weird to say, but if you compare Nick Mullins statistically to a lot of backup quarterbacks, he's just as good or better than most of the journeyman backup quarterbacks you're going to find. Hall is going to be here for his rookie contract. We'll probably get cut and put on the practice squad. They drafted him because they like him. I think he's a high class person that works very hard at it. He looks like he's ready anytime he

gets a rep, but they're not developing him. No one is putting any time into Jaron Hall. No one. They are putting all of their efforts into the franchise quarterback, JJ McCarthy. And that is just the way it is. Oh, the I'm sorry. Let's see. What were we talking about? Conrad sort. Oh, I'm sorry. The microphone was getting a little staticky. I apologize for that. That might be, I might be touching something over here. That's causing that. I apologize. Thanks for letting me know that that was a problem. Okay. Uh, let me continue to scroll back. Oh, what you were talking about, uh, was it the Sam Darnold intermediate stuff? Uh, was that what you were talking about as far as the podcaster goes? Well, yeah, I mean, Sam Darnold intermediate stuff? Uh, was that what you were talking about as far as the podcaster goes? Well,

yeah, I mean, Sam Darnold career wise, short and intermediate has not been precise for his career for this training camp so far. I think it's been mostly fine. Um, uh, Oh gosh, as Eli Apple had his mom go with him to his rookie training camp. Well, it wasn't a broadcaster or something. There has been other stories of families that have bought a camper and put it or, or rented hotels or a house in town with their young athlete,

maybe a little too much of that. But I get, I get what you're saying. He had a career though in the league. He wasn't a spectacular player, but he had a career. Daniel says, is the kicking competition worth mentioning? No, it is not. Will Reichardt's job is solidified.

He would have to get hurt for John Parker Romo to get a chance. They should probably cut John Parker Romo tomorrow. It's just Will Reichardt is very, very talented, and John Parker Romo is not winning the job. Maybe they keep one on the practice squad when they give you 57 practice squad positions, then maybe, you know, maybe that's fine. Uh, I shot you 99. Are you seeing increased success of wide receiver group due to the cornerbacks? No, the guys who are playing corner just can't do anything yet. I think that's why, but Byron Murphy's a pretty solid NFL corner. Caleb Evans

is talented. I don't think it's that reason alone. Andrew Booth Jr. is talented, but they're not going up against Rod Woodson and Daryl Green. That's for sure. So maybe a little bit of it is when it comes to someone like Jalen Naylor. Yeah, I guess so. It could be a bit. It's more just the fact that you can't play physically yet. But certainly this cornerback group is not going to just eliminate all the Vikings wide receivers. Ken says the trenches are so well developed in college especially most of the power five programs definitely much more comparable yeah i agree with that i think it's it's usually a safer pick um uh dawad says i'm sorry if that's wrong about how you pronounce your name go get burnt berry from the eagles for a fourth and the fifth is he on the uh is he on the list

uh is he potentially tradable they're gonna have to look at everybody that's the reality they're just gonna have to look at everybody that they possibly can because there's no other way to go about it this team is very short on corners and i think all we learned today was they are aware of that and they know they're going to bring someone in. So it's just a matter of, are you going to bring someone in that's younger with potential, or you're going to bring someone in that maybe you have already seen be a proven corner in the league, but is a little on the older side. This isn't an easy decision for, for them. Well, anyway, that's kind of all we got for tonight. As far as question wise, you guys dropped in some really good ones, some great feedback on the corners and good discussion

as always. So tomorrow is off, but there will be a video of myself and Alec Lewis and our conversation out at TCO Performance Center, where did overconfidence. Because we had the first little section of padless practice, what can we take away way over confidently? It was a fun conversation. Make sure you go check that out or look for that tomorrow. It'll be out on the channel. And then we'll go from there. And then it's back to every single night that they practice,

we will do a live chat on YouTube, seven o'clock central. I will be here, which means that you need to be here as well. Like, subscribe. And hey, by the way, if you want to see my written work, I've got a lot of features and analysis coming out on the written side. Go over to purpleinsider.com, click the articles over there, sign up for the newsletter. If you, I get this question sometimes from people who listen. Hey, how can I support the channel? Kind of in the same way that people will... What is it?

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