Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Vikings QB reports everywhere; Vikings targets stand out in Indy

Episode Date: March 3, 2025

Matthew Coller talks about the latest reports on Sam Darnold and players who shined and struggled at the Combine Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hey everybody, welcome to another episode of purple insider Matthew collar here and the NFL combine is officially in the books. So we've got a lot to talk about, including a lot of players that are in Vikings positions of need that stood out and some that were actually surprisingly disappointing. We'll get into the whole list that I've made of the guys that you're gonna need to know, I think coming out of this NFL combine. And then of course we've got rumors

and we're basically on a countdown clock now. We are looking at maybe 36 hours or so before we find out whether Sam Darnold is going to be franchise tagged or not. And this is a week where every NFL insider and their friends are all in Indianapolis. Myself, I was there earlier in the week, the other Vikings reporters, and we all have a goal and that goal was to figure out what is going on with the Vikings at quarterback.

So my conclusion from my reporting on the week was that the chances that Sam Darnold remains a Minnesota Viking are very, very low because JJ McCarthy's status in his recovery is good and Kevin O'Connell going out of his way to tell us multiple times how much JJ McCarthy is going to be ready to go and how his recovery is coming along. Certainly makes you think that there would be no reason to have anybody else except for possibly a Daniel Jones, but he's being connected to a bunch of teams now as well. So we'll see what they decide to do at that position.

And that was my big takeaway there was if Kevin O'Connell had come out and said to us, hey guys, McCarthy's young, he's coming along, he's got this injury that he's recovering from and we're not really sure where he's at. If there was any sort of hesitation there that I would have thought, all right, maybe it's 50-50. Maybe they're trying to work on a last minute deal.

Maybe they're going to transition tag and whatever. But there was none of that. So my big takeaway there was J.J. McCarthy is the future Vikings quarterback. More likely than not, it would be shocking if Sam Darnold returned at this point based on the way that they were talking about Sam Darnold and McCarthy at the combine. So that takes us then to the next level. If we've checked that box, which was by far my

biggest concern about JJ McCarthy, where's he going to stand with his recovery? And then we're told at the combine that he's up over 200 pounds, which now we're talking about a lot of time for him to continue to grow back into the shape that he was in previously by the time he started training camp next year. He's got all summer and all that. Okay. Uh, it doesn't seem they're worried about where he's going to stand with the

offense since he was treated as the QB one behind the scenes this year, meeting with Kevin O'Connell, preparing like he was going to be the guy they spent last season behind the scenes, trying to make sure that when it was JJ McCarthy time, that he would be ready. So all that stuff again, checks that box. All right. We know, or at least we think we know that they're going to move on from Darnold, which takes us to the next natural step and if they Franchise tag and keep Darnold or sign them to an extension Well, I guess I read the room wrong, but it seemed to be pretty straightforward

With where they stand so the next natural step is what everyone is trying to find out which is Will Sam Darnold be franchise tagged? find out, which is will Sam Darnold be franchise tagged? We will know this by Tuesday afternoon and you betcha there will be an emergency podcast that happens as soon as we get the answer to whether Sam Darnold is franchise or not. I have spent the entire lead up to this moment of the opinion that somebody has got to get desperate, right? Somebody, some team has got to say, we don't want to leave it to chance with Sam Darnold. We want to run to the front of the line and say,

here, we will pay a third round draft pick to get in early. Think about it like if you're in the Twin Cities, you can drive in that one lane, that's the carpool lane, but if you pay extra, you get to be in in that lane and that's probably worth it, right if you're Dealing with traffic every morning then you want to pay to be in that lane well this works the same way if you're a team that's desperate for a quarterback and You don't want to fight it out with all these other teams

Then you can skip the line and you can go up to the front and say, I will pay you a draft pick. You will give me the Darnold and then I have my quarterback, but there's only a limited number of teams that would be able to do that. I mean, draft capital and cap space are a major issue when it comes to the franchise tag, the Raiders have always made the most sense for this because they have a ton of cap space and they have an extra third round draft pick, put two and two together, also Chip Kelly, the offensive coordinator,

Kevin O'Connell worked for him in 2016 and they have a relationship. And I've heard some people say, well, our team's gonna be afraid of Darnold because KOC pumped up his stats and made him a better quarterback. And I guess what I would say is, do you think Chip Kelly thinks, Oh, I could never do what Kevin O'Connell can do.

Like, of course, Chip Kelly doesn't think that every coach is going to have the ego where they believe that they can do the same thing with Darnold that Kevin O'Connell was able to do if they just get him in there building their system. And they might be right because Darnold has now been a good quarterback in the NFL since 2022. If you look at those stats, he's got a 99.5 quarterback rating. He's 18 and six since 2022. So the sample has grown of him playing good quarterback. And to me, that's enough to say along with the other potential options, there's talk of teams trying to trade up to number one. There's so much desperation around the league.

Russell Wilson is probably the next best veteran option. It's not even clear what Atlanta is doing with Kirk cousins, but I'm sure they're just going to end up cutting him. And then there's the Aaron Rodgers thing where Brian Dable in New York, are you willing to sell your soul to Aaron Rodgers and let him take over your franchise? I mean, maybe they are, maybe they're that desperate, but I don't know if I would really wanna do that.

If I would wanna go down with the ship, having given Aaron Rodgers the key to the franchise and let him determine my fate. I don't know if Brian Dable wants to do that or not. So for my money, Sam Darnold on the franchise tag or Sam Darnold traded on the tag and then signing an extension with the team is a good outcome for everybody.

The Vikings would get an immediate draft pick. Darnold goes to a team where he can be the guy. He can work out an extension there or he just gets $41 million in cash to play this year and then gets another chance at free agency. There have been some talks of holdups like maybe Darnold wouldn't sign the franchise tag. And my thing is if they tag him,

then they know everybody's on board because they've met with his agent at the combine. And I'm sure they've had this conversation. The other part is when it comes to not signing the franchise tag, what is he gonna do? Hold out? I mean, if they are already set to move on to JJ McCarthy, he's gonna not sign

and then just sit there? Is that what he's gonna do? Of course he's gonna sign it. And of course he's going to accept a deal to another team where he can be the guy and where he could play even if it's not his absolute ideal scenario. He could throw a wrench in their spokes by delaying signing it just to screw them over. But again, what good does that do that?

I mean, that seems to me like that's an empty threat because that doesn't do anybody any good. It doesn't do darn old good. It doesn't do the situation for anybody any better. The Vikings would still be able to sign people. They would just delay those signings for when they wrap them up or they would just do it differently. I mean, if it's over, it's over, right? And everybody needs to accept it and move on. The question is just whether someone's going to do it or if they all think, look, he'll just hit free agency and the best man wins.

And then there's other teams that are getting thrown into this mix and there's different reports that are coming out. So Jeremy Fowler of ESPN reported that he did not hear much interest in a tag and trade. Now, of course, if you're talking to other teams about it, I think that they would want to say, well, no, no, we'll just wait till he gets the free agency because why say out loud to anyone, yeah, actually we want to give up a draft pick

to run to the front of the line. And yes, Tony, they can rescind the franchise tag if it's not signed. So I guess that that could happen. But again, this is where the Vikings are, the communication franchise. They're the Vikings are, the communication franchise. They're the everybody on the same page franchise. Like this is what they do.

They handle these situations in the right way. That's why you get a Justin Jefferson contract way before training camp, because they stayed in communication with his side and they got it worked out. That's why we've dealt with very little drama. I mean, TJ Hockinson missed a couple practices because he had an inner earache or whatever it was,

and then they got that result pretty quickly. Christian Derisaw signed way early. How much contract drama have we had since this group took over? Almost none, right? So if they franchise tag him, that means everybody's on the same page and it also means way more likely than not that they have a suitor to trade him too so on tuesday

at four o'clock with the deadline if you see the tweet from adam schafter the vikings of franchise tag sam darnold i would expect that it's not too long after that, that we see and they have decided to trade him to the Las Vegas Raiders or whatever team. And this is where it gets really funky of everybody running around trying to find out what their teams want to do, which by the way, teams usually don't tell people. It's just my yearly reminder with the combine, with the draft, that teams do not go telling reporters what they're going to do. It does not happen. And so when you see the, well, I'm hearing this team is high on that guy or this team likes this quarterback or this team, let's just all remember that Will Levis was supposed to be a top five pick and went in the

second round or Malik was, was mocked top five pick and went in the second round or Malik was was mocked number two overall and went in the third round. Again, if you tell people what you're doing on the outside, you get fired in the NFL. So it's not surprising that all of these sources are kind of conflicting where you have one reporter with the Raiders saying that they're not interested in Darnold at all. And then you have Schefter saying that, no, he's on the list of players that they are interested in after failing to get Matthew Stafford. And then we get two different reports from the same draft guy who says that they are interested in trading for him.

And then he says that they're not interested in trading for him on the tag. And then you just go on what's going on here. And maybe even there's some scenario where the Vikings could extend him and trade him or assign and trade or so, I don't know. It sounds to me like we're not all very sure about what's going on. That's really how it's feeling right now

that we're all just going to have to wait and see what they do. And the scenarios are really one or the other. They franchise tag him and trade them away, and then they get a draft pick this year, or he leaves and they get a comp pick for next year that they hope will end up being a comp pick depending on how much they do this off season.

And then there's that whole formula that I hate getting into and all of that. But more likely than not, you're still talking about getting a third round comp pick. And whether you get it this year or that next year, we all have to go back and look at the Sam Darnold situation and say, it's a heck of a move. It's a heck of a move to pay a guy $10 million to come in and win 14 games and have a really fun and exciting season for a team that was expected to win seven.

And then he leaves and you get some sort of draft capital back for him, the top end of the comp pick or someone trades for him. And then you move on to the guy that you drafted to be your franchise quarterback. And the fact that they are confident enough to do it, we need to talk about that for a second that when this happens, I think one of my big takes is, like this is really something that they're going to be confident enough to do this because I was just talking with Brian Murphy today,

contributor to the show, and we were talking about how this has happened now several times in Vikings history where a quarterback has a great season. And then the team says, all right, onto the next guy. Jeff George in 1999 had an awesome year, got him a playoff win. And then they moved on to Dante Culpepper. That will be just like this really.

And it's funny because when we were talking about, uh, just to how like the darn old season could play out, I remember in training camp and I kept saying like maybe it'll be a Jeff George thing and it's almost exactly a Jeff George thing Except for darn old started the entire way, but Dante didn't play that first year And then he comes in in 2000 and plays great and that's what they're hoping for They made the right decision by moving on from Jeff George. And then you have the Case Keenum situation again, which is pretty wild for him to win 13 games and then the Vikings to say, yeah, you know, that's fine, but we're just going to move on and we're going to get Kirk Cousins, which Kirk Cousins played a heck of a lot better than Case Keenum after that and sort of showed that Keenum was the one year wonder

that they thought he was. But again, 13 wins and an NFC championship appearance and the Vikings said, thanks for the memories case Kenam Minneapolis miracle forever. We'll see you later. And now they're doing the same thing. 14 wins will always have the time that he carry it was carried off on the shoulders. This is again, unless I am reading the room very wrong

from what I heard at the combine and you never know. Maybe we're getting some sort of end around and they're bringing back Darnold. But at this point, I'd be very shocked by that. I don't think you come out and say how well JJ McCarthy is coming along physically and how much you love him and how great he was last year unless you're signaling,

Hey, it's okay that we're moving on from this guy, but it's so unique for this to happen. I mean, you think around the league, just go for other quarterbacks that have had a good season or two, and then they get huge extensions. They think about, I mean, even Brock Purdy has had essentially one good season and the 49ers have come out and said, yeah, we're going to keep them. We're going to sign our guy. Uh, Tua had what? Two good seasons.

And then he gets the same treatment. Justin Herbert maybe had one or two and he gets this huge extension without what? No playoff wins, right? Trevor Lawrence. I'm not sure Trevor Lawrence has had a good season yet in the NFL, but he gets that one playoff win and what I am forever going to think about is how those two games have shaped the future. If this happens, if they move on by Tuesday, they franchise

tag and trade or if there's no franchise tag, then they're not resigning him to an extension is just not going to happen. They're not going. He would not agree as a free agent to come back to a situation where the head coach is always looking at the other kid drooling, right? That's just not going to happen. He's going to go somewhere where he could be the guy if he hits free agency. So if Tuesday, if it ends and it's over, it's going to be like, wow, those two games

completely changed biking's history going forward. Because if he wins a playoff game, it would be so much harder to move on. Kind of like in 2019 where Kurt cousins want to play off game. There was a big discussion about whether to extend him. They decided to do the extension. And then the rest is history there. One of the biggest mistakes that they could have made was doing an extension

while trying to rebuild and they weren't able to do it. And that cost them dearly a couple of years. That was the year they could have drafted Jaylen Hertz, that kind of thing. So this time around, it probably is the right thing to move on to JJ McCarthy, because what this does is it puts them in that position to truly try to chase being a championship caliber roster. And all of you know how it went with Kirk Cousins. There was some limitations there. I think Darnold's a much physically more gifted player, a much better playmaker, but we saw ultimately

that there are limitations. I think they could still compete for the NFC North with Sam Darnold if he played the way that he did this year and improved and all those things, but it does make it a lot harder. It does make it a lot harder with the salary cap to be able to spend not just this year, but multiple years in a row with JJ McCarthy. So maybe you get a couple of free agents this year and you have a really good season with McCarthy, you can do it again and you can do it again. And the way that they've structured some of these contracts

that can be restructured and things like that, they are going to have multiple years of shots at building a Philadelphia Eagles like roster that everyone's chasing. And this was Quasiad at awful Mensa's goal from the start when he got here, which was he wanted to move on to the rookie contract and he wanted to have all the cap flexibility and they went through a lot of growing pains to get there, which was moving on from veteran players that everybody loved taking a step back in 2023

knowing that they needed to and it all set up for JJ McCarthy to be their quarterback. So if they do execute this, this is why the franchise tag and trade thing, there's no doubt about it. You would vastly prefer that the Vikings got a second round pick. I mean, that would be great if they got a second round pick, then you're now like, well, I'm going to talk about some of the, uh, some of the guys in the combine that really stood out to me. And there was a lot at the Vikings position of need. Uh, I was writing my article just with 10 different players that stood out and I had to whittle it down to 10 because there were a lot more than that at those positions.

So you're looking for more draft capital and you're looking for it now because they don't have a lot of players that are on those rookie contracts where they can also have that extra amount of surplus value. So if Dallas Turner works out, that'd be one. Jordan Addison is giving them play right now that would probably be worth close to $20 million a year, and he's doing it on the rookie contract. Like those are good things, you need more of that.

You need more of that. So they need to hit on this pick. They need to get more draft picks. And if they were to get a second, it would be incredible. If they were to get a third, that's pretty decent in a deep draft, I think, which doesn't have the highest, highest end, but has a lot in the middle from what I'm observing

so far from this draft and reading the draft analysts, it feels like if you're drafting a bunch of times in the back end of the first to the third, that you should be able to get a lot of good prospects. And even through the day three, that there could be some really good players there. So it would be much, much, much better if the Vikings were able to pull off the tag and trade.

But if they can't, that's the breaks. That just means that other teams weren't willing to do it. And then they're still on point with where they set out to go. Where they set out to go was to get to JJ McCarthy in 2025 with a bunch of money on a team that had foundational pieces and was ready to go. And that's where they're going to land one way or another. We're just gonna find out how they get there. So there's where we stand on Sam Darnold,

which I think is absolutely no place new from where we stand on Sam Darnold, which I think is absolutely no place new from where we started, other than my opinion has been moved pretty significantly from, hey, I could see a world where they're concerned about his recovery and they want to get Darnold back on that franchise tag or maybe work out a short-term deal for him to that seems almost impossible now at this point for them to do and McCarthy is gonna be the guy that they go with which I think also speaks to how good McCarthy was last year in camp and His attitude his character is his makeup all those things that he was drafted for But you never really know it's he get a guy in the building and when he's in the building every day

And that's why I always said, I just need more information before I can really have a good sense for this. And I felt like I got that information at the NFL combine. And that means that KOC is still just as high on McCarthy and his work ethic and all that. And it also means that they feel good about his recovery. So those are, those are major boxes to check, assuming that this goes the way that I think it's going to go. Big time W for the Minnesota Vikings, if that's the case,

because this was the guy that they wanted to be their franchise quarterback. So there's that. Now, as far as the combine went, I thought one of the most interesting things about it was that the positions of need for the Vikings, I think we can all agree it's a very clear list. The Vikings need defensive tackle, interior offensive line, cornerback and running back.

I think there's other things that you can make arguments for when it comes to, you know, hey, they could use a later round slot receiver. Who's a playmaker? Maybe they could use I don't know a Safety, I don't want to even say safety out loud because I know what happened the last time they drafted a safety But you know, it's true that if Harrison Smith decides to retire. It's another potential Emergency podcast that could be coming soon, but they might need a safety. Those are things that I'm not looking at quite as much as far as the Vikings drafting.

I think it's a pretty clear big four of positions. And having watched the NFL network coverage, like the rest of you, I came back from the combine. I watched the coverage here, so I could listen to Daniel Jeremiah, watch it play out from a better view than I would have at Lucas Oil Stadium. And my big takeaway was at those positions, there are a lot of options. I mean, I know that this was kind of the feeling going in,

but I'll tell you the position that really changed my mind was the guard position. Actually going into the draft, I thought for at least from just trying to read the tea leaves here, there's probably one first round caliber offensive lineman on the interior. There's a bunch of good tackles, but on the interior is probably one guy. That's how I felt going in. Then Tyler Booker, who's supposed to be that guy, did not have a very good combine.

Now that doesn't mean everything. Orlando Brown a few years ago. Remember he dropped to the third round because he had very good combine. Now that doesn't mean everything. Orlando Brown a few years ago, remember he dropped to the third round because he had this horrible combine and he ended up being a really good starting tackle for what, a Super Bowl winning team, another team with the Ravens that was good for a long time. So you can't always take the,

oh man, the guy had a bad combine, so throw him out. There was a tight end for Texas, who snapped his ankle, or rolled it, sprained his ankle right before he did his 40, and then he runs a horrible 40, and it's like, wait, is that guy just a terrible athlete? No, he was running it with a sprained ankle on a false start.

So some of these things you just never know. I think Orlando Brown said he was nervous, which I guess happens, right and So you can't judge all of it But Tyler Booker was probably the biggest disappointment for players that I was looking at of all of the players at the combine I mean it was a bad performance and that's not what a guard is gonna do necessarily I mean, he's a huge guard and he's going to just push dudes going forward.

But when it comes to movement, I mean, you want, if you're running gap schemes, you want to be able to have that guy swinging around your, you want flexibility and movement. So Tyler Booker, I think it's very possible that he does drop because of this. And he isn't really necessarily a guy the Vikings look at because his athleticism is a lot worse In the Underwear Olympics, then it actually looked maybe on tape I don't know that the way it's always been said to me is that it's about confirming

Something that they think so alright We want to know that this guy is a good enough athlete to run all this stuff because on tape It looks like he is well if he has a horrendous Combine which I thought it was for Tyler Booker that might give you pause and say well I don't know if we could draft that guy in the first round. So we're Booker struggled though a Bunch of other guys were good Tate Rattlage the guard from Georgia Really stood out.

He was absolutely fantastic and also has an incredible mullet as well. But I wonder how much he changed his fate because he ran under five seconds and the dude was absolutely motoring. He was already considering a, or considered a pretty good prospect that might go in the mid second round or something.

Now I wonder after seeing this with his pure athleticism came from a great program if he will go a little bit higher. Some of the guys who are supposed to be tackles were also interesting as well. That would be like Kelvin Banks, who I think he said he's open to playing guard. And the other guy was Donovan Jackson. Donovan Jackson didn't run the 40, I don't think, the Ohio State Guard, who's also played tackle. But when he did his movement drills, and this is how you know it's good, I follow on social media a bunch of offensive linemen

because you know, they're the smart guys in football. When I saw the other offensive linemen tweeting about Donovan Jackson and showing how great his combine workouts were his drills. I was like, okay, I've got it on my radar. Donovan Jackson, because these guys know what they're looking for. Those drills were really, really something to watch for Donovan Jackson from Ohio State. Gray Zable, another guy that didn't do a ton of the drills. I don't think he ran the 40, but he crushed the ones that he did.

And he was one of the top performers. Also in terms of weight, he came in at, I think three 20 something. So an absolutely mammoth guy who should be moved to guard, uh, at least that's the expectation. I mean, that could be another one. That's a first rounder. So the guards had a good day. I felt like, uh, also the running backs yesterday had a phenomenal phenomenal day. They really showed out. I've got some of the numbers here for the relative athletic scores.

And also the NFL is putting out an athleticism score, which is one to a hundred and Trevion Henderson got a 92 on that and a 9.45 out of 10 on relative athletic score. So 94th percentile, we're talking about Trevion Henderson is an absolutely elite talent. And also Quincheon Judkins, the other Ohio state running back got a 92 and a 9.88 amazing numbers. Oh, Marion Hampton crushed it 85, but his size pretty impressive. And then his relative athletic score was 9.61.

So, I mean, we're talking about awesome, awesome running back prospects. And then some other guys did well too, uh, in that range, RJ Harvey, who I've got the eye on cam scatabow jumped almost 40 inches, which shows his, uh, athleticism there. I mean, it's yeah, I got got to check on Gray Zabel's weight. Let me see if I can find what his weight was because I want to have that right. But I thought he weighed in really well.

And I know that's funny, right? There was a hilarious, call it a controversy, if you will, with the weigh-ins and the measuring where the offensive linemen were measuring, I think, shorter than they were at the senior bowl, which is just hilarious, right? Like, how do you measure someone's arm? Where do you start?

Where do you start with a guy's arm? I don't know. Do you start at the shoulder? Do you start, like, they must have a way to do this. Let's see. Where is Gray Zabel's weight? That's what we're, that's what we're in need of here. Gray Zabel's weight. Let's see.

This is what I'm spending my time on. Uh, just had it somewhere. Okay. Where is it? Everyone, everyone talk amongst yourself. Oh, yourself 312 312 arm length gate. Yeah, exactly Yeah, so 312 is what gray Zabel ended up which means that you know, and his drills looked really good I think that Zabel is going to end up being a fringe first round draft pick and then hey the corners There was a couple of corners who came out looking really good as well. Darian Porter, oh my gosh, he got a 9.99 out of 10 as far as his relative athletic score. A guy that now has my attention as if I'm making a list of my favorite targets coming out of the combine, Jihadi Baron, cornerback from Texas. This guy got a 9.00 relative athletic score,

82 athletic score. And we're talking about somebody who was super impressive at the podium when he talked with the media and is known as a technician, highly intelligent, and also ran a 4-4. So that's where it all comes together. And you're talking about potential first round draft picks. And there's a couple of defensive tackles. Harmon looked really good in the drills,

but didn't do enough to get a relative athletic score. But he did run a sub five. Very good for him for Derek Harmon, a guy that I think we've all heard would be intriguing to the Vikings and someone that I'm interested in. Now, I don't know if the Vikings care about age when it comes to a player. We've seen him draft somebody like Makai Blackman to be a starter when he was 24 years old. So Darius Alexander Crushed this thing with a nine point two zero relative athletic score again. That's out of ten. So 92nd percentile really good to zero relative athletic score. Again, that's out of 10. So 92nd percentile, really good, really, really good from him.

And he's got incredible production, but he's like 24 years old. So are they gonna view that as, well, look at the guys in athletic freak, so it doesn't matter? Or is it going to be more of, hey, we want somebody with upside that we can develop? I'm not really sure.

Great point, Alex, about Caleb Johnson. He was one that I was disappointed in, but I don't think anyone thought that he was going to fly because he's just not that type of guy. And I think that, you know, when we're, we're talking about, um, the running backs, there's usually a baseline for running backs, but the pure 40 yard dash just doesn't really translate super well. And now there's a bunch of new data that I have no idea what to do with,

which is all of this speed data. And I saw a reef wrote an article about this NFL IQ thing where you can look at all the speed data, how fast the guys went, what miles per hour and all that. And what do we, what do we do with it? All is a pretty good question, but Caleb Johnson did not score very well on this thing and, uh, just didn't have a great day. Somebody like Donovan Edwards did though.

So, I mean, maybe that means that Johnson's draft stock will fall and could be available in the third round. Um, yeah, the same with, was it Devin? Devin Neil is the guy he could be another one in such a deep draft. So it might help. Uh, Derek points out the four four three helped Trey Amos a hundred percent. And he's somebody that has been very much on my radar as well from Ole Miss, a longer corner, bigger corner, again, kind of a technician type of player

the Vikings are looking for. So now I think what we have is a really good collection of potential prospects for the Vikings that I think they could be in a great spot at number 24 to get someone who is a starter or trade down. Because when I'm looking at options at all these different positions, trading down does make a lot of sense now

to try to pick up some additional capital because there does look like there will be guys in the middle rounds that they could be interested in. Alex, I have not talked yet about Osa Odegazua, but yeah, we do have, that's another thing we've got. So there's sort of the takeaway. Oh, Dion Walker, huge disappointment, huge disappointment. Dion Walker was someone that was very much on my radar

for the Vikings. There was talk that he was gonna be 380, but he was gonna look like a dancing bear and all this different stuff. It just didn't, it just didn't pop. In fact, looking at the NFL IQ thing, uh, they have charts of where everybody's athleticism scores rank and Dion Walker got a below 60 athletic score, which was one of the worst, uh, it on the day. So that's pretty tough. Cause when you're talking about

maybe drafting someone to be a difference maker there, that's pretty tough. And CJ West was another one that stood out to me, the guy from Indiana. So there's, there's a lot, there's a lot of options. When you look at that defensive tackle group, uh, even if they wanted a guy to just dominate the middle, uh, like you see from some different guys around the league, like Vita via, if they wanted that type of player, Ty Leek Williams from Ohio State, like he's that guy. Kenneth Grant is kind of that guy. Walter Nolan didn't do a lot. But I mean, they're just everywhere. These defensive tackles, running backs,

they're everywhere. And it could be that the Vikings want wanna draft a position that's a little weaker and then let it play out after that so maybe there's only a couple corners that they like draft that in the first round knowing that these other positions are available the same could go for guard or there's enough tackles that could be moving to guard. There's just a lot there. I mean, I still think that there's a really good chance that they go for a guard because that is one of their top, if not their top priority in this draft is to fill up that interior offensive line. They can have a top five defense with some flaws because Brian Flores is their defensive coordinator. What's, let's not forget what a big W it was for this team to be able to keep Brian Flores, uhores this off season.

Just just a huge win for the Vikings to be able to keep him. So they know that they can accelerate their defense just by having him in there. The interior offensive line. It's about players. It's about physical talent. Can you get those guys to make a difference? They might want to look in the first round for that. Shout out to Willie G for the Super Chat. Really appreciate that, my friend. Those are always appreciated. So yeah, I mean, a lot of you talking about Deion Walker,

he was just, he was an intriguing guy. I had talked to somebody that expected him to go higher before this at the combine. And then all of a sudden, you know, he has this bad combine and maybe he is available in the third round that, and you know, Derek says his tape is worse than his size. I I've looked at his numbers. I cannot say that I have watched enough of his games to be able to give you an

opinion on that, but he was somebody that I came in saying, if he crushes this thing, then he's got my attention and he absolutely did not do that. So let me circle back to Oso Digizua. This is always the problem with making your free agency list too early, which is that we all write, oh, Trey Smith, Oso Digizua, and this guy, and this guy, and this guy, and then they get taken off of the list

It appears that Odegi's who is going to be franchise tagged just when you all figured out how to say Odegi's whoa well, you won't be saying it in purple because he's gonna get franchise tagged and probably extended by the Dallas Cowboys and That might be an argument for drafting a defensive tackle in the first round. See, this is the thing. This is why they probably do need to trade down. Because there's enough intriguing prospects and not enough draft picks for the Vikings.

It's also why it would be so nice for them if they could trade Sam Darnold for a second or third round draft pick. Because these are positions where they can, you know, jump in and they can get players who could be potential starters, maybe not superstars, but potential starters. I think that there's potential stars at certain positions at the back end of the first round and into the early second. So if you can get multiple draft picks in that range,

that would be huge for them. But defensive tackle, now you're looking at Milton Williams. I like BJ Hill quite a bit. And after that, is there a special defensive tackle who can really change your D line in free agency? I don't really think so. I think there are good players who could fill spots, but not guys who are going to be next level,

which to me would say that defensive tackle would be the hardest to find elsewhere. There are guards in free agency. There are corners in free agency. There's not a lot as far as defensive tackles. I also think that teams, and you're seeing it with Odegi-Zua, teams just don't usually let this happen.

And it seems like the Eagles are trying to get Miles Garrett, which I'm sure you don't want to talk about. Todd says watch tape Lewis Seen had a 9.92 relative athletic score. I watched tape on Lewis Seen and look great. To me, that is the randomness of the NFL draft. You know, the relative athletic score, it does correlate to success. That's just the truth, that people who can go out onto a track meet and completely dominate it and look better have a better chance of succeeding

in the NFL than ones who don't. But is it a one-to-one correlation? Hey, if this guy has a great stats and know, great stats and great relative athletic score, he's a star automatically. Now what's up here is a big part of it. Also, I don't know how much that injury affected Lewis Seen. I think I've given him very little leeway on that, but it's hard to say how much it affected him

maybe emotionally. As far as, you know, Addison didn't have a high relative athletic score, but that was probably because of his weight. And he didn't run a crazy fast 40, but here's something I noticed. This is just how difficult this is. The miles per hour on some of these guys

doesn't match up with their 40s. Maybe some of them aren't track guys and it takes them a little longer. Maybe they're not getting out of the, like it's all silly in some ways. Right. But the reality is that when we're talking about athleticism and the NFL, I mean, there's a connection.

There's clearly a connection. If you're, if you want to go draft guys who are bad athletes. Well, come on. Right. But also check out the relative athletic score for Justin Jefferson, who has one of the better ones of the last like 20 years, I think, based on his height and all that. So, you know, I mean, I think that what Lewis seen,

we're always gonna look at that kind of pick or Laquan Treadwell, and we're always gonna go, why didn't it work? What happened? You know how many other teams have that same thing with some prospect? Every single one of them. I mean, look, I watched Lewis Seen

in the national championship game. And I was like, this guy's unbelievable. And I wasn't even a fan of the pick on the night, but I watched that and went, man, this dude, dude, he comes downhill. He's a rocket. He makes all sorts of plays. He picks off passes. He gets in sorts of plays. He picks off passes.

He gets in the backfield. They could do everything with him. It just didn't work out. And the other thing is, can't buy them. We didn't have a clue that can't buy them was gonna become a $15 million safety. And he did, cause drafting. Sometimes it's very hard to figure out.

So, you know, I think it's always worth looking at the relative athletic scores to just get an idea. If somebody you already liked, like Derek Harmon comes in, who I already liked, I saw a bunch of Oregon this year and he was a beast. And then he does that. I'm like, okay, all right, you've got my attention. Gray Zabel, same sort of thing, like comes in as someone who at the senior bowl stands out. And then you go, oh wow, when you put him on that field with the other guys who are going to be picked in the NFL, he matches up. So, you know, I think you can use it in a lot of ways, but there's never going to be just one stat that gives us all the answers. That is never going to happen. happen as far as look Laquan Treadwell is a great example. That was right when I got the job covering the Vikings for

1500 ESPN back in 2016 and one of the things I was excited about to come cover was like man. They drafted that Treadwell guy. I was big on it. I was like this guy. That's a great draft pick. How did he fall to the Vikings? This guy was making great catches left to right.

Just didn't work out. The quickness was a problem. The adjustment to the Vikings, this guy was making great catches left and right, just didn't work out. The quickness was a problem, the adjustment to the NFL. Sometimes you can have somebody who seems like the most mature, locked in person, they crush the interviews, they just talk about how much they love football and they sound smart, and then they get in the environment and they get entitled or lazy, or they don't understand how the NFL works

because it's so much different. And sometimes, yeah, I mean, Skywalking McCarthy, Cam Bynum was just not a prospect, really. He was a fourth round corner who they announced when they drafted him would be moved to safety. And I remember thinking, that doesn't sound great. How about Josh Metellis, sixth round guy? Oh yeah, he plays multiple positions.

Oh, okay, sure he does. Well, he does, I don't know. That's how it goes, right? The Vikings somehow out of the drafting, I know it was Spielman, ended up with two really awesome safeties and they weren't the guy they took in the first round. How about Feelin' and Diggs, first round. How about feeling and digs?

Fifth rounder, undrafted free agent, and those guys are the ones who become the stars and not Treadwell. I don't know, all you can do is just take swings and see what happens and try to get players that can actually be developed and go from there. But as far as this year, they need more swings. They need to find ways to get them

because they have a draft where there's a lot of different players who I think could be really good for them pretty much right away. I mean, depending on what player we're talking about, but the running backs, the defensive tackles, those are positions that come in right away and can perform really well.

I agree, Alex, about the intangible point. But Lewis Seen had nothing, at least from what I understood, maybe there was something behind the scenes. But I mean, Lewis Seen, I remember being at his first press conference and I wrote something about how he came across very mature and ready to go, even though he was a young prospect. It's just hard to say. And then, you know, you have somebody like Dallas Turner who's taken and, uh,

he ends up behind two other guys that end up being ones at all pro and the other is a superstar and just, I don't know, like when was he supposed to play? Which there was talk by the way, at the combine from some people about Dallas Turner, I think it's very legit that the team still feels good about that draft pick, even though they're aware that Jared, very aware of how good Jared verse was that I don't hear any panic from the Vikings about Dallas Turner. And I think something we have to remember that I forgot about until it was brought up to me is that Dallas Turner was very

close with Kyrie Jackson and you're in your first training camp and that happens to your good friend who you went to college with and you're close with. I mean, that's got to be really traumatic. And then he showed flashes along the way when he got opportunities. So we'll give that one time, but it also shows you Mattel is buying him as well. Year three for them before they emerged. Was it even year four for Josh Mattel?

And you're right. You just, you don't know how much that injury impacted Lewis scene. It's just, that's why it's all so tricky with the draft. Let me remind you guys of one of our sponsors, and then I want to get to a note from Jeremy Fowler that raised some eyebrows but definitely shouldn't. That's a bad tease. Let me try the tease again. After I do this ad read, Jeremy Fowler had something that is raising eyebrows, and me

as an eyebrow guy, look at these things, me as an eyebrow guy, very is raising eyebrows. And me as an eyebrow guy, look at these things. Me as an eyebrow guy, very much raising eyebrows. So give me a second on that. But first, speaking of hair, if you guys watch the show all the time, I don't necessarily always go hatless. Like I'm having a good day hair day today, but usually I wear a hat.

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an online consultation with a healthcare provider who will determine if a prescription is appropriate, restrictions apply, see a website for details and safety information. So let me just raise the eyebrows. Maybe I can do this while I talk. Can I do this while I talk? Is that too creepy?

So Jeremy Fowler reported that the Vikings talked to Cam Ward and this may come as a bit of a surprise because why would they be talking to Cam Ward if they love JJ McCarthy so much? Well, Kevin O'Connell has told us in the past that one of the reasons he loves to go to the NFL combine when some other coaches don't even go didn't speak in a hair. I saw an interview where Sean McVeigh actually admitted that he's having a

little bit of a, maybe he needs some hymns. I can't, I think it was with Ryan Fitzpatrick. He said that he's losing a bit of the hair, but I didn't see his hair walking around at the combine because he doesn't go to the combine. But Kevin O'Connell says that he loves going to the combine. And one of the things that he likes doing is meeting with all the quarterbacks.

And one of the reasons that he meets with all the quarterbacks is you never know when Sam Darnold is going to walk through your door five years after you talk to him. And he likes to have that data point to just be familiar with these quarterbacks. Think about last year, what were the Vikings chances of drafting Caleb Williams? That would have been 0.00 still met with Caleb Williams because he wanted to get him to know him a little bit better number one he's

gonna be playing against him so maybe wants to get a little bit of Intel there that could be the same thing with Cam Ward but I think more than anything he just knows that life has a funny way of coming back around sometimes and he also wants to have study on which quarterbacks succeed and which quarterbacks fail. So if he has these interviews with all these quarterbacks and he has all of his notes, he's building a data set of his own notes

to be able to say, hey, here's all the guys that I talked to, here were things that kind of went in and out of like this worked or that didn't work. You know, things that quarterback said to him in those interviews or things that they were able to do on the whiteboard in a short period of time. So he wants to build up all that data just to make decisions in the future.

And that might even be on looking for a quarterback somewhere else. But he meets with these quarterbacks. It's not eyebrow raising. Keep the eyebrows down actually down as far as they'll go on this. There's nothing there with cam lord, but That's what kevin o'connell does because the man is obsessed with quarterbacks, which there's worse things in this world to be Obsessed with uh, yeah tony you're right about the anthony richardson You know when he dapped up anthony richardson and gave him some words of encouragement to be obsessed with. Yeah, Tony, you're right about the Anthony Richardson. You know, when he dapped up Anthony Richardson

and gave him some words of encouragement, that's because he got to know him a little bit. It's relationships. And Kevin O'Connell is really, really good at relationships. James says, if Quacey doesn't trade Darnold and misses out on a comp pick like Hunter, can we call that a miss? I don't think so because a team has to make an offer.

If it's not like it's not like there's anything you can do like actionable. What should he have done better with the Neil Hunter or even Sam Darnell? Yeah, let's start with Darnell. What should he have done better made to someone? Give him a draft pick. I mean, you can't do that. If all the teams who might want Sam Darnold, if they all say we're not giving you draft picks because we know he's

hitting free agency, what are you supposed to do? I just, I don't know, give them some money out of your wallet. Like there's just nothing you can really do there if they're not going to do it. And if the Vikings did not have JJ McCarthy, these teams would, uh, maybe not have the leverage, but they do have some leverage because they know the Vikings are going to turn over to JJ McCarthy. There's not much you could do there. As far as a Daniel Hunter missing out on the comp pick, I believe is because they signed

Jonathan Grenard, Andrew Van Ginkle and Blake Cashman. Right. Isn't that why? So it's sort of like I said the other night, it's like that sounds to me like a quasi criticisms for quasi criticisms is sake type of thing, which I think I'm going to probably use a lot in the future. But that's kind of what that sounds like. If he can't move Darnal, that's because no one's offering them the draft pick to do it. And so they're going to take the, uh, the comp pick us, uh, Anthony Richardson will be a Vikings backup in 2025. I mean, TCO

performance center should be quarterback rehab center is, I mean, TCO quarterback rehab center headed up by Kevin O'Connell with assistance from Josh McCown, right? I mean, uh, yeah, maybe. And that's the thing, right? He met with Anthony Richardson, clearly liked Richardson's character. And I don't think that's been the issue with Richardson. I think it's throwing the old pigskin has been the problem that he has not been able to stay healthy long enough

to improve. How would they miss out on the comp pick? Well, Jack saying he's confused by it. Like welcome to the club that includes literally everyone being confused by the comp picks. Why not just show us the formula? And I know there's that guy Nick who puts it on Twitter and he's usually pretty

accurate but not 100% just show us man just show us the formula for the comp picks so I could live a happy life but okay here's how it could happen and this is why you'd want to make a trade the way that it could happen is if the Vikings let Sam Darnold go and then they sign a certain number of players to a certain number of contracts that add up to what it's worth for Sam Darnold's contract with someone else. This is the most rudimentary way so don't pick me apart on this but think about if the Vikings if Sam Darnold signs a three year contract worth $40 million a year for the Raiders and the Vikings signed two players

for $20 million a piece, those two things could cancel each other out. That's not perfectly how it works. And I know that there was, so there was a thing about the, the Shaq Griffin signing. All I can tell you is that there were conflicting thing about the, the shack Griffin signing. All I can tell you is that there were conflicting reports on that, that one person said, and this is like a silly thing to even be debating, but one person who's the comp pick expert guy on the internet said the Vikings lost out on a comp pick cause they signed Shaq Griffin. And then the team told Ben Gessling and the Star Tribune that they didn't. I don't know what the answers. I would assume that they wouldn't have signed

Shaq Griffin if they were going to lose a high comp pick. I was assuming that the reason that they lost to Neil Hunter's comp pick was because they spent so much elsewhere and they still have Kirk's comp. Can we stop talking about the comp picks? By the way, I just, I got, this is, it hurts my brain. It hurts my brain. So the, the whole, the whole point is just that that's why you would rather do it now and make sure you get that draft pick for Sam Darnold and you get to use it this year in a draft that has a lot of great positions for you.

So it's so crazy how year to year can be different with these positions because last year, wasn't it a bunch of good receivers, if I'm remembering correctly, and this year there's not good receivers. And last year, if I'm just trying to remember what positions were good last year, I think defensive tackle had kind of nothing.

And then this year they're all over the place. So being that it's a good year for these positions, it would be great if the Vikings could pull it off. But I don't know what I'm supposed to say in terms of criticism if they don't. Fire Quasi? I mean, I just don't, I don't know what I'm supposed to say. You should have forced someone to do it. Why didn't you? That's kind of like my draft take often, which is why didn't you draft the good players instead of the bad players?

That's most of the draft criticisms that come down to as far as what Sam Darnold his likely contract. Yeah, it's going to be the third round for a quarterback. It almost always is So, I mean if he if he ends up making 40 million dollars plus then yeah, he's gonna end up Getting getting that so I mean, it's I guess some of you You know Was Derek says was Shaq playing well enough as he did worth a fifth? No, I don't think he was a nothing burger. Derek.

No, I thought Shaq Griffin was very good for them this year. How much is a fifth round draft pick worth to you? By the way, I know Diggs was a fourth round, fifth round draft pick. Not a lot to me usually, but maybe Shaq Griffin was a big part of this defense, played a lot of snaps, had good numbers. I mean, I guess, I mean, that's the thing about sometimes I call it getting front office brained. Like some of you focus, you love the draft so much that you think every fifth round or sixth round or seventh round draft pick is like very important. And I think especially with this team

that's so good and undrafted free agency at recruiting players the top UDF a's I don't think anything past the fourth round is different than a lot in undrafted free agency So if you can get the top undrafted free agents, you know That it makes up to me for trading those late round picks, which I think is a big part of it You know, oh, I see. I see what you're, okay. So I read, sorry, Derek, I read it the opposite way. Yeah, he was worth, he played well.

I thought he played well. And a fifth rounder is not something I would be too concerned about, but it does feel like on draft day, on day three sometimes, that every pick, the expectation is that these guys are going to be like big superstars and it happens occasionally. You don't want to have no picks. You'd much rather have all those swings, but I'm not too concerned about that. So let's just go through because I know I'm going to need my voice here going forward, still recovering from the combine a little bit

vocally. So let me just kind of put a bow on tonight and also say a huge thank you to everybody for watching and we'll just go through kind of what the week is going to look like here for the Vikings next really two weeks, which is the big day is Tuesday. We'll do another show tomorrow night. We'll have some fun then we always go live on Monday night. So, you know, I'm not going to stop doing that with so much

and then maybe there'll be news tomorrow. I don't know, they don't have to wait till Tuesday. So we'll see what happens on that. Tuesday is the big day, middle of the day. I think it's four o'clock on Tuesday is the deadline for franchise tagging Sam Darnold. If they franchise tag Sam Darnold, then the very high likelihood is

that they already have a trade in place for Darnold. And I would expect that we find out about that very quickly if that is the case. Now if they do something crazy like transition tag him, I don't know what the heck to make of that. That would be very strange at this point if they were to transition tag him. So the assumption right now is that it's either gonna be franchise tag or nothing. If they do nothing, he is absolutely guaranteed

to sign somewhere else. The contract will be pretty big. And then they'll, three o'clock, three o'clock, oh, NFL always announces everything in Eastern time. Apologies, three o'clock central. I gotta know when my emergency podcast is gonna be. But I'll just be sitting around on Tuesday waiting for that anyway.

I even had a plumbing appointment and they said, what's your week like this week? When can we do it? And I said, not Tuesday because of this deadline, which means that they'll break the news tomorrow when I got the plumber here. Anyway, not the point. So if they don't franchise tag him,

that means he's gonna sign somewhere else. And that means it's go time, J.J. McCarthy, but they won't get that draft pick. And then the discussion is, how are they gonna get more draft capital? Can they move down? Is there any other option? What are they gonna be looking for?

And we turn our sites to free agency. Now the franchise tag deadline is big, not just for the Vikings, but also for other guys who might be free agents. Who is going to get franchise tagged that will be off the list for the Vikings to go after? Who's going to work out a last second deal with their teams? That's really big for next week.

And then we start to put together our, who are the Vikings actually going to have a chance at going after? There's also about what, seven players who have been allowed to go seek a trade. Debo Samuel was already traded. The Vikings, could they be interested in Cooper Cup? Could they be interested in Jonah Jackson, Jonathan Allen?

Like there's some big names that have been given permission to go seek a trade. Also, Harrison Smith, are we going to find out this week whether Harrison Smith is coming back or not because the Vikings have big decisions to make at the safety position. There are a lot of things to be decided here. Will Aaron Jones sign a contract?

Will Byron Murphy or Cam Bynum sign contracts this week? And all of these things, I would say, are pretty close to Worth Emergency Podcast, which means that if you haven't already subscribed, you probably should wanna do that. And over at purpleinsider.football, my newsletter, if you're not familiar, I have a huge article coming on the subject

that everybody in the world wants to hear about the guard position. So I've got something coming for that tomorrow and a list of players that stood out to me, some of which I talked about here. Skoll SC questions why the Vikings, why don't they, let's see, why the Vikings? Why don't they Let's see why the Vikings put out that they plan to franchise tag Darnold then wait and see if they get calls

This would show them if anyone's interested. Oh, well they what they did was in this I could say for certain they went to Indianapolis and they asked around, they asked the teams that could be potentially interested. Would you make a trade for Sam Darnold? If we franchise tag him, that's what they did. That's what they were there doing. And I don't know what the answers were.

That's the problem. Nobody does. And if you read all the NFL insiders, nobody knows what the answers are. Because if Kevin O'Connell is having a discussion with Chip Kelly about whether the Raiders would be willing to trade for Sam Darnold Chip Kelly's not gonna go to a reporter and say here's exactly what I told him and Kevin O'Connell is not gonna come to me and say here's exactly what Chip told me because teams don't work that way and a lot Of the insider stuff is usually just kind of laying out options and saying, I've heard from league sources that they have options. So, you know, anyway, uh, but it should be an exciting week.

That's the point is that this train is not slowing down the Vikings. If you were to rank all off season teams in the NFL, they would be very, very high on that list and whatever happens next, we'll be here for it to break it all down. So thank you all so much for stopping in. Huge crowd here tonight. You guys aren't Oscars fans? Is that what's going on?

But huge crowd here tonight. Just really appreciate everybody jumping in and watching the show. And I just can't wait to find out what happens next and to break it down with all of you. So, you know, hit the notifications to tell you when we're going live here on the show. So you can always be a part of it and always answer as many questions I can respond your comments, all those things. The people's show here on Purple Insider.

And the people will have a really fun off season, I think. So thanks, everybody. And we'll catch you all very, very soon tomorrow night. So we'll see you then. Football.