Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Vikings rookie minicamp and KOC reacts to Jennings signing

Episode Date: May 9, 2026

Matthew Coller talks about what he heard from a couple rookies and Kevin O'Connell at Vikings rookie minicamp. O'Connell talked about Jauan Jennings being added to the Vikings roster. The Purple Insider podcast is brought to you by FanDuel. Also, check out our sponsor HIMS at https://hims.com/purpleinsider Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hey, everybody, welcome to another episode of Purple Insider presented by Fandul. Matthew Collar here and the Minnesota Vikings. If you notice, maybe got a little sun this afternoon. I was out at TCO Performance Center for Vikings rookie minicamp. So had a chance to talk with Jake Golda and Dominique Orange. I'll bring you some of those conversations throughout the show. And also, Kevin O'Connell talked in a press conference setting about Joanne Jennings. and also what Caleb Banks is going to be able to do.

Now, I will say a little bit of a disclaimer. Also, the Vikings added a player from their workout and we'll dive into him as well. A little bit of its disclaimer on rookie minicamp is it's not intense. It's more of a workout. There's seven on sevens. There's a lot of drills. But this is not really the old school way of doing it. And Kevin O'Connell did explain why he only has one day and kind of why it's structured the way it is.

Because truly he doesn't want his draft picks out there playing against guys who are trying to make a name for themselves and pushing it to the max and everything else. He doesn't want, you know, guys getting hurt. So it's structured a certain way that does make it a little more difficult for the how did that guy look at rookie mini camp than it used to. With Mike Zimmer, there used to be a couple more days of it. we would get 11 on 11s. It was very intense. It's Mike Zimmer. And we would get a lot more of, ooh, this guy really stood out. This guy made a bunch of catches or this guy had a bunch of pass breakups. So there's a little less of that. I tried my best. I watched the entire practice. There were a few guys that ended up standing out. So I'll go through everything that I could come up

with for you. And then whatever questions and comments, thought you have. And we'll get you some sound here and we'll make it a fun show leading up to the Minnesota Timberwolves game tonight and let's do a little bit better than we did last time. I was like, all right, like we're signing off. We're going to watch the wolves. See you guys later. And then it was over. We could have just kept talking about football. So maybe it'll be a little bit better for tonight. But let's get into the takeaways first. Talking about Joanne Jennings last night doing the live show and then suddenly Adam Schaefter pops up with wow the Vikings not only landed their number three wide receiver but they landed him at a very reasonable price so naturally that was

one of the questions for Kevin O'Connell today which was why did you land Joanne Jennings at such a reasonable price on Jennings up what was you surprised that he was on the market for full well a lot of times like as you know like free agency is such a it's a moving target for teams. It's a moving target for players. I think there's some unique things that happen every single year at certain positions, you know, specifically in regards to maybe teams that their former team, they want them back and the dialogue is good and then, you know, a player becomes available and maybe they have to pivot and that forces things to kind of, you know, work their way into a little bit of an unknown for the player. And I think it's, at that point, it's,

It's about finding the best fit. It's about finding a place that you feel like you can, you know, have zero regret about, you know, joining that team. And that's why I loved getting a chance to host them on the visit and spend time in my office with them one-on-one, really paint the vision of what we see for Joanne. And then, you know, if it's the right kind of guy from a standpoint of fits our characteristics that we want to add to this team. And he clearly, it doesn't take you guys will learn this quick. doesn't take a lot of time to be around Joanne without figuring out real quick.

He loves football and just wants a chance to play. And then obviously you want to have respect to the situation that they're in. You know, where's their headspace at as far as where they're at in that decision-making process. And then ultimately when you're able to get that thing to a good place for all parties, it's about making sure you follow up on a lot of the things that you said. So there's O'Connell and we were talking last night about there is no better free agency. salesman maybe in the entire national football league than Kevin O'Connell and he's painting the picture there of getting Joanne Jennings in and showing him here's how we're going to use

you. Here's how we do things. And then not too long later, Joanne Jennings is a Minnesota Viking. So I asked Kevin O'Connell, well, do you see him being different than maybe what you've had before at that wide receiver three position? Jennings, like how important was that for you with his, the size that? that he brings just something a little bit different than what you had in that room.

Yeah, you guys, you know, over the four years, you've seen how, especially with Justin and with Jordan, you know, we need some, we need a unique aspect to that room. Not only for, you know, that quote unquote number three position, but we've talked a lot throughout the process over the years of you can't just be one thing, you know, because we move Justin around, we move Jordan around. You gotta be able to be a slot receiver.

You gotta be able to do some of those jobs on the early downs that we asked of that player. You got to be able to line up on third down when you're, you're one of the few players that might be single covered in man to man. You got to be able to win. You got to be able to make contested catches and you got to be able to do something with it after the catch. And Juan does all those things. I think Vikings fans are going to fall in love with watching this guy play football, just passion and the physicality that he plays with. And, you know, you can tell them excited about it and can't wait to get him here. So over the last maybe day and a half since

Joanne Jennings has joined. There's been a lot of clips surfacing and everything else of Jennings as a run blocker. And O'Connell did talk about that as well. I think that having a possession wide receiver with physicality, a toughness, he does have. And O'Connell has used this phrase before. He has a play style that fit with the San Francisco 49ers that I don't know that the Vikings have had outside of like Josh Oliver and C.J. Ham. They have receivers who run routes and are willing to block.

Jordan Addison and Justin Jefferson are willing to block. But are they difference making blockers in the past? They would have to bring in Trent Sherfield if they wanted him to throw a block. And I legitimately thought that they missed Trent Sherfield last year because they didn't have someone that had a toughness element to it. He fights off defenders. He runs through tackles. He boxes out people. He makes contested catches at a,

very high rate. It was 62% contested catches in 2004 and 56 last year. So he's been on the right side of Ledger for that. And I just think that it adds something that they haven't really had since. I mean, KJ. Osborne was some of it, but I don't think it's quite, he wasn't like the contested catch guy. I mean, this is a little bit Robert Woodsey is what it feels like to me. Maybe a slightly not quite as good version of Robert Woods, but it just brings that. element that you could tell Kevin O'Connell was pretty excited about.

So get it. We got those comments about Jennings and also asked about Caleb Banks, who was there and he was paying close attention to all the drills and so forth. But clearly with the foot injury is not going to be able to participate in those drills until later on. O'Connell did say that he's been given positive information about where Banks stands. And it seems that they are still in route to getting him back. at the end of July and having him have a full training camp,

which is absolutely vital for getting Caleb Banks going. So O'Connell was asked, what can Caleb Banks take away from this offseason, even though he can't participate? With Caleb, he doesn't necessarily have to worry about the physical side of it right now other than just getting healthy. So we can, you know, hopefully challenge him to, you know, learn multiple spots that coincides with his versatility to align in different

impactful spots along the D-line. So, you know, he can take part and walk-throughs. He can take part in, you know, the rookies are on a little bit different schedule. It's funny how that works out than the veterans in the off-season program. So we get them for more time. So I'm really encouraged by just, you know, not only Caleb's enthusiasm to get going, but obviously the coaching staff and their plans for him as well. So there you go on Caleb Banks.

It's going to be taking a lot in from a mental perspective as he goes through this. and then the physical perspective will start as they get into training camp. So as far as players that stood out, well, one, it was interesting that Cooper Rush was here. And come on, I mean, you all thought the Cooper Rush game. So Cooper Rush returns to the scene of the crime. He did once beat the Minnesota Vikings in 2021. And when you think about it, that victory may have cost the Vikings the playoffs that year. And then led to Kevin O'Connell becoming.

the head coach of the Viking. So O'Connell owed this to Cooper Rush to give him the chance to come out and throw footballs. Very clear from him today in practice that he's a 32-year-old veteran. He threw the ball very well, despite a lot of wind. It was a little gnarly out there for the wide receivers. There were a lot of jumping type of catches. Also, Aidan Bowman, which is Todd Bowman's son, was out there as a left-hander throwing the ball around. Actually, it looked like he had a pretty good arm to me. But when O'Connell was talking about getting Cooper Rush to come in here, sort of hinted at if we have an injury or something and we need another quarterback, that this could be a guy that you're looking at as someone who's a veteran who's been around in the NFL. And I'm a little

bit surprised that he doesn't already have a job as a backup quarterback. And I think it just gives you an opportunity to get a look at all of those wide receivers by having someone who can actually run a huddle, get him out of it, get a little hint of the offense and be able to walk out on the field and decide who to throw the football to. Now, it wasn't a laser show. It wasn't like Cooper Rush was out there whipping around left and right, looking like Sam Bradford or something in 2016. It was a fine practice. And there were a couple of receivers that stood out to me. The two that I will name drop is Dylan Bell. He was highlighted by Steve Smith in kind of a long video about how much Steve Smith couldn't stand the Georgia offense.

So you spent most of it ranting about that. But then the other part sort of celebrating Dylan Bell's skill set. And you could see explosiveness right away. That's just something that I don't know if it can ever truly be captured in a 40 and a three cone and whatever drill at the NFL combine. But you know it when you see it with Dylan Bell. And you could see flashes of that. He had a couple of catches that weren't necessarily on target,

but kind of had to go up a little bit and make some plays. The other one was, let me get the, yeah, Marcus, Marcus, there's a lot of players. Here's my thing. There's 57, 57 players. So I'm trying to make sure that I get guys names correct. Marcus Sanders from Georgia Southern was another undrafted free agent who I noticed a couple of times during the practice, make some plays. I like the way that Marcus Allen, the undrafted free agent, moved around as a defensive back. That's all you can really see in seven on seven drills is can the guy flip his hips?

Does he look like a natural athlete? But Marcus Allen kind of checked those boxes for me. And it was interesting that the Vikings, after the practice, it was announced by his agent, signed a defensive lineman named Smith Vilbert. And I will give you Smith. If you watch sex in the city and you didn't think Smith, Jared, right? And if you didn't watch Sex in the City, maybe you should.

But Smith Vilbert, I'll show you his, let me get his PFF page up here. So he went to North Carolina and also played at Penn State, but was a rotational player, Penn State. Had some years where he barely played. And then this year played a lot of football for North Carolina. Had a pretty decent pressure rate and was a fairly highly graded run defender, not at least. by any means, but had a good number of run stops as a little bit of a tweener. He's listed at 6.6.282 here, but at maybe a pro day, because I was looking on the athletic, they don't have a write-up about Vilbert, but they do have some of his numbers.

I'm assuming this is pro day, that he has 34-inch arms at 6 foot 6, 190 pounds, and 10-inch hands. So this is a gigantic dude that they brought in, and a 5-1-4.4.4.5.4.5.4. 40 yard dash, not bad for somebody that big. So they must like the raw tools of Vilbert and decided to bring him in as an undrafted free agent. And we'll see if that, if that ends up going anywhere or not. But, you know, we've seen this before. The guy or the two guys who get signed out of rookie camp, sometimes it's worked out.

That's your Chad Beebe. That's your Elijah Williams. So maybe, you know, Smith, Vilbert will be the next guy up there. So the other thing I had a chance to do was spend a couple minutes with Dominique Orange and Jake Golda. So I want to bring you those two conversations, scrum conversation. Oh, I was going to mention, did I say this all right? I don't think I did. Demand Claiborne, holy cow.

I just the cuts and the speed and the angles that he had his body making turns and the way he caught the ball very naturally. That was someone that I went, well, who is? Oh, oh, it's that guy. Okay, because you could tell that he was someone who was drafted. And, you know, we may at some point with Claiborne end up going back to, how did he end up in the sixth round? Because this guy's skill set is very impressive. We were just talking on the sideline.

Jerich McKinnon was a little more beefed, like a little more like strength looking. But there's maybe a comparison there to Jerich McKinnon where it's not RB1, but it's somebody that can be a contributor and bring that extra jolt. And it did not take any sort of scouting expert to tell that DeMond Claiborne has that next level burst. That, oh, yeah, that's one of the drafted players because he looks like he belongs in the National Football League. So, you know, out of 57, it's hard to watch everybody, but those were a couple guys just doing the skill stuff that stood out. But just to show you what this looks like or demonstrate what this looks like, at one point, point I looked over at the offensive lineman and they were using a stick, an actual stick,

to kind of hold their hands back like this and work on their body positioning, uh, I guess, or balance or whatever it was as they were going through a drill and you're like, okay. Now, they know who's doing that right, but Purple Insider doesn't know who's doing that right. Like, they're just, they got a stick. What do they do it? So there was a lot of those kind of drills that they're trying to identify something out of the players. They had linebackers. dropping back in coverage and then flipping their hips and trying to make a play. And the same with the defenders. It's stuff like that.

It's much more tryout looking than it is an actual practice. When we get into OTAs, when we get into mini camp, we will definitely get a little more of that. So I wanted to bring you, though, short conversations just from scrums with Jake Olday and Dominique Orange. So we'll start out with Dominic Gorench, just a couple minutes here. but he told me which player he kind of looks at the most and emulates the most. So here is the big citrus. I don't know. He's got to be ready.

It's okay to mess up. You know, football is a game imperfection. You're not going to come in and be a Hall of Fame right away. So have that mindset. It's okay to mess up, but do it 100% all the time. So that's kind of mess with the best thing you think you did today? Just going through the drills. speed. For me, that was my biggest emphasis. Give as much effort as I can. You know, even if I mess up,

make sure I'm going 110 miles per hour. So that was my, I think, the best thing I did today for sure. Are there parts with just your body that you feel like you have goals to try to change before you get to the season? Yeah, of course. You know, I think, you know, down to my body composition, just getting into better shape as a whole, you know, it's my biggest thing. But that's really about it. That's what I would say, just trying to get in the shape as much as possible. How do you feel like, so you said that you feel like this does translate well. I mean, when it comes to playing like the true nose, what do you feel like the hardest adjustment might be from college to the NFL?

I'll be honest, it's just the tempo, the speed of the game. You know, everyone knows their responsibility. You know, we're playing with the best athletes on Earth right now. So it's like we're not just dealing with old fat guys that's going to get a job at Walmart in two weeks. But it's, you know, we're dealing with true. truly elite athletes. So I think that's the biggest difference from college to NFL for sure. When you talk about just getting your body in shape, what does that consist of in strength?

Is it getting in your cardio shape? What's the all the above? You know, I think training for combines a lot different than training to actually play football. So I mean, I'm just now getting into the actual football training aspect of it, which is kind of sucks. But at the end of day, it's all part of the process. So I think all the above is what's, what's, you know, know, it was kind of basically what I said anyway. So, yeah. You know, a lot of the guys have been through that throughout their careers. You've been in that spot.

How much do you talk to different guys who are older than you? You probably haven't had a chance to talk to those guys. No, I've talked to a few. You know, they basically said the same thing I'm saying. It's just, of course, it's going to take a little minute. It's just a matter of how bad do you want it. That's really what the conversation is. So, yeah, same thing I've been, I'm basically saying, you know, of course it's hard.

It's hard to go from training to be, you know, training to run, 40-yard dads to actually train to move a human being. So that's the only difference I would say, you know, but basically the same thing I've been saying. There's not everybody your size with your ability to move. Who have you been studying or who do you kind of feel like you're modeling yourself after? Yeah, I'll say for me, for sure, Dexter Lawrence. You know, Dexter Lawrence is a massive human being that can be able to move when he wants

to. They can move human beings when he wants to. So that's the biggest thing for me. I've always watched his film and try to take pieces out of what he's been doing. Yeah, I understand he's a raw product. But at the end of the day, he's still doing something that most people can't. Yeah, I'm taking every piece of tools I can for me on and planning it to my game. Yeah, what do you think the best thing he does to move those bodies?

I mean, using his power is the best thing he's done. I mean, I think he's arguably one of the strongest men in the NFL. And the way he uses his power is, I mean, unordinary. Yeah, we've seen it. Yeah, you know what I mean? A few games, yeah. So I think him for sure, I think that is his biggest trade. is, is powerful for it.

There you go. And I did mention to Dominique, he might not know that Dexter Lawrence has committed many murders against the Minnesota Vikings. So modeling his game after Dexter Lawrence, a difference for sure in their height. But one thing that Dominique does have that I noticed as I was watching him back is he gets into the backfield more than you think. Like that first step, there is more penetration in the backfield. That tool is in the bag for Dominique a little bit more than we think of just the,

hey, throw your big giant body at the other bodies. I think it's strength and there's a little bit of footwork and quickness that go into him being a promising nose tackle. Like he is cool with that and that's what he wants to be and he's going to move people and it's not going to get 10 sacks and he's not going to get 50 pressures. But I also don't think he's incapable of doing that. All right. A couple minutes with Jake Olday.

from met him in part-time medium. So that was cool interaction. And then my buddy, buddy Gavin, they got drafted with me, obviously me and him is super football. So we're talking every day. Jake, when you say you've learned a lot, like, I imagine you haven't really dug into the scheme, but like, what do you mean by it?

What could you have learned? Yeah, just the way they operate here, kind of the culture here, and then also just technique and various drops and how they'd like to do things around here, just like how they play football on the defense of side, punching out the ball, playing with relentless effort, all those things.

Jake, how do you want to kind of shape your body from here? I mean, I know that everybody has to get ready for the combine and the, you know, underwear Olympics and stuff. But like where do you feel like you want to take it from here by the time you get to, you know, training camp and then the season? Yeah, I just want to focus in on my diet, which I've been doing a pretty good job of. But with the resources here, I feel like I can do even better job at that. But all the athletic movements that I've been doing, I've been feeling good about the same weight that I am right now

and getting out here and moving with this weight with the helmet on and everything. I like to stay where I'm at, maybe lean up just a little. bit, but I feel pretty good where I'm at. Do you feel like that helps you in terms of like the versatility, like you're at a good way to play inside or outside linebacker? No doubt. I feel like the weight that I'm at right now is kind of really versatile. Being like the 240 mark is kind of where I'm at right now so I could play the edge. I can set the edge if I need to. But I also have the ability to drop into space and make plays in space. What was the mental challenge like for you at Cincinnati when you were asked to do so many different things and have so many different alignments? Yeah, that all just

came down to being in my playbook and studying a lot. I pride myself on just, not the smartest guy in the room, but I'm going to try the hardest. So I'm going to spend as much time as I need in the playbook to make sure that I know all the positions so that I can be put at any spot on the field so I don't have to be taken off the field. You heard it there, folks. Jake Golda, not smart. No, I'm just kidding. But, I mean, he does have to work exceptionally hard to get all these different assignments down.

And it appears just as of right now. And I don't know how this is going to play out. But it appears like inside linebacker would be the right place for him to sort. start and then work into becoming Andrew Van Ginkle. And Kevin O'Connell is kind of hinted at this. Like, yes, yes, he does look like Andrew Van Ginkle and he does have versatility. And he did handle a lot of stuff at Cincinnati. But hey, let's get to step one before we get to step eight with Jake Golda.

So he'll be interested to see how that plays out through the offseason here with OTA's mini camp and then ultimately training camp. So there you go. There's some updates. from rookie mini camp, questions, comments, thoughts, feelings, anything on the table. I got time until the Timberwolves play at 830. So whatever you guys want to talk about, whether it's younger players and their outlook, or if it's, you know, free agency left to go or anything that you want to discuss.

GM search, we were deep into that conversation last night and then suddenly Joanne Jennings signed. So I probably missed some of your comments and questions last night when that was going on. So what do you guys got? What do you guys got? Right away, son of beavers, Cooper Rush for QP4. I mean, you have to respect the fact that Kevin O'Connell finds a way to connect with every quarterback who is alive. That's really impressive.

And after having two seasons where they ran out of quarterbacks essentially and had to play Jaron Hall or had to play Max Brosmer, O'Connell is calling up every 30-year-old who could play quarterback. being like, hey, you want to just come in and toss some footballs around? But, I mean, usually they do have this, a veteran quarterback that is there to make sure that they can operate their practice and get done what they want to get done. And O'Connell has said that before. I think when they had Brett Hundley, O'Connell said that basically, if you just bring in two guys who are college players and you have no idea what they can really do, you might end up with a bunch

of footballs on the ground. but should there be an injury? Yes, Cooper Rush will be the first to get a phone call. I imagine it helps it from him too of come in, make a good impression. Then maybe another team calls up the Vikings and says, or he calls up another team who needs a backup quarterback and says, hey, maybe you guys should consider Cooper or whatever it's going to be.

But they are stockpiling as many options as they could possibly have to not have to play any undrafted or late round draft pick quarterbacks for this year. So, Joker, am I in good scrum shape? I'm always ready, man. I'm always ready to ask questions. Taslios, what veterans showed up to help the rookies,

was LDR there to give them more fan advice. I saw that that he was at the draft and he was giving advice to Caleb Banks. There may have been some, but I didn't see any, I mean, that spoke to the team or whatever else. I don't know what happened in their meetings. But veterans usually are not. not at this. They don't usually come to rookie minicamp. It truly is a tryout for a bunch of players and then just a small introduction for the rookies. But the reason that it was only one day is that

O'Connell mentioned just even being concerned about putting too much strain on the rookies right away and then having the veterans come in and the rookies are trying to make their first impression and just being very cognizant of injuries. So usually these are not super intense. And it's not like there's veteran players walking around showing them how to do a drill or something like that. The veterans show up when it comes time for OTAs in minicamp. And then they'll have to meet all the young guys then and integrate themselves. But maybe in the past, I don't know. Maybe in the past they've had speakers to the team.

But it's not like they have to announce something like that. Joker, the only how did this guy look that matters is the rookie punter, Brett Thorson. I did not see him punt a football. So I saw him like he's real, but I did not see him punt to football. So I don't know what that looks like yet. We'll have to start getting a look at that as the summer goes along. I'm going to throw it out there though. And I could be wrong.

And if I'm wrong, then I deeply apologize to all of those I've misled. I think there's going to be a real punting competition. Johnny Hecker, statistically speaking, has only been okay. the last couple years after being really, really good early in his career. And Brett Thorson, he was, what, the Ray Guy Award winner in college, it might come down to, Can You Hold It, which Johnny Hecker was very, has always been very good at throughout his career. And we saw from Oscar Chapman that that's where the punting competition ended was when Oscar could not hold the ball for Will Reichard. It's going to come down to who is Will Reichard most comfortable with.

and then you figure out the punting part later. Jokers, Cooper Rush going to challenge J.J. McCarthy for QB3. You guys are on point with the jokes right away. But look, I mean, you never know what can happen. And I think what O'Connell wants is just another quarterback that he can make a phone call to that got a little introduction to his offense just in case. Even though if you get to QB3 and 4 this year, then things have gone so far off the rails. but that's exactly what was happening those last couple years.

I mean, Kirk gets hurt. You bring in Dobbs, you bench him for Mullins, you go to Hall, you go back to Dobbs. Like, they don't want to ever repeat that again. And I do think it's good to just have a veteran on call, just like it's good to have Carson Wentz in the room. But I saw that, you know, Tom Pellasero said today, I'm, I was figuring you guys would ask about this, that he believes it's a true competition between McCarthy and Kyle, uh, Kyler. Murray. I do not. So that's just a difference of viewpoint, I guess. All the evidence to me would point to Kyla Murray is a very, very good veteran quarterback who has played a lot of football

games, has been to Pro Bowls and came here to be the starting quarterback. There's just nothing that suggests that those two are going to be going back and forth. But as OTAs and many camp starts. I guess we'll be rep counting a little bit there. And it really will see during training camp, it's just very hard to envision that you would do this and then sign Joanne Jennings and keep T.J. Hawkinson to just roll the dice on J.J. McCarthy in another world where they got rid of everyone, maybe that's something that we would see. So imagine a universe where they got rid of Hawkinson, got rid of Aaron Jones. They traded Will Fries. I don't know. They drafted a rookie center to start right away. They drafted another wide receiver or something because maybe they're thinking of moving

Addison. I don't know. Just if it's some kind of total rebuild, then you would say, yeah, I mean, why would you even bring in Kyler Murray? But maybe if they don't love what they see, they would trade Murray or something. I don't know. But when you bring in Joanne Jennings, you're playing Kyler Murray. There's just no other way around it. Now you've built this excellent foundation for a quarterback who's been very good at times during his career, at least three seasons of being really good in his career, and you're going to make him compete for the job. I don't see it. I think if you're the coach, then that's what you say, but it will be reflected in the reps. There's no reason for O'Connell to come out now and tell anybody, oh yeah, it's just Kyler Murray. So JJ shouldn't even

they're showing up. Like, you want everyone to be in a competitive environment all the way through the spring. But there's no common sense here that would even hint that McCarthy is a part of this discussion. It's really Carson Wentz and J.J. McCarthy, who's going to be QB2? And with a quarterback with an injury history, then it's very possible that we see QB2. So it's up to J.J. McCarthy to prove that he belongs as the backup quarterback. And if he makes great progress, somebody asked us to the other.

other night. Like, what do they do if he looks great? Well, that's, that's outstanding. That means that if things go wrong with Murray, that you can always go to J.J. McCarthy. But for right now, you're going with the guy who is the number one overall pick, has crazy playmaking talent, is one of the most accurate quarterbacks since he came into the NFL. Like, that's your guy. And you don't sign Joanne Jennings if you're not going to play the quarterback who can actually win and instead just totally roll the dice on hopes and dreams. You're not the Cleveland Browns. You're a grown-up real franchise football team that does stuff to win.

So I don't really see that as being a thing, but you never know when someone can get hurt. And then the next man up has to be ready. And then the next man and the next man and the next man, which is Cooper Rush, apparently. What happened to Scooby Williams? I have no idea. Did something happen to Scooby Williams? You'll have to tell me. That's funny.

Yeah, you're really on point with the Can Caleb? Banks wear the VR goggles. Everybody's on fire here today. Heinz, Claiborne, will be a fun rookie to watch. I think he's really going to stand out when we get to training camp because, well, running plays are not as physical as they are when you can tackle. You can really start to see that quickness, acceleration, and the players on the field will feel it. So I remember talking with Terrence Newman way back in the day. And I asked Terrence, I think this was in 2017, I guess it must have been, where I asked him about Delvin Cook. I just said, you know, did you guys know about Delvin Cook? Like he was going to be

this fast. And he said very, very quickly because you could see the bend, you could see the acceleration, you could see the instincts. And even just a little bit out on a football field today, it was Dylan Bell and DeMond Claiborne, who I noticed had that had, I mean, you could call it whatever you want. You could call it juice. You can call it acceleration. You could call it jolt. He's got it. And he's not big, though. That is something he's going to have to work around because when I make the Jerich McKinnon, you know, comparison, McKinnon was bigger. He was very jacked. And I don't know that that's, you know, DeMond Claibor. I think he's a little bit on the undersized. But the, the skill set that he brings and the role that he could have would be very similar.

And if you end up with, and I don't want to discount Aaron Jones here, but even like next year, if you ended up with Jordan Mason and Demand Claiborne playing the roles of Latavius Murray and Jerich McKinnon, then I think that could be pretty effective. I don't know who's pass blocking in that, you know, in that scenario. Magar, how did Dominique Orange look big, big? But I should circle back to him talking about, having to get in shape again because these guys, they do a lot to go to the NFL combine.

Right after their college seasons, they go to specific places and they work out with a bunch of guys and they're training to put up the best numbers possible, which is why every year you will hear from the broadcast, this is record setting. This is the best combine we've ever seen while guys are putting so much more emphasis. It's not you play college, then you run 40s every once in a while and go. to the combine and sees what happens. This is now a business in itself to train players for the NFL combine, but that is not how you play football.

So it sounded like Dominique Orange was actually kind of annoyed at that, that he's going to have to work himself back into football shape from the combine, which, you know, if you're somebody like a wide receiver, maybe that's not too difficult, but a nose tackle might take a little more effort. So he didn't seem to be too happy about that. But, I mean, he's, look, he's a big, strong dude. And in a environment like this, you're not going to be able to really see much for how he moves or how he's going to defeat blocks, how he's going to, you know, latch on to people and move bodies and stuff. That's more of a training camp thing.

The trenches are just not possible. And they never really were under Zimmer, but they're definitely not possible under Kevin O'Connell in the way that he does it, which is not a criticism. It's just, I can't tell you how he looked other than, you know, he's a big giant dude. Not tall, not tall, but he's very wide and has long arms and, you know, he's strong. He's Dominique Orange. He's a big citrus. Tasselios, like the Jets McKinnon. Yeah, that's right.

I forgot that he used to go by Jets, right? But Jerich, you know, Jerich was a good pass protector and was a good receiver on the backfield. I think that Claiborne will be the same thing as far as a receiver. He looks like he has natural hands to me where he got a couple of catches today. And then I saw some other running backs catch the ball and you're like, yeah, that's right. Claiborne really stands out. Joker, good to hear. It doesn't look like we drafted the next Dwayne McBride.

You guys never let it go. If, I mean, every seventh rounder, every sixth rounder, it does not matter. If they fail on a draft pick, you're going to hold them to it. for the rest of time. It's kind of remarkable. But yeah, I mean, Dwayne McBride was a seventh round pick out of, what, UAB?

It's not too shocking that it didn't really work out for Dwayne McBride. But there is a difference there between him and Daman Claiborne. The difference is, well, one, that Dane Bruegler had Dimon Claybourne as his eighth best running back in the entire class. So there were people in the analysis world who thought that he should go a lot higher than the sixth. So there is that element to it, like just based on the skill set.

And I don't know what else may have been involved, but just based on the skill set, there were a lot of people who really liked Claiborne as one of the better running backs in this class. But, you know, also, he's fast. And it might be if you wanted to do a comparison of like a cynical comparison, it might be just, hey, Ty Chandler was really fast too and looked pretty good in practice and looked pretty good at times. and then ended up not being able to get on the field. But I think that with this team pretty clearly looking for different stuff in the run game with Frank Smith, that there might be more commitment to the idea that you want to get DeMond Claiborne on the field.

Because I know last year, Chandler was hurt. So they may have ended up using Chandler more, but he ended up getting injured in that first game of the year on a kick return. But even with like a Kenai Wong-Wu where they, never seemed willing to use him. They didn't mix in Chandler very often, and he didn't really succeed in that every so often role in 2024. So there is that. And that's impossible to tell after one day of rookie minicamp.

It's just that he looks extremely quick. I think that there might be a little bit less on, hey, this guy's super reliable and you know exactly what you're going to get to. Why don't we take a swing at a boom or bust play here every once in a while with Claiborne on the field. And that's something that's just been missing a little bit from the KOC offense is you have a Ty Felton who's great after the catch, runs a four, three. And he never even tries to bring him onto the field and get him the football and see what

happens to work in a player too. Those kind of bit players every once in a while can prove something in roles like that or can become something that you didn't expect. But he's not very big. so I wouldn't expect him to come in right away and like take the job from Aaron Jones and he's going to have to work his way in. It just feels like someone with that speed more likely to get on the field this year than possibly previous years.

Son of Beaver's does that make 9 DTs on the roster with Vilbert's? Wonder if B-Flow might look for a couple more. Yeah, I mean, he's signing an undrafted free agent contract. So the best possible scenario for someone like Vilbert is probably to just make the practice squad. If you can make the practice squad, then great. And every once in a while, there's an Elijah Williams who completely shocks us and makes the roster or a Jalen Redman.

So it's not impossible. But I think that they should be looking. They signed was Eric Johnson, the guy from the Colts, who is kind of a run defender, has some raw skills that maybe they like. But I think that both positions outside linebacker and defensive tackle that they need to add at least another player or two at those spots. They've got some intriguing undrafted free agents. They didn't draft anybody at outside linebacker.

So they need someone to not replace Jonathan Grenard, but at least be the Jihad Ward type who can rotate in. And then if someone gets injured, be able to play full time. Because right now, they do not have that behind Dallas Turner and Andrew Van Ginkle. And I just don't see Jake Golda as being a outside. side linebacker right away. I think that he'll rotate into that position and maybe they'll try their best to get him on the field a little bit early.

But if Van Ginkle goes down and let's say he's down four weeks, I don't know that you want somebody who's being asked to do a lot of stuff in the NFL as a rookie to just go in there and play the edge like that. Maybe you'd end up having to have Eric Wilson play a lot. They could see him at that position. It did come into my mind. And I don't know if this is possible or not. but we talked a little bit about Ty Ingram Dawkins having some inside out to his game

that he could potentially be maybe someone who does play that Jihad Ward role where he stands up sometimes and he rushes in the middle sometimes and he kind of is all over the place. But again, that's not really what we're talking about for a pure edge rusher. So maybe there's like, I think AJ Epinessa is still out there, played for Buffalo, someone like that possibly, or maybe they're looking. to try to emulate a Turner or a Van Ginkle. It feels like when they get a little more of that free agent money after June 1st,

that that will be a priority. Gizinkad, love how excited he was to talk football with you. I know, Dominique is a delight. Yeah, for sure. And just, you know, said hello and introduce myself after. But it seems like somebody who is very excited. And a lot of times, if you're willing to do the things that a nose guard, nose tackle does, you probably got to really be into football.

I don't think that you can say, oh, yeah, why don't I just have three guys in the middle all slam into me all the time? Because that's what I love. Like, you got to be into it in order to do that. So I'm, you know, excited to talk with Dominique into the future about different details. You can tell you really thought about it.

And he had studied Dexter Lawrence and, you know, knew some of the details that he did there. So, you know, intelligence is something that this, team really looks for. And I think that they've had a lot of success in getting players. A lot of them have been veterans or undrafted free agents and stuff, but they have had a lot of success looking for a certain personality type. And you can see that that's important to them. And you saw Caleb Banks. And if you listen, I saw Jacobi Thomas, a couple of clips from his conversation with the media. Well, I was talking with Dominique and Jacob Thomas speaks really well. And so does Dominique and so does

Jake and it's like, oh yeah, you'll, you'll fit in here. Like this team is, it's very much on the defensive side built on communication. So they're going to get guys who are good in that area. And you could tell and, well, it benefits the media as well. Hunter, Jake Golda sounds like the comedian. How do you say his last name? Is it Bargazzi? Nate, I've seen him.

Bargazi, Bargazzi. You can tell how much I watch stand-up comedy. So you're going to, I'll have to take your word for it there. But that's funny. How about them wolves? We'll see. We'll see how about them wolves. Joker, surprised to hear you not mention Zamiya Vaughn.

Well, when guys have already been on the team, I wasn't really, I'm not really watching those guys too much. I mean, Zemiah Vaughn, I saw him all summer last year. I saw him all spring last year. I feel like I've got a pretty good idea. of what he is. He is one that I'm watching into the spring in the summer of what his role is going to be because in the springs, Amaya Vaughn was phenomenal.

And in the first part of the summer, he made some plays and caught all of our attention. And as the summer went along, it kind of faded a bit. And we were a little surprised on cut down day. And then he ends up in the practice squad and develops for an entire year. So how does he build on that development? And if you look at the back end of the corner of the corner of. back room. You've got your starters in Isaiah Rogers and Byron Murphy Jr. You've got James Pierce, James Pierre, who is going to be able to mix his way in. He could be depth. He could play

a nickel. He's probably going to have some sort of role, Pierre. And then pass that, everything is kind of wide open. You have Chuck Demings. You have Zamea Vaughn. Dwight McGovern is still here. So who's going to emerge as that next depth corner? Is it going to to be Demings because they drafted him, but they really liked Zemaya Vaughn last year. It seemed early on in training camp and then maybe it faded as it went along in the summer. But if he makes plays, then he can separate himself as well. Brian asking about Ty and Grim Dawkins. Yeah, that's somebody who has my attention, not just for how he takes a next step,

but also where he takes a next step because Ty is really in the, the, middle. Like he's a tweener. He's the size of a defensive tackle who's very light or an outside linebacker who's very heavy. Maybe an old school you would have seen in the 90s where they would have defensive ends that went at like 275, 280. It's kind of like that. And his athleticism is crazy. He is an excellent, excellent athlete. So last year I thought when he got on the field, there were flashes. There were five or six plays where I went, okay, Ty and Graham. Dawkins like that's something right there um but you know the consistency is not there yet as a young player i think he's a guy that they're going to mix and match that it's going to be stand up at

some point in rush it's going to be hey this is a rundown and we're putting five defensive tackles on the field on third and three or something like that because other teams run on third and three sorry we were telling jokes earlier i decided to jump in on it uh but i i i i I could see him mix and match in that way, where he is on the outside sometimes. He is on the inside. He could play if they're going to kind of carve out this three, four defensive end role for Caleb Banks. He's not going to be in there for every single snap. So I think that Ingram Dawkins could be kind of that four eye five technique that's out over the tackle

because he's big enough to take on a tackle, but also quick enough to make a difference inside. He's somebody that I'm very interested to see because a lot of times, If you come in as the raw athlete that didn't have a ton of playing experience in college, and he had to kind of wait his turn at Georgia, if I remember, to finally get a chance to play. That does seem like something the Vikings like and emphasize as guys who developed at one college. There's a lot of players that they drafted this year like that. So he's been on this development path. And does he take a big step this year?

Because if he does, then that athleticism is really going to shine through. uh, Aaron, uh, yes, they did. Uh, they did sign Smith Vilbert. That is legit. That is, uh, a real NFL agent. Uh, I don't know if the Vikings have sent a release out or not, but the, yes, that is correct. It's a, it's a real NFL agent and Smith and it's a real player named Smith Wilbert.

So there you go. Just another, another guy who kind of fits that same bill, six foot six, two hundred ninety pounds. It doesn't slide into any clear category of your typical defense of, well, If you're going to be a defensive tackle, you probably have to be close to 300 or if you're going to be a defensive end. You've got to be a certain size. It does look like they're kind of stocking some of these three, four defensive end types that are about 290 pounds to be able to play that type of front, which they may be shifting to now with Dominique Orange.

I mean, you do have to do it differently if you have a true nose tackle. I am curious who plays nose tackle when Orange is not on the field or if he needs a break. They don't really have a backup one of those, but they do have a bunch of guys that now look like they can play on those three, four defensive ends. And then they're going to roll the ball out and kind of see what happens. By the way, just let me stop real quick. Fan dual question of the day for you. Let me throw this out there. I was looking at the conference odds because I was talking the other night about

I'm working on it and I'll get it for you next week. A post draft, mostly post-free agency, NFC power ranking. I did my first one a few weeks ago. I'm struggling like crazy to try to put together another one. And I'm going to publish one next week because you know it is the thing I care about most in the entire world is power ranking. So I'm going to put everything I've got into it. But here's the struggle I've gotten into.

So the first two teams I know who I'm going with, the Rams and Seahawks at the top of the NFC. Spoiler. But the third team, I asked Caitlin Kaler, she came on the show earlier if you want to check that one out. That's up on YouTube now. But I asked her who she thought was third and she said Chicago. And I was like, maybe because you could see Caleb Williams taking a step forward. The odds right now on FanDuel have the 49ers as the third highest odds to win the NFC at plus 750. So that's the FanDuel question of the day. which is, who would you have third? I'm making my power rankings.

Who would you have at number three, assuming we all agree that the Rams and the Seahawks are deserving of the number one and two spots? So let me know. That is your Fandul question of the day. Joker, ready to get hurt again. You know what? It's funny you say that because I feel like Joanne Jennings

is a bit of a turn of a corner. for Vikings fans. Because when you look at this roster, as of yesterday before they signed Joanne Jennings, you could kind of go through the unknowns and go, is it really good enough? Are they really serious? And I know Joker,

you've been in the comment section kind of saying, they're not really going for it. They're not really serious. They're just sort of play in the middle again because they didn't trade for Dexter Lawrence. They didn't do, they did a big swing for a guy who probably is going to need a lot a development time in the draft in Caleb Banks.

And I think based on their history, any suggestion that they are just trying to be good enough to make the playoffs, but not swinging big is kind of fair, that they have been stuck in that middle in a lot of seasons in the past. But with Joanne Jennings, it starts to come together much clearer for you. And O'Connell, as you heard him earlier when he's talking about it, he's talking about the positional flexibility that's required. Jennings just checks off so many boxes as an improvement over what they've had. I think he's better than Osborne.

I think he's better than Jalen Naylor. And here's another thing that he brings that I just think this team is really needed, which is a nastiness to his game. And it apparently rubs some people the wrong way last year. But I mean, you see some of the blocks this guy has. You see some of the broken tackles, some of the contested catches, boxing people out and you go, that's not really been there. That physical presence, that nastiness.

Jalen Naylor, I like a lot. I think he's a good wide receiver. And I think he earned his contract and he'll do well with the Raiders. But he's not that. There's no intimidation factor. There's no frustration factor from opponents in playing Naylor other than he has a lot of speed. Where with Jennings, there is a, I'm going to hurt you element to the

corners and the safeties that have to deal with him. The fact that he's been that good, he's been on a winning team, he's played a big role, he's been in the Super Bowl, he's been in big playoff games, he brings this extra element. It's a, it's a significant signing for the Vikings. And it just felt a little bit yesterday as the reactions were coming into it like, okay, now I can see it. Like, before, okay, Kyler Murray, if he takes the next step, or if he's just even what he was last year, 2004,

then it should be pretty good and okay, but you had to squint a little. They didn't draft a receiver, which was devastating to all purple insider listeners. But I think we still count as being right that they added a receiver who had a bunch of catches or at least close enough. That doesn't matter. The point just being that when you add a player who's been on that stage

and who has put up numbers like that and who does bring more to your identity and then you see them draft a super fast running back. You see them bring in a coordinator, former coordinator now assistant coach, who has a history in this run game and you go, this starts to look better, depth on the offensive line. This starts to look better. This looks a lot better. I mean, last year they had Addison suspended for three games.

Cross your fingers, I suppose, that he doesn't end up with another one of those. But they missed Edison. They trade for Adam Thiele. that didn't work out. The offensive line got hurt. They didn't have any depth there. When a running back went down, they didn't have anybody with speed there. And I thought C.J. Ham was good last year. But getting a younger fullback in there who maybe is a little more versatile in his alignments than C.J. Ham was. I mean, it starts to look like, okay, this is the team competing. It just took longer to get to than we thought it was going to. it was harder to see where is this vision kind of going with Rob Bersinski in charge.

But now we can see it. And I wouldn't be surprised if there's several more additions on the defensive side to where we can really see it. And even though they are still plus 600 on Fanduil to win the division, I mean, from where we're sitting right now with Jawan Jennings, that didn't change in the markets. But it probably changed quite a bit in the viewpoint of the way everyone looked at it. So I'm not surprised that you're ready to be hurt again, quoting Michael Scott. But I also think that that move happening, that it does change things. It really does from if you, even if you brought in like, you know, a D'Andre Hopkins. There's just a limit to how good that can be.

That's going to be 15 or 20 catches. This could be 40 or 50 and it can be depth if one of those guys gets hurt. son of beavers still concerned with our guard depth would it still be possible to bring in Ethan Pockich to play center so Brandel can play in the guard spots in a pinch. I don't think so. I think that what you have is your starting center, Blake Brandel. Now, could they go out and get a veteran if they don't like what they see from Michael Juergens is the backup?

I think that is possible. I think Gavin Gerhardt is probably someone who is just going to be, you know, practice squad and a veteran, well, not a veteran, but an older player who can come in and learn pretty quickly, but is not someone that you actually want to get in the game. And then they'll see if there's any flexibility or something there from him with his experience. But they could, if they don't like what they see, try to sign a veteran in training camp. I just think that they evaluated Blake Brandel last year and said, this is our best option and I would tend to agree. I mean, Pockage has had some injuries. That's another thing about Brandel.

The guy hasn't had injuries. He has been very healthy throughout his career. So you're not dealing with, well, yeah, I mean, if he comes back from this, that, and the other thing, then maybe he'll be fine. And when you compare him to the other free agents, the other guys available, he is the best option as your starting center. But there's some concern there if he were to go down. but they have they absolutely have more depth on the offensive line than they've had in recent years Joker Murray and McCarthy is technically a competition like if I played 18 holes against Scotty Sheffler for a milkshake technically a competition I don't think that the gap

between McCarthy and Kyler Murray is what it is for you and Scotty Sheffler in fact of all the sports in the entire world, probably golf is the one that the athletes are the farthest away in terms of skill. We know that we're not Anthony Edwards, height and everything else. But maybe the biggest difference between what people think they are and where they really are. So every golfer who's halfway decent thinks, you know what? If I could just, if I could just hit more balls, if I just had more time, then I mean,

I could be close. And the answer is, no. No, no, no, no. No. Nope. Nowhere close. Nowhere in any universe. In fact, when you think about even, when you think about like a scratch golfer and how much they would get destroyed by Scotty Sheffler because the holes are 600 yards on par fives. So how do you even reach them as a normal scratch golfer? And then these guys play 10 under par. So if you're playing scratch, you look great. I'm paring holes left. right, I'm a beast. This guy's 40 shots ahead of you after four days. I mean, it's nuts. It's nuts. So, no, it's not like that.

It's, let me try to think of some sort of comparison. Because, yes, it is a competition as in there's always competition in football. It's just that under the current circumstances, after going out and getting Joanne Jennings, you are in a place where you can elevate a very skilled first overall, draft pick quarterback who's never been anywhere near this before and you can develop J.J. McCarthy at the same time and see where you're at. So it's, it isn't like to say it's not a competition is not to make fun of J.J. McCarthy. It's just that's the position the franchise is in. There are other teams. There are seven other teams in the NFL who would love to just have J.J.

McCarthy starting for them right now and see what happens. I mean, if you think about Arizona, like Arizona would love to have J.J. McCarthy and then see what happens. The Jets. So you think that they are super thrilled to play a hundred year old Gino Smith who's going to get sacked 57 times this year? No way. They would much rather have a J.J. McCarthy and see what happens, somebody that they might be able to get long term out of.

But the Vikings are not in that position. They're in a position where you play a veteran quarterback who you're trying to get every ounce out of everybody. You're trying to make the most of Aaron Jones and T.J. Hawkinson's potential last year here. Brian O'Neill. And now Joanne Jennings is on a one-year deal. Like, you're not going to... This was the big mistake they made last year is they had so many players that are older,

that have been around, that were on the 14-win team. And you're saying, JJ, why don't you just lead this entire team that is not really yours that became sort of Sam Darnold's last year? Why don't you just lead this entire team? Oh, yeah, you've never played football in the NFL before. Oh, yeah, you missed an entire year. Like, there was a lot of common sense that got avoided because they believed in themselves a little too much when it came to J.J. McCarthy's development.

So now, even though you feel like you're on a clock that's ticking because of the rookie contract and it's always in our mind, with quarterbacks, it just sometimes can't work that way. So if he spends this year getting better developing. and then suddenly turns a corner, well, yeah, you're still trying to go win a Super Bowl with Kyler Murray, but good things are happening for you in a long-term perspective. And if you love Murray and you sign him to a five-year deal, then you can trade J.J. McCarthy or if McCarthy ends up having to play and shows you that he's made big advances in his game,

well, then you might have him still on the table for the future. So it's not, it's not like they're competing, but they're not really competing with each other because they're on such different timelines. Like Kyler Murray, Kyler Murray is coming here to shove it up the world's rear. I mean, that's what he's really doing, right? He came to the Minnesota Vikings to show everyone. Kyler Murray is a Pro Bowl quarterback who can win in the NFL that's been screwed over by Arizona. And everything I've heard about Kyler Murray since he signed with the Vikings is he's, he's, wants it. He wants to show everybody that it was not that it was like all their fault and, you know,

they didn't make every mistake that he made, but he wants to show everybody that he is a great quarterback. And that's why he's here. And he wants to use these three great wide receivers and this really great tight end and this system and everybody else, this coaching to do it. So that, that's the circumstance you're in. But we are just so fast with quarterbacks to be like, mm, sucks forever. it doesn't always work that way. And we've seen that a lot. So that's kind of how I think of it. Let's see.

Joker, the Vikings posted a short video with the running back coach miced up. You could tell Cook had a different gear from that. Oh, that was like back in 2017. Yeah, I mean, there was no no scouting required for Delvin Cook. That's for sure. Evan says there were a lot of people who said Chatur was a top 10 pick. shows how we really evaluate with Claiborne. Well, yeah, I mean, look, most of the time that someone drops like that,

it's because the NFL has information that the outside people don't. The Shadur stuff, I think that the draft analysts, they were so desperate for a draft debate that they put Shadur way higher than he ever should have been based on his actual talent, having nothing to do with personality or celebrity. or whatever distraction he might cause, which seems to be a pretty consistent thing, whether it's him or Shiloh or Dion or whoever else. But even from a raw skill perspective,

I was like, this is a second or third round player. He's not even as, I didn't even think Ty Simpson was that impressive. And he's more impressive than Chaturr Sanders by kind of a lot when it comes to his mobility and arm strength and everything. I think it was stars in their eyes. They just assumed that the NFL would do it. and also if you were the person saying,

guys, we shouldn't even be talking about Chaturr Sanders because he's not a first round draft pick, then you'd get attacked by everybody. I don't know. That's an interesting one to look back on and go, what happened there, draft analysts? But that doesn't mean they're wrong about everything. I mean, when someone gets drafted in the sixth round,

there is a good chance that they're not going to work out. But with Claiborne, it's not like there's one running back spot, and that's it. and there's just one R.B. And there are three. And they can rotate in, I mean, four, if you count Xavier Scott. They can rotate. They can, you know, make plays.

They can be set up on special teams to return. And maybe they'll mix and match with him there with Miles Price on the returning and so forth. So there's things you could do to get that type of guy on the field. I don't know why it came to mind for me with him. But like David Palmer was a wide receiver and a running back. so it was a little bit different and a good punt returner, but it's that undersized guy with some burst. And they would use Palmer in lots of different ways.

So that might be what Claiborne becomes, or it might be more than that, and he just overcomes the size issue. Michael says, Claiborne claim that he can run faster than 437. They always do after the combine, but 437 is pretty darn fast. Joker says,

wasn't Claibor one of the better pass blocking running backs in the draft? I mean, I will say that pass blocking is mindset and it is not necessarily size related. So he may have been like Amir Abdullah is a pretty smart, small guy, but he's very smart guy. So he was able to pass protect effectively. I would not want Claiborne in past protecting against NFL linebackers. No way.

I think that he is kind of, I mean, he's a little bit smaller than Jemir Gibbs. And Jemir Gibbs was trying his heart out against Eric Wilson and getting run over. I think what they can do there is, you know, just sneak him out of the backfield, throw it to them on a third down if they want to do that. Or just, look, it's first and 10. Put him in there. Put Max Bredesen ahead of them, pitch him the football and see if you can get a 10-yard game.

And then go back to slamming away with Jordan Mason. Just get the ball rolling with him because you can see where that's going to play. The shiftiness was really, it's not the 437, 437. It's the shiftiness. like when he was doing something it was like a catch and kind of a juke move and it was like he was parallel to the ground i mean it was just so shifty wow okay that really stands out uh ron how about gavin bartholomew and his back injury from last year so i don't think that gavin was here today i assume since he was just on the roster last year that he would not be here uh today i didn't

see him so and i don't see his number here uh but But Gavin, I assume, is just going to come back and play, starting in OTAs in minicamp and we'll see what happens. Gavin is the one guy on the roster that has some legitimate chance to become a starting, receiving tight end in the future. Since they didn't draft one, I look at Ben Urosic is more of a versatile blocker who could catch the ball, but he's kind of built like a truck. And Bryson Nesbitt is a long shot of a really good athlete, but he didn't catch the ball that well. in training camp last year. But Bartholomew, if you watch him in college, I mean, he had a lot of those like go up and get it catches,

his quickness, his flexibility is there, didn't have very good quarterback play. But that's like gaining a rookie this year because he didn't have a chance to play all of last year. Joker, Jacoby Thomas's post-draft interview stood out among a lot of good interviews. And then, you know, it did today too. And that's where when we get to talking about the consensus board and reaches, when you are

around number 100, it has been shown that the power of the consensus board really fades at that point because it's just so much harder to be accurate for the draft analysts on the 112th player than it is on the top 50 to 75. That's where it's always the strongest. and I think what the draft analysis universe is much better at teams for doing is identifying what might undo some of those top prospects. Like, hey, this guy wasn't productive or this guy has this can't catch the ball or whatever else where teams will go, yeah, but he's got this skill set that I really love and I'm going

to draft him. But a player like Jacoby Thomas, intelligence and read and react are so important to Brian Flores and his defense that once you get to a. around a hundred, just pick dudes who you really think are going to fit in with what you do. And that seems to be Jacoby Thomas. And maybe at the end of the day, we'll say, oh, he's a great talker and ended up on special teams. You know, Tavier Thomas is a very smart guy and kind of ends up as a special teamer.

And that's okay. You're looking for a little more from a third round draft pick. But I think that the intelligence and that sort of processing, that he's capable of doing that we saw at Miami last year does give him an opportunity to potentially get in the mix. And he seems like a football junkie type of guy who's going to try to learn everything he can. It did remind me of like Anthony Harris and Cam Bynum. Both of those guys not blazing fast.

And yet they were able to carve out their niche and play a lot. Okay. I'm getting a little lost here. AP Carlin, love Aaron Jones, but I lost so much faith in him to be healthy. and I'm unsure of the run game until I see it work, also praying for CD to bounce back this year. Very good points, AP Carlin. With Aaron Jones, bringing him back is a risk,

not necessarily financially, but just in that you make plans and you build a run game. And then last year in the first game of the season, that run game and those plans are just sort of out the window because you can't have, you know, a rotation that you were hoping for. And with Aaron Jones, the ability to stay healthy is always tough for any running back. But someone who's had so many injuries over the years, you're probably looking at signing

him to maybe play 12 games. But I think that's where the addition of Claiborne comes in. And you could certainly argue that they should have done more than just Claiborne. That may be another free agent. And there could be someone on the way. I don't know. Another free agent would have made more sense than Aaron. Jones and there does appear to be a commitment to people like Aaron Jones with this team

that is possibly a tad overvalued. And I don't mean that it's overvalued that someone has leadership and is just a phenomenal person to have in your building and has a multiple skill set. It isn't easy to go out into free agency and find a good pass protector and just, you know, right? Like Travis Eton was the best there was in free agency, but then the second best, I, I've I remember looking through was not very good. There was a guy who was an RFA from, I think, Green Bay or something who was when I was trying to make a list.

I was like, I don't know. They got an RFA last time. Maybe that guy. So there wasn't too many guys who stood out as past protectors. And I think that that's part of it for Jones. And they want him to be a part of more of him, more of an R.B2. And Mason take on a lot more of the carries. And then Jones could catch the ball.

and if that's the role and let's say he plays late stage amp lee type role and he's playing like, I don't know, 25 plays a game and he gets a handful of carries and he gets a couple of targets and he throws his body into a blitzing linebacker. Like that's pretty good, but that's the ideal world. And the unideal world is if Jordan Mason gets banged up, then Aaron Jones is your guy again with just a rookie behind him. So they are playing with fire a little bit when it comes to the best. field. It feels like it's, it's, it's teetering a little bit of you can see it being quite good.

I mean, Mason average almost five yards of carry last year. So you could see it being quite good, but they're kind of one injury away from going. It's a little light back there. And you just cannot use Jordan Mason and pass protection. That did not work at all. Uh, Joker, you were a, a, uh, dolphins better for a few games last year. Their run attack was the only reason you could win. Yeah. Uh, their run attack was phenomenal. Devon A. Chan, led the league in yards per carry, and it was not just because he's fast. There was a lot of good stuff, a lot of eye candy, a lot of misdirection, a lot of creativity. We talked about this before with O'Connell during the seasons of the last few years.

It wasn't just that they didn't run on third and one or that, hey, man, you're up 14 points. You got a good defense. Why don't you just wind some clock? Why don't just try to pound the other team's face in a little bit? it was also that there weren't that many times where you went, ooh, that was interesting or, man, this team has no idea where the handoffs are going, right? And that's when you watch Miami and you're like, okay, this guy motions in there. There were times with Miami where they would line up in a certain look and then totally change it and then run right before the play.

Or there were times where their fullback would line up at tight end or wide receiver and suddenly he's in the back. field or suddenly he's behind the tackle and he's blocking in that in that B gap like between the guard and the tackle he's just going and hitting somebody and you go and there's there's just people everywhere in this run game there's wide zone that has somebody coming back across the formation underneath to hit the backside guy and you go like oh man if you were if you were the linebacker looking at your key of the tight end and you saw him fly the other direction you got to be like wait a minute where is this going so you're going to see see a lot more creativity there.

Record prediction, Dion, that's an interesting one because I should mention that next week, the 14th, the schedule is out. And you know what that means. Manny picks the schedule. I have already booked Manny for next Thursday night. The schedule comes out. We go through every single game and we will pick their record officially. I'll put it like this since we integrate.

our friends at Fanduil quite a bit into the show. The Fandul over under is eight and a half still for the Minnesota Vikings. I would go higher at this moment. And the chances to win the division, shouldn't say chances, but their odds on Fandul are plus 600. And I would not have them that high. I would have them much closer to the other teams in the NFC North. So that's where I'm at.

But we'll find out officially when Manny and I picked the schedule next week. And who knows? Like, they could, they could add more players. I don't know. Super Bowl win. Yeah, I mean, look, I just think that the vibe changed.

I just think that the vibe changed around this team when you signed someone like Cam Acres will be back. That's funny. When you sign someone like Joanne Jennings, the vibe changes. Because this really had a sense of stuck in the middle. And you get a quarterback who is peaked around the top 10. which is a little bit Kirk-like, and you've got some young players that you're excited about, but maybe are they ready yet to take it to the next level? And you're going to have to rely on them.

You're going to have to rely on Dominique Orange. You're going to have to rely at least somewhat on Caleb Banks. You can't just hide those guys away. I think that Jake Golda is going to play. I think DeMond Claiborne's going to play. Max Bredison's going to play. So you're relying on younger guys, but you have a lot of veteran players that are on this team. At this moment, you don't have Harrison Smith back,

which of course, O'Connell, you know, answered a question today about that. But when you bring in someone of the caliber of Joanne Jennings with 132 catches over the last two seasons, that's someone who would be capable of playing a wide receiver two for other teams based on his numbers and based on his skill set. I don't know why he's not, but it just, I think the most obvious answer is the right one that Jennings just thought he was going to get a lot more money and then free agency passed in a hurry. this was the fastest I've ever seen free agency disappear, by the way. It was like middle of day two, everyone's gone.

I remember talking about this on day two when we did the show. I was like, where do they all go? Everybody off of the top 100 for the athletic or whatever. It just felt like they all found homes very quick, mostly with bad teams. And here's Joanne Jennings still being like, does anyone want to pay me huge money? So when he found out he couldn't, he went to the best possible. team to help integrate him into their offense.

It just is a, when you have three and you have someone that brings this tough element to it, this violence to their game that has been lacking in the Vikings offense, I think it adds a little bit of something different. Not that I think Joanne Jennings is worth five wins or something, but you could see, I mean, Jordan Addison twists an ankle and all of a sudden, what are you even doing, right? Like, who are you throwing to outside of Jefferson? Now, it just, there's a security blanket element. There's a run game element.

There's a, these guys won and has been vicious as a winner. And that's just kind of been missing. So, Joe says, I think the Vikings have another move coming for a running back. That could be. I think that one more makes a lot of sense. But I've, I've thought that the last couple of years and they just didn't do it. Camakers did show up every time and then was eventually cut. So there could be room at the end for one more.

But as of right now, it seems like they're going to go with the four that they have. I think that they should, but who that would be, I'm not really sure. Joker says how many teams could make a case for number three in the NFC. I like the Eagles, but you could even make a case for the Vikings. I don't think that anyone will make a case for the Vikings until they see Kyler Murray have a good football game. if Kyler Murray doesn't have any, you know, good football games until September, people are not going to be putting them as the number three team in the power ranking. I think that the lions are getting a ton of benefit of the doubt.

You said you like the Eagles. The Eagles, for sure, they got a lot of help from the Vikings. They do kind of have this every other year, maybe getting the AJ Brown drama. You can't underrate former Vikings Sean freaking Mannion. What a day for journeyman quarterbacks, right? Cooper Rush shows up here. We mentioned Todd Bauman and then, you know, Sean Mannion comes up on the show. But Sean Mannion comes from the world of Gary Kubiak, Kevin Stefansky.

I think he's going to run that. Matt LaFleurr, he's going to run that kind of offense in Philly, which Jalen Hertz could really benefit from the play actions and maybe getting him rolling out a little bit more and stuff like that, easier completions using the tight end. They just drafted a very athletic tight end that they could use. using that system. I think that the Eagles do have a good case for being that team. They looked like they were starting to dip and now I'm not totally convinced that they will.

The boldest one, if you want to be like crazy bold, you'd go someone like Washington that could get Jane Daniels back and is being totally forgotten about. But in the NFL, this happens all the time. And I'll probably overrate Washington as we go through the offseason. But it happens all the time where a team, and this is kind of happening to the Vikings, right? Like they dip a little bit and everyone just goes, you're garbage. We're going to focus on the teams that were good last year.

But that's not how the NFL works. It goes down. It goes up, right? And I'm not, but I'm not sure. San Francisco is probably, as you mentioned, San Francisco is probably the one that is deserving. Any NFC North team you could probably make a case for.

No one really in the NFC self and in the West. Yeah, it would be the 49ers if you were making that argument. It might be those three. teams are the best in the entire NFC. So I'll work on it for next year. Anyway, all right. Well, we covered a lot of ground. So hopefully you guys enjoyed the conversation about rookie mini camp.

And it looked to me like, you know, they brought in a lot of undrafted free agents that have some skill that might eventually translate. And Dylan Bell is the one that I'll probably be watching the closest as we go into this. but you never really know, right? I wasn't sharp enough to spot Elijah Williams last year, and he ends up making the team. So we'll see how these things develop from here. And if the Vikings do sign anyone else, emergency podcasts are happening all the time.

So I'll be around and so forth. But for now, I'm going to check out and then catch the wolves a little later, get some dinner before that. And off we go and we'll see, wolves and wild over the next few days. So look forward to for next week. The schedule release on Thursday will cook up some more good guests for the show and carry on through what has been a very, very interesting off season.

And then, hey, who knows? We could get the white smoke at any time on a general manager hire. That will be an emergency podcast. It's a lot to do. A lot to do still for the off season. So thanks everybody for watching and listening. And we'll catch you all very soon. Football.