Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Vikings ST coordinator Matt Daniels joins the show, Justin Jefferson makes an absurd catch in practice

Episode Date: July 29, 2023

Vikings special teams coordinator Matt Daniels sits down with Matthew Coller to talk about his approach to leadership, why he likes an aggressive mindset and his aspirations as a head coach. Plus he chats with Vikings fans about another day of camp, which featured one of the best catches you'll ever see from Justin Jefferson. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

🎵 Welcome back to the show for a return appearance, which must mean that he liked his last appearance or didn't remember it. Vikings special teams coordinator Matt Daniels. What is up, man? How are you? Man, I'm doing great. It's cooking out here right now in Minneapolis, but I mean, where is it not cooking at, right? That's all part of training camp. Beautiful, beautiful green grass. Excited to get the fans out tomorrow for our first kind of open practice. Bring some good energy out here. Things are going really well. I'm excited

about the roster that we put together. Excited rookies you know really looking forward forward to the season it does feel great to be back we were just talking about you know things we did the summer or whatever else but this is like back to school it's a great feeling to be out here um and when it cools off a little bit it'll be a little more comfortable for us but uh there's a lot of things that came to mind to talk with you about there's new kickoff rules, everything else. We've got a whole new roster, all sorts of people to work with. But I did want to start with just you. I mean, last year you arrived here, kind of first time being a Minnesotan and so forth. And last training camp you went through some things that were difficult for you,

and it was very chaotic, I'm sure, and very challenging. So I guess when you sort of reflect on arriving here, everything you went through with your father passing away, what was that like for you last year to kind of go through that as you were taking a new job and a big step in your career? Yeah, that's a great question. I think the biggest thing is it was ups and downs. It was a roller coaster of emotions for sure.

And, you know, I look at how the season went and all I can say is that I had unbelievable support system to help me get through it. You know, days were some days were great. Some days were not so good. But, you know, I had players that leaned on me. They always checked on me, genuine about it. And with that, I was able to kind of keep a good steady head and stay stable and really continue to pour my all into these players because, you know, that's where I find joy and that's where my passion lies really is, is pouring into all of these players.

And so, you know, you look at the year, there were some things that we did really, really well. I thought we implemented some really good schematics. You know, I thought we kind of switched up some things on the back end that really tailored more towards our players' strengths. And with that, you know, I like to build on getting better with in-game adjustments, you know, being a better gatherer of information in the game to give my players a little bit more information so that they do find a way to kind of have those advantageous positions

that they're going to be in so they can win those matchups. Yeah, it's interesting your approach because I feel like you kind of cover both bases of the connection with players and leadership, but also you're kind of an analytics nerd as well. Absolutely, got to be. Let's talk about both of those things. So it really stood out to me last year,

the way that you connected with players, whether it was the special teams hats or, you know, just guys would talk about that quite a bit. And I thought that there was more energy for special teams and for those guys and more buy-in and sort of ownership over that role rather than I'm just doing this so I could get something else from that last year than I think I've ever seen covering the team. I wonder how you achieve that like as a leader to get that sort of buy-in in a role where clearly you know that players are

trying to use it to slingshot them to the next level. Absolutely you know you mentioned two words really that stuck out to me you You said getting players to buy in. And I actually talked about this on my interview process because when you're a new coach coming in or a new staff coming in, there is a level of belief versus buy-in that goes with the players. And so what happens is that there's, you know, Zimmer was here for eight years, I want to say it was, and so a lot of the players were coached by the same coaches and learned basically these techniques and fundamentals that work for them.

And so here I come in trying to introduce new techniques, new fundamentals, new schematics. And so what happens is, is that there's a little bit of, well, you know, this right here has been working for me for so long, why should I switch over to this? And so you have to build a good relationship with the players and get them to believe in what you're coaching first right and so the buy-in aspect is is that once we all put it all together it goes out on the field and they realize that what we're teaching the coaching works well now you get into buy-in now you get enough to believe exactly what we're coaching what we're

talking about and you know i'm able to do that just by being my authentic self at the end of the day and players players can see you know when you're code switching when you're you're not being consistent in who you are and i tell them all the time that they need to show up in this building and be whoever they are whoever you are be that person i don't i don't i don't need you to show up in the the classroom and be this way and on the field you're this be whoever they are. Whoever you are, be that person. I don't need you to show up in the classroom and be this way and then on the field, you're this way. Whoever you are, be that way the entire time. And if you do that and you're having a bad day

or something might be a little bit off, I'm gonna know that because you are who you are. And through that, that's how you build good relationship with players. And I'm able to do that by just being transparent with them, being open with them, doing a great job of communicating with them. And through that, you build just great relationships just by being your authentic self.

You know, something I noticed about you from really day one is kind of the presence you have. Sometimes it's describing Jalen Rager's body. No, I'm just kidding you. I love it. You brought it up first in the press conference, so i feel like we can talk about it but no i mean like uh there's something natural from coaches that they have that is a sort of a presence and you have a way of communicating i think really well even with us like explaining special teams stuff to the media uh to the point

where we really have an understanding of it was Was that something that you develop as a coach? Like, do you learn to do that better? Do you think about it? Do you focus on it? Do you read books on it? Like, what is it that you do to kind of become better at that? It's really a combination of all those things, man. You look at it.

I mean, you know, I read a lot. I've worked with and collaborated with a lot of great coaches throughout my playing career as well as my coaching career. You know, you look at it. I got John Bones Fossil, who really was a mentor to me, an unbelievable coach, unbelievable. He does an unbelievable job of really instilling culture, not only in the unit, but the entire team itself. One of the special teams goats. Yeah, special team goat.

And so, you know, I played for him and I worked under him as well. And so I took a lot from him, took a lot from Sean McVay and how he communicated. I got my first opportunity to become a graduate assistant at the University of Colorado by a guy by the name of Mike McIntyre, who was the head coach of Colorado Nye, the head coach of Colorado now, the head coach over at FIU. And so with that, I'm just a sponge and all of that. But, you know, quite frankly, I've always been this energetic,

very outgoing, positive guy. I'm always looking to find ways to basically uplift players and be a serving leader at the end of the day. And that's just kind of who I am. That's something that my father really instilled in me at a very young age. And with that, I just take it and I just run with it. And again, just be my authentic self at the end of the day. And so it's found a way to work out for me. You know, a lot of books really, really helped me out just in terms of how do you lead? What does leadership look like? How do you build culture? How do you lead? What does leadership look like? How do you build culture? How do you connect with people?

And so, you know, through all of that knowledge and working with some really, really great people, you know, I'm able to put it all together. You know, it kind of reminds me of, like, people watching the Netflix documentary and learning all the things that are, you know, like the iceberg, sort of where you see the tip of the iceberg, which is Kirk playing on Sunday. But all the other stuff goes into it. I haven I haven't seen quarterback okay well they should you know what it is though you know what I'm saying is it pretty good it is good yeah I mean it's NFL films man I mean you know they know what they're doing yeah but they show so much more behind the scenes of what goes into playing quarterback which I think I'm sure applies to every part of being at this level in the NFL. There's one more sort of leadership-ish thing that I wanted to talk about was you attended an event this offseason

for black coaches to get to know owners of NFL teams, executives, and things like that. And I've got to be honest, I'm a little conflicted only because I think you shouldn't have to do that. Like it's a force, huh? Right. It should be just look at this coaching staff. We have Brian Flores. Keenan McArdle is maybe the best wide receivers coach in the league. No question. If you look at the production.

No question. And then here's yourself. And it's like, well, you know, everybody else doesn't have to do this. So there was a part of me that was sort of cynical about that. I can totally see that. Also an opportunity for you. And I think that you have a vibe of someone who can climb a ladder and be that. So that's a goal of yours.

I guess how do you see that journey of kind of trying to achieve that goal of becoming a head coach someday? Yeah, that's a, you know, and I think the Accelerator program is a great first step in that. And, you know, you bring up a great point. You know, why is it that we have to have these type of programs? But that's just the nature of the world that we're in and, you know, why is it that we have to have these type of programs, but that's, that's just the nature of the world that we're in and you know, how it goes about it. But I'm so thankful to have been in that accelerator program and sit down and meet one-on-one with these, with these owners and talk about what the hiring process looks like. You know, what exactly is it you're looking for in a head coach? Is it certain qualities that stand out to you? Or is it, you know, is it a production-based

business? Or is it a, you know, this guy is a right fit business? And so, you know, you kind of get a combination of answers and, you know, but you get a great understanding of what the process is like, what they're looking for. And so with that, I just looked at build off of it. I looked at build off of it. But for me, you know, special team coaches don't really get a true look or interviews. And it's kind of like, why is that the case? You know, especially considering no one speaks or talks to the entire team more than the special team coach outside of the head coach. You know, no one spends more time with all the entire roster than the special teams coaches. So you look at it, you know,

I'm building relationships with Justin Jefferson, Kirk Cousins, Brian O'Neal, you know, Marcus Davenport, and so on and on and on and on. And so you look at it. And for me, at the end of the day, I would say, you have to be so good that they can't deny you. And so that's from a production standpoint, but that's also from a leadership standpoint, you know, that we've been discussing as well. And so with that, if you're able to tie the production and

put it together with a good image, good leadership, you know, excellent communicator, know how to motivate and know how to lead, man, well, hopefully you like, you like the end result. Right. And don't get me wrong. I think it was great for you to meet all those people and get that opportunity. It's just the, uh, like what Brian Flores has gone through even is, is a good example of how it has been much more difficult for black coaches to get opportunities. And I would like to see that change. Um, let's talk about the nerdy parts though, because you were bringing up at the podium, the analytics, and this is something that I am very intrigued by and always have been with football, but it's, you know, studying offense defense and special teams. It feels like to me, it's a little harder to pin down some of the stuff.

How does one use numbers? It doesn't even have to be like analytics, but just data in general to evaluate the different elements of special teams. Yeah, I think a lot of the times the breakdown is I don't want to talk too, too much about it. Of course. But, you know, you can kind of look at explosives right how what does an explosive return game look like what is the box count uh what type of kick returns really hit home last year was it a sideline was it a middle was it a middle bounce was it more

single blocks taking place or were there more double teams taking place and so with that you're able to gather all of that data, analytics, and kind of figure out what's really working and what's not, what needs to get thrown out, and what do you need to emphasize a little bit more. And you can even kind of take it to another level in what type of personnel is out there on the field, right? So you're looking at it from a personnel standpoint,

where is it the most productive kickoff team have bigger bodies out there? Is it more linebackers out there is it more speed players out there um and so with that you're able to kind of compile all the data put it together but obviously you want to use the numbers to make sure that it's a good personnel and scheme fit as well right right because you know the numbers might say somebody you might look at and say well i only have four linebackers on the roster, but it says that you need about six linebackers on the kickoff team for it to have huge success. And so you try to find a way to kind of put the two together that works well for your roster, but also your scheme so you're not getting too much outside of yourself.

You had kind of a creative approach to things last year, kind of the pop-up kickoff, I thought, was pretty successful. I don't know how your data said,-up kickoff I thought um was pretty successful I don't know how your data said but just from my eye it looked pretty successful for sure when you have Kenny Wong Wu you should return it more than if you don't have Kenny Wong we're returning it right um uh you you would probably guess that I can't stand the fact that they could do the fair catch thing and everything else but but I think that there's some element of special teams coaches that from head coaches they just like just get it on the fairway like don't don't be like don't be bryson dechambeau swinging out of your shoes here trying to hit the home runs how do you balance wanting to make sure

that there aren't mistakes or you're too risky but also wanting to use your creativity and data and things like that to be aggressive as a special teams guy? That's a great question. And I tell the guys this all the time, and I tell KO this as well, is that our thought process is, and my thought process is, it's a simple approach with an aggressive mindset. And so you go about it, obviously the flow of the game is going to take place. You have to take encounter, you you know, what's the momentum look like? What's the score? And so you want to, you know, we like to consider ourselves,

especially because it would be situational masters. And so you have to have an understanding of what the game flow is like. But with that, we're always on the attack. And that's kind of just a part of our football philosophy overall as an entire team. And so with that, K.O. understands that we're going to be aggressive. That's kind of something we, personality of what our special teams unit is, is that we're always going to be an attack.

We're never really kind of sitting on our heels. You know, we want to be the dictators, and we want to be the ones who you have to react off of us, and we're not reacting off of you. Yeah, people on the show know that I'm a huge fan of the game of chess. Oh, I love chess. There's a big kind of thing with that of do I attack? Do I try to do risky things?

Yes. But you can get burned on it and so you're always in your mind trying to when you're formulating your plans, how far can I push it? I think that you kind of go through that same thing all the time. Absolutely. And you know, I might have got caught up a couple times last year with some probably too aggressive calls. But that's all a part of the learning process.

And so, you know, you look to build off of it, find ways to get better from it, and, you know, push forward. You a good chess player? I'm a pretty good chess player. Oh, yeah? Pretty good chess player, yeah. Okay, how would you evaluate yourself? I would say I am a, obviously, in chess, you want to always be kind of thinking about the next, next step.

Right, right. The calculation. Yeah, the calculation of it. But I'm a guy, I like to move my queen around a little bit. Okay. Sometimes I'll leave my king open for the taking, but then you realize, oh, shit, it's a trap. Yes, yes.

I would like to think i'm an aggressive chess player though too though very interesting all right last thing for you because i know you have to go like coach football um you you were able to spend some time in minnesota yes what is the most minnesotan thing because i i'm not from here originally either i moved here and it's a little different than i came from little different. I came from the east. Okay. Very different in the east. What's the most, like, Minnesotan thing you've sort of come across or adopted? Driving the speed limit?

Oh, yeah. That's one of the things. But the speed limit, I don't think I've come across a speed that's over 70. I think most of them is like 55, 65. And people will go 55 in the left lane. Yes, yes, yes. And it's very disturbing for me.

A little bit, I must say. It took me three years to understand. It's like, they're not going to move over because they think they're fine doing this. No, they're not. But I do love, I gotta shout out, I love Sebastian Jones. I don't know if you've had it. I haven't. Oh, you haven't. to shout out, I love Sebastian Joe's. I don't know if you've had it. Oh, I haven't.

Oh, you haven't. No. Oh, man. I love Sebastian Joe's. Big ice cream fan. I love a big ice cream fan. As you can tell. Yes. Yeah, Sebastian Joe's is really good.

You know, I've really come accustomed. I love a good walleye fish sandwich. Really? Okay. Oh, man. All right. I love a good walleye fish sandwich. I have not adapted to the lake fish.

Yeah, lake fish. I have. I have. I'm a big fan of fish. I have not adapted to the lake fish. Yeah, lake fish. I have. I have. I'm a big fan of it. Big fan of it. Big fan of it. What I didn't know when I moved here was how many good golf courses there are. It's unbelievable.

Yes, yes. I'm a big golfer. You'd think this place would just be frozen and they couldn't do anything, but it's amazing. It's unfortunate that it's only open for five months a year. But that's your excuse for not being good. That's very true. There you go. Matt Daniels, this is the best. I'm really happy we could do this, and I wish you the best for the rest of camp,

and we'll connect another time, man. Yes, sir. For sure. Appreciate you, Matt. Hey, everybody. Welcome again to another Vikings training camp recap slash conversation here live on YouTube. Matthew Collar with you. And we've had so much fun the last couple of nights on these broadcasts

with a lot of people watching, participating, having a good time that I wanted to come back again. And I'm only just now realizing that I wore a black shirt in front of my black background. So my head is just kind of floating in front of it. And I apologize for that. Also got the hat on because I have really bad hat hair. And so I just, you know, when I'm out in the sun,

I'm just wearing this during camp. And so it's back on. So that's why I look like this. But anyway, so a lot to discuss with training camp in general, but not a whole lot for today except one catch by Justin Jefferson. And I really want to get into this catch specifically and also into Justin Jefferson in general and early camp, the contract, what expectations are for Jefferson. I also want to take all of your questions, comments, react to everything you've got to say.

So let's get into it with Justin Jefferson. So earlier today, they were doing some goal line drills, and that was really the only intense thing that they did. The first two practices, when you consider how hot it was and how long they went how many reps they had how many plays that it made sense to have a much lighter day today where the guys were just doing a walkthrough after some individual type of things and so they do you know kind of a goal line where you've got receivers you've got secondary and that's it there's not pass rush defensive linemen. So it's just a seven on seven situation with the goal line and, you know, quarterback drops back, looks for somebody to throw to tries to get in the end zone. You get the whole deal, right? And Justin Jefferson in this drill went to the back corner

of the end zone and the reporters are standing right near where he's, you know, running toward. So the end zone is kind of right in front of us. And any of you who've seen some of the pictures from Twitter, there's like a line of bushes and then there's a wall for the stands and right in front of us is the end zone. So maybe 30, 50 feet in front of us, Justin Jefferson comes flying over on a back corner to the end zone route. He jumps up over Byron Murphy, who has perfect coverage, nothing short of perfect coverage on Justin Jefferson, reaches up over this man and steals Byron Murphy's soul, catches the ball, gets both feet down in the end zone and uh you know i've

seen justin jefferson make a lot of good catches so have you in practice uh during training camp in games we've seen many many many great catches this was probably my best view that i've ever had of one of the obscene how in the world did he do that and not only that but also chris carter was out there today walking around talking players and he tweeted about this play the vikings tweeted out if you want to go look at their twitter and check out this catch it doesn't really do it justice because one of the things they have to do is the social media account is they have to take tight shots and because they don't want to show the route combinations and things like that they know that other teams i don't know pay their interns to

watch and see if they can glean anything or whatever but they they have it a really tight shot that shows it and it really doesn't do it justice i think you would have need to see a little bit more of the whole route develop for how absurd this catch was. And so I thought, well, that's really the big highlight of camp and so far for Jefferson and of the day, because it was a relatively quiet day and KJ Osborne had a nice toe tap in the same drill. They only ran a handful of plays the entire day. So let's just talk about Justin Jefferson though, because of this catch, I am not surprised, but sometimes we do need to pull back and go, can you believe this? Can you believe this? I mean, there, there are times where we have just gotten so used to

elite wide receivers for this entire franchise. Uh, Carter tweeted, hey, one Hall of Famer, you know, to a future Hall of Famer about Justin Jefferson, which I don't know if Chris Carter says that about a lot of people that but that's the path that Justin Jefferson is on. And you think about just even going back Moss and Carter, and then you end up with, you know, years later, Stefan digs in the middle is Percy Harvin, Adam Thielen, Justin Jefferson going through their history.

That, that they've just, it never ceases to amaze me the type of receivers that this organization has had and watching it right in front of you, you understand like why this man is the greatest in the world and what he does because he can make catches like that. I also think that from Jefferson's perspective, that he has handled so many things well of being the world's best wide receiver that we don't really think about because he hasn't given us anything to think about.

So he misses a couple of days of OTAs. And I remember doing some live streams where people were like, wait, should we get nervous? Should we be upset? I'm like, no, not yet. Don't overreact or anything like that. He shows up at minicamp, participates fully. He's here in training camp. He is participating in everything that they're doing running all the routes making the plays in the end zone like today uh not holding in with his contract situation and i don't want to give him like too much credit for just doing his job he has no leverage to do a hold in it's a very different situation than it is with daniel hunter. Daniil Hunter is at a spot where it's just a crossroads

and he needs it to be resolved before he can play again. That's not the case for Justin Jefferson. This isn't a crossroads for him for getting the last contract of his career or something. This is a situation where the Vikings and Jefferson's side have, quote, ongoing conversations. I imagine so because if you quasi-daful Mensa, they better keep going.

They better not stop until you've got something done. If you're a, the Vikings general manager, but you just have no noise whatsoever from Jefferson about this contract situation. And maybe that means that he's confident something gets done, or maybe he is just truly only focusing on what he's got to focus on to make catches like that. want this much. There's no agent that's leaking stuff out, which I think is something that, you know, deserves some credit to say, because there are agents that love to put whatever they

can out to the media. And a lot of reporters are very happy to put it out there. Whatever the agents told them that has not been what's going on with Justin Jefferson. And then he shows up and just reminds everybody in the first couple of days, I'm the guy I'm the number one wide receiver. And something interesting I saw today, Steve Weiss, who's from NFL network was out there. There's always kind of this parade of national reporters that are coming in. This happens at every camp. And yesterday, I think it was Albert Breer was stopping by and then you see him tweeting or reporting something on the Vikings. And then today, Steve Weiss of NFL Network, who is great at his job.

Major respect for him. And so he's on TV from TCO Performance Center. They have a place inside the building in our media room that the NFL Network people can go and get on TV. They got the whole setup and everything. So I clicked on the video with him. Like, Oh, I wonder what Steve said about today because they didn't really practice a

whole lot. And that was the obvious play that everyone's talking about with Justin Jefferson. And he was talking about year two of this offense with Justin Jefferson and how Alexander Madison told him kind of an anecdote about Jefferson understanding the defense better and not needing to communicate with Kirk Cousins, but they just kind of knew it, which brings me to this and would love audience participation on this. What are the expectations for Justin Jeffersonerson this year where do you put the bar for a guy who

has done nothing but raise the bar every single season and a couple of times justin uh kirk cousins has said of justin if you just keep doing this over and over and over then you're going to end up in the hall of fame. And that is completely true. If he just goes for 1500 to 1800 yards every single season, he will absolutely end up in the hall of fame. That's what, you know, somebody like Devante Adams has done. That's what Antonio Brown did in his prime, the best wide receivers year after year after year are so consistent. But after what we saw last season, the first half of the year, he is so dominant, just unbelievable pace. And then in the second half of the year,

teams changed what they did. And Wes Phillips talked about this a little bit and talked about how, you know, teams in the second half of the year were just what they call like clouding coverage over toward him, bringing a safety over his way, double coverage every single play, more or less every single pass play to try to slow him down in any way, shape or form. And it actually did work at times. It didn't work as in they just completely shut him down and took him out. But in the last handful of games in Green Bay, yeah, there was cleat gate or whatever, where he didn't wear the right cleats. But the New York Giants as well, they forced the ball into TJ Hawkinson, which for them, if TJ Hawkinson catches 10 passes versus Justin Jefferson not catching 10 passes that's a

win for a lot of defenses I think that Wes was talking about it through the lens of Alexander Madison that running backs have to be able to make the opposition pay as well and Madison can do that and he didn't say probably better than Delvin Cook but I'll say it probably a little better than Delvin cook in the passing game. But with Jefferson, I think there's, there's two kinds of expectations we can set. There is a statistical expectation, which again, in the comments, drop your expectations for him. If you want to go catches yards whatever there's also the understanding the defense understanding how to deal with it for both him and kevin o'connell how to adapt to it and being a little less concerned about the fantasy numbers and total statistics

and a little more into kind of just the the idea of effectiveness and efficiency. And because some of the numbers were driven by circumstances last year, they're playing in a lot of shootouts and they probably will again this year, but they're playing in a lot of shootouts. They were down in eight fourth quarters that they had to come back. And if you're not losing, you're probably running the ball more often, not forcing the ball to Justin Jefferson all the time. So the statistics can be different even though you played just as well. And so I wonder about setting the expectations

statistically lower, even if we think he's going to be better. And that's, that's kind of where I stand. So Nathan says 1600 plus yards. Uh, Deontay is in for 115, 1800 yards and 12 touchdowns. And that's conservative. He says, okay, well, yeah. I mean, if you put together back to back 1800, uh, you know, seasons, I mean, I don't even know if Jerry Rice ever, I don't even know if Jerry Rice ever, I don't think Jerry Rice ever did that. So that would really be something, but in my mind,

it's not so much even for Justin Jefferson, those numbers, as much as it is having a complete offense and he continues to be great within that offense. And if you end up with 94 catches for 1300 yards, people will say, well, you know, teams slow down Jefferson more, but it might not actually be true that you actually might be more effective as a whole passing game on a down-to-down basis, even if he is dropping back.

And, you know, I think that there were also sometimes where they were trying a little too hard maybe to force it to justin jefferson not as in kirk throwing it to him as in drawing up every play to go in his direction and the only other option was a check down and this is not a fourth and eight thing this is is just in general that it was, it was either Jefferson big or, ah, just going to have to throw short and not having like another layer to the offense. And I felt like at times they did not have that other layer to the offense that they're trying to have this year. And we'll see where Jordan Addison fits in the first couple of days. There's nothing to me that would indicate that he's not going to be good.

There's nothing really to indicate that it's a guarantee he's going to be good. So, you know, we'll see. And we'll see how that plays out with, you know, with Jordan Addison and the weapons, which may make a difference for Justin Jefferson. But I think that when you have a season like that, that goes so far above and beyond everyone else and

there's a whole off season of discussion about you and your contract and you're the number one guy and everything else that every team should have already been going into every game with Justin Jefferson as their focus but I remember somebody telling me that that that even, even like the early in the season, it seemed like some teams were still thinking about Delvin cook and that's not everybody, but still thinking, well, it's the Vikings. You got to stop their run game. And also like, think about this, the first game against green Bay, they were completely lost. They had linebackers on Justin Jefferson. That won't happen again. There won't be another game like that. There's going to be nothing but week after week after week on a Justin Jefferson.

It does seem to me that that type of attention could take away from his totals, but also add to his overall effect in the offense. And it just sort of is, uh, you know, it demonstrates how numbers can lie to us and why fantasy players are different than actual like NFL analysts and that kind of thing. Uh, Alexander says 1300 yards, double digit touchdowns. The touchdown number is funny. Cause I saw, I saw somebody saying like on Twitter or whatever like oh well Jefferson doesn't catch touchdowns and I mean you've got to be trying pretty hard to go out of your way to criticize somebody if you're talking about that but that's a good example of something that I really don't think is under his control it's entirely how things play out. I mean, if he, if he only catches five touchdowns,

but he averages 14 yards a catch and catches 75% of his passes. And Kirk cousins has a 112 quarterback rating throwing to him. I think that Jefferson had a pretty good year. And so I think that your expectations are, you know, pretty reasonable for him. I mean, even Deontay saying 1800 again, I think that's not crazy considering, uh, there's really no ceiling on just the Jefferson. And even last year, I remember saying, well, you know, I don't know if he's going to get better, but if he stays the same and then he did, uh, and then he did even more than he did the year before, which is really crazy to think about. Uh, Hunter says, hope he combines for a total 300 yards against the Packers and shuts Jair up.

What does that combine like rushing, passing? You know, he can throw the ball. So maybe all of that put together. But there's, so there's kind of the two conversations with Jefferson. There's, will he do it again? And there, no sign of lollygagging for him in training camp, going out there and competing the same way he has year after year. I thought last year he sort of

came into camp with a little bit of a different mentality, as in he wanted to dominate every day of camp. You know, I think that, you know, O'Connell may have wanted him to take it a little easier at times, but he was just mauling people at camp, and then he's doing it again. And that's a hard thing, and we underrate that as well, that being a star of this caliber and never acting like it in any way other than whatever, going to Spain and having famous soccer players want to meet him or sitting courtside with LeBron, like, okay, that's a little different,

but never really approaching anything differently than he has from the first training camp that he was in is something that stands out quite a bit from Justin Jefferson. So there's that conversation. There's the, what's your, what are our realistic expectations? And then there's the other part, which is okay. We've said all that, then there's the other part, which is, okay, we've said all that, but when's the contract coming and what's the contract going to be and how are they going to get this done before the end of camp? Because there isn't really any buzz at the moment for this contract coming to fruition. And, um, you know, this is an interesting question. Do you

think that Justin Jefferson's agent is waiting for the Bosa contract? So JJ can be the highest paid non-quarterback that could be. I mean, I don't know that that's what they're doing. I think that it's probably about, um, just the fact that this is not an easy thing to do not an easy thing to make someone the highest paid non-quarterback it's I mean and then with Jefferson he's looking at what he's done so far in his career and coming out right away in training camp and reminding everybody like yep this is me this is me with this catch put that on your social media that when you when you are the best player in the league, your position, I mean, contract wise, you hold all the cards and that's hard for the teams because normally the teams hold all the cards. The teams aren't used to negotiating from a position where the

player is completely in command. It's normally the player wants his deal. You want to keep him, but you're only going to keep him at some price. And in this case, it's no, the price is the highest paid wide receiver in the NFL and nothing short of that. And that could take a lot of time to work out. And so will we see that over the next couple of weeks? Will we see it soon? Will we not see it at all? And I think a bland toast asks a good question here would never bland questions or comments though. So I appreciate that with all the injuries we've seen already in training camp, Ramsey, Burrow, Wilson, do you think that Hawkinson and Jefferson should push for contracts sooner? I don't know if that changes how they view it or not, but I do think that them going out there when they're up for extensions, more Hockinson than Jefferson. I mean, Jefferson is

under contract all the way through the end of next year. If this was next year, it might be a little bit different. And maybe we will get to that point where there is a next year in this situation with this contract, if it just keeps dragging out and dragging out and maybe, you know, maybe you're right. Maybe they're waiting for other numbers to, to, you know, come about, or maybe he wants to bet on himself. I don't really know because they haven't put anything out there about how his side feels. So we only have to go on what Kweisi Adafo-Mensah said, but I think with Hawkinson in particular, that yes, it is a little bit different for him. If either, the thing is that with these guys, with their age, even if either one of them were to get hurt, it would

have to be like Teddy Bridgewater level hurt to impact their futures. Even if TJ Hawkinson was lost for the season somehow, he'd still be getting a massive contract in the future. It just wouldn't be today. They'd probably franchise tag him next year and then go from there. So it might impact him. It might impact him to some extent, though the franchise tag could still happen in general. It is from a Hawkinson's perspective, though, a little bit on the risky side. And that's why Daniel Hunter's not doing it. But Hawkinson is also set to make a lot of money this year. That that's the difference between him and Hunter

is that Hawkinson is going to make a lot of cash and Hunter is not. But I think from Hawkinson's perspective, he should be pushing because you are right. I mean, this is a game that you could get hurt at any time. And he, uh, one of the ways that they figure out the guaranteed money is they look at, all right, if the team franchise tagged you back to back years and use their two franchise tags, how much would that be? And that's a starting point for guaranteed money conversation. And with a tight end, that might be 25, $30 million that you can get guaranteed. That's a lot. That's a lot. And it's a lot of security for somebody. And so I think from his perspective that he should be pushing a little

harder where Jefferson can say, I'll wait till you come over to my side or my, or I'm talking more from his agent's perspective. He's not saying anything about it, nor should he from his agent's perspective, come over to our side because we know how badly you want this done. And it's really to the point where Kwesi Adafo-Menta can't even downplay it. He's just, well, look, yeah yeah we want this guy more than anything so you know right uh that that he's made it quite clear and what would he say last year that he never wants to be the GM if Jefferson isn't here like that's a little much that's a little hyperbolic but still you get the point when that doesn't even sound ridiculous you get the

point and I think that's going to be hard for the Vikings to deal with is that Jefferson can really stand strong and not give any concessions to do his deal now because he's doing them a favor by doing the deal early and I guess I expect this to play out all the way through the summer I think in the best case scenario that we get to that little lull after preseason games going into the season and some momentum picks up right before the season to sign a deal. But yeah, I just want to, I mean, we've talked for quite a while about Jefferson, but thought it was a good time to talk about him today after the incredible catch that he made. So let me get back into your questions here. Do you anticipate from Alexander, do you anticipate that one of the three contracts

will act as a domino and we'll see subsequent contracts get done quickly? I don't know that they have to be connected at all because there isn't, what they did in creating the cap space from moving on from Delvin Cook and Zedaria Smith that they can move as much money into this year as they want. I mean, right now, weirdly, it's like take a photo because you haven't seen this in a

long time. The Vikings are among the highest teams in terms of cap space. Usually they're all the way at the bottom of that over the cap.com chart, but they actually have cap space right now. And it's not like, oh, well we have to do this guy's first and then the other ones can happen because of the cap. They can really do all of them together at any point. I don't know that they're connected at all. I do think that the last time there was a bunch of contracts to be done, they were connected. So that was back in 2017. If you remember that, it was when Daniil signed his original deal that wasn't all that good for him. And there was what Eric Hendricks, Stefan Diggs, those deals were connected because everybody signed for less than they were worth because they believed that they were going to win the Super Bowl the next year. And I understand why they thought that,

running back the number one defense with Kirk Cousins coming in, and they thought that there was a window with each other. And that group really loved each other. I mean, they loved playing around each other and everything else. The Kendricks, Everson, Griffin, Linvalval, Joseph, Tom Johnson, that whole defense, Anthony Barr. They really enjoyed being around each other. And it wasn't until the next year where the Vikings players started really holding the team's feet to the fire.

That was Anthony Barr, who didn't come back until he got and he supposedly took a pay cut from versus what he was going to get for the Jets. But it was still a top notch contract for a linebacker that plays the game like him. And it was Kyle Rudolph also again, saying, look, uh, you know, I'll go somewhere else. I don't even care. I'll do it. Um, and he eventually got his contract extension in 2019. So there was like a shift. And I think right now that these players are happy being Vikings. It's clear TJ Hawkinson likes being in Minnesota. He's a Midwest guy and he's at the twins game. He's at the wild game. He's really living up the Minnesota life. But at the same time, like he's going to get what he's going to get. If you are a team, and the players are usually aware of this, their agents are aware of this,

if you're a team that's right on the edge of a Super Bowl, then a lot of times players will work their contracts around that. But this team, and you look at Vegas, you look at what's written in the media, these guys, they are on social media. They know what's being said about their team. They know the expectations for their team. It's not a feeling of, whoa, this could be the Super Bowl. If they ran everybody back, we might see a little bit of that.

Like, hey, let's get these contracts done. Get them out of the way. We got this window to win. But there isn't really that at this moment. So they can kind of wait and see how it plays out. And when your general manager publicly talks about competitively rebuilding and not guys, we're, we're about to win the Superbowl right here. We're about to chase the Superbowl. I think that players can be a little more hesitant to say, well, wait a minute. So if we're kind of in the middle of this timeline thing, I'm not going to take any less money.

I'm going to make sure I get mine. So there's a little bit of that. I'm not saying that it influences everything, but I think where the team is at does matter to some extent. But if we were trying to figure out what order these things could get worked out, I think the Hawkinson contract is the easiest one to do where we know what he's worth. We know the guaranteed money that other similar tight ends like him got. It's really, if you're the Vikings, do you want to do that or not? The price you and

I could come up with this negotiation. This isn't that complicated at all. Look at the comparables. Look, okay. Darren Waller got the absolute highest. Maybe he's more of a deep threat than Hawkinson or, you know, maybe Mark Andrews, a little more all around player. Hawkinson's not really a blocker. Okay. But he's better than Evan Ingram. Bang right there in the middle, 15 million year, 16 million year, something in that range. There you go. Contract. You're a Viking that we could do Hawkinson. If he wants it, there you go contract you're a viking that we could do hockinson if he wants it there you go the other ones how many years are you giving jefferson how much guaranteed for injury and then guaranteed fully how much does he get up front what does the structure look like what year

do you plan on competing for the super bowl because you want to make sure that his cap hits are not that high in that particular year go look at aj brown's cap hit from last year it's like 12 million dollars or something or or eight it was not that much and hunter that one is even more complex because we don't know what the offers are or if the offers will change. And this could be something that the team waits on is do the offers change as things change around the league throughout training camp? Already we're in day three of camp and we know quite a bit more than we knew just three days ago about where guys are playing and so forth, how certain players are looking. But as you get the pads on, you get the preseason games going. You could see owners of

other teams saying, you know what? I'm feeling pretty good. Our coaches are hyping this up. Let's go get Daniel Hunter. So, you know, a lot, a lot can still change and it doesn't feel like any of these things is that close to being resolved. And with Daniil Hunter, we're not seeing him at all. This is completely a holdout, by the way. It is 100% a holdout. I mean, going to meetings and then staying inside the building, if he's even there, it's not like I've seen him. Yeah, that's a holdout.

If you're not even out there doing stretching or anything like that, you're definitely holding out. But when this all gets resolved, no idea. Uh, we're going to have to just kind of sit and find out, uh, from purple purgatory off topic, any thoughts on Delvin meeting with the jets, um, that the, uh, while Jets might be putting together an incredible 2020 all-star team with him and Aaron Rogers if if those two were together in 2020 they would be the best combination of running back and quarterback in the league well they have Brees Hall is going to be coming back from an injury at some point and I don't know that their running back room is really impressive. Otherwise having a good passing game will help for sure in terms of their, you know, their passing game, but, or in terms of their running game to have Aaron Rogers, to have Garrett Wilson. I mean, I think that Delvin cook, if he took a reasonable role at a reasonable dollar figure

makes sense for a number of teams. It's just, does he really want to do that? And we talk about, you know, how much agents dictate things like, does he, does his side think he's worth 10 million? Because I don't think anyone's giving him $10 million. It's more like everyone's looking to get him on a cheap dollar figure and then drop him in as a combination type running back. That's probably what he is at this point. And it just stood out so much. I know we talked about it last night, but I know what they mean that Delvin cook is not the same guy as he was before. He's still very fast though. So if you paired him with somebody else that could make for a pretty good running game. But if you're Delvin cook, do you want to go to a place where you're, as soon as Brees hall comes back, he's the guy and Brees hall, you know, seems like he is,

you know, kind of the, the next great runningrees Hall, you know, seems like he is, uh, you know, kind of the, the next great running back in the league. If, if he stays healthy and recovers from the ACL thing, uh, from Alex, anything interesting from pressers today? Yeah. The only press conference was with Matt Daniels and coming up here in a few minutes, I'm going to play you the audio of my interview with Matt Daniels one-onon-one, a sit down today at camp, which I had a really fun time with and just a really, really interesting guy to talk with. But I mean, he talked about just certain areas they want to get better. You know, the kick returning thing is interesting as well. I asked him in his press conference, whether he thought that the NFL would make a change at some point to a different kind of kickoff situation, because this rule is just

not good. Allowing guys to wave for a fair catch is just so boring and senseless and I cannot stand it. And so he was talking about how the league is always changing with these rules. He said, it's about 50, 50 with new rules and nobody has to understand rules better than these special teams guys, where they're moving around the kickoffs, moving around extra points, all sorts of different things every year. But it's about 50, 50. They try new rules. Sometimes they keep them. Sometimes they don't. i was hoping that he was going to give me insight and tell me that the xfl kickoff would come at some point but uh yeah i mean with the special teams coordinator kind of typical stuff he said that there is a kicking competition i don't know that i really believe that there is a kicking competition it seems like it's probably

greg joseph's job and then jack podlesny would have to kick himself into another universe. If he wanted to actually beat Greg Joseph, because Joseph is a guy that they trust. But he pointed out, he did say this, that last year we went into training camp, not thinking too much about the punting competition. We were like,

who's this Ryan, right guys, big giant dude. That's funny. And then he kicked it 75 yards in Denver and ended up winning the job, um, from Alexander. Does Zeke Elliott have a role in the NFL? Probably. I mean, it probably does. I think that he does, but he's not a guy that you want to give 250 carries to. It's so much of being a running back is just based on circumstance. Anyway, having watched Zeke Elliott against the Vikings last year, he's, he was not as quick as he used to be, of course, but the guy is still crazy strong and powerful. And I just think that the way of the future is combinations and mixing and matching two or three different running backs.

And we'll see if the Vikings end up doing that. If they end up mixing and matching with Kenny Wong Wu, Ty Chandler, it really has looked like Kenny Wong was the backup running back at this point. But I think that that is really the way that if these running backs want to, in the future, have their longevity play out better for them, they should really try to push not so much for owners to give them more money. Jim Ursae made that clear. He's not giving them more money, but maybe just less workload and look for situations or hope for situations, I guess, where they can be combined

with another running back. And maybe if you're a team that commits to something like that, you'll benefit. And that's really what happened in New Orleans where Mark Ingram had a long career that was pretty successful along with Alvin Kamara and those two kind of being a very dangerous and effective tandem. I think the team should aim for that in the future. Uh, thoughts on Addison returning punts. Um, he did that in college, but I'm going to pass on that idea. I, returning punts is very difficult in the NFL. And you saw that with KJ Osborne in his first year, KJ was a really excellent kick returner or I'm sorry punt returner at Miami and then was really bad at it and he's a really good football player but he was very bad at it

uh very bad when it came to actually doing it in the games Jalen Rager Brandon Powell you want somebody who you can trust back there I think that right now I might give the job to Powell because he probably I don't know. I mean, we'll have to see. I asked Matt Daniels specifically, how do you even evaluate when you have so few reps? And, uh, you know, he didn't say specifically which guy he's leaning to, but, you know, he talked about trying to give them all opportunities to get a look at them. Um, but I just, you know, I, I just don't think it's a good idea for Addison to be returning punts. I think he should just, you know, stick to focusing on being a wide

receiver and not worry about that part. Normally it's been Jalen Naylor is the other guy who has been back there, I think last year, and maybe at the very beginning in the first day when they did some reps there, but Addison might've caught some today just working out in the beginning of practice. Gone bad. I mean, he's done it in the past, so he could be a punt returner if he needed to. I just don't I just don't like that idea. That's what I'm saying. I think that that's a bad idea. Let's see from I shot you ninety nine. Do you think that Hall has a chance to be the backup to Kirk? Do you think his lack of experience for remaining for third string?

Yeah, I don't think he has a chance of being Kirk's backup. Not really. No, I think where I landed yesterday was after he had that it looks like he can actually play football. And at some point he may play really well in preseason. And we have a little bit of a discussion about QB too, but I don't really mean in a serious reporting that he's QB two way in more of a fans are excited about him on the internet and want him to be QB two way. And, but not in so much of a Kyle Slaughter,

there's no chance of that way, but more as in even, even Jaron Hall knows he's not QB too. He's even said that when he was talking to the media the other day, he was talking about really trying to develop this year. He's not the backup. It's going to be Nick Mullins. I mean, he knows the offense inside and out. He is a sounding board for Kirk cousins. I think you saw that some in the quarterback documentary. So as it's always exciting to have a young quarterback do anything, uh, even have one good practice without pads, but I don't want to get ahead of myself and say that there's a legitimate competition there. It's just the decision that's going to be forced is do you

want him to stay on the 53? Can he earn that spot on the 53 man roster? Some teams keep two, some teams keep three. Is he going to make it so they can't cut him because somebody else would pick him up? That I think is the real question. And then look at, I mean, if you have him for next year, that would be fantastic as your backup quarterback, because it's very cheap and it's somebody that you could trust. So I want to play you guys the my sit down interview with Matt Daniels. It's unfortunately audio only because I didn't videotape it, but you know, that's just kind of how my recording equipment works out there.

So I'll play that in a minute but i will also leave room uh at the moment for any final questions for the night as we go into sort of the next phase which is fans coming out to practice and then after that they put the pads on it's go time and then august i believe 10th is the first preseason game at Seattle. And we are off and running. And even though we know that Kevin O'Connell is not going to play all of his starters, I am really curious about this year being different as far as playing those starters. Because last year, are you trying to evaluate Patrick Peterson? No, you know what he is. Are you trying to evaluate Patrick Peterson? No. You know what he is.

Are you trying to evaluate Eric Hendricks? No. But this year, go through the roster. How many guys have done enough in the NFL to say, oh, look, you don't have to play in preseason. You're good. You're a veteran. You're a starter.

I mean, even Alexander Madison, they might give him some reps, but a lot of guys, a lot of the cornerbacks, the Alexander Madison might, they might give him some reps, but a lot of guys, a lot of, you know, the cornerbacks, the, the young safeties. Uh, I'm sorry. I missed the question earlier about at the very beginning about Patrick Jones. Um, I know I have noticed only a little bit of Patrick Jones before the pads get on. I don't really look at the defensive and offensive line because what difference does it make? Right. So he might look a little more jacked up or whatever. He's mostly been playing with the second team though. It's been DJ Wanham with the first team.

There is a chance that he could make things interesting though, as far as that race. If Daniel Hunter does not end up playing for the Minnesota Vikings. It just seems to be with all of these guys, it's hanging over training camp. When will these things get resolved? And as we went into it, there was always a feeling, well, maybe it'll get resolved really quickly, or maybe it will be the first day that we get news on these things and then bang, bang, like it's all happening, and then we break it down, and then we move on to the season.

But it's lingering, and we'll kind of figure out from there. Uh, any concerns this from purple purgatory, any concerns that if Paul plays really well in preseason that we can't get him on the practice squad and, uh, Oh hall, you mean, right. Um, and, uh, have to carry three QBs in a wide receiver starved lineup. Yeah. Um, no, it's not a concern. I mean, if Jaron hall plays really well, uh, you're, you're good. It's just a typo. You're fine. Um, I figured it out quick. I was like, who is Paul? But, um, no, Jaron hall got you. Uh, no, it's, it's, it's not a concern because if he plays really well, then you feel good about it, right? Uh, you feel like you've got your future

backup quarterback in Jaron hall and you see what happens from there. My expectation based on his physical skills. I mean, he doesn't throw the ball that hard. You know, he doesn't have a huge arm. His physical skills kind of say backup quarterback. He looks kind of like a Nick Mullins, but that's a good thing to have somebody as your backup quarterback if they are cheap. If you're paying 800,000 for a backup quarterback as opposed to like four or 5 million,

that's another player that you can add on your salary cap at some point. And you can have that for a few years and then develop that guy and you can always see if there's something else there uh and if there is that's really great for you but i'm not i don't look at it as well if jaron hall makes it then they have to cut a wide receiver that could come from another position or and when you look at their wide receiving core there are probably guys who might be able to play. And I've got like early indications that some of them can play just based on padless running around. And we'll see when the pads come on. But guys who you could put on the practice squad, even a Brandon Powell, who's a veteran, but you can do that.

Cut him, put him on the practice squad. Lucky Jackson, Thayer Thomas. cut him put him on the practice squad uh lucky jackson thayer thomas i think the back end i'm not worried about them keeping five or six when you look at the actual players you have your top three that's all set jaylen nailer was not a practice again today but let's just assume that he's okay uh we'll get an update at some point i think tomorrow from kevin o'connell but let's just assume that there's nothing severely wrong with jalen Naylor. And so he's wide receiver for, if it's Brandon Powell, Jalen Rager, Tristan Jackson, one of those guys, I mean, you're kind of talking about, you know, 50 cents or a half dollar there with those different depth wide receivers.

And you can put guys on the practice squad it'll be fine i'm not concerned if it's five or six but you don't really want to lose a young player you just drafted to somebody picking him up and making them you know their backup or putting them on the active roster that's probably something you don't want to do uh did i actually write down the depth chart on day one to track it going forward yes i i do have it it. Yeah. I wrote it down in a Google doc. Yep. I mean, so far, nothing has changed over the first three days because it's only been two real practices, but there are things I'll give you a few things that I'm watching as far as the depth chart. Let me take a look at my, uh, at my file here. So I'm keeping an eye on the, the, uh, well, obviously the wide receiver depth chart, and that's a little bit hard because I think I know the top four, but the guys rotate so much

that I don't know who they think wide receiver five is. I've got it as either Tristan Jackson or Brandon Powell, but I don't really know right now because they mix and match so much. It's not super obvious. So wide receiver and how that plays out for the depth chart. I'm very interested in. It appears that Kenny Wong Wu is RB two. That one I'm going to watch closely with Ty Chandler and Dwayne McBride. Kind of interested just going position by position.

And if Nick Muse makes things interesting, interesting with Johnny months, I don't think so because Nick Muse can be interesting, interesting with Johnny Muntz. I don't think so because Nick Muse can be cut, put on the practice squad, but you know, maybe like maybe, um, nothing really on the offensive line. Oh. And, and John had asked, uh, what the offensive line looks like. You're just going to have to give me time on that one because, uh, it's so hard to tell without pads. I mean, yeah, as Alexander said in the comments, it's just like they're a unit that seemed to like each other last year and play well at times together with just some weak links. And I would be an unbelievable football analyst if I could watch

them without pads and say, you know what? Ed Ed Ingram's gonna cut down that sacks against total by seven um I know you're not asking for that I'm just saying it's really really hard to see without pads when the defensive linemen start going though when they get the pads on and they start going and you know what actually here's gonna be a real help for the offensive linemen is the joint practices what do they look like in the joint practices? Now that that's going to be something we can tell, um, actually with the offensive line, um, only Udo playing for Brian O'Neill. When does Brian O'Neill come back? And they also just signed Bobby Evans. Who's a veteran and he's been a backup. Uh, I guess I wondered if Blake Brandel would be in instead of only Udo. It just seems like Udo is kind of their guy for the, uh, the swing tackle on the defensive line. James Lynch was getting some reps

with the first team, just kind of mixing in. But really the thing that stuck out to me is Kairos Tonga has been taking almost all the first team reps. So that one, um, and, and no, uh, Ed Ingram has not stepped on Kirk's foot. Thank you for that, though. But Kyrus Tonga has just been the guy in the middle. He's been the nose tackle, and I think that's going to stay that way. He really impressed them last year. So it's been typical in the 3-4 base, Dean Lowery and Harrison Phillips,

and DJ Wanham on the outside. I guess the Pat Jones thing is is interesting to me if he can make some noise there ross blacklock jonathan bullard any of these guys do something uh you're asking about jaqueline roy i i had jaqueline roy as being on the third team but i'll have to check again tomorrow if that changed from the first day and what they do with Davenport we'll kind of find out like if Davenport is gonna just be always on the outside or if he's gonna move inside sometimes sometimes he does um sometimes he does on those like third down type of situations move to the inside so anyway these are just some of the things that I'll be

watching oh I know one I was going to bring up. Ivan Pace has been entirely with the second team. Ivan Pace Jr. This is a guy that all of you loved as a UDFA, and he is very fast, has great movement. How does he adapt when things are really flying around? And how does he play in those preseason games? Oh, Asasia Tomo has been third team but they do rotate and this is why it's hard sometimes they do rotate third and into the to the second team um at times and then with the cornerbacks this is easy joan williams does joan

williams start at outside corner and mckay blackman and andrew booth jr they're the backups or is it a jesse davis type of hey there's a veteran you guys have to come beat him i tend to think that that's it but maybe not because juwan williams has looked pretty good in his first couple days of camp and then of course you guys know the safety one you know we've talked enough about where lewis seen stands uh at the moment um from i shot you 99 is florist enough to make the defense at least average with the current group. Do you think that we'll likely see the same holes as last year? You will probably see a lot of the same holes, but sort of for different reasons. Does that make sense?

Like last year, I think that they had the talent to have a good defense and they just didn't because they were coached poorly and because their weak links were really bad. But when I look at last year, even Chandon Sullivan, it was his worst career year. Eric Hendricks, it was one of, if not his worst career year. These were guys who had been better in the past for the most part. Peterson was good. Zedarius was good. Daniil Hunter, but you're really not doing anything with Zedarius and Daniil Hunter. They just rushed the passer. Anybody could coach those two guys, but the things that were really super coachable, the secondary, the scheme, the aggressiveness, how much you're changing things up. They were atrocious with ed donatel

florist could be a lot better almost guaranteed to be a lot better and yet there's still going to be because of the weak links that they have moments only without pads which i feel like i'm just saying over and over again because i always want to put that little asterisk there, but I just feel like it will be better based on how it looks so far that the secondary specifically, this is a guy who cut his teeth with linebackers and with defensive backs and was really excellent in Miami at using those guys in a lot of different ways. When you go look at their usage, Brandon Jones, Eric Rowe,

the guys that he had in Miami and the way he used them aggressively blitzing guys, playing three safeties, the Metellus factor, getting him on the field. Like if Metellus is good, why, why aren't you getting them on the field? You know, so that's part of it as well. I guess I, I think that there's a lot of factors that go into whether they're actually better and there will be weaknesses, but also I think that they definitely should be better. So anyway, let's see.

Is it just me or I keep seeing Booth giving up highlight Twitter videos? Yeah, I mean, he's playing with the second team. It's him and Makai Blackman with the second team. And we'll see if one of those guys make some noise. Those two guys, I think, are really going to have to show up in the preseason games and in those joint practices. DeAndre Hopkins is coming. Will they get a chance to match up against him a little bit? We'll see.