Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Vikings-Titans gets heated, Blackmon goes down and a receiver emerges

Episode Date: August 18, 2023

Matthew Coller empties the notebook on Mekhi Blackmon's injury, Andrew Booth Jr.'s questionable decision after an interception and how the Vikings looked against the Titans in joint practices. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hey everybody, welcome to another episode of Purple Insider. Matthew Collar here, and I'm only realizing now, just seeing myself on the screen, that I look like I'm about to go golfing and that I'm endorsed by Nike. I'm not, but Nike, if you want to stop in and hook me up, I feel like maybe my brand could be just as valuable as Tiger Woods has been to Nike. If I wear it, it just is what I wore to practice today. Long sleeves because it was kind of cool out there. And the hat did not help with, as you can see from my face, got a little bit of sun out there at the Vikings and Titans practice. But a good time, very intense, very intense. And it's such a switch from going from walkthroughs,

11-on-11s that were pretty light, to gas pedal down over the last two days, especially today. It was chippy. It was violent. It was physical. A couple guys got banged up, and overall, I thought that the Vikings had a pretty good day at practice. Very good on defense. The offense struggled through a lot of the practice, but then really showed up in the two-minute drills,

kind of evening it out a little bit at the end because they led the first team, especially an absolutely tremendous two minute drill with Kirk Cousins finding KJ Osborne a couple of times and then throwing a touchdown Osborne. There was a really nice Justin Jefferson catch. Jefferson in general put on a show over the last two days for a packed house at TCO Performance Center. And, you know, at the beginning of the week, I called it moving week. And I think that that was the case for a lot of guys,

that, you know, that there were arguments made by a good number of players that either they could solidify where they're at, they could lose some ground, or they could gain some ground. And so we're going to go through those, of course, tonight. And also some of the different things that happened in the joint practice. And as always, take your comments, questions, whatever is on your mind about the Vikings going into the second preseason game.

We'll also be doing another podcast with Will Raggett previewing the preseason game and looking at what we're focusing on the most. But I think that some things have started to become clarified through the last few days, but I want to begin with just who was practicing and who was not practicing. It's kind of in the same list of guys who have not been out there. Once again, no TJ Hawkinson in full drills, Jalen Naylor, Kenny Wongwu, Brian Asamoah, and Jordan Addison did not practice. Jaqueline Roy did do some stuff, so he looks like he's returning, but didn't do 11 on 11s, which makes me think that he probably will not play in the preseason game. Makai Blackman's injury was the most notable of the day where he got hit. It looked like Blackman's arm hit somebody else

as he was going to knock down a ball, and then he immediately grabbed for his shoulder or kind of chest area. Seemed like he was a little bit shook up, and they walked him over to the trainer table. He did not return to practice, and I saw that NFL Network's Tom Pelissero reported that Blackman avoided serious injury. But my question is, what does that mean? What does it mean that he avoided serious injury? Because if I go through the list of players I just named, of all those guys that

were not practicing, none of them are known to have serious injuries, and yet we haven't seen Jalen Naylor in a while. We haven't seen Kenny Wongu in quite some time. TJ Hawkinson has been doing warm-ups and nothing else for some time now. So not serious could mean, though, for somebody who is in that position, does that take them up to the beginning of the season? Does Makai Blackman not have another opportunity to practice or is he going to play on Saturday night? I'm not really sure what it means that someone does not have a serious injury because we weren't given really a timeline

in that report. And I'm sure it's hard for Tom as a reporter to pin down a timeline on a player. I think what he's just reporting is simply that it's not something that's going to end his season or maybe be out for a really long period of time. But when you are a rookie who is battling for a position, for a starting position, an injury like this can be quite the setback. I have really liked what I've seen from Makai Blackman. I thought he did a good job in these two days. Well, he didn't get to do many 11-on-11s because he got hurt in 7-on-7. But on the first day, I thought he handled himself pretty well.

And then on day two today, early on, he was doing a fine job. And then, you know, now he doesn't get to practice anymore today and then probably doesn't play Saturday night. Like, does this set him back? And then, you know, now Jawan Williams will end up as the starter. Or does that mean he's going to be in practice soon? I don't know. So that's something we're going to have to look into and we'll see.

But, you know, Jawan Williams is the next man up. And Jawan is a guy who is a second round pick. I think he fits really well with what Brian Flores wants, which is super physical and strong and aggressive corners. He is very, very lengthy, very tall, and very strong for a cornerback. He looks much more like a safety. And that has been a good fit, I think think for Brian Flores's defense for him still to

be the next man up after Makai Blackman but he was initially starting out with that job and lost it to Blackman which you know brings kind of the question is somebody who had a lot of experience before at least had been in the league quite a bit before for Juwan Williams, losing his job to the rookie early in camp. Like, were they that happy with what they saw? It's not ideal. You would much rather have Makai Blackman at 100% and starting, and now he's got a bit of a setback here. We'll find out how much it is.

And Jim asked, what did he hurt? I'm not 100% sure. When he hit his arm on somebody he was holding his kind of collarbone shoulder pec area but there's a lot in that area that could get injured so i don't want to say exactly what it was but i mean joan williams is a good story if he gets an opportunity to start because he's a guy that got injured last year, didn't play at all, was sort of coming along in New England, and it had his highest snap count in 2021, but then had that injury as he was battling for a job

and ultimately did not play last season. So now he's kind of trying to keep his career alive. He's a guy who's making a million dollars to be here as just barely in the league. So is he going to be able to take some of this practice time, prove that he deserves to be on the 53, which I think he solidly is at this moment. But if there was any debate, he might have an opportunity in practice to step up. But if Blackman is out for any amount of time, it might be Jawan Williams who ends up the starting cornerback. There was also another scary moment with the other cornerback, Caleb Evans, who ran into

his own guy, a little friendly fire there on a play at the end of practice where they ran into each other, him and Josh Metellus, and Evans was a little bit slow to get up. Yeah, Dustin, I just mentioned Pellis arrow's report, but avoiding major injury. What does that mean? Like, does that mean out? Okay. Major is out for the season out for six months out for three weeks. Like this, this is pretty relevant because there's a season coming up and there's only so much more practice that he could get in. Like if he had to miss the rest of training camp, does he still start week one? Like there's only so much more practice that he could get in like if he had to miss the rest of training camp does he still start week one like there's a lot more questions beyond just okay he's not out for the year so it's not a torn pack that would keep him out for the whole season

but that doesn't mean he's going to start week one depending on how this ends up working out so uh but caleb evans ran into josh Metellus and everyone went, oh no, including Kevin O'Connell, who came sprinting on the field to take a Caleb Evans off the field after he ran into kind of a helmet to helmet type of thing with Josh Metellus or helmet to shoulder pad, whatever it was, it made a loud sound. And Evans went down based on his history from last year, again, pretty concerning. And the thing that you're walking out of TCO Performance Center thinking about, and Evans has tweeted out that he's okay, there's no issue.

But this is a guy who had several concussions last year, and it's a major concern. And this was just a totally random thing. Nothing he was doing wrong, but just going for a ball and ran into his teammate. It's just, you start to think about the depth at the cornerback position. Now, Andrew Booth Jr., you can get to him,

had an interception today and as if things weren't chippy enough, decided it was a good idea to throw the football at the Titans after intercepting the pass. I don't think that the coaching staff was all that happy with Andrew Ruth Jr. for doing that. It was trying to incite a riot was really what it seemed like, that type of move, but also from a guy that has not exactly gotten the same gold stars as we've seen from the coaching staff from other guys and not really a smart play i'm not trying to make too much of it and i laughed when he did it but i also thought what are we doing here i mean we're their main goal was to

avoid any nonsense and a titans defensive tackle got thrown out of practice anyway. So already it was very tense. There was a lot of trash talking. Jeffrey Simmons, even when he wasn't on the field, was yelling at the Vikings players through the entire thing. Certainly a battle on the offensive line. I thought the offensive line had a tougher day today. Maybe they didn't think so. I don't know. Some of the quotes seemed like that came out of there seemed like they felt pretty happy with what they did. I thought that it was a little bit more of a tough day for the line. It's not going to be their first team offensive line versus a very good starting defensive line. And they can decide how the performance went and whether they want to stick with this offensive line group or bring in somebody else to challenge anyone. And they've only got a couple weeks left to do it. So if they're going to do it, it's going to happen soon. And if they're not, then this is your offensive line,

and they're rolling into the season with these guys. But they got a lot of those reps against Jeffrey Simmons, one of the best players in the league, and he beat them up a few times. But I thought overall it was okay. So we'll see what they decide to do after this, but they get to go back and look at the tape and I don't. So it would be easier if I could, you know, tape the whole practice with a drone from right over top and then go back.

It was my perception that today the offense was having more trouble in most of the 11 on 11 drills in part because a lot of plays were getting blown up but i'm trying to look back and forth between offense and defense and i was noticing quite a bit on the defensive side how well the vikings were doing especially daniel hunter was mauling people not surprising but you know who was actually playing quite well today, I thought, was DJ Wanham. So they were using a lot of this package where they have DJ Wanham and Daniil Hunter on the outsides, Marcus Davenport on the inside. So you got three pass rushers and Harrison Phillips.

That was their first team defense against Tennessee. And they were just, I mean, they were attacking the quarterback today from the edges and got a lot of pressure on the quarterback, but DJ Wanham looked really good on a few reps to me. And I mean, I don't know, it's hard to say, will he make another step or whatever? But I do think that in comparison to having DJ Wanham put a hand in the dirt, having him as an outside linebacker, that really fits better with who he is. So maybe there is a Brian Flores effect there. What we know about players from the past may change based on how Brian Flores uses them. And that goes for someone like Josh Metellus, who got a ton, a ton of reps, almost every rep on defense with the first team josh metellus was out there

they used a ton of three safety stuff um you know as him as kind of a hybrid linebacker situation ivan pace got a ton of work again and had another i thought very very good day so i kind of was gravitating toward the defense because it was doing better and the offense struggled until their situational drill uh but they'll know after this, they'll know. I'm not sure what they're going to do after this, but they will have their sample size and they will know. So, but it did to circle back to the Andrew Booth Jr. point. So he intercepts the ball, he throws it, you know, at the Titans, whatever.

They get everybody calmed down. They finished the practice. Nobody got clocked throws it at the Titans, whatever. They get everybody calmed down. They finish the practice. Nobody got clocked. There were no fights, whatever. It all worked out fine. It was a very good and physical practice between both sides. But I don't think that they are feeling very confident about Andrew Booth Jr. And he's out there amongst the most talkative and so forth,

but not exactly a top performer in training camp. And every time anybody asks about him, the answers are very muted. Like, well, you know, coming along and didn't have this great of a practice, but he's coming along, whatever. Brian Flores said something like, you know, he got beat a couple times against seattle but you learn from those or whatever it just doesn't feel like there's much momentum for him but if there are injuries you walk out saying there's not a whole

lot of depth here and the funny thing was we got back to the media room after practice and somebody said, Hey, you know, Ron Darby signed. And I was like, Oh, like already with the Vikings that no, with someone else. So there's a, a cornerback. He goes to the Ravens who is off the list of potential players that they could bring in if they need an additional corner. But I really wonder after this, how they feel about their cornerback depth. i didn't think that andrew booth jr had some sort of horrible couple of days just the accumulation does not seem like the coaching staff is all that thrilled um to the question earlier uh little sunburned yeah it looks like it i mean it looks like it little red little red in the cheeks there yeah

it was very sunny out there but also very windy and i don't know if that affects my sunburn or not but uh i did put on sunscreen but this look at me right or maybe it's the better lighting also could be the better lighting but probably not um i didn't get it only right here because of the hat that i've had on all day uh it's it's not shane it's not why is it's not. Why is it a big deal? It's not a big deal. It's not a big deal that Andrew Booth Jr. threw the ball at the other team. But the problem is that that's not what the coaching staff wanted him to do. The coaching staff, both coaching staffs, it was vital to these practices that they not get into fights. They really did not want them to get into fights and anything that ever started to get heated. They ran on the field and they got

the refs involved. They wanted nothing to do with that. That's how people get hurt. And I totally agree with their stance on that. So when you tell your players as the coach, don't, okay, trash talking is fine, but don't do anything to incite anything. In fact, the player got kicked out. He barely threw a punch. It was kind of like a pawing more than a punch. And he got kicked out of practice. That's how serious they were being about this. And so to throw the ball at the team when you've gone through this entire practice with no issues overall, other than one guy taking a swing, it just, you know, it's not what you want.

It's not what you want as a coach. It's going completely against what the coaching staff wanted. So, and yeah, if it was, if it was a real game, that would be a penalty, but I imagine it was just because the tensions rose. You also want players to keep their composure. So it's not a huge deal. It's just, it's somebody who already can't afford to make any more coaches upset with

him. How was Lewis scene? I think that Lewis scene had two very interesting days of playing in a position that we haven't really seen him play before, which stuck out to me quite a bit. Him and Jay Ward playing together and Jay Ward getting to the second team and him rushing the passer a lot more than I've seen him rush the passer. That was very notable. And sometimes it's hard to say how successful he was rushing the passer because they can't actually sack him, but you see his size. And when he gets up to the box and the line of scrimmage, I mean, he is big and he is fast. And I think that putting him in the box is kind of an intriguing idea. They did it yesterday and they did it again today.

And we might continue to see that. And Brian Flores, of course, he's saying, you know, we're going to use three safety stuff. He said four safety at some point. I was like, I don't think you're actually going to play four safeties. But he did mention that. But they were loading up with a lot of players at the line of scrimmage. And for the first time that I but they, they were loading up with a lot of players at the line of scrimmage. And for the first time that I can remember, Lewis scene was up there over and over and over rushing after the quarterback. So that did stick out over these two days as something

that was different. Are Andrew Booth jr. And Lewis seen in jeopardy for the 53. No, I don't think so. I think with those guys, you give them, especially Louis seen is not. I mean, that's your first round pick. That's a guy that you're going to try anything and everything to make work because you know what the talent is. And Andrew Booth Jr. You just don't have a lot of depth. There really isn't. You can't just cut him in play like Kalen Barnes or take out. I mean, you just can't, there's not enough bodies. You need to kind of bet on that talent that Andrew Booth jr. Has. And at least the fact that he has been in the system and knows it, if you're cutting him, you'd be putting in somebody who's very, very inexperienced and doesn't even have the pedigree. Same sort of deal, though. You're trying to give it as much time as you can with players like that, and it would not be the first guy who struggled in his first couple of years and then had it click if it did eventually for Andrew Booth Jr. So they're going to stick with those guys

and probably have them both play special teams to start and then see where that goes um shane says trash talking isn't it inciting it most certainly is not uh no it is not no it's not uh i also saw the play i was standing right there so anyway uh yeah when you're i mean we can't be you can't be serious? Like catching an interception and whipping the ball at the other team is an obvious, like something that's going to send it over the top. And if you're saying that no one looked mad, then why were the Titans on the field? What?

Okay. Anyway, it doesn't matter. I'm sure you saw something on Twitter and that's how it goes. Was McBride and Chandler out there today? Yeah, they were. So that's another thing that's worth it goes. Was McBride and Chandler out there today? Yeah, they were. So that's another thing that's worth pointing out is, well, Kenny Wong did not practice at all in this. And I just, you know, I don't know. It's not looking great for him.

They did bring in another running back, but not a veteran running back. Somebody who has returned kicks in college i'm not sure if that is at all uh you know if that's at all a factor in any way um that that this player that they brought in is returned kicks but it more connects to the fact that they cut the kicker jack pod lesney so we went into this and wondered if there would be a kicking competition and there's not i never thought there was but there's not there's really really not a kicking competition uh and i don't know why jack putt lesney was around if there was never a kicking competition why not just cut him out of mini camp and then just move on with your life as, but they kept Jack Podlesny here.

He kicked a handful of times and now we hardly knew you Jack Podlesny and best of luck to him, but they cut him for another running back that they signed. I don't know. Odd, odd move. I mean, Greg Joseph has had an okay off season from the kicks that we've gotten to see, but is a questionable kicker overall missed a lot of kicks last year, missed a lot of extra points last year. I don't really understand why they have not brought in another kicker to legitimately compete because clearly pod Lesney never did, but here is the disappointing thing. Here is the thing that I'm pretty broke up

about, got to tell you, going into Saturday. Because, you know, if I'm making those notes, what to look for on Saturday, can't put this out there. Matt Daniels for the second straight year, it's like the kiss of death. Last year, he said there was going to be a punt off between Jordan Berry and Ryan Wright, and there was no punt off. And then this year, he says Jack Podlesny's going to kick, and then they cut him. No kicking competition, no punting competition. You know, I've been saying how impressed I am with Matt Daniels. Keeps messing with me, though.

I'm just kidding. I'm still impressed with Matt Daniels, but I'm sure it was a situation where they just had to say to Matt Daniels, all right, make your call on the kicker today. We need this other player. So it is some of you guys are funny. Like the first thing I said about Andrew Booth Jr. and throwing the ball is that I laughed at it and it didn't turn out to be a big deal. And now you're telling me to get over it. I don't know. The whole point is just that if you're already in bad standing with the coaches, then you don't really want to do something that they specifically told you not to do.

So that's just a thought when it comes to that. The Vikings draft strategy seems to have moved to lighter, faster, but more fragile. I don't know. I mean, I don't know that like Louis seen was lighter. He's pretty thick and big and he is tall but uh and fast he's kind of everything is a physical specimen i'm not sure like who's an example of that brian asamoah is undersized for a linebacker i don't think that that's a strategy specifically i think that that's just how the cookie is crumbled with some players that when you draft someone in the second round that like Andrew Booth Jr. He might have some injury issues, but I don't know.

Like Jordan Addison, the guy's a first round prospect, but all the wide receivers were undersized. And I mean, if you're going to draft any of them, except for Quentin Johnston, you could have had the same takeaway. Like, well, this guy, if you're drafting Zay Flower, well, this guy's undersized. If you were drafting, who was the guy? I'm out of draft season work, but, you know, a guy out of Cincinnati, and then there was the Tank Dell guy. Like, so there were a lot of them.

Asamoah, Blackman, Addison. Well, yeah, I mean, if you're drafting, what have they drafted? 20 players. I mean, some of them, I guess, have been undersized. And I think specifically they don't mind undersized linebackers because those guys, they want to focus on coverage. And that's why I think they've built a defensive line

to try to stop the run on the interior and had undersized linebackers that they're okay with. I don't know. Was Blackman, like, major had undersized linebackers that they're okay with. I don't know. It was Blackman like majorly undersized. I don't remember, or just looks undersized as an outside corner. Cause I think he was kind of pegged as more of a nickel corner. But size wise, let's see. No.

Yeah, you're right. 178 pounds. Yeah. But I don't think that didn't have anything to do with his injury. I mean, he just hit his arm funny. Like I, it wasn't Blackman is do with his injury. I mean, he just hit his arm funny. Like I, it wasn't a Blackman is a very physical player. Yeah. I know Smith Najigba is good size,

but you know the point you guys struggling a little bit tonight. You know, the point there was about seven wide receivers that were talked about this year as, Hey, this guy's interesting, but he's undersized. The whole receiving class

was like that. They also couldn't have drafted Smith Najigba because he was taken. Anyway, let's see. Let's get back to some sense here in this world and talk more about the kicking competition. No, I'm just kidding. I don't know what those, I just don't know why they had Jack Podlesny here. That's what I don't understand. Why bring him in if he was never going to be a part of this? And I just think that there should have been someone who is a veteran player who has kicked before in the league that should have been that person. Right now, who are you keeping at wide receiver? There is a good question, Shane. So here's another part of my notes from practice today. At the end of practice, Tristan Jackson came through with just a great route and a touchdown to finish the second team two-minute drill. But throughout practice, he was playing, mixing in and out with Jalen Rager with the first team.

And Brandon Powell was not working with the first team as he was yesterday in replacement for Jordan Addison. So we saw Tristan Jackson make a number of catches the first day, did it again today with a couple of plays, including a game winning drive or whatever they're trying to simulate there, but the touchdown at the end from Nick Mullins and he just continues to rise on the depth chart and to rise to the challenge and make plays every day and I talked to him after practice today and he said that after he had the injury kind of felt like it was a second life for him and just not that he wasn't motivated before but but kind of this, all right, this is my big chance. I got a second opportunity after not having a serious injury.

He thought that he had gotten very seriously injured, but to be able to come back from that, that he's got this chance, and he made the most out of it in these two days. So the wide receiver room right now is, of course, the starting three, Jefferson, Osborne, Jordan Addison. But the fact that Jalen Naylor has not practiced at all and somebody else, Tristan Jackson, has come in and played day after day and done nothing but make plays, that complicates things. And if you're out for the entire summer, it's really hard to say, all right, guy who missed the entire summer. And look, there's nothing you could do, but guy who was on the fringe and missed the entire summer, you're in. But guy who made plays all summer long, including in joint practices, you're out. That would be kind of odd to me. And I don't know, maybe someone would pick up Jalen Naylor if the Vikings released him

and decided to have Tristan Jackson on the roster. For me, it would be Tristan Jackson and then Jalen Rager would be the wide receiver room behind obviously the first three, because I think that Jackson can do what they need him to do. He can run the routes. He behind obviously the first three, because I think that Jackson can do what they need him to do. He can run the routes. He can run the roles of the slot receiver or the outside receiver. And most importantly, if you throw him the football, he's going to catch it. And the guy just tracks the ball well. And Rager would be the punt returner slash every once in a while he's in there. But today, you you know just evidence of why Jalen Rager never made it the same way that other first rounders have like Justin Jefferson there was

a deep ball that Kirk Cousins threw that was immaculate it was a perfect pass he had outrun his cornerback and he reached out and maybe he would tell me, Hey, it was too far, but it just, he didn't track it quite right. And it went over his head and he couldn't quite get it with his outstretched arms. Like that's it right there from Jalen Rager. He can do the underneath stuff.

They can get him the ball, but I don't think you want him as wide receiver for maybe they could keep, but they could keep Naylor and Jackson and Rager and have six. I don't know if they're going to have six or not. Uh, someone asked about Theo Jackson. Sorry. I may have scrolled down too far. Uh, and I can't remember who asked that, but I think Theo Jackson has done a really, really nice job and is a guy that you would really like to be on the practice squad. I think that that is somebody who has shown that he knows what he's doing and

is going to work hard on special teams. But when you already have probably five guys at safety that you want, it's really hard to keep six, six safeties is a lot of players. That would be, that would be pretty tough to keep. But also I think Theo Jackson's a guy, you can get to your practice squad. And now that you can have these veteran players on your practice squad, it makes things so much easier. Let's see from Andre and Nikhil Harris may make the team making plays in a first rounder front office seems to be into those

guys. Nikhil Harry, I think is similar to Theo Jackson in that. Yes, he's made plays, but he's been with the second and third teams the entire time. And I look at him is much more of a guy that they might keep around on the practice squad just for depth, but he has definitely not outperformed Tristan Jackson. Who's been here for the entire time, been with them last year and knows the offense extremely well, and then has done nothing but make plays. And then you could say, well, all right, give Harry the job instead of Jalen Rager, but

Jalen Rager is their punt returner. And that is going to be valuable to them. I don't know how valuable that is to me, but part returners, one of those things where if you have it, then you feel fine and you go, Oh, anybody could be the part returner. What's the problem. But if you don't have it, it's miserable and terrible. And your guy fumbles and you, you know, right. It's just,'s just it becomes a huge problem folks late summer and fall are always a crazy time for me with football and i have hardly any time for a good meal i'm always finding myself in drive-thrus and running around but that is changing with factor america's number

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No prep, no mess. Head to factormeals.com slash purple50 and use the code purple50 to get 50% off. That's code purple50 at factormeals.com slash purple50 for 50% off. Jackson is number nine yes yep he has gotten a ton of looks on the vikings video recaps because he makes a ton of really nice catches that is that's the thing and i know this for a fact because it was said to me by keenan mccardle in an interview we had when we sat down maybe in uh may or like that, where he told me that ball tracking was the thing. Ball tracking is what he looks for most. When the ball is in the air, can you make a play on it? And that's been Tristan. So if he doesn't make the team

after the practices that he's had and the balls that he's tracked down, that would be a shame because I think he's done nothing to earn it. Josh Downs. Yes, that's another guy. I wasn't crazy to think that this draft class was pretty small outside of a couple of guys. Wouldn't it be from JP? Wouldn't it be smart to use Rager as more of a gadget player using him in the backfield, et cetera? I think on occasion, yes, because he is an exceptional athlete. He is extremely fast and extremely athletic and pretty shifty and could also run through people. I don't know if there is a Cordero Patterson comp there, but maybe, and I guess I'd be willing to find out. I mean, one thing you can't, he doesn't know how to pass block because he's never passed blocked in his life. So that would be hard as a transition. And maybe the reason that they

never, the Vikings never wanted to use Patterson like that, but they should have used them as a gadget player. Like you're saying, how about two or three players, you know, that kind of thing, not players plays per game for a player like him, where he runs it in and around. He gets his screen, whatever, get the ball in his hands occasionally. And I think it's a good idea. I thought it was a good idea for Kenny Wongwu last year, but that never really came to fruition.

It might just not be something Kevin O'Connell is all that comfortable with as a player who can do that. My friend Judd Zolgad, Luke says, is all over Powell taking a spot and maybe Rager or Wong Wu gets cut. So today was a good day to figure out where people stand. And Jalen Rager was taking all of the first team reps with Jackson mixing in and out that Jordan Addison would normally have. To me, that says that Jalen Rager is ahead of Brandon Powell, who is exclusively on the second team. I think Powell has been fine and they would know who's doing better as far as

the punt returning competition. Cause it's super hard to tell. They don't really even return the punts. They just kind of field them and then run, but no one can tackle them. So we don't know how well they did. And Rager was also the first punt returner back when they did the preseason game that would suggest to me he's ahead. It doesn't guarantee it. It just, I think that it looks that way from the way that they're using

them rep wise. It could also be that they want to get him as many opportunities having been traded for just give him his fair shake. I think that happens too, between coaching staffs and front office where it's like, Hey, it's your call whether to cut the guy, but let's get them the fair shake and so forth. This is probably true. Digit says, I don't think gadget earns a roster spot without more role value. Yeah, I tend to agree with you, but I also think that with Jalen Rager having been in the offense for now last year and this

year, they probably feel comfortable that he knows what he's doing in the offense. And he hasn't looked like it's been a problem to know what routes he's supposed to be running. It's just getting open and catching the ball when it goes downfield is really the Jalen Rager issue. Philadelphia started throwing it underneath to him his final year there. And I think that's really the only option with him. But I think Rager has been around long enough where he knows where he's supposed to be and what he's supposed to do, but he's just never going to be a really exceptional wide receiver like his draft status. But if this was not a guy who had been drafted high, we'd be looking at it like, okay, he's a fine depth wide receiver, but mostly a

punt returner. And Matt Daniels is going to get his guy on that. He's going to pick which guy he thinks is better and they're going to keep them. It just looks like Rager is ahead. But yeah, I mean, it wasn't, it wasn't pretty when they tried to use them as a receiver last year, except for that one play that Kirk randomly threw downfield and he caught it from JP. Are we moving away from the illusion of complexity that KOC talked about last year, considering we're going to use more 12 personnel. No, I mean, 12 personnel, that's, that's illusion of complexity too, because now I see what you're saying. I see what you're saying because it, when you're talking about illusion of complexity, I think it was used in reference to 11 personnel, which is just the three wide receiver sets.

And so you're like, okay, we're going to run the same personnel all the time. And we're going to, you know, right. Like you said, give the illusion that we're doing a lot more difficult things because we are running a lot of the same stuff out of, or the, a lot of different stuff out of the same looks or something like that. Right.

It's kind of a cliche, but to me, 12 personnel, which is when you got an extra tight end on the field or 21, if you got a fullback and CJ Hamm is out there to me 12 personnel which is when you got an extra tight end on the field or 21 if you got a fullback and cj ham is out there to me that's where i think you can do a lot of stuff that looks like a lot of people are moving a lot of different ways but it's really just play actions and bootlegs and things like that off of the run game because when you put josh oliver out there the other team has to pay attention. They just have to, if it's Oliver and Hawkinson,

the other team has to address that with personnel or with how many people they put in the box or something. And so you can make it look like there's a lot of misdirection going on and, you know, end up with kind of a simple play action and hit a big play down the field. I think that that's all kind of part of it, but really more the way that I think they want to use that is just one to be successful in the run, to improve their play action and to just be able to do something when they're ahead.

I think that's what it really comes down to. So a lot of times last year, they would start a game, score a touchdown, seven, nothing, get the ball back, score another touchdown. Wow. Vikings are up right away in the beginning of the game. It gets to the third quarter. They're up by two touchdowns and then they can't put it away and they would leave the door open for other teams to come back on them and i think what kevin o'connell went into the offseason saying was how do i stop that from happening how am i how can i close out a 14 point game without relying on my defense to just make stops all the time and one of the answers is you can run and play action because if you can run successfully,

well, that's winding the clock. That's pounding the other team's face in. But also you can hit big plays off of those play actions when teams are getting antsy about trying to send a blitz or trying to get themselves back off the field, trying to take too much of a risk, or they just start jumping up at the run because they know they've got to get stops and they get over aggressive. And then over the top, Gary Kubiak style,

Gary came up today and a conversation with Kirk cousins. So he's, he's, he's still relevant here between these walls. Aaron says any other rookies or second year guys that have stood out that you haven't mentioned? Um, let me think.

Uh, let's see. Well, we've talked a lot about, we've definitely, let's see. Well, what is Kairos Tonga?

Is he like a third year guy? I feel like we haven't talked a lot about him and they didn't play him a ton in these joint practices. It was more of a different personnel, but it's kind of stuck out to me that he's been getting a lot of first team reps that's yeah maybe worth mentioning but i'm trying to think if there's anybody else that we kind of haven't talked about did i mention jay ward i think i mentioned jay ward just briefly but jay ward getting a second team reps for the first time is quite notable now

that could be just because josh metellus was on with the first team so much with the personnel package that they used, but it could also be that Jay Ward is sort of next man up. And I have been curious about him to where he ends up on the field. He was talked about as being able to play a lot of different positions, corner, nickel, safety, and that's why they liked him. But he was playing a lot of just straight-up safety over these last few days. So that's probably one that has been notable to me. Anthony says, I hope our screen game gets back on track and looks sharp this season. Should be fun with the athletic offensive line we have. That last year was just not good. And it's funny when you try to look back at the numbers because the screen numbers don't look horrible for Kirk Cousins only based on 175 or 80 yard was 75

yard touchdown by Delvin Cook on a screen pass so that skewed the numbers if you get a big one like that but they were play to play not very good in the screen game and it's almost like what Kevin O'Connell has to do is look back at 2019 and kind of bring some of that in some of the screens some of the play actions because that was all they really did in 2019 it was run delvin cook play action deep shots and screens that was the whole offense 2019 well this is not how kevin o'connell plays he plays with three wide receivers spread out a tight end who can go down the field a little bit it's pretty fast and they run dudes down the field out of the shotgun all right we're playing more of a spread type of thing

than maybe was even expected. That's the way he wants to play offense. But you need that other element of it where you're bringing everybody into the line of scrimmage and you got Josh Oliver out there just throwing bodies. And then you run a bootleg and Justin Jefferson's 30-yard down the field. Like that still works in the NFL.

It's worked for many years. Maybe I love it so much because it's like nostalgia for me. Like, ah, yes, my childhood, the bootlegs, Gary Kubiak, John Elway. There it is. But I also think it's because I've seen it work like crazy here with the Vikings over the last few years, and they just didn't use it very often I think that that's what they want to use it for but the screens are just as big of a part of it Anthony is exactly right those screens are a big part of what they're trying what they should be

trying to do to improve because it was not very effective last year so that's the thing about this offense right you're trying to figure out well how is it? There's clear areas where they can be better. And then there's clear question marks, which still the offensive line, I would say after this week remains a question mark. I will be very interested to see if there are any changes there, but a clear question mark on the offensive line that will remain until they prove that it doesn't have to remain. I think it's like week eight, we can decide whether this worked out or not. I know that

everyone wants to know how it's looking now. And I thought over these last two days that they survived in advanced, but it's really going to be, can you do it in the regular season for the offensive line? So there are these questions, but there's also these other places where I feel like, you know, Kevin O'Connell had his first shot at it last year and got a lot of, you know, Kirk punched in the mouth and the ribs a lot of times with his scheme. But I also think that he had an entire off season to try to solve some of those issues. When you know you have tackles to the outside, how are you going to protect better on the inside? Can you, and somebody brought this up to,

I forget in one of these chats one night, and I was a little dismissive, and now I may have changed my mind, about the idea of trying to get other people involved in the backfield to help on the interior. I've changed my mind. Whoever asked me that question, I've changed my mind. I think that they can. I think that they can use a C.J. Hamm, a Josh Oliver in motion or into the backfield, whatever they need to do in some more personnel packages,

things like that, to help on the interior because they're probably going to have to. And they have so much trust in their tackles that they'll probably have to. Just based on what I've seen a little bit in camp, I could see that. All right, from Luke, do we just have the best wide receivers coach in the league? Feels like every day there's too many plays from these guys.

I don't know who to get excited about. Keenan McCardell knows what he's doing. Yeah, not all former players are good coaches. Keenan McCardell is a great coach. And here's how I know, because, well, first of all, I've seen what you've seen. You get guys coming in here. We don't even know like Tristan Jackson. And then they just start making plays. And he made plays just like this last year in camp and was on the team on the practice squad, but there was never an opportunity to use him this year. There's been more injuries in the wide receiver. So he's gotten more opportunity. So there they found a guy. And that was a find actually during the Zimmer era, weirdly enough,

that he was on the practice squad with the Zimmer era. So they've liked him for a while. And now all of a sudden he's developed and it's come into fruition. He's making plays. We've seen K.J. Osborne develop into a very good wide receiver. He's had a tremendous camp. Doesn't get talked about as much as Addison because Addison is more interesting. But Osborne has shown up in this training camp and been extremely good. When Keenan McArdle got here, he had no catches KJ Osborne.

And now he's a guy who's in line to have a good season in a big role point. Just being the answer is yes. They have a great wide receivers coach, but how I know is that when Mike Zimmer was fired, everybody else off the staff went with him, except for Keenan McArdle. And that probably means that just the Jefferson except for Keenan McCardle. And that probably means that Justin Jefferson really liked Keenan McCardle and Adam Thielen really liked him.

But think about that. I mean, how often do you see that where a coaching staff is blown out? They all lose their jobs, but they wanted to keep him because he was so appreciated by the wide receivers. I think that says a lot. I mean, McCardle should get a chance to move up the ladder, to be an offensive coordinator, maybe a head coach someday.

I don't know, but he has been very, very impressive and deserves credit. We give, look, we get, we, the league gave Nate Hackett credit for Aaron Rogers at one point.

Maybe you should give someone like Keenan McArdle credit for Justin Jefferson. How is Jaron Hall looking? Not a lot different. Not different to the point where I would say, oh, wow, he's taken a big step. It's a lot of drop back, not sure where to throw the ball and run. You've seen a lot of scrambling from him. He's just not seeing it and getting rid of the football.

That's what we saw in the preseason game. And that kind of is what it is when they were not practicing with pads. He was getting the ball out when they were doing seven on sevens. But these gentlemen on the defensive lines of teams, they are big. They are extremely big. And here's my understanding about quarterbacks is if you're undersized, you're looking at flashes, you're looking at kind of where defenders are in spaces. You can't just scan the field and see everything and then make throw maybe an underrated part of Tom Brady's

game. I guess very tall, you know, Peyton Manning, very tall could see everything. But when you're his height, it's hard to see. And then when you lack his experience, it's even harder to see. He just needs time. He'll probably, I would guess that he ends up getting cut and ends up on the practice squad. That's just my guess for right now,

but it's, it hasn't looked like, wow, this guy's really getting it. It sort of looked like, oh, well that that's, that's a rookie.

That's what a rookie looks like from JP is Brian floris going to send blitzes and play man or there's going to be times where they just adjust to offense as we play uh yeah yeah i think um uh boyfriend said that uh we do it but i'd like to know if you think it's just talk well uh well your BF, or is that best friend? Either boyfriend or best friend. I'm not sure. Would it need another FBFF? I'm not sure. But to that point, he is going to send a lot of blitzes, yes.

I mean, a major part of this scheme is blitzing. I do think that sort of part of the Belichick theory, which is where he comes from, the Belichick theory of defensive football is different game plans on a weekly basis. There are some teams that say we play our scheme. That's how we play every week. And there are other teams that say we're going to scheme differently for every team. So I would guess that Flores is more along the lines of scheme differently for every team. But when I went back and looked at all of the games that his defenses played and how the opposing quarterback performed against blitzes, you know what I found? I found a lot of people at the quarterback, and Ryan Tannehill was talking about it yesterday, about how unique it is to see a team do it at that level of volume of send this many blitzes and be this aggressive.

I also think that with this defensive group, you've got a lot of inexperience, you've got a lot of youth. It's hard to ask them to do a lot of complicated stuff with route combinations and so forth. It's a lot easier to send them at the quarterback and and say play man send you the quarterback and then there are a lot of times too where you looks like they're going to blitz and then they drop back so i think it's going to be a mix but it's the central part of this thing is they're rushing different people

from different places uh all the time and so but yes i mean they're going to scheme differently each week so it might be 60 of snaps one week and 30 other weeks so it will change from week to week but it's going to be a lot of it uh from digits nt rotation with tanga and who no it was not um a rotation with Tonga and who? No, it was not a rotation with Tonga. It was more of a personnel grouping. So instead of playing someone else in his spot, it was Marcus Davenport rushing from the inside, Wanham and Hunter from the outsides,

and then Metellus playing that. I mean, we've called it the big nickel, but that's not really accurate. It's more of a hybrid linebacker thing where they have their nickel package, but he is in there as kind of an extra linebacker. I guess it's a bit, yeah, I guess it's a big nickel, but I feel like it's a weird big nickel

with the way the defensive line is set up. So yeah, he would be in there with Byron Murphy, but we also saw a lot of Blackman and a lot of Evans as well. So yeah, I mean, in there with Byron Murphy, but we also saw a lot of Blackman and a lot of Evans as well. So yeah, I mean, maybe I've just counted 12 people on the field, but the point was that they've got the personnel grouping that's going to be more on like third downs with Metellus up there as opposed to on first down where you would have Dean Lowry.

And then they got reps to the base, but I felt like it was more of Metellus out there. I felt like I was seeing him out there all the time with the first team. And I saw a ton of Davenport rushing inside. So they may have just wanted to get a really extended look at that. But Tonga is decidedly the nose tackle. And then Harrison Phillips, the three technique. I assume you mean, oh yeah, Josh Metellus.

Josh Metellus has had the camp of his life, the dream camp. If he drew it up beforehand and said, what am I going to do in a camp? How would I do it in my dreams? It would look like this except for running into Caleb Evans today. It's the only thing that we spotted that's gone wrong. He's carved out a role for himself, and that is something that has taken wrong. He's carved out a role for himself. And that is something that has taken him several years of special teams,

working his way up, and is also, in my mind, a testament to what we've seen from Brian Flores of finding players' talent and rolling with it and finding a way to use them. Anything on Nikhil Harry, Bogtrotter asks. Well, I think he's done as good as he could have asked for Nikhil Harry. It's a really tough situation to just show up and be like, okay, play wide receiver in a complicated offense. And of course you're doing it with Jared Hall or Nick Mullins and not working with Kirk Cousins who can help you out maybe as much as or more than those guys can. So, you know, I look at Nikhil Harry as he's done everything they could have asked him to do. And they will probably end up putting him on the practice squad if they like the way that he's gelled with this group.

And that's really the best they can ask for. Will Levis, I did not see him practicing in a lot of the 11-on-11s. And T. Kubler says that he got hurt today. I wondered why I didn't see any more of him. And I saw way more Malik Willis. But I guess I just thought, well, I mean, I wasn't following the Tennessee writers. I guess I was thinking they must just want to see more Malik Willis than they want to see Will Levis. When he was doing seven on sevens, Will Levis, he has the fastest football for the shortest release that I think I've ever seen. His release is like here and the ball is gone.

He doesn't even have to bring the ball down and it just goes. Is it accurate? Sometimes wasn't yesterday was a little more today. And it looks to me like that's probably always going to be a problem, but the ball gets out there and he made a couple of nice throws and seven on the sevens. Malik was had a tough day after I thought was a good day yesterday. And Malik Willis is another guy where both of them physically extremely impressive,

probably not drafted in the first round for a reason. If you are that big and that fast and throw a football that hard and you aren't a first rounder, that means you got a lot to work on. Folks, we've got a bunch of sports teams here in town, and also for someone like myself, I always like to try to catch a ball game when I am traveling to cover football in a different city. But one of the problems is that tickets can be such a hassle, and buying tickets for your favorite events should not be as stressful as it is. Well, Game Time is fast and easy, a great way to buy tickets for all sports, music, comedy, and theater near you. They've got killer deals on last-minute tickets with their best price guarantee, so you can stop stressing over tickets and start getting hyped for the fun you'll have at your event. They have flash deals on last-minute tickets,

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Terms apply. Again, create an account, redeem with the code INSIDER for $20 off. Download the Game Day app today. Last minute tickets, lowest price guaranteed. Does Dwayne McBride look like he's getting any better? That I don't know. It's hard to tell. I mean, if he's getting better, because they don't tackle them.

So that's where it's hard with the running backs. But what the coaches are usually looking at is just how does it look for where they're supposed to be going? So are you supposed to be running that way? And less than, oh, Brian Flores, not BFF or boyfriend. Okay. Sorry, Brian Flores. So So yeah. All right. Well, Hey, but if you have a best friend, then hopefully they're talking football with you as well. Right. Anyway, Dwayne McBride, but he's just not ready to play that. That's been the way I've looked at it

is Dwayne McBride's just not ready to play he's probably getting cut and he's getting put on the practice squad and that's where we're at I mean that's that's probably it like yeah you drafted a guy who had a great highlight reel and we talked about that and but he was a seventh rounder and he was from UAB and he's just going to have to develop some more if there's ever anything that's going to be there. But I'm not sure if right now it looks to me like they're just searching around for some other running backs to fill out that room. He might end up in the room just because they don't have numbers and just be, you know, kind of down a little bit and play on special teams and so forth. I don't think it's been, it hasn't been

a camp where he's all of a sudden got a ton of buzz and wow, here comes Dwayne McBride. We thought he could be the Mr. Mankato that hasn't really come to fruition. So I'm not super high on what he's done so far. I think he's just, he's going to have to have a really great preseason game and he's going to have to pass block correctly as I keep mentioning, but it's a very important thing. So if both are healthy, has Blackman overtaken Evans for cornerback too? Nice to see you, Matthew, by the way. No, I think it's still Evans. That's still cornerback number two. I've been very impressed with Blackman. I think he's had a really good camp, but Evans has usually been out there, unless I missed something today, he's usually been out there

when it's been Byron Murphy and then it's usually been a Caleb Evans, and I think it's probably going to stay that way. David asks, is Daniil Hunter lining up or standing up or in a three-point stance? He has been more standing up, and I don't think that it makes any difference with him. I've seen him rush off the edge, standing up. I've seen him rush for years with his hand in the dirt. I just think that he is great at football. I think one of the things early on, Mike Zimmer changed and got him standing up a little bit early in his career and then hasn't really done it since then.

And he was good at it then. He's just good at everything. He was a dominant human being today. It's something to see. I mean, I know we talked about, hey, you know, if they trade him for a second round pick or whatever, this is not a guy you replace easily. I mean, I think that Tennessee went home pretty sad after facing Daniel Hunter for two days. He was doing a great job today. I was just more impressed with, cause I expect that from him

with DJ one, I'm getting after the quarterback too. And Marcus Davenport rushing from inside, all those guys were causing problems. And I'm really intrigued by the idea of one. I'm getting more playing time and playing on the outside. He's been able to get to the quarterback a bit in his career, but not consistently create pressure. So, you know, maybe we wrote him off and maybe this is just the, Hey,

you had a good practice. I'm not sure, but I stuck out to me that they had him on the field a lot. Ron Darby signed with the Ravens, Blackman and Evans hurt Drake mayke may inbound i believe well i it's hard to say so you know the report is that it's not serious with blackman but i don't know what not serious means how not serious hey can you give me a chart we do charts can we give a meter of serious like red is serious orange is a couple months that sound that would be serious

too so maybe that's like but like red is season ending orange is months we got maybe yellow is weeks right blue is days just maybe blink a few times if you could tell me how many uh weeks we're expecting for blackman is not serious but anyway uh doesn't look like Evans is going to miss any time. But he also tweeted, by the way, I know some of you mentioned that he tweeted that he is OK after getting popped and running into Metellus. He also did that after he got his last concussion, that he tweeted out that he was OK. So players are probably the worst source you can ever go to for information. I'm not saying that he's injured, just that like, well, let's wait and see if there's anything that develops from that. That's we talk about precaution with injuries. That's a guy you really want to

take as much precaution as you can. But to your point, Zalimen if they are without those guys the cornerback depth is not good this team will not end up in a position to take a top three quarterback but could it be like 2020 i remember being asked this before training camp hey could this go like 2020 and i and i i don't know like we'll see right now it doesn't feel like it. It feels like Evans and Blackman have been better than what we saw from, like, Holton Hill, Jeff Gladney, Cameron Dantzler. This looks better than that to me. And Byron Murphy is better than those guys as well. So it's looked better. And I think it's been a good fit with Brian Flores for all three of them.

If there are injuries in the cornerback group, it's going to be brutal. There's no way around it. It's just not going to be good. If there are injuries, that's the one area where the depth is pretty, pretty tough. Anthony says, what's your gut feeling on Kevin O'Connell really staying true on the offense to be more balanced this season? Oh, that's a good, good question. Trying to run the ball more. Is he going to really want to throw it all over the yard? That's a good question. Will he actually do it? So, well, this is the thing, right? Last year, he talked about how much he loves CJ Ham. Everyone loves CJ Ham. He's a fullback. He's great. But he said, oh, we've got lots of different ways to use C.J. Hamm. And they really didn't.

They really didn't. I think that it was kind of like trying to try, as Bart Simpson said once, I'll try to try. And it didn't really work out with the way that they use C.J. Hamm last year, especially on a jet sweep. That didn't go well, but just overall, they use them less. It was inconsistent week to week. It just didn't seem like you really understood how to use the fullback in the office, but they put a lot of money into Josh Oliver for a guy that maybe they're sure. Maybe they're not about how he's going to be used. So they must've had a clear plan for how they

want to use Josh Oliver in this offense to do the bigger personnel. Will they actually stick to the run? Depends on the run. I think he's going to be passed first all the time. I support that. Lean into the Kirk, lean into the passing game. That's always been the mantra on the show. They did not ever do that during mike zimmer's era but kevin o'connell most certainly did last year so it's always going to be passed first but can you at least use the running game to make a just make a dent that that's the the best way i could put it is you're gonna live live or die on the passing game in the NFL period. But can you get to second and four? If you hand off on first down, if you get a short completion

on second down, you got second and three. Can you get an easy first down by handing it off? Can the guy pass block in the backfield? Can it right? Like these, these simple things that are just moving the needle in a positive direction. And that I think they can do. And then it depends on the rest of just how successful it is because anything that a coach succeeds with, they're going to, they're going to stick with a bog. Trotter says any coach of the same ilk as Flores,

who could implement a similar defense when Flores leaves, I guess I would say let's, let's just not get so far ahead of ourselves unless we're talking quarterbacks. Then we can get ahead of ourselves. But I'm not ready to hire the next defensive coordinator at the moment. I haven't thought about that. I do think that if they have a great defense, people are going to look more at Brian Flores. I also think when the NFL blackballs somebody, they blackball somebody.

So I don't know if he's ever getting a head coaching job again. They will interview him though, because his lawsuit is basically saying that you didn't give me a legitimate chance as a head coaching candidate. So they're going to give him interviews, but I think that if the Vikings want to keep him as the defensive coordinator, they probably will. Luke says, I feel like the entire NFL was very indifferent about Delvin Cook until he was cut and he's all of a sudden a superstar. He did great things here for a long time, but yeah, I mean, I generally agree, Luke, that name recognition is always a big thing, always a big thing in NFL analysis at large. And for me, sometimes when you guys ask about like this, this place is set, you know, talking about this and this is talking about

that, uh, NFL network or ESPN or whatever. I kind of like, don't catch a lot of it because I'm out at camp and whatever else. So I kind of miss some of that stuff on the networks of how they're talking about it. But what I did catch of the Delvin Cook conversation was he was being treated when he was released as if they had just released the best player at their position in the NFL. at our fingertips is that we can connect what we saw to proof of what we saw and say, what we saw was not the same guy. And here is the evidence that he was not the same guy. Does that mean he won't help the jets? He might help the J he probably will. He's a good player still, I think, but is it the game changer that he was a couple of years ago? He was not that for the Vikings last year. So it would have to go a different direction. It would have to go back up, which usually does not happen for running backs.

Bob says more pumped this year than last year, and they went 13-4. I don't know, Bob. If we had been doing a live stream last year at this time, I'm guessing you would have been pretty pumped. You're here at 9 o'clock watching this live stream. I'm guessing you're pretty pumped about football all the time, but you know what? Here, here's where I agree with you, Bob. This year, there's so many more questions to answer. And that's where my wheels get spinning. And that's where I feel like we've had a lot of fun on a nightly basis. Talking about this team is somebody like Ivan Pace Jr. That would have happened last year.

Everybody had their jobs last year. Now we got questions abound still going into the second preseason game. So I'm excited too, as all of you should be. Rob says, do you think the front office will be calling around because of the thin defensive back room? This is the week to decide. And again, the severity when we hear he avoided major injury, but we don't know the severity. If he's going to be out a month, then, um, you know, maybe they do. And it depends on what the, how they felt about this week,

because Jawan Williams and Andrew Booth jr. Got a lot of reps this week against a pretty good team. I don't know if it's a great wide receiver group, but a pretty good team and a decent enough quarterback and a decent enough offensive mind in Tennessee. So there they are getting a lot of work and they can decide whether they want to go out and look for someone else. Personally, I would have just signed Ron Darby.

I know he's had some injury issues himself, but he's been around a while, and you're trying to win, and I don't know, he doesn't cost that much. That would have probably been my strategy. Maybe they've been bringing in people to say, hey, we'll sign somebody if you corners don't step it up, but I'd rather see them just sign some of these guys. Maybe they're trying to hold out a little bit to give them as much opportunity as possible, but I'd rather see them just sign some of these guys. Uh, maybe they're trying to,

you know, hold out a little bit to give them as much opportunity as possible. And I respect that, but this is the time where it's either do the thing or don't there. There are metaphors that can be used for that, that I can't say on the show, but you know, do it or get off the pot, like stop bringing people in and like sign somebody. If that's what you're going to do, this is the time to do that. I corner would be on my list corner would be on my list for sure to sign someone after seeing what we saw and what it looks like. If you have one person go down, uh, Matthew says, do you think there will be any major lineup changes for Saturday's game? Pretty or pretty much the same. I would or pretty much the same I would suspect pretty much the same obviously Jordan Addison won't be out there I would guess that Ivan Pace is going

to get a lot of playing time and they want to be sure about like if you're going to play an undrafted free agent that's pretty bold so you want to make sure there I would guess he gets a lot of time we could see some different corners just with the injuries. Are they going to keep a Caleb Evans out? I mean, certainly if he has any sort of bad feelings after his hit today, the collision. And maybe, look, maybe we're making too much of it. But anytime a Caleb Evans, somebody who's had this issue with concussions in the past, goes down, takes a hit, we're going to wonder, like, is he all right? Is he in good shape?

Because those things do add up and you worry about those. And if there's any concern, then he should not play. So that could be different. We could see a lot more backup cornerbacks, wide receivers. Tristan Jackson didn't get a chance to play in that last game. And so this is a big night for him on Saturday. He has done everything in practice to make this football team, but you got to catch the ball in the games as well. And I would guess he's going to get a lot of work. Can we start saying Mr. Egan? Never. No way. No, absolutely not. It will always and forever be Mr. Mankato. Always. Mr. Egan sounds terrible, for one.

But the other thing is, too, it's the essence. It's not where we are. It's what we're talking about. We are talking about the guy who we never heard of, Ivan Pace Jr. I heard of him because they paid him a lot of money for UDFA. But I would have never guessed in a million years, I would have had him on the practice squad. I don't know if I had him making the initial 53.

Maybe I did, but I would have had him dead last on the depth chart. And then that guy comes into camp, and he plays his butt off day after day after day. The coaches are talking about him. The fans are intrigued by him. And sometimes this guy has turned into stefan diggs that's mr mancato that's not mr egan i don't know that sounds awful uh let's see from jake how are they possibly going to decide on wide receivers most of them look great

uh yeah i mean this could be where i think the hardest decision is Jalen Naylor, Tristan Jackson, and then Jalen Rager and Brandon Powell. Those, well, I guess I said the hardest decision. Those are two decisions. Who is your punt returner and which one of those younger wide receivers who you really like is going to stay. Now you drafted Jalen Naylor, but it wasn't a high draft pick and he's been injured. He hasn't been able to get out there. Could you cut him and get him on the practice squad? Or does someone else swoop in and say,

come join our roster to Jalen Naylor. If he's healthy, could he go on IR to try to bury him a little bit and not have to make that decision anytime soon? I don't know. It is between those couple of guys. It's a hard decision right now. I would have Jackson on the team and I would have Rager as well and probably Naylor and keep six wide receivers. That could be the answer. Uh, Shane says so much. We entrench ourselves with players. My question is, do we have the coaching staff to get the most of our, out of our players

to be Superbowl contenders? I think that they might not have the roster to be Superbowl contenders, but you could make a pretty good case for the coaching staff. I mean, Kevin O'Connell was an offensive coordinator on a team that won the Super Bowl, and then the next year won 13 games. And of course we could say, well, it was luck, it was random, and you'd be right. At the same time, 13 goes on his record that he won. And I thought that the atmosphere created inside the building, the offensive philosophy on the whole, those things give you a chance. If you can have top 10 offenses,

you've got a chance. Brian Flores, I think is very, very much proven in this league. Yeah. I mean, I think they have a very good coaching staff and certainly with an assistant like McArdle,

a creative special teams coordinator. Like I think they have a good staff and what we've seen from Kevin O'Connell as a head coach has been very, very good overall. I mean, think about this. If you're like, and, and I'll have my critiques throughout the season, no doubt. Uh, if they run another pass play to Kirk cousins, I will throw one of these tables behind me. Okay. Make that a promise. Write that down. The, one of these tables is getting thrown Okay. Make that a promise. Write that down. One of these tables is getting thrown. If they throw a pass to Kirk cousins,

don't ever do that again. But so there were critiques. Was he as aggressive on fourth downs as I thought he might be? No, I don't think he was. I thought at times managing the play calling and the head coaching duties was a lot. So there are things. Maybe you got to lay the hammer down on Ed Donatel

and give Mike Pettin the defense last year and just make a change. So there are critiques. But think of what a lot of coaches have done when they've first gotten their jobs and tanked franchises. I mean, how about Josh McDaniels last year? That team goes to the playoffs falling off the face of the earth. And it's a very, very hard job that you don't know how hard it is until you got it. And to win 13 games, to have that locker room, the way it was

to have the players sign on the dotted line, that this is the best culture and the best situation for players in the NFL. And that says a lot. So I think that stuff gives you a chance and then you got to have a quarterback and then you got to have a defense and then you got to have some luck and all those things. So, you know, a lot goes into it. Let's see.

Spencer said, I tried to send this in by the website. It didn't work. So I'm asking here. Yeah. So the website works now. Purpleinsider.com. I'm sorry in by the website. It didn't work, so I'm asking here. Yeah, so the website works now, purpleinsider.com. I'm sorry for a little while it didn't. If you go to the contact us, you can send it in.

Pick one of the following options. Any quarterback, three corners, three defensive linemen or offensive line, three wide receivers or three defensive backs. Which one of those options would you rather have out of a typical draft class? Well, I mean, do you mean like any quarterback as in like first round pick quarterback? Would I trade a first round pick quarterback for three corners or three receivers or something? The quarterback is the thing. That's where it's all going to go.

The quarterback. Oh, I'm sorry. I have to walk over there because I forgot to plug in my computer. Hold on. Okay. I thought I had enough battery to keep going, but we've been going for an hour and 15 minutes. I lost track of time because this has been a really fun chat. So I really appreciate, really appreciate you guys. Let's see from T Kubler. Will Pace play less in the next two preseason games to save him for the regular season? That's a good question. I'm interested in that as well. I don't know, but I think that if you're going to start an undrafted free agent, you want to get as much of a look at him as you can, as many possible reps to be sure, like, all right, this is our guy. We want him to be our starter, but it's possible that he does play less if they've made that decision. And that's something I'll be looking

for. If they play him like two series, take him out, that probably means that he is, I don't know if I would say locked up that job, but very close to locked up that job. If he's playing the whole night, it means we want to get a little more of a sample size. But the way they've talked about him is with such appreciation for his game that it just looks to me like they're very happy with what they've seen. What about Bob says the fact that a udfa has a legit chance to start on this team tells us all we need to know about the depth of the defense i think that the cornerbacks starting having no experience whatsoever is probably the best evidence of that but ivan pace jr been legit though. He's looked like a real

player. And this happens sometimes where an undrafted free agent just plays great. I don't know that that's, it's not like they're forced to put him in. Oh, we got nobody else. We're forced. They had somebody else and he beat that guy, or at least so far, Brian Asamoah, they had somebody else and he beat that guy or at least so far Brian Asamoah they had a draft pick and I don't think that it was that Asamoah was playing so terribly I think that Ivan Pace has been that good doesn't mean I'm sure he's going to be a star I don't know what he's going to be like anybody else but from what I've seen he's played like a veteran linebacker if you just had me watch practice and said one of these guys is the undrafted free agent. I'd be like,

uh, the little corner that, you know, Mackay Blackman, I, it's probably who I'd guess. I don't know that I would guess pace based on the way he's looked, but you're not wrong.

I mean, when you look at the, uh, the guys that they have on the defensive line, the accumulation of not very much pressure or sacks between them. You know, you see someone like Dean Lowry, who the Packers let go. Like, yeah, I mean, it's very clear that they do have a lack of depth on this defense. But there are a bunch of other guys who have been drafted,

guys who played in the league, the pace. He's beating out Troy Reeder, who's played in the league quite a bit. A third round pick, a fourthround pick, and Troy Dye. I mean, he's out playing guys, not just a bunch of scrubs at that position. That's one where they have depth, I think. But it's the other position, especially the outside corners, I think, are where you would really say, wait a minute. There's no experience whatsoever between your two starting outside corners.

But then again, they have like five safeties. So Duke to God, nice to see you, Duke. When you dive into the advanced stats, the interior line and run offense is always average as well as the fewest attempts in the NFL. How have we not gotten worse with Cook absent? Well, it's because cook didn't play that well last year. He just didn't. I mean, you saw it for one, it was not the same as it was before his yards per carry was average, but it wasn't even really representative of a down to down play to play. And we just have ways of quantifying these things to prove it. His PFF grade was like 25th in the league when he was at his best. So you could say, well, I don't know about that.

But when he was at his best, he was top three, top five. And that we would agree with when it was good. And I think it was representative of how he played last year. The rushing yards over expected gets brought out, but that's, I think, good evidence of what it looked like. Did he get the most out of what was there last year? I don't think that he did. And I think it can be better, even if it's less explosive,

because it had so many negative plays. And when I brought this up, the expected points added, that's just how you perform versus the situation. And his expected points added was just not good for a reason because he added so many negative plays last year. So I think that even if they don't have as many explosives, that they can be a better overall running game in totality than just, Hey,

cook is more talented than Alexander Madison. Like if it's not that simple, I think. Horse Feathers, good to see you. Do you think that Kevin O'Connell will play starters in Game 3? No, I don't. I think if they're not playing in Game 2, then that's probably it. They've also got more joint practices. And so since they've got more joint practices next week,

I would be very surprised. I think that now they're, instead of treating the third one, like the old third one, I think they're treating the second one, like the third one, but they're just never playing starters. If you're Kevin O'Connell and the third one is like the fourth one still, where it's just going to be a bunch of mostly complete backups. Stewart says too bad Naylor is injured. I was really hoping a big step from this, this season, but can't make the 53.

If you never practice, I, he was one of my big half to watch this guy during training camp guys. And it just never is. I mean, he's played one, one practice that that's really all that, you know, it's ended up being, it's's played one practice. That's really all that it's ended up being is just that one practice.

What about Bob says, I'm saying that the missed picks over the years have left us with this kind of roster. No, you're not wrong about that. I mean, when you go back to the Spielman era and look, I did this once where I looked at every defensive player that they drafted over the years under the Spielman era, every single player that they drafted and how many starters they came up with.

And I think Cam Bynum was like the only one. They're like legit starters who actually worked out and played for them. And Cam Bynum is, you know, he's a guy. But that's all that they've came up with out of all these draft picks that they use.

They just didn't hit on many on the defensive side. They also didn't draft. I mean, they drafted some corners high. Mike Hughes had injury problems. Jeff Gladney had his problems. Cam Dantzler, the injuries, and then not being able to pick up the defense. I mean, geez, you know, over the years,

they just had a lot of bad luck or bad decisions in the draft. And you're absolutely right about that, that that has put them behind. So now you're playing a lot of younger players. And that's where we're going to find out if those guys can play. But after today, I was looking at just this depth and going, ooh, like, I don't know, is this depth going to be good enough? I love this question. This is a good question to end the night. How far could Christian Derrissaw throw one of us? It's hard for me to explain how much bigger Christian Derrissaw is than me. I am six foot one and a half. I'm not giving myself a full

six, two, but with shoes on, I am 200 something. Depends on how much pizza I had that week. He could pick me up and throw me, I would say about 12 yards. I think just because I've seen they pick up this ball. It's like a medicine ball and they heave it in the air. And last year I picked up one and threw it or two years ago, I was taught, I was like walking by Rashad Hill. And I said, I can throw that higher than you. And he laughed and he said, go for it. So I picked it up. I tossed it up in the air and it went like, it went up there and then he did it and it went way up there so think about that as like your body i would i'm gonna put it at 12 yards that including my role he picks me up

he launches me and i bounce i'll go 12 yards that's how far i think christian derisaw could throw me but but he throws NFL players. So maybe farther. How many touchdowns will Kirk cousins catch? Hopefully it's zero. Hopefully that never comes out ever again. Duke says, I agree that Delvin isn't the same as three years ago, but had the highest stuff rate in the NFL.

That means the defensive interior we're living in the backfield. You know, that's true. But I also think, I mean, we saw it, though. He got caught in the backfield a lot, where in years past, he didn't. Like, stuff rate, are we putting that on the offensive line? I don't know. I'd have to go back and try to look.

But a lot of times, was last year the first bad offensive line? I mean, also, they graded pretty well as a run-blocking offensive line. I think he just didn't have the jump anymore last year the first bad offensive line? I mean, also, they graded pretty well as a run-blocking offensive line. I think he just didn't have the jump anymore last year. Could come back, but Madison, I think, is a better choice to go with him and younger players. And if it doesn't work out, then you know that you don't have a starting running back. But I think that it's all secondary to set up the passing game, and it can't be understated that Madison is good in the passing game. All right. This is, this is carried on for quite some time, but I do have something to tell you guys about that. Isn't just an ad read and we're actually having an event. Let me see if I can call this up in the,

in the screen here to show you the thing that we made the tweet. See if I can do this. But yeah, we're actually having an event in person in Minneapolis. So I'm hoping that some of you guys can come. Let me see if I got the share screen here. Okay, there it is. All right, are we seeing this? Let me put this up there.

This is, okay, yeah, here it is. There's my Twitter and uh so it's at inbound brewing next tuesday night six to nine naturally but inbound brewing is an extremely cool place and i'm really excited about this because purple insider started in the middle of covid and we just haven't been able to figure out a time and a place to do this. So 6 to 9 next Tuesday night, Inbound Brewing in downtown Minneapolis. They're going to have a food truck there. We're going to have – I'm working on creating my own immaculate grid game based on the show.

So that'll be really cool. And you can just show up if you want, but there's also a signup sheet because we're going to have some prizes. We're going to pick names at random. So if you want to go to my tweet at Purple Insider or my Twitter at Matthew Collar, if you want to go there. And I can also, I think, if I'm not mistaken,

I'm still figuring out everything live stream wise. Can I just put this in the chat? Let me see. Does this work? Maybe not. Maybe it just looks like super not legit Can I just put this in the chat? Let me see. Does this work? Maybe not. Maybe it just looks like super not legit if I just put it in the chat. Well, let me know if that works.

But Inbound Brewing, it's near Target Field. It's a really super cool place. Next Tuesday night, we're going to record the podcast live. So instead of just here in my very cool studio, it will be there. So there you go. And I'm excited. Hopefully we could see some of you there. That doesn't really look like that link worked, but I'm sorry for that. But you got the date and time. You wrote it down, right? Inbound Brewing, Tuesday night. So hopefully I see some of you there. I'll remind you each night that that's where we're going to be. But anyway, thanks so much, everybody, for watching. And we'll have a chat.

We'll have a preview for the preseason game. We'll be the next time that we talk. And then Saturday night after the game from inside U.S. Bank Stadium. So you want to do a little football after dark. What happens is on game day, I go down to the locker room, talk to players, talk to Kevin O'Connell, come back up, set up, and we'll live stream from inside the stadium. And then we can talk then. So thanks everybody for watching as usual. And we will see you later. Football.