Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - We watched JJ McCarthy at OTAs again (Part 1)

Episode Date: June 3, 2025

Matthew Coller talks about takeaways from OTAs and answers questions from Vikings fans and discusses Justin Jefferson's interesting answer about leadership.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Hey everybody, welcome to another episode of Purple Insider. Matthew Coller here, fresh off of the practice field at TCO Performance Center. Now back home in the studio with a bunch of new information on the Minnesota Vikings after we watched our second OTA practice of the year. And it didn't go quite as smoothly as the first OTA practice. And we'll of course give all the caveats that have to go along with that. I also want to throw out there that there is a big storm that is going over my house right now. So hopefully the power doesn't go out. And if it does,

Maggie Robinson is behind the scenes. She's going to have to jump in. But for now let's talk some football. What I would love to hear from everybody is what's on your mind. What do you want to know about how the Vikings have looked in their first couple of OTA practices that have been open to the media and how did defensive players look is going to be a little bit tougher than some offensive players, but we watched maybe 15 plays today, including some red zone stuff. So I'm excited to get into that with you guys and also answer all the questions that you have.

I have two clips from our press conferences with Harrison Phillips and Justin Jefferson that really stood out to me. And then Maggie Robinson has gathered some very interesting OTA reports around the NFL that we're gonna decide important or ridiculous. And Frank Ragnow of the Detroit Lions announced his retirement today, which was very shocking. So we'll also dive into that. So why don't we begin with just the big takeaway from JJ McCarthy today from OTA practice is well,

he can't throw in the wind. So he's a bust. No, I'm just kidding. But it was unbelievably windy out there today, which made judging the practice a little bit more challenging. But the biggest thing that I noticed today was that they were just a little bit farther behind from where they were the other day. And it was last Wednesday when we were in and it was indoor practice and I felt like when we saw practice last Wednesday it moved pretty smoothly. J.J. McCarthy was finding his reads fast and getting the ball out. Whereas today it felt like they took another step with the complexity of the offense and we saw saw a lot more hesitation from JJ McCarthy a couple of times where he would have been sacked, didn't get the ball out.

He threw a bad interception to Isaiah Rogers and it just didn't have the same type of feel that it did before. But I think one of the most important things to keep in mind about McCarthy, other than the usual things we have to say about OTAs. Okay, they're learning, they're coming along, is that he has Justin Jefferson by his side here. And I don't think that we have to praise a star player for showing up to OTAs. I mean, he certainly doesn't have to because he's Justin Jefferson and in some previous years where he wasn't in OTAs, it was fine. He would show up at mandatory mini camp.

They've got the whole training camp. It wasn't going to hurt them to not have Jefferson there. And especially when he was negotiating his contract, I would never advise any player go out on an OTA practice field and run seven on sevens. Well, you're negotiating a contract. Because even if you turn an ankle or something or you never know when a serious injury could happen. So that's always better.

And that's what he did the last couple of years, but now that he's under contract and he is a leader of the team, you can see the chemistry starting to build with Justin Jefferson and JJ McCarthy McCarthy just on the basis of Here's a play that doesn't quite work out and they talk about it after they have a conversation about it and also Jefferson has such an air of Confidence about him. He's done this with so many different Quarterbacks at this point where he has been wide receiver one for Nick Mullins very briefly for Josh jobs who tried to get Jefferson killed for

Kirk cousins for Sam Darnold and now for JJ McCarthy and Jefferson made a really good point today after practice that even when a practice is not going great, which I didn't think today's really did for McCarthy, that he still has a air about him of, I think he described it as, he knows that he's the guy now and he's acting like he's the guy now, which is a really important thing, confidence wise, because there are going to be a lot of bumps along the way. And we've seen other quarterbacks sometimes in the past. They get down on themselves.

They get frustrated. They lose confidence because this is not the easiest thing to learn an NFL offense. Even if he knows a lot of the terminology, even if he knows in his head, the footwork, when you actually drop back against Brian Flores, his defense against real defenders at high speeds. That's so much different than putting on a VR helmet and trying to watch what Sam Darnold saw and then, you know, make that decision. So, uh, we saw a little bit of hesitation, a little bit of

struggle today from McCarthy, but you never see that it carries over from drill to drill. You never see the confidence waiver. And I thought it was important for him at the end of the practice when he was running drills in the red zone, that he looked like he got a little bit of confidence back in that drill and got going. But when you have Justin Jefferson with you, there's just a different level of confidence that any quarterback should

have because you have the best wide receiver in the NFL. So after practice, I asked Justin Jefferson about his own leadership role. Because one thing I've noticed about Justin over the last couple of years is when the team very much belonged to Kirk Cousins, Justin Jefferson was a little bit more reserved. And sometimes he would show a little open frustration, which not much by NFL wide receiver standards, right? In comparison to some other guys maybe who played here recently, who have been involved in boat incidents.

We didn't see that a ton from Jefferson, but there was some growing up type of moments from him starting as a superstar and being like a part of the machine of the Vikings as opposed to you are the guy. You are the leader. You are who everybody is looking to. And now he has really taken that role. And I thought that last year Jefferson did an excellent job at becoming that person. And we really saw it when he was frustrated at times as other teams would put two or three guys on him and he would not outwardly show no matter how frustrated, you know, he was getting when he wasn't getting the football and then the next week he would take off and really where

I think he showed it because you have to show it on the field as well as being vocal and when everybody's looking to Jefferson, they need to hear from him sometimes. Because I think you just everyone's going to follow the leader when it comes to the best player. But there were a few times last year where Jefferson maybe wasn't getting the ball like you think, say against Chicago, and he would lay a block to spring a run or there was a game. I think it might have been the other time they played Chicago where it was a screen pass and he had to block somebody for cam acres to go in for a touchdown and he had to really lay somebody out and those are the types of things that show you the effort the hustle that he's going to put in and I think that's leadership as well as being more vocal.

But since it was noticeable how much more he was putting that on his shoulders, I asked him what he learned from that experience because this year it's going to be really important that yes, JJ McCarthy is the guy, but everybody will be looking to Justin Jefferson. So here is what he had like last year. You took on a bigger leadership role. I guess. What did you learn about yourself as a leader from last year that you can apply now?

That I actually can do it. Everybody that knows me knows that growing up I was a more shy guy, more leading by example than by my voice. So I just you know had to learn just being vocal, learning that you know I have I have some type of what's the word when people listen to me you know yeah influence I have some type of influence on this team so just you know whenever I have some type of encouraging words or you know just have that chance to bring up a team and to break us down, you know, that, that all makes a difference. And even just being here makes a difference.

So, uh, it just feels great to be around the team earlier than, than normal. And, uh, just carrying on that leadership. Well, and like I said, I don't want to give too much credit out just for showing up at the voluntary workouts like you're supposed to do for Justin Jefferson. But at the same time, if he didn't, no one would really criticize him for it. And yet he decided to be here and you can see that relationship starting to grow between Justin Jefferson and JJ McCarthy. And when it comes to the confidence of McCarthy, which I think is going to be

very necessary for him on a day like Tomorrow when they go back we're not gonna be there tomorrow for OTAs It's one day each week and then mini camp were there for three days in a row but When he goes back for tomorrow looking for a better practice that he does not get knocked off of his His track to where he's going with this offense. And that was really impressive from him last year when he had some struggles in OTAs that he just got better and better as it went along.

And then by the time he was a training camp two or three weeks in, he looked like a starting quarterback. The other important part is even as much as the offense was not a smooth operation today at OTAs with all of the wind and like, look, this is the level of football we're going to get when we're talking about covering an OTA practice with 40 mile an hour winds whipping all over the place. football still cut through that wind. I mean, the questions about his arm strength that were when he was coming out, I think all that really proves is that all you can be in a scouting report is what you were in college, but it doesn't mean you're that forever when you're only 20 or 21 years old.

Now, maybe somebody like panics or Nick's, maybe they'd be much more of who they were going to be when they came out. But even then, like scouting reports in college don't necessarily have to be what you are in the NFL. The work you put in can change that. Now natural arm strength, sure, but there's plenty of quarterbacks through the years who have learned to be technically more proficient. And I think about Joe Burrow in his first year. If you go back and look, there was a lot of criticism for Joe Burrow in his first year throwing the ball down the field. Now that seems laughable to talk about Joe Burrow and his deep

ball because it's been so good and so effective, but he realized that it was not that effective in his first year and went back and learn how to better throw it. Even Sam Darnold is a great example of this where Darnold early in his career did not have a lot of success throwing down the field, and last year was one of the best deep throwers in the league because you can work on it and you can get better. And I think we've really seen JJ McCarthy get better in a few key areas. I mean, the velocity, I think it's been good since day one, but you could see it when it was cutting through the wind today. When you got wind in your face and you're still able

to push the ball 40 yards downfield, I think the touch is getting better for JJ McCarthy. Even just from last year at the beginning when we saw him, it was kind of all fast balls. It was too high, it was too low. And he has been much more consistently accurate. And even when you just watch somebody warm up, so they'll put a wide receiver way outside and they'll run a route down the sideline and McCarthy's got to let it rip to

them much more consistent in those warm up throws where it was hitting the ground a lot last year. And then more and more it started to gain for McCarthy for just more accurate and things like that. I think that's the footwork coming together, the technique coming together that a lot of, for those of you who are golfers, I golfed this morning, if you tell, got a little sun, uh, and I'm still in my golf looking attire. But, uh, for those of you who are golfers, everybody knows somebody, just for example, I have an uncle who is 5 foot 3 and can hit a drive and he's like 60 something and can hit drives farther than me. And and I'm 6 foot 1 and not 60 something years old. And the point is that he is an amazing golfer

and he is much more technically good at swinging a club than I am. So he can hit the ball farther. It's not that JJ McCarthy I think when he was in college, wasn't strong enough to throw it really hard. And we saw that at the combine, he could throw it really hard. I think that he just had to work on the technical elements of pushing the ball down the field, which I think have looked really good in these OTA practices

and how he's throwing the football, how he looks physically, which to me is back to the same point, possibly even a little bigger than last year. And I didn't know if he was going to quickly be able to put the weight back on, start building the strength. What's my handicap? It's not great. Okay. I play, I can play in the eighties, put it that way. I can play in the eighties most of the time,

but the chipping and putting are just the problem. And just to tie that into JJ McCarthy, I think that's, that is truly where he's going to have to continue to develop from what we see as a passer is some of the underneath stuff. It's a little too much VLO. And it's a, it's a check down or it's an under, it's a quick little, you know, drag route or something. You got to take a little off that and lead the guy as opposed to whipping it in there

full speed and it was very clear today also the timing with matching up his footwork and some of the decisions of you gotta get it out one, two, three, and then it's supposed to come out or go to your check down and there were just a couple times where it felt like he didn't see that in the same way he did the first week. That doesn't mean panic or anything. It means that the process is coming along the way it's supposed to.

It's more important, I think, for us to see as a guy comes off of an injury that the physical traits are there. And the other thing is too, you guys know my philosophy in evaluating player press conferences and things people say that everybody is usually going to be complimentary when they do their press conferences, especially if QB one. It would be very shocking if any other player came to the podium and said, I don't know, guys, we might be in trouble here. So, but what I look for is the specifics. What do they say specifically? And does it match up with what I'm seeing and what I'm hearing and so forth? And then I think it validates the thought process. So Harrison Phillips, who had, if you want to go watch a phenomenal press conference, I mean, energetic, excited about this new

team, but great detail about how the players perceived the free agency and the new guys coming in and that's over Vikings.com. They've got this whole press conference. It's definitely worth watching Harrison Phillips was fantastic. At one point I said to him, I'm like, dude, you seem pretty jacked up about this team because he really was that energetic. But Harrison Phillips gave some really great specifics about JJ McCarthy. Harrison, what stands out to you about being around JJ McCarthy this year? Well he's gotten jacked up. I don't know if you've seen a change in his demeanor, but

I thought it was really cool for his growth. I've commented before about how he came to me the week after his injury to try to learn more about the defense. And he's pulled me at times, hey, I saw you were in a four eye on this play and you moved to a two on, what were you doing there? Why, how can I see a nickel if you're doing that? So asking those great questions, he's really stepped up in the personal power role

where just in the locker room, I'm constantly seeing him going to new guys, to new players, introduce, you know, dapping each other up, sitting on the couches and just having conversation where last year it was off to rehab, off to meetings, off. He understands that we have to build a family here and that, you know, you can't have unique results without unique relationships

that we believe in. And then man, he's got some confidence and he reminds me of like Josh Allen when I was with him in Buffalo coming into his own and understanding the power that he has to lead this organization. You know, when we talk about JJ McCarthy and the difference in his demeanor versus someone like Caleb Williams and look, Caleb Williams could still be great, but it's noticeable that JJ McCarthy seems to have a very good understanding of what is on his shoulders.

There are some players that I've seen come into the league in past years that are kind of, I don't want to say lackadaisical about it, but more just they don't get the gravity of the NFL. They don't get the gravity of the position. They think, well, I've, I've always been the man. I'll just be the man again. And it's clear to me that JJ McCarthy has taken a very professional and well thought out approach to how he is acting as quarterback one and that this whole, are you the franchise

quarterback kind of thing? Is he actually QB one Kevin O'Connell tell us, which of course, you know, obviously he is and is taking every single first team rep as you would expect. There's no competition here, but as soon as the Aaron Rogers rumors were put to bed for JJ McCarthy, it was, this is your franchise. And this is something that McCarthy has worked toward and wanted for a very, very long time. And I'll keep going back to when he said that he was in fifth grade

and decided to edit his life to be at the starting quarterback of a franchise like this. And he acts the part with that. He seems to understand that everyone will be looking to him, even if he is the youngest player, one of the youngest players on the team that he has to lead in that way. And I think another, uh, another thing is for, uh, JJ McCarthy, that his communication skills are really, really good. And we see that when he's at the podium, he didn't talk today. He's going to talk, I think again next week, just about how many camp went for

him, but his communication skills are so strong that he seems to instantly connect and and Harrison Phillips confirming what you see already from the sideline, you know, we're standing a little, little ways back. If you see the photos or the videos, we're standing a little ways back, but it's not hard to see how JJ McCarthy is communicating throughout the time he is at a practice. And that is really important that connection with other players.

And, uh, this is not disrespect to like Kirk Cousins, who was a really, really good NFL quarterback. And if JJ McCarthy is as good as Kirk Cousins with this roster, which I want to talk about in a minute too, with this roster, then they'll be really, really good. Right. But I don't think that Kirk cousins ever had this type of natural connects with people relates to people. And I remember when Kirk, this is just to compare the two, when Kirk got to the Vikings, we had a press conference with

him and he said something like, well, you know, it was kind of, how are you taking over this team as a leader when they just went to the NFC championship? And his answer was sort of, well, I'm not really, I mean, I'm kind of just trying to be a cog in the machine and we've got a lot of leaders here and everything else. And I think with JJ McCarthy, it's, it's my team. It's my franchise, me and Justin Jefferson, me and Jordan Addison, me and TJ Hockinson, Darasaw, Brian O'Neal, but it's him. He's the guy.

And when you watch a practice, you have no questions about who is the guy, who is the franchise quarterback that's out there. Does that mean he's gonna win the Super Bowl? I don't know. Like, I guess we'll find out, but that's a start. Like he's got all the starting points here, and then we're gonna follow the bumps in the road like today and how practice was maybe not the smoothest one I've ever seen.

I don't want to overdo that because there were some completions. There was a nice throw in the end zone that I broke down with Dane Mizutani on our instant reaction pod. But just a thought, just a thought kind of coming out of that. Some of you have asked me, by the way, I moved the microphone back to the right side, tried to fix the lighting a little bit behind me, but some of you asked, well, hey, why is it in front of the Vikings flag? Because there's all the flags behind me. It's because every time I'm talking, I throw up my right hand and then I would hit the microphone. So I moved the microphone to the right side and get ready for me to smack it time and time again. So anyway, there's some thoughts about that.

I also want to show you guys something that I came up with for the newsletter. That is purple insider dot football. Feel free to go subscribe there if you get a chance. And, uh, sorry, my head's cut off in the corner, but, um, I want to show you this chart that I made for an article that tracked all the playoff quarterbacks from last year in three different categories that are kind of catch all categories. So expected points added slash completion percentage over expected,

which is a Ben Baldwin stat. He works for the athletic. He's an analytics guy. And then the PFF rank and traditional quarterback rating. And so I went through and my goal was in this article, purpleinsider.football was to try to figure out how good JJ McCarthy has to be this year for the Vikings to make the playoffs. And the average of these three catch all stats was the 13th best quarterback in expected points added

and completion percentage, uh, over expected, uh, PFF rank was 11th. So that was a 13th and then PFF rank was 11th and quarterback rating was 10th. And if you put them all together, the average quarterback was 11th in these three catch all type of categories. And then I charted each one and how many quarterbacks were above average, how many quarterbacks were in the middle that made the playoffs, and then how many quarterbacks were not that great.

Another thing that I noticed was there was only two quarterbacks that ranked lower than 18th. So we have a pretty clear baseline there in these statistics. And what I came up with just in general from doing this little study was I tried to find, well, who was the 11th best quarterback in some of these statistics in previous years to try to get some comparisons. And what I came up with was a couple of interesting names that are the baseline for JJ McCarthy. That's not that he can't be better than this,

but how good does he have to be for this Vikings team to make the playoffs? And I know every year is different, but just if we use that number, that number, the 11th best quarterback in the league, who was it every year? So I went through and I found guys like Justin Herbert, who's pretty consistently been in that ballpark,

Kirk Cousins, as you might expect in 2022, he was in that range. Along with Ryan Tannehill when he played for the Titans and they won the conference. Also, Baker Mayfield kind of fell in that ballpark. Andy Dalton once upon a time. If the baseline is what Baker Mayfield has done the last couple of years or what Ryan Tannehill did for Tennessee or Jimmy Garoppolo was another name that came up. That's where JJ McCarthy has to be in year one, which I think with the team that they have is a pretty attainable area of just the NFL in general. And Brock Purdy's name also kind of comes to mind as well for what he did last year. If Brock Purdy was on this team last year, the current construction of this team,

and it's Brock Purdy, they are deep in the playoffs, right? I mean, they were able to do that with Sam Darnold and Brock Purdy, I think is a better quarterback. So that's the baseline. Can he be as good as those guys? And with this caliber of roster around him, then you have a chance to legitimately compete for a Super Bowl in the NFC. In the AFC, the standard is a little bit different

because you have Josh Allen and Lamar Jackson and Patrick Mahomes who can't all play for the Super Bowl at once. So that's only one side of the bracket, but that seems to be a very attainable type of comparison for McCarthy as a baseline for where he needs to get to go deep into the playoffs with this Vikings roster. So again, purple insider dot football. If you want to see that entire article,

so questions, comments, thoughts, feelings, uh, what do you guys want to know? Anything is on the table with the Vikings or the NFL, but if you have specific OTA questions, there are some other takeaways that I had that I shared on the podcast with Dane, but I'm happy to answer any questions for you. We'll start out. Hold on. Let me scroll back up. Nate says, if you could compare Ty Felton to any wide receiver, who would it be? Hmm. I don't know that I have a comparison right off the top of my head yet because all I've seen from him is running routes a little bit in seven on sevens and then doing warmup routes. It's kind of hard to formulate a comparison based on that, but you combine that with what

he was able to do in college, I'm going to have to think a little bit about it because Felton is tall and fast, but he's not ultra quick out of his brakes. So when I watch wide receivers and think about the guy that we used to have in front of us at practice, the fond eggs, no one was better than Stefan digs at getting in and out of his brakes. I've never seen anyone up close better in short area. If you're running and I mean in NFL history, I'm sure there are guys who are close, but in front of me at practice doing like just say an outroute at 10 yards, how quick can you get from full speed straight to full speed going left? Stephon Diggs was unbelievable in the end.

So I'm sure just, you can all envision having seen digs play for many years, what that looked like that kind of chopping your feet, getting low, turning your hips, lightning quick, right? That's not Ty Felton yet. He is more straight up and down. And I think that there's more of a get there really fast straight, then turn, then go left that he's going to have to work on. He's going to have to work on getting lower and breaking his feet down,

chopping his feet in and out of those breaks, getting some of the route running details down because the physical, the raw physical talent size and speed, you just don't see that combination all that much. I think that early on he's going to be a guy that you want to get the the raw physical talent size and speed. You just don't see that combination all that much. I think that early on, he's going to be a guy that you want to get the ball to pretty quickly, let him break some tackles, let him run after the catch.

And then they're going to have to work on the other stuff as it goes along. And they're going to have to develop the other stuff, which is why you draft someone in the third round. I mean, if Ty Felton, who I think has a high ceiling and a lot of potential, but he hasn't played a ton of football. Last year was a breakout year for him, 96 catches in college,

but he hasn't played a ton of football. It's not like he has four or five years of being the guy at Maryland. It was really only last year that he broke out. So there's details that he's going to have to learn on the fly as we go through training camp next off season, all that. So my expectations for Felton for this year are not through the roof. I think that they can be as he gets more time and he's in a situation where he's

going to be able to develop, but I'm trying to think of a good comparison. Uh, who was the guy for the 49ers? How fast was, uh, was that Joanne Jennings? developed, but I'm trying to think of a good comparison. Uh, who was the guy for the 49ers? How fast was, uh, was that Joanne Jennings? How, how fast was he like a taller guy that could catch the ball really well, but maybe it wasn't the most nimble when it came out of his brakes. That might be a little bit too deep on a roster. I can't think of a recent Viking wide receiver because they really haven't had guys other than great receivers. It's been, you know, Diggs, Thielen, Addison and Jefferson.

And then a lot of, eh, you know, we'll see what happens with that guy. So, you know, I think Felton has a lot of potential and you don't see that size and speed. Marley suggests taller, faster, Jerry is right. I don't see that. I think Jerry is right was really good at getting out of his brakes.

And if you're taller, then you're not like him. I mean, as far as the role goes, maybe because it's underneath stuff, but Jerry's was really good at those slants, short area stuff, where I think Felton is going to be more, get the ball into his hands and then he'll have to develop as a route runner. I think he tracks the ball well. So he could be more of a straight line, deep threat. When

was the last time the Vikings had a guy who just could line up and then just run by somebody on the outside? I don't, I don't know. I mean, Jefferson can obviously do it and does it well all the time, but how many guys are really really good at that? That the Vikings have had I mean Naylor is a good deep threat But I see him as good because he tracks the ball well, and he has kind of long speed They call it guys who get seemingly faster as they go But just stay in there snap is taken fly by somebody like a track star I don't know. I don't know how much that's been. So, you know, I think that with Ty Felton,

you're gonna have to have some patience with him and allow him to grow into this role. And this year, it might only be a handful of catches for this year for Ty Felton. Maybe you see him in some kick returns and there's gonna have to be development along the way. Matt says, Ty reminds me of someone. I just haven't pegged who yet. He's physical but fast. So I have to figure out who, yeah,

I'm having the same struggle. So I guess comps are fine. I'd be interested. Brings a great blend of speed, strength and grit. Well, that's, that's definitely true is he was able to break tackles, which is not something that's easy to do. Does Felton have a chance at wide receiver three? I mean, if someone gets hurt, then the answer would be yes. But if nobody gets hurt, then no, uh, Jalen Naylor is so much more experienced. He's been in this system.

And let's not forget that every time Kevin O'Connell talks over the last four years, he's brought up Jalen Naylor. I feel like, I mean, he has always been on Jalen Naylor's side. And we saw last year some flashes of why he is like Jalen Naylor so much. So Naylor is going to be that guy, but Naylor also is in line to get a contract extension or to get a contract somewhere else and hit free agency and be a big or decent size money receiver like a Josh Palmer or something where he can get $10 million, $15 million elsewhere that the Vikings might not want to give him. So it kind of depends on how this year goes. Maybe he proves to be invaluable and they pay him anyway. But Felton's just to me watching just the warmups and seeing him next to Addison,

seeing him next to Naylor, seeing him next to Jefferson. That's a guy who looks very similar to how KJ Osborne looked his first year, to how Jalen Naylor looked his first year, where the raw talent is clearly there. I think the want to with a guy like Felton is there and he is fast, strong, big development is just going to have to happen and we never want that like the draft happens and we just want everybody to be you know this happened with dallas turner last year just everybody to be in their prime right away because you get so excited about the draft but with him it's probably way because you get so excited about the draft.

But with him it's probably next year we're going to see more out of him. That's just my read from OTAs right now. We could see fast development. It's just, I think this team is in a position to let someone like Ty Felton develop. Uh, Deontay as Frank Regnau retired today, how big of a loss is it for Detroit? Absolutely enormous. In fact, if you go back and listen to Harrison Phillips talk about Frank right now, Harrison Phillips gave him an applause. He, he was told Harrison Phillips was told that rag now retired and he literally clapped and said like, congratulations. That's an amazing career. He said that, uh,

other centers on the Vikings team would be asking him, how does Frank do it? Like what does he do that's so good? Said he was one of the hardest people in the league to play against. I mean, that's not something that you replace easily. Now, of course, I've seen, well, this is the end of the Detroit Lions. It's not. But Frank Regnau is one of those players that you just don't go find. I mean, you have to usually get someone of that caliber

in the first round and then he grows into a superstar. I mean, I think centers are the position that probably the greatest players don't get enough unless your brother is dating Taylor Swift. Then you get a lot of attention, not that Jason Kelsey doesn't deserve it. He absolutely does. But Jason Kelsey is the only center who I've ever seen

that actually gets the love he deserves. Most great centers just kind of go about their business and don't end up in the spotlight in any way. And Rag Now was like that when you'd watch the game back and you're like, geez. So I think that it could affect their running game. And think that it could, it could affect their running game and Jameer Gibbs. It could affect their pass protection, but I think their running game more than anything that he was the head of the snake for that run game.

And they also lost Kevin's Eichler. Like that offensive line is where it all begins. And we know this for Jared Goff that where did it start to go sideways from Jared Goff in Los Angeles from having the number one offense in 2017 top three I think in 2018 it started to go sideways when the Los Angeles Rams offensive line broke down because as much as Jared Goff I think is a great quarterback top offenses every year what has he beaten the Vikings five out of the last six times or something? I mean, he's really good, but he's not a mover.

He's not a runner. He's not an escapist. He's got to have a good pocket and from a clean pocket, he will light you up, but he's got to have a clean pocket and losing Frank right now is big and they have a different offensive coordinator. I mean, I really think that this is going to be a tougher year for the Detroit Lions than it was last year. Adam says, question, a lot of people have been saying KOC will run more with the rookie quarterback. What do you think? KOC hasn't held any other quarterbacks back thus far. I doubt it a little.

This is going to be, well, one thing about him not holding back other quarterbacks is that there is, or not leaning on a run game and putting it all on other quarterbacks. And there was the one game where he threw 30 something passes with Josh Dobbs despite four interceptions and he still wouldn't run. And you know, that was, that was a bad moment for KOC I think. But as far as, and look, you know, whatever happened with Josh Dobbs it happened, but I think we saw then in that game that he's going to continue to push the pass button almost no matter what and

this is an offense that's going to be on the quarterback shoulders. However, if we look at the last three years, they did not really trust Delvin Cook as he started to fade in the second half of 2022. They moved away from it, put everything on Kirk. They were also playing in a lot of games where they were losing at the end, had to come back, shootouts where they had to throw a ton. So that was going to impact it a lot. Those statistics about the run pass ratio.

Then they go with the Alexander Madison experiment, which I endorsed. I thought, let's find out if he can be a good running back. And the answer was no, not unless he's a backup and he's just filling in and you have a really good offensive line and that sort of stuff. Just he's more of a RB2 and not an RB1, so we learned that. And you could see why Kevin O'Connell would not have trusted that run game when it was just not succeeding very much with Alexander Madison

and the offensive line to some extent there. And then last year, early in the season, they were leaning on Aaron Jones a lot and they were actually closer to 50-50. They were ahead in games, they were running more, and some moments, I criticized, and of course, I think O'Connell would probably look back and say, I shouldn't have been as aggressive at that point, even if he wants to be aggressive. But for the most part, they did run,

and they ran effectively, and they were at five yards a carry midway through the season. I think when Darasaw got hurt, they were at five yards a carry and they were the closest they'd ever been during O'Connell to a 50-50 ratio. The problem is after that they swapped out Dalton Reisner for Ed Ingram and they swapped out, not by their choice, Cam Robinson for Christian Darasaw. Cam Robinson's one of the worst run blocking linemen in the entire league. And guess what? So is Dalton Reisner.

And so you ended up with really one well above average run blocker and that was Brian O'Neill and that was it. Now this offensive line, Will Fries, Donovan Jackson, who's a great athlete, even if there's some technical things that he's going to have to learn, he's a great athlete and you have Ryan Kelly as well. That is a lot different and getting Darasaw back whenever they get him back. That's a lot different. So I think that he'll be willing to lean on the run game more, but this is a quarterback driven NFL still, even though running was better last year, it's a quarterback driven

offense. KOC is going to be KOC. It's going to be on, it's going to be on JJ McCarthy. Like he is going to have a lot on his shoulders and that's okay. That's what you drafted him for. And that's what, uh, you know, he's going into another year for, I mean, this is that he was able to sit last year because of the injury, but I think they were going to sit him anyway, because they wanted to make sure that when he got to this point That he was completely ready because it's on your shoulders and anytime you have Justin Jefferson

You're not designing your offense around a run game. You're designing it around people can't stop Justin Jefferson Ron says what is Brian Flores is contract situation? Do you think he should get a raise slash extension? I believe Ben Gessling, Star Tribune, reported that he is going into the final year of his contract. I've never thought too much about coordinator contracts, but I suppose in Flores's case, it might be a little bit different because if he was a free agent, then another team would be maybe very excited to bring in Brian Flores. I mean, if they go through this year and they've got another top five

defense and he's got the relationships in the building that he's got with these players that he's built over a couple of years and he's got the dynamic pieces that he's put together in his own vision. I mean, the Wilf family, I think has always shown that when push comes to shove, they will step up with those dollar figures. Now, my understanding is when it comes to coordinators, they haven't always been one of the higher paying teams.

I don't know if that's just because they had people like Clint Kubiak who were new ish or John DeFilippo, I'm not sure, but I think for somebody like Flores, it's been almost a co coaching type of situation. No question that KOC is the one who's operating the entire franchise, but he's got the offense. Flores has got the defense. And since that's been the case,

this defense has been phenomenal. And if that's the case again, then he's, you know, he settled down here with his family and it's gone really, really well for Brian Flores as far as like reinvigorating his own reputation post Miami. He is now looked at around the league as being one of the top, if not the top defensive mind in the entire NFL. All that stuff seems pretty good for Brian Flores, but you never know.

You never know what's going to happen in a year. That's just my understanding from Ben's reporting, but you never really know what's going to happen in a year. I think the fact that they have Durante Jones on this, uh, on this staff, um, is, is really helpful. Because if there is a moment where he takes a head coaching job or he for whatever reason wants to move on, I think that they've got

an Andy Reid, Steve Spagnolo thing that they need to keep going with. But if he were to move on, then they've had Durante Jones here underneath him for quite some time that could carry on the defense. So at least they have another person that I think could be next in line. Uh, I like this comparison Quadri Ismael.

Yeah. I mean, uh, I had a actually interviewed Quadri a few years ago, really, really good guy to talk with and one of the coolest Vikings wide receivers, I think ever. That's a good comparison. I don't think that Ty Felton is as fast as Kadrius Mal. I don't think so. I mean, the Ismiles, him and his brother Rocket, those two guys.

Unreal speed. I mean, we're talking like four twos, low four threes blazing fast. I think Felton was sub 44 but I don't I mean he's he's fast, but I don't think he's on the level of rocket or quadrius mail But in terms of the role though, that could be it I think the difference would be that Ishmael was more of a down-the-field type of guy And maybe era played into this as well Whereas Felton is more of a get the field type of guy. And maybe Era played into this as well. Whereas Felton is more of a get the ball in his hands

and let him go with it. That's probably the difference. That normally you see this guy, the catch and run type of receiver. Normally you see that guy will be shorter. He won't be six foot one, he'll be five foot 10. And then he kind of like, you know Get small into spaces and stuff like that where Felton can actually run over people This is funny for Melkill get yourself someone who looks at you like KOC looks at Jalen Naylor

I'll tell you man Jalen Naylor we asked Justin Jefferson today about Naylor getting bigger. There's no question There is no question that Jalen Nailor has jacked up. So maybe in for a big year. I don't know. Best shape of his life. I think we can actually say that Jalen Nailor is in the best shape of that we've ever seen. Stephanie, good to see you Stephanie says, I know you don't have O-line progress news, but can you make something up to tell me? Well, the the only news that I can really share with the offensive line is that we are not seeing here in OTAs the look that we're going to see come the season because Will Fries was not there, so it's Blake Brandel who's doing his job

at right guard and it's Justin School who is at left tackle as we wait for Christian Derrissaugh to come back. But there's not a lot else to say other than that Donovan Jackson has been working with the ones, which is important because a lot of times this time of year we don't see young players working with the first team and Jackson. So it gives you maybe the sense that he might be picking it up pretty quickly. That's just a guess based on the fact that they're having him work with the ones But it was blatant when they drafted him and they want this guy to be there starting left guard So why fiddle around why not just have him get out there? That's the best I can do on the offensive line right now I think we know what it's gonna look like when it's at its absolute best. And the only other thing I could say is that the depth of an offensive line is

super important. And I do think that they have it. That doesn't mean they have superstars behind their starters. There's 32 teams and there's not enough good offensive linemen in the league to make up a great depth line. But when Brando could come off the bench, I'm intrigued to see what Michael Juergens looks like in training camp. He's the center that they drafted now because he might have to play, um, two years ago, he might have to play with Ryan Kelly, uh, having some injury issues in the past,

but that's kind of the best I could do right now is that the week one offensive line, uh, is, uh, questionable at this moment, not with Will Fries. I think Will Fries is going to be fine moment, not with Will fries. I think Will fries is going to be fine to come back by training camp. That's what KOC said, but we'll see if they're at a hundred percent with Christian Derrissa or not. Uh, we're going to have to find out what the timeline is. I don't think anybody asked KOC the other day.

It was just all about McCarthy, but I think if I think KOC talks again at the end of mini camp, maybe we'll get an update then. Uh, how did Sam Howell look today? Well, actually we saw all the quarterbacks today. I thought it was okay. I didn't think it was a lot better or worse than the other day. It looks like a backup quarterback. The guy that impressed me just to tell you the truth that I'm, I'm, I'm not trying to be that guy,

but I keep liking what I see from Max Brosmer. Every time we see Max Brosmer out there, rookie mini camp. And now today he ran a drill at the red zone and had a couple of touchdown passes and like, you know, finger quote touchdown passes. It's a red zone drill. So you start there and there's no pass rush, but I like what I've seen from Max Brosner so far. I don't think he competes for QB2, but he might compete for QB3 and how will, I mean,

when he's out on the field, I'm probably going to watch the defensive guys. It just doesn't matter a whole lot to me. Like we have a sample size of him playing in the NFL and his first practice that we saw did not go that great. Uh, but this one was all right. I guess, I mean, that's from me mostly watching when the second team was out there, I was looking a lot at the young defensive players. What does Kobe King look like? And the answer is thick.

Kobe King looks thick. They, the Vikings have not had a thick linebacker since I think Ben Gideon. That was the comparison. A couple of us were talking about on the sideline. Like, I don't think that they've had a real like thumper guy since Ben Gideon that was the comparison a couple of us were talking about on the sideline Like I don't think that they've had a real like thumper guy Since Ben Gideon probably saw Kobe King has my attention Eric Wilson was out there a lot today because Josh Mattel is not doing the seven on sevens I think that's contract related. It might not be it might not be

it might just be take, you know not putting too much on his body, but Eric Wilson was the one taking over the role for, you know, for Josh Mattel is today. So I think that Eric Wilson is immediately behind Blake Cashman and obviously Ivan Pace Jr. Melkill says, do you think that they would have worked in McCarthy last year had even healthy maybe later in the year? I don't know when. I don't know when that would have happened. Maybe in the blowout against now, I mean, even against the Falcons when they were up 21 at the end of the game, they ran the ball, they ran out the clock. No, I don't really know when that would have happened.

I don't think he would have seen the field other than for like a kneel down or whatever if he would have played last year. I don't think they would have panicked after beating the Jaguars and benched Sam Darnold. I don't think that was going to happen. They were just winning too much at that point. And then Darnold got hot after that and played really, really well in Tennessee, played great in Tennessee, played great against the Indianapolis Colts. No, against the Colts, he threw some bad picks and then played well, but it was against Tennessee where the light went on for Darnold and he played really well. So no, I don't think he would have seen any of the field last year other than maybe at

the very, very end of, uh, you know, some games where they were blowing somebody out. But usually when they were blowing somebody out, they kind of let the team back in, but maybe against like Houston or something, when they were up big, wouldn't have seen a lot of him. No, the only difference between last year and this year was just that they would have used him a lot in practice and he could have gotten to understand NFL speed a little bit better in practice and actually gone through the footwork and things like that as opposed to just having to try to watch virtual reality.

Let's see, John says, AI says Bernard Berrien is almost a perfect match for Ty Felton on height and weight. Well, I mean, if he becomes Bernard Berrien, that's a heck of a result for Ty Felton for him to become a starting caliber wide receiver that Brett Favre cannot throw the ball to instead throw it across his body. Sorry guys, I didn't mean it. But truly he should have just thrown it to Bernard Barry. And I mean if he becomes somebody like that, I'm just I'm trying to think of how many wide receivers

maybe I could pull this up and we can try to get a comparison because I'm just, I'm trying to think of how many wide receivers, maybe I can pull this up and we can try to get a comparison because I'm immediately starting at a point where I'm thinking about yards after catch. I don't think bear or I don't, yeah, Barry. And I don't think that Felton is going to be the type of receiver, at least right away that comes into the league and is just breaking off sick routes and looking like Alan Iverson on a football field, crossing guys over. Like, I don't think that's going to be him. When I watch him come in and out of his breaks, I think, uh, he's going to have to work on that.

Not that it's going to ruin his career, but it's clear that he is going to have to work on that. So that to me means you're going to have to be a yards after catch guy. When I pull up yards after catch, I see Marvin Mims, Jamison Williams. I don't think he's that level speed of Jamison Williams. Debo Samuel obviously is not somebody he's exactly built like. Khalil Shakir. Keon Coleman is on this list. They throw a lot of short passes in Buffalo. Marques Valdez, Scantling, He's got the speed to be that guy, but I think he's a little better. Well, yeah. I mean, if he, if he had yards after catch last year, Valdez scantling doesn't have the best hands, but I don't think,

I don't, but what I don't think of all this scaling as a short underneath guy at all, I think of him as entirely D yeah, his average depth of target is 19. Let's see average depth of target. Curtis Samuel, that's an interesting one. Curtis Samuel's an interesting one because he's not the smallest guy, I don't think. Yeah, I don't know, I don't know. I have not come up with one yet so far that I really like.

Tyler Boyd, nah. I think he's faster than Tyler Boyd. Not that we're going to keep working on this one, guys. I don't have a great comparison at the moment for what Ty Felton can be. Brosmer over Howell, mama? No, I don't think so. I think Howell is your guy. He's played in the NFL before.

It's really Sam Howell versus Sam Howell is how I look at it, because if Howell fails, then they're going to trade for somebody else. QB2 is not in the building if it's not Sam Howell. But I just like the way Brosmer looks for somebody that they can have his potentially QB3 if he beats out Brett Rippon. That decision might be based a lot on what they see in preseason between those two.

I'll be interested to see Brosmer preseason because I have a feeling we're going to see a lot of him and Brett Rippon in the preseason and maybe there's a battle there. It's and look we're only talking about a rookie mini camp and we're only talking about a couple of throws and OTAs. It just continues to stand out to me that he looks like a pro quarterback. BA 4782, think Juergens will make the roster again as center number two. My buddy's former college teammate. Well, that's cool for your buddy. I do think so. I do think so. It was really telling last year to me that Michael Juergens was used and on the active roster over Dan Feeney. Dan Feeney is not a good football player,

but he had been in the league for years and he had been a backup for years. And if a seventh round rookie is active on game day, I mean, that's telling us everything we need to know. That means they trusted him more than they trusted Dan Feeney to be the center if Garrett Bradbury went down last year, so I think he will very clearly be the second center. I also don't really see another one on the roster. Maybe there's some guys that they're cross training, but I don't know if

there's another center on the roster. I'm just interested in his progress because I think there's a very good chance he's going to have to play. So last year I thought that he did pretty well in training camp. He was matching up with some guys that they're excited about. Takita, Imani, Levi, Drake, Rodriguez, like we see we've seen a lot of Levi, Drake, Rodriguez. I brought that up after last week. But once again, he's been on the field a lot with this team. The other one that's out there a lot is Tyron Ingraham Dawkins. And I think that they're immediately intrigued by Ingraham Dawkins and his size speed combination.

He's a big dude. He's definitely a tweener. Like he's not an edge rusher like an Andrew van Gingel or Granar, but he's not quite the same size as the DTs. So he's in an interesting spot there, like a three, four defensive end. But it's caught my attention how much those guys

have been out on the field. But the point that you're asking about with Juergens is, you know, he's going to have a really big opportunity. And if he looks good next year, then there's more confidence that he can actually come and play or next year in, you know, training camp in two months. But if he looks good, then there is maybe even confidence that they could be developing their future center because I can't imagine Ryan Kelly is gonna be in the NFL for more than another year or two with his history of injuries and things like that

and just age in general. I think probably two years maybe is a fair guess for Ryan Kelly. So if you're developing Michael Juergens for a couple of seasons, we know that, and Joe Berger was a great example of this offensive lineman the more you can develop them the better chance they have to be very good. So But good question there about Juergens. I'm interested in him

Let's see son of a beaver says with Jonathan Bullard visiting the Saints today. Do you think the Vikings might try to bring Jonathan Bullard visiting the Saints today. Do you think the Vikings might try to bring him back or any more free agents like say Cam Akers? I could definitely see, sorry, sorry, Malkill for bringing up 09. I mean, when someone says Bernard Berrien, what do you think of? Do you think of his days with the Bears

or do you think that he was wide open? Just throw it over there, Favre. We all, we were all thinking it. Jonathan Bullard, yeah, I was actually a little were all thinking it. Um, Jonathan Bullard. Yeah, I was actually a little surprised that they didn't bring back Jonathan Bullard, which says to me that maybe there's some confidence that Levi Drake Rodriguez and talkie. Tiamani can be these guys or Jalen Redmond.

I shouldn't forget Jalen Redmond. He was really good last year, especially against the run had a couple of quarterback pressures, but was really good at knifing into the backfield and looks like he might be a little beefier coming into camp this year. But Bullard was very good against the run. He could really stick a block. And I thought that he would be back, uh, as a rotational player, maybe with 300 snaps. And it's possible that Jonathan Bullard said, Hey,

you guys just signed two big name defensive tackles. That's going to take away my snaps. I got to find a place where I'm going to play because there's only so many years left in his career. He's on the older side too. That might be a situation where if he doesn't sign with someone else, you get to training camp and you bring him back. If you're not pumped about the other guys. Cam Akers, I don't know. I don't know what the deal is there because, well, the same thing goes for Cam Akers.

When the team brings in Jordan Mason, who, by the way, is enormous. I cannot tell you. This guy is massive. I mean, he's not. So I've seen Derek Henry up close when the Vikings practiced against him. That's the largest running back I've ever seen in my life. And I don't know if anyone will ever top that. But Jordan Mason's really close.

He is a massive human being. But if you're Cam Akers and you want to play and the team brings in Jordan Mason, you're probably not looking at the Vikings as a place you're going to come back to unless there's an injury. And we'll see what happens with Ty Chandler. He was back kick returning today him and Isaiah Rogers Ty Chandler has that kick return role as someone who's done it a lot before in the past and has had some success with it. So They might just want to keep him in the rb3 and then if there's an injury then you react to it If acres wanted to come back though, I think,

I mean, that guy's a warrior. So of course you would want to see him back. The Brozmer, for sure with Brozmer, he just has it written all over him as a training camp favorite. Now I think he's going to have a lot better mental makeup than some previous guys. Like, you know who I'm talking about from a couple of years ago that thought that

they were QB one and a superstar because they had fourth quarter comebacks and some other fans believe that too. I think Max Brosmer is a much more grounded human being than that. Uh, but you know that if he has some success, uh, that everybody's going to fall in love with Max Brosmer. That's for sure. What's JJ's weight? I did not personally weigh him, so I can't tell you that for sure. I didn't come over here. JJ comes up on this scale, but I, if I had to guess, I'd say two 15 probably. Um,

but I'm also like feet away from him. You know, I don't know. A hundred feet away on a. You know, I don't know a hundred feet away on a hill Is it I mean it's a little bit tough to tell how much exactly if I could do that. I would have a great Carnival career for sure We haven't discussed Bo Richter yet. It's not a live stream until we discuss Bo Richter I look I'm high on Bo Richter. I have been since last year since the training camp and Look, I'm high on Bo Richter. I have been since last year, since the training camp. And he was really good in camp.

He was really good in pre-season. He was really good on special teams. I think Bo Richter can play and he's wearing 54 and he's like bald. So he kind of looks like Brian Erlacher. There you go. Purple Insider compares Bo Richter to Brian Erlacher. There's your comp of the,

that's better than the Bernard Berrien one, right? But I think that he has, I think he's got a future. I don't know what it's going to be. I don't know if it's rotational. I don't know if it's, he didn't look like he was working in with the ones, but I think as far as backup goes, that's, that's his job right now, since they didn't bring in anybody else.

Nate, give us your boldest prediction for the 25-26 season. Do we do that with football? I never do that with football. Since Madden doesn't do it, I don't do it with the next season. Let's see, because I always call it like when it's January, 2025,

I still call it the 2024 season. Usually it's only basketball where it crosses over. That's not what you're asking. Boldest prediction. I haven't thought of that every year I try to do like a 50 predictions or something and then go back and look and see which ones worked out and which ones didn't. I mean, the boldest prediction, what would that be? I mean, I feel like it has to be something about JJ McCarthy,

but I kind of want to make it about the kicker. Like Will Reichard makes 92% of his kicks. Is that is that bold enough for you? I mean, is it is it even bold to say that I think the Vikings can win the division? That's, that's not really bold. That's where the standard is. If that's why it's hard. It's hard to find a bold one. Cause if you're like, yeah, I think that, uh, JJ McCarthy could throw for 32 touchdowns and they could win the division. Like, well, they just did this with Sam Darnold and won 14 games last year. So

that's not that bold. I'm going to think about that. How about, how about Dallas Turner gets eight sacks? Is that bold? Probably not. He's a first round draft pick. I'm struggling with what even is defined as bold. I'll have to think about that. The 99 yard touchdown for Bernard Barry. And that's a good one. Yep. Bring the scale to practice next time. Yes, I'll see what I can do.