Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - What are we looking for at Vikings minicamp????

Episode Date: June 3, 2024

Vikings minicamp takes place this week. It's the last chance to see the team before training camp. What are the storylines? What do we expect the depth chart to look like? Will we get a Jefferson extension? Will we see McCarthy take first-team reps? What positions are we watching most? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hey everybody, welcome to another episode of Purple Insider. Matthew Collar here, and unfortunately this is the first live episode in a while that I'm not doing before Wolves Games because there are no more Wolves Games. And I'm sorry for all of you about how that went down. I guess trying to go live to jinx it or reverse jinx it into existence didn't work out very well and the wolves came up short against the dallas mavericks kind of wish that it had gone a different way in that last game as opposed to everybody getting hyped up showing up at the arena and then having it flop almost immediately but such is minnesota sports except when we're talking about the Lynx. So that's how it goes. Vikings fans very familiar with games just like that.

The 41 Donuts and the only NFC championship that I have covered, the Vikings and Eagles, kind of had a lot of that same feeling. I mean, I flew all the way to Philadelphia just to watch the Vikings come apart. So I know how it goes sometimes, and it's unfortunate. But I enjoyed the run of watching the wolves. And I wrote an article about some things that the Vikings could take away from the wolves run and their roster construction. So make sure you go to purpleinsider.com, check that out. But the biggest, I'll give you a couple of them to start the show. And then we'll talk about a mini camp and the things that I'll be looking for this week but two things that i thought of were one uh sometimes you do have to just go for

it like the wolves did to get rudy gobert and i know he took a lot of crap throughout the uh you know the the whole playoffs especially from draymond green on television but you know i don't know how any team could get anywhere without every once in a while trying to go out and get the final piece to what they have. Now, I don't think that it's completely applicable to the Vikings with Dallas Turner. I understand that comparison with moving up to try to get a great player. But I think it's actually on the way at some point where the Vikings will have to do something a little more aggressive down the road, whether it's overspend on a free agent, make a trade, something like that when they do reach that point. But I think the Wolves identified when it was the right

time that they could take the next step and be a championship contender. And they were in most of those games, they were very close and could have gone either way and proved to be a legit contender. And they were in, in most of those games, they were very close and could have gone either way and proved to be a legit contender, but they waited until it was really time to push that button and go all in. So I think the Vikings will get to a point somewhere along the line, maybe by the end of this year, where they go into next off season saying, all right, let's give out that crazy contract to whatever free agent to make sure he comes here. Let's make that trade for more first rounders out the door or something like that. Although I guess it's been mostly second, third, fourth, whatever. You get the point.

Send a bunch of draft capital or something to get that final step. And the other thing that I want to see if this emerges on the offensive side, because I don't think it really has over the last couple of years, is that the Wolves were different in the way that they played. They were different in the way that they were constructed with the two big guys. And then they played a different brand of basketball because most teams don't have a twin tower approach. In fact, I think that was one of the things that gave them trouble was the Mavs had those couple of big guys and that wasn't as easy for them.

If they had matched up with another team, then maybe Rudy Gobert and Carl Anthony towns are more of an advantage. Also maybe Carl Anthony towns could have started the series in game one and not in game four, but that's, you know, another story to break down. But I think the Vikings have to find an offensive identity that does separate them a little bit from the pack on defense. They clearly have it with their scheme. So I was kind of trying to make some comparisons between this is what a team looks like when it's great. And the other part of it too, is Anthony Edwards

is a mega star and you're probably not getting anywhere in any sport without a mega star. Does that mean JJ McCarthy has to be that? I don't know, but it might mean that the connection between McCarthy and his receivers have to result in elite performance in order for the Vikings to have a chance to do something similar and go deep in the playoffs. And we'll see if we start getting a look at that this year or next year or whatever. So that's kind of, you know, the connection between the wolves run and the Vikings, or at least in my mind where I'm always watching everything thinking, is there a way to talk about this through a Vikings lens? But I made a list of a bunch of different things that I'm going to be looking at through mini camp. And, uh, it's

three days. We have access as immediate to three days in a row, which is nice because we can get a bigger sample size of these practices rather than having one waiting an entire week, trying to break down stuff from an hour and a half of practice. That's really more of 45 minutes of us actually seeing them do stuff. So we'll get a couple of days in a row here. And this is also normally where it ramps up a little bit. Intensity-wise, the practice has usually more 11-on-11 type of reps. And so we get a look at what the lineup might be,

or at least the starting point before a training camp. I've always viewed it as the last information that we get before we go into that desert of a stretch where we try to have fun on the show and it won't be stopping and we'll have a lot of conversations throughout June and July but this is our last real look at new information about the team and we form kind of where we feel about them now and then all of that changes when we go through the preseason and training camp and all that, but you know, a significant part of the off season from my perspective. So I'll give you my list and then I'm happy to answer any comments,

questions that any of you have. And we can talk as long as you want, because we don't have a tip off to get to. Although my wife is on TV broadcasting links later on this evening. So I don't want to go deep into the night. I want to see the links game, but I did want to, you know, we can extend it a little bit more if we're having a good time here. So let me start out.

Of course, the number one thing on the list is Justin Jefferson's contract situation. And this could be resolved by tomorrow for all we know, or it could be resolved five days before the season. We're still in a holding pattern with this. But if there was a time to do it, it would be now because then he wouldn't have to be fined and the Vikings wouldn't have to have that conversation about, you know, how do we get him on the same page with the quarterback?

When is he going to be here? Then you can avoid the rumors throughout the next six weeks or so and into training camp and all that. I'm not sure that they care all that much about that or as much as all of you guys and myself do. But as far as getting the contract done, it's really more about getting him here, getting him on the same page, updating him on what changes have been made to the offense. Although I wouldn't be surprised if some information has been exchanged with Justin Jefferson as it pertains to that, even though he has not been at OTAs.

And is he going to be there if he doesn't sign the contract? So we're going to have some movement on this, no matter what it's either he signs the contract. And then we all have the snarkiest conversation that you've heard in a long time for me about rumors and the whole contract situation and all that sort of stuff. And then of course we can call it a day with the off season. Once they get that done, we could say mission accomplished for the offseason of 2024. They got their new quarterback. They moved on from Cousins. They rebuilt major parts of the defense and signed Jefferson. When that happens,

that will mean that the offseason sort of comes to an end there and we can begin training camp with no major drama. If Jefferson shows up without a contract, then does not perform in any way out on the field, kind of a hold in type of thing. Well, that's notable as well, because it would be a sign of good faith from Justin Jefferson that he showed up to have presumably more contract talks with the Vikings. I know he's not doing it. It's his agent that's doing it, but it would be a good sign to say, Hey, I'm here. Uh, just like he did last year. Although I think he actually practiced last year, it would be a bad idea for him to practice this year, but one of those good faith signs, I'm ready to stay with this team and negotiate.

I feel like things are going in the right way, but I'm not going to get out there and practice till we resolve this. That's another possibility. And then of course the frustrating possibility is if he does not show up at all and doesn't have a contract by Tuesday is the first day that we're out there for mini camp. And if that does not happen, then it's still not time to panic. It would though, make a lot more headlines if he doesn't show up for minicamp and doesn't have a contract extension. And I was going back and looking at the dates where a lot of Vikings in the past had signed their extensions and whether it was Stefan Diggs. I think the only one that I found that was very early was Eric Hendricks, but Delvin Cook, Stefan Diggs. I think Kyle Rudolph was kind of around

this time before we got into training camp. He had signed an extension, but it's not that often that the Vikings have signed players to extensions, even this early in the offseason. Usually it does come at the beginning of training camp. Sometimes it happens, but normally that's been the case. I'm sure that they are pining to get this done with Jefferson so they can have him at practice, be ready for training camp, all set to go, no distractions. Everybody's good with the quarterbacks and all that sort of thing. If he does not sign though, not the end of the world. If he doesn't show up, not the end of the world, doesn't mean that he's traded. Doesn't mean that, uh, you know, all the rumors of this, that, or the other thing turned out to be true. It just means that this

isn't in a place yet where they're ready to sign. And it means that they're going to need a deadline to make a deal. So clearly everyone would prefer that they get the deal done right now. And then we don't have to talk about this anymore. And we can just discuss what the offense is going to look like with Jefferson Addison and Sam Darnold or JJ McCarthy. So either way, there will be some type of thing that happens that we're going to be talking about regarding Justin Jefferson's contract. So that's number one on the list, naturally. Number two is JJ McCarthy's reps. Will JJ McCarthy get in there for some backup quarterback reps? There was no indication of that in OTAs. It was all QB3 over on the, I guess I could call it the kids field, the less

experienced players field over on the other side. And the starters and main backups were on one field throughout the OTA period, which makes a lot of sense. And it's always been that way. And I remember, and there's a few exceptions. I mean, Dallas Turner is practicing with the first team. So there are some exceptions, but I remember there was one rookie where this was the case maybe it was an offensive lineman who was drafted was it Bradbury I can't remember somebody was drafted and in OTAs they were on the kids field and there was a lot of people upset because it was the Mike Zimmer hates young players and so forth. Usually there's a little more learning going on on the other side and a little more patience and a slower pace,

as opposed to the starters who should pretty much have it locked in or are starting to get it locked in with only a few questions. They're not having to teach them how to throw certain route combinations and things like that. And you see the comfort that Sam Darnold has had out at these practices, getting up to the line of scrimmage, setting everybody up and then dropping back and throwing the ball where the operations been a little more joggy with JJ McCarthy, but now he's had a few weeks. He's comfortable in a purple Jersey.

And so is he, or, you know, in practice they wear red jerseys, but is he going to get in practice they wear red jerseys but uh is he going to get a little more opportunity here and if he does then my thought will be that this competition is kind of on to start training camp if he's still not taking reps ahead of nick mullins or here that way through three then my thought will be more like,

okay, they are playing with extreme caution here and they are not pushing this at all. And that is fine, but that's just where we're at with JJ McCarthy and his reps. And another thing, I just want to see if the operation is a little smoother and he's a little more comfortable. Josh McCown put it really well when he said he's doing these things for the first time ever. Imagine how many times Josh McCown over all of his years ran certain route combinations. Well, some of these are JJ McCarthy's first ever with the right footwork, with the way that Kevin O'Connell wants it. So giving him time is totally fine. It's just that if he makes progress and looks like he's going to be in the mix on a daily

basis, even to start training camp, that would be good. It's sort of like I can view this in one way that it's good if he is taking those reps ahead of Nick Mullins and appears to be starting the competition with Darnold, but I'm not going to knock him if they continue to go along with extreme caution. So that is a number two. And, you know, we'll be watching closely to see how those reps look from JJ McCarthy and Sam Darnold. I know what you guys really would have number one on your list though. Who's playing left guard. That's what you guys really want to know. Hopefully guard guy is in the comments.

I haven't seen him in the last couple of live shows. Maybe after they signed Reisner, he was just like, my work here is done. I'm good. But who's playing left guard? Is it Blake Brandel to start off? Is it Dalton Reisner? Are they switching back and forth? Dalton Reisner would be familiar enough with the offense, so he should be able to

step right back in and take all the reps that he needs to take. But there have been a lot of indications that this team wants Blake Brandel to be their guy at left guard. And I would imagine that what the Vikings provided for Dalton Reisner was an opportunity to battle at that left guard position. And if Blake Brandel doesn't win the job, then they know that they've got a quality starter. It could be that a lot of the rest of the league just wanted Dalton Reisner to be a backup, which is a tad curious considering he's been by all the numbers more in the mid pack. There are some guys over the years that just, they don't get maybe the appreciation. I'll give you a couple examples. I remember, what's his name?

Kelvin Benjamin. No, Kelvin Benjamin was Kelvin Beecham. I think that was his name. He was a tackle for the Arizona Cardinals and he was okay, but he wasn't a physical freak. His numbers were always good. He didn't have high pressures against them, decent PFF grades, and no one ever wanted to pay this guy or start him because he never bowled anybody over and he wasn't a freak athletically. And he wasn't the best run blocker that feels like the same way it is for Dalton Reisner, where a lot of teams are going to want a difference maker

in the run game at their guard position. And that's not Dalton Reisner. So Blake Brandel could potentially be a big improvement on that. He is an enormous guy. I mean, he's a mountain of a person, total opposite of what the Vikings used to have at their guard positions. I mean, this guy is like six, six, 315 pounds or something. He's enormous. That could be more road grader ish as a run blocker. So we'll see how that plays out and who they have into that left guard position. And, uh, you know, we'll see if there's any other right guard things going on. I know I got I got quite a few questions on the mailbag about the right guard and whether Reisner could work in there. I don't think so. I think that Ed Ingram is pretty locked into that position and they want to see progress from him. It would have to go really badly. And Reisner has never played anywhere but left guard.

Brandel has played some right guard last year i believe he played a game at right guard or two okay i know i think he played a couple uh games at least one at right guard maybe when ingram was injured but there's no competition there as far as i can tell uh we'll see if we get any indication of that at any point but i don't think so uh they drafted him they've played him every snap they've stayed through the good times and the bad, and usually more bad than good with Ingram. It would be very surprising if he was just benched for Dalton Reisner, who they've never really shown deep love for since he's been with this team.

The receiver battle of the depth, and I'm just keeping my eyes on a couple of guys. Number one is Jalen Naylor, and number two is Malik Knowles because Jalen Naylor through these portions of the season, the OTAs, the mini camp has always stood out. Is he going to put himself once again in a position to battle for wide receiver three, wide receiver four? Looks like it so far. We haven't seen with Jefferson out there and how that fits in but he's taking all the reps on that side with the starters and they have been high on him for some time now so keeping an eye on how he splits up the reps and malik knolls has just caught my eye a few times as one of those depth wide receivers who's got some size some explosiveness to his game where he could potentially make the back

end of the roster and beat out someone like Tristan Jackson, for example, who they've had in camp for a few years and see where we go from there. And you're always keeping an eye on like just Sean Jones or somebody like that, where that was a UDFA that they picked up from Maryland, who I noticed once or twice. Maybe there's something there. Usually in minicamp, the wide receivers are the ones that you can spot the easiest. And you can get fooled a little bit when they're in shorts, that's for sure. But if someone pops, then it's notable.

And that was Tristan Jackson last year. And he ends up on the team and catching a few footballs and playing in a couple games so maybe we start to get some momentum growing there two more quick things uh the kicking battle please please the last time they did kicking we didn't really get to see it because we were walking off the field they were kicking on the other side and i wasn't going to go sprinting back across the field to try to see who made the kicks and who didn't. This time we'll probably get a little better look at the kickers and what Will Reichard looks like. I'm curious to see that. We could see it from the side, but we couldn't see if the ball was going in or not, which really defeats the purpose. But I can say that Will Reichard kicks

a very nice arc on his football, if you're looking for some kicking reporting, but clearly has a leg. I'd just like to see a little more of that. And minicamp, the other kicker, John Parker Romo, still on the team as of this moment. So I assume those two are going to start battling it out. And if they want to keep John Parker Romo for the training camp in preseason, then he's going to have to prove it there. But yeah, I mean, I just really, really desperately want to kick in competition and we'll go from there. And the last thing is what we hear from Kevin O'Connell. We have not spoken with Kevin O'Connell in a little bit as far as getting an update on JJ

McCarthy, the quarterback situation. We haven't had an opportunity to ask Kevin O'Connell about the reps and how he's decided to distribute the reps for JJ McCarthy, for Sam Darnold, and just a couple other things, you know, the left guard and everything else. We've had opportunities to talk to the other coordinators, but not in the last few weeks. I think since rookie minicamp, have we had a discussion with Kevin O'Connell and then we get a little more information about what's going on and I can bring it back to you. So that's always helpful. And there you go. There's the

things that I am looking for in minicamp. So now let me scroll back up and drop your comments in your questions. What's on your mind, any takes regarding the Vikings and we'll have a fun chat here. I'll start with JP would be great if McCarthy shows he has improved his footwork and deep ball. Also seeing one of the young cornerbacks show flashes. I think it's fair to expect that JJ enter the season is QB three and we should be okay with it. So, uh, one at a time there, as far as the footwork and the deep ball, I do not purport to be a footwork expert. Uh, I cannot watch a JJ McCarthy rep and say, Oh, nailed it. He, that was a five-step and hitch right on.

But what I can observe is how the timing looks because every play is meant to have a certain rhythm to it. Wide receivers break out of their breaks or come out of their breaks and the ball is supposed to be in a certain area in a certain time. It's definitely supposed to come out in two and a half seconds or a certain time. It's definitely supposed to come out in

two and a half seconds or less. And if it's not, then we know that something is a little off, whether it's whether, you know, someone not seeing where they're supposed to throw the ball correctly and hesitating or getting something footwork wise wrong. And so the rhythm and timing of just watching it has been spotty. It's been sometimes go nailed it. Great throw. And other times, okay, I guess he would have been sacked there or he had to scramble. And that wasn't how that play was supposed to go.

That does happen all the time, even to veteran quarterbacks, just a little bit more with JJ McCarthy than with Sam Darnold, because he's a rookie. So yeah, I want to see from just my angle, does it look like things are progressing on time a little bit more than they have during OTAs? And as far as the deep ball goes, we haven't seen him hit one, I don't think. I mean, they're practicing other

days than when we're there. So I'm not saying he's never hit one. It's just the days that were there. It's been, a guy got his hands on one, couldn't pull it in. There was another one where it just sailed over everybody. So we'll get a little bit bigger of a sample on some of those deep balls. He can definitely throw the ball far. It just comes down to putting it in the right spot and really putting the right arc on it. I think I'm not a hundred% sure because I'm not down on the field, but I think that that's what Josh McCown was working on with his quarterbacks before practice last week

when we were watching them go through some deep ball stuff, and McCown was out there playing wide receiver, running around like a kid out there. But he did play receiver in a game, which I think I want to do a story about at some point. Maybe someone will beat me to it or it's already been done, but he did actually appear in a game as a wide receiver for the lions one time.

And I want to ask him about that. But so he's out there catching the ball and it looked to me like they were working on. If you're going to throw this spot this many yards away, 45 yards down the field, here's the arc you're looking for on the spot this many yards away, 45 yards down the field, here's the arc you're looking for on the ball for it to travel because they weren't like whipping it line drives.

They were trying to, it looked like put touch on the football and with him and Darnold throwing them, they came out easy. They traveled 45 yards through the air with almost no effort. Nick Mullins and Jaron Hall, not exactly the same. He has the arm to do it. He just has to master that. It's going to take a while, but we'll see if he hits a couple of big ones. Then you'll see it all over social media and we can declare him a success. Or if he misses it, we could say he's a bust or whatever we do during mini camp.

And as far as the young corners, the cornerback group is pretty set. It looks like to me, it just appears that it's going to be Shaq Griffin, Byron Murphy Jr. playing more in the slot and mixing outside and then Makai Blackman. That's where it's going to begin. Andrew Booth Jr. I don't know if he's in this competition or if it even is a competition, really. Kind of seems like they have their three set starters. And what you can say is that each one of them does have a sample of playing in the league where you can point to it and say, this guy has been good before.

Blackman was pretty good last season. One of the highest graded PFF rookie corners for last year. And you would expect the next step from him. Griffin, you know, I have some skepticism about, and it could be a good fit, but he has played in the past well in the NFL. And then you have Byron Murphy Jr., who is a proven pretty solid corner

that I think is a little better inside than he is outside. So matchup wise, that might make a difference there for him and behind him, as far as, as far as there's not really like a youth movement behind him, it's just, does Andrew Booth jr. Show something there. And if he does, then we're going to feel like they have good depth. I'm pretty comfortable with what a Caleb Evans is. He can play in the NFL, but not a guy that you want playing all the time. And I don't know if there's another gear there, but he's proven he could play in the league. It's just, if you have to play him 17 games, you're probably in trouble. And the last part

of your comment was just being fair to expect McCarthy to start his QB three. It's not exciting. It's not something that you're saying. I can't wait to get to the venue to watch their first game. Who is it? Week two is a week two back at home. Yeah, it must be right. They play the Giants. So you can't wait to get to in week two to the stadium because the rookie is going to start and it's going to be fascinating. So it'll be disappointing if he's not even the backup quarterback at the same time, it might be the best thing for him. And I think that Vikings fans overall are pretty comfortable with that. I haven't run across too many people. You're always going to have social media nuts and whatever that do stuff for attention, but I haven't come across

too many rational people who have had any real issue with taking time with JJ McCarthy. Um, let's see. Evan says, uh, would like to see a clear wide receiver three emerge, whether that's Naylor or Powell at this moment. Uh, and you know, these things will emerge really much later, uh, in, uh, you know, the training camp portion where we'll be more sure. So I don't think in minicamp we would be really locked into who could be wide receiver three or four. It's just, what does it look like for Naylor? Because he's the guy that's more interesting since he was a draft pick

and he's shown some flashes, but just has had some bad luck. As of right now, though, Brandon Powell is definitely wide receiver three. The way he performed last year when he had a chance at that role and how much the coaching staff raves about him every time anybody ever talks about Powell, he's a good route runner. He's got good hands. He can make plays here or there. I mean, he's a pretty solid slot type of player, but I don't know if you want to ask him to do too much on the outside pure route running or deep balls or something like that, which might mean a little more mix and match. I mean, sometimes in the NFL, it's not like Madden or fantasy wide receiver one, two, three. It's more of this is what your strength is. So we're going to put you in the game to do that versus, you know, someone else. Uh, I'm assuming this is my friend, David. So far, if it is Dave, what's up, man.

Uh, I know Dave was the most excited guy in the world about JJ McCarthy coming to the Vikings. Uh, Dave says, recognizing it's early in camp and the process has McCarthy shown the ability to layer the football and practice so far. I'll hang up and listen. Well, let's catch up soon, Dave. I appreciate it, man. Not really. No, I don't think so. These things, they're not going to really show themselves over a couple of weeks in OTAs. It's such a learning process and maybe we'll see a little more of it in minicamp. Maybe there'll be a play or two that sticks out where he has to do that as opposed to firing fastballs. It's mostly looked like fastballs to me, which is okay for now, because that's something they're going to be working on all the time. You likely need more fast reps in order to do that. It's three quarter speed is the

way, I mean, guys are running fast. They're NFL players, but it doesn't really look full speed, full intensity during OTAs that ramps up a bit during mini camp. So if you make some throws like that, that would be, I think, progress to see it. It's really going to be in training camp. And I know I'm saying that a lot, but it's just the facts that in training camp, when they got the pads on and when they're really running the plays and there's some intensity there, that's when, you know, pulling the trigger on something that's a 20 yard throw behind linebackers where you have to put it up over them will be interesting to see if JJ McCarthy starts to develop that.

But I guarantee after every one of these practices, that's what he's working on is these certain types of throws. And O'Connell said something along the line of having kind of numbers for the throws to one throw, two throw three, like one is a rocket and three is a balloon and two is touch. I don't know if that's the number system, but the one he's got to work on is that number two, you know, put a little touch on it type of throw. I guess I, again, I don't know the exact number system that quarterbacks use. I think everybody calls it like a one, two, three, or whatever, but having different clubs in the bag is another way to look at it. And we just

haven't seen that club a lot from him in college or in these practices, but we'll have to, you know, keep an eye, keep an eye on just how that comes along as we go forward. Daniel says, Jefferson hold in like Hawkinson possible. Yes, it is. It is possible. Definitely. I could see that with this minicamp even showing up, being there. A couple of years ago, it was Daniil Hunter who came to,

was it minicamp and just walked around or maybe he had just redone his deal. I can't remember the detail there. But even if you just are there and you're going to the meetings and maybe even the walkthroughs, but not participating in the fast stuff, that is hold in ish. And it's a good idea these days. I mean, you don't lose $100,000. Everybody's kind of unhappy, but also kind of happy. We're happy you're here. We're unhappy you don't have your

deal yet and you're not practicing, but it's better than nothing. And if I were advising Justin Jefferson, I would say, hey, if you don't have your deal done, do a little hold-in action while it is a sign of you wanting to get the deal done and that you think you're going to be a part of this team when you do the entire no show and hold out it just causes a firestorm I mean if somebody's there and they're not doing as much it's oh okay you know all right we're coming along here if someone's a complete no, then it's a huge headline everywhere. Jefferson's no-showing, will they trade him, et cetera, et cetera. Maybe in his best interest to do that. Although, you know, we very well could be doing an emergency podcast soon talking about his extension. So we'll

have to see how that plays out. JP says, I'll be curious to hear how Brando versus Reisner situation plays out. And yeah, the only way we can really look at that is just by who's in there practicing because there's no real hitting of each other at the moment. So we, I can't say he looks great. He looks large. They're offensive linemen, but if it's entirely Brando with the first team, that's notable for sure.

That tells us that, that that's what they want to be. The outcome is Blake Brandle to win that job. If they're doing every other rep you're with the first team, I'm second team and then switch. Well, then we've got ourselves a left guard competition. And what more could we ask for than that? Uh, Jay Jesus says, uh, is there a top number that you have in mind for Jefferson? Is there a limit or does the number not matter in your opinion? Well, yeah, I mean, the number matters. I'm not going to $40 million a year. So I would put a cap on it there. The number that I have had in my brain since the salary cap went up. So last year it would have been closer to 30 and now it's going to be like 34 because the cap went up and that is how it goes. I have 34 in mind as the

number. I've kind of had that 32, 34, someone in that ballpark. It's right around the same range as Nick Bosa, something similar as far as the structure would make a lot of sense, beating every other wide receiver in guarantees, beating every other wide receiver in the yearly salary. And he might want to wait for C.D. Lamb and Brandon Ayuk, but if he goes to $34 million a year, he's got to know that neither one of those receivers are matching that, and he can probably be in a good place. If it was higher than 35, that's where I might get a little bit like, okay, all right, you're already talking about enough money. Part of my argument is that $34 million is still 16 million less per year than any quarterback is going to make. So it's not

like you're spending so much on one player. Not only that, go look at Nick Bosa's cap hits for the first couple of years and then how they can restructure. And you'll see, it's really funny. I mean, AJ Brown is making $32 million per year on his contract, yet none of his cap hits are 32 million. It's all below that or can be restructured down to that. But I've made that point many times, of course. It's all below that or can be restructured down to that. But you know, I've made that point many times. Of course, it's just that with Jefferson, there is a threshold where it would be difficult to hide the money under the couch cushions. Evan says, curious to see how KOC is balancing both Darnold and JJ adjusting to a new offense. Yeah. I mean, that's

the thing with Darnold. We've mostly said, yeah, it looks all right. Uh, but I do want to hear from Kevin O'Connell about what he thinks about this. Uh, Jordan Addison seemed to be pleased when we talked to him at how he's adjusted to the wide receivers. I enjoy Jordan Addison's press conferences. I know some of you watch the press conferences, so you already know what I'm talking about, but he was asked about the quarterbacks and he said, yeah, it's actually coming along faster than I thought. And so someone said, well, how fast did you think it was going to come along? And he kind of went, I don't know, like, you know, it's a new quarterback. You never know. So he seemed to be fine with how Sam Darnold was adapting to their offense.

But hearing the head coach's opinion on that will be interesting and just kind of getting a little bigger sample size of seeing both of them run the offense. And I don't know if they're going to change a whole lot from where they were before. It's just, can you do it? The Darnold thing is a fascinating conversation always because every time it gets brought up, I tweeted out a video from the last live stream of just me talking about Sam Darnold. And the first response is Sam Darnold is terrible. He's never going to turn around. The second response is, Hey, he was great in Carolina and you're not giving him enough credit. And I'm like, I don't

know. I guess we're just going to find out. I've been asking some Jets fans I know. Some of them totally believe in Sam Darnold that he's going to be way better in Minnesota. Others think that there was nothing there to begin with. Nobody really knows, including the Minnesota Vikings. I think they're just kind of hoping that Sam Darnold works out, but he's looked fine to me in OTAs and we'll get to see three more practices to have a sense for that, for where he stands within the offense. It is. So they're teaching both of them in the offense, but they have to teach them two different ways, which has to be some sort of challenge because with Kirk Cousins, it would have been teaching everybody the same way.

You've got veterans and then what a Jaron Hall just figured out, but it's, you know, two veterans are the guys that are going to play, or at least that's your plan. And then Sean Mannion in the room or something, and he already knows the offense, just a different approach.

So I'll be curious to hear about that. George says, didn't have cap money in 2024 for a tier one free agent offensive lineman. Reisner is a solid signing for depth, which is critical for O-line. Yeah, I agree with that, George. And they have really good depth on this offensive line with David Questenberry and Dalton Reisner. If he does end up being the backup, they're in pretty good shape there because Questenberry can come in and play five games if you need him at left tackle or right

tackle. And Reisner, as we know, can be a competent starter. But with 17 games now, there couldn't be any teams in the league that had their entire offensive line together for the entire time. So those veteran backups that are journeymen, those guys have a little more value than they used to. I also was totally fine with them bringing back Dalton Reisner. When you look at the free agents, you either would have had to spend a lot of money or look for someone who's just not good at all in their previous history. They also have Dan Feeney as well. He's played in the league, hasn't had a lot of success, but you know, he's at least got experience. But if you're talking about, and they've had to do this before in the past, throwing in guys that are barely in the NFL

or like the Drew Samia thing, a draft pick that was way in over his head and never had any chance, uh, right from the outset that they don't, they don't want to be doing that. I think Kevin O'Connell recognizes that having depth at each position is going to be vital because it is a weak link type of thing. And if you go from, Hey, we're, we feel okay at all five spots at very least. Okay. I'm not saying don't be nervous a little bit on the interior, but at least, okay, at least pros. And then you drop down to a sixth round draft pick or something. That's a huge drop off. So even, you know, they draft Walter Rouse, but even then there's a veteran in front of him. So maybe eventually he becomes that guy,

but backup linemen are going to play for sure. So it's important. Aaron, another friend. What's up, Aaron? Good to see you, buddy. Says, fascinated to see Matt Daniels approach the new kickoff rules. Pat McAfee discussing how teams could replace the kickoff specialist with players more suited to defend. So I already know. I don't know if I should reveal this. Which guy would be the one to consider for the kickoff role? There is a viking player maybe this could be like a trivia if somebody can guess who this is there is a viking player who has kicked off he's a line backer i think i just gave away too much who has kicked off before in the league who actually you

go to youtube and find his kickoffs uh and, and, uh, so they do have someone on because he was playing for Philadelphia and they got a, uh, kicker hurt. Jake Elliott got hurt in the game and he kicked off for a few games. Now, what is his name? They just signed him. Someone's going to have to help me with his name. Um, the line bet, they just signed him. He was playing with the somebody else. Okay. Sorry. Someone will pick that up in the, in whatever the Vikings have a guy who could do this. That's the point. And that could be really interesting because now you've got this 10 on 10 type of situation where if you have a linebacker who can kick off and tackle, then you have an advantage

there versus just somebody who is a kicker that if they're one-on-one with the returner, they're completely out of their depth. So that the whole thing is going to be a game changer in the NFL to have the, uh, you know, this kickoff where it's an actual play. You're adding maybe 50 plays a year, 50 opportunities for Kenny Wong to make a game changing play, or for maybe Malik Knowles makes the team because of this. Maybe we see Ty Chandler back there doing it. Uh, maybe we see a lot of creativity. So there's, there's a lot there. It's a Camu Geiger Hill. I, I, I'm not sure how it's said. I haven't met him yet.

Anyway, that's the linebacker that kicked off. Sean says, Williams, May, Daniels, and Nix will all start as rookies for their teams. Pennix would also, if Kirk was not there, stop babying JJ. Well, you know, all these guys are not in the same situation, Sean. That's the thing is Caleb Williams is in a different spot than Jaden Daniels. And so is Drake May and Bo Nix. Bo Nix is 24 years old, so he better come in and start right away. Jaden Daniels, Drake May, those are on teams that are not really close to competing.

So they can let it be trial by fire and see what happens. Although I think if you're Drake may, maybe you might prefer that you get a little extra time, but, uh, Jaden Daniels, also a guy who's much older and has played much more football. Same goes for Caleb Williams who had, uh, was it three years as a starter or was it four? Was it four years as a starter in college? And, you know, Drake May is in a little bit of different spot there. So those guys, and as far as Pennix goes, kind of hurts your argument a little bit. Like they drafted a guy thinking that they could develop him over at least a year, but

maybe even two, which usually tells you how hard it is. The history of sitting quarterbacks is pretty good. Guys who have had that extra time to develop. And with JJ McCarthy, there are certain things that he really has to work on that maybe Jaden Daniels can resolve by just running because that's where he's at. McCarthy is a scrambler, but he's not a Jaden Daniels runner who can run away from the Florida Gators. And Bo Nix, his whole thing in college was identifying where the football should go, getting it out quickly. So if he transfers that over to the NFL, then he might quickly look pretty decent in the NFL, even if his ceiling isn't as high where McCarthy has, I think of a higher ceiling because of his physical ability and his pedigree as a five-star

and as a, uh, you know, Michigan quarterback, but he just doesn't have a lot of reps and they're not babying him as much in my opinion, as just taking it slow to make sure he fully understands everything he's got to do when he gets out there because you could dumb it down for him if you wanted to but isn't it better to have him get the entire picture and be fluent in the offense and understand the footwork and everything else before he goes out there and then he can be completely confident and not in over his head when he actually steps foot on the field for the first time. I have no problem with the way they're approaching it. I don't think it's babying at all. And I also don't really

care about how the other quarterbacks are approaching it. I mean, Caleb Williams, you're the number one overall pick. You're going to play. You're always going to play, but he's just got way more football under his belt. JJ McCarthy chose to come out now. His coach was leaving Michigan, but he could have stayed for another year and put up better numbers and everything else and developed a little more. Instead, he's developing here, but they understood that when they picked him and they've laid out that plan. So I don't look at it the same way as you do. JP says, this is not minicamp related, but according to Schefter,

the Cousins tampering issue will be resolved this week so we can finally bring closure to that. Yeah, you know, that's what I needed. I needed closure to that. I'm just joking because of the phrasing, but I've never cared about that, and we'll see what happens. You know, there has been some significant penalties that have been handed down before, and maybe there will be again. I would be really surprised if it benefits the Vikings in any way.

Maybe it will if they feel they were harmed and they're beating that drum to Roger Goodell. We were harmed in our negotiations with cousins. We desperately wanted him back and they stole him from out from under our nose with their tampering. I mean, maybe they're saying that I'd be surprised if that was really their argument. I think it was just, Hey, that was dirty pool and maybe the Vikings get an extra draft pick out of it. But I I'd be really shocked if it was a big deal. Um, maybe more of they take away an Atlanta Falcons third round pick, unless it was super egregious, like Arthur blank, you know, I don't know, going on carnival rides

with Kirk Cousins talking about his contract. Aside from that, if it impacts the Vikings, we'll talk about it. I'll be a little bit surprised if it does in any sort of big way. But darn him for his tampering. First guy ever to tamper. Just the Super Bowl, Vike says, I don't think the vikings are going to sign jefferson to more than a three-year deal with a rookie quarterback i think he really wants to be one of the all-time great receivers and not uh knowing what mccarthy you know carries this on what mccarthy's going to be um doesn't want to take that chance well there has been shorter deals from wide receivers recently this is true there has been quite a few shorter deals that have been handed out uh the vikings

standard big contract used to be five years and this one i i don't think that that's even on the table to go five years i mean if they do that would be to their benefit big time. But this is one where if he signs now, then he's under 30 years old. When he gets another chance at this, that's where I would want to be. If I was Justin Jefferson still arguably in a wide receivers prime until with the all-time greats till 33, 34. So he could hit the lottery again get another huge contract after this one and be a very wealthy and happy man uh with the quarterback situation whether you sign a three year or four year deal if it doesn't work out with jj mccarthy we'll know fairly quickly and then they'll look for another resolution with the different coaching staff whether it's three or four years down the road this also has to do with when we talk about an extension, is it an extension that starts right

away for a four year, or is it an extension that starts after his fifth year option year that then it's more of five years out into the future. This has to be considered as well. Four years would be my guess though. And I just view it as being, there's only so much you're ever going to be able to control as a wide receiver, but you're not going to be able to fight through the fifth year option, the franchise tag, the other franchise tag,

without a very serious fear of having a big injury, having a decline in play, and then not getting the money that you're being offered right now. So it makes too much sense from his side to sign the deal. And then if he's deeply unhappy three years into it, then he can look elsewhere. But I've just never bought into, and that's been out there quite a bit throughout this process. Well, what is he going to think of the receiver, the quarterback? Does he want to see the quarterback first? Is he going to be so upset that Kirk cousins went elsewhere that he's not going to sign? I just don't think you can do business that way as a player because things change so fast in the NFL. Imagine if you're a wide receiver who was saying,

Hey, I'm not going to sign until I find out how good Trey Lance is. And then you're like, dang, Trey Lance is no good at all. And then Brock Purdy shows up and you're like, Oh, well, he's good. I guess I'll stay. I mean, if you're Jefferson, you also want to be the reason the guy succeeds. Uh, what they did though, is they went and got somebody who's won a lot and, uh, is very talented to replace somebody who's won a lot and is very talented to replace Kirk Cousins. You can't really control much else. Reconnected says it will be interesting to see how the quarterbacks are used in the preseason. Typically the starters don't play much, but since Sam and JJ are new, would not expect a lot of Sam Darnold. I would guess maybe

the first game he comes out, plays two series, and that's about it. J.J. McCarthy, though, if he's quarterback three, he should be playing the entire first half of every game. That's how I would approach it because he just needs a lot of reps. I don't recall exactly how Jordan Love was used in the preseason over the last few years. I remember reading Packers writers saying he was doing well and playing in the preseason over the last few years. I remember reading Packers writers saying he was doing well and playing in the preseason. I would want to play J.J. McCarthy all the first halves. Once you get in the second half, you're talking about backup wide receivers, backup defenses, and not a whole lot of players who are making the team, kind of guys who are

living out a dream by having a jersey in the second half of those games but in the first half it's some starters a lot of direct number two backups that are nfl players and that are making rosters that could give a decent quality of competition for mccarthy and then you can play you know whatever jaron hall in the second half of those games but that's how I would guess right now. We're going to have to see as we go through into the future. Matt says, I don't really understand what the Vikings did with Harrison Smith's contract. Are they expecting him to be back another year or is it really year to year at this point? I have not looked closely at Harrison Smith's contract, but it's, it's year to year. It's always

going to be year to year with Harrison Smith. Even he has said that in the past. And now we're getting into super contract details of what happens after he retires. And that I am not sure or don't remember what happens to a player's salary cap hit and dead cap and all that when they retire. I'd have to look that up. Like, does it stay on the cap? Someone could correct me. I don't remember exactly, but they're just, what they keep doing is he signs a deal and then he signs another deal that lowers it to make sure it's a reasonable cap hit for that particular year. And they just bump some money down the road and move it around and so forth so they can make sure he's back. And that's really all it is. I wouldn't be shocked if he played two more years though,

with the amount that he loves the game. If there was going to be a time to retire, it would have been this year because he knew there was going to be such a transition with the entire franchise. And yet he decided to come back so it could be that his plan right now is to play two years but uh you know i think that he is very likely to retire after this year but i just i didn't look deep into that contract i just assumed that it's always going to be a year-to-year thing and that's what his cap hit is. And, you know, whatever. JP says, any sense that Kyrie Jackson could flash and make an impact in year one? Oh, yeah. When the question earlier about the young corners is I wasn't thinking too much about

Kyrie Jackson as being a part of that conversation because I was thinking more about it's a year for Andrew Booth Jr. to take a step forward. I do like how Kyrie Jackson looks. You don't see that many corners who are that big and also move fluidly. So that's impressive. Could he make an impact? Yes, because always, always corners are getting hurt and getting opportunities and all those sorts of things. So he could have to play eventually or quickly, depending on what happens. Was it 2020 where they were playing someone named Chris Jones at some point in the

season and Tony Pollard juked him out of his shoes and we all went, well, who is that guy again? Chris Jones, where did he come from? And how about Duke Shelley? Remember Duke Shelley? So guys are always being pushed into those spots at corners because they get hurt. It wouldn't shock me if Kyrie Jackson did. More likely than not, though, he'll be depth on this team and maybe on special teams. And then we'll see if he gets any sort of rotational role or situational. And if he does, that will mean good things that you've earned Brian Flores' trust. But for now, he's going to be on the depth chart, I would guess, behind Andrew Booth Jr. But if he's ahead of him, then again, we've got something there. Then you've got progress. And I somewhat

buy the idea that Kyrie Jackson, had he been a year or two younger, would have been a higher draft pick because his production was so good at Oregon. Certainly is making my most intriguing players of training camp list when I make that a month from now. Plus, Evan says, would you have rather had the Vikings sign Ryan Tannehill, who is still a free agent over Sam Darnold? No, Sam Darnold, I think was my first choice. When we did the show of which veteran quarterback should the Vikings sign, I remember we went over Baker Mayfield and I talked about, hey, you know, that might not be a bad idea if it was Baker Mayfield and you drafted a quarterback and then Mayfield signed his contract and we went, okay, nevermind. Cause I did not expect him to sign for that much money. And the next option was, well, who might be similar ish to Baker Mayfield.

And that was Sam Darnold. I preferred someone who would have been a little younger, had a little more upside than say Jacoby Brissett, who is in his thirties and has bounced around. That would have been fine. Uh, but you kind of like the idea of the intrigue of Sam Darnold, somebody who can actually make all the throws has the arm strength of, of JJ McCarthy. So there's not a huge change there. There's similar quarterbacks, actually. Darnold scrambles a lot. McCarthy scrambles a lot. And I mean, clearly Vikings fans are hoping that he's a, he has a better JJ McCarthy has a better career here than Darnold did with the jets. But just as far as skill wise, strong arm mobility, top draft pick, like there's the experience there that Darnold has. And it would have been hard for me to see someone like Ryan

Tannehill having this stunning, oh my gosh, I can't believe Ryan Tannehill took the Vikings to the divisional round. But with Sam Darnold, if he did, then I wouldn't be terribly shocked. I'm not betting on it, but I wouldn't be terribly shocked that it could make for a pretty entertaining year. So easily Sam Darnold and health is a big issue too, because what you don't want, and maybe this is what happened in Chicago. I think it did was Chicago wanted Andy Dalton to play. And then they had to put in Justin Fields really fast because Andy Dalton got hurt. I believe that's what happened. And then, you know, just kind of devolved from there. You want your guy to be able to play for six, eight weeks before

turning it over to McCarthy or an entire season. If they feel like they're comfortable with that, you don't really want them to play for two weeks and then get banged up like with Tannehill. There's just not a lot there left with Ryan Tannehill, and that's my guess for why no NFL team has picked him up so far. He will be signed by the Browns in week 10 after Deshaun Watson gets hurt again. The Don says, I hope JJ, Dallas, and Kyrie all play. They will eventually. We have to be patient with all of them, though.

We'll see. I mean, Dallas Turner is the easiest one to play because his position is very similar to what it is in college. They're not to say pass rushing doesn't have its nuances, but of all the different positions, which would be the easiest to just plop a guy into the NFL. It's gotta be edge rusher. Go get the quarterback. You beat your guy. It's the one-on-one position of the NFL. There isn't a ton of knowing the entire defense. It's you go beat your guy here. You can put them in a third down package with one job. You line up here and he's a bright guy. So I think he'll get a lot more than that this year, but even if he can't, he could still play. You rarely see an edge rusher get drafted and need any sort of development before they get on the field.

And, uh, but Kyrie Jackson is a fourth round draft pick and McCarthy, uh, you will have to be patient with and maybe even give it an entire year before he ends up on the field. Hunter says, sounds like Turner is looking pretty good. As good as someone can look in shorts, there's just a really natural fluidity to him as an athlete that you see right away and you know right away. So I'll just give you an example. When I moved here in 2016, I remember saying to my wife, this Stefan Diggs guy, I think I'm going to want to keep an eye on him. He had had, I don't know, 50 catches or something in 2015, but you know, I wasn't considered some big rising megastar or whatever. But when I saw him out on the practice field, when I first got the job, just walk out there and watch the guy catch passes. There was such a smooth nature to what he was doing. It wasn't joggy at all. It was just in and out of breaks and catching the

ball easily. Like it weighed nothing. You know, some guys catch the ball. It kind of looks like, you know, the bobble it a little bit, it bounces in their hands and they bring it in, even decent wide receivers. But with Diggs, it was so smooth and easy. And the same thing kind of goes for Dallas Turner, not catching the ball, obviously. But when you see him go through these drills, it looks like football's not that hard. And then you see the wingspan and the length and everybody talks about his intelligence, which I get the sense. He's a very, very bright guy. So yeah, I mean, checking all the boxes so far and then practicing with the starters, that's going to

tell you if you kind of have a sense for something and you're looking for it to get confirmed, then look at the reps. Look at how they're used. Kind of like last year where we had this sense, it's Ivan Pace guy. There's something coming along there. And then you look, oh, he's getting some first team reps. Something's happening here. It's confirming what you already were thinking.

Just a Super Bowl. Vike says, I actually really like Lucky Jackson or Nikhil Harry. Nikhil Harry is going to have a tough time cracking the field. But as far as Lucky Jackson goes, he has made a handful of catches out there in practice. I'm not sure. I mean, those kind of seem like camp bodies to me and preseason filler. They'll have their opportunity. Lucky Jackson's still here.

And if you're still here, then you've got yourself a chance. Uh, Leonard says, I hope Bradbury stays healthy. Austin Schlopman was very solid, but signed with the giants where he is, uh, an extremely close alphabetical order battle with former gopher, John Michael Schmitz. Yeah. If you're writing out that depth chart, you're going to get carpal tunnel, uh, writing those two guys. And I, I had gotten that one down to Schlotman. Once it gets in the fingers, it's always there for whatever reason. If I've written it a number of times, then I'll remember it forever, uh, for whatever reason. But yeah, Dan Feeney, I don't trust as much as Schlotman. Weirdly, I thought Schlotman was pretty good for them. Uh, Kind of reminded me also of when they had Mason Cole, where you went, you know, all right, if he gets hurt,

then you're in a pretty decent spot. Not that the guy's a star, but it's not a huge fall off. Over his career, Feeney has not had very good numbers. Back when he was a starter, as a fill-in, he's got the experience to be able to do it. So, you know, yes, you are going to have to hope that Bradbury stays healthy. The thing about Schlotman too, is that he knew the offense and that's where it's really helpful to have Garrett Bradbury.

It was, yeah, you guys were right that it was Camu. Is it Grugier? Grugier Hill? Camu Grugier Hill? I was trying to think of how his name is pronounced, but yeah, yep. That was him. Camu Grugier Hill. So he could potentially

be, I was like, I was going to ask him about this. Maybe I can catch up with him at a mini camp or training camp later on. I was going to ask him about this kickoff thing because he would be perfect for that. Let's see. Just the Superbowl bike says, what position on offense do you think the biggest question and who do you think the biggest question on defense on the offensive side? It probably is the wide receiver three or the guard spot.

Those are the two that we're going to be looking at all the time, because even though Brandon Powell in my mind has that locked up behind him is wide open. I mean, you know, like I was kind of dismissing Lucky Jackson a little bit. There's Tristan Jackson too. There's a number of guys there, but that's going to be a brawl for

that fourth spot. Right now I would say Jalen Naylor, but if he gets hurt again or something like that, they could also still bring someone in. I don't know if they will. That might depend on how things look in mini camp and in training camp. But there's, and then there's undrafted free agents that up until this moment, I haven't seen anyone that I've said, Hey, wow, you got to keep an eye on this UDFA guy that might change as we go through this mini camp. Somebody might make a bunch of catches and emerge, but those are the two big spots, more so the depth wide receiver than the guard, because we know who the guards are. It's two guys and it depends on which one's going to be there, but there's a bunch of guys that it could be for the wide receiver position. As far as on defense, you know, um, are we familiar enough with the corners to say the corners are probably what

we think they are uh i don't know how many huge questions we have on defense as far as the starters go uh what the interior of the defensive line is going to look like jerry tillery seems to have been turning heads a little bit for them he's a former first rounder that they picked up who didn't have a great start to his career but showed some flashes last year so turning heads a little bit for them. He's a former first rounder that they picked up who didn't have a great start to his career, but showed some flashes last year. So I'm a little intrigued there. It's more about the backup spots. Can Andrew Booth Jr. do something? Kyrie Jackson, is he going to win that job as a backup over Andrew Booth Jr.? And who's the backup edge rushers is a really good question. Who are the backup line rushers is a really good question who are the backup linebackers is a good question uh audie call was a great guess um to the like who could have kicked off

maybe he could have okay that's funny ryan right actually you know ryan right looked to me like he's uh slimmed down looked like he was in pretty good shape when we saw him. Hey, there's a punting battle too. I ignored the punting battle. What's the guy's name? Seth Vernon? Chris Vernon? Who was the goalie? Was that Chris Vernon was the former goalie? Evan says, saw a clip of Aaron Rodgers at OTAs.

Uncomfortable. You think Cousins will even play in the revenge game or will he be injured or simply beat by Pennix by then? I don't know what to expect from the guys who are coming back from Achilles injuries. I don't know when Kirk Cousins is going to be ready to play or what his practice status is. It looks like he's out there maybe doing warmups, but I don't know if he's doing full speed reps or not. And with Aaron Rodgers, I'm just going to have to see it to really think that Rodgers is going to be any reflection of what he used to be. Because now we are talking about a guy in his forties coming off of one of the hardest

injuries that any NFL player can return from. I mean, does Cam Akers have a job yet? He tore his Achilles last year. I don't even think he's got one. He was 25 years old and the former high draft pick running back who was very talented. It's hard to come back from the Achilles. Brian O'Neill missed a lot of training camp last year, and he only had a partially torn Achilles.

As far as Cousins goes, that's another one where the Vikings dodging that risk that could have been out there of bringing back Cousins at a huge price and then having the Achilles go sideways. Both of them are going to play, though. It's just how they're going to play is a really big question for me. I was always concerned about the Cousins thing with the Achilles because he has to drive so much off of his feet. One thing that I really noticed watching these OTA practices about the arm strength of Sam Darnold and of JJ McCarthy is that it just comes out so easy. There isn't like a tennis grunt every time they have to throw the ball down the field I mean it's kind of a flick of the wrist for Sam Darnold and if McCarthy puts his body into it that

ball explodes off of his hand where with Kirk Cousins and again if either of them has a career like Kirk Cousins at any point then they will have succeeded big time so it's not a slight but it's just to say that the way cousins generated his velocity was really from torque from the, whatever this part is the core from his legs and down into his feet, you know, digging into the turf and twisting and letting it rip. Is he going to be able to get that drive off of the back leg the same way that I'm not really sure with Rogers, it's a little different. It was always more arm talent, but does he have the same arm talent that he did 10 years ago? Um, I don't really think so. So, you know, I think there should be major concern about both. And I'll be

curious, like you said, if we even do get to those revenge type of games with those guys, uh, or if it's going to be someone else that the Vikings end up facing, because that's what happened last year with Rogers where, okay, now he's a jet. It's the biggest off season story, three plays into the season. It's over. And, uh, you know, those things happen. Mike says, uh, many Vikings content producers ask, when will JJ start question daily? Um, I don't, I don't think that I've been doing that. Um, KOC stated as benchmarks for JJ, uh, and he will not start before they're met. I'm so sick of this question. Oh, Mike, if you're sick of this question, it's going to come up all the time about JJ McCarthy. Here's what I would say is that you should embrace this question because for such a long time,

we knew exactly who the quarterback was going to be. And we had a very good idea exactly what the outcomes were going to be. We didn't know how they would win or lose the games, but we knew that they were going to be good and not great. We knew they were going to be. We didn't know how they would win or lose the games, but we knew that they were going to be good and not great. We knew they were going to have awesome moments and moments where Kirk Cousins came up short, got strip sacked, checked down on fourth and eight, whatever it might've been, and that it was always going to bump up against the ceiling. So now what you have is something where it's completely unknown and we can ask, when is he going to play? What's it going to be like when he does play?

How far along does he want to be? I think we can mix that though with patience to say, if he's not taking first team reps in minicamp, that's fine. They didn't draft Michael Penix here or Bo Nix who were 24 and you would think it was weird if they weren't starting. This is a guy who needs development. And those benchmarks you talk about, well, let's see what it looks like in training camp and go forward from there. But I don't think you should tire of asking this question because it's the most interesting question regarding the franchise is,

when does J.J. McCarthy get on the field? And we're going to find that out as we go forward here, but that's one you're not going to be able to escape too much. I think, uh, Jen's or Yen's, uh, I'm not sure how the pronunciation, the lot of Scandinavians around here, maybe you're one of them, says, what is more important, good offensive line or good defensive line? Probably the right answer is yes, but I would say it's defensive line, which I know a lot of people would not be happy with that answer necessarily. But I think that you can get away with a decent offensive line as long as they're competent and you have a quarterback who can move a little and you can survive that. Can you get away with having a meh defensive line? Probably not.

Not if you want to be a Super Bowl contender. Almost every Super Bowl contender that's made it recently at very least had a superstar on it like Chris Jones most of them were phenomenal defensive lines like Philadelphia San Francisco's D-line keeps guiding them deep into the playoffs year after year when you get into the playoffs I think you have to be nasty on the defensive line you have to be able to shut down the other team's run game like Kansas City did against the Baltimore Ravens. You have to be able to pressure the quarterback without sending a bunch of people.

I promise you Brian Flores would much prefer. Let's send three and we'll get after him. It'll be a Lawrence Taylor, Reggie White, and Aaron Donald, and they'll just sack the quarterback themselves. Everyone would do that if they could. Most of the time you can't with this team. They've improved the pass rush and the D line, but not to the point where I think they're scary. Maybe a year from now, they could get someone who helps them become scary on the

offensive line. As long as you're not terrible. I've always felt that if you're the top five, it's a huge advantage to be the top five. If you're a great offensive line, whole man, nobody wants to face you because it's a huge pain. They can't pressure your quarterback. They can't stop your run game, drives you crazy. If you're the sixth, eighth offensive line or the 15th offensive line, probably about the same, maybe a small differences there. Uh, if you're 28th, then it's going to have a big time negative impact on, uh, what you're doing, but you can be good and be okay. I don't think you could just be good on the D line and get away with it. I think you have to have at least one player who is totally dominant there, but probably more than one.

Max Splicer says, Sam Darnold always kills my Lions for some reason, so I hope you start McCarthy. He does? I didn't know that there was any team that Sam Darnold consistently beat. I'll say this for you, though, Mac. A lot of people killed the lions up until now. Now you're, you're good. But up until now, a lot of people totally crushed the Detroit lions and had good games against them.

McCarthy will start eventually. Maybe it is against the lions actually coming out of that by week. Hunter says the Falcons tampering punishment is they have to give Kirk cousins back to Minnesota, but take on his contract. That's okay. It's just, you know, you can just keep them. Yeah. A lot of people have made the joke though. You know, the punishment for them is that they have to keep Kirk Cousins on that contract. And that's going to be not necessarily easy going forward to deal with if he doesn't perform well. I've been skeptical about the injury and how he's going to come back looking.

A lot of people talk about, and this is, I'm sure you guys could say, are you being a hater or something like that? I don't think so. I think more of a skeptic of him in Atlanta that a big part of the conversation was, well, he's going to have all these great weapons there. And I go through the weapons and think, how are these more proven than what the Vikings had? Drake London is not better than Justin Jefferson. And you know, Bijan Robinson might be a good running back. Was he a difference making running

back last year from whatever average running game in the league? Probably not. He might take a step forward. Yeah. Their offensive line is pretty decent. Kyle Pitts is supposed to be good. We've never really seen it yet. So I think TJ Hawkinson is better than him. It's not, it's a situation that makes sense for him because they have weapons, but it's not demonstratively better than what the Vikings had for him. And that was before he shredded his Achilles. So I am a little bit skeptical about how good that can be. They supposedly have one of the worst schedules or easiest schedules in the league, but that changes the minute everybody gets on the field. We all think we know right now, and the starting point

to the ending point of strength of schedule is totally different. I'm buying the Falcons. If cousin stays healthy, the whole year is having a decent season. It would not surprise me though, if it didn't work out just because of what he's had to go through over the last six months or whatever, since he tore his Achilles, just the Superbowl bike says, I thought they should have got Joe Flacco on a one-year deal. Superbowl experience, all of his experience would have definitely benefited JJ McCarthy. The part of that I'm not sure I fully buy is Joe Flacco in the past hadn't been very welcoming, especially to Lamar Jackson.

And even with Zach Wilson, I seem to remember something about Flacco saying it wasn't his job or whatever to develop. And there might be a bit of an overrated nature of that. Like, oh, we just assume that every old veteran is really nice to the rookie. Then there was the story about what was it? Who was Johnny Manziel talking about? Johnny Manziel was talking about one of the quarterbacks that was a veteran in Cleveland and how condescending the guy was and not helpful. And of course, Johnny Manziel caused most of his own problems. It's just that we can't assume because someone is old that that means they'll necessarily be a great trainer to the

next guy. They're trying to hang on to their career. They're trying to start where it's good for Sam Darnold and McCarthy is they're not that different in age. They've got a similar experience of being a top draft pick. And I just think they also play closer. And was Joe Flacco actually good last year or just had a couple moments on one of the best defenses in the NFL and they survived and squeaked into the playoffs? I'm not sure that he was really great. It just was good enough to barely make the postseason and then get murdered in the playoffs. I'd much rather see what Sam Darnold has than, hey, maybe Joe Flacco could survive a few weeks and then be mad about being on the bench. Not really sure. Edwin says, if you could hook up

your guitar and amp at Vikings minicamp, what jams would you play? Well, I'd probably play stuff that I've written. I've done a number of songs myself, so I'd probably pick those up. And then I would play some arena rock songs. What would anybody play? I'm not going to play smooth jazz. I don't even know how to play smooth jazz. I'd be playing Crazy Train. It doesn't take very long to learn every ACDC song with three chords. So I'd play some ACDC and, you know, we'd rock the place for sure. Play a little guns and roses there. All the, uh, I just play all the arena stuff. Uh, I can do all that. I can do the, the crazy train thing, which they, they can retire some of this. Don't you think

they can retire some of that stuff at this point? Do we really need crazy train? I Randy Rhodes is my favorite guitar player. That was Ozzy Osbourne in 1978. Do we really need to be still? No songs have been written that we can replace the old arena rock songs with. Do we still have to be doing that? I think we can move on and find some more modern stuff to slide into the arena atmosphere. Then back in black, it really had enough of back in black.

Again, all respect to ACDC. But do we need that? Have we not heard that? And then one team does something kind of interesting. The Mets a few years ago with that horn, doo, doo, doo, doo, doo, you know, they play that horn. And then every venue has to have it. Can anybody just come up with their own stuff here and play their own music?

The one place that did that was the Rams. When we were at the Coliseum in 2018, their music was all LA stuff, like classic LA stuff. Old school hip hop was a big part of it. That was pretty cool. Maybe you can't do Husker do or whatever for Minnesota, but mix in something else. We can do it. Prince is always welcome, of course, but we can mix in other things. Anyway, Walter says, what takes place if Darnold has a stellar year and takes the team deep into the playoffs? That would be a very uncomfortable situation for them

because then you have to pay him. And you see what Baker Mayfield got paid if they actually believe that JJ McCarthy couldn't do the same thing, or you have to make a decision on whether to pay him. So when we talk about stellar year, what are we talking about here? Is it 35 touchdowns, 10 picks? He's running a top five to seven offense. And then in the playoffs, he goes crazy, throws for 378 yards, three touchdowns gets in the, to the divisional round plays great. Maybe they get eliminated. And then what do you do there? Well, you could franchise tag. That is one thing you could franchise tag him. If he plays great, you could tag him. So you've only got him for the one year that does kind of mess up this

whole salary cap plan. The salary cap plan is clearly to not have Sam Darnold here. That would be my guess if he played that well, if we're talking stellar, but the bar is very high for him to remain a Minnesota Viking for more than one year. It would have to be the type of season I laid out because even if he had Baker Mayfield season from last year, they're moving on to JJ McCarthy after next season. I think Baker became really loved in Tampa Bay and they wanted him to

come back for the stability of that situation. But was it great? It was good. It was a pretty good offense with Baker Mayfield. But if it's the 12th, 14th best offense with Darnold, they get into the playoffs, they win a playoff game. I still think you're going to JJ McCarthy unless it is, as you said, uh, stellar. Uh, Jason says, do we have any safeties that can do the kickoff? Sounds like that will be the new thing. A kicker who could tackle. Yeah. I don't know about the safeties. I know that, uh, that, uh, the, the linebacker there can do it. Um, but I don't know if they have any safeties who can kick. Sometimes these guys have more skills than you think. And I just don't know

about it, but I haven't seen anyone doing practice kickoffs or anything else. Uh, I, I'll, I mean, we talked to Matt Daniels about it. It seemed like he was still kind of formulating what he wants it to be. When we speak to him again, I'll be very fascinated about that progress that they make. Uh, Morgan says, I really like Jashon Jones. I'm a Maryland fan, so a little biased, but if you go look at his game against Texas, you could see he's a crazy athlete. He's the one out of all the UDFAs that stuck out to me the most so far, because exactly what you're talking about, he's pretty big and he's pretty athletic. And so that's like the way to get in the door. There are some receivers that show up as UDFAs who immediately you go,

I don't think your combine scores are exactly reflective of you as a player out on the field, and you're just not a good enough athlete. Or sometimes their production in college is great, but they're not athletic enough to be on an NFL field, and it ends right there. Ja'Sean Jones has a chance. He's got a chance. I'll be keeping an NFL field, and it ends right there. Ja'Shawn Jones has a chance. He's got a chance. I'll be keeping an eye on him, Morgan, for sure.

MKF, has Will Reichard been looking good? I've only seen a little bit of Will Reichard from all the way across the field, and I couldn't tell if the kicks were going in or not, but the ball went really high and far. Is that good? I mean, I think so. Hopefully we'll see more this week.

That was on my list. Give us a little bit more of that kicking competition good stuff so I can get a closer look at Will Reichert and what it looks like from there. I'm assuming he's going to be the kicker. But as of right now, they've got two of them. So we got ourselves a competition. I'll answer a couple more questions here and then i want to get to i think the links are playing i want to get to the

game get to watching the game anyway not not at the game tonight because i'm here uh anyway uh just the super bowl vike says if the vikings do make the playoffs do you think that it would more likely be sam darnold at the helm or would it be JJ McCarthy? My initial reaction would be if they make the playoffs, then Sam Darnold was starting for the entire year and not JJ McCarthy, because I don't know that they have a good enough defense. And I think the schedule is too difficult for JJ McCarthy to game manage his way in this conference and this division specifically to game manage his way or have the rookie ups and downs his way into the playoffs. Though we would have said the same thing about CJ Stroud. I got a message the other day about JJ McCarthy being ranked as the 31st quarterback or whatever. CJ Stroud was ranked 30th last year by

PFF and most other people because there's no good way to guess what the rookies are going to be. So everyone has to do that. You can't just put, oh, CJ Stroud will be the 10th best quarterback based on what? So the same thing for McCarthy. And if he does end up playing, my expectations for him would not be crazy high they wouldn't be all right he's going to jump in there and just dominate and take this team over the packers or lions or bears into the playoffs it would be more of uh darnold who i think could have a career resurgence and do a geno smith thing and get them into the playoffs at nine and eight and feel pretty good about that and and that would be a good and fun season. If they could get a playoff game out of Sam Darnold,

that's probably the highest end of that. So I would assume that it would be him if they were able to kind of maximize everything else they have on the roster, but things change so much throughout a season. We start out thinking one thing and then by week three, the whole league has thrown us a bunch of curve balls. Uh, Evan asks, will you be at the joint practices in Cleveland besides more competition for starters, anything else we can learn from joint practices more than the preseason games? I will. Yes. Guaranteed. Yep. I will be at those joint practices in Cleveland a hundred percent. And it's a big, it's a big deal because they run their real stuff. Uh, that's where it matters a lot. We see the lineup.

Like that's going to be the lineup for the starters, 90%, a hundred percent, uh, when they're going against the other team, because Kevin O'Connell puts so much emphasis in those joint practices. So how people perform matters. So the fact that Brandon Powell performed really well in the joint practices last year, that gave him an edge on Jalen Rager. And now that seems kind of funny, but at the time it was neck and neck throughout that. And the offensive and defensive lines get real work in those. Last year, the Titans kind of beat up the Vikings offensive line a little bit

in those joint practices. They're very physical. They're very aggressive. So if somebody's shining in those joint practices, you know who did last year? I think it was Najee Thompson in all the special teams drills, because we even get to see those where they'll have player versus player, and they kind of are running and try to get to a bag or something like that, doing these competitive drills. So it is very heated through those entire practices, and we can learn a lot about who they're really buying into, who's standing out, who's making their case for the team. More with Kevin O'Connell than I think when it was with, oh, it was Brian Hoyer. Yeah, that's good. More with O'Connell than I think when it was with, Oh, it was Brian Hoyer. Yeah, that's good. Uh, more, more with O'Connell than it was with Zimmer. Zimmer cared a lot more about the preseason games,

but yes, it was Brian Hoyer who was not super nice to, um, Johnny Manziel. I'm not sure that I would be all that nice to Johnny Manziel either. Uh, even Randy Rhodes hits the like button. Yeah, that would be appreciated for sure. If you guys are watching, enjoy the show. There's going to be a lot of this, a lot of these shows where I chat with you guys because there won't be tons of new news coming in. I also don't love to have a ton of guests in the summertime,

the desert between the end of minicamp and the start of training camp because I always ask so much of my friends on the beat, you know, Andrew Kramer, Ben Gessling, Alec Lewis will be on the show this week. Supposed to have Dave Campbell as well from the Associated Press, Kevin Seifert. You know, I always ask so much of those guys during the season and training camp that, you know, I kind of want to back off a little bit during their summertime. So that means lots of you, lots of you. So if you're enjoying this, keep joining, subscribe, like, set notifications, whatever

anyone's supposed to do. And if you really want to support Purple Insider, go to purpleinsider.com and check out the newsletter there. It's daily articles that come right into your inbox. So I got something tomorrow coming on Jordan Addison and Ivan Pace and the step forward they have to make. So make sure you do that. If you're, if you're opening the door for me to give a little self-promotion, then, you know, probably going to do it. All right, real quick, real quick. Freedom thinker 1984 says, didn't you say Seth Vernon looked better

than Ryan Wright? I think Will Raggetts may have said that. I wasn't watching the punters personally, but I think Will said that. Seth Vernon does have a, he's a huge guy too, and he's really in shape. I think he was a wide receiver a little bit in college, but that is a real battle, I believe. I believe as of this moment that it is a real battle for the punting position because Matt Daniels did not really talk around it that they were not happy with Ryan Wright last year and he called it a sophomore slump but if you're a punter you don't get too many times to slump uh Will last question of the day Will says any thoughts on Jaqueline Roy this season breakout year two I will be keeping an eye on Jaqueline Roy there should be opportunity to win spots on the defensive line. They didn't sign anyone that would make me say, oh, you know, he's, he's going to be

a odd man out. He's got heavy hands. If you will, he makes an impact when he pushes people back. He had a few times where he got toward the quarterback last year and practices and in preseason, didn't see a ton of them in the regular season, got banged up, but I am interested in Jaqueline Roy for sure. He's a guy I'm going to keep an eye on. So thanks guys. Great chat. Great chat. We'll definitely do it again. Maybe even tomorrow. We'll see. And we'll also see if we got some breaking news tomorrow, if Justin Jefferson may sign and then we'll go from there. So I appreciate everybody taking the time to watch slash listen and, uh,

you know, keep your eye on the channel. We'll have a lot more coming. We'll see ya football.