Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - What did Kyler Murray and JJ McCarthy look and sound like at OTAs?

Episode Date: May 27, 2026

Matthew Coller and Dane Mizutani of the Pioneer Press analyze JJ McCarthy's surprising comments about working with Kyler Murray and the performance of both quarterbacks at Minnesota Vikings OTAs Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hey, everybody, welcome to another episode of Purple Insider, presented by Fandul. Matthew Collar here, along with Dane Mizatani of the Pioneer Press. We are inside TCO Performance Center, following a very warm and toasty opening up to OTAs. We had a chance to see Kyler Murray, J.J. McCarthy, throw some footballs today. Some interesting observations from the defensive side. A couple of wide receivers stood out a little bit to me today, and we're going to get to all that. but the place to begin is actually after practice when we heard from both quarterbacks. And this is the first time that anyone has talked to J.J. McCarthy.

I don't know that he's done any interview or anything else since the Minnesota Vikings acquired Kyler Murray. And I was very interested, Dane, in just to see, well, how does JJ approach this? Does he come to the podium and say, I'm happy to have Kyler Murray here? Can't wait to learn from him. We're all trying to chase a championship, but I'm going to have the best attitude possible. And that was actually not what we heard from J.J. McCarthy. Dane, I got to say, I was actually taken aback. I was quite surprised that McCarthy's attitude from what we saw all of last year in front of the media was quite different.

He was terse, short-winded about Kyler Murray being here and sort of directed it to the organization and had a very interesting comment about how the interactions have been so far with Kyler Murray. So you have that right there on your phone. I have it verbatim right here. I mean, like, you're right. Taking a back is a good way to describe it because today, I think the goal really should have just been like, don't make a headline. Don't make yourself the story with your comments. Let maybe the play do the talking.

Instead, when asked about his relationship with Kyler Murray so far, this is what J.J. McCarthy said verbatim. You know, it's just like two guys in the classroom. He sits on one side. I sit on the other side. And it's on the coaches, it's the coach's responsibility to teach us and coach us. And I asked, is there any awkwardness involved right now? He said, awkwardness. You know, it's just like the same feeling when you're in high school. And there's another person on the other side of the room. That's just kind of how it is. I wouldn't say there's any awkwardness. Sounds like awkwardness to me. And man, like, just not the messaging. I, I, I, I, I, I, I, think it could have been handled much better.

I felt the awkwardness within the press conference. Even when he was asked about, we all know that McCarthy has been working in California with John Beck's trying to improve mechanics. There was no question about it last year. The mechanics were a huge part of the discussion, both from J.J. McCarthy and from Kevin O'Connell, almost on a weekly basis. So we know that it was a main goal to get the mechanics worked out this offseason. and then also Justin Jefferson went into detail a couple of weeks ago,

talking about how those two have gotten together. Timing is a huge part of accuracy, but McCarthy really didn't want to get into it at all. And this does deviate quite a bit from McCarthy previously in front of the media, which I understand. I mean, I'm sure that none of us are on his best friends list right now because everyone's talking about how Kyler Murray is going to be the starting quarterback of this team. He really did not want to get into any of the details of what he's been trying to do and improve on mechanically, which he has often been insightful about.

And I'm not saying this is like he has to, but it's just, again, different from what we've heard from J.J. McCarthy before. And I think there was some easy answers there for him that would have made it look a little more like he's perfectly comfortable with what is going on. And it did not look that way. and he was asked, hey, have you been told that it's a true competition? And he said, yeah, I've been told that, but then sort of trailed off after. It wasn't like, can't wait to compete, excited about Kyler being here, here we go, we're going to chase a championship, which has kind of been his disposition. Normally, it was more like, yeah, I don't know, the organization does stuff.

What do you want? And calling them the organization, I thought was also kind of interesting. I know maybe we're picking apart three and a half minutes of J.J. McCarthy talking too much because we're here in OTAs. But even just referring to it as, well, the organization is going to do what they want to do. It did not have a vibe of someone who is comfortable with what has happened here. Yeah. The quote was, look, the organization made a decision that they felt like is going to improve the depth and the quality of the room. And I feel like they made that decision. It's just like, I get it. We want these guys to be raw.

We want them to be open with us. We want them to be honest. We hate canned responses. So it's going to sound like we're talking out of both sides of our head here for not. There's just a way to handle this situation, especially being in kind of the chase position that J.J. McCarthy is in right now. Yes, it's a competition, but I think we've talked about this. Like, if it's a 100-yard race, Kyler is starting at the 50-yard line.

Like, that is how much further ahead I think Kyler is in this competition if we want to frame it. like that. So if you are in chase mode here and you're trying to overtake the guy who probably is in pole position, like your goal should just be not to become the story. If you want to let your play on the field do the talking, then let your play on the field do the talking. It's just I get it. I appreciate the honesty, the rawness. I really do. And then I think in some ways, like we want more of that out of athletes at times. But at the same time, but at the same time, I just think right now today on the first time we have talked to these guys at OTAs, like the goal really should have just been, the messaging really should have just been,

I'm excited for the competition and we'll see where this thing goes. It did not have to be as clipped with the responses as it became. Some people are probably going to watch that and say, well, I want my guy to be motivated. Why would I just let him give the job to somebody else? Again, there is a professionalism to how to do this job. And I think he fell short today. I really do. I think that when he goes back and watches these quotes later today,

I think when Kevin O'Connell watches these quotes later today because they watch everything. Like there is going to be kind of missed the mark there with where I went with some of these answers. I mean, I just think the goal today should have been, go out there, practice, talk to us, and turn the page and get to the next day and wait for, we probably won't talk to them for another couple weeks now.

instead this is going to be a headline everywhere. So I don't want to treat a OTA press conference like it's a game, like where we're breaking down every single moment of this thing. It was just very stark the difference. And I think with J.J. McCarthy, I don't know that he's a guy that really can put on a facade all that well. And we saw that from last year. And it was part of the reason that, and I was never for this,

but, you know, people made fun of him being a little too, earnest when he was talking about, you know, I'm nine and that kind of thing. And now I've seen that for months be mocked and made fun of, which I thought was really unfair because, as you said, what we want from players is to understand better what they're thinking, what they're feeling, and be able to convey that to our audiences and to have Vikings fans understand better what's going on with J.J. McCarthy. And last year, he was very open about different things, his approach when there were ups and when there were downs and there were times where he came across is a little too enthusiastic when there were ups and a little too down when there were downs and so forth

and was very open in that way. And I think what he showed us is what JJ McCarthy's feeling right now. And I don't know that he's an actor. I don't know that he's somebody who can go out there necessarily and fake it until you make it when it comes to the press conference. I think that this is the emotion is raw with him all the time. And I, I actually think it is part of the reason that he struggled with the ups and downs is because the emotion does run raw with him. And as you get older and you become a professional much longer, I think you can quell that a lot better.

And maybe you can do that in a way that doesn't make a headline and makes it seem like you're a good teammate rather than saying, I don't know, he's sitting over there. I'm sitting over there. It's not my problem. That just came off a little bit. And there might be a tad bit of an awareness thing with, McCarthy at all times of how he's perceived. And even like, what could I say right now in this press conference that would make everyone talk about it? Well, that was it rather than just,

hey, I really want to learn from Kyler Murray and we'll probably get, you know, get our equal chances to play and get the reps and everything else. So the other side of that was listening to Kyler Murray talk. That sounded like your starting quarterback, folks. There's no other way to put it. I mean, Kyler Murray has been a professional. He has done many press conferences. He's answered every question after every win, loss, up and down of his career. But he seemed as comfortable as you ever could have expected a typical QB1 after an OTA practice, answered a lot of questions, said that he was happy to be there for J.J. McCarthy with any questions

and help guide him if he needs to as the older veteran quarterback and so forth. He was extremely enthusiastic about the weapons that he's inheriting, I would be too after playing for the Cardinals. And he seemed to be very excited to talk about working with Kevin O'Connell, which stuck out to me quite a bit that Murray got a big smile on his face when I asked him about working with Kevin O'Connell. And he said that the way that O'Connell conveys the offense in his message, he said, you know, anybody could learn how to play quarterback here. And he didn't say that as like a dig at anyone. He was just saying, like, though he is so good at communicating that I've, you know, have a great understanding of this thing already just from being around Kevin O'Connell.

So he seemed excited, enthusiastic, happy to be a Minnesota Viking, really excited about the wide receivers. And when McCarthy came up, he's like, yeah, absolutely. Anything that he needs, great to have him around and so forth. Great to be in the room with him. And that's how you would have expected Kyler Murray to answer those questions as the starting quarterback of the Minnesota Vikings. Yeah, there was a quiet confidence about him. It wasn't a cocky there was no like on my chest i'm qb one which is very pragmatic here's what i've learned so far admitted that he's still learning it sounded like he's doing something of the kirk cousins route with the listening to the play call in the car he mentioned the offense is a little wordy

but he's getting it down he didn't like lie at any point or i didn't feel like at any point he was trying to convey that he was further along than he is he was very upfront i'm learning but I will be better in two months than I am right now, and I'm better right now than I was two months ago. It was all very much by the book, almost like in some ways, canned answers, which sometimes we as reporters can stick our nose up to, but it just felt like a guy who is pretty confident and who he is, both kind of as a quarterback in the NFL and who he is as a guy stepping into what we are now

still considering a true quarterback competition. I did think the way he answered the McCarthy question. It was like, what is your relationship like with J.J. McCarthy, essentially. There was no talk about classrooms. There was no talk about where they sit on the side of where they're at in the meeting room. There was no talk about high school. It was, I'm here if he needs me. I'm the veteran, even though he said, I don't feel like I'm necessarily a veteran because he's still, what, 28 or 20, I don't even know.

But all of that just it was what you would almost expect to hear. I almost walked into that press conference thinking, I bet if we ask him about Jason McCarthy, he's just going to say, I'm here for J.J. McCarthy, and that's what he did. But there was one moment where he was asked about his confidence. And I think you could kind of see, like, he still has that little swagger, that little edge to him,

said my confidence is unshakable, regardless of what's happened in the past. So I think there's still something there to Kyler of like, I'm going to prove people wrong. I'm like my past is not going to be kind of how I'm viewed. But overall, I think today you're what you walk away talking to Kyle and Murray just thinking that's a pro. Like I knows what he's doing.

I mean, he's certainly carrying himself like he's a QB1 kind of stepping into to where this is going to take him. It was very different to see the approach of the two quarterbacks. And I was a little surprised just in the way McCarthy approached it, not surprised at all. with Kyler and everything that I've heard about Kyler, probably you two from talking to people in Arizona, was that his press conferences were not going to light your shorts on fire. But he also is respectful in answering the questions and he's going to sort of give you, we had this with Carson Wentz as well, where Carson had been around a long time.

And this is why with J.J. McCarthy, everything sort of comes down to needing more time, needing more experience, needing more development. and I don't want to say this about a press conference, but it was sort of like, if you've been through this already, then you kind of know how this goes and you approach it a certain way. And he's never been through this before.

This is very, very new for JJ McCarthy. He has never been replaced by anyone or he really even had to compete with anyone like this, especially after last year he was given the QB1 job. And at this time of year, it was like, can't wait to be the franchise quarterback, but this is something you learn in the, NFL is that things can change super fast. Last year, Kyler was going into a season where I'm sure

he thought, I'm going to be an Arizona Cardinal for a very long time. And here he is a Minnesota Viking. But I'm sure what people want to know is, what did it look like? Not just what they said. I mean, those were really the two things today. This is a, we're coming out here to see the quarterbacks. I do have other notes, but we're coming out here to see the quarterbacks. And I think that I would say the same exact thing about the press conferences as I would say about what it looked like on the field. Kyler Murray was very confident throwing the football. He was accurate.

He easily had the throw of the day, dropping a long dime down the sidelines to Jordan Addison. I'm sure the Vikings will put that out on social media because it was very, very impressive on time, dropped it in the bucket. But just even on a play-to-play basis. And there were not a lot. There were not a ton of plays.

It's an OTA practice, but it was confident throwing the football. It was accurate throws. It was timely throws. It looked like someone who, it looked very similar to what Kirk Cousins would look like out here. Sam Bradford or Sam Darnold. I mean, that's what pro veteran quarterbacks look like. And it was a pro veteran quarterback OTA, even though the guy is learning the offense.

So I thought that it was noticeable also. I don't know if you were counting reps exactly, but I would say the majority went to Kyler Murray. But it was not the vast majority. I got J.J. McCarthy certainly mixed in and started a couple of series, but by the end of practice, I would go 70-30 on the reps. Probably Judd had it. But I think that Murray ended up with a few more than J.J. McCarthy. McCarthy. But what was your view on how McCarthy looked? McCarthy, I thought, like, we want to talk about the mechanics that he's changed. And I know a lot of people really dug into, well, his back foot is staying on the ground in, like, that two-second clip that the Vikings put on their Instagram. Like, I'm not going to dive into his mechanics and how they're fixed because there were times last year where the mechanics looked pretty okay in practice. And then they went wild in the game.

So I think it would be a little disingenuous to come out here for an OTA and pretend like, I know if his mechanics are fixed because there's a lot that happens when things get sped up. There's a lot that happens when the bullets are live. And that was when we saw the mechanics kind of take a back seat with J.J. McCarthy. That being said, like, I thought he was solid. Like, I didn't think he was like egregious. And then if we sit here and say, if I sit here and say, I think Kyler Murray was better than J.J. McCarthy today. That does not mean that I thought J.J. McCarthy was just unimpressive.

I thought the ball got to where it needed to go. I thought there were times, again, it's like seven on seven. It's a passing camp. The ball shouldn't really touch the ground ever unless Brian Flores decides to send 11, which he did a couple times. And Kyler Murray joked that never seen that before in my career. But like, J.J. McCarthy was fine. Like it was solid.

You saw some touch on some throws. You saw a couple air mails here and there. it just wasn't a whole lot different, but I wasn't coming here today expecting to just be wowed that, holy cow, look at the touch he has on the ball now. Or holy cow, look how much different everything looks. Like, I'm willing to let the string play out and let him show us that the work he did this offseason has kind of transferred from the practice field to, or the practice field in Southern California to the practice field in Egan, Minnesota.

But right now, like, all I can say is that he was solid. It was fine. But he wasn't better than Kyler Murray. It would be a wizard genius if I could watch that few reps and be like, well, actually, here's the difference. I would need an incredible AI tool to analyze my iPhone videos or whatever of JJ McCarthy to truly be able to tell you under these circumstances. I thought they looked like J.J. McCarthy and Kyler Murray. I mean, not a whole lot. It looked different

about McCarthy. And I also thought that Murray looked exactly how I expected him to look. Kyler Murray is one of the most accurate passers in the NFL. There are flaws to his game. There are things that have been bugaboos for him that have got him at times throughout his career. But the accuracy has never been a question. So when he throws the ball, it's like it's got dove wings that just fly right to the wide receivers hands and drop right in them. I mean, he had one to Dylan Bell, who I wanted to talk a little bit about. He had one to Dylan Bell. It was, it was like if he had just walked up 20 yards down the field and handed it right to him, it wouldn't have been as accurate as when he threw it. And it has this very nice flight to it. I mean, Kirk had this too, where just this

very nice flight and it's got the arc and everything, the anticipation. It's all there, but you've seen him do this for, I don't know how many starts he's had in his career. But it's a lot. And with McCarthy, I don't think there were enough throws for me to say, well, this is slightly different. That's slightly different. I have no doubt that J.J. McCarthy is working hard on this, but we were not going to be able to see it here. It will be an accumulation of this spring of five or six practices that we see. And then training camp is really going to tell us what we want to know about J.J. McCarthy and the accuracy. Because even though last year, I would say overall, he had a good training camp, the inaccuracy and the inconsistency,

was there. We just thought they were going to be so good that it wouldn't matter that much. And it turns out that it did in some different ways. And the health, you know, got in the way of it as well. But what I would say for J.J. McCarthy is no matter what his disposition is toward this, it's fine if you want to be really angry that they brought in Kyler Murray. And if you want to have the chip on your shoulder and want to prove everyone wrong and everything else, I think that's fantastic. You don't, as you said, I mean, you don't have to be Minnesota nice about, you know, a quarterback competition. It's a competition. I go work your butt off.

I think that he, though, needs to make sure that doesn't become a distraction for him, that he is focused on getting better all the time because he might be needed at some point. And it was very clear. It was Kyler Murray was the quarterback won today. And then McCarthy was getting some work. Carson Wentz is the backup quarterback for this team. He's on the Nick Mullins plan of, oh, hey, Carson, you want to step in for a minute here and Max Rosemar's over on the development field.

So it was not, you know, like Carson Wentz is splitting reps with Kyler Murray. He's in the conversation. He has every ability to prove that he belongs in the discussion at least. But that's not going to be resolved here. This is Kyler Murray just first learning to get out on the field. It's just my expectation was that when we saw Murray throw the ball that we would all be like, yep, that's a number one. overall draft pick who won the Heisman

trophy and has been in the Pro Bowl a couple of times, right? Like that's what it looks like. So McCarthy does have his work cut out for him, but I think he needs to make sure, though, that he's not sort of transferring or like treating a chip on the shoulder

to change his approach. Yeah. Right? To try to do things in practice. And I didn't see him do this today, but to try to do things in practice that he shouldn't. Or to try to push too hard for every single rep. I mean, I think as a first round draft pick and someone who had nothing but success until he got here, it's going to really test his mental strength. Because I think in the best case scenario, that practices in training camp could kind of look like a bigger version of what

we saw today, which is, yeah, okay, you know, Murray is a veteran starting quarterback, but we saw McCarthy look pretty good. Like if they had to play them, then they would, you know, feel confident in that. the one thing that I was a little bit down on a couple of reps was just the timing and where Murray was and it's out and it's there and still with McCarthy there was a little bit of hesitation but I mean again I don't want to make too much of that so Dane do you have anything else on how they looked no I just think with Kyler Murray you kind of touched it but like this guy was the number one overall pick this guy had incredible arm talent he's always had incredible armed talent. And I think somewhere along the way, because he didn't realize his full

potential in Arizona, because Jacoby Percette was playing at the end of the year and not Kyler Murray. And partially because the quarterback situation here last year was so sporadic, like, it kind of broke people's brain and they forgot that Kyler Murray is a good quarterback and has been a good quarterback, has been a borderline top 10 quarterback at his peak in the NFL. And I think the more we see Kyler Murray. This was the first time me and you got to see him with our own eyes. I think when training camp rolls around and fans in the stands can take videos of every single clip, it's just going to be an accumulation of like, wait a minute, that guy was a number on overall pick. That guy can throw the ball in a way very few can. You mentioned the pastor Jordan Addison up and down,

right in the bucket. There was a pastor Dylan Bell, across the middle, right in the bucket. Past of Dante Fleming, where I'm pretty sure Miles Price ran the wrong route and took someone into the other boy in vacancy that was there. And it was still up and down right in the bucket to Dante Fleming. There is an armed talent about him that has always been there, whether the consistency, whether that's something he can capture here, will determine how good he can be here. But I kind of walked away thinking,

if this is a true competition, Kyler's going to be good every single day. So J.J. McCarthy is going to have to be great to pass him. And even if he's great, he might not, because Kyler Murray, like, I mean, this probably dovetails into the Fandual Odds. But Kyler Murray is far in a way the favorite to win this competition and be the quarterback week one. And, you know, I noticed something too about Murray. And I just think that a lot of perceptions about him are forged from very, very little information.

I would just suggest to people in general that when you get very little information that you do a little bit more work. Even, I'm not even talking like a lot. I'm talking a little. Like, for example, when some rando tweets out a clip of OTAs with their Twitter account, if they're not a real reporter or something, you might want to check it twice before, I don't know, a major outlet tweets it out when it was a fake video that happened yesterday. Anyway, so the fan duel odds, yes, they have odds out for the quarterback competition. Kyla Murray's minus 1,000 to be the Vikings starting quarterback,

and J.J. McCarthy is plus 600. And this is the widest gap by far of any of the quarterback competitions on Fandul. I think we're in agreement here that nothing on day one of OTAs changed how we would lean in that competition. Yeah, I'm not going to call the race right now. Like, we're not going to have precincts reporting right now on May 27th. But Kyler Murray entered is the favorite. and he's still the favorite. And like I'm not, I don't think the Fandu odds are going to vastly change and accelerate

where now Kyla Murray is minus 5,000. But he's going to be steadily ahead of JJ McCarthy for the duration of this competition, I think, unless something drastic happens. Like, he just, he's already ahead. And I think every day that we see him and he reminds us that he was the number one overall pick. He did win the Heisman. He has been a borderline top 10 quarterback. It's just going to be further solidified that, yeah, when this guy signed $1.2 million for less than Johnny Hecker makes, we sat there and said, I mean, he's not signing here to be the backup. And I think every day

that goes by, every day that we get to see, and frankly, every day that we don't get to see, and the coaches do get to see, it's just going to be clear who is QB1. Yeah. Those odds are heavily skewed towards Kyler Murray for a reason, and there's no reason to think otherwise after watching today. Yep. And I'll just reiterate before we talk about some other stuff, that for J.J. McCarthy, if he has the right mindset, that this is all good for him and his progress,

I think he can make a lot of gains. If he doesn't, then he probably won't. And he will be the same player that he was in his first 10 games that he became. I mean, that's really the story of like a Christian Ponder. And I think McCarthy is more talented than Ponder, but it's a guy who just never really got better. And we've seen that from other quarterbacks. So you kind of have a fork in the road here for J.J. McCarthy. Across the roster, I did want to mention Dylan Bell and Dante Fleming as two guys who were getting a lot of reps today in part because Justin Jefferson wasn't taking very many.

If you were hoping for which player has more chemistry with Justin Jefferson, the answer is no, because he is not doing a lot in these OTAs in mini-camp, as he should not be. But Fleming is a guy that stuck out last year with a handful of big plays in training camp, a couple of big plays in the preseason. Ty Felton, I will give J.J. McCarthy credit for this early in the practice. He did have a nice throw to Ty Felton, but I was thinking even more about how Felton. tracked the football and reached out, kind of way out in front of him and snatched it out of the air. Also, Joanne Jennings is huge. This is a hoss. I was like, when I saw 14 out there, I was like, which tight end is that?

That Joanne Jennings has some girth to him. This is something the Vikings have not had, a guy like this big, a wide receiver. I was like, who is that? So, but it's interesting, though, because Dylan Bell is an undrafted. free agent had a nice catcher two out there. I think that battle behind Joanne Jennings is super interesting. And Felton kind of putting his name on the map right away as we saw him here today. And those two guys, there's a wide open space for someone to be wide receiver four.

Yeah. I mean, this is the fun part about like OTAs usually is like finding this diamond in the rough. Normally like the reporters play a game. It's normally confined in the receiver position. everybody picks a UDFA or everyone picks a late round draft pick and that's your guy from the spring to the summer and if your guy wins makes the roster you get a milkshake or something. Still waiting on your Tristan Jackson?

But like this, when it's not like a quarterback focused OTA, like the Dante Fleming's of the world are the guys that were kind of locked in on. The Dylan Bells of the world are the guys were kind of locked in on. I think, yes, one, two, three, it's very easy. Justin Jefferson, Jordan Addison, Joanne Jennings. Quickly, Joanne Jennings didn't give a ton today. It wasn't like totally forthcoming with his interview, but he did say, and he dropped a bar, I feel like Kevin Durant on the Warriors.

And we said, what do you mean? He said, big three. I said, okay. Hard to argue because I don't think there's a better receiver room from one through three in the NFL than Justin, Jefferson, Jordan, Addison, and Joanne Jennings. But beyond that, you're right. Like, there are openings. and Ty Felton probably has the inside track because he was a third round pick last year,

and they're probably not moving on from Ty Felton the year into his career. But outside of that, like Miles Price probably back as the punt returner, like you see the Vikings keep five, six receivers. And it's on these guys now, the Dante Fleming's, the Dylan Bells, the J-Shon Joneses of the world to like push forward and show like I deserve to be on the roster. I deserve to be somebody that that sticks around, not just on the practice squad. And it was cool to see, like, certain guys stepping up as rightfully so, Justin Jefferson was just kind of jogging around, being a really good teammate, hype man, ran one route where like it was clearly an all-out blitz and the play wasn't real. And then Justin just caught a deep ball down field.

He didn't do a ton today, but it really did open the door for other guys to stand out and a handful bit. So I, you know, I thought one of the plays of the day, the play of the day was Kyler Murray throwing the ball to Jordan Addison, going through his progression, stepping up in the pocket and dropping into the bucket. But the other two for me were, I mentioned them earlier, scene ball to Dante Fleming and a deep crosser to Dylan Bell. Two guys, I think coming into today, I did not think I would even be thinking of. So cool. Like this is what OTAs are for, for us to kind of observe, but also for these guys to show up and prove that they deserve. to stick around. I mean, I did think that all of the depth-wide receivers had little moments, and they're not playing super physically, so that does tend to happen. But also in years past,

the reason why we play our little game of picking, you know, all right, I'm going to pick this UDFA or this, whatever, is that we have seen these guys like your Jalen Naylor's or KJ. Osbournes, where they start to show something in the spring. And we go, all right, well, this guy's making a lot of catches. Naylor, I mean, last, what was it, last year, two years ago when Jefferson and was negotiating his contract. Naylor took over a lot of those reps and was really awesome. I'm like, okay, I think I see it. And he had a breakout year after that.

So it's not to be totally dismissed for sure. And I'm just really intrigued by Dylan Bell because he has some rare explosiveness. His combine numbers were not insane. But if you actually watch him in Georgia, he made a lot of big plays for them as an explosive receiver. And Felton is going to be someone we focus on a lot. As a third round draft pick,

it was a late third round. He's going to need development, but we're going to want to see him progress throughout the spring and be ready for training camp to be wide receiver four. And I mean, Fleming is a is a deep cut. Like you would have had to watch all the preseason games and stuff to know Dante Fleming. But we did see him when the third team last year make a handful of big plays. He has downfield speed. They kept him around for a reason. They moved on from some guys that they liked as veterans to keep Dante Fleming on the practice squad. Lucky Jackson. was one of them. So there's at least a little bit of intrigue there.

On the defensive side, I'll tell you the thing I was focused on the most is where's everybody lining up? Because how they're moving, you know, corners, you can kind of see it. But everybody else, I don't know. Like, how did Elijah Williams look in the trenches? Well, they're not. Come on. That would be ridiculous if they were going at each other into OTAs.

But the safety position was Josh Mattelis and Theo Jackson mostly. And what I noticed was Jay Ward was everywhere. He was outside corner. He was nickel. He was safety. And I think we might be seeing, assuming that Harrison Smith is not coming back, a little bit of the like changing of the guard or passing, passing of the torch. That's what I'm looking for.

From one versatile player to another versatile player, it appears as of May, whatever this is, that it's going to be Mattelis, Theo Jackson. We'll see what happens with Jacoby Thomas, who was out. out there with Jacob Thomas, ridiculous. Why do we do this? Why? That should be against the rules. But that's kind of the setup that it looks like they're going to have.

And I am just very intrigued this year with Jay Ward. Yeah, I think Jay Ward was somebody towards the end of last season that really started to pop. And if you asked Matt Daniels, special teams coordinator about Jay Ward three years ago, he would have told you this guy flies around. Like one thing with Matt Daniels when he talks about young guys trying to break through is that I don't even care if you make a mistake as long as you make the mistake at full speed. I think he likes full speed mistakes over like half speed mistakes. Basically, that concept is like I'd rather not have mistakes.

But if you're going to screw up, do it with intention. So that has always been kind of Jay Ward's calling card is that he flies around. And you saw towards the end of last season, maybe even towards the middle of last season, he started to fly around on defense too. He wasn't just this guy you put on the edge as a gunner and said, go tackle the guy on special teams. He was a guy who was filling in here and there on defense, flying around safety, the versatility to do both, to play safety, to play corner, maybe even like you said,

the Josh Mattelis role or to play a little hybrid linebacker. And I think you're starting to see glimpses of that. So it's something to keep an eye on. Again, like what we focus on in OTAs generally isn't the two quarterbacks. It's things like this. It's the fifth and sixth receiver. what we think we could project out going into the summer. It's where a guy like Jay Ward is lining up in the defensive formations heading into the summer.

But right now, if you're paying attention, you're probably thinking Jay Ward has an important role in this defense moving forward. And things could change. It's late May. It might look different in late July, but it might not. It might look like it did right now. And he might be kind of this plug and play wherever he's needed guy on this defense because he needs to be. And like there is probably some credence to, well, Josh Mattelis seems to have excelled in the past by just being that Swiss Army knife kind of guy. But they might need him to be safe, like more of a traditional safety.

And then you have a guy like Jay Ward who has kind of been working his way into this role. So that definitely piqued my interest as well. I think you can start to see like kind of the gears turning for Brian Flores as you kind of pay attention to where guys are lining up. And then I mentioned it earlier. but he will. It seems like sometimes Brian Flores will say, I'm just going to blitz everybody and see what happens. And usually it just ruins the play for the offense.

And we saw that a few times today too. So OTA, it's early. But there are things here that like little breadcrumbs that we might look back on in the summer and say, yeah, that makes sense because we saw that in the spring. So also I noticed that Charles Demings was getting kind of the second team. And there's two fields that are going on. There's the first and second team. And then we'll call it the.

development field on the other side where Max Brosmer was over there playing quarterback and Demings was out with the first and second teamers. He wasn't taking first team reps. That's clearly Isaiah Rogers and Byron Murphy Jr. And James Pierre is mixing in there as well. But the fact that Demings was out there with the second team, kind of a first impression for him maybe a little bit. Also, I wrote about Charles Demings over at Purple Insider.com football. If you guys want to go check that out, did a feature on him. But he's someone that will be watching very close. throughout this off season and his development because even though he came from Stephen F. Austin, he has explosiveness and athleticism that may put him in a position to be a

backup right away. And I'm kind of interested to see how all the falls of Maya Vaughn was also out there today. He made a play on a deep ball. So he's another one that he was kind of our darling last year during this time. Is he going to take another step? And then I noticed Jake Golda was playing a lot of the inside linebacker. And I think that that's where they're going to start. When you see someone like him, you immediately go, that is Andrew Van Ginkle. But Andrew Van Ginkle didn't become Andrew Van Ginkle in a day. So I think what they're going to do is have Jake Golda be on the inside to start, train in there, get him locked in, and then start to move things out. Where I'm really interested is that outside linebacker position because there isn't any depth.

So we saw Bo Richter there. And a guy that I'm going to be watching very closely is Tyler Batty, who last year made a very good impression, sometimes a little overaggressive in practice, but he made a really good impression at times during training camp. So does he have a chance to kind of work his way in as a undrafted free agent outside linebacker? Any other observations? No, but I, well, Tyler Batty, first of all, if anyone doesn't remember, he's the guy who laid down on the ground to try and stop the push, a UDFA who did make the team. I think Golda is is interesting because he's a guy who I think down the road will be like whenever they decide it's time to move on from Andrew Van Ginkle. They're going to struggle with because he is a guy who is pretty one of one singular in what he can do.

But Gold day I think is going to be kind of the guy they have typecasted to do that. But there's a long ways to go. So what do you want from a rookie? You want to see him on the field. And the best way to do that is for him to master one thing before you try and make him like a. jack of all trades. He's going to probably be an inside linebacker for a large portion of the offseason, master that skill set, and then we'll see where that kind of doves tails into during

the regular season. But noticed him, like noticed certain guys on the defensive line, not because they were like hitting each other because there's no live contact. It's not worth like analyzing reps. But man, Dominique Orange is just huge. he's going to be able to fill the nose tackle role right away in this defense. And does that mean he's going to play a thousand snaps? Like, no.

But he is going to be somebody who can do his role. And I think he said this back in rookie minicamp. Like he was asked to do at Iowa State and college what he will probably be asked to do here. And he takes pride in just eating blocks. And I think he does have probably a little bit more upside as an interior pass rush. Nothing that we could glean from today because they're not. hitting and there's no per point in like trying to analyze how these guys are firing off the ball with Ryan Nielsen every time he like moves a little football on a stick but imposing dude and

then another guy like Smith Philbert he he made the team out as a as a as a rookie tryout guy like just a big guy I think he could find his way like maybe like on like a practice squad thing but as a guy who at some point we might be talking about like wait who is that 91 guy yeah that's He is big, yeah, but also you've gone too far now. Once you've reached Smith-Vilbert, you've gone too far into OTAs in the one practice we saw today. Fair. Fair, but like, like, we are keeping an eye on like the guys on the periphery.

Yeah. That is a guy who I think at some point when we start to put the pads on might be able to show even more. So I'll take a breath. Pull it back. Pull it back. Yeah, Smith-Vilbert, you might just be my. guy. I did notice Max Brettison getting some reps back there at the fullback position.

Yep, some motions on some of the run plays. I think they just want him to play right away and be a decent part of the offense and understand what he needs to do. I'm very curious to see if he gets involved in the past protection where they use CJ Ham previously. And I watched Brett Thorson punt one ball and it went very far. So punt off. I don't know. That's going to maybe start later. Anyway, Dame Mizatani, Pioneer Press, Matthew Collar from TCO Performance Center. We will have open OTAs a couple times. There's several days of mini-camp. So we've got five or six practices to cover. We'll do podcasts after every single one of them to bring you what was said and what it looked like out here in Egan. So thanks everybody for watching and listening.

And we'll catch you all very soon. Football. Football.