Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - What did we learn from Brian Flores' press conference? (Plus Fans Only questions answered)

Episode Date: February 16, 2023

Matthew Coller analyzes some of the most interesting quotes from Brian Flores' opening press conference as Vikings defensive coordinator and then answers fan questions -- everything from the offseason schedule to scouting department to trade values of Vikings players and more... Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hello and welcome to another episode of Purple Insider. Matthew Collar here, fresh off of Brian Flores' introductory press conference at TCO Performance Center. So what I've done is taken the most interesting comments and I am going to bring them to you, as well as a fans-only episode to follow with this, because I've just been getting a ton of great questions from you guys. So I want to continue to answer those questions. And then coming up a little later, we'll be will rag it's tomorrow.

We're going to record tomorrow and then publish that episode on Friday. So look forward to that. We'll talk about what we heard from Flores a little further and a lot of things going on in the NFL, as far as off season goes, maybe we'll even mixores a little further and a lot of things going on in the NFL as far as offseason goes. Maybe we'll even mix in a fun little game. But the thing that stood out to me right away with Brian Flores' press conference is the fact that Brian Flores is here and they are apparently calling him B-Flow as his nickname. Don't like, not a good nickname. We're going to have to work on that for Brian Flores because that's not great. But Brian Flores had a chance to interview with the Arizona

Cardinals for their head coaching position. He was reportedly going to talk to the Denver Broncos as well. Cleveland was involved. He thanked a number of teams for their interest in him but he's here and he did not want it seems to pursue that Cardinals head coaching job now it's possible that he had heard or that he found out that they weren't going to go with him so he decided on the Vikings but he didn't even go back for another interview that was reportedly scheduled in the same thing with Denver after they elected to let a Jiro Evero go to the Carolina Panthers and Brian Flores was on their list of people to interview and yet he foregoed that and agreed to sign here with the Minnesota Vikings so naturally that was one of the first things that he talked about was why he wanted to be a Minnesota Viking.

You know, you almost get a gut feeling. I think we've all kind of had those that, you know, this was the place for me and my family. This was the right opportunity. It's funny, I was in church a couple weeks ago as this was all going on, and the pastor, Brian Edmonds in Pittsburgh, he said in life there's instances where you can either have control or you can have growth, and you can't have both. And that hit me pretty good. And I just felt like this was a great opportunity for growth. When he says not every situation is the same,

you do wonder if he means that this particular one will give him potentially a good chance to get back as a head coach, and he was asked about his aspirations in the future, and I don't think that there's any doubt about it that Brian Flores wants to be a head coach in the future and would love it if he made the Vikings a top 10 defense. And they went to the playoffs and won the division and went deep in the playoffs. And then someone immediately hired him as a head coach. I mean, that's an ideal scenario for him.

And, of course, it's an ideal scenario for the Vikings to have someone completely turn around their defense when he talks about you know wanting to grow and going with his gut and things like that I mean I think that there's also an opportunity here to turn around a defense where if you even improve by 10 spots next year just based on being better schematically that we're going to look at this as a major positive it also might be an opportunity to build a defense in his vision over one or two years which i think is favorable for anybody who when you look at his past you find a scouting background he's coached safeties he's coached linebackers so there's kind of a, an empty cupboard here that he gets to go shopping and fill. And that opportunity is good as well. And Arizona, I don't know, again, if they wanted him really to

be their head coach or not in his previous experience with Miami is pretty impressive, but Arizona is also not a great spot for a head coach because Kyler Murray is out for quite a while with the ACL. Kyler Murray also seems very difficult to work with. They have nobody on defense. DeAndre Hopkins seems to want out of there. They're just floating in nowhere, the Arizona Cardinals organization. And with Denver, the bar is set extremely high. And I guess I'm only comparing those couple of opportunities. But after Ejiro Evero and Vic Fangio, the bar is very, very high for their defense. If you go in there, you have to immediately have a great defense or you're the guy that let it fall off. Whereas here, if you're talking about perception on the outside,

and Brian Dable getting coach of the year proves this, that the NFL loves nothing more than saying, than pointing at someone and saying, this guy turned around that whatever. And I mean, is there any better opportunity to turn around something that was 28th in defense? So that is there for Brian Flores. I bet it was more than just a gut decision. Maybe money played into it. Maybe contract played into it. Maybe contract played into it.

But also, I'll just bring you something a little later. I think also generally the organization and the way that they function likely was a factor for him as well. So Kevin O'Connell talked quite a bit in this press conference also. And one of the things that stuck out to me was something that he said and i know we're always going to look for are there some jabs at ed donatel and reading between the lines so i don't mean to do that here but in describing his connection with brian floris and why he liked him as a candidate i think that there's something here right off the bat that will kind of stick out

to you or make your ears perk up a little like oh he's talking about doing that differently than they did last year uh not every scenario and situation is the same and and i think he's learned this term uh that he used called weighty downs i think he learned it uh maybe from mike t um you know, those critical downs where, you know, the ability of a coordinator with the experience that B-Flow has to apply pressure to the offense in a lot of different ways. And that can look a lot of different ways, week in and week out. What are the things that we want to do to maximize our guys' chances of success? While also, in some cases, mitigating risk,

but making sure that in the end, the aggressive mindset of our football philosophy that I came in here, funny enough, one year ago today and introduced, it was a football philosophy. It was not an offensive philosophy. Now we have to keep in mind that somebody who's just been hired by a team, they're always going to say yes we share the same philosophy yes we both see the same things but i think at least with this there's an argument for that because they both go back to uh being very influenced by bill belichick uh both with

the new england connection though their journeys were a little bit different they didn't uh really work closely together. They talked about that a bit of sort of being in the same organization, but not knowing each other that, that well back in the days with new England, but also just generally coming from bill Belichick and how things were done there as being one of the people that shaped them as coaches. I also think that, and maybe people out there

would disagree with this because there have been like Wade Phillips won the Superbowl with Sean McVay. So big age gaps between a defensive coordinator and a head coach. Um, you know, Dick LeBeau was pretty old working with what Mike Tomlin or Bill Cowher. I mean, you know, right. So it doesn't have to work this way, but they're close in age. And I think maybe just sees things a little bit more the same way than Ed Donatel. Now, last year, of course, we heard about how wonderful it is to play the Fangio system and how Ed Donatel has been coaching it and teaching it for a long time. But Brian Flores much more recently, just two years ago was calling the shots on a defense that I think is where the NFL is having to lean,

which is playing more aggressive. And that goes by the data, not just telling everyone that you've been aggressive, but if there was anything that really seemed to frustrate Kevin O'Connell last year, it was that they just lined up and played the same defense over and over and over and didn't seem to want to take risks and be aggressive, even though they clearly were not performing in the way that they played. So Brian Flores talked about how they had synergy together,

and that's one of the reasons that he's here. What I call, I've left out of here feeling like there was a shared vision. Um, he's aggressive offensively. Um, I'm aggressive defensively that those, that, that kind of philosophy, um, was aligned. Um, it's probably the best word to use. Um, so, uh, you you know just to answer your question yeah i i by by uh by nature i i like to be aggressive um again not reckless um there's a there's a method to the madness um there's a rhyme and reason um whether it's down a distance field position etc, et cetera. You know, I think it's not about, you know, me or Kev. It's about the players. It's about their ability to execute. It's about our ability to teach and coach and put them in the right positions.

Now he mentions the players there, and he was asked a couple of times, maybe us media folk being a little bit coy of like, so what do you think about the players what types of players are you looking for wink wink nod nod and uh brian was not showing his cards when it came to that um they were talking about how they haven't really gotten to that point yet which is likely not just coach speak because normally it's at the combine where things start to happen where they figure out what they're going to do with players contracts what positions they're going to fill in the draft who's coming back who's getting cut normally that's where it happens so it's probably

a genuine answer to say that they haven't figured it all out but But I also don't believe Brian Flores showed up here with no plan for what he thought was the best way to rebuild or immediately improve this defense. But when he was asked about the types of players he's looking for and that sort of thing, I mean, he's, you know, talked about things that every coach would like in players. He wants guys that are selfless, that are smart, that are tough, you know, all those sort of generalities and would not really give any hints toward, yes, I can't wait to rebuild

this defense or boy, we're going to improve next year with Harrison Smith and Eric Kendricks. So I've got nothing for you on that. We don't know yet. We're going to have to just wait and see what they decide to do rather than trying to pick this one apart and get an answer. But I did want to mention more about the aggressiveness part of Brian Flores, because again, you know, one of my friends on Twitter pointed out that no defensive coach has ever, or any coach has ever done a press conference and said, no, no, no, we want to sit back and do nothing. We want to let receivers run wide open underneath and not be aggressive. But I thought that his description, when our pal Will Raggetts

asked about the zero blitzes, I thought that his description was, was very good in his thinking about using them. And if you don't know what a zero blitz is, it's not complicated. It's where you send everybody except for one person covering each wide receiver. So if there's four receivers going out, there will be four coverage players and seven guys blitzing, right?

That's what a zero blitz is. And a lot of times it means lining everyone up at the line of scrimmage and then sending them all right from the line of scrimmage. Or it can also mean lining up everybody at the line of scrimmage and then dropping people back, like showing your zero blitz. Zero just means like zero safety help, zero over the top, zero players doing zone coverage to be a helper. And I just thought that it was a very interesting answer. Brian, you've historically had success with calling pressure out of zero looks. Can you describe kind of the risk-reward proposition of that, and what are some of the keys to doing that successfully? So you want all the secrets right now?

Like right now? Yeah, generally. Well, it took me some time to get that answer in the interview, so I don't know if you're going to get it right here. I think, you know, zero gives people some issues. Um, I think if you're willing to, um, you know, you know, give a blitz zero presentation, uh, and send them, and then, uh, obviously offensively, they've got to prepare for it, um, and have some answers for it. Um, and then it becomes a cat and mouse game. So is it zero? Is it not zero? Any way you slice it you got to be ready for it so um that's you know part of the philosophy or the thought process

maybe i'll try to come up with a different different you know way of uh presenting it but you know that's the game you, there's always new trends and new trends. You know, there's always new trends within the league. You know, it's our job to stay up on them and obviously try to implement them offensively or defend them defensively or defend them in the kicking game. I think that's what we're always trying to do. You know, we'll spend a lot of time going through what we feel are the next offensive trends,

just like I'm sure the offensive staff is going to go through what the next defensive trends are, and what the next trends are in the kicking game, and what the next trends are in personnel game, and what the next trends are in media. I'm sure you guys you know are going through that yourselves um as professionals that's that's what we do um so you know to answer your question you know it may be trendy it may not be so we'll see as the uh as the season progresses but um personally um i like to uh you know give that presentation one small elephant

in the room with brian flores is the fact that he is you know suing the national football league and who can blame him considering how things went down in miami with him being asked to tank and uh alleging that stephen ross the owner of the dolphins offered to pay him more money if he lost games and if that's the case hey look you know we're a tanking podcast here but uh you can't go that far and usually if you want to tank you just take apart a roster but what you shouldn't do is hire a really good coach maybe they didn't know that they were hiring a really good coach and he won too many games for them, being a good defensive mind

and getting that team going in the right direction. But he talked a little bit about the lawsuit, but said for the most part, he wasn't going to get into any details with that. But he did say something that has really stood out to me over the years is, you know, the Vikings have had lots of people in, in key positions, uh, that are not white and male. And Kweisi Adafo-Mensa is one of them. Uh, Kelly Klein, who's now a high ranking executive with the Denver Broncos was developed in the front office of the Minnesota Vikings.

Um, Jamal Stevenson holds a high position for them. Director of college scouting is what he used to be. He might be something else now. But, you know, they have been a diverse organization. And I think for someone like Brian Flores, who has made this a very important subject to him, and that he's been carrying the torch for this. And Hey, look another cycle of hiring in the NFL where it was just one black coach and D'Amico Ryan's and everybody else, like including a guy whose defense gave up 38 points in the super bowl,

getting hired, you know, just so the same typical patterns that the NFL has followed. And Brian Flores did say that it was important to him that the Vikings organization in a lot of its departments, if not all of its departments, has diverse elements to it. Obviously, diversity is important to me as well. I'm not going to run away from that. But when I walk in this building, you know, you see diversity really across the board in every department. And, you know, that's exciting, too.

So, you know, that's, you know, those are things that are ongoing. Obviously, the lawsuit's, you know, ongoing. But, you know, I are things that are ongoing. Obviously, the lawsuit's ongoing. But, you know, I'm where my feet are right now. My feet are right here in Eagan. Okay, last thing from the press conference, and then we'll get to a bunch of your fans-only questions. I really noticed that Kevin O'Connell went out of his way to talk about how he has been

self-assessing, looking himself in the mirror. And it was something that I was critical of him at the end of the season with that Donatello thing on multiple levels. But one of them was maybe not, and I know this is much easier said than done, but maybe not being as heavy handed as he needed to be when it wasn't going the way that he wanted it to go on defense. Like you're the guy in charge. You're the one that has to call the shot.

So if you want it to change, you got to change it. And I think that being reflective as a coach is a really important thing. Constantly trying to change, constantly looking at yourself in the mirror, looking at what you did wrong, look at what you did right, and trying to be constantly improving because there's a lot of the great coaches in the NFL who are doing that. So if you're not, then you fall behind. And one of the ways that I always figure out if a coach isn't going to work out is if they tell you that their scheme is great and they've

used it for a million years and they're perfect. And if the players can't figure it out, it's their problem. Well, that was kind of Donatello. It was also kind of Norv Turner, uh, a few years back and Norv had a great history in his past, But as far as when he was working for the Vikings, maybe, uh, needed to do a little more like soul searching about his system and how things were done. And maybe they would have gotten a little more out of it in 2015 and 2016.

Had he done that? Uh, but circling back to O'Connell, his comments and, and making sure that he was saying this publicly, like I have thought deeply about how last year went and especially on the defensive side and to make sure that that doesn't happen again. And also I think that, you know, Brian Flores just being who he is

and with his past is not the type of guy where he's going to have these same issues with Donatello. He seems much more malleable than Donatello did, where it was really about system, system, system. But I think it's important that Kevin O'Connell is talking about wanting to build on what he started last year. In my own personal way, updating you guys on how I was doing with that, some of those questions that came about, it was a process for me as a first-time head coach a play caller managing the situations of the game

making sure that my communication with the whole staff was was up to the standard that I wanted it to be and and those are some of the things that that I look to continue to improve on and and whether it was you know a new coach in a role like the defensive coordinator role or continuing to build on that game day relationship with our whole staff it's something I'm going to really focus on and I think it starts and has already started with how we put together this football team how we want to practice how we want to prepare our guys having gone through an entire season together and then ultimately just the comfort level for me of understanding how I can maximize my time, not only during that three and a half hour window on Sunday, but the time leading up to the games

and how I prepare our entire team, coaches included, alongside our players to be at our best when we get those 17 opportunities and I feel very strongly that I've learned a lot there's a lot of things that I I feel we did well but there's definitely some things that I look back on personally that I could be much better for our team and that's going to be a major priority for me folks I'm dealing with that lull that we all have when the holidays are over and football season ends so i decided to try something new it's called ag1 by athletic greens well i'm not the type to start taking pills or weird infomercial stuff so i wanted to try something simple to get my health going in the right direction and give a boost of energy for all those off-season articles and podcasts that are on the way. AG1 covers all the nutritional

needs that I have with 75 high quality ingredients in just a single scoop mixed with water in the morning every day. If a comprehensive solution is what you need from your supplement routine, then Athletic Greens is giving you a free one-year supply of vitamin D and five free travel packs with your first purchase. Go to athleticgreens.com slash insider. That is athleticgreens.com slash insider. Check it out. Okay. That's enough for Brian Flores' press conference. I'm very interested to see how things play out with him, and we'll have more discussion about it and opinion with Will Raggetts when he comes on the show tomorrow,

and we'll maybe play again his question that got shot down by Flores. Although Flores went on to, as you heard, say some interesting things about Cover Zero, but Will kind of got dunked on a little bit there at first. So we'll get his reaction to that, but all right, we've got tons of fans only questions. They continue to come in. They continue to be great. So I am going to bring you a lot of those right now. Let's start right off with Jordan who asked, do you know if there have been any changes to the scouting department and front office since Kweisi Adafil-Mensah was hired? As far as the scouting department goes, I don't know how many changes there have been there. It seems like they kept a lot of the same scouts

that they had before, but there have been changes to the front office, of course. I mean, the biggest of which was bringing in Ryan Grigson, who had worked in Cleveland with Kweisi Adafel-Mensah. And it seems like that's kind of the right-hand man to Kweisi Adafel-Mensah. But he also made another hire that was kind of interesting, which was adding Demetrius Washington, I believe was his name, the VP of research for the San Francisco 49ers. So I think that there are plans for Kweisi Adafo Mensah, and maybe it starts there, to enhance the analytics element of the Minnesota Vikings and start to build that. And maybe some of that will come this offseason. It's really hard when you take a job late into the offseason already. Like, it's not like he got there on day one.

They had to go through the entire hiring process. So they go through the hiring process, he gets the job, and then they start to do the draft, do the free agency, do contracts. Remember how much work had to be done last offseason? So usually after that's all done, then they make some additions or subtractions to the front office. And as far as I know, they didn't make major sweeping changes, which I think is what you're getting at. It wasn't Kwesi bringing in all of his own new scouts for this year. And he

talked about being pleased with the way that everyone worked in a collaborative way for last year, going through the draft process and so forth. But, you know, I think that your question kind of insinuates maybe that he should have made more sweeping changes to the front office. And that's something that I can't really say for sure whether he should have done that or not. Because if we're trying to grade Kweisi Adafo Mensah on one draft that happened last year,

and we're just looking at how it's gone after one year, that really does not tell us a whole heck of a lot. I know that the results and some of the process are pretty questionable. Trading with the Detroit Lions, not getting as much as we would have expected in a trade with the Detroit Lions. Christian Watson looks pretty good.

Not taking Kyle Hamilton or Jamison Williams, who both have potential to be very good players. Kyle Hamilton already was this year, and Jamison Williams might be in the future as one of the top receivers taken in a really good receiver draft. But I think that we always need a little bit more time to know. In my experience in the past, it's probably three years when it's official official, and really the second year you get a great sense, unless it's with offensive linemen that generally take a little bit longer to develop. But if Andrew Booth Jr. is hurt for another year, then we're probably going to look around and go, I don't think that pick worked out. Or if Louis Seen isn't starting this year, assuming that he's back a hundred percent from his injury, then again, I don't think that we'll be saying like,

oh, wow, great job. I think that we'll start to question it, but it's hard to say if we should pin that on anybody specifically, because when you look at the process of the guys that they took, certainly the right guard selection was questionable. But aside from that, I mean, Louis Seen was high on a lot of draft boards. Andrew Booth Jr. was considered a first round talent that dropped because of health. And you know that there's risk versus reward when it comes to that. Was that bad scouting? Like probably not bad scouting, but more of bad luck or a risk that so far hasn't worked out.

And then in the middle round, Brian Asamoah is a third round linebacker. I think with some other premium positions up for grabs, maybe a linebacker wasn't exactly where they needed to go. But I also really like the returns, the early returns on Brian Asamoah. I think they probably scouted him correctly that he's kind of a lightning bolt out there and he might turn into a very, very good player. He was excellent on special teams.

So, you know, and a Caleb Evans might be a very good find if he can stay healthy as well. So I don't want to look at the scouting department and say, wow, Kwesi, what were you thinking? Why didn't you make all these changes? But I think if over the years he starts adding and bolstering, especially on the analytic side, that's probably the right way to go. And it seems like that's what he's already begun the process of doing. But it was not a complete overhaul. I don't know that it was necessary to complete overhaul,

but maybe you would say, and I guess I could listen to this argument. I just don't, I just have a really tough time buying it. That because Rick Spielman had many poor drafts, especially on the defensive side in recent years, that maybe it was time to find some new people that were looking at those players. But that's,

I think it's an oversimplification of how the whole process works. I mean, sometimes it's bad luck with players. Sometimes it's just bad odds to begin with. I mean, if you're going and chasing the next Daniel Hunter, who is an outlier, it's just bad odds that if you're only searching for edge rushers in the third

and fourth and fifth rounds, what is the chances you're really going to get a star there? And there have been other players that they've picked that have turned out to be great. I mean, they certainly nailed it on Justin Jefferson, Christian Derusaw. Think about that. They traded out of the Elijah Vera Tucker pick, moved down and picked a superstar left tackle. So the drafts are always kind of a mixed bag, but I wouldn't say that there's any sort of correlation that I can point to and go, oh, well, it must be the scouts because they keep missing X, Y, or Z. So I don't

think it's a bad idea to keep the scouting department as it is, but try to make some better decisions when it comes to draft value and also just pray to the draft gods as well. Because sometimes you pick Stefan Diggs in the fifth round, you can't tell me that you knew he was going to be Stefan Diggs because otherwise you would have picked him in a higher round, I think. But a good question, Jordan. Appreciate it. Next question comes from Shane. Can you please bring us back to reality and give us realistic trade values for a few of the Vikings players based on age, salary cap, etc., like Harrison Smith, Kirk Cousins, and Adam Thielen, etc.? Yeah, so I was very interested in seeing

what happened with Derek Carr to try to figure out Kirk Cousins trade value. Not that I'm saying that Kirk Cousins is going to get traded, but just out of interest, because I think that they're very similar quarterbacks who are looked at in a lot of the same ways, right? As guys who are very, very good, who I think many teams would like as their quarterback. But when you add that expense versus production, you kind of go, I don't know if it's really worth it, or they're going to have to hit on a ton of draft picks around those guys. And the Raiders and Vikings have this in common that they just haven't in recent years. I think the Raiders would be in a different spot with Derek Carr had all of those

Mike Mayock, John Gruden drafts hit. But instead they picked a running back in the first round, a safety, you know, they just missed on a lot of those selections and the Vikings have too. And so the reported price that New Orleans was offering to the Raiders was a third round pick. And that's, I believe in the ballpark of Carson Wentz, in the ballpark of what Matt Ryan went for. And I guess I'm led to believe that it would be somewhere like that with Kirk Cousins, because one of the issues with Cousins, if you're trading for him, is that you take on a huge salary cap hit for this year. And if he wants a long-term extension, then you're talking about a Russell Wilson type extension that's going to make him

a whatever, a New York Jet, a Vegas Raider, whatever, whoever's trading for him. Carolina Panther for a very long time is what he would be looking for. And if you're shelling out major draft capital, then you're basically saying like, this is our guy. We really believe in him. We're going to sign him to an extension just like Denver did last year. And, you know, even the Los Angeles Rams after Stafford won the Super Bowl signed him to an extension as well. But I mean, it's hard to believe that a team trading for Kirk Cousins would just let him be on that contract after giving out huge trade value to get him. Maybe a desperate team that thinks that they're right on the cusp of competing for a Super Bowl.

That could be a possibility. But I guess I'm led to believe based on that, that second to third round is probably the most realistic and it's unlikely that someone would give up a first round pick. Again, I think that that is a very long shot. There's only one scenario I could see that happening. And that is if Kirk Cousins said, absolutely no way I'm signing a short-term extension. I will only sign a long-term deal. And you guys should probably just trade me if you don't like me anyway. That is, I guess, plausible that there are other quarterbacks in the world who could probably throw to Justin Jefferson that are out there. Jimmy Garoppolo might be, you know, one of them if the Vikings were on the market for a quarterback.

But I would, again, be very surprised if Cousins is not the quarterback for this year. But I just thought we don't get much of a window usually into what someone is going to be worth. But in this case, there's a nice correlation with Derek Carr. And the contract is just going to matter a lot when it comes to these things for other teams. It's not about can you get a good quarterback in a trade, which is really valuable. But it's also if you're the team trading for him, you take a big hit by taking on his salary cap hit or having to extend him. So that's kind of where it is with Cousins. As far as Harrison Smith, Adam Thielen, I think Thielen's probably in a position where they would have to extend him. So that's kind of where it is with Cousins. As far as Harrison Smith,

Adam Thielen, I think Thielen's probably in a position where they would have to release him. I don't know if anyone is giving up a draft pick for that contract. And it just plays so much into it is the other team has to be able to afford it. And they have to think that it's right for their salary cap for the other moves that they want to make. So even if a team has a great amount of salary cap space, do you want to take up this much of it on an Adam Thielen? And I thought that the Amari Cooper trade was very telling last year that Cooper is in a better place when he gets traded than Adam Thielen is right now. He was still considered a top-notch number two wide receiver behind CeeDee Lamb.

And yet the contract still resulted in him only getting a fifth round pick back from Cleveland because everybody in the league was saying, aren't you just going to have to cut this guy? And a lot of times, rather than take a late, late round pick just to save face, teams will say it's better that we just let him go. Thielen, I think, is a tough one to see him getting a whole lot of trade interest somewhere else. Harrison Smith is also interesting because they can do things to his contract, and they can lower his cap hit enough to make that interesting to another team.

But again, it's in such a tough spot. And I'll pull this up here to talk about it a little more as far as like Harrison Smith's deal and just how restrictive it's going to be in the trade market. I mean, he's under contract until 2025. I mean, and for the YouTubers, I can try to screen share this or something if this will work, but he is under contract, there we go, through 2025. This is overthecap.com. And there's only so much you can do. There's only so much money you can convert out of his salary cap number. He's got cap hits of 19.1, 19.2, and $22 million in 2025. And he will be 36 by the end of that. And with each year, at least the next two seasons, you're still taking on a decent amount of dead cap space if you release him before June 1st. So if a team wanted to get

out from under his deal after one year after trading for him, they would still be taking on a decent amount of dead cap space for that season. I'm not sure, you know, if a team wants to do that or if they just think like maybe it's a better idea to just not make that trade. Now, if a team was desperate and really, really wanted Harrison Smith and thought he was the final piece, maybe they offer a third round pick or even a second round pick. But one of the issues with where he stands right now versus where over and we've talked about that he's still a very instinctual player he's still a playmaker he had five interceptions this year I mean gosh like he could still play but if you're on the other side of that and you have to consider both sides if you're another team are you saying like oh yeah let me pay full price and give you a first round

pick probably not right I mean you're gonna argue that he's not the same player he was before and you should give a fourth round pick. And then the Vikings say, what about a second? And then you say, what about a third? And that's how negotiating works. But then you get to, well, if you're only going to give me a third for a player that we believe is still good, then what's the point? And the only point would be to make cap space. But as you saw, if you're watching on YouTube, or as I mentioned, it's not like you get a ton of cap space by releasing him or letting him go. If you would carry, if you did it before June 1st as the Vikings, and this goes for a trade, I believe as well. Is this right?

Yeah, trade. If it's before June 1stst which it likely would be you're talking about eating almost 12 million dollars on the salary cap to not have harrison smith the the math just doesn't quite add up there so um i think that other teams would probably offer a third and the vikings would probably say i don't think so. Now, Daniil Hunter is the one that I think is the most interesting here to talk about because there is an argument to ask other teams for a first round pick for Daniil Hunter, even though they know that they will have to sign him to a mega extension that makes him one of the most expensive pass rushers in the NFL. I think that his talent and the premium on pass rushers is so high. There are only so many

guys who could do it, and he still got inside the top 10 in total pressures. Teams are going to know that. As far as his medical history, it hasn't been a problem with the neck the last two years. And as far as his shoulder, that didn't seem to be a problem last year with the way he played. He really appeared to get better as he went along in the season, actually. And I think if you're another team who's desperate for pass rushing, you do call the Vikings and say, what do you think? And this is where it comes down to Hunter, because you could say, well, you just hired Brian Flores.

So why would you be planning on getting rid of one of the best players? Well, that really comes down to the long term here. If he's not going to sign an extension, you could let him play out the contract, but then you take the void years after it. I'll call this one up. I think it's one void year maybe after it with Daniil Hunter. But also, you get nothing back for him, right? Like, this is why players sort of always win these things, is because you're just going to end up letting the

guy go anyway, and you're going to get nothing. Yeah, he has, oh, actually two void years, 2024 and 2025. So you really have to make a call there on like, do you want to sign him to an extension, spread out those void years over time, or would you rather just trade him away and get a first round pick and draft an edge rusher and try to replace him and go from there? I think that there's a pretty good argument for doing that if he doesn't want to sign a long-term extension here this offseason. Now, Hunter has been, in my mind, incredibly patient with the Vikings as far as this contract stuff goes. I think that he could have tried to hold their feet to the fire a little bit more than he did, which maybe is a credit to how much he likes

being a Minnesota Viking. And if that's the case, then sign him to an extension. You're probably not going to regret having Daniil Hunter on your team, but if he is maybe not happy with how previous negotiations have played out, then you could see a case for him saying, look, I'm just not signing an extension this off season and you should trade me to a team that's gonna make me the highest paid edge rusher in the league or something. Like if that's his goal, which was once reported a couple of years ago, by the way, that he wanted to be the highest paid.

And no, I don't think he's Miles Garrett. Like I don't think he's the entirely best in the league, but you're always gonna shoot if you're the player, knowing that you've got leverage to be at the top of that market. So I still think that a first round pick is not crazy to think about for Daniil Hunter. And what did Bradley Chubb go for?

I think there was a first round pick involved there and Hunter has probably got a better resume than Bradley Chubb. So I think that there are several guys on your list that you talked about where, yeah, you got to be realistic, but there's at least one that could get you a potential top draft pick. All right. I have absolutely not lived up to what I said I would do, which is to be a little more concise with answering these questions. I'll try as we go along here. This one is from at just one before I die on Twitter. If we sign Tomlinson to a new deal, would his void cap number go away? I think it's like 7.5 million. It is 7.5 million and no,

it does not go away. That's not how it works, but wouldn't it be a magical world if it did? What happens if you sign him to an extension is that it gets spread out over a couple of years. So instead of being 7.5, it would be whatever 7.5 divided by three is or whatever extension they sign them to. I think that that's the basics of how that works. It does not disappear into thin air. The dead money never does. You want it to. And people who talk about the cap as if it's not a thing that's very restrictive to NFL teams, which is just an ignorant opinion. But like, if that's what someone is saying, there's great proof right here in Delvin Tomlinson that you can't just fake it till you make it with the cap. Eventually it will

come back to get you when you give void years to players and things like that. From Delvin Tomlinson's perspective, if they don't extend him, then yes, it's 7.5 million will just sit dead cap this year. I don't see why Delvin Tomlinson would sign with the Vikings without testing the free agent market. I mean, I think that there's going to be a pretty good premium on defensive tackles, knowing the value that they have, knowing how much teams are putting emphasis onto pass rushers. I mean, I know he's not a pass rusher, but interior players, run stuffers, and he actually did improve every year over the last few years as a pass rusher. So if you looked at his stats, you would say, well, you know, actually he's become an impact player in the pass rush,

not getting a ton of sacks still, but creating pressure. So they're always looking for guys who do that. If we look at the top players at the defensive tackle position, you're talking about Aaron Donald, of course, gets way more money than anyone. But if we're going with guys that are in a similar ballpark, I think DJ Reeder, Javon Hargrave, guys like that would be in his ballpark. And you're talking about probably about $14, $15 million a year that Delvin Tomlinson could reasonably chase. Right now, he's at $10 million a year. So he's going to want to probably get into that top 10 range, maybe a little bit below a Kenny Clark or a Vita Vea,

but in the same type of playing style. So I think it will be extremely hard for the Vikings to be able to sign Delvin Tomlinson to a contract extension. And they're likely just going to have to live with the fact that they, you know, put Boyd years on his contract and they're just going to have to deal with it. But I think when Rick Spielman signed him to that contract, his thinking was probably, well, if this doesn't work out, someone else's problem. And it is. All right. Ono our next question. This comes from

at, uh, cam causey on Twitter. Can you walk through possible timing of off season moves? The NFL off season schedule and rules are complex, and it would be great to get a breakdown of when various scenarios might play out. Sure. So two weeks from now is the NFL combine. And before then things could happen as far as some contracts getting changed around or, you know, moving money, converting base salary into bonus or the other way around bonus into base salary to create some cap space and so forth. But there's really no rush to do that. So what usually happens is the next couple of weeks, we might see a handful of moves around the NFL, but it would be pretty surprising if we saw a huge Vikings related move in the next two weeks. But then when you get to the combine, that's when all the teams meet with the agents at the combine. They have big meetings all through the day and they go over what their plan is. So they talk about options for extensions, options for changing money, options for trades and things like that. And they sort of find where everybody stands and they talk to each other and so forth

as far as other GMs and things like that. I'm sure that there's some tampering rules that don't matter anymore and maybe never did that exist here as far as free agents go. But, you know, like they have, it's a big NFL meeting. So everybody gets together and they kind of figure out what they're going to do, what their direction is going to be with a lot of the players, where the players stand. And then coming out of that, then we go into the period just before free agency, like it's free agency is like two weeks out. That's where we usually see things like a Kirk Cousins extension, for example. And I think that Cousins first extension came on the first day of free agency. And I don't remember when his last one was. I don't remember the exact date, but it was right in that ballpark of early

March. That's where it's usually going to happen because at the Combine last year, we were talking about like, are they going to do it? What are they going to do? And I think it was only a few days later that they came to the conclusion to give him a short-term extension. And I believe Kweisi Adafo-Mensa mentioned sitting down with Cousins agent at the combine. So that all makes sense, right? So you're going to want to look big time and be refreshing that Twitter in the two weeks leading up to free agency. And then in the middle of March, and I don't have the date right here in front of me, but usually there's the start of the league year, which is where everyone officially becomes a free agent. But the legal tampering period is

really when everything happens. So that first day when the quote legal tampering period begins, that's when most of the free agents sign. So that's usually a couple of days before. I think maybe it's like March 15th and March 12th. I haven't looked at it just yet to be ready for those things, but that's when all hell breaks loose right there. That's when everybody's signing free agents or making trades to create cap space and on and on and on and on. And lots of things are usually happening there. So from March 1st to about March 18th, or I would say, well, maybe after the combine

is over. So like March 5th to around March 18th, that's when a lot of the league gets shaped through those two weeks. And then we have that little kind of a lull and then we get the draft and that's late April, early May. And then we go from there. So that's kind of how the timing is going to work out. So over these next few weeks, it's possible that we could get

some movement on this or that, but I would more expect everything to happen just coming out of the combine. All right, next question comes from Matt. Do you think Quacey recognizes this and will allow the rebuild side? Oh, I think, sorry, Matt mentioned earlier in a longer email, just about, uh, where they stand as a team and maybe not being as strong as, as we thought. Um, do you think that Casey will allow the rebuild side of competitive rebuild? So the team can improve in 2024 and a key year of his contract? Oh, uh, do I think that he recognizes it? I would say there are hints that the answer is yes. I don't know how you couldn't considering the cap situation, the age of a lot of these players, the recent drafts before he got here, the contracts before

he got here, the quarterback's age, all those things playing into it. Like, I'm not sure how you would miss that, but we also don't ever really know the other influences that are making decisions when it comes to the overall direction of the team. But I think that it's almost by force that they have to let the rebuild side take over in a lot of ways. You know, because if you try to run it all back and create as much cap space as you can and sign free agents, like it's possible that you can do that and put together a roster that on day one of the season might look pretty competitive. But also it's going to cost you a lot again, and it's going to mean kicking money down the road again.

And it's going to be repeating some of the same things that put them in this position in the first place. Just thinking about his press conference, there were a few comments that he made that made me think, I think he gets it. One of them was when he talked about guys who are on special teams, maybe taking on bigger roles next year and i thought well it's kind of got to be about brian asamoah i suppose it could also be about someone like

josh metellus too uh if the vikings do have any plans to try to move on from harrison smith i don't know that they would but josh metellus is an interesting guy somebody who's worked his way up the ranks in the way that Anthony Harris once did or Andrew Sandejo once did. And maybe pairing him with Louis seen could be a good combination for the future. If maybe there's offers that are better than I think there'll be for Harrison Smith. So I don't know. But I did get a sense when he talked about looking at some guys past and appreciating their past, but also understanding the realities of their situation of what they've produced now and what their cap hits are going to be. Like he brought those things up in the press conference without

waving a big giant flag that said rebuild, rebuild, which maybe some of you would have been very happy about. Maybe we need to get those. Maybe that's like the Purple Insider giveaway for this year. We had t-shirts a couple years ago and mini footballs. Maybe we need like a rebuild flag for the founding members to the Purple Insider newsletter. Go check it out, by the way. so anyway, that's neither here nor there. Uh, but I just got the sense that he gets it and he understands it. And he probably understood it the day that he took the job that like they needed to go all in because the future was going to be a lot more murky or have a lot more questions about whether they could win the North and whether they could,

you know, be as competitive as they were this year. But I don't know as far as trying to put myself inside of his shoes, because I think that he has reached a point where he's trying to figure out how to GM speak in press conferences. And maybe early on, he was very, very honest and open about a lot of his theories about football. But after he got kind of criticized with the USA Today article and things like that, I think he's put more effort into like thinking these things over, which is smart. That's the right way to go. But it's a little less revealing, right? So he didn't come out in the press conference and say, oh, yeah, guys, say goodbye to your

favorite jersey. Go out back and burn it. But I think what you're saying about his contract is right. And I'm sure that they were not entirely pleased that the length of the contract got out. But for it to only be a four-year contract, you can kind of see how this plays out. Where, okay, this year they were very good. Next year, if you lay the foundation correctly by 2024, you could be right back in that conversation. If you do not lay the foundation correctly and 2024 is a disaster,

then you're not talking about maybe getting a very long extension, if any extension by then. So there's so many decisions right now that will impact where they stand in the future. And as always, just as a disclaimer, this doesn't mean they need to tank. It just means that they need to figure things out to put themselves in a position where they can go into 2024 and go into free agency after next year and go into the draft with a lot of ways to make themselves better. I think this is the way I want to talk about it from now on is like, we call it a rebuild. We call it a reset. We put these labels on it, but really what you want to do is just set yourself up to have a ton of stuff in your toolbox to make yourself really good the next year.

They don't have that now. And if they handle things the same way they've been handling it, they won't have it later. But they need to find ways to have it later to be able to set themselves up for a good 2024 and beyond. So that's a great question. Next question comes from Jonathan. How do we move on to rebuild the core of defensive players? How do they transition from here to a young core? Well, one thing is

you look up to the sky and you say, please, football gods, send me the next John Randall. Sometimes luck has to be involved. And every team that finds great players, great defenses, they always end up with a little bit of that luck that somebody becomes a great player out of nowhere.

Let's even talk about 2017, right? Everson Griffin is a fourth round draft pick who had been a situational rusher that they had some concerns about. Mike Zimmer comes in and he just elevates to one of the best rushers in the league. Daniil Hunter is a third round draft pick who didn't sack anyone in college. Superstar, right? Eric Hendricks, a second round pick who was considered undersized all pro i mean they had to have a lot of things click into place in order to build the number one

defense in 2017 so that's part of it is lewis scene andrew ruth jr caleb evans brian asamoah they drafted all defense knowing that they were going to have turnover. Like this is a sign, by the way, the way they handled the draft last year. There were signs that they understood that this defense was short term as far as the players. And they were hoping to hit on a good number of these draft picks and then transition the defense from old to younger. And last year's draft is just simply a big part of that. And if none of those guys work

out, it's going to be pretty hard to transfer over to a new young core. So the draft this year is part of that as well. Who you take in the first round right now, I would suspect it's either an interior pass rusher or it's a corner. And that's a major part. You need cornerstones. You need a sauce gardener. You need somebody, an Xavier Rhodes, a Harrison Smith, an Anthony Barr, like somebody who you took high and who's super talented. And I saw something really interesting, and I don't know if I brought this up to you guys or not, but it was a study about all pros on defense and how they had been mostly super, super athletes coming out of high

school. And I think that kind of tells you something that usually that's what it takes to build, to get a foundational building block, to get a Nick Bosa. Like you need to have usually somebody in the first round who just crushes it for you and is a superstar. So this year, they're going to aim to get that guy. And maybe that guy will still become Louis Scene. I am not counting that out, that he could become a star from here because he has the physical gifts to do it. And what happened last year does not decide his entire fate for his career.

So you need to hit on those guys. I think the other part of it is taking swings on players that maybe are not settled as far as their careers go in free agency. So you look for 26 year old players who have been on the bench or who have been a bust for another team. about this with Kadarius Tony and how Kansas City, they took a lot of shots on guys who were busts to get one that worked out well for them. And I mean, as far as his regular season, I don't know that it was spectacular, but it certainly mattered in the Super Bowl. But they took a lot of shots on like Taco Charlton and players like that. Mike Hughes was another guy that they took a shot on. Like those players are out there that maybe their teams don't pick up their fifth-year options and are not sold on paying them big contracts. And there's kind of timid interest throughout the league.

Take a swing. So I think they need to take swings. They need to hit on draft picks. And also, they need to build with a vision. Because one of the problems that I think was clear last year is that you had a lot of round peg and square hole or however it goes. Is it square? It's got to be a round hole and a square peg. I'm not really sure.

But either way, pieces that didn't fit. Pieces that were drafted by the previous regime. They cut most of the 2021 draft class. Like there was just a lot of guys that didn't fit with what they wanted to do on the defensive side. And then there were guys who were established in another defense that did not play very well in this defense. So it's knowing what you're looking for. And that kind of goes back to the whole scouting thing where Kweisi Adafo-Mento, when he came in, he and Kevin O'Connell laid out kind of what they're looking for as far as scouting goes to those guys. And they're going to do their jobs and go look for

those players. But do you have the right vision? And can you find those guys? And Brian Flores is a big part of this for me, where his scouting background, I think he really understands what he wants and what he's looking for and that should help them. But it's no easy thing. It's no easy thing. You need Patrick Jones to turn into somebody good. You need Brian Asamoah to turn into somebody good. And they don't have to be all megastars, but you need to find a megastar or two. You can't find me a great defense that doesn't have some guys who are just the best at their position in the league. And for half a season, they had Zedaria Smith last year at that. For half a season,

Daniil Hunter. But they're going to need more. They're going to need more superstar talent. So that's why it's like, there's no theory here. There's no like, let me get into my big giant football brain and explain to y'all how you rebuild the defense. It's usually through nailing draft picks and building to how you want to play on defense so the guys fit. It's not that complicated, but it's also not that easy. So, you know, sometimes you have to look far and wide and sometimes you just fall into

it in a great superstar draft pick. Next question comes from Andrew. Talk me into a path I haven't seen anyone talk about yet. Full Rams, F them picks, all in, let's take a shot. A top five offense seems attainable and a proven defensive mind like Flores. Is a top five offense attainable? I don't know that it is. I mean, because yes, they were eighth this year in scoring. But when we look at their scoring percentage, as far as percentage of drives where they produce points, it was more of middle of the league. When we look at expected points added on offense, more in the middle of the league, I think that they can have a really good offense. But can they have an offense that's so good that it puts them in

position to potentially compete for a Super Bowl? Maybe. Maybe. But to me, that's a stretch. When you've had a quarterback that has played for this long and has had the ups and downs that he's had through his career every single season, the inconsistencies of Kirk Cousins, it's hard to argue that you can compete with the quarterbacks who are going to put their teams in a position to be in the top five. Now, if there's any way they're going to do it, it's pretty much one way, and that is by drafting a wide receiver having Ezra Cleveland and Ed Ingram and whoever's playing center really click in and play unbelievable football to have a better running game than they had and then Jefferson to have the exact same season and whoever wide

receiver two is have some explosive plays down the field now that's one area where they could absolutely improve from this year is they did not create a whole lot of explosive plays down the field. Now that's one area where they could absolutely improve from this year is they did not create a whole lot of explosive plays downfield as an offense, even relative to 2021, they created not that many, like 25 plus yard plays. It's yeah. I mean, that might be a strategy, but the problem is exactly the problem with the Rams, which is if it doesn't work, like, didn't we just go through this last year? I mean, the odds are extremely low and they were higher with the Rams because they had several of the greatest players ever at their positions. Aaron Donald, like Cooper Cup, Odell Beckham, Vaughn Miller, like these are megastar players all over the field. They had a defense. I mean, if you, yeah, I mean, it's a proven defensive mind like

Brian Flores, but Ed Donatel was coming off a defense that ranked third in the NFL the year before in Denver. And he was the defensive coordinator there. So there's no guarantee without the defense and the roster that it's going to be better. And one of the things that happened a lot this year that could happen again next year is that the offense just wasn't on the field a lot. Because other teams were just marching all the time with the football. That's a hard one to make an argument for. But you know, if I'm playing the talk me into game where I have to make an argument for uh but you know if i'm playing the talk me into game where

i have to make a case for it i guess it's don't sign cousins to an extension draft a wide receiver sign a wide receiver sign a running back and pray on defense that some of those guys improve and pray that the schedule isn't as hard as it looks and pray that the bears don't improve and the uh lions aren't great and that aaron rogers stays in his darkness retreat forever like i guess that i guess that would be the case and you know what if they did it i would say this is probably not gonna to finish well. It's probably not going to finish like the Rams. But if it was just for the final year of Cousins contract, all right. I mean, you might as well, but we've been doing this thing over and over where it's like, what if we did one more year? Like, what if next year we sign a bunch of free agents and hire a new coach and everything

else, and then you're sitting at home by the divisional round. So it's not a direction that I think is maybe the smartest, but if they went for it and really went for it, and I don't mean like signing Jordan Hicks and Harrison Phillips, I mean like going for it, making a huge trade for another wide receiver or whatever. Okay. All right. Well, then we'll have a lot of fun seeing if it works out. That's the way I would look at it. Maybe that's the best way I could talk you into it. And if it's going to blow up anyway, it might as well blow up big time. And if you go all in and it doesn't work, then after that it blows up big time. And maybe you end up drafting a quarterback at the top.

I don't know. I think that's the best argument to talk you into. I don't really buy it, but okay. We can go with it. All right, next question comes from Jonathan. The 49ers might want Kirk with another year of disappointment with quarterbacks being injured. Maybe the Kyle and John Lynch want to pick up Kirk, trade Kirk and a fifth for Trey Lance. I don't think it's going to happen. I just, I know that that's been out there forever

with the love for Kyle Shanahan and Kirk Cousins. And I understand why people make this argument, but I just don't see the 49ers doing it. I think what the 49ers believe is that they have two quarterbacks who could potentially on their rookie deals, take them deep into the playoffs, if not to the Super Bowl, because they were this close with Brock Purdy and they should just stick with that. Um, that's what I think, but these things can change in an instant. I would just be very, very surprised if they drafted someone with all those picks and believed in him that much. And then said, you know what Vikings, I know you're in our conference. I know we could see you in the playoffs, but here is that player for you. Build around him. Have a great time. Like, I don't think that's going to happen. I also think

that from San Francisco's perspective, their salary cap situation is getting only harder, not easier, as they have a lot of players become stars. And they kind of need Brock Purdy or Trey Lance to be cheap for now. And they've got two more years. If they sign him to an extension, they can push it out a little more on Trey Lance. But they would love to see Brock Purdy be that guy because of that. So it's a dream. It's a Madden dream. But I just, if it happens, then all of you can come back and say,

hey, why didn't you see this coming? But I just can't really see it. And the Brock Purdy thing was a total freak accident. It was, you know, the UCL. This question comes from Kelly. Can you dig into quarterback Hendon Hooker? I can't keep hoping that the Vikings move on from Kirk this year, so I'm looking for an upside guy that can sit behind him. Yeah, the thing with Hendon Hooker is I was impressed, like everybody else, with the way he played, and I thought that he deserved to be in the Heisman conversation. But when somebody's 25 years old, like, think about it this way.

Think about, like, if you are, if you're a younger listener, this won't apply to you. But if you've reached the age of 30 and you went back to college, you would probably be like, why was this so hard for me then? Because you've become an adult and you know how to manage your time and you know how to focus on work. And this is just, you know, whatever. But this could go for anything. This could go for if you fix cars and you started when you were 18 and then you're 30, you'd be like, why didn't I know all this stuff about cars? I know it all now. And it's so easy for me now. Why was it so hard when I was first starting? That's because you grew up and you got a lot of experience. And if you're 25 years old playing

against kids who are 21 and 20 in football you're probably going to be better than they are and it's hard to grade it on a curve and I and look I think that Hendon Hooker could have the potential to be an NFL backup or maybe be a starter but it's so hard to grade so if you're talking about like that upside that's where I kind of go like, I don't know. I don't know. I don't know if there's real upside because he's so much older. It's more of a pick to somebody probably that's just going to be a backup quarterback. If he had done all this at age 21 or 20, he would be among the conversation for a first round pick. But that age factor,

the Brandon Whedon factor, it's a pretty big deal when it comes to drafting him. Now, if they picked him, you know, it's just like after Brock Purdy, there's going to be a lot of, well, yeah, you should always draft the late round quarterback. And that's such a rare thing. I mean, it's such a rare thing. I mean, it's such a rare thing. I guess if it's a seventh, whatever, like maybe it'll work out for you. But it's such a rare thing that anybody in the middle of the draft that's not a first or second rounder works out that I'm not sure it's really worth it. But he's got a lot to like, especially his leadership, his character. That's why to me, he kind of screams like backup quarterback, but yeah, I don't know if that's the upside guy that you're looking for, or if that

upside guy really exists because now they just get taken in the first round or they're just usually not good. And I mean, Malik Willis, who knows, but based on early returns, you could see why he was the upside guy and why the NFL was like, nah, I'm good. I'm good on that. All right. One last question here for now. This comes from Alex. Best way to improve this offense from eighth to top five is to bolster the run game. Delvin was dead last in yards over expected last year and he carries a very high cap number enter B. John Robinson the running back from Texas um let's not enter the running back from Texas because he's likely to be a first or early second round draft pick and this team doesn't have a second round draft pick nor should you spend a second round draft pick on a running back

I I would put it this way. Like, yes, they need to improve their running game. They don't have to pick a first round running back and you don't have to look any farther than the two teams that played in the Super Bowl, but especially Kansas City. I mean, Kansas City has been able to put just about anybody back there. I, unless the, I mean, even, even like San Francisco and Christian McCaffrey, it's like a big risk. And that guy can do more than almost anybody in the league at the running back position. But the impact is only so much that a running back can make, even if he's great. And Delvin Cook is the best evidence of this. I mean, they won a single

playoff game as Delvin Cook being the centerpiece of their offense. And he was often banged up and not at a hundred percent. He faded in the second halves of seasons. And even when he was great, like they were running play action off it and that was good and helpful. And certainly teams were game planning for that. But at the end of the day, teams could stop a running back and just beat the Vikings. Like that's the case everywhere. If you're, if you're worrying too much about the running game, I just don't know what to say. It's the year 2023. And I just watched two quarterbacks put up 38 and 35 by throwing it all over the yard. Like that's, what's going to take to win. Uh, I don't know that. I mean,

and also like the, the assumption that you just add one guy and he just pushes you up from eighth to fifth, like they had a completely healthy offense last year. A lot of things worked out for them last year to get to just inside the top 10. I don't know that a running back like makes everything just happen again. Like it did last year that all the same things happen. And this one thing makes you that much better. And also like, are you, even if that happened, can you really with the complete team that you have, can you really compete? There are so many needs all over the field. Uh, there's a future needed quarterback if there's an opportunity there. Corner, pass rusher, interior, but also edge rusher with Smith and Hunter situations. Wide receiver, like everywhere, all over the field.

Running back is dead last. I would put it this way. Ranking all of the things that they need, the only thing that's lower than running back in my mind is kicker and punter. I mean, if you look at the history of running backs who've worked out, I mean, there's as many Alvin Kamaras in the third round or in the fifth round, Aaron Joneses, there are the first round. I mean, that one I can't make any sense of, to be honest with you. I just can't make any sense of that. And I would put it this way. If Kweisi Adafo meant to draft a running back,

they shouldn't let him get to the fourth year of his contract. They should just end it now. Like, there's no reason to have him as their general manager if he drafts a running back, which he won't. They're not going to draft a running back in the first round. Not going to happen. So I guess I get where you're coming from with improving the running game. Something they definitely have to do.

But if they had gone from last and expected yards rushing to first, I don't know how much that that really changes based on just what running games mean in the NFL today. So that one I'm going to pass on. But, you know, I do think that Ty Chandler is intriguing for sure as a future running back option. There are free agents. There's always free agents that are like the Latavius Murray signing. And there's no reason to stay with Delvin Cook in my mind. Just move on and see if you can improve that running game. So, all right.

Well, that's probably enough for us now. Let's go one more. Let's go one more question. I don't want to end talking about a running back in the draft. Okay, from Mark. Does Adam Phelan have a point regarding his alleged lack of targeting? Is there a statistic reflecting plays where he was open? How about where he was open? Where was it in completion?

Yeah, so ESPN does have this or actually it's 538, but ESPN and 538 are kind of the same. And maybe I can call this up on the YouTube here screen share. Give me a second. I'll do what I can here. But I think what the numbers are going to show you is that he probably does not have a case. So the NFL Next Gen, what they have attempted to do is use the Next Gen statistics to... Let me call this up here. Yeah, hopefully you guys can see that.

Maybe it's a little bit color weird on the, yeah, okay. The colors are kind of throwing it off a little bit. But either way, if you look at what they've done with 538, they've used the next-gen stats to try to demonstrate how open a receiver was, how difficult the catches were, and how much yards after catch that they would be expected to get. It's great stuff. And as far as being open, I'll type it in right now. Adam Thielen was 63rd on this ranking out of, let's see, 110. So he was a little bit below average on this list. Now that's, you know,

it doesn't tell a hundred percent of the story as no statistic does, but combine that with like the PFF grades, the results, he probably doesn't have like a great case that he deserved to be targeted more. I think all of us would say, Justin Jefferson is the guy you should just keep throwing the ball to. Just flat out, just throw the ball to Justin Jefferson. And, you know, if Adam Thielen was more of a downfield target these days, if the separation was what it used to be, then maybe he would have a better argument. But those numbers pretty clearly show that the separation is probably not what it used to be a couple of years ago. That doesn't mean he's not effective.

I think that he was fairly effective. I mean, 63 out of 110 is like in the middle. Having an average receiver is good. It's helpful. It's not exactly ideal when you're talking about teams being able to put everything into stopping Jefferson and you don't make them pay. And I think that's what the Vikings need to look for. They need to look for someone who will make them pay. And when you talk about these ideas of going all in, like that's the way to do it. If they're going to do it, it's through getting someone else who could make them pay that is not just Justin Jefferson. Because I think Devontae Adams has dealt with this in his

career and CeeDee Lamb even in the playoffs. If there's only one guy, teams who are good at defense in the playoffs can usually find a way. Philadelphia has three guys. You know, I think that you need at least that number two receiver, that tight end, which the Vikings have in Hawkinson. So if they're going to do that, that's the way they should look. Probably Thielen, those targets are never coming back. He could still help the team. He could still be an effective possession receiver,

but they need to add somebody else, I think. So anyway, great stuff from all of these questions. Very, very interesting stuff to dive into. The off season will be fascinating. I love doing these episodes. So keep sending your questions. I got a full load of them and I'm working my way through, but it's a long off season

and there's gonna be a lot of fans only questions and podcasts. So make sure you're sending them and I will do my best to get to your question. Again, purpleinsider.com to contact us or go to my Twitter at Matthew Collar. Feel free to send me a direct message and that's the best way to do it. So thanks everybody for listening or watching if you're on YouTube and we'll catch y'all later.