Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - What happened to the Vikings' 2016 and 2017 draft classes?

Episode Date: July 8, 2020

Why Pat Elflein is a make or break player for 2020 training camp? Was picking him a mistake in 2017? If Dalvin Cook doesn't play, is there anyone from the '17 class who might have an impact this season?  Read Matthew Coller's written work  at PurpleInsider.substack.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Coors Brewing Company, Golden, Colorado, and as always, celebrate. Hey everybody, Matthew Collar here. Before we get into the show, we're excited to share an exclusive trailer with you. After the show, from Blue Wire Studios comes Golden Goal Stories of Soccer Legends. Each Monday, two new episodes. We'll take a look at some of soccer's biggest stars and the biggest moments that define their careers. All narrated by Brandon Kelly, the host of Blue Wire's Always Cheating podcast. From Messi to Rapinoe and many, many more,

each episode will focus on historical plays and the personalities that made the sport great. So stay tuned after the episode and check out Golden Goal, Stories of Soccer Legends, wherever you get your podcasts. Welcome in to another episode of Purple Insider. Matthew Collar along with ESPN's Courtney Cronin. Courtney, I hope you had a very nice Fourth of July. How are you? I'm good. How are you?

I am doing okay. I'm just trying to decide when we should actually start writing training camp previews. Like, should I write them the week before training camp, several weeks before? Should I wait to see if there is training camp on time before I start writing all of my training camp previews? I'm not really sure how to approach this. No, it's a weird time to be an NFL reporter because this is usually our downtime where we take vacation and we know, okay, T-minus 20 days, we're going to be out at TCO for training camp and it's going to be the beginning of 25, 30 straight weeks of work. But now everything

being up in the air, it's almost hard to kind of approach that where you're going, okay, position by position preview today, the cornerbacks, but no, I mean, I get it. The only good thing I think that's come out of the last few days in hearing about what's come out of the NFLPA players rep call and what the union wants that, you know, the NFL shortened the preseason to two games. The players union, the representatives from that do not allegedly want a preseason. They don't want preseason games. So maybe that gets voted on.

Maybe the league can agree to just, you know, do away with preseason games and let everybody use the last part of July and August to get ready for a really strange upcoming season. But it gives me hope that this thing's going to actually happen and be able to get pulled off amid all of the cases that you're seeing across the country in certain parts spike because these conversations are happening but the NFL as we've known they love playing the long game throughout this they love making 11th hour decisions like they did with the draft and for so long they hadn't had to make it they haven't had to make a decision and now they do um so I just tell people buckle up because you may hear something about training camp and it being switched or delayed or finding out when rookies have to be there versus when veterans have to be

there you may find that information out like a day before it's supposed to happen so at least publicly so I mean buckle up this is going to be a season unlike any other and you just kind of have to grin and bear it as we get ready for this as Samuel L. Jackson once so eloquently stated hold on to your butts is basically kind of where we're at what is your opinion on playing two preseason games versus not playing any at all Sam Ekstrom and I debated this on an earlier podcast this week I think if there's no preseason games that it will be fine. As long as they can jump right into the regular season games,

have a few extra practices, that's where seasons are really made, is in those training camp practices. And preseason games have just had this reduction to almost no real football at all. And it ends up just being like, the Vikings are on your TV. It's promotion, more or less, for the the team it's kind of in my opinion but well think about that that 2018 season uh preseason what was the one game it was either week two they played Jacksonville that was either that was week two of the 2018 preseason and they had like six guys go down with season-ending injuries mostly guys that were going to be practice squad, fringe practice squad at best.

But you avoid that if you don't play preseason games. I'm of the mindset that if you can swap the games for extra practices, do it. Because these preseason games, I know people think, oh, well, how are coaches going to be able to evaluate the guys that are going to be on the bottom half of the roster fighting for those final 10 or so spots? Well, they don't need preseason games necessarily to do that. Give the coaches and the scouting department some credit. Like, they have other ways to do that, whether it's through, you know, preseason practices,

OTAs typically factoring in there, but obviously everything was virtual this year. Regardless, they're going to need as much in-person evaluation as possible to make this thing work, but there are ways to do it without preseason games that are effectively meaningless. Guys get hurt. It's better served, in my opinion, if you can come to an agreement with the players to do away with the week two and week three preseason games and just say, hey, we're going to do six weeks, five, six weeks here of straight up training camp. And each club gets X number of extra practices. And it'll all work out because like you and I have talked about, the first month of the season is typically not good football. There's a lot of bad football played weeks one through four,

which I still anticipate happening this year because these guys have not been on the field since, you know, last teams were the Chiefs and the 49ers on Super Bowl Sunday. That's the last organized football that was actually played. So, you know, buckle up for what could be a very crappy first half of the season, or at least first few weeks. But eventually if this thing is able to sort itself out,

I think the level of play will sort itself out too. I totally agree that usually the first week or two is pretty messy and a lot of strange things happen, and then we all get on the same page and go forward and play regular football. And oftentimes, the offenses are ahead of the defenses, and we end up, even though it's weird, with a lot of offensive shootouts and the games can still be fun because they're strange. I don't think that two preseason games or zero changes that.

Because like you said, we've seen this in past years. They've cut down significantly from back in the day on the number of training camp practices to begin with. So now what you could do is have more live scrimmages if you want and have 11 on 11 and go forward that way and I also think too about the funny conversations that we have about the bottom of the roster every single year there might be a surprise cut here and there Alex Boone a couple of years ago was a little surprising at the very end of training camp. But think about what we were debating even a year ago at the end of training camp. Brandon Dillon, will he be the fourth tight end? And then he makes the team, the 53 is out. And a week later, he's just cut and put

back on the practice squad. So those type of things, they do matter. And every once in a while, you find you're at them feeling, but they'll be able to put those guys on the practice squad anyway and go forward with them. Maybe we won't have as fun of a Mr. Mankato. That's going to be harder because fans won't get to see the preseason games. There is something sort of fun if you're a fan to get to watch a preseason game for the first time, that first one where you see what the squad looks like, the 11 players who are starting for a series, and then they're done.

And last year, the Vikings could not have been any worse in their all-important third preseason game against Arizona. Mike Zimmer went on a tirade after the game about all the things they did wrong, and they went 10-6 and won a playoff game. So, I mean, none of this stuff really matters all that much. But I did want to talk to you about a player on the bubble and what it sort of signifies with a couple of draft classes here. Because I'm writing about make-or-break guys,

and one of them that's included, or a couple of them that are included, come from the 2017 draft class, Pat Elfline and Jaleel Johnson. Maybe I should include Ben Gideon as well in this. And so I started pulling up the 2017 and 2016 draft classes, and it hit me that if Delvin Cook sits out and does not practice in training camp, by the end of the preseason, we could end up with one player from the 2016 and 2017 draft classes that ends up on the field week one if Delvin Cook doesn't get it figured out, which I still think that he will. But that is a reasonable possibility that Afadia Denebo could be the only player from those two entire draft classes

that ends up starting for the Vikings this year. Yeah, I've thought about just like the surprise cuts that might happen or at least cuts that might make you go, hmm. It's hard when you think about the offensive line when you, you know, if you were to ask me a few months ago, do you think that they move on from Riley Reif this offseason before camp? And I would have probably said, been more prone to say yes back in May when they're going through this because you can make him a post June 1 cut you can save about you know nine ten million dollars against the cap you can use that money then to go out and get a cornerback you

know a veteran player like a Logan Ryan somebody that you could potentially even you know a veteran nickel corner any of those guys you could have gotten, you know, a veteran nickel corner, any of those guys you could have gotten. If you even wanted to upgrade as a pass rusher, there were a ton of them out there. You could pay Everson Griffin to come back. But anyways, like, I just don't, my logical mind's like, can they really expect that Ezra Cleveland's going to be ready to start at left tackle day one? I mean, you'd probably end up having to move pieces around again. And it's just this ongoing shuffling just to save, you know, money and get another cornerback. But, you know, as you talk about someone like Pat Elfline, that feels like a very realistic possibility given how much he struggled at guard last year and how important of an upgrade they

need at that position. And when you have someone like a Drew Samia and even Dakota Dozier and those guys who could very easily, you know, make a push for a starting job this year, you could probably say that you could move on from Elfline almost as easily as you can anybody else, like you mentioned. You know, I have a hard time with the Jaleel Johnson argument, just given what he, you know, he's been part of this rotation we know his feeling where it's at right now but there's so much unproven there's not a lot of depth in the defensive line Gideon's the one-dimensional linebacker in today's NFL so that's another good one but I mean my my brain

as we talk about this is sticking at Pat Elfline, just given the struggles of the last two years. And Mike Zimmer said at the Combine, if he doesn't become a better pass blocker, it's over. And if he comes to camp and he's getting shredded on a daily basis by Armand Watts and Hercules Mata'afa, guys who are not Aaron Donald exactly, or even Tom Johnson. They're not even on that type of level. These are younger players, newer players who don't have the experience. If they're still beating him at the line of scrimmage and he hasn't improved in the pass blocking, then I think it's just

over for him as a Viking and they'll decide to go with someone else, even if he was a decent run blocker last season. But he's got to make, it's not a small jump, it's a huge jump. He was second in the NFL among guards in terms of allowing sacks last year and was one of the top at allowing pressure rate, one of the lowest, I think he was 56th out of 63 graded in terms of pass blocking, and way too often we see the lunge at the defensive tackle and then they just go right by and Kirk Cousins is the wrong guy to uh have interior pressure that's coming free and then the fact that you have Garrett Bradbury who could improve quite a bit I think but will never be the league's best pass blocking center I just don't see that with his body type so you need to have guards who are better pass blockers

and there are so many other options that you would say this can't be worse than a guy who was one of the worst in the league I want to let me divert a little bit because I want to go through a little game of kind of what happened there with the 2016 and 17 draft classes but as an aside I made a team of remaining free agents and there are so many who would be a good fit with the Vikings I'm going to go through them and you tell me just if anybody interests you here uh do you think that they should bring in a veteran running back just in case like Spencer Ware, Isaiah Crowell, Devante Freeman like is that a good idea just in case with Delvin Cook? Um I would probably lean towards no because you have to factor in the reason that they drafted Alexander Madison where they did two years ago, you know, trading back to that obviously they couldn't predict the coronavirus and all that that would affect being able to get something done but

I truly think that the Vikings made that move thinking about okay Dalvin may have a great year this year he may have a great year the next year but we have to have an insurance policy in place to be able to not have that sort of drop off. So I don't think that they would bring in a veteran running back. I honestly think that you go running back by committee, in essence, but you have Alexander Madison taking on the bulk of that load. You know, if there's any chance for Mike Boone, it's going to be this year if Dalvin does indeed end up holding out. I just don't think it's going to happen that way. Just given the financial hurt that he would feel for a holdout this year, and especially what we've seen happen with players who have done that before, but I think they're in a good spot to not have to use cap on a running, a veteran running back

right now, but let's say somebody gets hurt three or four weeks into the season, or if it's not panning out with the run game the way that you want it to, then those guys will still be available at that point. And so you could go after them a couple weeks into either the preseason or regular season. Also seems like a veteran running back with Cougs would be just a good fit. Somebody who knows how to handle the system and everything. So let me give you a few more. Now there's some receivers that are still out there like Taylor Gabriel, Tavon Austin, our old friend Jerry is right. I don't think they necessarily need another wide receiver. But there are some offensive linemen who are really proven. thick in the remaining free agent market is defensive line and defensive back. Michael Bennett, Everson Griffin, Terrell Suggs, Jadavion Clowney, Dre Kirkpatrick, Darkeesee Denard, Logan Ryan, Aqib Talib, Tony Jefferson,

Kurt Coleman even, former Viking, right? So, like, there are so many players here, and I guess it ran through my mind, would the Vikings consider cutting Riley Reif and leaving it to the rest of these tackles and bringing in somebody else, spending that money in another place where they could make a big upgrade? I mean, someone like Logan Ryan or Drake Kirkpatrick or even a Denard, I mean, those guys could potentially be very good for you as opposed to just hoping that a bunch of rookies

figure it out. Yeah, I think that you, if you're doing priority list with me right now, I think that you look at the top cornerbacks that are still available at the moment and you go with Logan Ryan. I mean, that's a guy who initially his price was what, $10 million? That's where he wanted to get what he wanted to get paid? He's not going to get that. So you could probably get him on a very steep bargain. And he's probably, you know, you mentioned him. I mean, there's other guys that are out there, too.

I think that Aqib Tlaib is still out there. And I know you mentioned Drake Kirkpatrick. And I remember somebody asked me a while ago, hey, did Drake Kirkpatrick sign with the Vikings and you guys just didn't do anything with it because I think it's on his Wikipedia page it said like that he's a current Minnesota Viking uh that's obviously not the case at the moment but somebody changed it anyways you can get any of these guys that we mentioned on the cheap I mean it should it should not be difficult to be able to, I mean, Logan Ryan is probably the cream of all of that, you know, the upper echelon of who's remaining at that position. But I think that you really need to go veteran presence at nickel,

however you have to do it. If it's somebody that you think that can play there, somebody who can handle that responsibility. I just don't know if Mike Hughes is better served I mean because we haven't been able to see anything I don't know if he's better served as an outside corner to start the season and opposite um you know the rookie that they got in the first round and of course because it's the preseason offseason I'm forgetting his name and his name's Jeff Gladney I didn't know that um so I mean I think that you can go a number of different ways there but cornerback has to be your priority um

with any remaining funds that you have left and the Vikings right now you know they still have about 12.2 million dollars in cap space but think about it they haven't signed anybody in that draft class yet and that may take another few weeks because they're trying to figure out what's going on with the pandemic and what's going on with the preseason and training camp so keep an eye open for something like that to happen I would suggest probably in the next few weeks the Drake Kirkpatrick thing was weird because somebody wrote an article about what Drake Kirkpatrick said about George Floyd something that, and said he signed with the Vikings this offseason. We all went, like, what? Huh? When did he, did I miss that press release? I guess I, I know, yeah. But no, I've checked over and over again. Drake Kirkpatrick's still an NFL free agent,

and maybe that will happen eventually with the connection with Mike Zimmer, and I think it would be a good player to bring in with all of his experience and with the Zimmer defense. That didn't work out for George Iloka. But in this case, with so little experience at the corners, it's a no-lose to bring in that type of player. The one that makes the most sense of anybody, considering how long he played for Zim in Cincinnati.

That's where my brain went with it. And, you know, you can get him on the cheap. And the prove-it deal is always great for Logan Ryan. Okay, one year, $8 million, you get some money, but you get a chance. If you have a really good year under Zimmer, a cornerback guru, then you're going to get paid much more next year. For whatever reason, Logan Ryan does not have the type of respect that he thinks that he should have,

I guess, for the position. So he's got an opportunity there to pull that Sheldon Richardson. I want to see one of those, I think, or I believe that we'll see something like that. But whether they would go all in with a few more players would have to depend on if they move some money out, and that in the case would be Riley Reid. Okay, now let's go back to where we were, which is the 2017 and 2016 draft classes. I just want to go through some of these. Okay, the bottom of the roster, guys, whatever. You're Stacy Coley's and Bucky Hodges' and Jack Cocho's. But we know what happened with Laquan Treadwell in the 16 class.

Mackenzie Alexander becomes a good player, but they have had almost no hits when it came to anything outside of the second round here with Delvin Cook and Mackenzie Alexander, two very good players. But aside from that, this is a team that has routinely found players later in the draft that have worked out for them, but Steven Weatherly became a good player and he left. And now, not having the bones built on those draft classes, I think makes it a little bit harder because these are the players who would be experienced by now, who were taking the jobs of guys who just left. But instead, with Jaleel

Johnson, he's nothing more than a rotational player if he even makes the team and Ben Gideon I think he's been kind of pushed out by Troy Dye being drafted in the fourth round if you felt really good about where Gideon is at you probably don't do that and we're going to see a lot more Eric Wilson than we would Ben Gideon that I just wonder what you think happened here with these two draft classes. Yeah, I mean, it's a million-dollar question because of the drop-off between, I don't know, the 2018 group, which Mike Hughes, good draft pick. Brian O'Neill, excellent draft pick. And, I mean, Mike Hughes may very well end up being the best player in that draft class.

We just have to see a full season from him. And then you kind of go down the list. It's like they hit on their first two picks. Maybe Jalen Holmes develops into a rotational edge rusher. Who knows? But, like, outside of that, it's like there's a gap between the 18 class and the 15 class, which had guys who are currently still on the team, like Eric Hendricks and Daniil Hunter.

Obviously, Trey Waynes and Stephon Diggs are no longer there, but fantastic class, probably the best class under Rick Spielman. So they have a gap to fill, I think, with what's gone on. And the fact that your 2016 class, which, correct me if I'm wrong here, I think the New York Giants are like the only other team that does not have a single member of that class currently on the roster, which, you know, that's only years later that's that's kind of glaring that you haven't you know you don't have any of those players currently on your roster something went wrong along the way and whether it was you know you have to go back and look at the time um that that you had with this class and like who was ahead of them just in terms of snaps and

you know the depth chart and all that like a Stephen Weatherly for example um behind Mackenzie Alexander the most you know productive member of that draft class well they couldn't afford to bring him back in 16 from the 16 class they couldn't afford to bring him back in free agency this year um and they felt like they're okay turning those duties over to Afadi Odenabo at least as we know know right now. So they let him walk. Clearly with J. Ron Curse, they felt like they either didn't want to deal with the headache of some of the off the field stuff. And they felt like they could move on from him at safety in that big nickel position and work with it somewhere else. I mean, they drafted a safety this year. They, you know, are confident, at least it appears right now, just in some of the guys that they have, you know, are confident, at least it appears right now, just in some of the guys that they have,

you know, in this rookie class, and also that Anthony Harris and Harrison Smith can handle a much bigger load, just probably the way they're going to play defense on the back end this year. But nonetheless, like, it is jarring to look at when you see a draft class that literally happened four years ago, and none of those guys made the team or on the team this year and really their contributions at best were um Mackenzie Alexander and Steven Weatherly I mean they were the only consistent contributors and it was only for a short period of time now 17 is different like Dalvin obviously is the outlier there but like you mentioned if he ends up holding out you have a draft class that kind of like oh like if Fadi Odenabo is the only one a seventh round your second of four seventh rounders that year is the only one that you know actually like you know causes some intrigue uh that's kind of

jarring in my opinion too before we get back to the conversation want to remind you to go to sodastick.com to get your original Minnesota sports-inspired goods. Baseball is back, and Soda Stick just launched its latest partnership with Hormel Foods and the Tommy Watkins Foundation to pay homage to the Hormel Row of Fame. It debuted in the Metrodome in 1992, and though it's been long retired, you have an opportunity to check out the latest T-shirt called the Wiener Winner. Great for lunch, great for dinner. You remember how the song goes. For every t-shirt sold, Hormel Foods will donate $10 up to $10,000 to Tommy Watkins Foundation's Backpack Program

supporting Twin Cities youth. We're going to hook you up also with free shipping for your Wiener Winner shirt. Use promo code PURPLEINSIDER for free shipping. That's SOTASTICK.COM, S-O-T-A-S-T-I-C-K.COM, original Minnesota sports-inspired goods. Code PURPLEINSIDER for free shipping. The big question for me with these two draft classes is how many of these picks would we criticize them for and how many picks would we say, well, you know, stuff happens. That's how the draft is. It can be really random.

So you kind of go back to the logic and you ask, was this the right logic at the time? Now, I would start with Delvin Cook and say that it was actually the wrong logic at the time. He's a great player, but you had Latavius Murray, Jarek McKinnon. In 2017, those guys end up carrying you to one of the better running games in the entire league in the NFC Championship, and then since we've seen Delvin impact last season, for sure one of the better running backs in the league, but he's

been injured a lot, and there's that whole replaceability with running backs, and you wonder, well, were there other needs at the time that you could have looked down the road, and they drafted someone for a direct need right there, having lost Adrian Peterson. So that one, even though it's been a major hit for how good he is, you still wonder, could you have gotten some more value out of someone else? Elfline is a good pick.

He was a great college player, third rounder. He won the Remington Trophy. And anybody wants to argue that his production after the injury at center, I mean, you can't argue that. He really struggled. But you can't play revisionist history here and be like, well, you know, you just can't. I mean, the guy is a natural center who's having to play guard

because they drafted Garrett Bradbury. And that's one that, you know, kind of feels like in a way he set up for failure there because he's playing out of position. That was never what they intended to do with him until they saw the ankle and the shoulder injury, and he wasn't the same player coming back in 2018. Yeah, that's a bad break. You and I both wrote the articles in 2017, and everybody was saying it with the team. This guy is going to be really good for a really long time at center. And those injuries set him back. He never really recovered from them in 2018. And then a position change, you're hoping with the team, it works out. You know, they're saying, all right, well, he's going to be back to his old self and we'll just slide him over but as our buddy Alex Boone on our old show laid out pretty clearly the responsibilities are different especially when it comes to pass

protection where a lot of times it's just you versus that guy and that's where offline struggles quite a bit so it's not an ideal position for him and it becomes a bus draft pick even though it was a hit and I think your logic was right. When we go through the other guys, if you get rotational players in the fourth round, that's fine. Jaleel Johnson, Ben Gideon, okay, if they play some for you, that's pretty good. The one question I would ask about this is that they decided to go with this, we're going to draft a tight end who's fast, and a couple of wide receivers who might have high ceilings and all of them went bust Rodney Adams out of the league shortly after Bucky Hodges same thing Stacey Coley may have picked up with another team but I don't think ever caught an NFL pass that would be the question I

would have about the 2017 class is that you knew Laquan Treadwell was not going to work out or you should have had a really good inclination that that was not going to work out by the time you got to the 17 draft class. And instead of looking for a third option in the fourth round, you wait until the fifth for Rodney Adams. I mean, then you're getting to very low percentages. So you drafted rotational defensive players as opposed to looking for weapons. And even with the Elf line pick, you could say that it's much easier to find a center because it was a veteran who could fill in than it is to find talented weapons and that would be the one area where I would question the 2017 draft is you knew that you needed somebody else to fill out that roster with Thielen and Diggs and you just really didn't try to find it no and I mean yeah you had Jarius Wright that's great but like you and you brought

in Michael Floyd which that did not pan out so they made those moves in free agency because they were hoping um to find a true number three because at that point you're looking around being like well I don't know if this is going to work with Treadwell because the rookie season was disastrous by all accounts one catch for 15 yards And as you're going through training camp that year, I mean, even past the draft, a couple months, you're realizing, okay, this guy doesn't even know what a route tree is. This is a problem. So that's one that if you want to play the revisionist history game, you go like, yeah, maybe, maybe that third round, or maybe the fourth round pick would have been better serve instead of on a Jaleel Johnson or Ben Gideon on a wide receiver that class and so

I could absolutely argue that one but like you said it's hard when you expected Jaleel Johnson I mean they drafted him expecting he would be more than a rotational nose tackle they really did and so I just don't know exactly what happened there but it seems like his feeling is kind of set to where it's at like other guys around him have surpassed him like that's just the weird part from these younger draft classes too you know where you really might kick yourself here now that i'm looking at who was drafted after pat elfline in that third round chris godwin and kenny galladay were both wide receivers in that third round but to tell you how random the NFL draft is,

they were taken behind a lot of other wide receivers who didn't turn out to be any good at all. So, I mean, Ardarius Stewart, Carlos Henderson, those guys became nothing. And then Godwin and Galladay became stars. But it sort of speaks to the point that recently the third round wide receivers, Terry McLaurin was this last year, there's a lot of third round receivers who end up becoming something that

that's like that second and third round. There's usually a lot of them who are available and maybe that's where the mistake was made. Now with the 16 class, that, that one has some real questionable decisions. I mean, the Willie Beavers one where nobody had Willie Beavers as a draft pick, you take him in the fourth round, Moritz Boehringer. But, you know, this might have been a case of not having a third-round draft pick and then you go bust in the first and then all of a sudden your class is just shot.

I also wanted to mention that every one of these has their own kind of little funny story for bottom of the draft guys. Bucky Hodges being one of my favorites that Bucky on the conference call when he was drafted said he wanted to be legendary. And then they gave him number 84, which I think was a gag. And he said he was going to represent it for Randy Moss and all that. So there's always, there's always fun stories, but this, this puts a lot of pressure on the 2018 and 2019 classes to not just be okay,

but for one of them to replicate 2015. I think the best chances for 2019, because we've seen that your Jalen Holmes, Colby Gossett is gone, Ade Aruna never played, Devontae Downs never played. There's a lot of pressure on the 2019 class to step up and really be great for this team because if they don't, there's no fallback from 2017 or 2016. You mean the 18 class with Hughes, O'Neal, Holmes? Are you talking about the 19 class that had Bradbury, Smith, Madison, Samia? Yeah, I was thinking of even the 19 class of how much pressure is on. I mean, Bradbury has to be really good.

Smith, I think, has to be a star this year for them to have a great offense. Madison might have to be their starting running back. Madison might have to be their starting guard. We could see Armond Watts start. Ole Udo's got a chance. Chris Boyd, B.C. Johnson. And heck, Austin Cutting is going to be snapping the heck out of the ball. No, you're right.

I mean, I would honestly say that like the best chance they have just off the sheer numbers game is the 2020 class because there's 15 draft picks. But, you know, none of these guys have even stepped out onto the field together at all in this offseason. So I think temper your expectations for what rookies are going to do this year, simply based on the fact that you got to get your vets up to speed because the rookie learning curve is going to be very steep in 2020 it's probably the worst year to be a rookie probably at least in this generation of the NFL I mean some people might say that the lockout was similar but it just feels like as this pandemic is dragged on it's probably a worse situation to throw those

guys into the fire come training camp because they're still learning how to be NFL players. But nonetheless, you're right about that 2019 class, like those first four picks. At the time, I remember all of us were saying, wow, four straight on offense, them is probably stewing upstairs. But it needed to happen that way, just based on cap restrictions that they had knowing that guys would eventually you know they'd be moving on from players and kind of knowing where they missed in the last few years missing on you know offensive linemen it's why you had to draft two in the first four picks with Samia and Bradbury um you know in Alexander Madison like I mentioned earlier in the

in the show that you know he was the contingency is the contingency plan for Dalvin Cook I think that they made that pick more than just we like this player we had to get him because he's right there they're looking down the line with this one realizing hey is Cook going to come back from the injury is he going to be you know the great player that we expected him to be they didn't know what he could do in 2019 so that was an an insurance pick. And with Smith, I mean, that's your next, that's your next Kyle Rudolph. And it's somebody who can do more than Kyle Rudolph, or at least we projected to do more than Kyle Rudolph. So I think with those four, and then, you know, and Armand Watts was one of the top interior pass rushers in the SEC

after not playing a lot of football. I mean, they put his numbers up there with the likes of Jeffrey Simmons. And I thought that that was a very smart pick for the Vikings to get him in the sixth round. And he's somebody that we only saw a very tiny portion of what he could do as a rookie. But rookie pass rushers, even interior pass rushers, I mean, they typically don't make a big impact. But we knew his name by the end of the 2019 season, which to me shows you, okay, this guy's going to have a role this year because of everybody they had to let go. And then you're not having a Fadio Denebo rush on the interior. So that's a wide open rotational role. But yeah, I mean, Chris Boyd, Dylan Mitchell, I would like to see if he has a chance to make the roster.

I mean, he was, you know, they talked him up for somebody who didn't make the roster and still is kept around there and that wide receiver core. Is he, what does he have to prove? What does he look like in that mix? Because we know, you know, they have a huge gap to fill with Stephon Diggs being gone. And while we anticipate those looks to go to Justin Jefferson, there's still the number three void. And is that Ola B.C. Johnson? Is it a Dylan Mitchell? Is it Tajay

Sharp? I mean they've got a good crop of numbers to help them here at the wide receiver position and I think they really helped their case there with the 2019 draft class. Hey before we get back to the conversation I want to remind you that sports are coming back and so are your chances to bet on your favorite teams and events. There's no better place to start than our exclusive partners BetOnline. Get in on the action for this week's big UFC fight or check out odds on NASCAR, Formula One, and the Premier League. Can't wait for your favorite team to come back.

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if they emerged this year, you'd be like, okay, never saw that coming, but I guess this guy is really good. And then before we wrap up, PFF posted their offensive line rankings go into 2020. And I'm excited to tell you where the Vikings are, but players from 2020 draft class and 2019, one guy who if they emerge, you'd go, all right, I guess that guy. Okay.

So 2019, I would go with Ole Udo. I guess I would – I mean, there's other ones that I could pick, but I wouldn't be surprised if Drew Simi is really good because they gave him that alleged redshirt year, and they need help at guard. So I wouldn't be surprised because he's probably going to be forced into that position regardless. Udo though, does he play guard? Is he a, is he your swing tackle? Like what is it with him?

Because I think they've left the possibility open for him to play guard, just given the size and given the experience. He looks like a tackle, but maybe they want him on the inside. So that would probably be my 2019 pick. From 2020, I really think James Lynch is going to be a good player. He's been talked about way too much for me to think he's got an outside chance to make the team. I think he's absolutely on the roster. I would say Brian Cole, the safety out of Mississippi State.

Like it. Good pick. Probably has, like, the best chance of anybody on that bottom half of the roster. Maybe the Kenny Willekes, the Michigan State, you know, rags to riches type story of a player. But he kind of falls into that same category with me as a James Lynch because, you know, they're going to have to get creative with what they do

in some of these sub packages. But Brian Cole, they don't have a lot of depth at safety. Like, and they use a seventh- round pick on him, you know, to bring a guy he's he's here, Josh Metellus, who was a six round safety. I don't know. Something about Cole strikes me as, you know, just the way that he played in the sec type of competition he went against the chance for him to earn that sort of role that they had last year with

Marcus Epps before they traded him to Philly. High ceiling, high reward, I guess. I mean, he would be my guy if I had to pick somebody from that 2020 class. And opportunity matters too. There's no backup safeties at the moment with any experience. And he and Josh Metellus are going to battle for those backup spots. The one that would be the most shocking if he made an impact, and maybe this means things have gone catastrophically wrong, would be the tackle Blake Brandel. He is so far down on the depth chart, but the guy was an amazing pass blocker in college, like from PFF, one of the best in the entire NCAA last year. And if somehow he ended up with a shot, that means everyone's gotten hurt

or he's been unbelievable. So that would be the most surprising. Harrison Hand also, I think, because just looking at the depth chart, there are many players who have been drafted higher that would get their first shot. But there's also a possibility maybe he's tried at safety. I could see that. And Dylan Mitchell would be my pick from the 2019 class. At this point, I'd be surprised if there's anything there, but he does have natural athletic gifts that are impressive. And if he can pick up on the route running after a year of being in the system and where he's supposed to line up and all those things,

he could pass other guys just based on how athletic he is. Now, I want you to guess where PFF has ranked the Minnesota Vikings offensive line for 2020. I'm going to say it's a bottom 20 unit, at least in their eyes, maybe at like 24. Oh, great guess. 23rd is where they are. That sounds about right. I I mean because there's just so much unknown we don't know if Riley Reif is going to play left tackle or if they're confident turning the keys over to you know arguably the second most important position on the offense to to a rookie and as for Cleveland we don't know if Reif's going to move inside to guard we don't know what's going to happen with Pat offline we don't know who's going to fill that right guard spot if they bring

back Josh Klein or if they're going to hand it over to Drew Samia so the honestly the only certain that I have is the center and the right tackle we know what those two who's are going to who is going to be filling those two positions in Garrett Bradbury and Brian O'Neill like there is no doubt in my mind in either of them it's just there's three other positions you need to worry about and when the interior pass rush has been excuse me the interior pass protection has been bad as it's been the last few years and like you mentioned when you have a quarterback like Kirk Cousins who can sense outside pressure it's just like when it's coming straight at him from the interior and guys are getting beaten like you know regularly it's a problem so um I think that's

an absolutely fair spot to put them maybe even a little high it's amazing that every year they've been here every year 2016 17 18 19 every year it's that bottom third it's not quite dead last when they do the preseason rankings but it's sort of in that space and then that's where they end up being at the end of the year so that doesn't really give you a ton of confidence in the offensive line taking a big leap forward 2021 is when they'll have the best chance to do that all right i will give you 20 american dollars if you can guess the top three by pff for who they think will have the best three offensive lines in the nfl this

year okay i'm already down. 20 US dollars. Wow. Yes. That would go a long way. Does it have to be like perfect order? Like one, just kidding. If you guess the top three,

you get 20 bucks. Okay. Top. I'll say number one, Indianapolis. That's correct. Number one. Oh,

wow. Okay. Indianapolis. Let me think about this for a minion. I'm like, I'm like I'm like I promise I'm not looking I'm like racking my brain I'll give you a

I'll even give you a four guess fine I'll say Indianapolis Dallas Dallas is right okay 20 bucks

Indianapolis Dallas you can totally get this too I shouldn't have given you the extra pick no that's not right Dallas you can totally get this too I shouldn't have given you the extra pick um no that's not right um I'm not giving hints with money on the line San Francisco San Francisco's a good guess but that is not the correct answer okay so my fourth my bonus chance that I get here. Not Seattle. Definitely not Seattle.

I was just like, let's start at the top of the country and go across. Let's start in the NFC West. I'm trying to think. Is it the Chiefs? It's not the Chiefs. Sorry, you don't get your $20. I'll buy you a diet soda on the golf course. Number two is actually New Orleans is number two.

Of course. Yeah, with their two great tackles. Because they got Andres Paet back, right? And Eric McCoy played really well last year, which I won't snark about drafting a center in the first round with the fact that Eric McCoy turned out to be quite good. But the order is the Colts are ranked number one. New Orleans is number two.

Dallas number three. Green Bay is actually number four, which surprises me a little. They were going to be like my – they were fringe top five for me just given like didn't somebody retire this past year? Brian Bulaga is still I think a free agent or maybe he signed somewhere. But the fact that they have Bakhtiari and he's like a top three tackle, that helps them. Their center's pretty good.

Elton Jenkins was pretty good last year. Another draft pick from the same class. And then Baltimore is the fifth. So that's your top five offensive lines according to PFF. And if you're curious about the bottom, the teams that are actually worse than the Vikings on the offensive line, Miami is 32nd, the Bengals are 31st, and the Los Angeles Chargers are 30th. So middle of the pack, and it could go either way depending on how those camp battles work out, if there are indeed

camp battles. Yeah, God willing. Yeah, anyway, well Courtney, great stuff, and you are part of the squad that's helping to work out how things will go with the media covering training camp, so I appreciate your efforts there and all of your time on the podcast. Thanks for dropping by. Thank you for having me. This is Brandon Kelly, the host of Blue Wire's new podcast, Golden Goal. He takes everybody up! Messi has done it! Blue Wire's new podcast, Golden Gold. From Lionel Messi to Marta to Pele, our show takes a deep dive into soccer's superstars.

What a World Cup for Megan Rapinoe! From Zlatan Ibrahimovic's rash confidence with the play to back it up, to Megan Rapinoe's heroic outspokenness and World Cup flair. Each episode examines a personality of the world's game. We'll dig into Maradona's hand of God performance and subsequent downfall.

The teenage trio at Dortmund that signal the next generation of superstars. And that infamous headbutt that slung Zinedine Zidane from glory. Golden Goal, soccer stars and the moments that made them, premiering this summer on Blue Wire.