Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - What made sense and didn't make sense about the Vikings' Day 3 draft

Episode Date: May 2, 2021

Matthew Coller and Paul Hodowanic go through all of the Day 3 draft picks for the Vikings and talk about whether the picks could have high upside for the Vikings or not and where they fit on the roster. Why did the Vikings take a running back in the fourth round? The internet seems to love the receiver they selected in the fifth, was it right to stick with high-upside pass rushers when many have failed recently? Plus... tight end/punter??? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Folks, do you feel like everything these days is go, go, go? It's non-stop from work to friends to family and a million pressing issues. Sometimes you just need to take a playoff and hit the reset button. That's when you reach for a Coors Light. It's made to chill. Hey, it's that time of year in Minnesota again to get out on the lake, go to the cabin, sit back, watch the baseball. Coors Light is the perfect refreshment to chill during these summer months. There's only one beer out there that's made to chill. The mountains on the bottles and cans turn blue when your beer is cold,

and that way you know it's time to chill. Hit that reset button with some mountain cold refreshment. Coors Light is cold lager, cold filtered, and cold packaged. It's literally made to chill. It's crisp and refreshing as the Colorado Rockies. Coors Light is the one you should choose when you need to unwind, when you want to hit the reset button, reach for the beer that is made to chill. Get Coors Light in the new look delivered straight to your door

with Drizzly or Instacart, Coors Brewing Company, Golden, Colorado, and as always, celebrate! Hello, welcome to the Day 3 Hardcore Super Serious with No no jokes or laughing at day three podcast here on Purple Insider. Matthew Collar along with Paul Houdewanek to break it all down. And Paul, I feel very weird here. And I should mention first the show presented by Symbol, the stock market for sports, and by Scout Logistics and our draft sponsor, Victory Home Team. So thank you to all of them.

But I don't feel right. Something is weird. What could it be? The sun is still up as we're recording this right after day three. There were still teams drafting as Rick Spielman was taking picks. No seventh rounder, Paul. I gave you a hard time yesterday about no seventh rounder. I was going to say. But I apologize to you because there was no seventh rounder, but I apologize to you because there was no seventh

rounder. The Vikings wrapped things up early on a 75 degree beautiful day here in Minnesota. So I am thankful for that. But what a day it was, Paul. Tell me, you tell me where you want to start with breaking down day three. I mean, I was going to say, this is the Super Serious podcast. I got my notes out on all the guys that they drafted. I've done extensive research on Zach Davidson and the Central Missouri tight ends. I'm ready to get going on that. No, I think it was surprising that we didn't get trades. I thought maybe that last sixth rounder, he'd turn into like two sevenths.

And so we thought we'd be done and then it would turn into two sevenths. But I don't know. It was kind of a mixed bag of guys that they drafted. And just based on boards, it felt like they reached for some people. But at the same time, this is such a weird year. I think there were probably a lot of discrepancies in where people had guys going just because the lack of a combine, the lack of a true 2020 season.

Some guys didn't play that the Vikings drafted. And so the boards were all over the place. But yeah, not trading back was definitely one of them. They stayed put. Other than that first round, he stayed put. And that was a point that he emphasized yesterday and we talked about a little bit was that he really felt it, Spielman that is, felt it was going to fall off after that fifth round. And so they kept all their fourth, fifth round picks and really only made that sixth round pick. So I mean, I guess it was just a,

he didn't go and get those sevens like we thought. And so I'm happy that I think the draft is still currently going on while we're talking. So that is great. I'm in disbelief, truly. I mean, there have been times where we've talked to Rick Spielman and then we leave TCO Performance Center. Today, obviously everything was on Zoom, but we leave TCO Performance Center and it's nighttime on day three. And it's, we're recording this now at five o'clock PM. So, I mean, I'm excited because it was such a nice day and there were limited conference

calls for seventh round picks. And that's not to downplay the Stephen Weatherly's and Afadi Adenabo's who turned out to be seventh round picks. But as you mentioned, Rick Spielman was very honest saying this is just not a deep draft, guys. It really falls off after the fourth round. So we're probably not going to try to stack a bunch of picks for this year. The question I had was whether they would move back to try and get more for next year, because right now they're a little short on picks for next season. They did not do that. They pretty much just stayed where they were at after the first round,

after that one trade down and then made a bunch of selections. So here's how I've bucketed the selections. And then we can talk about them. Ones I totally get and ones i don't really get because you are just not going to get me on day three to go how could they draft this human being what are they or oh my gosh can you believe they just got aaron donald in the six no they didn't no they didn't okay my rule on guys past the third is pretty much like if he stands out in training camp, then I will pay more attention.

I will not. I mean, look, I'm going to research these guys and their backgrounds, and we talk to them and everything, but I'm not going to make declarations that the Vikings got the steal of the draft in the sixth round. You're being ridiculous if you think that. There's a reason why the whole league passed for five straight rounds, and there have been guys that have worked out in the past. But Jalen Twyman, for example, I mean, he had a good year at Pitt two years ago,

and he opted out, and he's really strong. Great. Every single guy that drafted has something, some reason why they got picked. But in order to take him seriously, we have to see it in training camp. And then we could start to talk about, okay, it looks like this guy is emerging. But usually if it's a sixth-round pick or fourth or fifth, it's like years in. It's usually not Stefan Diggs that right away all of a sudden becomes a good player. So we'll talk about them, but I am not going to give like blazing takes.

It's I get it or I don't get it is the way I'm going to work through these. So the first one, Kene Wongwu, I don't get it. I don't get the fourth round pick as fast as he is and is good at kick returning. I look this up. There were seven kick returns for touchdowns in the entire National Football League last year. The average team gets about 25 per season, and punt returns, there were a handful same way, but even punt returning success has gone down significantly in the NFL as teams cover them. So I just tossed that out. Plus, we've learned from

KJ Osborne last year that being a good kick and punt returner in college is not being a good punt returner and kick returner in the NFL. So I don't even factor that. I don't know if you can catch an NFL punt yet. We're going to have to see. Past that, there were receivers on the board. There were corners on the board. Those are more valuable positions. There were other offensive linemen on the board. You didn't have to stop at Wyatt Davis. There were other guys, other guards that you could take to have insurance policies in case Wyatt Davis does not work out. I just think with the running back position, especially when NFL.com had this player as a seventh round draft pick, that it's not a great way to spend a fairly early fourth rounder even if he turns out and I totally believe Paul that the Vikings are great at

assessing running back talent they're good at it man I mean from Adrian Peterson to Delvin Cook Chester Taylor back in the day and you go to even Mike Boone somebody else wanted him after you were done with him Alexander Madison is a good player. It's just, did you really get upside of value? Unless you think that someday this guy ends up being your starting running back. Doesn't seem very likely when he only had a handful of carries this year. Didn't like it from that perspective, even though, I mean, I watched some of him play just through the day.

Wow, he's got great burst. But where they took him, I'm just not sure that they did the right thing there. So I'm going to put that under the don't really get it bucket. Yeah, I mean, he's effectively the third string running back right now. And so when you're taking a third string anything in the fourth round, it's going to be a little bit questionable potentially. And then when it's a running back, that's even more so like, well, what's going on here?

So it's clear that they valued his returnability and you could tell they, I mean, they drafted the Iowa wide receiver. Who's a punt return guy later. So that was obviously a priority. Steelman said as much that it was, they were not explosive. And so this did feel like a reach on the athletics consensus board. They had them at 293 and they took him at 119. So again, we don't know how NFL front offices evaluate these guys. So

maybe they felt like they had some competition, but with as many picks as they had, you felt like maybe you could get him later. You could get facsimiles of him later in the draft. There's still a lot of running backs that were out there. So yeah, I agree with you that I don't exactly get the pick right there. But that doesn't mean I'm not intrigued about what he could potentially do. I think, I mean, he ran a 4-2-9 at his pro day. So that's elite, elite speed. Spielman said he fits the zone scheme exactly how they would want him to. So those are all positives and good reasons. But yes, I'm not sure the value matches up with the player. Yeah, I think for me, it's mostly, unless you're going to use him as some sort of playmaking type,

well, then you can convince me a little better if he was going to line up in the slot or he was going to be a reverse guy or whatever, if he was a playmaker. But, you know, we've talked about that so many times. I mean, they didn't bring Cordero Patterson back to do that, even though he campaigned for it. They didn't use Mike Boone that way, even though, remember, Mike Boone had the unbelievably freakish pro day and then actually turned into an explosive running back who averaged five yards a carry, and they never used him.

And they never used Alexander Madison either. So it's like if this guy becomes a kick slash punt returner who's competing with amir abdullah was that the right way to spend your fourth round draft pick as opposed to somebody with a higher value and ceiling who could give you some depth right away and i'll just read you one line from lance zeerlein of nfl.com he said his special teams, talent, explosive traits, and ability to protect the passer could move him into a draftable position on day three as RB4. I mean, that's just not exciting when you hear that, you know, one of the top analysts sees him as RB4.

And that's kind of where he begins. So, like you said, the potential because of his athletic traits is very interesting. I'm just not sure that I really quite get the pick. Let me just go down the board here a little bit. Cameron Bynum was another one, Paul, that when you looked at what the draft analysts said, they had him much lower than the fourth round. But I'm going to go a different direction with this and say, and you can tell me what you found in kind of, you know, looking into him, but I'm going to say I do get the pick that when I looked at closer on the reports from PFF and they talked a lot about his intelligence and his ability to play in zones and they see him as more of a safety. I think those are two things that are really important

is how well you play zone and how intelligent you are. And also he's a very good run stopper. It just seems that they wanted to play him at corner, but I really actually like this pick and I totally get it. We felt that they needed to beef up secondary. So I'd say totally get that one. Yeah. And for as many problems as the secondary had last year, if they got to a point where Cameron Bynum is playing, those things that the qualities that he has feels like it comes with a relatively high floor for playing. If he has a high IQ, if he's a good run stuffer, if he can kind of play in those zone schemes, I feel like you're in a better spot than someone you're throwing out there,

and maybe they're just athletic and fast, and you don't really know what's going to happen. So I think he provides a nice depth piece. Again, safety is not a position where you assume that he's going to be playing a whole lot this first year. You allow him to learn. So I get the – any defensive back pick I was going to get today, they didn't do it in these first couple rounds, and we thought they would.

It was one of those kind of more stealthy things that we thought they were going to have to worry about. And so any safety pick, any cornerback pick, as long as they were ones that people had heard of, like draft analysts had evaluated, as long as they were there, I was going to understand this pick. So yeah, it makes sense that he's moving to safety. It makes sense that they took him. Yeah, the only thing is just did you have to take him there would be my question and you know maybe they have better intel than nfl.com who had him as they even put seven slash udfa like oh yikes uh that's not what you want to see when you look up the player that they took in the fourth round and i think this was one of our predictions when we were talking about, like, what Vikings trends they do.

It's always they take some guy in the fourth that nobody heard of or thought that was going to be a late event. You know, DJ Wanham was that guy. It always seems to happen. And that ends up being Cameron Bynum. I will say that from speaking with him, I was impressed just by how he came across, how he explained his role and how he might transition to safety and how at the senior bowl, he played exclusively safety. And that's where he caught the Vikings eye. So I'm not going to judge that one and say, oh, well, you guys screwed up because you should have taken this guy or that guy. I think it was important. And if he could

play that position, then that works out well for them. The only thing that I would just tack on as a little asterisk to it is always got to move positions, right? Always have to draft guys to not play them where they played. It just seems like such a typical thing. Janaris Robinson from Florida State was somebody that I remember our buddy Chris Trapasso talking about, and this was the Vikings. Let's see. What do we got here?

134th overall, another fourth rounder. Just, like, check off all the boxes, Rick. Rick will always be Rick, man. I mean, just taking this super lanky guy with unbelievably large hands and unbelievably long arms and just has a good burst to him, though. The only thing I would talk about with this one, this one goes under the bucket of totally get it. The only thing I would go with this one is they have just put a lot of emphasis

into, hey, Andre Patterson loves this guy, so we'll draft him, and then, you know, it'll work out. That really hasn't come to fruition lately when it comes to the draft. And even with DJ Wanham, people wanted to like DJ Wanham, I think, but he didn't do anything last year that would make me think, wow, okay, here's your next big guy. I mean, Steven Weatherly is not really a hit. He's more of kind of a rotational player. Fadi Adenabo, I guess, turned out to be a hit with one decent year, but then when he was a starter, he was below average.

Aside from Daniil Hunter, this strategy of saying, oh, Patterson loves this guy because of his length and his athleticism, and we're cloning Daniil Hunter, which has been said before, it hasn't really worked. But I also think that fourth round, super lanky guy with burst you might as well that this is a position that you might as well take a guy and see if he turns out to be a pass rusher eventually so they got two of those guys in Patrick Jones and Janaris Robinson okay I'm good with that and I the only thing I wonder though Paul is does it take off the table them signing Melvin Ingram or going after more rotational rushers because we're going to hear, oh, we're fine, we've got a competition there? I think it shouldn't.

It should not take that off the table. No, I don't think so at all. And, again, I agree with you, 4'6", 940-yard dash, arm length of 35-1⁄4", so exactly fits the profile that they want uh so yeah i understand it in four years though he only had eight sacks so he wasn't super productive uh that's but that's just kind of the mo of of what they pick sometimes is they bet on those athletic traits and if we're gonna if i'm gonna go off your point a little bit about is this really what they should be doing kind of trusting in andre patter. I think we all know how good of a coach Andre Patterson is, so we're not judging that. But I think one thing that constantly comes up when I'm listening to other podcasts or reading things

and people ask, well, teams do this all year. How do they still make dumb decisions? One of the things is that coaches kind of believe that they can fix this player or that they can unlock the potential out of this player. And I think now we've seen a pretty, pretty long pattern of them believing that they can trust Andre Patterson to do those things. And again, it's not a knock on Andre Patterson if it doesn't happen necessarily, but it's one of those things where, okay, maybe just try something else because some of these guys that you've tried here just aren't working like you hit Daniel Hunter and that's great but I mean for every Daniel Hunter you have a Jalen

Holmes and you have a DJ Wanham and you have a Hercules Mata'afa you got all these guys that you you hope to turn into something and it doesn't work and so again I totally understand why at this point in the draft you're going with raw athleticism and talent and not a guy that was just productive but kind of has limited athletic ability like i get it but at some point it'd be it'd be interesting to just see what they can do with one of those guys because we've we've seen it's just a it's a it's a pretty hit and miss game with these with these edge toolsy type guys right i think that if you were giving me the choice between do you want to trade up into the middle of the to take Carlos back or you know whichever one Aziz Ojolari or someone is it worth it versus

the chance Janaris Robinson becomes a really good player and I would say yes it would be because Ojolari and Basham were just such better prospects than Robinson I like what I saw in the senior bowl from Robinson I think I told you this last night that if you want to know who the Vikings are going to draft, just watch the Senior Bowl. And here they are just picking off guys from the Senior Bowl. They love that because they get such a close look at them and feel very comfortable with those guys at the end of that event. And I even pulled up an old tweet from myself saying like, Patrick Jones, guy to watch for the Vikings. And they take him because he just looked like, oh, this is the senior bowl guy that they spot.

Same with Janaris Robinson. It's just that it seems like the Daniil Hunter thing working out has really influenced their thinking about these players. And so maybe this guy becomes this or that. But like you said, if you go through the list here, DJ Wanham, James Lynch, that was last year. Go down to 2019, we've got Armin Watts ends up being the sixth-round guy. Not all of these are defensive ends, but just defensive linemen. Aruna and Jalen Holmes in 2018. 2000, Nefadi Adele worked out they, not before they let him go once.

Um, Jaleel Johnson also that did not work out, not even close. I mean, Steven Weatherly has worked out okay, but still was cut by his team after getting a chance to start. Like since Daniel Hunter, there isn't a single one where you'd go, wow, that was really worth it. So, um, you know, I guess it's, it makes sense on this type of day to take those shots. But if you really wanted to improve the pass rush across from Daniil Hunter, you needed to do it earlier than this. You needed to address it in round two. So I think they should still be looking at free agency. All right. Amir Smith-Marset from Iowa. I'm going to say get it. I get it. I thought this should have been earlier, but I guess if they had drafted this guy earlier, the same guy, we would have said,

oh, there's wide receiver three. It's not a real thick competition for Amir Smith-Marset from Iowa, and he has incredible numbers in terms of his speed. He is being projected as a deep threat. We talked about that as being necessary and something they did not have. So from that perspective, it is a fifth rounder, and that hasn't always worked out post-Stefan Diggs. That's another thing. It's like Stacy Coley, Rodney Adams, these have not worked out. K.J. Osborne.

But just from the player, from his profile, I say, okay, okay good pick here's another body to throw in there still shouldn't preclude you from you know chasing Danny Amendola or something yeah I again I agree with this one I was watching the PFF live stream when when he went off the board and they and they penciled him in they saw they thought yeah this can be their wide receiver number three he's got the talent he's got the ability to do that so that's that's a nice glowing endorsement I think some others that have been on the podcast Brett Coleman I think really really liked him I saw his tweet uh that really thought uh he was going to be good and he comes from Iowa that they don't throw the ball a lot so he doesn't have a lot of chance to you know showcase his

ability but yes I like the process of drafting a wide receiver. I would have liked it earlier as well, but seems to kind of fit the mold of what they'd want. Super fast, can kind of stretch the field. So I like the pick of taking a wide receiver. I don't think at this point that would preclude them from doing anything. I mean, wasn't KJ Osborne, is he a fifth round pick last year? So, I mean, we've seen where a fifth-round pick from just the year before is at. And them taking Marcet and them taking the running back up at top,

I think that kind of might be the nail in the coffin for KJ Osborne at this point because at least Marcet is going to be a punt returner probably. He has these wide receiver skills to go with it. Osborne never really had that. So, yeah, I don't think this would preclude them from doing anything, or it shouldn't preclude them from doing anything. But I also don't think Marcet just walks in as the number three wide receiver either. I think there's going to be competition there. I wouldn't say he's such a can't-miss prospect that they're just handing

him the number three role. This also goes for another position where NFL.com's analysis and PFF's analysis was different from some other people that really loved Smith-Marset. You know, Lance Zierlein said basically like punt returner, a wide receiver five. I saw Nate Tice, who does the podcast with our friend Robert Mays, and he was talking about how he really likes him. And, you know, he was somebody who worked in player evaluation before. So, you know, maybe there's something there. In terms of taking a shot at a guy who might have high upside because he has incredible speed, good, good.

That's a thing you do. The running back one is where I go, oh, I don't know, right? I mean, but this one with a wide receiver in the fifth round that's a thing you do uh so okay let's go down to Zach Davidson because this one is hilarious who had tight end slash punter who among us had tight end slash punter if you think I'll let this one go eventually you are wrong because tight ends or I'm sorry punter, if you think I'll let this one go eventually, you are wrong. Because tight end – or I'm sorry, punter slash kicker Corey Vedvik was funny enough. Tight end slash punter is unbelievable.

Now – Slash long snapper slash holder. He mentioned he can do both those things. He did say the long snapping was dodgy, and you can guess who exactly asked him a follow-up about that. Courtney Cronin of course but uh I mean you know tight end depth was another thing that we sort of talked about like okay they should probably grab a guy when Sam and I put together our um you know our draft guide we had

a couple of tight ends in there because we thought it was possible with Kyle Rudolph leaving that they would go tight ends so I'm not gonna get your full breakdown on this one because it's just, it's fine. And the same thing goes for Jalen Twyman, who people were very excited about on Twitter because he had a pretty high draft stock apparently after 2019. And then he ends up being, you know, not a very high draft pick. His pro day was bizarre. he had 40 bench reps which is bananas but then he had some of the slowest times in terms of his quickness so I don't know what are you supposed to make of that uh the name Aaron Donald came up on in my Twitter and I just I like come on man I don't know what I'm supposed to do there sixth round defensive tackle swing totally

okay with that no problem at all so I guess uh when we look at this whole thing like how do we feel that the Vikings did Paul and I don't mean just day three but I mean the whole picture what you came away with let me ask it a different way are they a better football team today than they were let say, at the end of the 2020 season? I think they're a better team. If you're coupling this with the free agent acquisitions that they made on defense, we might not love all of those, but they're providing depth. They're providing guys that have played cornerback before better than, you know, some of the things that we saw last year. And so, I mean, I guess the minuses that you're looking at is the Riley Reif going,

Kyle Rudolph going. Those are two big swings that are two big guys that are leaving. But you take Christian Derusaw, which you hope can replicate Reif's production at least a little bit, and then you take a guard, which is assuredly going to help if Wyatt Davis performs like the draft analysts believe he can perform and how we think he can perform. We think that's a great pick for them there. So I think that's an improvement. And then they're adding depth.

And so, I don't know, coming into this draft, they had a lot of needs. And so when you look at it today, you go, okay, did they really solve the edge need? I don't think they really solved an edge need with the two guys that they took. Maybe they added some more swings to potentially solve the edge need, but you don't come out of this clearly with a better edge defender. You say, okay, they probably need another cornerback or a safety. They took one, but again, it's not a guy that you're saying, okay, this solves that need. And so I think it's debatable, but I think it was maybe unrealistic to expect them to come with someone who – come out of this with someone who's going to play edge, who's going to play offensive tackle,

who's going to play guard, who is going to be able to have a safety. Like, I think it's a little unrealistic for the things that we thought they would do. So, yes, I think they're a better team. They got a quality, quality left tackle. They got a quality guard. They got a quarterback, quality left tackle. They got a quality guard. They got a quarterback that maybe can turn into something down the road. So I would say this is a productive draft. Did they, like, hit a home run?

I wouldn't say that, but I don't think they struck out either. I think this was pretty good. Hey, everyone. Anybody who listens to the show knows that Sam and I may not be scratch golfers, but we love to have a great time playing golf. And that's why we have partnered with Birdie Golf in Woodbury. Birdie Golf is hands down the best indoor golf experience you will ever have. There are eight of the world's best golf simulators where you can sharpen your swing.

And luckily for us, never lose a ball. But it's not just for hardcore golfers. Birdie Golf is for everyone. Bring the family, play arcade-style games while dining on great food in an upscale and comfortable environment. They have private bays for social distancing, a luxury lounge for private events, outdoor patio, and scratch kitchen. You'll want to try the whiskey or beer float flights

and the best boneless wings in the metro. Make golf a night out or the place to hold parties, events, fundraisers, even your fantasy football drafts. Check out Birdie Golf at 494 in Valley Creek in Woodbury, just a short drive from anywhere in the Twin Cities Metro, and at birdiegolf.com, or you can call 651-998-2200 today. I'll see you there. Hey, everybody. I want to tell you about our friends at SimBull. SimBull is a new sports marketplace where you can trade shares of professional teams like stocks.

So as we jump fully into free agency season, you're going to want to get in on teams now before your team's stock rises. Go to symbol.app, that is S-I-M-B-U-L-L dot A-P-P. Sign up using the promo code purple and get a $10 deposit bonus if you're a first-time user, and then you are off and rolling. Here's how it works. You buy stocks of your teams, and when your team wins, you earn cash payouts that are instantly deposited. If you sign up for Symbol, you also get updates emailed to you directly with the trends on which teams are on the rise. So check out Symbol.app or follow them on Twitter at Symbol Exchange and check out the Marketplace for Sports today.

So there's a couple ways to look at it. Are they a better team than last year when they ended? I mean, depends on whether you count injuries. If you don't count injuries, I was not counting injuries. I would say yes, because they got Delvin Tomlinson, who I believe is a very good football player. And even half of the old Patrick Peterson is a lot better than what they were running out before. I mean, if we were saying, look, as a football team, as a roster with Anthony Barr and with Eric Hendricks, but you know, you subtract an Anthony Harris,

who's very familiar with your system and bring in a guy who's not very familiar. We still don't have answers on Daniil Hunter's situation. So that's another one where I'm very interested to see how that goes. Assuming that that's all set you feel better about your defensive line but you have not solved the pass rusher position your offensive line for the long term should be far better but for the short term I'm not convinced how much better and I'll tell you two reasons why I mean one you mentioned the study about tackles and offensive linemen and how

much there is of a learning curve and how difficult. Let's have a quick look at the schedule that the Vikings are going to play this year and some of the pass rushers that they're going to have to go up against. I mean, you're going to have to face Miles Garrett this year. You're going to have to go up against, what, Chandler Jones from Arizona, and Khalil Mack is probably going to line up and go against Christian Derrissaw, and Z'Darrius Smith is still out there. I mean, it's kind of a murderer's row for this offensive line and for Christian Derrissaw in his first year, and if he's better than Riley Reif was last year, I'd be very surprised. I mean, for the long run, I think he could be a franchise left tackle, but first year,

there's going to be a lot of bumps along the way. And the same thing goes for Wyatt Davis, where I think he is a great draft pick. We went over this the other day, and he's clearly going to be better than Dakota Dozier. But the one issue that people diagnosed was stunts, twists, different things that NFL defenses do all the time with these blitzes and diagnosing those and guess what my friend that's third down it's every single third down that you're going to have to face so I wouldn't expect Wyatt Davis in the short term to suddenly completely transform this offense so after the draft versus before the draft Vegas which is my go-to for, hey, look, I'm not being negative. Someone else said it. It's Vegas. As objective as it gets, because they're trying to make money on this.

So they set the over-unders the absolute best they can and the most difficult and accurate they can. They have it at eight and a half before the draft. I'll check back again after the draft. I don't expect it to change. I expect it to be exactly the same at eight and a half. So I feel like for the long term, they have set themselves up in a couple of different ways. For one, they've put Kirk Cousins on blast and they have said, look, man, we're looking at athletic quarterbacks.

So when it's some football games and maybe, you know, then we'll talk money for the future. And if you don't, then we might be looking for something else. That's fascinating. They've built an offensive line for the future, which I think is something that everyone wanted and will be absolutely necessary no matter who is the quarterback. From that perspective, it's good. You've got a few shots at players who might turn out to be high end.

It's just, did you change anything? The only thing that changed something, Paul, is Aaron Rodgers. That's what actually changed things. If you're going to move the Vegas line for the Vikings, it wouldn't be based on what they did in the draft. It would be based on if Aaron Rodgers comes out and announces at some point he's retiring, then the Vikings will shoot up to being number one. But other than that, I wouldn't change a whole heck of a lot about how I feel about the overall roster. It's just long-term, I think they did a good job here. Yeah. And again, I think if you're drafting for immediate need and impact

year one, you're probably in a bad spot. And so yes, maybe the draft picks aren't going to do crazy things year one. That's probably why you go out and get the free agents in the defense because you're expecting those guys to have more of an impact day one. Because if you're expecting your draft class to come in right away and contribute, then you're going to be left disappointed. So, yes, I'd agree, but it's kind of a counterpoint because I don't know what they necessarily could have done that makes them so much better on day one in this draft, unless maybe they took

one of those top wideouts, someone who is really plug and play right away. But I mean, they took two offensive linemen or plug and play right away. So for the factors that they came into the draft with, I think they left a better team. Yes, I think they left a better long-term outlook team and maybe slightly on the plus side from where they started in the offseason. Overall, I mean, on the offensive side, on the defensive side, clearly when you sign a number of players, you should be better. The only thing is to hear that, you know, okay, so Cameron Bynum, they've got him as depth at safety. We don't know still about the depth at corner and we still don't know about the depth at pass rusher it doesn't give you a whole lot of confidence that you're talking about DJ Wanham Patrick Jones Janaris Robinson Hercules Mata'afa will probably

get cut Jalen Holmes will probably get cut like that doesn't really sound like you're going to get a lot of production from that position across from Daniil Hunter. They did not get, unless Jalen Twyman is an immediate impact player, they didn't get someone on the interior who can actually penetrate or rush on third downs. And again, as much as a lot of people, certain people, I should say, are hyping up the fast wide receiver as a potential deep threat, somebody who could be used in a lot of different ways. Like, okay, I'm going to have to see that first when a guy is a fifth round pick

because a lot of other receivers went off the board first. So again, the league looked at the guy and, eh, that's not somebody to hear that much about. And we've heard this before. Oh, KJ Osborne is the greatest guy of all time, and he was his captain there, and he's the best punt returner in the nation. And then immediately it's pretty much over. So anyone past the third has to show me something first. So I can't say, oh, wow, they vastly improved wide receiver three.

That would have been the thing, and I never expected them to do it, but that would have been the thing that could have made them immediately better is if they got an earlier one of those, or if they got a pass rusher who even could have been the thing that could have made them immediately better is if they got an earlier one of those, or if they got a pass rusher who even could have been situational. I have a tough time believing Janaris Robinson or Patrick Jones is going to be even on that level. A lot of these guys are pretty much just special teamers for the first year. So that's where I say, like, for this moment,

you're probably kind of set on where you are. Let me ask them, because we still expect them to have some cap space. Is it post-June 1st? That's when they'll get the cap space. There seems to be, right, like 7 million that they have left. Now that we've seen what they've drafted, is there a spot that you'd go for that, or you'd expect them to go for that? Because I think the idea was maybe it'd be a guard if they never, if they didn't take a guard, maybe that would kind of fit that spot. But now it seems like they have Davis who would probably start right away. Maybe they still go guard there, but there might be more pressing issues. I'm interested to hear what you

think maybe they do now with that or what it sets up for or what their priority list with that should be. Hey, everybody. I want to tell you about our friends at SimBull. SimBull is a new sports marketplace where you can trade shares of professional teams like stocks. So as we jump fully into free agency season, you're going to want to get in on teams now before your team's stock rises. Go to SimBull.app. That is S-I-M-B-U-L-L dot A-P-P. We'll be right back. you earn cash payouts that are instantly deposited. If you sign up for Symbol, you also get updates emailed to you directly with the trends on which teams are on the rise.

So check out Symbol.app or follow them on Twitter at Symbol Exchange and check out the Marketplace for Sports today. Hey, everyone. I want to tell you about our friends at Scout Logistics. And I really do mean it when I say friends. They are fans of Purple Insider over at Scout Logistics, and since they reached out wanting to support this show, I want to tell you about what they do.

Scout Logistics is just-in-time transportation for full tractor-trailer loads, and if you're wondering what that means exactly, well, if you own or work for a company that needs shipping solutions, they are the preferred carrier of Fortune 500 companies across North America. And we have quite a few of those in Minnesota, right? They can ship perishable, non-perishable, FTL or LTL, and they have on-, check out scoutlogistics.com or call 855-217-2688 extension 232 to connect with them directly to find out how Scout Logistics can minimize risk and overperform and go the extra mile for your company.

After taking Davis, I would now be surprised since they already got Mason Cole, Dozier was brought back and maybe they look at it as, oh, if already got Mason Cole. Dozier was brought back. And maybe they look at it as, oh, if we've got to start Dozier, then that's okay. I mean, I don't look at it that way. But also look at the guards remaining on free agency. I mean, find me somebody. There is really nobody who they could spend there. There are situational pass rushers.

And there is a starter there in Melvin Ingram. And so right now they have about 7.6 million dollars in cap space and then they get Kyle Rudolph's cap space but that's going to be used to sign the rookie class and probably also for a Brian O'Neill contract extension to have some of the money bleed over to this year still if you worked out a two-year deal with Ingram then you could be talking about you know about having him a lower cap hit this year, a little higher cap hit next year, and feel like your defensive line was pretty darn good.

That one position is so weak right now, with respect to Steven Weatherly as a good rotational player, but if you only have one player who can rush, teams can start to double-team him and put a lot of attention on Daniil Hunter and I think make life a little more difficult for him. And that's, again, assuming that everything is good in Daniil Hunter land. It must be because they didn't draft a pass rusher in the first round and haven't signed anybody yet. But I guess that that's the way that I look at it. Also, I wanted to just quick, just interject a tiny little of snark, if I could.

And then we'll circle back to this. People were so upset with Bill Barnwell when he proposed this trade, Daniil Hunter and 14 for the Vikings to move up to 10 and then get a second round pick. And they were so upset. They said, get off the drugs, Bill Barnwell. Why are you a druggie when you're proposing trades?'d have justin fields right now just saying just saying you'd have justin fields right now if you made it and you'd have nothing on both edge spots but i mean they they would presumably maybe solve that with that second round pick or something but i mean just saying yeah i guess i

guess that's a that's a it's a takeaway though is they didn't invest in the edge up right away. Like, there were edge rushers available when they took Kellen Mond. We talked about how much ammo they had to move up in the second round. Easily could have gotten a pass rusher there. There were some that had fallen and got taken a few picks before the Vikings end up making their pick at 66. So there were guys available for them to go get. We don't know how much they liked those specific guys, but that is a takeaway now that they didn't feel that it was a desperate need for them. And so we don't know how Daniel Hunter feels. He hasn't come out and said he's all good, but we haven't really gotten something lately either

that says, get me out now. So we're still kind of at a standstill with that, but that's a takeaway that they feel, at least the Vikings feel comfortable with where they are with him. And if they had done something like that, it would have been the ultimate for the future type of thing. Like, here's our future quarterback. And also in the second round with that Cowboys pick, they would have had to maybe move up and get Ojulare or someone who could be a starting defensive end to put in right away. and they wouldn't have that. But you could still sign Ingram. You do get a little bit of cap space,

especially if you designate it as a June 1st trade. Then you would have a decent amount of cap space from a Daniil Hunter trade. So it's something to keep an eye on because when Khalil Mack was traded, all summer, that summer, if you remember, the Raiders pretended it didn't exist. They were like, oh, everything's fine with us. And then they traded him right before the season for a first-round pick. And in Minnesota land, it happened in basketball with Jimmy Butler was unhappy that whole summer.

Nothing was said. And then right before the season, when he finally is like enough is enough, it all blew up. So that's another Minnesota connection. But yeah, if both those things would happen, that would have been a total shift because it would have been a new quarterback and getting rid of Daniil Hunter. That means getting rid of Kirk Cousins too. So he would have suddenly shed so much cap space if that happened. And that was probably too much of a drastic move that I don't think we would have really

seen coming for this team at this point. I also just think that trading players at the draft is really hard because teams have done so much to prepare for the draft that they want to really clutch onto these picks. And it's just not that easy. But trading for a next year's pick is something that teams are often willing to do because they're desperate to win that year and everybody knows if it doesn't work out, they're fired. So I guess my main point in all of that, and even my little sn snark there is just that the offseason is not over my friends that there are still things that can happen here with this roster and I asked Rick Spielman that at the end

of his um you know press conference like Rick is this set and he kind of did one of those dance around it type of things but I I've gotten the impression from him in a couple of answers similar to this that it's not and that they're still going to be looking to add as they go forward here and maybe even especially after June 1st where some things shake loose so it's worth keeping an eye on and continuing to kind of circle back and ask our question like how strong are they really as a roster I I have two more things. I want to quickly talk about RG3 commenting on Kirk Cousins. And it was just, it was salty, but it was also true. If people didn't see it, RG3 talked for only about two minutes about the Kellen Mond pick. But one thing he did was call him number eight, which I thought was great. Just like, yeah, number eight. But I

actually thought though, his comments were interesting. It was just an interesting quarterback perspective, because Robert Griffin III said it really stuck out to him that the Vikings drafted somebody who is opposite of Kirk Cousins in terms of how he plays in Kellen Mond. And then they talked about it after in the press conference. And that really stuck out to me when Rick Spielman talked. I went back and looked at that last night after we did our podcast and just reviewed what he said. And he said the offensive staff wanted a mobile quarterback. I'm like, oh, really? Because you don't have one now.

I mean, it seems like a lot of backhandedness toward Cousins. And I thought that RG3, what I would respect about his comments, is that he was blunt. People could call him salty. They could say, oh, you're a bust. Who cares? But listen to what he's saying. He's saying, look, they went out and drafted a guy who's completely opposite

of Cousins. That can't make Cousins very happy. And then he said the guy has been collecting checks to go 8 and 8 and 9 and 7 for the Vikings, and, you know, that's when you start looking at other quarterbacks. And, he said the guy has been collecting checks to go eight and eight and nine and seven for the Vikings. And, you know, that's when you start looking at other quarterbacks. And again, that's true. I mean, it's said bluntly and it's not Minnesota, but it's true that they wanted to go with Cousins.

So I just thought it was a very interesting perspective. And I got a lot of tweets of RG3 never big in the league mad Kirk job and I okay but I also think that when you listen to what he's saying um I wonder what Kirk Cousins really thinks I know that he knows what's going on all the time with everything and that's that's the only way I want to put that it's just that he's very aware of, he'll say differently, but he's very aware of what's being said, what his team is doing. And this is a guy who took his previous team that was not sold on him all the way to the this with your contract to create more cap space. Will he do it? Oh, we want to sign you to extension. Would he sign an extension with them after they drafted a quarterback who was his opposite and then talked about how he was like Teddy Bridgewater?

I can't believe that. I can't believe they said he's like Teddy Bridgewater for Kellen Mond. It's like such a jab, intentional or not, at Kirk Cousins. So there's that. Let's see. Oh, the last thing. And I want you to react to these Paul is I have a bunch of tweets from

Vikings fans. I promised them that I would take the best reactions to day three and I would favorite them and read them. And so give me your reactions. Let's see. Jalen Twyman is worth 30 points in Scrabble. That's a great comment. That that is a great comment. And I mean, what was your original question? What did you say or what did you say you'd read it off for?

Oh, OK. Yeah, I should say that. I said Vikings fans give your best sales pitch in my mentions for a day three prospect. So, yeah, I mean, that's that's what I said. I prefer, I prefer that one over. He went to the same school as Aaron Donald. So I'll take, I'll take the Scrabble one. I wonder what, um, can I, can I Wong Wu? I think it was the N is silent. I believe they, they schooled us on the pronunciation. So that, that's probably got to be a good Scrabble name. Um, any others? I mean, Marcet, just so many letters, you're going to get points for that. So there's several Scrabble names in here that provide good value. Do they have hyphens in Scrabble? Would be a very key question. So with Smith-Marcet, some people love them. So thanks to

Steve for that comment about the Scrabble. That was funny. Some people love them. They think that Clint Kubiak can do this and this and this and this. And when, you know, jet sweeps are brought up, I'm like, man, they just, I'll believe it when I see it. We've talked about this for so many players. I'll just believe it when I see it. Kick returning abilities kept coming up with people making their pitches. Rick Spielman liked these guys enough to not trade back in the seventh round. I think was a great comment from Justin. Thank you, Justin, for that one. That is perfect.

He likes these prospects so much that he refused to trade back. That was good. Our friend Arif Hassan came in and said, instant chemistry with Smith-Marset and Nate Stanley. Paul, that's great. And, I mean, as I think, I don't remember who pointed out in the Zoom, several Pitt defenders now on the same, like, scout team line. So they'll be on the scout team together, you know, doing some things.

So, you know, can't replace that chemistry. Somebody else mentioned that they're concerned that Zach Davidson, the tight end slash punter, will be running toward the end and just punt the ball. Like that he'll get confused about his two jobs. So that's not really a sales pitch. More of a worry. It's more of a worry.

My own concern was that there's a Jalen and another Jalen, and they're spelled different. And I gave him a very bad grade for that. So anyway. They're two unique Jalen spellings. There's other like normal Jalen spellings that we could realistically get like a normal Jalen spelling along with these two confusing ones. We had Jalen Phillips, which was different.

That was like a Jalen, Jalen Darden. We talked about a lot, which is different. We had Jalen Holmes is the J a Y-y-l-n yeah and then this is j-a-y-l-e-n we had jaylen waddle that we talked about my gosh people who were naming their kids in the year 2000 stop it uh zach davidson unlocks some fake end around punt possibilities with fourth down playbook that came from cory thank you very much. Let's see. Vikings are starting a league altering trend,

cornering the market on D two punter slash tight end hybrids from Brandon. It's good guys. We know they like the punter hybrids. So, I mean, yes, they do. So anyway,

well, super fun to be doing this at the same time, the seventh round was still going on. And Paul, I just, I can't thank you enough for your work over this weekend. You've done a great job filling in for sam again our condolences to sam uh he was uh away attending the funeral for his mother but he will be back next week and we'll break it all down with him i know that he's um you know upset to not be here for the draft because

he loves it and put in a ton of work in the pre-draft uh but we will be breaking it all down here on the podcast and at purpleinsider.substack.com if you guys haven't gone so thanks so much for all your help this weekend paul you put in a full weekend man you worked a full week in your job in journalism did you and and i don't know did you cover any high school games for the pie press or something i mean you, you've been busy, man. No, we're, I mean, cleared the schedules for this. So glad to be a part of it. Look forward to Sam's takes here next week. So excited for that.