Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - What should we expect from Kellen Mond in training camp?

Episode Date: July 23, 2021

Matthew Coller and Sam Ekstrom continue their series looking at every position leading into training camp. In this edition, they discuss the backup quarterback situation and whether the Vikings would actually give the job to Jake Browning over Kellen Mond. What would it say about Mond? How do we expect his trajectory to go during camp? What's our best guess on whether he's good? Also we look at safeties and the Harrison Smith/Xavier Woods dynamic and who plays behind them. And then Sam is forced to spell camp body names. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hello and welcome to another episode of Purple Insider. Matthew Collar here along with Sam Ekstrom as we count down the days until Vikings training camp. And I decided, Sam, today is the day that we talk about the backup quarterback situation. And we really dive into it with our underrated storyline series continuing. And I'm not sure exactly what the underrated storyline series continuing and i'm not sure exactly what the underrated part of this is so you're going to have to tell me if you have thought of an underrated part of the backup quarterback competition but let's just start there and i will make this statement first and then we can go from there i think if kellen mond does not win the backup position from Jake Browning, it's fine. That's what I think.

I think it's fine. I don't think it's a thing to worry about all that much. I don't think it's a thing to freak out about, to call for anybody to be fired, to say that he's a bust or anything else. I think that someone like Kellen Mond, a third round pick, shouldn't be expected to come in and just be able to hold down and master an entire offense. And if he doesn't, it's not that big of a deal. Maybe this is just like preemptively warning everyone that this is going to be my opinion if he does not run away with the number two job and it ends up going to Jake Browning, Sam. But it's a little bit of my expectation that they're going to lean toward Browning until they can't anymore because Browning knows the offense. And that is what Mike Zimmer has always shown that he cares about the

most is how much in control of the offense are you? Jake Browning has a couple of years on Kellen Mond, so it would not be a surprise. But tell me how you feel about that statement. People will panic if that's the case, but I'm with you that they shouldn't necessarily panic. Look at what Green Bay did last year. They had a first round pick, the Aaron Rodgers era parent who was not the QB too. Now in Green Bay, I think they all assume that Jordan Love is not good for that reason. And I can see where people would draw that conclusion and people would draw it here in Minnesota too. But you alluded to this, look at what the Vikings value in their backup quarterback. They don't need someone flashy.

They need the opposite of that. They need someone steady, someone who's going to hold the fort down and put up unremarkably conservative statistics and just kind of get from point A to point B. They have never elevated improvisers or freelancers at backup quarterback just because that they are exciting. Taylor Heineke was a great improviser. Kyle Slaughter was a great improviser. He was fast. He had a pretty strong arm, but he didn't know how to line people up or what plays he was running there there's just a gigantic difference between being kind of a smart backup qb and a loose cannon um and that's that's what drove mike

zimmer crazy about case keenum is that you know and remember he started as a backup didn't quite fit the bill that mike zimmer wanted he was a little bit too erratic for him uh so jake browning is that unremarkable backup quarterback that the Vikings seem to be drawn to. And unremarkable quarterbacks can do well in the NFL. As long as in this offense, as you take care of the ball and make good throws, you can be a 500 quarterback in relief of the starters. So to your original point, if Kellen Mond is not the backup, I'm okay with that. And I think, I don't know if the team would love to keep three quarterbacks that is different than the way they usually handle things and it eats up a roster spot.

I think the real concern, and I said this on one of our YouTube exclusives, the Purple Insider Extra, that if they get into like a week 18 situation where the game means nothing and they chose to play Jake Browning in that game, that's where I'm scratching my head. I'm saying, what? Really? I mean, isn't Jake Browning also in a contract year? I think he is, or maybe an RFA year. I'd have to check on that. But you're so much more invested long-term in Kellen Mond that you do want to see what he can do when you have that check on that. But you're so much more invested long-term in Kellen Mond that you do want to see what he can do when you have that kind of opportunity. So we'll cross that bridge when we get to it.

But there's plenty of evidence so far through spring practices that in no way is Kellen Mond going to be given the number two job for better or for worse. I've been pushing them to give him more opportunities, and we'll see if that happens in training camp. I was going to say that you're getting out in front of yourself if you're thinking about week 18 right now, but last year we saw Rashad Hill get the start instead of Ezra Cleveland at left tackle when Riley Reif was out for the final game of the season and they never gave themselves any sample size of Ezra Cleveland playing left tackle

and then went and drafted a left tackle because they were just certain this is how it is and this is what we're doing without even getting a look. Now, I was mostly okay with that because it's one game. It's against the Lions. You could trick yourself based on one game. At the same time, to not even take a look at something that might matter toward your future

was a little surprising and uh so yeah i'm not going to get that far down the road but like is your scenario crazy to think about if kellen mond is not the backup for this season that they would play jake browning of course it's not crazy it is too far to look down the road to project where that's going to be by that point but it wouldn't surprise me with just the way that this team operates. If they just lean so heavily toward this is the you have your defensive minded head coach come into the mix where defensive minded head coach, the just wants to keep the train on the tracks with his backup quarterback and win a game or two with defense and then get back to Kirk Cousins starting rather than risk turnovers, mistakes, all the troubles that come along potentially with, uh, you know, getting lined up and things like

that yeah just a quick correction on browning i checked his contract so it is a contract year but he is also an erfa an erfa which means unless you're chris jones who did not get erfa tendered it is a basically a free pass to bring them back. No one else can even contend for their services. Well, that's Browning. The thing with Browning situation to hear that is relevant is I texted Kevin Seifert about this the other day because he knows all this stuff. And I asked Kevin, what's the deal with the practice squad? And he said it's not solidified yet. What?

We don't have the practice yeah we don't have the practice squad rules because this actually matters quite a bit if jake browning and kellen mond are let's say they're equal then you can give kellen mond the backup job and put jake browning on the practice squad if there are the expanded practice squad rules if they are not you might have to keep three quarterbacks if you feel like you want Jake Browning to be your backup, you can still put Nate Stanley under the old rules because Jake Browning was already on the practice squad for two years. So I don't know how that's going to go, but I think that it would be my guess that they'll leave the expanded practice squad rules

because COVID unfortunately is still a thing going into this season. We already had a Kadarius Tony today as we're recording this be put on the COVID list for the New York giants. So we're going to continue to see that throughout the season. My guess is teams will want to keep three or four quarterbacks like they have in the past. So back to circle and back to Mond and let's look at this training camp and what he has to do. It is really pretty simple from the reporter. I, from wherever we get to stand this year is he getting the reps and the opportunity. And once he is, then I think he'll win that job. But in many camp and OTAs,

he was not getting reps. He was not getting opportunity. He was QB4 doing a lot of clapping and a lot of watching and not a lot of throwing of the football. There were only a handful of reps that he would get per day in any of those practices. And it will tell us a lot about how they feel about his progress for just the amount of reps that he gets and i've kind of got a timeline in my head a little bit for kellen mond and this shows you how when people talked about replacing kirk cousins with kellen mond on draft night it's like whoa whoa everybody slow down because the timeline that I kind of have in my head, Sam, is he starts off QB four and he starts off not getting all that many reps and then mixes in with the threes

by the second week, third week. And then in the preseason game, Jake Browning gets the call. Kellen Mond comes in after him. And then after that, we'll see Kellen Mond after in the last two preseason games, BQB2. That's kind of how I think it will play out. How do you feel like it'll play out? Yeah, so in preseason games, teams don't often go four quarterbacks deep because it's just hard to get anything done when you're only getting one quarter each. I mean, if the other team has the ball for a large portion of that quarter, then you

don't get anything done. So a lot of times they only go with three. So I could see, you know, Mond being the third in the first preseason game and maybe one of the other guys not getting anything. Probably Stanley, I would think. And I could be wrong about that. Maybe they will try to get all four involved or maybe a better one caller is maybe cousins just does like nothing maybe the vikings adopt sort of the the trend of we're not gonna put our quarterback in there at all that's not how mike zimmer has rolled usually but it wouldn't allow them i think a better chance to look at these guys which they need it more this year than they ever have needed it so maybe

you start with browning go into Mond in the third quarter, give Stanley the fourth or vice versa. And then the big question is in the third preseason game, where you certainly aren't going to see Cousins who starts, is it Kellen Mond or is it Jake Browning? Because that would be awfully telling. We don't know yet how teams are going to treat the dress rehearsal game. Will it be the second preseason game or the third preseason game? Because the third preseason game is like August 27th this year. It's a little earlier than usual, but over two weeks from the season. That's going to be pretty compelling.

I was disappointed in the lack of reps that Mond got in spring practices. Cause it was like, you can count them on one hand. It felt like an 11 on 11s. It was a lot of times it was one throw during a series of, of plays. And then they would blow the whistle and it was done. There were a lot of check downs too, for Mond. So for, from a progress standpoint, caller, and you can weigh in on this too, I'd like to see him kind of like hit his first reads more often. I mean, I know that a lot of times these guys get gun shy. They don't want to throw interceptions, but I do want him to be a little more decisive with the football. If you're throwing checkdowns in training camp, you know, that tells me that, okay, you weren't quite ready to make that throw

or the defense was really good, but there were a lot of checkdowns in spring practice. So let's see if he can be a little more decisive with the ball and what kind of arm strength he has. I don't know if we really know kind of his arm strength and accuracy yet, how good it actually is, because I know that those were suspect things at Texas A&M. I think what you're looking for is just the progress. You always say this, that rookies don't get better every single day as they say they want to, but from week one to week two to week three, when the pads come on, look like you're operating an NFL offense, even if you're making mistakes, as you said, even if you're turning the ball over. I think the reason that they were not confident putting him out there in too many

mini camp reps is you aren't just worried about the quarterback. You're worried about all these other players getting something out of those reps. And if your quarterback doesn't know where he's supposed to go with the ball, which looked like that was the case several times with Kellen Mond, where he just sort of looked around a little bit of deer in the headlights and then scrambled, which is just, I mean, useless when it comes to mini camp plays. What does a scramble do for you here? And, uh, and, and that from that perspective, it's like, okay, get past that.

And now start moving the ball down the field to your wide receivers and now start to get more second team reps. And then we'll start to see, all right, yes, he's going to be the backup. Now, the other part of me saying it's fine is also because you know how I kind of like to say this, like prove to me, I have to care about you like Detroit lions. Show me, I have to care about you Detroit lions, because so far we've done no previews on the Detroit lions for this season. And someone's going to have to convince me that I should, uh, I think the same thing about Kellen Mond, like convince me Kellen Mond, that we should be talking about you, that we should be saying,

you know, is Kellen Mond QB too, or, uh, you know, is he, is he pushing and showing that there's something there for the future during this training camp? Because even though he's a rookie and even though progress doesn't happen day to day, guys who are good show you they're good. And we've seen this in many, many situations throughout the years. Laquan Treadwell was bad right away. He remained bad. Delvin Cook was good right away.

He remained good. Justin Jefferson had a off season that almost doesn't count because he was from behind and there were no preseason games, but I have no doubt if there were preseason games, Justin Jefferson would have been wide receiver two or one going into last season because he was so much more talented. I think the same thing for Kellen Mon, make us write about you, make us care about you, show something that we need to think about for the future. And otherwise I'm going to kind of start with the disposition that Kellen Mond is not really part of this conversation, long-term and quarterback.

It's Kirk Cousins. It's someone else. It's another draft pick it until there is some evidence of that, then I'm going to stick in the place that it's just not a part of the discussion for long-term quarterback for the Minnesota Vikings. Yeah. Long-term quarterback. I believe you on that. I think that there's a lot that needs to be proven for backup on this current team. I think the three of them are being graded on a curve right now. And I think Mond, based on his draft status and the way this team values players they draft, I think he's starting at the front of the curve. So Kellen Mond has to show us a little, and none of the three have showed anything like Browning and Stanley as well. None,

no one has showed anything. So I think Mond would have to show the least to win that job. Browning, the second most. He would have to do more than Mond, I think, to jump him and win that job. Stanley has to do, I think, the most because he's just got one less year of experience. Last year was kind of a wash. I don't think he had a great college resume to be honest he's not very accurate so mond even though he's been qb4 like in in the spring i still think that the the smallest inkling of flash would sort of propel him forward because the team wants a reason to care about him and they'll find it. Like if they believe that he's closing in on, on, you know, becoming that guy. Um, I just think it's an uphill climb for someone like Jake Browning and Nate Stanley.

And we're realizing more and more in color. You've pointed this out. Draft status means so much for longevity in this league that unless you are like a star within three years of a a like a low draft pick it's going to be hard for you to you know beat out higher draft picks if the talent is equal so Mon doesn't have to show a lot but he does need to show something uh and I I didn't see it in the spring doesn't say it doesn't mean I won't see it next week or the week after that a lot of time left but right now they're all kind of on that

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Because at this point, half of my closet is soda stick. To be honest, again, that is sodastick.com Minnesota sports inspired goods. Keep your eye out also for our soda stick giveaways. And during mini camp, I'll always get, and I appreciate this. How does so-and-so look? And the answer is always, I don't know that it matters. I mean, because we've seen people, your guy, Davion Davis, who I will harass you about probably for the rest of your life, because of how high you were on Davion Davis, but great mini camp. You made the team. I win this argument of a practice squad, right?

He didn't make the 53 he got elevated at one point okay yeah right uh sure i guess you win that one career catches for davion davis i believe still sitting at a goose egg so anyway but the point just being that davion davis had one of the great minicamp practices i've ever seen and it just didn't matter. So I'm not going to go back on the other side and say Kellen Mond's bad many camp practices mean that he's bad. I would like you, since Courtney Cronin is not on this week because she is away on vacation, I would like you to fill out a pie chart of things that could happen to Kellen Mond or by the end of training camp. So one of your options is that Kellen Mond is QB2, solidly QB2. The other option is he is not only QB2, but also being talked about as the future quarterback of the Minnesota Vikings. The third option is that he is QB3. And the other option

other than that is that he is QB four, which I know seems very unlikely, but I thought I would include it. So he's either the backup. He's the backup with a ton of hype. He is the third stringer behind Jake Browning or Nate Stanley, or he is, I don't even know, like he's not getting cut or anything. So maybe those should be your three options anyway, and you just have to add it up to a hundred. Okay. So here's my answer. So I would say 2% on QB four. I think that I can't put it at zero 2%. There's a sliver there. If, uh, probably would need like Nate Stanley to become the next Dan Marino, but, uh, we'll put 2% QB three, I think, would be at 39%. I think that's the largest slice. That brings us up to 41 total percent.

So after that, QB2 would be 30%. No, I'm sorry. That's going to be 35%. And QB2 with hype, 24%. You think it's that high? Yeah, I do. I just think that with the possibility of games, three games to play,

that if two of those three are two touchdowns, no picks, 150 yards in a quarter and a half, that could generate some stuff. And if that happens, I'll also be someone to pump the brakes and say, hey, like, careful now. You know, preseason results don't always mean a lot. Look at Kyle Sloater. Depends how he's getting those yards and that production.

But I think it's easier to kind of build the hype when you have real games. It's hard to generate that in practice. The games are where all the eyeballs are. There's not a lot of fans that are in attendance at these practices, to be honest. I mean, it's hard to generate much, but if the entire audience like on TV and in US Bank Stadium sees it,

that's where the hype could get generated. OK, so one in four shot, basically, that Kellen Mond leaves not only with the backup job, but with hype as a as people talking about. And we just go with, I don't know, Twitter followers and people who listen to our show and questions with hype that he could be the future quarterback. I think without getting goofy with the numbers like you did i would probably go five percent that he ends up qb4 that just doesn't seem possible with the situation but you never know um and i would say that there's more of a like 10 chance that he leaves training camp with

future qb1 hype and like 60 that he is just solidly QB two. And that leaves me with whatever is left for that is 28% QB three. Yeah. Whatever, whatever it is. 25%. I'm sorry. Yeah. 25% with QB three. So I think that all those things are possible, but maybe this fundamentally comes down to how good you think Kellen Mond is. And so I should direct you that question. Like how good do you think he is? I don't want to like completely squash Kellen Mond right now. I don't think the college tape was that great. Obviously the stats weren't great, but I think of someone like Jalen hurts a

little bit, who I think was also not very good. And then he went to Oklahoma and kind of had a chance to, to show his gifts a little bit more. And now, you know, he might start for the Eagles. So I think that college tape can be a little deceiving at times. This is a very quarterback-friendly offense because the quarterback doesn't need to do that much. You just need play action. That's very quarterback friendly. Running the ball, that's very quarterback friendly. So I think in the right situation, and the Vikings, as we've talked about, have a tendency to, you know, squeeze the absolute most that they can out of quarterbacks in a good way. Their quarterbacks typically overperform. I think that bodes well for Kellen Mond if they keep the same system.

They might not like by the time Kellen Mond takes over, if he ever does, might be a different system, different coaching staff. And who knows how that will affect his future but as it is i think that kellen mon probably has something in his dna to be a good quarterback um but it's that's such a hard projection to make yeah it's really a trick question because i have no idea uh when you watch college tape of him there are reasons that he was drafted in the third round. His accuracy is inconsistent. He sort of throws fastballs when he needs change up. Sometimes he is very stiff in his mechanics, but there's also a lot of things that you like. I think his arm strength is good. His athleticism and running ability is very good. And one thing I liked a lot

about him is that the guy just doesn't really take sacks. So he's getting rid of the ball pretty quickly. And all those things would point toward, okay, there's something there, but we really have no idea whether he's going to be good or not. So it's sort of fun to say, here's our projection or here's our guests.

Like, I would, if you say, what is the most likely scenario or likely talent for Kellen Mond? It's probably that he's a backup quarterback in the NFL and that he ends up having a pretty long career as a backup quarterback, maybe getting some shots in some games here or there. And that's about it for what happens generally with third round picks. And I asked a former NFL scout what he thought, and that was sort of his projection. Like, yeah, there's some things there, but it's more of a backup quarterback.

But I wouldn't be surprised terribly if we were wrong about a quarterback and it turned out that he was interesting. It's just to have hype by the end of this preseason with only a couple of preseason games that I would be surprised by. So let me move on to another position that we have to preview here. And that is the safety position. The reason we spend more time on quarterback is there's not that many safeties to talk about Sam, but Xavier Woods and how he looks next to Harrison Smith is something that we have not dealt with before. As you and I covering this team, it was Anderson Dayhoe and Harrison Smith are best buds and they just play all the time. And then it was, here's Anthony Harris,

who emerged from undrafted free agent to good player. And even last year in a tough year for Anthony Harris, I think he was still okay. Him and Harrison Smith worked well together. There isn't somebody who has had to learn how to play with Harrison Smith in the first year my only thing is how do I figure out how that's going during training camp because things with Harrison Smith seem very complicated where he's going to be what his assignments are what he was supposed to do on a particular play and

knowing the nuance of that watching from the sideline is tough. We could tell when wide receivers look great. We can usually tell when offensive and defensive linemen look great because it's just one-on-one battles. We could definitely tell what the quarterback is looking at. Safeties though, Sam, this is a hard one. It really is because occasionally they will get matched up with someone on a downfield throw, but that's pretty rare.

We don't get a feel for their physicality because they're not tackling. So we don't know how they're going to be in run support. And I don't expect that we'll see a whole lot of Harrison Smith running exotic blitz packages in training camp which forces Xavier Woods Xavier Woods I should say to you know communicate and to drop back into the coverage we won't see a lot of that so to answer your question it's a little bit of a mystery this is the first time since Harrison Smith's rookie year that Sandejo or Harris haven't been on the team. That's crazy, the continuity they've had, and very few injuries, too, where Smith was forced to adjust to somebody else. There was one game where J. Ron Kearse was back there, and then he quickly got pulled,

I believe, so it has not been a common occurrence. Xavier Woods kind of has that physicality in theory, like that's what everybody says. And his numbers would suggest that he's, he's, you know, pretty decent as a tackler. So that's a huge question mark to me is how is that adjustment going to be made? We saw last year that, you know, just because the Vikings had two really good safeties, and I still think Anthony Harris is a pretty good safety, bad cornerbacks can make the safeties look a lot worse. So if the cornerbacks were the same, I would have my doubts that it was going to like suddenly be cured because of Xavier Woods' presence. But I think the cornerbacks will be better, which should put Woods in better positions and obviously Harrison Smith as well. So I think it's going to be a successful pairing, to be honest with you. And if you want to get into some of the underrated storylines,

you can get into the depth safeties and talk about the future. But at the forefront of it, I like the pickup. My favorite was Daron Harmon. I'm a little sad it wasn't Daron Harmon, but I think Xavier Woods, you know, kind of a value deal coming off a bit of a down year, but his body of work suggests that he is pretty good. You can convince me that the Cowboys had no idea what they were doing last year when it comes to defense, that is not a tough sell for me. And when it comes to bringing in players that they really think are going to fit,

I'm just thinking off the top of my head but i think they have a decent track record at that not not bottom of the roster like oh we're bringing back george iloka or tremaine brock i don't think they've done well there but most people dayton jones same sort of thing but if they spot someone like a captain munnerlyn and they think he's gonna fit usually or a terrence Newman, usually that works out. So I'll just, until proven otherwise, say, okay, that should be okay. That should be fine. Now, with the backup situation, that is an underrated storyline of camp.

But I want to talk about one other part with those two before we get into who is playing behind Harrison Smith and Xavier Woods, which is Harrison Smith's contract. Now we haven't heard any updates on this. I did sort of a quick opinion on the podcast, I don't know, two weeks ago or something like that, that I just expect this to happen with Harrison Smith. But if you were him, if you were Harrison Smith, would you sign a contract extension to stay with a team where it's a little unclear about your head coach's future, a little unclear about your quarterback's future, a little unclear about a lot of other defensive players around you, including Anthony Barr, who Harrison Smith is very close with. And you've made a lot of money already. And someone will pay you a truckload after this year to come play for them. There's just the Eric Weddle thing sort of sitting in my mind of Eric Weddle going to Baltimore and sort of championship chasing.

And I don't know if Harrison Smith is that type of guy, but if I were in his shoes, I think that's what I would do. I think I would wait and see how this plays out. And then I would say, who wants the wait and see how this plays out and then I would say who wants the best safety or one of the best safeties in the league to play for their Super Bowl caliber team that's how I would do it I know that Harrison is maybe not that type of person right and he's expressed that he wants to stay in Minnesota and and maybe he is just playing a little hardball wanting to see what he can get out of

the Vikings. I would expect that a two-year extension would be about as much as the team would want to offer someone of his age. But if Smith doesn't sign an extension, which I assume will be or has been offered to him, then he is betting on himself in thirties that he's going to be just as good and be an asset for somebody next off season. The thing is though, when, you know, when you move on from your original team and you are, you suddenly become, you know, a 30 something, uh, almost like, you know, a cap liability for, for teams that, and the NFL is constantly getting younger. And we don't know if that team would want to deploy Harrison Smith the same way or give him the freedom that he has here so there are a lot there are a lot of reasons to stay in Minnesota like that that's for sure and and he's seen teammates

around him you know leave and come back and I think he likes it here I don't think he needs like glitz and glamour he's not looking to go go to a coast. It would strictly be to chase a Super Bowl. And there are a lot of chips on the table this year for the Vikings and a lot of players on that defense that might not be around the following year. So he could be part of that exodus. You're absolutely right about that. My gut would be that the team might even sweeten their offer to him to ensure that he's around because there's not a lot of money in the secondary right now. Like all of the one-year contracts come off the books.

Cam Dantzler, rookie deal, all the other safeties, rookie deals. So they've got very little invested in that position. They could probably afford to give him just a little more money and make sure that he's still with them. And knowing who is the one that's pulling the levers, Mike Zimmer, it's very hard for me to see him like not pressing the offers as high as Harrison Smith needs them to go. Sort of like with Delvin cook where we said last year in training camp they don't have to

pay delvin cook they could run this to the end and you're probably going to get a similar contract even if he's good yada yada yada yada but at the end of the day it seemed that mike zimmer said just pay delvin cook what he needs to be paid and they worked it out and that is so often how it has happened here with anthony bar cook and I wouldn't be surprised if it's Harrison Smith as well, where he's got a price in mind that says, okay, I won't championship chase if, and maybe it's highest paid safety in the league or top three or whatever it needs to be. But I just would be very surprised if they were willing to let him walk out the door and he would have to really stick to that.

And we've even seen with Anthony Barr, where he decided at the last minute not to stick to that. Okay, let's get just to wrap up the show, the two minute breakdown on the battle of all battles, Josh Metellus, V Miles Dorn, V Cam Bynum. I'll just give you my order. I think Bynum is going to win the backup job. And I think Miles Dorn,

but I'll go Josh Metellus here instead because I think he's a little bit more special teams inclined and because I picked him on the website. But you could certainly convince me of either way. And yes, Miles Dorn is not the third baseman from major league. He is a real person competing for a job with the Minnesota Vikings this year. I hope we're not forgetting the safety six. I'm not sure if there is even a sixth one on the roster, but those are the three that are relevant. And the funny thing is, is we could

literally go through the whole season and not know who the number one backup is because the Vikings just don't use third safeties. Like they, they rotate corners, they rotate defensive line. They don't rotate safety. Like last year, you know, Anthony Harris and Harrison Smith played over a thousand snaps. They were healthy the whole year. Harrison Smith got ejected in one game. That's it. They were healthy and they played and they never got replaced.

And that's how the Vikings roll on the back end. Cam Bynum is the rookie. And I've probably said this a few times. He's the one rookie that stood out to me because the team actually trusted him to play sort of above the third team they gave him second team reps and they did the same with miles dorn miles dorn and bind him together had some reps with the second team and at times at the expense of josh metellus so i don't know what what metellus would have done to deserve a demotion unless they just really like these two other kids um bind them gotum got turned from a corner to a

safety, I think with a vision in mind. They love his intelligence. And I thought he was a pretty good corner. He was a pretty good coverage guy in college. And I think it's a suitable switch for him. Miles Dorn, I don't know much about his game, but I just know the parallels. Like he had a successful ACC four-year career, very Anthony Harris-like. He's got great size. He's like, you know, a 6'2 guy. And I think Dorn, you know, had the benefit of getting to sit out a year on that IR last year with a toe injury and sort of get to take in, you know, what this team was all about and this defense was all about, which, you know, that's the same thing Metellus did.

So they're kind of both on the same playing field. And presumably Dorn could do the same type of things on special teams as Metellus. So I'm going with Dorn as the fourth safety. And I assume they won't keep more than that. So it would be bye-bye Josh Metellus. A six-round pick. That wouldn't be the end of the world. Hey, everyone.

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I doubt we say either one of these guys names all that often. Bynum is the one that's interesting to me because he was a fairly high draft pick and Mike Zimmer called him brilliant, which I think he might be. He seemed like a very bright guy when we talked to him. So, all right, last thing is now I didn't get to do this because we were kind of running around a little bit when they had the spelling bee, you know, and the girl, the girl basketball player won the spelling bee and all that. So I wanted, as you prepare for training camp, to make you spell some of the Vikings camp body players to see if you can do that successfully. Are you ready for this?

Yeah, I don't know if you know who you're dealing with here, but I was the co-winner of my second grade spelling bee along with a new sub-Romanian. And then in the seventh grade spelling bee along with a new sub Romanian. And then in the seventh grade spelling bee, which was more of a written test, it was like spell this word and write it down. I was also a top five qualifier in that. So I I've got a little bit of a track record. So try me out now that I've talked myself up, tear me down. Okay. All right. I've got a few for you here.

Camp body spelling b uh let's start with jaunday johnson who is apparently a defensive tackle and and i don't know some of these names i might pronounce wrong we've not been told what the pronunciation is for everybody so jaundice johnson jaundice um z-h-o-n-d-a-e jaundice okay that's a good try but no that is incorrect you're uh yeah you sorry second grade sam would be very disappointed it's z-e-a-n-d-a-e johnson okay oh i was way off okay now now this is one that people have tried to tell us how to pronounce correctly and i'm not sure i've quite got it but evan kaiser check scissor you know what you want to talk about just giving me the evan would have been enough because i think it's evin that's correct it is that is his first name yeah um yeah i'm gonna butcher this so it's k uh kaiser check k s i e s z S Z.

Uh, A R C Z Y K. You are so close, but no, you gave him one extra S it is K S I E Z A R C Z Y K. Okay. Okay. Okay. All right.

Let me get, uh, one more for good about Let me get one more for the spelling bee here. And that is Cole Cabral. Cole Cabral. He's a backup center. I don't want to overthink this one. Cabral. C. Did you want the first name?

Yep. Yep. Oh, okay. First name, uh, Cole C O H L. Yep.

Cab role. C A B R a L. Hey, good job. Good for you. All right. One for three in the spelling B of camp bodies. So good for you,

Sam. All right. Thank you. Well, we've got lots more to come on the show. Actually, on Monday, Adam Thielen is going to stop by for a few minutes. And we've also got the beginning of training camp. On Tuesday, we get to talk to people. On Wednesday, I believe, we get to see people practice.

We haven't had an official schedule yet. And then it's on, everybody. And then it is on. Then it is officially training camp time. And for me, the season really begins when we get that night practice and we get the preseason game. Like that's, that's when it really is like going toward the season, but it's exciting to start it this week. And you and I will be there. We'll be doing videos. We'll be doing podcasts. We're going to have the whole thing. So thank you for your time, Sam, as always. And I guess don't brag about your spelling for now. Thanks, Collar.

I've been humbled. And I will spend the weekend feeling bad about myself. Thanks, man.