Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Which top 5 prospects at each position should the Vikings want?

Episode Date: March 26, 2025

The draft is a month away. Matthew Coller is joined by CBS Sports draft analyst Chris Trapasso to look through the top prospects at each position and discuss which ones the Vikings should be targetting.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Hey, everybody. Welcome to another episode of Purple Insider. Matthew Coller here, and I am joined once again by CBS Sports draft analyst Chris Strapasso. We march closer and closer to the NFL draft, Chris. And as we arrive in the month of April, what's on your mind, man? Like, what are you thinking about the most? We got some pro days going on.

Hey, I can't believe it. Cam Ward threw the ball for completions to his receivers at his pro day. Great job. Golf clap for Cam Ward. Another quarterback with a good pro day. Thumbs up to you, Cam Ward. But no, seriously, I think that we're getting closer to the Titans taking cam ward as their quarterback. They've done nothing else in free agency. So if that drama is off the board and then we're hearing the, well, you know, they're not entirely sold and someone could trade up, which always happens with the top quarterbacks. We heard that last year, even though those teams were never making a move. So what else, what else are we thinking about? I'm really thinking about and maybe it's just because we are like a month away from the draft or you know

Somewhere around there like what is going to transpire in the back half of the first round? Because I feel like we are in potentially are in to see more Surprising quote unquote first rounders than like ever before because there's not four or five locked in wide receivers. The offensive tackle group is Will Campbell, Armand Membu, does Josh Simmons from Ohio State still go in the first round? Does Ariante Ursary from Minnesota, does he go in the first round? We don't really have a consensus on Tyler Booker, who we've talked about from Alabama. There's just enough blue chip prospects at the top with Travis Hunter, Ashton Jenety, things like that,

Abdul Carter, James Pierce, Mason Graham, but like it feels like normally at this point, we're like, okay, here are the five receivers, I don't know what order they're gonna go in, but here are the receivers. All right, these two tight ends, these three off-ball linebackers. It feels like there is more of a wide variety of opinions and projections for these players. So I'm really thinking and wondering, are we going to ultimately get to April 24th

and be like, hey, we don't know. Like after picked 16, when all the quote, unquote blue chippers are quote, unquote gone, are we going to maybe see like, Oh my God, Jayden Higgins, the wide receiver from Ohio state goes in the first round or his teammate, Darian Porter, who tested through the roofs at Indianapolis at the combine, the cornerback, does he go in the first round, who falls out of the first round? Or are we going to start to get some crystallization, whether it be from mock drafts from Daniel Jeremiah or reports here and there from Jordan Schultz and Adam Schefter? So that's kind of where I feel like normally we have a better idea of like maybe 20 to 25 of the first rounders. This year it feels like 16 and then everyone's got their own opinion. Well, you are walking right into my topic of conversation for the show,

which I have looked at two different websites, grinding the mocks and mock draft database that grab from all sorts of different mocks and then put together consensus boards for us to look at and also track how those things change and where players go with their draft stock. Because I don't know that the league is actually changing players draft stock, but yet with the mocks, they are constantly rising. And all of a sudden, it's so funny about how sometimes

somebody will bring up a prospect and everybody starts looking into them and go, wait a minute, this guy could actually go higher than we think. And that is Kyle Williams of Washington State. Okay, the only reason that I'm laughing is I did a TikTok live yesterday and I like, someone asked a question about Kyle Williams

and I like found myself going on like a three minute rant, not to be like a curmudgeon, but almost just to question, like, is this like an ad campaign for Kyle Williams? Like a few people in the media tweet about like they tweet him like winning off the line and scrimmage. And I love Sam Monson. He did it. He's great. I've been listening to him following his work at PFF and now 30 13 for like 15 years, but it was like all at once there was this avalanche and it was like now suddenly Kyle Williams might be a first rounder. And it was like where was this before? Like I think he's a good prospect. I think he's firmly

on day two. We do get to see those every year. There's three or four of those players that suddenly Daniel Jeremiah sends out a tweet and we're like whoa what does that mean? Does that mean he's hearing something or does Daniel Jeremiah or Mel Kuyper's opinions matter more than anyone else? Can they actually move up and down a player's draft stock? So I just wanted to jump in there and I was laughing when you said Kyle Williams. I was thinking the same exact player because this past week it has been like his agent did a really good job or it's the biggest coincidence in draft history that all of these analysts started talking about him all at the same time.

I think it's obvious he was in my last draft sim before we had even talked about him. He was my mid round wide receiver. And I heard Mike Renner talking about him on the Check the Mic podcast. And I sent Mike a message and he's going to show. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Renner's the best. He's going to come on the show soon and we're going to talk about a lot of different things. But maybe the the recent Kyle Williams hype. but it's always interesting to just follow that. And it does not always correlate to where these guys actually pick.

And then sometimes it does like Trayvon Walker was all of a sudden people got wind that he could go way higher than expected. And then he lands at number one pick in the entire draft, kind of out of nowhere over eight and Hutchinson. So I'm sure that we can come up with a handful of these throughout the years where either the draft analysts got word from people in the NFL that they they have overlooked player X, Y, or Z or they all started talking about somebody and then they totally missed on that. And the guy wasn't picked as high as they expected.

So because of that intrigue, I have gathered from those two consensus websites, top fives at each position that the Vikings are expected to be interested in. And I want to go through them and hear your thoughts. Like, should this be the consensus top five and also which ones of these guys should be on a viking fan Watchlist as the draft approaches So why don't we start with a position that I still think is very high on the Vikings list, which is defensive tackle I know they got two guys on two-year contracts, but they're not long-term investments in Jonathan Allen and J von Hargrave So defensive tackle is still going to be something I'll be looking at. Here is the list consensus top five using both mock draft database and

cross-checking with grinding the mocks. Mason Graham is number one, Kenneth Grant, number two, Derek Harmon, number three from Oregon, Walter Nolan, number four, and Darius Alexander, the Toledo guy representing Maxxion at the number five spot. So how do we feel about the list? Are they missing anybody? And then also who should the Vikings have on their list out of this group?

Well, first I will speak to the power of the aggregate that in general, if you're grabbing however many mock drafts that that mock draft database and grinding the mocks are pulling from there is a lot of power in that so word this is like me this is like like the movie 300 there's me against 10,000 mock drafts out there so I think this top five is really good and if you have Mike Renner on if you have Sam Monson on, they would probably agree. This is pretty much the consensus, which makes sense that you're pulling it from that.

Kenneth Grant to me, so I've had like a weird, this is gonna sound so nerdy for like from a draft angle. I've had a weird voyage with Kenneth Grant in that I don't think he provides, and I said it last week, he does not provide the classic pass rush ability that I would normally want out of a first or an early second round defensive tackle, but at 6'3 and 330 pounds, he's a plus run defender, and this also sounds weird that Michigan just had their pro day this week. If you look at Kenneth Grant's RAS, it's like in the mid sixes or close to seven, which

you're like, oh that's... at 6'3 and 330 pounds, normally those guys, if you look at Kenneth Grant's RAS, it's like in the mid sixes or close to seven, which are like, oh, that's at six, three and 330 pounds. Normally those guys, if you look at other like potential options, if you've gone deep down lists of defensive tackles, bigger guys that are six, two, six, three, three, 23, 30, their RASs are all super low. Like unless you're getting a Vita Vea or a Dexter Lawrence, usually the legitimate nose tackles, it's very hard for them to have a high RAS, relative athletic score.

So Kenneth Grant is about as explosive as you're gonna get at 330, 335. And he's only 21 years old. He's turning 22 in his rookie season. We've talked about, hey, the league doesn't care anymore. And you know, we shouldn't, these guys are 25. Like Darius Alexander, who's on this list is already 24 years old, or I think is going to be 24 years old. Kenneth Grant has legitimate upside. And so he's someone that at, with the athleticism at his size, explosion, and being that he's only 21 years old, I probably have him graded a little bit lower than he probably should

be. And maybe I'll tweak that slightly going in and just like maybe in the explosiveness category. In terms of Derek Harmon, we've agreed on him that he is just a monster. Six, five, three, 10, three tech, one tech, five tech gets up the field, big tackle radius was awesome at Michigan state transfers to Oregon looks the part that analytics profile is certainly there. And the same is true with Walter Nolan, that he's not the three or four year production type player, but the up the field electricity is just spectacular. To me,

he's my number two interior pass rusher in this class, and you can probably get some of the reason why because I just very much like you do prioritize how good of a pass rusher are you. I'm not really concerned how big you are. Can you get up the field? What was your production like as a pass rusher? And in the SEC last season, Walter Nolan checked those boxes emphatically and he's young. We didn't get to see him work out, which is a bummer. I think he would have tested awesomely.

The one name that I would say should belong in here somewhere and I will get very quickly to Darius Alexander, TJ Sanders from South Carolina for a lot of the same reasons that I just mentioned from Walter Nolan. That Walter Nolan got up the field, created a lot of pressure on a routine basis. TJ Sanders did the same at South Carolina, tested very well. He's kind of a unique under size quote unquote player that he's not three 10, three 20, but I don't really want my defensive tackles that small anymore.

So he would be the only one that I would necessarily, or that I would add. And answer Derarius Alexander, he's my Mohammed Wilkerson guy that he can play up and down the line of scrimmage, drop into coverage. Maybe for the Vikings, that's exactly what they want. Athleticism is certainly there. Production is pretty good. Even in the Mac, I'm okay with his production that he had. It would maybe just be the fact that he's a little older, probably why he's further down on this list and why he's not like my number of, you know, 15 defensive tackle, but he's a little lower to me.

And I would replace him with TJ Sanders from South Carolina. So let me circle back to the Kenneth Grant point because all these other guys that we're talking about, Derek Harmon from Oregon, Walter Nolan from Ole Miss, Darius Alexander with his production is just tremendous. So you adjust it for the Mac, but it's also incredible in the Mac. Like, hey, Khalil Mac once upon a time did the same thing. So we've seen players make that jump as pass rushers and succeed in the NFL.

Kenneth Grant is the hardest one for me, because when I look at his analytical profile, he does have a decent pass rush, win rate and pass rush grade. So it's not like he was never getting after the quarterback and he was just this big mountain. And I do think that some of the players that are like him in the NFL have been extremely valuable in a universe that we talk about all the time where eight teams are trying to run the ball more and everybody wants to play two deep safeties. Well, if you can have one guy who takes care of a lot of people and we've seen the Vikings go up against Vita Vaya before Derek Brooks is a great example of this because they might think of the right guy, not Derek Brooks.

Why do I always call him Derek Brooks? That's the linebacker Derek Brown, the guy from Carolina, from Carolina. But we've seen these guys, even though they don't have huge, huge numbers with, they put up pressures because they push the pocket. So they don't get eight sacks, but they get 35, 40 pressures. Yeah. Kenny Clark is like this Delvin Tomlinson at his best. And if you were taking a Delvin Tomlinson caliber player that might even be a little bit bigger, although Tomlinson is a mountain. I mean, that's a pretty darn good draft pick to work around with two other defensive tackles who get after the passer and some development defensive tackles and a team that loves to rush around those bodies and move bodies up front with Harrison Phillips,

but Harrison Phillips isn't the same size as someone like Kenneth Grant. So I was a little down on the idea initially, but the fact that you're 10% for pass rush win rate is, I think, like I think you mentioned this as a baseline, like you rarely find guys who succeed with less than a 10% and he's about nine and a half. So I don't, I don't mind that idea for the Vikings. And I like a guy in this particular defense that can take up some gaps and allow you to do a lot of things around it, where you might look at the end of the year and go, okay, was he, was he great?

But then opposing teams did not enjoy playing against him. And he allowed a lot of other people to do a lot of things. Yeah, that's exactly it's, it's like a conundrum with him because in my scouting grade book, where I have the five skill and talent categories, like explosion is number one. And even, even if you think, oh my God, he's, he moves so well, he's moving well relative to being 330. He's not as explosive as Derek Harmon, who's like 310 and six foot five.

He's not as explosive as Mason Graham, as Walter Nolan. So yes, he does have pass rush ability, but like you're saying, being at nine and a half for a 330 pounder is awesome. I just didn't see to the level of some of the other premier pass rushers in this class, which is why I have a little bit of a lower grade, is awesome. I just didn't see to the level of some of the other like premier pass rushers in this class which is why I have a little bit of a lower grade but everything that you pointed out like I wouldn't have him as the number two

defensive tackle in this class it wouldn't be shocking if he's gone even before number 24 based exactly on what you just mentioned that he can be a great run plugger he plays with high high energy. He's not static. He's not just eating doubles and that's it. And like I mentioned at the outset of this teams could look and say, Hey, we're going to kind of zig when the rest of the NFL is zagging, where we like the fact that he's 21 years old, that a team is going to draft Darius Alexander and be like, all right,

we have a high floor NFL ready player who's not really going to improve much with Kenneth Grant. You're like, we don't know how good he could be. Could he become, you know, a Vita Vea type where he's a great pass rusher that maybe doesn't start off like that, but by 22 or 23 years old, then he is. So it's like looking at it just from my scouting grade book. I think I have him graded like in the, in the high or the low fifties. But if he goes way higher than that, I would be completely fine with it because he's really Unique in this super loaded draft class that's filled with up-to-field pass rushers on the inside

Well, you know who that also reminds me of that came into the league and was not considered a huge pass rusher And then became that because he had the raw skills is Dexter Lawrence. His early production early in his career was okay ish. And then he takes this big step forward and the Vikings were on the wrong side of that on numerous occasions where Dexter Lawrence just destroyed them. But this guy has the rare size and athleticism to at least have that ceiling. And even if he doesn't hit that ceiling and become a legitimate sack threat, he still is a guy that you could play five or 600 snaps and stuff gaps.

So I've liked this idea more and more, even though I've kind of set my focuses more on Derek Harmon and Walter Nolan. Let's move to the cornerback position, which I think these two spots are still, and this will be another podcast at the top ranking for what we think the Vikings would do just real quick on Kenneth Grant, though, what I can't figure out if you look at the mock draft database, it's got them at 24th and I don't

know if you can't get them from trading down because we all are looking at the Vikings and trade down So if you can't get him like if you have to invest just the first round pick and you can't get other people I'm not sure that you want to do that. I'm not sure that he's worth that. But again, that's another discussion Let's take a look at corners Travis hunter number one, obviously Yeah, then it gets very very interesting. Will Johnson for Michigan is number two. I'm sorry. Is it? We just looked up the pronunciation. Okay. Yeah. Jaday Baron from Texas, who is my favorite cornerback other than Travis Hunter here. Super smart for four. I don't care how long his arms are. Jaday Baron Maxwell Hairston is an interesting one.

Blazing blazing fast. I think he's going to get overrated a little because of that. And Azari a Thomas from Florida State. They don't have my other favorite in the top five, which is more of a trade down. And that is Trey Amos from Ole Miss, who I think projects as a super solid player with some size and does a lot of things well, but doesn't have a blazing fast or huge production or something that's going to put him into this top five. But I think you could rank several other corners in the mix. Uh, uh, revel from uh, from East Carolina's another guy that you could have in

this. Uh, how do you feel about the, the top five here? This is the most difficult position to rank and to grade in this class, especially not being privy to the medical information for revel from East Carolina or revel, excuse me, from East Carolina and Ben Morrison from Notre Dame. Because if you, when you watch Ben Morrison on film, he was one of the first corners I watched after Travis Hunter and Will Johnson. And I was like, Oh my God, this guy's man coverage ability and ball skills are through the roof. Both of those players, I have them graded higher because I'm like, okay, I'm not trying to factor in, Oh, how hurt are they? When can they come back?

How much athleticism will they have? Like, I can't do that. If they're healthy, I think Revel and Morrison are top three cornerbacks in this class. I'm very high on them. Really like the ball skills, the man coverage ability. Those are huge for me. We talked about it that I kind of do.

A little bit of like box score scouting. We talked about it last week with Xavier Watts. If you're around the football a lot in college, decent chance you're gonna be around the football a fair amount in the NFL. Two other names that I would throw in here, Trey Amos you talked about, Darian Porter from Iowa State. He ran 4-3-0. He's 6'3, like 195, over 33 inch arms. We did talk about Jeff Hakuta and being that case study of like, maybe you don't want your corners that big. Reminds me a lot of Tariq Wolin of the Seahawks who had won like I think

2023 had it like six or seven interceptions or eight interceptions for the Seahawks. Came back to earth last year kind of a boom-boom or bust player. The change of direction ability for Darian Porter I think is really good too, which doesn't necessarily mean that he's an amazing man coverage guy. I think he can sit back in zone, plant and drive on the football with that length then and be outstanding. He's not a great tackler, which maybe that's why he's not kind of perceived to be one of those top five players. But if we're going to say that the first round is all about traits, Darian Porter I think belongs there. And maybe for the first time in history of me coming on this show, or maybe this is the Chris DiPasso Draft Show, whatever,

you and I are gonna disagree. Jaday Baron did not do it for me on film. He didn't. And I'm saying that I'm realizing I'm putting myself out on a limb because I can't find anyone else who feels the same way as me. So either this is gonna be a freezing cold takes clip or I'm the only one that's right. I don't know. It seems like everyone like I've seen mocks where

he's going like in the top 15 top 12 to me. And I'll admit a lot of what goes into my evaluations is like strict scouting stuff where I'm like, Ooh, the short arms kind of bug me and that he's not that big. And he played on the outside and inside and he's one though that I like to look at and I'm sure you would be into this too. PFF has him with 25 combined interceptions and pass breakups in his career at Texas. You're like whoa that's a lot on 246 targets. That's not a lot. That's a pretty low number. And when I watched him on film, I didn't see him making that many plays on the ball relative to pass his throne in his coverage area. Now he did play a lot of zone. He's mostly a nickel. Um, and I was certainly wrong on Trent McDuffie in the past. I, maybe teams are viewing him that way. And that's what they see as a smaller

zone corner that can just kind of do everything for you. But today Baron is one that I have graded much lower that I would just would not have him in this top three top five. And again, the traits are there running for for all fantastic. You love the experience that he got at Texas. But I don't know if the if the Vikings need I mean, maybe you can answer this better than I can. I don't know if they need a slot corner and I could see him being a quality player there,

like I don't think he should go like undrafted, but if you want to try to move him up to the outside or play some safety, I would have a little bit more concerns, ball skills, and I don't think he's a great tackler either. So I would substitute Trey Amos, who is someone that we certainly agree on. Um, and Darian Porter from Iowa state for Jaday Baron, Will Johnson too, with the injury, you just don't know about, you know, his tackling inefficiency last year, business decisions, things like that. So he's kind of a toss up for me as well. So my thing with Baron is really about the data with him. Uh, he had a 91.5 coverage point five coverage grade from PFF when playing in zone,

which we know the Vikings do a lot of. Also, my previous intern before she joined the Detroit Lions, she did a really cool study on the old purple insider newsletter, purple insider dot football, where she looked at the PFF coverage grades and how they correlated in the year that players got drafted at the cornerback position. Now it shouldn't be shocking to you that players who played better in college performed better in the NFL, but there were a few like Derek Stingley had that

amazing year then fell off the year before, but that was kind of an aberration. Most of the time, they correlated pretty closely of what guys were going to do in the NFL. Now, it's never one to one. It's like if you're 51% of that, that's a good correlation. But the point just being that he scored so highly in the zone coverage. And I also look at it as we might be moving away a little bit from calling guys pure outside

and nickel corners because teams are using motion so often they're using stacks and bunches. It's like, well, this guy was technically the outside corner, but he's right next to the hash. Like he's not all the way on the outside. Right. This is not condensed. So Deion Sanders lined up against each other and not moving at all.

And then they go off the line of scrimmage. Like this is lots of moving parts. So IQ plays a huge, huge role in it. I understand what you're saying. Definitely. We have to look at the percentages of interceptions and, and past breakups per target. But I'll give you one more stat on Baron. When he was targeted in 2024, opposing quarterbacks had a 34 quarterback rating when throwing

at Baron, which is pretty impressive, gave up no touchdowns. So my, my thing is this with corners, this one's harder to figure out though, because the dude who knows which corner he can watch and place into his system is Brian Flores. One hundred percent. I guess, but I am not Brian Flores when it comes to watching. That was the whole McKay Blackman thing where, well, you know, they overdrafted him according to this or according to that. And it's like, don't we think that the guy who came up with scouting and coach

defensive backs and all those things and is raised to all these great defensive backs in the NFL probably has a better idea of this. Not that he's going to be right in the consensus wrong a hundred percent of the time, but if they pick a guy, I'll be like, Oh, that guy good pick, right? Because Brian Flores is the one doing it. Yeah. And I don't think you can say that about every defensive coordinator, but like you said,

his history of coming up and scouting, learning under Bill Belichick and his track record with guys like Mackay Blackman and Cam Dansler and Byron Murphy going from like a decent corner to a interception machine. Like he really has the leeway to say like, all right, Chris and Matt don't criticize me for this or Chris don't, you know, we picked Jaday Barron, don't criticize me. I know the exact type of guy in my, and not only that, the system being so complex and one of the most blitz or the blitz heaviest in the league, I think he does have some of that, you know, runway to be like, hey, you know what, when it comes to D backs and corners, Brian Flores, if

again, he's probably very much involved in the pre-draft process the corner that they pick for for Brian Flores if he's pounding the table for it We probably should just believe them and just see how the player Plays ultimately instead of immediately criticizing it and the other thing is I'll say too and you watch all these players This is why I like our combination. I read everything on these players from the people who watch them and then look at all the numbers, which is how I do my draft prep because I don't know what I'm looking at necessarily. And also, I don't know when I would do that during the during the

season. So but I over the years, many years of reading draft profiles, reading analytics sheets on guys feel like I have a good sense for what can fit potentially with for as Baron and Amos to me are the best there. Let's go to the safety position, which is suddenly getting a little more buzz for the Vikings, knowing that Harrison Smith is coming back, but you don't know how many more years that's going to happen. And not to mention we all like Theo Jackson. We've all been impressed with Theo Jackson, but he's not locked into the starting position if they could get somebody

else who's a top draft pick. So here's the top five at the safety spot. Melkise Starks, Nick Emanuari, Xavier Watts from Notre Dame, Andrew Mucumba, Mucumba? I am not familiar with his game. And Kevin Winston Jr. who is out of Penn State, who I believe got hurt this year, is that right, with Winston? So how do we feel about this group?

It's pretty good. I think I have Mucumba below Kevin Winston, but everything else is my exact top five. I have there's a safety from Clemson R.J. Mickens that I actually like a lot. Go look at his combine profile tested very well. Four year player for them. Doesn't miss a lot of tackles, good ball skills. But yeah, this this is the probably the consensus ball skills. But yeah, this is the probably the consensus, uh, top five. Again, I'm a little surprised that that Wacuba is as high as he is, but it's probably because exactly what you mentioned that Kevin Winston got injured, I believe in week two against West Virginia on film. And I, this is a lofty statement. Brian branch of the Detroit lions is the best tackling defensive back I've ever scouted. Kevin Winston was tracking toward that distinction to really challenge him.

And I remember, I think two weeks ago or whatever we did a draft sim, we were, I think it was the one where we were kind of going together and like making the picks as they were happening. You clicked on Kevin Winston's profile on the PFF big board, and it showed that he did not miss a tackle in 2023. You know how hard that is and how rare that is at the safety position in college? It like never happens. And Kevin Winston is like 6'2", 210 and looks like a Malachi Starks or Nick Imanwari type of athlete.

Very dynamic, sudden speed, plays with his hair on fire. So really the only reason why he's not maybe flipped even with Xavier Watts, who we talked about at length last week, just instincts and ball skills galore is because of the injury. So these are the top five and a lot of them would make sense. I would say Xavier Watts, McCuba, actually the last three Watts, McCuba and Kevin Winston are probably the best. Um, in terms of just ranging from the deep middle, if that's more of what the Vikings want to groom under Harrison Smith, they want more, um, strong safety types, you know, to kind of learn from Josh Metellus and then ultimately take over.

It would be the first two in Malachi, Starks and Nick, a man worry. So what I keep coming away with with these positions in these top fives is even if you gave me the fifth best guy or the fourth best guy as the Vikings pick, I'm like, okay, that sounds pretty darn good because, yeah, I was looking at Winston's grades from 2023. Just absolutely fantastic played in a lot of different places, rushing the passer from time to time. He was a really great ascending prospect and then got hurt. Absolutely fantastic played in a lot of different places. Rushed the passer from time to time. He was a really great ascending prospect and then got hurt.

But someone like Emanuari, I'm a little bit more skeptical of because the Combine riser is always concerning to me. Melkai Starks, I have seen him play and his movement skills fluidity and I'm not concerned at all that Lewis seen was the same safety out of Georgia. I'm not worried about that different players and I think that he has a real football player e type of nature like ball hawk and do it all. So if they ended up landing Starks as someone who could work with Harrison Smith and then develop into the future in a Brian Flores defense.

I think that's a more valuable position than other places in the NFL. And I think that there's sort of the driver and the sidecar and the Vikings allowed the sidecar to go get a $60 million contract with Indianapolis. And everybody loves Cam Bynum. He's a great guy. He's a really good player. Everyone likes him. $60 million for the side car is not really something that they should be doing. If you're looking for the next leader, the next driver, that's where you take someone like Starks.

Um, the rest of them, I would not want the Vikings to go high with, but if we're talking about trading down into the second, into the third round, where you could get a safety that has a profile like Kevin Winston, then you've got my attention. Because I think the third round is still a place where you can get a difference making type of safety. And I picked Xavier Watts in my three round mock draft

that we talked about last week after I traded back. I wouldn't pick, I would only pick in this entire class for any team inside the top 20 or top 25, Starks or Imanwari in those positions. Later than that, I think I have like an early two on Xavier Watts, Mokuba, Kevin Winston on day two. The one thing I will say in defense of Iman Wari, and believe me, I get the, ooh, is this a workout warrior? Is this someone that's not really that good? I loved him on film, and I talked about it with Jadei Baron, that I like to look at the percentage of pass breakups

and interceptions to targets. Iman Wari's pass breakups to interceptions to target rate is 26.6%, worries, pass breakups to interceptions to target rate is 26.6% which I haven't maybe, uh, entered into my algorithm, every single safety prospect in this class. But right now that is the highest at the position. So I don't think, I mean, he didn't see 246 targets like Jaday Baron did. And this is obviously going from corner to safety, but when the ball was in Nick Imanwari's vicinity, he made a play on it. And I think that directly speaks to his explosiveness and the speed that we saw at the combine. It's the guys like, and we're not going to talk about him, but like

Shamar Stewart from Texas A&M, the edge rusher has a 10 RAS, but like his pressure rate is super low. It's like, why were you not like creating a pressure every other snap? If you were that athletic, the man worries ball skills and his ball production match with what he showed in Indianapolis, which is why I'm very high on him at safety. I think another guy who was like that was Jordan Davis out of Georgia, where everybody got enamored with what he did at the combine. And he was a good player in college, but he gets super high drafted when he was probably more of a second round pick type player.

And he's he's the forgotten man on that Philadelphia Eagles defensive line who doesn't play as much, which speaks to their freakish depth. But the point just being that that's why like there's a long history of who was the wide receiver that ran the four to who had no business being a first round draft. Rashad Berryman. Okay, that's one. He's one of them. Who was the guy that set the John Ross?

Yeah. John Ross, like small wasn't really a route runner. It was kind of a deep guy that Jake Browning, I think threw up deep passes to it. He caught them and then he goes that high because he ran a crazy fast 40. So you do have that hesitation, but when those things come together, freakish athleticism and production, that's where you end up with superstar caliber players. So I'm only really interested in either 24th pick, Malachi Starks or Emmanuari and the rest of them would be farther down the board I think. Can I throw one more name in there which I'm just looking let's see one two three

four oh he's my sixth safety Hunter Wohler the safety from Wisconsin now a lot of your listeners in the Big Ten go first play in the Badgers Hunter Wohler 6-2 215 is a very good athlete. He is certainly going to play more of that strong safety role and you don't want Hunter Wohler like matching up with Josh Downs in the slot. But when it comes to being that additional player in the box, occasionally making a play at the intermediate level. And I think he has got decent range in the backend.

Hunter Wohler is, if you're going to tell me third, fourth round, that range is where you think the Vikings will go or you think it would still be a prudent pick, pinpoint that name because the athleticism is there that I think Quacey would like and the production and in a big body that looks like that classic camp chancellor, strong safety linebacker, hybrid position. That's someone that I really like in the middle of this draft. I think he's going to outplay his draft position. So, uh, two shows in a row, we have some breaking news, but this is not in pertaining to the Vikings, but I am curious about your take. The New York giants have signed Russell Wilson to play quarterback for the.

Yeah, I know Russell Wilson and yeah, this just came across Russell Wilson to play quarterback for the, yeah, I know Russell Wilson. And yeah, this just came across Russell Wilson and giants and James Winston, I guess, are going to compete for that job there with the nose to what is happening. Those are two opposite dudes at this point of their careers. I mean, really at any point of their careers and now having watched Russell Wilson a lot last season, my nephew is a Steelers fan and like two or three games into him starting, he was like, Oh my God, if the first read is not there, he just doesn't know what to do.

2015 Russell Wilson could run around and make ridiculous things happen. That is no longer the case. Jamis Winston wants to throw the ball 700 times a season from the pocket. It doesn't care who he throws it to. Someone will catch it. It might be the other team. Russell Wilson is so risk averse. That is going to be one of the more fascinating quarterback competitions.

And maybe does that take them out of the running at three for the quarterback? Probably it might do that. I thought you were going to say, does it take them out of the running for Aaron Rogers, which I think is quite clear a hundred percent that it does take them out for Aaron Rogers, it shouldn't take them out for should or Sanders, but it also might be a tell it might be a tell that the New York giants don't think that should or Sanders is worth the number three pick and, or they think that the Cleveland Browns are going to take Shador Sanders.

I personally have been skeptical about whether he ends up being drafted in the first round or as high. And now there's a lot of discussion about the Jackson Dart, which I think you mocked Jackson Dart for somebody trading into the first for Jackson. It was actually the Giants. Okay. The Giants. Yeah.

Well, which of course this doesn't keep them from doing that necessarily but i think it might be. It might be a signal i don't know maybe not it might be a signal that they're not really buying in the sugar sanders because if you add james winston then you would say are you can draft sanders have those two compete have james winston do the. of Jamis Winston do the half a season and then bench him for the rookie type of thing, even if you don't think Sanders is ready. But if you're going out and signing Russell Wilson, that does not scream to me. Oh, we can't wait to get Shudder Sanders in our building. Oh, well that's, I mean, you're preaching to the choir and I'm going to the second time that I've referenced that I'm going to reference that I did a

Tik Tok live, which I like to do every, you know, for like the last month going into the draft during the day at the end of my workday. Just yesterday when I did mine, I spoke to the fact, I think someone asked me about the Giants and I was like, well, to me with Jamis Winston already, I think it that in and of itself kind of showed that they were like, uh, Chadr Sanders would not be the number three overall pick in any draft other than this one. And I'm going back to what you asked me at the beginning, like what am I looking forward to? After just seeing who are some of those surprise

first rounders, which always make that Thursday night so much fun as we're getting into 10.30 and 11 and 12 o'clock at night, my second thing I'm most looking forward to is we're going to ultimately see in three and a half weeks if we see Shadr Sanders and Cam Ward and Jackson Dart and someone trades up for Jalen Milrow or it's the 2022 draft class and only one goes and Shadr Sanders is like a late second rounder and Jackson Dart goes way later and it was all just poof, just made up like that, oh my God, we gotta be excited about Desmond Ritter

and Malik Willis and Sam Howell and who was the Ole Miss, Matt Corral, like maybe that's what we're getting a signal from the Giants signing Jamis Winston and Russell Wilson. Yeah, I was thinking with Shadour of Will Levis, how the entire- Yeah, oh yeah, he was one too Shadurah of Will Levis, how the entire year. Oh yeah, he was one too. Completely convinced that he was going to be a top 10

draft pick and then he does not end up going until the second round, which I could see being the case with Sanders or I could see Cleveland taking him at number two because they're so desperate for the quarterback position. I mean, right now they have Kenny Pickett. So that might be more signal there and then it could be interesting if quarterback goes one, two.

That's what's crazy about Sanders is you could see somebody just saying, I don't know, we need a quarterback. That's our guy. We're just taking him. The whole like Daniel Jones thing where nobody really thought he was a top pick. And then suddenly the Giants are desperate. They see him play at the senior bowl and they take him. There's a lot of different ways that that direction could go. So let's get back on track on what we were doing here. The top five from the consensus boards at the moment and who

might be interesting for the Vikings out of these boards. So let's get to interior offensive line. Now you could throw in any tackles that you like in this mix, but here is the consensus interior line. Now you could throw in any tackles that you like in this mix, but here is the consensus interior line. Tyler Booker from Alabama, Gray Zable who we've mentioned 500 times, Donovan Jackson is very interesting to me. The way that he moved to me at the combine was like, whoa, you don't see guys at the guard position move like that. And he did play some tackle. I don't know how to pronounce the Arizona kids name. Jonah.

I think it's Sava in Nea, Sava in Nea, Sava Nea. Okay. And, uh, Marcus Embo is number five here. This to me says, and again, if we assume that Kelvin Banks is a tackle and is going to go higher, cause he's a good football player from Texas. This to me says that this guard group is not particularly special. And if you want to trade down, you might be able to get the number one player on the consensus board and still be trading down.

There might not be everyone's talking about guards, guards, guards, guards. I'm not even convinced out of this group that there's going to be more than one or two guards taken in the first round I think there will be some tackles that people want to move But i'm not 100 sold that this is like the year of the guard 100 agree with you that I I think uh to see Two from that list gray Gray Zabel, Donovan Jackson. I mean, maybe there's just some of my own bias there that I think those two could be first round picks.

I would take Tyler Booker out of the number one spot. I think his combine did enough damage to his stock that he still, I think I have him as my just again, pure offensive guards or interior offensive linemen. I'm just looking at my scouting grade book over here. I still have him as the third best pure guard. Um, but not number one when pre-combine you would see him in mocks all the time. Oh yeah. This is the one true guard, maybe with Donovan Jackson, who will go in the first

round, the other name that I would throw in here is Tate Ratledge from Georgia. He's the guy that had the crazy mullet tested really well. I think he ran like sub five, oh, around there if you look at the vertical the broad jump I don't remember the exact numbers. They were really good and on film. He kind of has that Georgia, Alabama I kind of see those two schools as so similar with just like the coaching similarities and the scheme and the amount of NFL talent That they send to the league he has that that strength that we would normally see out of a Georgia or an Alabama offensive lineman, good length as well. So he would be the only one that

I would throw in there. Marcus Embo from Purdue is a right tackle that's probably going to be a guard, did not work out whatsoever during the pre-drift process. What was weird is his pro day, the Purdue pro day was like a few days after the combine, or it was like he did not have enough time to come back from injury as to why he didn't work out in Indianapolis. He's a fun movement-based, like mobility-centric offensive lineman that certainly feels like he's going to be an offensive guard at the next level. So really Tate Rattledge would be the only other name that I would maybe just insert into this top five. I will throw you out a name of a guy that I think could be

mid round for the Vikings if they're going guard. And that is Luke Candra, who is from Cincinnati. I believe there was a report that the Vikings were visiting with him and he has a lot of football and he is enormous. Six foot four, 323, as you mentioned, a good athlete has really good numbers in pass protection, multiple seasons of grading very high. He is a right guard though,

so I don't know if that changes anything for them. I mean, they just spent so much money on Will Fries. Maybe that doesn't matter when a guy's coming out, right guard versus left guard, but he's just somebody for the mid rounds. I don't think he's a high prospect to keep an eye on, but as far as the top of this group, it's only Booker, Zable and Jackson. The reason Booker scares me data wise is that he didn't grade particularly well as a run blocker. And for me, if you are Tyler Booker size, you better grade really well as a run blocker. And one thing that I

get a little concerned about is this guy was huge and he was laying people out and look, he's throwing guys, but he also takes big swings and misses, which I think does not work because you don't throw people in the NFL very often. And if you swing and miss your ed Ingram who had some really impressive reps and way too many swings and misses. I wouldn't necessarily want that. And when your Tyler Booker's size and that is like in scouting reports, if you

read those things like, Oh, he's a, he's a masher. If you're his size and you are not a good athlete, like that to me is kind of scary. Like you're big and slow. Like that is not the modern day NFL with how many upfield interior pass rushers there are. We talked about it last week. Even this class is so good and you could list off 15 to 20 guys. We're like, man, Quinnen Williams and Ed Oliver, and we already talked about Kenny Clark and Dexter Lawrence is huge when he gets up the field. There's so many big time athletes playing defensive tackle. If you're huge and you can't really move, then I that's concerning to me.

When it comes to Luke Kandra, the one thing that pops into my head instantly from my scouting report on him is that he is one of the better interior blockers. And I've said this, I don't think this class is great at all, but one of the better interior blockers at literally staying attached to his block on the move. They ran so many stretch runs outside zone where he just latches on and he is literally like running for almost full speed, fully attached to the defensive tackle, almost blocking him out to the sideline.

And that just instantly screams Kevin O'Connell, whether that's the front side of a block or that is ultimately a bootleg for JJ McCarthy. It makes a lot of sense that the Vikings would be into Luke Kandra because he is that mobility based offensive garden this class. Well, and they love to do the outside pitches with Aaron Jones and, uh, Jordan Mason is also coming from the outside zone type of system, which there are very few teams that are running that pure Gary Kubiak. All the guys run that traditional, but you still see a lot of those plays mixed in that require mobility from your

offensive guards. So there's the interior breakdown. Everyone is dreaming of. And one more position for the Vikings potential target positions is wide receiver, which which will continue to throw out there. And, you know, I thought that there would be pushback on that for Vikings fans. And I guess I should have expected that there wouldn't, because half of the state still has a three deep poster in their bedroom or in their childhood bedroom of Randy Moss, Chris Carter and Jake Reed. So I haven't had too many people say, you guys should stop talking about wide receivers.

Anything that makes JJ McCarthy better is good with me. So here's the top five. Tet Macmillan number one, he's going to go super high. Matthew Golden has got my attention. Amika Agbuka from Ohio State. I was only somewhat impressed. I don't know. It's hard for me to pick a guy in the first round who wasn't the best receiver on his team, but maybe you could say, maybe you could say

Justin Jefferson wasn't when he played with LSU Luther Burton, who I've been very intrigued by ball tracking. I know because Keena McCardell said this to me for an article that the number one thing he looks at is ball tracking. And to me, Luther Burden is very good at that. And then Jayden Higgins, who you mentioned earlier in the show from Iowa State, right? Iowa State. That is the top five consensus for wide receivers. And my question is pretty obvious here, which one of these guys would be worth a high draft pick for the Vikings? Well, I think of all of these names, it's probably Luther Burden because Ted McMillan is a big axe receiver. They're not going to pick one of those.

I mean, yeah, like if he had some catastrophic fall to 24, you'd have to consider it, I guess, but it would be almost, or it would be redundant with Justin Jefferson. Ibuca, I agree. I think he's rock solid. He reminds me a lot of A.D. Mitchell, where you're like, oh, you're big and you're fast and you played at Ohio State for so long. Like, why were you not more productive?

Like, yeah, you had other good receivers, but Xavier Worthy was making catches and Matthew Golden was making catches and A.D. Mitchell last year, that was the big knock on him, was like he wasn't that, he wasn't insanely productive. Now, I know Emeka Egbuka has the most catches in Ohio State history, but over four years, a ton of targets, I would have liked to see, like you're saying, more dominance from him and more, hey it's it's third and seven, let's go to Egbuka, and they never were really doing that. I mean he played with a lot of good receivers there.

I think he's a good prospect, but I wouldn't have him at three. Why I like burden can play in the slot and on the outside. I've mentioned a lot of things about percentages. He forced a miss tackle on 33.6% of his catches in college. That is like Debo Samuel level. Now it's hard to, for some people to grasp like, hey, don't compare someone to that all pro. That's unfair.

Well, Debo Samuel at one point was just a second rounder that people thought wasn't super fast and was just a gadget guy. Luther Burden is around the same size as Debo Samuel. I don't think he's quite as physical, but the missed tackles are the missed tackles that he forced and they were very close to as Debo Samuel. I don't think he's quite as physical, but the miss tackles are the miss tackles that he forced and they were very close to a Debo Samuel level. I like, like you mentioned his ball tracking down the field too.

If Luther burden was just catching bubble screens and making 10 guys mess, it'd be like, okay, impressive. And you know, even in the sec, you're not going to do that in the NFL as frequently. I love the way back shoulder game down the field. I thought he has very good hands. He ran in the low four fours at the combine. And there's like been some things lately about that maybe off the field or maturity. He's another one though, 21 years old and you know, Tett McMillan is 23.

Ibuca is older. Jaden Higgins, I believe is already 24. He's turning 24 in his rookie season. So Luther Burden would be the guy. He wouldn't be redundant necessarily to be an ax with Justin Jefferson. He can play inside and out yards after the catchability would certainly be there. And I think he's better vertically. Um, then a lot of people are giving him credit for, because the first thing that jumps out off the film is how good he is after the catch. Yeah, and I'll admit that I saw him play a couple of games and I thought that there were some pretty mediocre throws going his way. Oh, man, he got held back.

Yeah, that he brought in. And so I was like, oh, I think he can really track that ball down the field. But he also does have good numbers in terms of like getting the ball and running after catch. And you mentioned the break tackles and stuff like that. I mean, it seems like there's a lot of different things he can do. And that sounds good to me to mix with two receivers who do a lot really well in Jordan Addison and Justin Jefferson, and then just go to town with everyone is

open and whoever the thing is, whoever the Vikings have as a third wide receiver, how about this for a crazy stat? Jalen Naylor last year when he was targeted by Sam Darnold. It was close. It was close. I mean, he wasn't that often. It was only like 40 targets. We had like 136 quarterback rating. Like whoever you're throwing to,

that's not those two guys is going to be open. So he's got my attention more than probably some of the others. I think golden because of his 40 is going to end up going a little bit higher than where the Vikings pick. I don't know. The problem is with some of these conversations is would you stick and pick for this guy? And with burden, the answer, I'm not sure. Like, I don't know if I would.

I mean with Grey's able would I do that? Maybe I would because maybe I think he's a game-changing guy at guard Melchized Starks. I probably would Baron for me. I would but you wouldn't Kenneth Grant would just stick and pick for Kenneth Grant like that's the hardest conversation with all of these because there's a lot of really enticing prospects. But I keep finding myself wanting to say, well, I mean,

if Luther Burton dropped into the second round, then you know, you trade back and then you end up taking him. So that leads me to the last thing I wanted to ask you today on the show. Chris is is there a player that you would go Mike Ditka for and trade your entire draft? Now let's consider that the Vikings entire draft is four picks and it's not worth that much because it's the 97th and then it's a two fifth rounders. So that might be able to move you up from 24 into the top 15, possibly into the top 10, possibly into the top 10,

if there was a team willing to do it. I don't think the Vikings are going to do this. I think that they're going to trade back, trade back, trade back. Probably that 97th pick will turn into like 120 and they will get extra draft picks in the late rounds. But let's just say hypothetically, there is a top 15 player that the Vikings make a phone call

and say, we want this guy so badly that we will trade you 97 in the two fifth round draft picks our entire Ditka draft, which if you're too young for the reference, Mike Ditka traded his whole draft for Ricky Williams. It did not work out very well, even though Ricky Williams was great. Who would be that player? Great question.

I did look up. So there's like 20 different or I guess not 20. There's like three or four different draft trade charts out there. One of my or my only previous editor, R.J. White, who has now moved on to be he's like the head of CBS Sports line and the fantasy side. He's very smart, dude. He built one for us. my first couple years at CBS. I did all the math and I plugged it in or I didn't do

the math. He did the math. Google Sheets does the math. I plugged it in all their picks gets them to like 16 or 17, maybe a little higher. So it can't even really get them that high, like you're saying with the two fifth rounders. That's incredible. You told me this question before, and I was doing research right leading up to the show, because we're like, okay, safety. There's not a corner I would do it for. There's not, I mean, if, I don't want to say Travis Hunter, because that's a dumb answer, because there's no way he's falling at all. All the other corners, like I said, during this show, there's injury concerns, Will Johnson,

what was the deal with him? He's injured. Ben Morrison injured. Revel injured. Safety. Safety, either Malachi Starks or for me, Nick Amanwari, for what he could do next to Harrison Smith, where I will admit that he's not Earl Thomas or Harrison Smith in terms of his range and instincts as a free safety. But if you let him for a season play next to Harrison Smith and say, you are going to roam the robber level of the field, intermediate level, attack blitz with that 4-3 speed and the 40-inch vertical type explosiveness, I think Nick Manwari is someone that you would say, we are trading our entire draft,

we're gonna have a one player draft class for a guy that has a relative athletic score of 10 out of 10 at a need position. Nick Manwari would probably be my pick because the first round is all about traits. He has them galore. And like I mentioned, 26.6% of the targets in his area resulted

either in a pass breakup or an interception in the SEC at South Carolina. Uh, more breaking news, uh, Stephon Diggs. Yeah, I know. Stephon Diggs is signed with the Patriots on a three year contract, $26 million guaranteed for him, which is kind of like a two year deal for Stephon Diggs to go to the new England Patriots. The Patriots have done everything right around Drake May. They've spent a bunch of money. They've gone out and got a lot of veterans and man, did this guy need wide receivers and Stefan Diggs is a kingmaker for quarterbacks. If he's good to go ACL wise, we've seen this from Josh Allen. We saw he was still playing really well with CJ Stroud before he got hurt and with Drake May. That's a guy that you know is going to be open. Even if he's not the same deep receiver as he once was, he is going to be very helpful for them. I don't know if that takes them. Nothing takes them out

of the running for anything at the top of the draft. So they just need, they need players. Uh, so I ran a quick draft sim here with PFF simulator to see who would be available at 16. And again, it's hilarious that they can use all their draft capital and move up eight spots. But here's the guys who are on the board. Melchized, Starks, Luther Burden, James Pierce, uh, Kenneth Grant, Kelvin Banks, Walter Nolan, Matthew Golden. These are a lot of the guys who are going to be on the board at 24 if they want to do that. So maybe there's no real answer.

I thought that it would be higher that they'd be able to trade up. Let's say that someone was willing to take a little bit of an L on that. Okay. Even then, it's really hard to find a player who would be worth it. Pass Abdul Carter, Will Campbell. Will Campbell is probably my answer at left guard. Will Campbell going with Will fries, Ryan Kelly, Darasaw and Brian O'Neill. That I would actually do that. I would actually probably do is trade for Will Campbell. He's probably the one. Um, I, I was about to settle where you just did originally.

Like I was going to say, there's just not really anyone, but I wanted to give some answer, uh, just for the sake of the episode, but the Will Campbell one is not crazy because yes, he could end up being the third pick to the giants or like him falling out of the top 10. I don't think is like completely crazy, especially with Armand Membou from Missouri being the bigger, stronger and way more athletic tackle that kind of feels like he'll be that Andrew Thomas that goes ahead of everyone and goes higher than people expected. So he, yeah, he would probably be on the offensive side,

the answer for me, because you don't have to worry about any of the arm stuff, not having 33 inch arms, having a very short wingspan. If he's playing guard, he would still be a very athletic guard. And the the film, the the the cleanliness that he showed on on tape just as a blocker in the SEC for three seasons was really good. And that would be probably the best offensive line in the NFL, at least on paper, they got to gel together, but up there with the Detroit lions is the best offensive line in the league.

And that's why it would be at least somewhat intriguing if that happened. And also probably draft class. Yeah. Insane. Just the one player draft class. Now it's much more likely that the Vikings go from four to like 10 and they trade down and they get other draft picks and people who have extra picks are trading with them.

So I would expect that we do have a much bigger draft class to cover. And if not that, I mean, the undrafted free agent pool will be huge for the Vikings as well. But if they were doing it, Will Campbell would be my answer. Chris Trapasso, tremendous breakdown in this episode. We have plenty to go, draft buzz, where the Vikings kind of settle, I think is still very much up in the air.

But if there's any more free agency moves that could impact what they potentially do, we'll talk about those. And then we'll also have some fun along the way. Coming up very soon is one of our favorite episodes of the year, a staple nineties and early two thousands comparisons for all of our favorite top draft picks. And I think we need to do a live mock of the entire draft leading up to number

24 because we can do Sims and we can do what PFF thinks, but we should do also what you think will be on the board for the Vikings. So lots of fun to come on the way. Chris Trapasso, great follow, and apparently on TikTok live all the time. Yeah, I'm just doing them just to talk to myself. Yeah, just to, and I do get a fair amount of questions

after I'm talking to myself for a while. So I guess if you're also on TikTok when you're not listening to Purple Insider or reading the Purple Insider newsletter, uh, be on the lookout. I think you can set like a alert or a notification if you follow me that it'll say Chris Trappasso is live. I'm going to try to do one once every day, every other day, leading up to the draft just to answer questions about prospects and team fits, things like that. Sounds good. Thank you as always for your time and we'll talk to y'all later. Football.