Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Why do so many mocks have the Vikings going DB now?

Episode Date: April 3, 2025

A number of recent high profile mock drafts have the Vikings selecting a defensive back with their first round pick. Matthew Coller is joined by CBS Sports Draft Analyst Chris Trapasso to discuss why that is and other draft related nuggets from the NFL Owners Meetings.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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draft analyst, Chris Trapasso. I'm back from the owner's meetings, got a little bit of sun as maybe some of you saw in the previous episode where I was battling the sun. Yeah, my Minnesota skin did not deal with that particularly well, but we did get a lot of information out of the Minnesota Vikings while we were down there. So make sure you check out the two podcasts that I did from the owner's meetings, but I'm back. It's snowing here, Chris. I feel like I'm much more at home. I need a slow ramp up to warmth, not just thrown at me in 90 degrees in Florida.

But how are you? You guys got snow in Buffalo? Actually, yeah, it's like one of those vintage rain snow mixes going on right now. We had like two weeks ago, we had a 70 degree day, fake spring, not really spring yet. And I'm just pumped that it's actual draft month. I mean, I'm a little sad

that we only have a few more of these left this cycle. I think our fourth time or fourth year doing this, it's so much fun. But I'm just not even thinking about the wintry mix outside. I'm glad you're back. Glad you got some good Intel at the owners meetings, but we're only like three weeks away from the draft.

So I'm really pumped. We are. And next week is going to be our vintage show at this point where we make our nineties, two thousands. And I've even changed the rules a little bit because we've been doing this for a while. I think we can go into even to the early 2010s because that is 15 years ago now, but our old school comparisons to draft prospects show will be next week. One of my favorite of the

year, but for right now, since you are inside, not going outside in the wintery mix, you were mock drafting over at CBS sports. I saw, I saw that you put out a mock. So here's what I did. I took your mock decision for the Minnesota Vikings and have compared it to four or maybe I did five, five other mocks and we're going to get a look at what everybody thinks the Vikings are going to do. And there is a very clear trend to this when I show you the mocks, but why don't we start out with yours? You have the Minnesota Vikings in your latest mock trading down and with the 29th pick,

taking cornerback Trey Amos. Now you understand this is gonna get big thumbs up for me. I have had my eyes on Trey Amos for quite a long time as a potential fit. The Vikings did talk about how much they love Isaiah Rogers down at the owners meeting, something I didn't exactly expect to hear, but it was like, Oh, okay. It seems like they really like him.

I don't think that precludes them from drafting a corner with their first pick, but explain your decision to have them trade down and get Trey Amos. Trey Amos. Trey Amos ticks all the boxes for me. I mean, I don't have my top 250 completely finalized yet. There might be a few tweaks here and there, like a guy might move up or down when I sort everything at the end.

But right now, Trey Amos is my number 31 overall player in this class. So at 29, that is basically perfect value. I love that he played, he bounced around in college, but his final season in the SEC, the production is there. You saw him at the combine test reasonably well. And I thought he made a lot of plays in zone coverage where he could watch the quarterback's eyes,

use his length, use his athleticism, natural ball skills to make plays on the football. And I just envision him continuing to make those plays in Brian Flores' defense. And I'm assuming all the other people that you picked for their mock drafts have the Vikings trading down because with those four picks at pick 24,

it just feels like a ripe spot for another team to move up to maybe get your Jackson Dart or Shudder Sanders Falls, or maybe a big time edge rusher or D tackle who's still available. It feels like the Vikings. I mean, we've been talking about it for months and certainly all the listeners and viewers know the Vikings want to trade back and they can do so and still get who I think is a very sound

high floor cornerback prospect and Trey Amos. Well, and I think that they would like to find somebody to pair with Byron Murphy Jr. and even potentially if Mackay Blackman becomes a quality player as well. And that's the thing about someone like Mackay Blackman, Isaiah Rogers, Byron Murphy. None of these guys are old, but also none of them to me, well, Murphy to some extent, but none of the other guys would say, no, you can't draft a corner and I also think that corner is a position that does take some development as well So you draft a quarter but a corner back and then maybe they're behind Isaiah Rogers for a year or they're behind Mackay Blackman and then you have

Somebody who develops and is ready to play the other thing is too that these guys get hurt a lot they get banged up develops and is ready to play. The other thing is too, that these guys get hurt a lot. They get banged up a cornerback Stu. And I don't think you can. And then I know I sound like Mike Zimmer here, but I know that you can't have too much depth at the cornerback position. And Rogers, as much as we're hearing that they like him from Kevin O'Connell, he's never played more than 527 snaps before in a single season.

He's been more of a rotational player. So I think you are looking for difference, making a high end talent within your defense. And what I like about Trey Amos specifically is not only has this man played a lot of football, which I have come to value more in college. It used to be, yeah, you want 20 years old. You want the youngest legal guy that you can possibly draft.

But now I, having seen so many guys come in after playing five years and have success and develop fairly quickly. I like when we can get a bigger sample of someone playing this much football as Trey Amos has in the sec. I think it starts to tell a story when you have over multiple seasons, someone playing the highest level of competition you can in college and doing well over a long period of time. And I'm not going to say as a draft analyst that I don't love upside. That's always the most tantalizing element of a prospect's profile.

But I think the way that the Vikings are constructed right now, and that is certainly well aware that JJ McCarthy is going to be the starter, which is, well, essentially be his rookie season in the NFL, but they are a team that is, I think a Super Bowl contender on paper. So the fact that I went with Trey Amos here did have some of that thinking in mind of he's a little bit of an older prospect. He's played a lot of football and maybe we do already kind of know the cornerback that he's going to be in the NFL.

We're not projecting him out and hoping in three years he can be a Tariq Woollen, who's very raw developmental type. This is a SEC plug and play, instant impact, whatever draft phrase you wanna use, type cornerback that they could get late in the first round after trading back. So he's certainly not the player that I've mocked

to the Vikings every single week in my mock draft, but this week it just felt right because he fits with kind of the direction that the Vikings have shown that they are ready to go. And after winning 14 games last season, all the moves that they made this off season in free agency and with the Jordan Mason trade, this team is ready to have an instant impact die

and I think that can be Trey Amos. So let's hear about some of the other considerations with this pick now and maybe what they gave up by moving back, which is also important. I noticed that you have a book taken at 25 and some folks who watched Kevin O'Connell's conversation with us down at the owners meetings did see him make a crack at me about taking a wide receiver in the first round. It comes to the

drafts. Do you feel like free agency put you in a position where you can take the best player available just trying to add talent rather than trying to fill needs? Like a receiver? Here's what I would say. I would say we've got to have a mindset of I think best player available is good. At some positions though, what you don't want is best player available has such a tremendous roadblock to getting on the field in front of them. I think when you look at some development of positions, some really need to be out there,

whether it's physicality, the speed of the game, just the repetitions that come with, um, getting a real opportunity. So, um, I think we can be in a best available mentality, uh, but I think we want to draft players that are going to be high impact players, especially, um, with our first round picks. And, uh, no, I don't think that O'Connell is a listener to the show. It's probably because I mentioned it to him the day before down at the owners meetings is why he said that. But he did seem to address my take and your

opinion as well that wide receiver wouldn't be a bad idea by saying, look, if we're going to take someone on the first round, we can't have a very difficult path for them to get onto the field. Now I will not argue with the head coach all day, but I will say that, uh, if we always have to look for now and later, that's what we're talking about with Trey Ramos is like now and later impacts, wide receivers can have that cause you can fit them into roles. Anyway, not the point. I don't think that's very likely at all. I would look more like in the third round at the Vikings for wide receiver,

but I do want to hear who else you decided to Not pick in favor of moving down and then who else you may have considered at the 29th pick Okay, so they missed out on gray Zabel who I have mocked to the Vikings I think I did it last week after a trade with the Bills You've been a big fan of his I think he is a little bit more of a developmental player. I mean, certainly then Trey Amos just given his that he's tall and like just over 300 pounds, he's going to play guard. The counter argument to my own defense there is that I said if he's like last week, if he's playing next to Ryan Kelly and Christian Derrisaw at left guard, I think some of those power deficiencies can be kind of masked a

little bit. So he went at 26 to the Rams and then right before him Tyler Booker to the Lions. I don't know if this ultimately happens but in this mock I had Booker going there because although Penne Sewell and Jameer Gibbs were freaky athletes, so maybe this is just what the Lions want to do, I feel like Brad Holmes, their GM, and Dan Campbell, their head coach, they're not afraid to like make a pick that's against the grain, that's totally counter to what everyone thinks. I think they treasure their offensive line, they want to keep it as an elite level unit, so even though Tyler Booker didn't test very well at all, I could see him being the pick.

And I also had right after Trey Amos, Walter Nolan going to the Buffalo Bills at 30, those would be the players that we've talked about that would make sense, that feel like the right value and at positions of need. And in general, I like to build front to back, but I think with Amos being there and being again, that high floor player who excels in zone coverage

that the Vikings want to run a lot, it would just make a lot of sense for that to be the pick. And I don't really think there would be many complaints here or just across the board in terms of other media members and analysts to plug him into this defense after trading back in round one. So I did get the sense that if the Vikings see someone at 24 and this is not the hottest thing, it's just, you know, my feeling.

If they have somebody who's in their top 15 or so on their board, if that person drops to 24, they'll just take them. That's, that's my guess. Yeah. that person drops to 24, they'll just take them. That's, that's my guess yet from just, you know, whatever. And Zabel and Booker are interesting for this, for the Vikings, because I've heard good things about Booker, not necessarily from people with the Vikings, but just, you know, our conversations and you know, how I feel about the idea of gray Zabel, somebody who could come in and be a left guard.

And then after Ryan Kelly moves on, you slide them over to center and then, you know, go from there and continue with the goal of building a completely freakish offensive line. I do wonder if either one of those guys are sitting there, if they would just take it and apologize to nobody, or if they would move down and risk missing out on gray Zabel and Tyler Booker. And then not not having because I think after those two guys, it's a pretty significant drop off and you can get someone in the third, but that not necessarily a starter. So I would be curious if that's the case. Now Iers have with the Vickers. Mockers, I like that. The other mockers.

So the athletics Bruce Feldman put out his mock and he has them taking South Carolina safety Nick Emmanuari. I am very fascinated by Emmanuari because we're talking about the freakiest of the freaky. This isn't even close to a normal athlete at the safety position. And when I saw him at the combine, I went, I do wonder what Brian Flores could do with this guy. Safety is not a position. I think you have to be a freak, but I think if you're going to be the Harrison

Smith, the Derwin James, the truly elite, you probably do have to be that. And. the Derwin James, the truly elite, you probably do have to be that. And with Harrison Smith coming back for one more year and the other safety right now being Theo Jackson and then Josh Metellus is in that hybrid type of role, safety has, I think, moved a little more into the forefront for me recently than maybe we've talked about earlier. So what do you think of Bruce Feldman

giving them Nick Emmanuari? I really liked that. And it's actually a perfect segue to what you were just mentioning that he, to me, and this is maybe just my own evaluation, but I also could see a team like the Vikings feeling similarly, he could represent exactly what you just mentioned, that they don't have safety

as their, even their third or fourth priority, but he might just be a top 15 overall player on their board. And I always go back to the bills. And I think back to 2023, the bills were picking right in this range, they moved up, they jumped the Cowboys to get Dalton Kincaid. And their GM Brandon Bean said he was just by far like the only first round guy that we had left on the board. We didn't want to pick someone that we had, you know, a late first early second second round great on. Amman Wary with the freakiness,

with the ball production in the SEC, he's very young. He kind of be the opposite of Trey Amos and that he's not crazy experienced. He could be someone that a lot of teams have as a top 15 to top 18 overall player where the Vikings say, all right, we're going to go and we're going to pick you maybe a guard, maybe a corner, maybe a D tackle. Oh my God, man, why are he still there? Like we're just gonna pick him. So that I think really encapsulates that idea that is maybe like plan C or D,

but it could just be completely blown up. If he's there, that suddenly becomes plan A for the Vikings. And I'm sure Brian Flores, although he would probably like to have a corner, would certainly not be upset to have someone with that level of explosiveness and range and ball production from the SEC to pick Nick and Manwari to add him to this defense.

One thing I noticed right away from is it a man worries how it's pronounced in worry. I think, OK, yeah, he a man, a man warrior. Right. OK. It's is worry. I think. Okay. Yeah. He, uh, I'm a man warrior. Right. Okay. It's, uh, is that he has played in many different spots and this is always something that shines brightly to me when I pull up the PFF grades and where guys were used and all those sorts of things, three years of being used in different spots last year, he played 146 snaps

in the slot, 414 in the box, and then 193 as a deep safety. And he had a coverage grade of 86.8 last year. I mean, all of these things kind of point toward the direction of a Brian Flores type of player. How do you compare Malachi Starks and, uh, a man worry. I have them graded very closely. Let me look at my grade book. That's right here. I have my big board up. It's kind of like Malachi Starks can do a lot of different things too. And was asked to do that at Georgia.

Um, but just as not, I have Malachi Starks five players right now and again there could be slight tweaks at the end five players ahead of Amanwari. Starks is just a higher floor and I think he gives you better man-to-man coverage ability that if you need him in this slot his hip flip is a little bit more fluid or smooth but in terms terms of range and ball skills, a man worry is way more impressive. Like again, we talked about it, I think two weeks ago, 27% of the passes thrown in his target area either ended in a pass breakup or an interception. That is incredibly high.

That's Kyle Hamilton-esque in terms of what he did at Notre Dame. I think he's Jeremy Chin at the low end. He could be Kyle Hamilton or Derwin James, even Harrison Smith, who's a bigger, freaky athlete at the safety spot. So he would represent, oh my God, we just have to pick him. We wanted to trade down.

We wanted to de-tackle. We wanted a corner, but we just have to pick him because he's still available. Now let me read what we got here written from Trevor Sikama on PFF. And this is a little bit concerning to me. Now I think if Brian Flores sees a guy that's going to fit, then we're just going to give him the benefit of the doubt and move

on and the performance. The fact that he does grade very well in coverage makes a difference to me. But what is written here on PFF is his elite athleticism and playmaking ability suggests his ceiling could be on par with a player like Kirby Joseph, but his underwhelming box play and questionable technique and instincts are more reminiscent of Isaiah Simmons, who was drafted in 2020, but struggled to find a natural NFL position now he is 63 and 227, but he runs and moves athletically like someone who's 61 and 205 pounds. But what's your take on that sentence?

So I'm not at all going to disrespect Trevor. I've known Trevor for a long time in this, in this draft industry. He's a great guy. He puts in a lot of work, but I mean, he would probably be totally fine with me disagreeing, uh, that I didn't see him struggle against the run. I thought his tackling efficiency was really good. It was over 10%. And that's what you want to see at the safety position throughout his entire career at South Carolina. So it wasn't like, you know, as a, as a freshman

and a sophomore, he really struggled and then just put it together in 2024. He was good across the board. Malachi Stark's tackle efficiency was like 14%. So he's a little bit of a better tackler, but it's not that Amanwari just has a lot of problems in the box, but what's interesting about that and what I think is actually spot on about Trevor's comment there is at 6'3 and 227, and you mentioned it,

the logical thought with Amanwari is, comment there is at 6-3 and 227 and you mentioned it the Logical thought with a man worry is oh, he's got to be this this hybrid linebacker cam chancellor type I saw him make a ton of plays at that free safety position when he's playing close to 200 snaps there Nothing at the intermediate level and certainly not down the field was going over his head because he has so much Clicking close ability that we saw in Indianapolis with the with the vertical and the broad jump in the 40 that I don't think you have to just say, hey, be our like dime linebacker. I think he can make plays like Harrison Smith has as a bigger safety with range at that free safety spot in Brian Flores's defense. So I'm assuming Trevor wrote this if if he didn't it's in the PFF profile of Trevor's great. I mean, I'm not trying to bash him at all. I just didn't see. I mean, I could see

sometimes where there were from just like wrecking my own brain some questionable angles to the football. But a lot of the times he was taking a quote unquote bad angle and still got there because he's so fast. So I could see he's not a perfect prospect by any means, but what's interesting is that what Trevor or whoever wrote that at PFF is hinting at like, Oh, you know, questionable box play at six, three and almost two 30. He's actually, I think best as a roaming deep middle safety to just let everything stay in front of him and just fly downhill on dig

routes, on posts, things like that. I think he's actually much better at coverage deep than most safeties his size. Well, and Brian Flores doesn't put these guys in a box. That's one thing that we he puts guys in the box, but he doesn't put them in a box. He does not say, Oh, well, you know, Harrison Smith, you're just going to play this role or cam buying them. You're just going to play this role. In fact, Kevin O'Connell was asked by an Indianapolis writer at the owners meetings about cam buying them. And he said that what they liked about buying them was that he could play up at the line of scrimmage. He could play deep. He played deep more often But they did move him around when necessary So that's what stands out to me about even war a is that he has already done this in college

But I also think too that it's just kind of a thing that's happened enough times Where you have some crazy freak show athlete at this position at either like a like a smaller linebacker athlete at this position at either like a, like a smaller linebacker or a bigger safety that does crazy stuff at the combine that doesn't work out. And it's probably because their athleticism was so dominant in college and doesn't dominate quite as much in the NFL, but I don't think that means that he can't be a good NFL player. But anyway, let's move on to more comparative mocks that we have. Uh, Eric Edholm of NFL.com does have a trade down and he decided to pick at

32 moving down with the Philadelphia Eagles, I believe in this trade, uh, to take Kentucky cornerback Maxwell Hairston, who is very fast. That is my scouting report on him. And I think I spelled his name wrong, so let me fix it. But as I fix it, you explain Maxwell Hairston. He's very fast. He ran sub four three at the combine and he is every bit that fast on film. He is the kind of new prototype that we've talked about for really the last

couple of years of this sub 200 pound outside corner who plays bigger and has the twitch to match up. And I constantly use Jordan Addison as an example because he was so small, plays on the outside and was a first rounder. He can match up with the Jordan Addison's, the Tank Dells, Deontay Johnson, tight players, Jackson Smith and Jigba that are not that big, but are going to beat you with quickness and explosion off the line of scrimmage. He is a freaky athlete. I have a top 25 grade on him. Um, I would really like this for the Vikings in that he's a pretty good tackler too, despite not being very big. There are some misses on film, but most of the dings

that I give to these 185, 190 pound or I guess that's probably even bigger than he is, like 180 pound corners, they're just diving at the feet of players. They're kind of playing with reckless abandon, even though they're so twitchy. Harrison's kind of like under control, despite being very feisty at the line of scrimmage

and playing with a lot of aggression at the catch point. So this would be someone that would be, I think, a home run. And one last point, if we're talking about other players, I did a bill show last week and we got to have Greg Cosell on. And Greg Cosell, during that interview, I just, we went through the cornerback position because the bills are in that market too.

And he said that someone in the league, and the league, told Greg Cosell, which I'm assuming it's probably someone reasonably high up. Greg Cosell has a lot of sources within the league said that in terms of his ability to mirror routes, he liked Maxwell Hairston more than Travis Hunter, which that I was like, whoa. He said he did not say that this player or that this decision-maker liked Hairston more than Hunter overall. But if you need someone to just, Hey, go cover Jamar chase over there. He can run and stay with that player.

This certain NFL, you know, unnamed NFL front office member liked Hairston's just pure athleticism to mirror in man better than Travis Hunter. I don't know if I saw that, but I do think he is an elite level athlete that started to have it all come together in 2024. Yeah. I think in past years, I might've been afraid of the size a little bit, uh, because six, one and under 200 pounds.

And then it's a pretty slender person. Very, uh, there's a little bit because 6'1 and under 200 pounds and that's a pretty slender person. Very there's a little bit. I mean, I never know what to make about the injuries in college. You know, with the Vikings drafted a guy in Andrew Booth who was great at mirroring and had injury problems and was tall and pretty slender and then got hurt, but that doesn't mean there's a million corners like that doesn't mean that this guy is going to be similar. And I guess his, uh, nickname is mad max,

which he plays like man max. This will matter to the Minnesota Vikings. And we saw that with Mackay Blackman that one of the reasons the Vikings loved him so much was that even though he was small and undersized, he was a violent dude. And I think that Brian Flores does not care about heights and weights. Uh, Ivan pace shows us that Mackay Blackman shows us that Isaiah Rogers isn't the biggest guy. And they're just saying, Hey, we really like him quite a bit, but here's, here's the trend that's

developing. And I'm going to move to the next guy, which is Mel Kiper, who thinks that Jada Baron is going to drop to the Vikings, which you know, I like more than you like. Uh, but everybody seems to think the Vikings are going to pick a defensive back. And I even ran just to compare the mock draft simulator without me picking anybody, just let it run through the whole first round and the PFF mock draft simulator took Melchi Starks. All the every everybody now seems to believe that the Vikings are going defensive back. So we've talked a lot about Baron on the show.

We debated him. I think on the last show, but what do you think of that overall trend that the world seems to think the Vikings are going in this particular direction? Okay so it makes sense because I think being a long-time mocker, mock drafter, when we see teams do certain things or not address certain positions in free agency we get to April and go oh they signed Jonathan Allen yeah and Javon Hargrave they don't need D-Tackle anymore. They're definitely gonna go corner. Then when the draft rolls around,

you know, at 1130 on the East Coast or midnight, we look at that actual final board of 32 picks and we're like, wait, that team actually signed to D-Tackles and they still drafted Derek Harmon. Like, what the heck? So I think it's, it's power for the course. And I'm, I'm certainly falling victim to that this week with the Trey Amos pick, but I don't think it's always so cut and dry, um, that the teams will just

automatically fill their most glaring need in round one, then their second biggest need in round two and so forth. So again, if Nick Manuari is there, maybe he's just the best overall player. Maybe they just absolutely love the future of Derek Harmon or Walter Nolan and say, look, like the two D tackles we signed, we're super excited about this year, but we want to be able to sustain with JJ McCarthy only an year two. We want to sustain our, you know, status on top of the NFC for a long time. We feel like we can get by with a ferocious pass rush, a lot of blitzing, and then

like Isaiah Rogers types in the secondary along with Harrison Smith this year, and then Byron Murphy draft a cornerback later. So it's not surprising, but I think we should continue all the way up until April 24th, talk about other positions because just because the team does one thing in free agency does not preclude them from, you know, shying away from a certain position in the first round of the draft. So why don't we do this? Why don't we do impromptu ranking positions that the Vikings could draft by the order of most to least likely.

Knowing that Kevin O'Connell trolled me at the owner's meetings about wide receiver, maybe that drops it down on the board. I thought maybe my article could just convince the entire organization, but I don't know, maybe it didn't. I'm not sure. Uh, but why don't we start out with that and we could kind of go back and forth on it. What should have the top ranking? I mean, I think corner or safety is a good discussion. I, you know, the one thing about corner versus safety is that corner is a little harder to replace

excellence than safety is. You can get good, But one of the issues with getting good corners in free agency is chauvarious ward is like 28 or 29. And corners have a reputation just like running backs of getting to their later twenties and then losing a step. And that might've even been a fear with someone like DJ ward. And then they're just not the same guy. And then, and then they grab and then they get penalties and so forth. One of the reasons the Vikings like Byron Murphy is that he's more of his own corner,

which I think is going to last longer. And he's also 27 years old as they're signing him. So when I look at corner, I think there were so many good safeties and free agency. And that was probably true last year and is probably true the year before people don't pay them. That might be influential to the Vikings with the fact that before people don't pay them that might be influential to the Vikings with the fact that teams just don't pay safeties and corners are a little harder to get.

But I kind of go back and forth between that and guard of which one should even get the top billing because I also think that if you throw Gray's able or Tyler Booker into left guard and that guy is a beast, you might have the best offensive line in the league, not named Philadelphia for several years. If you end up pulling that off. Yeah. And it's good to have this conversation because we can look at this from where I have players graded, where, where Mel Kuyper, anyone else has specific players or prospects graded, but it's important to look at it from this perspective too. Like how does free agency seem to go? Because you know the Vikings are thinking about those things. And I also wonder, you would maybe know this better than I would,

how do they view the impact that certain positions have on other positions? Like if they are like, man, we have Grinard and Van Ginkle and now Allen and Hargrave. If we add Derek Harmon to this group, holy moly. Like we yeah we're not gonna be able to draft Trey Amos most likely. He's not getting to the third round but we can just plug in. We'll just draft someone, whoever's there that we like and have Isaiah Rogers who was playing in the Super Bowl for the Eagles that were loaded up front and suddenly your cornerback room is actually making some plays and they're playing better and you're wondering why. Oh, our pressure rate is 40 to 45 percent. We're having 50, 60 sets a season. It's different for every team and I wonder, does Brian Flores

want a specific type of corner and he's very nitpicky about that or is he like hey like we've talked about Which I think is kind of where he's at. I can make it work. Just give me Mackay Blackman Give me cam by them. Give me Byron Murphy Whoever it is that I can ultimately get the most out of that player in the defensive backfield It feels like especially coming off the Eagle Super Bowl more teams lean in that direction Especially because it is a very hard, you're right, it's hard to replace the excellence at cornerback. And if you look at the track record of first round corners,

it's especially late in round one, it's hard to find someone that's like a hit the ground running, instant impact, like I was mentioning Trey Amos could be that type of player. And it's just feels like the quote unquote safer pick is usually a guy who's going to play in the trenches. And in this case, wouldn't asked or wouldn't be asked to be that number one,

you know, 60, 70, 80 pressure per season guy as a rookie. I think, uh, just philosophically corner is a better position to pick than safety. But if we look at it just in this vacuum of this team right now, and we said, which position on the field could step in and play every snap next season, if that guy is awesome. So if it's even war, a or, or if it's a tray, a most, I think the answer is both of them could corner or safety. the answer is also guard like those are the three positions where clearly there are spots open that you have a competition with Blake Brando. But you know, if somebody is really good, they can win that competition.

And right now, the way I think it would play out would be that Theo Jackson would be at safety, which we're all comfortable with because he was so good last year in camp. It doesn't play a lot of snaps and that Josh Mattel is would stay in his type of role. So I might lean towards safety being the top number one just because they have black men and because they signed Rogers and spoke highly of him. But maybe that's looking too much into it. I don't know, but that that's weighing those two against each other because I could see if you draft a tray Amos, then he competes for a spot with Mackay Blackman. There's no reason to hand Mackay Blackman that job after he's

played 400 snaps or something along with Murphy, along with Rogers, like that kind of makes sense to me. I think it's a, it's an interesting debate of which one corner or safety is a little more like they could make an impact this year in 2025. It's really fascinating. And what just sparked in my head, we've talked about that, Oh, we don't really yet have that draft prototype

or the template that Quacey likes to follow because it's so early on in his GM tenure. But I'm instantly reminded, and you know, this, every listener knows this. Last year they signed Jonathan Granada and Andrew van Ginkle. Then they traded back to the first round to pick Dallas Turner. And everyone's like, Oh, okay. And just like we talked about it, I think a month or two ago, Nolan Smith from Georgia was a similar undersized productive player that the Eagles picked

late in the first round the year before and the first season was, oh man, he's young, he was coming off an injury. This was kind of a weird pick for Philly. By the end of the season and in the playoffs and their road to the Superbowl, Nolan Smith was as good as Josh Swett in terms of setting an edge, getting after the quarterback. I think that's kind of the idea of a very similar prospect in Dallas Turner. So whether that was a one-off or the Vikings are like, hey yeah, we're like, our philosophy is bring in veterans that we know can

play right away and then draft for the future right behind them, give them, you know, sprinkle them in 200, 300, 400 snaps. That's what the Eagles have done. That's what a lot like the Patriots teams during the Tom Brady era did. They were always a year or two ahead in terms of eventual free agent departures or guys just, you know, their legs wearing out and that helped them sustain that level of excellence for so long.

So I guess we'll find out on April 24th if that's something that the Vikings would do. But you're right. That cornerback or safety, that's the one. But those are the two positions that that player could play instantly and then guard defensive tackle would be a luxury. But Edgerusher was a luxury last year, and I think it's going to ultimately pay off for the Vikings.

Well, and there's something about so defensive tackle, I think would be fourth. So if we're working out this list, I think you could say safety slash corner. If we had to do it, I might slide safety above corner ever. So slightly to number one and then corner number two and then guard number three defensive tackle. There is number four. And one of the big things about defensive tackle is if you play J von Hargrave and Jonathan Allen, let's say you play them 550 snaps each. Well, that leaves a lot of other snaps for that position for a Derek Harmon for them to continue to develop guys that they have like Levi Drake Rodriguez and Jalen Redmond who played pretty well in a limited duty last year. So I think that one of it's one of those positions and this

is part of my argument for wide receiver I'll let it go when they don't draft one But like that you can play these guys like they're not stuck If you had all starting offensive lineman and you drafted a guard the guy's stuck He's not gonna play you can't get him on the field and even a safety would kind of work that way But corners defensive tackles, wide receivers, running backs. There's certain positions where they rotate all the time and the more rotation you get, the better.

I don't want Hargrave playing 800 snaps. If he played 800 snaps, so they went really wrong. I want him playing more like 500 snaps and getting 40 something pressures or whatever, because he's used in certain situations and you could develop a Derek Carmen. So okay, I think we've got a top four. I still want to slot wide receiver in there after that. I don't, the only things that I think are really off the board, they're not going to

draft a tackle unless they can move them to guard. So that doesn't count. And then running back, I think is totally off the board for them in the early rounds, linebacker, edge rusher. And I think that's it. And obviously quarterback. And I think that that's it for positions that would be completely off the board. Yeah, I think so.

Uh, what do you think just real quick about where they might sit in the third round with wide receiver, if I can still convince them to do it because I like two guys from the same college. When I tell you that, do you know who I'm talking about? Yes, you are talking. Jaden Higgins from Iowa State and Jalen Noel from Iowa State to completely different body types, but both super explosive players who are really productive at Iowa State. Love both of them. I've I was I watched a lot of Iowa State this year. Their quarterback was a lot of fun. It's Anthony Becht's son, right?

What's his name? Like rock or something? Yeah, Rocko. That's right. Rocko. I think it's Rocko. Oh, great. Great.

Great watch. I mean, honestly, he was a lot of fun. He's really good quarterback for them. And so I just enjoyed watching him play and I was like, man, these wide receivers can really play. And both of them are kind of projected in that range. I think it is lacking in superstar wide receiver talent, but deep in quality potential number two slash three

wide receiver talent. This is the draft that, which I guess, okay, I'll say something every year. And I hope that I've never said this you always hear it literally I think that my almost 15 years of doing draft stuff you always hear the talent from picks 15 to pick 70 are not that different it happens every year there's never like 32 blue chip prospects so I'm not trying to go down that path, but I'm trying to say more distinctly that at wide receiver. Yes. Okay. There's, there's, uh, Travis Hunter, Ted McMillan is a fine prospect. I love Luther burden more than the masses, but this would be a draft where I would just wait until the second or third round. wait until the second or third round. Like there is no need to force it.

I like, a Mecca Egbuka from Ohio state. I don't think in every other wide receiver class, he would be a sure fire first rounder and it feels like he's probably gonna go there. So yeah, I think whether it's Jayden Higgins, Jaylen Noel, Tori Horton from Colorado state is a really fun watch. Jaylen Lane from Virginia Tech is also,

if you need someone in the slot who's super explosive, he's another one. Um, so yeah, I think the smarter teams will look back three or four years and go, yeah, okay, Ted McMillan, he's okay. He kind of is like a light version of, of Drake London. Uh, but really the teams that got the best value were the ones that waited until round two, round three, even round four. It feels like that's the true strength of this draft after we had really been spoiled at wide receiver with the Jamar chases and the uh Jaylen Waddle types

Devante Smith types. There's just not those collection of elite talent. So, wait until the third round and pick your guy and still get a pretty good player at that position. Okay, let's go back to your mock. Do you have it in front of you? Your Paso mock that was posted, uh, I think today, right today, today. Yes. Okay. I want to run through it and I want you to make a noise when we get to a spot. I'm just going to read the names and where you've got guys make a noise. When you get to a spot where you think it's some

sort of hot take okay because there's so much consensus about how this is going to go so just make a football noise or yell something or whatever as I start to go down your picks okay so at the top not exactly the hot take cam ward number one to Tennessee Travis Hunter to the Browns number two Abdul Carter to the New York Giants. Will Campbell to the New England Patriots despite his little tiny alligator arms or maybe not Mason Graham with the Jacksonville Jaguars which is in every mock and it should be Armand Memboo. It's all right. Let's stop there. Let's stop there. Okay. Let's start.

Well, let's stop with Memboo. Because everyone's got the flashy pick, whether it's Macmillan or Ashton Gentile. It's a, I think he's the odds on favorite to go to the Raiders at six. And what I wrote is that their new GM, John, John spy tech was in Tampa Bay. Had a front row seat to Tristanfs and saw how hugely impactful he was to winning the Super Bowl as a rookie in the Tom Brady year and just becoming probably the best young-ish left tackle in the league along with Christian Derrissa that I wouldn't be shocked if like a new GM is like I'm not picking a

running back at number six overall when we have Geno Smith and the Twilight of his career as our quarterback and Chip Kelly there. So Memboo, you don't see that a lot, but I just feel like I would be a little bit surprised if a young, I think he's relatively young, new GM would go running back at number six overall. Okay. The words stop right there are not a football noise, but I'll allow it.

And I am curious though about, I mean, Gentie is such a freak, but it still is a running back and I think that what free agency showed us was Najee Harris didn't suddenly get some gigantic contract and one guard got crazy overpaid, but not a lot of guards. So we were sitting here thinking, Oh man, this is going to be a crazy year where guards get all the money and running backs didn't really they didn't the league did not really change the way it viewed positional value and I wonder if they will or not with Genti. Alright, I'm gonna keep going make a noise

this time. Alright, Tyler Warren to the Jets reasonable the tight end from Penn State who plays like a lot of different types of ways. Jaylen Walker, the edge rusher to Carolina. Uh, should her Sanders to new Orleans. Do you want to make a noise here? I'm doing my, uh, no, that was not a football noise. That was Kramer when he saw Joe DiMaggio and the diner. I was trying to do that. We watched it recently. I was looking for like a or something like, like NFL blitz back in the day. Yes, exactly. Should Sanders will go top 10 to the New Orleans saints at this point?

Yes. I feel like that is a team that I've said this throughout the whole draft process. I think 95% of owners and GMs are like, uh, we don't really want the whole circus and Dion and my kids should be playing and entitlement. I think the saints would be one of the teams are like, we have been very blah for a long time now, post Drew Brees retirement. And this is probably the last season of Derek Carr,

who is very blah as a quarterback as well. So even though Sanders has a high floor and feels as NFL ready as any quarterback in this class, I just think that they're like, hey, we are always in cap hell. Let's get like the most expensive, most valuable position, cost controlled for the next four or five years.

I think it's a very smart pick because I also feel like having played at Colorado and gotten sacked every third time he dropped back, he is not a guy who's ready to play right away. And it would be a good situation for him to step in, wait a year. Now, how anybody feels about Chidur Sanders seems to be up in the air. My theory is that when a quarterback is debatable about being in the top,

they're probably not in the top. That just goes back, you know, to like the Will Levises and stuff like that. And the Malik Willis is that if it isn't really locked in, then it probably isn't going to go great for that guy. But this is, it starts to get in the range of this is a team that could draft a quarterback and then wait. I also, I just have no idea. Like there are some teams, Chris, where you're like, do they know what they're doing? I mean, that's exactly. And I don't think the saints do exactly the saints, cause this makes complete sense.

And I have been questioning Chaudhary Sanders with some of the way he's talked about, you know, I can turn around to franchise and all that stuff. And I'm like, are you trying to be Dion? Cause you're not Dion. But I also think he is a very talented quarterback who can be like a Derek Carr in the NFL, which you can win with if he's cheap and you build around him. I just don't know if the Saints really know how to do anything when Drew Brees isn't there. So here's the other one I want to talk to you about, which was Ashton

Genti to the Chicago Bears. Is this is this a Ben Johnson was with Jameer Gibbs draft pick for you? Yeah, mostly, uh, that they I mean, I guess this would be the opposite of what we talked about that the Vikings would maybe try to double dip at one position after really prioritizing it in free agency, uh, that the Bears also added in the trenches in free agency as well. We know that Ben Johnson, or we think that Ben Johnson understands the importance of offensive line play after playing in, or after coaching in Detroit

and being part of that ascension for the lions, now he gets his home run hitter in Ashton Gentile. I don't think he's quite as explosive with as much long speed as Jamir Gibbs. And I think that's because Gibbs is probably the most purely explosive running back in the NFL, but I do think like weirdly the running back and the run game is still kind of like a focal point for Ben Johnson. He talked about passing EPA recently

and that's really more predictive of which team is gonna win or lose a game more so than anything else. I think he's uber smart, but he was part of a staff that picked a running back in the first round and he's had a lot of success in his first two seasons. So that's really as simple as that with Ben Johnson getting someone that can be a home run hitter in his offensive scheme. Let me just throw out a couple more of your draft that caught my eye without reading your entire draft to people so they can

go to CBS Sports and read it. Derek Harmon went to the Arizona Cardinals. I like that for them and their defense. and read it. Derek Harmon went to the Arizona Cardinals. I like that for them and their defense. Jadai Baron went right before where the Vikings would pick at 21. You have Cleveland taking a Jackson Dart in a trade with the Chargers. That seems super desperate and they should be super desperate. And in years past, one of your picks would have scared the pants off Vikings fans. And that was Kenneth Grant going to the green Bay Packers, but they have a better interior offensive line now. So if it happens, never fear that the next Kenny Clark has arrived, but

he could be that I think, uh, he has the potential to be that type of guy. Okay. So next week, what we're going to do is a week away. I'm excited. I mean, we're going to pick out now pumped already, a week away, I'm excited. I mean, we're gonna pick out- And now that we can go into the 2010s, just so we're not alienating some of the younger audience,

who's John Kitna? To be able to go into the 2010s, which I'm sure you would pull out crazy names like Dave Craig and stuff like that, to go into the 2010s, I'm really excited and I'll spend way too much time on some of these cops. Love it. And that will be, uh, it's always one of our most fun.

It's right when the, I think we're, we're too far away to be like really hype and updraft and we're also not close enough to almost feel like we're there. So it's the perfect timing for next week. We will do it then. And we will spend every waking hour thinking and preparing about these 90s, 2000s, 2010 comps for many of the first round draft picks, especially ones that we've talked about for the Minnesota Vikings. So Chris Trapaso, make sure you go check out that mock and all your great work over at cbssports.com and we will talk. The best player available,

which is kind of the theme for the Vikings, right? As long as he's not a wide receiver according to KOC. Just kidding. Football. All right, we'll talk to you later. Football.