Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Will the defense be the strength of the Vikings (fan questions Part 2)

Episode Date: August 2, 2024

Matthew Coller continues his discussion with Vikings fans about the defense and QB situation Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

🎵 uh charles says do you think the defense will be stars of this year it's going to be hard unless they get some surprising cornerback play to be fantastic but could the defense be good enough and Brian Flores be good enough to keep this team in the mix for the playoffs down the stretch? The answer is yes, because if you even look at Miami when he was there and how their defenses worked, this is the advantage of having a great defensive coordinator who should actually be a head coach is that there's a real edge there. There is a very real edge to having a great defensive coordinator. If you have great coaching and great play calling at that position, look,

Pittsburgh makes the playoffs every year because they have a guy in Mike Tomlin, whose defense every year gives them a chance to win games. That's kind of how I see this year playing out for the Vikings is that Flores is defense. It gives them a chance week in and week out. It might is that Flores' defense, it gives them a chance week in and week out. It might not be the number one defense, but it gives them a chance to win enough games to be competitive. And he did that in Miami without very good offenses and they found ways to

have winning records. That's how I envision this going. And the defense defense one thing that sound it might sound weird a little bit as a factor but everybody really likes it i mean and everyone would normally say to you oh yeah well i like the defensive scheme there is a different passion when you ask people about playing for flores in the scheme they don't just like oh yeah well you know i'm doing my job or whatever. They really like the environment he's created. And that matters too, for how well they pick it up and understand it. Matt says, who are the early leaders for Mr. Mankato? Reichardt. Well, Reichardt did miss those two kicks the other day. So I'm concerned. I'm not that concerned, but Reichardt is up there. Preseason games are going to matter for him.

If he does something like seven for seven in preseason games, he's got a good chance of being Mr. Mankato. Lucky Jackson also is putting his name in the mix for somebody that could do that. Let me think. Is there somebody on the defensive side? That's going to have to present itself maybe a little more in games, but wide receivers usually have a good chance at making a name for themselves. defensive side that's going to have to present itself maybe a little more in games but you know

wide receivers usually have a good chance at making a name for themselves lucky jackson is probably that guy jaylen nailer to me does not count because jaylen nailer has played in games and caught passes before not a lot of them but he's done it before he had his chance at mr mancato he didn't get it then so he can't be on the list he's been the breakout third year player but he can't be in that conversation maybe dwight mcglothern i like what i've seen from dwight mcglothern each day he's out there he moves extremely well undrafted free agent guy but you couldn't tell that by his size when you actually see him he does not look like somebody who was a UDFA because the way that he moves and he looks like he played the football.

That's a guy if he gets a pick or something, pick six in a preseason game. That really does play a big role in it because every Vikings fan can watch the preseason game and say, like, oh, yeah, I saw this guy do X, Y and Z. Maybe it's a kick returner. Maybe there's a somebody we don't even realize Ty James or somebody that's going to kick return and get Mr. Mankato right now. I would probably say it's a lucky Jackson. He's done a really good job. Uh, Jordy says, uh, given the practice squad rule changes this year allowing qb3 having unlimited elevations and mccarthy firmly being qb2 well don't don't suggest you've got a depth chart jordy don't you walk into this live stream and say there's a death just kidding uh does it make sense uh if the initial

53 has only two quarterbacks if they they, I am curious about this. This is a good question because if they cut Nick Mullins, would someone pick him up? They probably would, right? His statistics over his career is probably better than most backup quarterbacks. I think he has something like an 88 quarterback rating

despite all the interceptions and knowing what kind of person Nick Mullins is someone I think would pick him up if you decided to cut him because there are some teams that are just atrocious at backup quarterback. That would be my guess. I suspect that they will keep the three quarterbacks. Kevin O'Connell has a great respect for Nick Mullins. He's the veteran in the room. There's no other veteran. He wants him there by JJ McCarthy side by Sam Darnold side. Cause Sam Darnold is still a younger quarterback. Who's inexperienced. That's just my guess at this point, when I make my 53, I will put Nick Mullins on it,

but maybe if JJ McCarthy wins the job, then they'll just go with Sam Darnold and cut Nick Mullins and put him on the practice squad if they can. If there's an opportunity to do that, because, yes, you can have those unlimited elevations. It's a good question. I actually don't really know the answer to it. It feels like the way that Kevin O'Connell has talked about Nick Mullins, that he wants him to be as a part of that room. And that makes sense to me. Jonathan says, has your opinion of McCarthy changed since pre-draft? When it comes to the draft versus actually seeing them, how it works for me and call it a cop out if you want. I don't care what I thought about JJ McCarthy going into the draft. I look at the information that we have. I do the interviews.

I talk to people at the combine and we do the whole thing. And I give you my takes on is, do I think he's gonna be a good quarterback or not be a good quarterback or whatever? And should they draft them at this spot or this spot? Actually, no. What I do is I give you ideas of what I think the odds are of certain things.

That's how I look at everything is, all right, what are the odds that this has happened? Are there historical things? What are my concerns? What do I like about the guy? That's what I give you during the draft. And then as soon as the guy puts on purple and goes on the practice field, I don't care what I said because now I have real information I can work with. The college information historically ask teams is not that

great that it doesn't tell you a lot about how someone's going to adapt. I mean, think about this. My friend, Sage Rosenfels, former Viking quarterback was training Brock Purdy going into the draft. How cool is that now? Right. He was training Brock Purdy going into the draft. How cool is that now? Right. He was training Brock Purdy, Iowa state connection. And I asked him, Hey, what do you think? And he's like, no, I like this kid. I think he could be a career backup. And that's a huge compliment by the way, like for a seventh round pick late round guy, think he could play in the league. Like that's a big compliment. That's good. Good, good for him. And that's what I thought. Well, that's really cool, man. That would be great great if you trained a guy that stayed in the league for a long time

guy went to the super bowl like we don't know anything that brock purdy had a long career how do we know anything there have been quarterbacks who i thought are going to be terrible in the nfl have been great ones who i've thought were going to be great that did turn out to be great it i just feel like we know so little when I start to know things is when I can actually see them during NFL practices. And that's why I can come back and say about JJ McCarthy, like maybe the, maybe the odds when he was in college of success are, I mean, if he's a top 10 draft pick, the odds are pretty high, by the way, if you're picked that high, that's the best indicator of your odds is where you're picked.

Top 10, okay. Top 10 quarterbacks have a great chance of success in the NFL relative to quarterbacks from anywhere else. Take it. So that, okay, that's a good sign. Quarterbacks who are known more for their winning than their stats, maybe you're a little suspicious uh at that point i i

think that i probably was suspicious of that uh why didn't they pass more with him all those things but that seems like a lifetime ago i couldn't care less about that that's a draft conversation but now it's how does he look on a daily basis how does he look throwing to nfl players behind nfl offensive lines all those things that matters a lot more. And my takeaway so far is that he's handled all of this very, very well. The arm talent looks like it's there. I think even on the first day I said,

gosh, the guy looks big. He just looks like, like a big kid who could throw the ball very hard. The way he's handled his personality has been really good character wise, relating to his teammates, acting like a leader out there, all those things. You know, all that's been, all that's been very good. So I don't hold onto those things. That's not my job to do that. That's somebody, some other draft analyst. I try my best to give you the most information that I can in the

draft, but I don't hang onto it. As soon as that's over, the guy is a Viking and we'll see how it plays out. Sloth, how has the long snapping been? Pristine as always. Shout out Andrew DiPaola, who has been a phenomenal long snapper since he got here. Only kidding. Heard Asamoah flash today.

Could it be real or maybe a swan song? Now, I would never depth chart here, but the way it looks to me is that your starting linebackers are probably, no, not probably, absolutely Ivan Pace and Cashman, Blake Cashman. And Kamu Grugier-Hill is the veteran backup who I would suspect would play before Brian Asamoah. I mean, we won't know that till someone gets banged up. That's would be my guess is that Kamu Grugier Hill would play first.

I don't have much expectation flashing in a camp practice at this point after two years in the NFL doesn't mean a whole heck of a lot and not playing basically at all in those two seasons just doesn't mean much. It's the same thing with Andrew Booth Jr. If he has a good practice somewhere, it's like, look, we've already got the sample here of this. Asamoah just doesn't look like he's really part of the operation. And if it looks different, I'll let you know, But pretty much shrugs on all three of those guys from the 2022 draft class. What about Bob? What's the over-under on Jefferson touchdowns?

I'd say nine and a half. They just put so much attention on him in the red zone that I can't go nine and a half. Maybe seven. Just everyone runs at him. As soon as they get to the red zone, Aaron Jones, though, Aaron Jones could score a lot of touchdowns. David says, how will JJ do with the ones when Bradbury sweats on the ball? That is so funny.

What a deep cut from when Kirk cousin said that his butt was sweaty. Just put it under the law. Kirk said something the other day on TV where I kind of went like, oh yeah, I remember that. I remember how he would just say weird stuff like that. That was a very odd thing to bring up. You have to also agree with that. Talking about how sweaty someone's butt is is a pretty strange

comment and i remember what i remember about that is that garrett bradbury did not think it was funny but if you walked off the field after practice thinking like oh what a nice day today i think we had a good practice and a bunch of people ran up to you and were like hey is your butt sweaty probably not be very pleased uh i think it will be manageable for the quarterbacks that his, uh, his tush ends up sweating a lot, which Hey, by the way, you know, it's late at night here. I'll admit this. It happens to a lot of people when it's 90 degrees out there. I don't know who's, who's butt wouldn't sweat at 90 degrees. That's the main point of this live stream. Thaddeus, is Hawkinson doing anything on the extra fields?

Just walking around, a little bit of running, I think, but I don't want to say for sure exactly what he's been doing because I haven't really paid much attention to him. Sadly, I'm sure he wants to be out there playing, but I haven't been writing down on a daily basis what I've seen him doing. Just rehabbing. That's all I can really tell you. It's nowhere close with TJ Hawkinson.

It was never going to be anywhere close. If he starts to do any drills, then it will be very much of note. Aside from that, it's just working up that strength and that acl over and over not the first guy that has had to do it on those practice fields it is mentally i think really difficult because everybody else is all sweating and practicing and working hard and installing the offense and getting ready and tj hockinson really loves football. I mean, I know that everybody loves football. This guy is football obsessed. I mean, look how fast he picked up the offense when he got here.

It's got to be crushing him to be over there. I really do feel bad. But he'll come along when he comes along, and if he starts doing actual work with the team, and even in warm-up drills, it would be a big deal. Alex says, what makes you confident the pass rush will be improved when Harrison Phillips is the only quality defensive lineman they've got.

You must be a fan of another team. That's all I have to say. I mean, really like if you don't know that Jonathan Grenard had 12 and a half sacks last year, or you know, the way that Andrew Van Ginkle has played in his career or Dallas Turner's talent. I don't really know what to tell you.

Harrison Phillips is not much of a pass rusher, but they will, they'll create pass rush also through guys who can blitz it. And I actually think you should keep an eye on Blake Cashman and his blitzing because it could be more impactful than he was in Houston. What about Bob says, have you seen Addison returning punts? Yes, I have taken note that Addison has been, I would call it catching punts. There is a difference between returning punts and catching punts. He has been catching punts. I don't know what to say about that. He's not going to do that in games.

This isn't Randy Moss against Kansas City. He's not going to do that in games. This isn't Randy Moss against Kansas City. He's not going to be returning punts in games. Maybe this. Let's say that it is the last play of the game, a last drive of the game. There's 30 seconds left against the Packers. They are punting, and you need a huge return to have any chance to tie the game. Maybe Jordan Addison would go back there because he was a phenomenal punt returner in college. Maybe, but I doubt it. They're going to have Brandon Powell back there. I think that's

the only reason. I don't really understand. I think that's the only reason. If you were to make the Super Bowl, maybe you have Jordan Addison return punts in the Super Bowl. I don't know. I don't really get it why he's back there doing that. If he does, I'll be the first to say I was wrong about that. Brandon Powell is the punt returner. Thayer Thomas had tried it last year. It didn't really work out all that good.

I'm not really sure I quite understand. I think it's really the emergency situation. If we need a return to try to tie a game or something, let's throw Addison back there. He's a special playmaker. Maybe he'll have a shot at it. That's the best I can do. I think Kansas city did that against the Vikings,

right? They put Tyree kill back there and then that scared the punter and he kicked it out of bounds. Harrison Bucker kicks the field goal in 2019. Let's see. Evan says, just watch KOC's answer to the last question of the press conference yesterday.

That guy knows what he's doing is intentional and methodical about it. I never thought that he wasn't. I mean, I've always been very willing to say, I'm going to wait and see how you handle this. But I figured that he knew how to, uh, because he was a former quarterback. He's got Josh McCown here. This isn't some sort of clown operation that I would be going out.

They're going to mess this up, fellas. And this, this is people who have done it themselves. They've been developed. They've developed quarterbacks. They've worked for for years now with with all sorts of different types of quarterbacks they should have a plan for how jj mccarthy is going to be worked in and that's why i am watching it on a daily basis and say all right well here's how it looks to me and here's what's happening but i'm not questioning this approach because I think it was very well thought out how they were going to do it, which is probably why Kevin O'Connell is a little defensive about it. Like, guys, I've got a plan

here. I'm not just flying by the seat of my pants and Sam Darnold has one bad practice. No, no, throw in McCarthy. I'm tired of this. It's, this is written on a chalkboard somewhere, all the steps that he wants McCarthy to take. And we'll get there. And, uh, I know that it's not a usual thing when we're analyzing football to just say, yeah, actually, I think the coach probably has this figured out and, uh, we'll watch and see what happens, you know? I mean, but that is kind of how I'm taking it for now. And if there's anything that is off kilter or strange to me about how they're handling this, but even if we get to the end of the summer and McCarthy has a great training camp overall.

And even if I feel myself that he has played better than Sam Darnold by the end of this training camp, but he doesn't start week one, I am still not going to say, what are they doing? They need to play McCarthy right away because we all need to keep an eye on the, on the ball here. And the bigger picture that the goal is to make sure that JJ McCarthy is a franchise quarterback for several seasons during this rookie contract and pushing him in right away doesn't have much benefit, especially when your Super Bowl odds are not all that high and definitely not that high. If you're playing a rookie quarterback, you want the best for him development wise. If Darnold starts the first six weeks and then McCarthy plays, if he starts the

first 12 weeks and then McCarthy plays, All of that is probably all right, unless it just becomes a travesty to watch Darnold and we can't take it anymore, then we might yell about it. But aside from that, the plan is the plan. So let's see it. Let's see what it is. But that's the part of it. We were talking earlier about asking questions to O'Connell.

That part is, well, of course we want to know what the plan is. We want to try to put the pieces together for you guys and tell you this is what the exact plan is. And he's been a little dodgy with it. I don't think he wants to exactly say out in public what that is, because then you might have to stick to it. And if you're trying to be malleable with it a little bit, and then you change, then people go, well,

you lied or whatever. It's a, it's a dicey thing. Ray, how is Levi Drake Rodriguez and Jaqueline Roy performing? I have noticed Jaqueline Roy quite a few times because he is absolutely massive. He is such a huge human being.

And I am intrigued if he will get any first team reps. I've seen him with the, with the twos and he's out there getting a push. And in the one-on-ones you could see his strength. Uh, Levi Drake Rodriguez, I have noticed less out there. That doesn't mean that he hasn't been good. And I just haven't noticed. It's more of Jaqueline Roy is so large and strong that it's hard not to see him. With Drake Rodriguez, that's a guy who's a developmental project. Kind of feel the same way as I felt about Andre Carter last year is developmental project. If he's big and he's very quick, you could see for a guy his size that he's got quickness. His work ethic is there.

I mean, we'll just see how he develops. I think he'll probably make the team because they don't want anyone to poach him. And then we'll go from there. But I'll try to look at some of these guys a little bit more as we go on. We've just been so set, so set on the quarterbacks that as the days go on with the padded practices, this was padded practice too. Uh, I'll spread it out a little bit more and try to come back with some more information on intriguing players like that. Folks, us cellular notice that the way we use our phones has gotten ironic. We try to put our phones down for dinner, but the menu is on a QR code.

That's ironic. We hit like on social media posts that we don't actually like. Ironic. Which is why U.S. Cellular created Us Mode to help us reconnect with each other and use our phones less ironically. A phone company wanting people to use their phones less ironic let's find us again with us mode from us cellular visit uscellular.com slash built for us to get started uh anthony justin jefferson lands at 18 on the top 100 no way no how there is 17 better players in the league of of course uh

raise some hell for this uh well i will agree with your statement but i will not raise any hell for this i have seen i'll tell you why because i've seen how this is done they walk in the people from nfl network and they look around for any players that are in the locker room and they say, can you please do this? And the players write down as many people as they can think of. And then they give it back. And that's, I saw a practice squad guy put his top, I think they put maybe 20 players down or something that they're not naming a hundred. I don't think on these lists,

but he just put all his Vikings teammates on the list and then turned it back then. I mean, this it's unserious, it's entertaining, but it's unserious. And, uh, Justin Jefferson is, if you don't include quarterbacks, probably the number one non quarterback in the league, if not number two to maybe Nick Bosa or miles Garrett, it doesn't change how he plays. It's's just that's the thing to keep in mind it doesn't change how he plays uh mike says ahmad hicks said on k fan today that he's seeing jj lock into his first read have you noted that he's uh going through progressions it goes along more with and i'm not sure like you know there's a lot of plays and a lot of different drills and all those things, like which ones you might be referring to as far as locking into a first read. Number one is that in training camp, you want to focus on that with your first read.

That's how the play is designed is to go to the first read but each play has it built in to here's your first look and that is determined by what you see at the line of scrimmage and then when someone goes to a second look you'll see them clearly move in training camp a little bit more than you would in the season sometimes a little more deliberate like i am going to the second read i'm going to this third read uh it's just it can be a little more like clearly they're working on that footwork to try to get it set for when we get to the season and i've seen jj mccarthy do that a number of times but it's not happening at the speed that it needs to be to be a star nfl quarterback right now it isn't happening as

fast as it would happen for Kirk Cousins. These are plays that he's just learning and things, defenses, of course, that he's seeing for the first time and they're having him go against Brian Flores' defense. I don't think it's for a lack of trying to get through the progressions so much as this is a player who has to learn, has to learn how to get through those progressions. And it's also, here's something important about that is it's not an offense. Like even what CJ Stroud had to some extent, the Bobby Sloak offense, where you're running a lot of bootlegs and play actions and stuff like that.

It has those built in. And there was a nice one from Darnold today that he completed to Jordan Addison, but those are built in those long winding bootlegs and play actions and stuff. But this is an offense that requires you to quickly, very quickly evaluate yes or no. Then onto the next,

yes or no onto the next, yes or no. And whether you're going to succeed or not has something to do with that and that's that was the the josh dobbs thing is they gave josh dobbs the whole offense and it was yes or no i'm not really sure yes or no right and when nick mullins went in there there was a lot of yes that nick mullins had but you saw that this nick mullins was a guy who was really locked in with KOC's offense. This is why he likes him so much. And he threw to the correct read a lot. He threw

to the player who was open to the first read because he really understood where he's supposed to go with the ball. He just made some wild throws that got intercepted that were nowhere close to accurate, but that's more of a physical problem than a mental problem. Point just being that Nick Mullins is a veteran player who locked, got the offense locked in and did a good job at understanding where the ball was supposed to go, where JJ McCarthy is just figuring this stuff out. And it very much might look like, and I don't mean to go against, cause I didn't hear his comment. It might look like, is he like locked into the first read, but this is something he has to understand and work his way through.

How long do I have with the first read before then I go on to the second? What do I need to see from the defense to tell me? And then I go to the second. There's a lot to learn here, and I am really enjoying watching it. I'm enjoying watching the flashes of pure talent that J.J. McCarthy has that made him a five-star and a first-round pick when he lets one go, and you hear it whiz by you. Whoa, that is some kind of throw there. But also the learning moments as well, going over to the coaches

and seeing what worked, what didn't work. The whole thing you're watching come together in an ideal situation. Two years from now, we might say, man, remember when he was still trying to struggle to just get the ball out and get that footwork right, and then now look what he looks like. We'll watch that whole thing as it goes along. But as far as staying to the first read, I'm sure that every young quarterback has that. How long can I stay on

the first read thing that they have to figure out as they go forward? Christian and Scooby says, love, respect KOC's initial patient approach. But if JJ outplays Darnold and camp, isn't it a disservice to the team and the veterans not to start him? Seems like he's been better every day in practice. Not quite better every single day, but I would say most practices he has been looking comfortable ish. Today was a little less as far as consistency goes. There were some really excellent throws, and then there were probably more plays that weren't as good. But is it a disservice?

I don't look at it that way. Not unless it's one guy is outstandingly better than the other, but what you're bringing up could be interesting in season, not in the first week, because the players will trust Kevin O in season, not in the first week, because the players will trust Kevin O'Connell's decision in the first week. And then the second week and the third week, all right, we're going to stick with Sam Darnold. But if they go, Oh,

in three and Sam Darnold has four interceptions in one touchdown, and they're not going to JJ McCarthy. I think at that point, this is how quick that it can happen. There might be some people who are saying, can we just go to McCarthy? Like this isn't working at all. This guy is terrible. That could be something that happens. And that's why it's difficult to manage this or more difficult than just laying out a plan. It's sort of like the whole deal of you make a plan, but when you get punched in the face, the whole Mike Tyson thing, everybody's got a plan. Well, that's kind of the

thing, right? They've got a plan, but if you get punched in the face, how would they react at that point? If Justin Jefferson's going into Kevin O'Connell's office and saying, I want McCarthy to play, this is bogus. That scenario is possible. Kyle, how did the guards look? Looked okay to me so far. Ed Ingram at this point, I think we know what he is. I couldn't identify another step for Ed Ingram by watching these practices that we're going to have to see play out over an entire season. Blake Brandles looked fine though. He's looked fine to me as the left guard. I haven't thought, Oh man, he's getting beat again. Uh, he is humongous and he's a big, tough guy. Uh, running game seems to be doing. Okay. Seems to be in the right places. Uh, another thing I kind of want to focus on a little more

in some of the upcoming practices, exactly how Blake Brando looks to me. So far, though, it looks like a pretty solid unit, and they're healthy, which is a big deal, and I'll knock on wood for all of you because I just said that. No jinx. But at this moment, I have thought that the first team offensive line has done pretty well. KOC born in 2003. I don't know what that means. That's not when he was born. If we gave Kevin O'Connell truth serum and asked him what kind of career JJ McCarthy will have, what would he say? I'm sure he has an idea of mine now, even if it isn't as obvious as Kellen Mond. That's a good question. I would love to ask Kevin O'Connell what he would say about what kind of career McCarthy would have.

I think it's so hard to figure out right now. If I tell you a guy that I think he could have his career, don't freak out. I think he could have Alex Smith's career. And this goes for, like, Alex Smith's career where, and this is, this goes for like Alex Smith won a ton of football games. And just because Alex Smith didn't win a Superbowl doesn't mean it's not, it wouldn't have been possible under the right circumstances. For example, his defense gave up that crazy comeback to Indianapolis, or he was almost

in a Superbowl with San Francisco, but didn't the guy fumble a punt? And that was why he didn't end up in a Super Bowl with San Francisco, but didn't the guy fumble a punt? And that was why he didn't end up in the Super Bowl. But I think it's a similar type of player that there's a lot of talent there and there's a lot of athleticism there. And under the right circumstances, he can win a ton of games. It doesn't look like a guy who's just going to do stupid, crazy things and turn the ball over. I mean, and he's at least from the early returns, looks like he's going to be a tremendous,

tremendous teammate, which is what Alex Smith is. Because we think of Alex Smith as being the guy that they moved on for Patrick Mahomes, that's why your immediate reaction might be like, oh, I want him to be better than that. Go look at Alex Smith smith's record though when he started how many games he won how many games he lost uh he was a guy who won a ton of games in the regular season and had some good playoff games but didn't have the luck of winning some of those they let tennessee come back in the game he wasn't quite aggressive enough a little bit more of a playmaking alex smith maybe but early in his career, he was decent at that with his athleticism. That might be the type of guy that he would talk

about because he's got the arm, he's got the talent to lead the team. He's got the character to lead the team. And if he turned out to have that kind of career, that would be a really fantastic career. But I'm, you know, I can't, you can't just start saying well you know i think he's gonna be some legend when they do that in the draft talk about how crazy the draft drives me sometimes when they when they do that in the draft where they compare well you know this marvin harrison he's gonna be like uh jerry rice or something you know they what this guy's the next mahomes what no one's the next Mahomes. What? No one's the next Mahomes.

What are we talking about here? I mean, sometimes, sometimes somebody will be, but that sets the bar in such a crazy, I think if we're being more realistic, that would be a good place for him to end up and you can win a lot of games that way. Christian says, who's going to play preseasonseason uh drive one darnell will be my guess uh because he's played with the ones i don't think it's gonna change before then and maybe the performance in

those games will make a little bit of a difference uh oh gosh says uh it'd still be okay with bringing in depth in the cornerback and wide receiver room, maybe by game three of the preseason still want a Pat Pete for vibes. Yeah. Well, Fabian Morrow is that guy with the cornerback group. They could try someone else, but they've already brought in now three corners, including Duke Shelley.

Don't forget about him. So two veterans, him and Fabian Morrow. And as far as wide receivers go, I don't think they need it. The way lucky Jackson has played the way that Jalen Naylor, and then you have Brandon Powell. If there's a wide receiver out there now, I mean, he's probably bad because wide receivers are so, so needed. Macho Meach, should we be surprised that

Lewis seems lack of anything this far camp he hasn't practiced last few days but of course not of course not lewis scene will not go down as the worst draft pick ever by the minnesota vikings that is going to be demetrius underwood because he didn't make it through his first training camp but he will be in the top three as the worst picks ever by this team and that's unfortunate it just is that happens sometimes it just is unfortunate sometimes you pick a guy that you think is going to be a fit but the crazy thing about this position is it's one of the strongest rooms in the entire NFL and it doesn't count him because football's weird Brock Purdy we were just talking about this is the this is the safety version of the Brock Purdy

and Trey Lance. Your team completely botched their quarterback pick, but then found a guy in the seventh round. Okay, well, who's mad? Nobody should be. I guess you can be somewhat with the Lewis scene not being Kyle Hamilton. Same time, Josh Metellus emerges because Louis seen doesn't end up making it and Metellus is a very similar type of player so I don't know and then Theo Jackson all of a sudden is a big part of this entire thing who can predict ball Anthony says uh could we receive oh yes could we see a return of fullbacks with the new kickoffs. Maybe not. I don't know. Not enough people play fullback.

But when you said return of fullbacks, I like flip the table and hit a tackle dummy. CJ Hamm will be valuable in this. Having a fullback in that position, you can do some things with that that maybe other teams that don't have fullbacks can do. The problem with fullbacks is that it used to be a job that lasted a long time and paid you a decent amount of money in the NFL. And as soon as it wasn't, who was trying to be a fullback? What, what kid going into college was saying to his recruiter coaches, you know what I really want to do? I just want to ram myself into linebackers occasionally once every 20 snaps, because that's what NFL fullbacks are doing these days. I, you

know, I don't, I don't think there's too many kids that want to do that, uh, to be really good at fullbacks because usually it takes a, and this was the case with ham. Usually it takes a running back transitioning to fullback and how many running backs are going to be willing to do that. How many teams are going to know what to do with that guy, but the Vikings have one and they can use them on kickoffs. Macho. When should we expect draft scout back on the pod?

Courtney will be soon enough. Got a lot going on though. She is not only covering bears camp, but is also doing around the horn espn radio she is a star and i am thrilled to see how many opportunities she's gotten since moving to chicago to be on tv be on espn radio it's amazing does make it harder to make time to come on this podcast but she will absolute guarantee before the season, Courtney will be on the show. Miles Greer says, finally catching up with live. Do you have thoughts on Gabriel

Murphy, Bo Richter? Yeah. I mentioned Owen Porter is one that's really stuck out to me so far, but Bo Richter is very strong. No question about that. You can see his strength and Gabriel Murphy has been rushing on the other side from where I am at. So I haven't seen as much of him close as I've seen of Porter and Richter. Uh, but, uh, Murphy did get a mention from the head coach the other day. He has gotten a couple of pressures on the quarterback or he's beaten his man from time to time. Um, so, well, I shouldn't say that he's beaten the, you know, Brian O'Neill very often, but when they've gotten twos against twos and when they've done the one-on-one drills,

I've liked him. That is going to be a big preseason thing for us to watch though, going against the other team, going against not Brian O'Neill and Christian Derrissaw, who are just destroying people out there. But I like the group. I think that they will be able to find at least maybe one or two of these guys. I just haven't, I just haven't seen them separate yet, or I can't be sure saying who is separated yet, but they've got potential for that bunch.

Brent, the decision to start JJ quarterback will be done when he is ready and the team needs spark at quarterback. If Darnold is playing well and they're a winning team, he will ride the pine. Yeah, the question is about what you said about the spark. That is really the question there is the spark. Will they try to use McCarthy at some point if they're not going that great as a spark. I don't know about that. It's going to be hard to not do it. Here's the absolute ideal scenario. The ideal scenario with JJ McCarthy is that he gets far enough through training camp, even if he's not going to start

week one, that whenever the time is that they need a spark, they can hit the button and feel very good about it. If they're not going to start him, if it's not a real competition, he is QB2, which based on the rep count, they're both getting a ton of reps. So it's not like he's not in the competition. But if he does end up as QB2 going into the season, they want him to be far enough along

where if Sam Darnold goes one and four to start the season, that they could say, all right, let's get that spark that you mentioned. Let's go McCarthy time that they can choose to do at any time. And whenever it feels right, that's what the hope should be for them. If they go into the season and they're not really sure if he could start, that's where it becomes harder to use it as a spark maybe it'll be telling when they decide to go with them uh evan nbc sports boston reported that greg bedard said he thinks if you give truth serum to the patriots front office oh big big night for truth serum uh that they'd be surprised he's so far behind jacoby brissett oh i see what you're saying. Yeah. Drake May. Yeah. I didn't expect

Drake May to look very good. That team is horrible. I can't imagine how bad their second team is. Oh my gosh. We're a long way from figuring this thing out with that. And maybe that's true that they expected Drake May to be farther ahead, but I didn't think that was who Drake May was supposed to be. Drake May is also very young, very raw, came from an offense that was garbage at North Carolina. I've expected him to have a very, very difficult first training camp. One thing I am absolutely sure of is that you can't figure this all out in the first training game. You can get indications of where someone might be going, but for someone who's playing for such a bad team, that's all the way at the bottom of the league has had a bunch of drama.

It doesn't have any good wide receivers. I'm not sure about their coaching. I mean, could there be a worse team for someone to have gone to than the new England Patriots coming off of Belichick with a coach who's never coached before? Just terrible. Just set up to be Sam Darnold, honestly. It's too bad for Drake May.

I think he'd probably be different here. Northern Pride, I'm hoping KOC will reduce the pitch count and start running the ball just a little more than we've seen before. Do you think he will be able to do that? If it's successful, it will be a lot easier. And that's really what it comes down to. If you were Kevin O'Connell over the last two years, would you have run the ball? Now the answer is not completely no, because there were games where he should have against Chicago. Alexander Madison's doing fine. He keeps passing

with Josh Dobbs and throwing interceptions.ceptions so yes i would have run a little more even when nick mullins is starting probably more opportunities to run ty chandler and they just kept pushing the pass button i don't think he can help himself but i also feel like the lack of trust overall in the running game was the main reason why uh it was why it was an issue. Oh, so some of you have said that it's back spasms for Robert Tunyon. Okay, that might or might not be serious, I guess. But usually back spasms are something that somebody can work through. I guess that must have been reported while we've been on.

Thank you for the update with Robert Tunyon there. Yeah. It would be terrible if his injury was, was a bad thing because he's a good story. Someone who I think has looked pretty good and is just another option. They're going to need everybody with TJ Hocketson out a guard guy. Nice to see a guard guy where you've been. Would you say that Blake Brandel is a road grad you say that blake brandle is a road grader 100 he's a road grader this guy is massive and he's just gonna push people he's gonna push people

around uh miles says we talk in early alex smith or later career alex smith uh the point after his team got better and he started to play and won a lot of football games not the early early disaster san francisco 49ers more like in the uh more like the middle of his career with san francisco he did a lot less i thought athletically speaking when he was playing for um the chiefs but when he was with san francisco he would, he would run, he would scramble, he'd run bootlegs. You see all that same sort of stuff. And Smith early in his career, I thought had a great arm too. He just, but I, this in the same way with McCarthy, like I don't see absolute freak of anything with McCarthy, but I mean, the arm strength is very, very good. And the leadership is appears to be very, very very good his approach to learning all those things and i think the decision making will come along and how he deals with all that stuff

if you end up being alex smith you've had a great career you can win a lot and you under the right circumstances can put a team potentially on uh with a position that they could win so it's more of a compliment especially when it comes to the character if he reminds you of alex smith that's great because alex smith's a a plus character uh let's see david says if the ms kid continues his progress is wide receiver three what is uh oh michigan state okay i was like you mean jaylen naylor and powell is number four then i think it has the potential along with hawkinson to be one of the best in the league along with the safety group.

Yes, I agree. And I would, I think PFF put the Vikings edge rushers in the top 10. I would put them too. If Dallas Turner works out, then that rotation can be really good. Totally agree.

If Jalen Naylor is as good as he's been in training camp in the regular season. And then he ends up with something like, I don't know, 40 catches, 35 catches with these other two receivers and Hawkinson eventually coming back. If you get 35 catches and some of them are a few deep balls, you've done really well for yourself. That's that might be where i'd put it right now miles says based on general observations of training camps where would you rank mccarthy in a different order of qb selected in the draft do you mean just by the vikings selected in the draft like where the other guys because the other guys they've selected for quarterbacks have just been terrible. But as far as general observations from other camps versus the other one selected, like would you do you mean that would now knowing a little bit about camp, how would you select the other quarterbacks?

There's a few different ways to interpret that question. I mean, you can't really reevaluate it at this moment, but as far as ones that they've selected in the draft that I've seen, none of them have been good. So he's way better than them. But I apologize for not totally understanding. But when you look at other training camps, it's a lot of the same things because I follow all these beat reporters as far

as, yeah, it sounds like Drake May is struggling quite a bit, but that's what I expected from him. Bo Nix is just getting in with the first team. He's 24. He should be farther along. Penix seems to be impressing, not shocked by that. Another guy who's 24 years old. So, you know, there's a kind uh, kind of a, a lot of different circumstances that these guys have been dropped into. And he has been dropped into one that is

really good and really patient for him. And it also sounds like Caleb Williams is having wow throws all the time. Even if he's inconsistent, I also expected that, uh, from Caleb Williams, Anthony, how well do you think Mike Allstott would have done in this new kickoff setup? Well, he would be an option either as a blocker or as a runner, just as he was back when he played. I would think that teams would be terrified of Mike Allstott. Anthony says, I hope that Walter Rouse pans out out for us he seems like he has the talent and i like his energy and vibes even as a good swing tackle i think he's got off to a very good start uh from what i've noticed i think he has gotten off to a good start

excuse me uh alex how about two hours for me i haven't taken a sip of Diet Dr. Pepper. Okay. Boy, I didn't even realize we've been talking for that long. You guys have been asking great questions tonight. What about the Oakley shades? I do have them here. I kept them here for

Justin Jefferson's contract extension. I have not, I have another pair. I have not worn these to any of the training camp practices. I mean, when you have people around you who make $30 million a year and are among the coolest people on earth, like Justin Jefferson, I can't do this. I can't stand on the sideline and just be like, so why don't you practice here guys guys and these sick oakleys now that would be corny you got to stay in your lane it's just life advice you got to stay in your lane but i could do it on the live stream

what was the question that i was looking at uh oh yeah alex uh sounds like you're talking uh you're taking the over for six and a half wins. I would do that. Yeah. I wouldn't take the over for nine and a half wins, but I would take the over for six and a half wins as of right now. If it goes worse than that, I'd be surprised if you have good coaching, you should be in the mix almost every year. Pittsburgh theory. If you've got good coaching, then even if you have struggling quarterback play at times, you can fight through it. You can be in the conversation. Last year was the same sort of deal. They got off to this horrible start and then they fought back.

They didn't just give up and tank. They got, they fought back. They stayed around. The games they lost were close. I actually wouldn't be surprised if this year reminds you of last year, only with different people and maybe a quarterback you're more excited about. Miles, am I dreaming the Vikings having the best possible receivers, tackles, edge rushers, and safety group? I would not say that edge rushers would be the best in the league. It's good, but it doesn't have a true goat it has like miles garrett nick bosa aiden hutchinson there's this small group of guys micah parsons that are terrifying for every other offense greenard's real good uh i i would not put him in that level so you can't say best edge rushers unless dallas turner becomes that then it's a different conversation best wide receivers very much could be if jaylen naylor is very good safety group it might be yeah that might be um yes and as far as doing something right this roster has a lot of the

pieces this is not an empty roster that they're just this is not new eng. This is a roster that should produce a lot of very competitive games. That would be surprising if they were under six and a half wins, unless it just goes horribly at the quarterback position. Anthony, do you think Kenny Wongwu can have another all pro kick return year? I don't know how it's going to go. I just know he's really darn good at it. I know that they have one of the top three, four best returners in the league in terms of pure, get the football speed, make people miss, but how it's going to work. Is it going to work to his advantage or is it going to be working against him? Because he gets momentum on the longer kickoff with guys coming down and dodges tacklers at full speed as opposed to guys stagnating i'm not really sure

uh all right two more and then we'll call it a night a very good night here because uh no uh show tomorrow so i guess it makes a lot of sense to go long on this one uh kyle what's your prediction for who will get an extension on the defense? Well, you've got Harrison Phillips, Cam Bynum. Who else is up for Byron Murphy is going to be a free agent. I could see all three of them being brought back depending on what kind of years they have. Harrison Phillips, the guy they really like. Cam Bynum just works great and if they extend him and harrison smith retires then you move metellus back or maybe it's theo jackson

ends up being that guy so uh do not deny your swag no i don't have any swag truly truly there is no swag to this person i am too old for swag number one not cool enough for swag what i am cool enough to do is just talk football all the time and that is what i do and what i will keep doing so all right uh thank you everybody what a great conversation all of you asking great questions great comments uh really appreciate it as always. So Friday night is when we will be back because there is no Vikings practice tomorrow. But I would ask that maybe if you have a chance, go over to purpleinsider.com

and check out the written articles from training camp if you haven't done so, so far. Maybe consider signing up for the newsletter over there. Also like, subscribe, do all those things, because this will continue all the way through training camp into the season. We'll be at every game, going on the road, all those types of things. So we're going to have a good time, and I love chatting with you guys. So make sure you do all that stuff, and don't miss a show.

All right. Appreciate you all. Take care. Wait. Hold on. let me put them on football