Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - With no Justin Jefferson, a receiver battle brewing at Vikings OTAs

Episode Date: May 30, 2023

Matthew Coller and Will Ragatz of Sports Illustrated talk about Kevin O'Connell's answer regarding Justin Jefferson's absence from Vikings OTAs and the backup receivers getting a chance. Plus the KJ vs. Addison battle for targets and the Vikings announcing that they'll host joint practices in camp. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Purple Insider is presented by Oakley. Express yourself, build a look that's made for you. When you wear Oakley, there really is more than meets the eye. Try it for yourself. Oakley is not only the best looking, but the best quality. So head on over to oakley.com for more information today. Welcome to another episode of Purple Insider from inside TCO Performance Center because Will Reaggetts of Sports Illustrated did not want to sit outside. It was too hot today, also too windy, and we did come away with quite a few mosquito bites last time.

So yeah, we're indoors. Don't put this on me. You were the one getting attacked by the mosquitoes last week when we did the outside pod. So we're just in the hallway now. Someone sent us mosquito pants that you can slide. They're like net that you can slide up over your pants. And I think that's basically what I need for sitting outside on my back porch or podcasting outside this building. But we are inside, and we have just witnessed an OTA practice and what an OTA practice it was Will I have to say that the aggressiveness in which Brian Flores's defense

is playing and I don't just mean guys moving around I mean there's like some physical contact going on this was not the case at all last year and And it did come to my mind, does Kevin O'Connell want his receivers hitting the ground as much as they did? And Ty Chandler went down today and not like injured, but you know, you just saw him hit the ground on a play. And I wondered, is this a new, less coddling OTAs? Probably not. But it seems like Brian Flores style is to be very like up in your face in these OTAs? Probably not. But it seems like Brian Flores' style is to be very like up in your face

in these OTAs. In your face is a good way to put it. There was some of that. There was a brief injury scare even when KJ Osborne went down in the end zone. I think just got the wind knocked out of him or something. But like Andrew Booth maybe shouldn't have rolled over him or whatever happened there. There was another one where I think it was Jalen Naylor and Cam Bynum kind of gave each other a shot at the end of a little play. And, you know, that's something you see when the pads come on in training camp. And that can be fun for the fans. And it's football. You've got to kind of ramp up into that intensity eventually.

You don't usually see that in May. And I think it was still controlled to some extent. But, yeah, I mean, compared to last year, a little bit more of that. And it was cool to then see Naylor and Bynum kind of go up to each other and dap each other up after. And, you know, that's just the spirit of what they're trying to do right now, trying to get better. And guys are taking advantage of opportunities here

with certain players still absent for injury reasons or other reasons. Or other reasons indeed, which we will get into. Did you have any actual football-y observations? Mine was only that receivers are getting chances because Justin Jefferson is not here and Jordan Addison was not practicing. And the Jordan Addison situation seems non-serious, the way that Kevin O'Connell has talked. And I have no reason to think Kevin O'Connell has talked and I have no

reason to think Kevin O'Connell lies to us about this stuff because last year he was pretty straightforward when he said that guys would be out a couple weeks they were out a couple weeks when he said that there was a chance for someone like Irv Smith to return he returned and when he said that you know something wasn't serious guys usually came back so I tend to believe that Jordan Addison is just sitting out with quote something that came up during Ricky minicamp and I guess we can talk about whether you're worried that he's 170 pounds and will get hurt but that was really the theme of the day was other wide receivers are out there KJ Osborne's making plays Jalen Rager had a few catches we

really saw some more intense action that's kind of what i'm alluding to here is that i didn't expect to really see much but they were running some pretty fast like high-paced plays rager got into it jaylen naylor got into it he got a shout out from kevin o'connell like the battle and and brandon powell let us not forget not forget Brandon Powell he of like five foot seven and 140 pounds uh I think that the battle for everything past the top three receivers is going to be one of maybe the best of training camp yeah and that's always kind of the easiest thing to observe at these practices whether it's OTAs whether it's training camp like I'm sorry we can't really help you all that much

with how the guards are looking or, like, defensive tackles because even when they're wearing pads, you don't get a ton of that. So it's always going to be easy to look at the receivers, and there's this really interesting opportunity here that started last week at the first practice that we were able to watch and again today that Adam Thielen's gone. He's in Carolina. He's not here at all that's 100

targets whatever Justin Jefferson face of the franchise best wide receiver in the league arguably he's not here Jordan Addison the first round pick you just drafted he's not practicing right now he is here but and I know you are a little concerned about his size and what that could mean for for future injuries I think talk about which I think is fair I think that's that's part of the equation when you're looking at a player like Addison. But, yeah, you've got K.J. Osborne all of a sudden. These past two practices that we've seen and the others that we haven't, he's the wide receiver one, and he's in year four in a contract year.

Kevin O'Connell has praised kind of the leadership role that he's taken on and some of the void that he's maybe filled with Adam Thielen gone. And then, yeah, down the roster, it's J Jalen Naylor a guy heading into year two a former sixth round pick who by my count led the practice in receptions with the first team last week and I think did so again today I mean he's just popping up kind of all over the place making catches down the seam making short catches on outbreaking rounds just all these different things seems like him and Kirk Cousins have a pretty good rapport. There was a drop or two mixed in there today, but to me, it's Osborne,

and then it's Naylor is kind of firmly ahead of Rager in the Jalen battle, but still time for that to change. And then, yeah, you go deeper now, and you got even guys like Brandon Powell and Tristan Jackson and other guys that are trying to kind of fight for a spot here. So it is fun to watch the wide receivers, watch them run routes against the corners who are also fighting for jobs and roles. And fun to see Andrew Booth out there again kind of barking

and being physical just like he was in training camp last year. So, yeah, it's fun to watch. Well, and receivers are the thing we can really see the best. You have to judge offensive and defensive linemen mostly and this goes for more training camp than otas but mostly on who's out there because you're assuming that the offensive line coach and the defensive line coach are breaking down this tape every day from what they see in practice where things are happening so fast that unless a defensive lineman is breaking into the backfield and sacking the quarterback

a hundred times which we have seen in years past when tom compton say or dakota dozier is starting at guard but unless that's happening unless someone is really really good or really really bad it's hard to tell in the trenches corners coverage you can kind of figure that out if someone's getting toasted a lot but receivers are they open they open? Are they catching the ball? And that's the results that they're grading it on a lot of times as well. And I think what we saw just early on is that there's some guys who are, I think, pretty even starting training camp. I don't know that Jalen Rager is making this team. I think Brandon Powell might have a better chance.

But also, there was that albert wilson last year there's always these signings of one random veteran who we go what if he makes it and then he doesn't but nailer is the interesting one here and then there's udfas and i am always in the camp of waiting and seeing until somebody emerges uh our friend sam extram likes to pick one guy and make it his guy forever, but that's usually not how I approach it. If someone starts getting second team reps, then we're intrigued. But really, this comes down to if Jalen Naylor can be better than Rager and Powell, he can be that wide receiver four and maybe with his speed actually have a chance to get on the field. field because this has been so much a team in the past that essentially had two wide receivers and if anyone else has to play yikes and then like kj osborne becomes a guy who can play so you're much closer to three and they're hoping for three but now you know you have a chance at four let me ask you another question though about the receiver position with kj osborne i'm writing i wrote a piece about addison today I'm writing a piece about

Osborne who do you think has more catches at the end of the season I have a milkshake bet on this with Andrew Kramer but I'm curious about your opinion who ends up with more catches at the end of this season KJ Osborne or Jordan Addison yeah it's it's a good question I heard you guys bring this up earlier and I we're arguing about it in the media room. Oh, yeah. Right away I went to Jordan Addison, just first-round pick. I think the role with Adam Thielen's 100 vacated targets is kind of there for him to take. I think he's going to have every opportunity to take that. We saw Kevin O'Connell on the little Vikings video in the draft room

saying this guy's a day-one starter. When they picked him. I think there are some wide receivers, like I don't know, Quentin Johnston from TCU. Maybe it's more athletic tools and a little bit of refinement is needed. I think Addison, there's maybe a ceiling on what he can do athletically because he's not a 4'3 guy. And he is undersized but he is already so technically advanced he's won um he's succeeded at pit he succeeded at usc two different offenses different quarterbacks different systems uh now he comes here as this

really sharp route runner that i think has a chance to step in the role right away and i say that but kj osborne has been here for three more years he knows this offense from last year he's not going to give up that that role to be the second wide receiver on the field when you're in 11 person or not 11 percent when you're in 21 personnel or 12 personnel or whatever you're not going to give that up without a fight so I think it's a very interesting question I still go Addison not even just because of draft capital because of kind of the all-around skill set I think Osborne is best suited kind of in that number three role playing in the slot a lot taking on

some blocking assignments even and they're both going to play a lot regardless of who is in that second role but I do think if not week one then by week six or whatever I think it's going to be Addison as the number two on that depth chart. And it'll obviously depend on if he can stay healthy. But I think I'm baking that into this. I'm still picking Addison. Well, and that's a big part of my thought process for picking KJ Osborne is KJ Osborne has a really great record of staying healthy. And Jordan Addison is on the smaller side.

Now, that doesn't mean, and that's being so polite. He is incredibly small. Incredibly small. And I was thinking about the players that we have encountered recently. And it's a small sample size. But guys like Cam Dantzler, guys like Andrew Booth Jr., who are very slender. This is not generally a slender man's game. This isn't track running or basketball this is a game

with guys who have muscles on muscles and it can be hard for those players to stay healthy and when you go back and research a lot of the guys who are under 180 pounds i mean davante smith is an outlier there's not a lot of guys who are like that and even some of the smaller players in the league they do get banged up a lot and that's not to say he's going to be a bust i mean he was the guy that i was touting the most for the vikings leading up to the draft like pick this guy i mean you go back and look at what he did at pit that pit program was awful i mean they were as mediocre as mediocre goes like think about as minnesota they were us of the east right just this running team who no one ever really cared that much about since what like Curtis Martin was there or something and Jordan Addison

makes them a pass first team his quarterback goes first round he catches a hundred passes goes out to USC plays with Caleb Williams he's fantastic their team is great their offense is great like this guy has always been that guy who can elevate his team and is a great playmaker and even as a true freshman at Pitt he stepped in right away and caught 60 passes so he I mean I expect him based on everything we know about him to be a good player and I think that his skills match up really well with guys who succeed in the league it's just that kj osborne and kirk cousins have worked together for a long time and i think what we've realized

over the years is that kirk cousins has players that he likes and that he trusts i mean some are digs and phelan and jefferson there were stars but even we saw it with tj hockinson last year there was like this instant trust and he's talked repeatedly about the trust with KJ Osborne. And even you go back to 2020 where Justin Jefferson didn't start week one. And I know that was weird circumstances. Stefan Diggs didn't start for his first three weeks. It's a hard offense and a hard league to step in right away. And we do see it with some guys.

They become stars. But Jahan Dotson and Traylon Burks, their teams are excited for them going forward. a hard league to step in right away and we do see it with some guys they become stars but johan dotson and treylon burks their teams are excited for them going forward and yet those guys ended up with what like 30 or 40 catches last season i could see jordan addison having a really good year and everyone feeling great about him but kj osborne ends up with 10 more receptions yeah it would not shock me either because like i I said, Osborne has been here. He has a familiarity in offense. He's been getting a lot of praise from Kevin O'Connell, and he doesn't have as much of the injury risk just based on pure size, and I think that's an important thing. I

think that's part of the reason why Jalen Naylor is important in this conversation is that if one of those guys goes down, perhaps Addison, perhaps Jefferson, perhaps Osborne, any of them, you want to have that third guy who can who can step in and you're not you're going to feel like he's not really going to miss a beat so I think that's where Naylor factors into this I still just go Addison but I understand that that is I mean it's a real kind of concern with his size the historical kind of track rate of guys less than 100 pounds and what they've done. And you even look at last year at USC, I mean, his numbers were down a little bit

because he was slowed by an injury late in the season, and that was kind of a factor in that. So it's going to be something to watch. I think it makes sense why in that context, Kevin O'Connell said the Vikings are being overly cautious with Addison. They are not concerned about his injury or whatever he has going on, but he has a little thing that popped up at the end of rookie minicamp, maybe something related to what he dealt with at USC. We don't know for sure. But to kind of just give him this time to get all the way there,

and we saw him at rookie minicamp, so we have seen him on the field, but to get all the way there comfortable with the mental side the playbook side and then really be 100 105 percent hit the ground running whether that's next week or or mandatory minicamp or training camp or whatever that might be yeah i think we just have to understand how long it takes for rookies to get into the flow of the nfl and how difficult of a road it is from the time your college season ends to here I mean it's just like you have the preparation I know there was a trainer that Jordan Addison went and worked with down in Florida I think it was that trained for the combine so they trained their bodies specifically to do well at

the combine and then you come here and you're drinking out of a fire hose with rookie mini camps and everything else and then you add the fact that he's banged up already and i don't want to say at all like oh it's a trend or anything else like that because derisaw was beat up in his first year but that kind of speaks to it right like he had some surgeries and then it didn't recover right and then it was we kept hearing well he's coming along but then there are delays and when he got on the field he was great and pretty much right away we knew like this guy has some serious talent but you just put your body through a lot and that's part of my calculation it's not so much to say that you know kj is better it's more that probably right now he is better because he knows so much more about football and he's been in this system for

two years and i also think that based on what jefferson was saying last year this specific system really asks a lot of your receivers intellectually and that might just be a lot for a rookie so that's my case we heard that from feeling to a guy who'd been in the league for 10 years like right i mean they talked about it for weeks yeah um so that's my argument um but if you told me hey look they drafted him in the first round and he's open every play because he's roasting dudes like he did in college and they're going to throw to him yeah i wouldn't be shocked and you know part of the reason they did it was to eventually have him and jefferson be one and you know part of the reason they did it was to eventually have him and jefferson be one and two so if that develops throughout the year would not be shocked

at all speaking of jefferson he wasn't here nope and the comments by kevin o'connell about him not being here i think that um dogs you know how they can hear dog whistles they can also hear gritting of teeth and i think that if there were dogs in the area they would have started barking at the gritting of teeth by kevin o'connell as he said you know look forward to when he decides he's going to come and be a part of this so i don't expect him at any otas and then it becomes mandatory minicamp. And I thought that O'Connell's body language and the way he talked about it, you could sort of see him be unhappy.

But that's only reading his physical, the way he was standing and sort of trying to fight back, saying anything he didn't want to. Does not seem like the man is too thrilled that his superstar wide receiver is not here no and and i get it i mean if you're kevin o'connell you you want to have this participation and buy-in at this stage of the offseason and that would be nice if that would start from the face of your franchise and your best player and and calm down and i mean there has been really good participation it's like these things are are mandatory that only actually applies for the justin jeffersons of the world and like daniel hunters and um guys with a contract situation like dalvin cook like if you're obviously if

you're any sort of rookie or even young player or really anyone you can't not show up to this because you gotta be here it's it's it's competition already they refer to training camp as the competition phase this is more of the teaching phase but it's competition already and you are fighting for spots every day you are being evaluated every day it's the NFL so but when you're Justin Jefferson and you have had 1800 yards last year and have just been tearing the league up you can do this and and get away with it but that doesn't mean Kevin O'Connell has to like it and yeah he didn't I mean I thought he would maybe even kind of hold certain words back even more than he did with the way he was saying hey well we'd love to have him here as soon as possible and we'll be excited to see him when he

decides to come up and where I know he's getting work in wherever he is this offseason so it was it was it was a notable answer even if he didn't really say that much. So you're panicking. No, I'm not panicking. No, but it's a fascinating situation because we're like two weeks away from mandatory minicamp. And that is your contract, the CBA of the NFL. You have to be there or you can get fined increasing amounts of money it's just like just like training camp so if he doesn't have a contract extension by then does he just

roll up and say hey guys sorry i missed some otas or let's get to work or or does it get interesting i don't know folks our new sponsor oakley maybe you've noticed it has taken our show to the next level Oakley express yourself and build a look that is made for you and guess what that's exactly what I did just got a new pair of matte black prism sapphire polar sunglasses from Oakley and I gotta say they are a game changer I'll be wearing them golfing, training camp. It is clear now that I have not been doing anywhere enough for my sunglasses game until now. Oakley is changing the game, and it's time for you to discover a whole new world of possibilities. They are suited for everyday wear with frames and lenses, allowing for an extension of yourself, an expression of personality more than meets the eye.

So make a sunglasses upgrade today at Oakley.com. Personally, I am loving my new pair of Oakley's. They even offer prism lens technology. What the heck is that? It is a proprietary technology to Oakley and available for everyday settings as well. If you want to know more, and I know you do, head over to Oakley.com and do your own research there. And while you're at it, get yourself a pair of everyday glasses as well that will change your look for the better.

When you wear Oakley, there is more than meets the eye. Try it for yourself. I have worn a lot of sunglasses in my life, and I can assure you that Oakley is not only the best looking, but the best quality out there. Go to Oakley.com for more information today. Well, and what we did see in previous years where there were some things like this

is the guy would show up but not do anything. And that might be just in case of getting injured. And the 2020 training camp with delvin cook when he was in a similar spot and we all knew that that deal was getting done eventually and i guess we don't all know that this deal is getting done but i still feel like it eventually will um but a deal of this magnitude is going to be complicated and i have felt before uh or speculated or i guess had it come to my mind i don't want to say that I'm reporting or anything like that. But I do wonder about the short term couple years that blows through the franchise tag, whatever else, but not the long term.

If I'm on Jefferson's side, I want to make sure that I can get out if I want to eventually, or I can double dip, if you will, with getting a mega deal now and then a mega deal later, as opposed to signing a five-year deal. But then by year three, I'm unhappy with that deal or year four, and I'm wanting it changed. But the team is, you know, you could sort of see that the player wanting flexibility after a couple of years. So there's going to be a lot of complexities to a deal that makes someone the highest paid wide receiver in the nfl hands down and maybe we don't know but part of that complexity is what they're doing at the quarterback position what their long-term vision is i'm not sure if he's communicating with other players about what they think about the team and everything else to me he's not in a position to have enough leverage

to do stuff like that it's not like an aaron rogers i'm retiring or trade me to the jets kind of deal or even a davante adams i'm not signing an extension with you so you have to trade me they wouldn't trade him now even if he's not signing an extension they would keep him they would play him on his fifth year option they would do a lamar jackson franchise tag they would run this thing as far as they possibly could with him until they had to let him go but that's years down the road so i i think that it's kind of more interesting that he's just not here is he concerned about getting hurt uh because brian floris is playing a little more physically? Is he sending a message?

We can only ask because there hasn't been anything said or put out there. I am only basing my feeling on how Kevin O'Connell was standing at the podium and talking about this because we see him talk all the time for an entire year. I don't know, other than talking about Ed Donatell's defense, have I seen him sort of have that body language. I think you're right. I think there was something real that we're not being crazy here and reading into too much and maybe a little bit.

But I think his body language and some of the words that he used when he decides, things like that there maybe and he probably knows there's a chance I don't know there's a chance Justin Jefferson ends up seeing a tweet of that or a clip or that message gets back to him somehow so maybe that when you're an NFL head coach you got to kind of take all those things into consideration and that has to be intentional and we know Kevin O'Connell's good at that because he's good at talking to us and saying a lot of things sometimes without saying much of anything. And that's not a knock on him. That's just kind of the game when you're an NFL head coach.

And we appreciate that more than Mike Zimmer actually saying nothing. So, yeah, but, yeah, it's – I don't know. I don't know if Jefferson just views it as he doesn't need to be here because he's the best wide receiver in the world or if it's a contract thing or whatever it is. But, yeah, I understand why Vikings fans might be concerned. We talked about this last week. You look at Tyreek Hill, A.J. Brown, Devontae Adams.

These are all receivers who have gotten paid a lot of money by different teams than the ones that they were on. So sometimes it just ends up like this team doesn't want to pay this wide receiver 25 30 million a year but this other team can i think it's a different situation when you're talking about a true face of the franchise superstar like three years in already one of the best players the franchise has ever seen arguably right just in terms of what he's done in a short period of time i think it's different i think the vikings have to prioritize keeping him around for a variety of reasons so we'll see it until he shows up it's going to be a story and then it'll

be interesting to see when he does show up whenever that is if it's mandatory minicamp which is what i suspect if he talks or if he does not and if he has nothing to say it doesn't want to give any updates on his contract situation or anything else that would kind of be a little bit telling uh I think we said last week patience will be required here that there isn't a reason to panic I would stay with that I think that we'll know like if there's a reason to push the panic button we'll know when it is it's not today but it was just like oh okay when he says and you were you were right on this i mean the minute that he said it when he decides to show up here that doesn't sound like oh yeah we uh he's not coming but he's doing this or whatever and we've already worked it out and

hey guys it's justin jefferson what are you talking about yeah it was whatever, and we've already worked it out. And hey, guys, it's Justin Jefferson. What are you talking about? It was more like, yeah, we've had some communication, and his teammates will be excited to see him. And, you know, it really was Midwest passive-aggressive, really, which you have to be impressed. It did run through my mind that I wondered what Mike Zimmer would have said because there were some times where Zimmer would shut down a lot of things, especially injuries. But if you got him mad enough, he would tell you everything he was thinking.

And there's probably 15 times I could think of him doing that. And in this moment, I wish that honest Mike Zimmer would have come out and said what he was feeling about this. But there's a long time until training this but there's a long time until training camp there's a long time until the season but you cannot overstate how important his future is to this team's future so everything that happens with him is really important uh let me change subjects a little bit there's joint practices with two different teams it's exciting do we got any hot joint practice takes other than that mike vrabel might personally tackle and injure a viking oh man no it's it's

cool i i like it they've had these for for several years now um the previous regime i did it with the broncos and and like the jaguars and a couple others um last year the vikings did it with the Broncos and like the Jaguars and a couple others. Last year, the Vikings did it with the 49ers. And it's just it's cool to see because you go through all these training camp practices where you're going against your teammates. And and that is important. But that can become a little bit, I don't know, tedious or repetitive or or whatever word you want to use. So then you get another team in here for two days and it's man the competitive juices are flowing you want to show hey like our team's really good i'm really good i deserve a spot on this team all these different things um it's just it makes for some fun practices and

last year was really good this year we get it twice they get um so they're gonna go to seattle for the preseason opener and then come back here the titans will be here uh for two days leading into the preseason game against them and then same thing with the cardinals the following week so it's gonna be a busy august it's gonna be fun to see i mean i don't really have any strong takes about the titans or cardinals i think they feel like two of the most like middle of the road teams you could have possibly brought in here that's polite maybe on the on the batter worst side of of the middle of the most middle-of-the-road teams you could have possibly brought in here. That's polite. That's polite. Maybe on the worse side of the middle-of-the-road. They are on the better, worse side.

Yeah, I agree. Well said by me. No, the Cardinals actually, you're right. The Cardinals are terrible now. What am I? Are the Titans not terrible? I mean, right? I'm thinking of previous years.

Those have both been kind of middle wildcard teams. But yeah, the Cardinals are like the favorites to be picking first now, even despite still having Kyler because their roster has fallen apart. I think while they're here, they're going to ask Jordan Addison what he thinks of Caleb Williams is what's going to go on. Yeah, that's a good point. While they're here. The Titans, I think, at least will bring some physicality and some talent.

I mean, Derrick Henry is still on the team. I know he's a running back, but I'm trying to think of other Titans players. I was going to say, how many Titans can you name? Jeffrey Simmons. Oh, yeah, that's right, because he demolished them in 2020. He always eats against the Vikings interior offensive line the one time that they played them. But it's going to be fun.

It's nice that we don't have to go anywhere for these. We get to just be here at TCO and watch them. And Kevin O'Connell even alluded to this. There's always a lot of competitiveness there. Sometimes it goes up to a line. There will be some fights happening. Um, but at the end of the day, you'd like everybody to kind of keep their cool and then just get, get the work in. So I haven't in all of the practices that I've covered had a serious fight. There's pushing and shoving, but but not like a melee like what we saw with aaron donald swinging his helmet and stuff like that there are a lot of stories of guys who during

those practices stand out adam thielen is one of them adam thielen mentioned to me that he had been told by norv turner in 2016 that if he didn't shine in those joint practices he's probably going to get cut and maybe that was just a little motivation but you know he did and he ends up having a good career so there are those stories but two different teams coming in here i know for pretty certain players don't love these during training camp they will say to you that they do but i don't believe them because they are usually very physical they're hard i remember joe thomas said on his podcast that he thought that players should get paid for them like a pre-season game or something because they were

so much harder yeah more like a pre-season game but i also think that this is a good answer to not playing your starters in the preseason game. If you told me, all right, they're going to play zero starters in the preseason game, but they are going to have these hard joint practices instead, I think the injury risk is less in the joint practices, and I would prefer that as opposed to playing them in the preseason games like Mike Zimmer did. No, I agree. I think that's what we saw from O'Connell last year. They did not play the starters in the preseason at all. This kind of the joint practices against 49ers

kind of took the place of that. Now you have double that. So they'll probably even manage reps within the four days or whatever it's going to be of joint practices. But yeah, I don't know if the players, I bet some players probably like it just because they're just like, I don't know, the competitive aspect of it. And some players probably don't just because they're just like, I don't know, the competitive aspect of it. And some players probably don't. And there's probably a spectrum of that. But it's fun because you get to watch the offensive and defensive line one-on-ones. Like last year it was Daniil Hunter against Trent Williams and Nick Bosa against Christian Derrissaw and like just really big time stuff.

We're not going to – these teams don't have quite the star talent that the 49ers do in some ways. But yeah, it's fun for us. And it's just, the Vikings coaching staff in front office is going to get a lot of opportunities and kind of reps to watch these players throughout just the normal training camp practices.

The bubble guys and the second string guys and whatever will go in preseason games, and then you're going to get a lot of reps to evaluate in these joint practices. And it's different this year. The cut down day is just from 90 all the way down to 53 at once. And that's like three days after the last preseason game. So a lot of reps, a lot of opportunities for, I mean, one through 90 on this roster to kind of show up and show what they can do. So there's one more thing I want to ask about just OTAs today and then a calendar question.

Running backs. There was a particular running back who got a shout out as part of otas who did uh let's say got shut shut out rather than shouted out last year kenny wongwu he was out there making some plays he was out there getting a little action at the receiver position don't don't run with that don't run with that don't don't fantasy people go post, can a Wong War receiver? We went through that last year with Delvin Cook. Don't be doing that. I just mean he was getting some reps out there.

Running some routes. With the first guys, he was running some routes. He's making some plays. Kevin O'Connell mentioned specifically in his press conference, the receiving aspect of these running backs, which I think that there is something more there. But would you take seriously the mildest blip of OTA Kenne Wongwu hype?

No, not really. Not me either. I think that's just – he said like – he praised Alex Madison, who is now the top – Dalvin Cook hasn't been here. He's getting a lot of kind of three-down reps with Madison. We saw him make some catches as well. And then he said Kanae and Ty Chandler, it's a competition right now. And I just – I think Ty Chandler is, in my eyes, pretty far ahead in that

from what we saw from him in the preseason. And he just – he had – I mean, he didn't even have a ton of reps in college, but he had more reps than Kanae Wongu did, who did not have very many running back reps at Iowa State. So I think Ty Chandler just playing the running back position, kick returning aside, is somewhat far ahead of that. So I'm not really buying into the Kene Wongwu training, not even training camp, OTAs hype.

Can we call it, I don't think we could call hype on one sentence by Kevin O'Connell but maybe a blip a blip like an OTA blip for Kenny Wong Wu I will say quickly I was gonna get to this earlier but you you brought this up one thing we can notice now more than just even making like making plays-on-7, 11-on-11 without pads is just who's out there. Yes. So defensively, there were a couple times where I saw Marcus Davenport on the inside with kind of DJ Juan and Patrick Jones on the outside. It was Marcus Davenport and like Dean Lowry on the middle. Harrison Phillips, I believe, still isn't practicing.

So that was interesting to me the other one that was interesting was a lot of times when there were three corners out there it was a Caleb Evans not Andrew Booth Jr. as kind of that next guy and Makai Blackman worked in there as well too so and I also noticed that there was a lot of Cam Bynum and Harrison Smith was here yeah and there was a lot of Cam Bynum with him i think that lewis scene is gonna have to earn that uh i don't think that brian floris is just gonna make lewis scene that guy they're gonna go with who can get it i think that's the same with like i mean jordan hicks was back today but we still saw plenty of troy reader who i keep thinking is nick vigil because he's a white dude linebacker from the afcu's wearing number 59 59. But Brian Asamoah, that's the same thing with Louis Seane and Andrew Booth

and all these guys from last year that are kind of, I feel like, getting some buzz this offseason. They're not going to be handed anything at all, so they're going to have to go out and earn it as one does in the NFL. I don't even know if I want to ask this question, if Louis Seane isn't starting week one. Based on his health, that's bad. He should win that job.

And I am confident in that happening. Is that a milkshake bet, I hear? It could be if you want, because Cam Bynum, there were two players who played every snap last year for the Vikings, Cam Bynum and Ed Ingram. They played every snap not because they were playing very well, but because the Vikings didn't have anybody else at those positions who were at least at a competent, borderline competent level. I just, I don't really see it from Cam Bynum. Just, there was a, I saw some flashes in 2021. I saw 1200 snaps last year of evidence that

if Louis seen is 80% of what we thought he was going to be coming out of Georgia, he's going to win that job. But I'll take the milkshake bet. Yeah, I'm interested, though. Yeah, that's one you might have to have milkshake bet odds on. It might have to be because Louis Seen is a huge favorite to win that job it's just when you see bynum back out there with harrison smith you go the one thing about that position is it's usually an iq position and if lewis scene doesn't get it and we know cam bynum does he's now impressed multiple coaching staffs and he's impressed them enough to be there he is a very intelligent guy it's don't mess up and be the guy out of

position where it's a 60 yard touchdown but still he is a bar that you should be able to clear and we said this about him last year he is a bar that you should be able to clear and if you can't clear that bar then we've got some serious issues because he is fully active during otas so the injury is behind him and we should have that expectation now. Cause I wasn't sure if he wasn't going to be that active in OTAs like, well, maybe he's going to be behind a little and in training camp, it'll take him a while to ramp up. But now I think that we can reasonably set the expectation at starting in week one. The calendar question I had was, if you look at my phone here, it says it's May 30th. That means June 1st isn't too far away. What do we expect is going to happen

once June 1st? And for those who don't know, I mean, trust me, I can't fully explain all this stuff. So I'm having Brad Spielberg on the show later this week to explain this but this is when everybody's contract changes the the impact of trading daniel hunter delvin cook cutting him or trading kirk yeah probably not trading kirk but a lot of those implications change yeah after june 1st the simple way of thinking about it is after june 1 half of like the dead money goes into 2024 yeah whereas before june 1 you trade or you cut a guy all that dead money is on your books this year so for a team that's maybe trying to win now that might be an appealing thing to push just some of that down the line

we've seen the vikings do a lot of that general just kicking the can down the road and so push half the dead cap hit into 2024 for the arizona cardinals they were very clear they did not designate releasing deandre hopkins as post june 1 they're like let's just eat all this dead cap now because we know we're not going to be very good same with theeland let's be healthier in 2024 vikings exactly better example I should have used. Vikings did that this offseason with Adam Thielen. So I don't know what changes. And you can do moves before and, like, designate them as post-June 1.

Yes. Like the Cowboys did that with Ezekiel Elliott, I believe, like a couple months ago. Vikings with Kyle Rudolph. Yeah. So you can designate i think one move maybe two as post june one but now that it's actually here there's no more i don't think i don't think after june one you can designate something as pre-june one but maybe you should you should know i don't

think so i've never heard of that so i'm just spitballing two paces out of the two yeah i don't think that's a thing so yeah it's it's a notable date I don't think it means suddenly, hey, on Thursday, June 1st, Dalvin Cook and Daniel Hunter's situations, we're going to get an update. No, there's still a lot of factors at play there. But the passage of that milestone does mean significant things in the NFL offseason. That would mean, in my mind, if they don't trade Delvin Cook before June 1st. So tomorrow. Right.

Then by the, wait, is there 31 or 30? There's 31. Tomorrow's the, we're doing this on Tuesday. Wednesday is the 31st. This is why it was a calendar question. Yeah. So by, yeah, if they don't trade him by June 1st, then they're probably not going to be able to trade him.

It just means that there's not a good enough offer or any offer for him that's worth taking because you know that all the way through this time they've been trying. And at this point, and there was even the whole Jeremy Fowler trade him to somewhere where he's going to be able to play or whatever, which I don't know who would trade for him if he wasn't going to be able to play. I think they want to do right by him one way or another but what does that even i don't mean is the question don't trade him to the cardinals i guess i don't i guess so i don't know why would the cardinals trade for him i don't know if you're right it basically

means somebody said that to him and he repeated it but what it means i have no idea uh i do think that the benefit of trading him is similar to what it is with zadarius smith if he signs with an nfc team that plays you and he runs for 187 yards that's going to feel pretty bad if you released him but if you trade him to the afc and it's not a team that you play like cleveland with zadarius smith then it does then he can't hurt you the over there. But I just feel like if you've gone this far to this point and you can't find a trade partner, then it's time to just pull the cord and don't leave that hanging over everyone going into training camp, including him, which he probably wouldn't even show up to training camp.

I don't expect him to show up for mandatory minicamp. I expect him to just get fined. And if he does, it would be pretty shocking if he's even here. camp i don't expect him to show up for mandatory mini camp i expect him to just get fined yeah and if he does it would be pretty shocking if if he's even here and then does that mean there's a chance he returns and could they rework his deal and and what are we doing here because everyone has kind of moved on and madison's your starter and we've got this very interesting battle if he were to come back that to me would be extremely bizarre if if he were to come back after all this time making it very clear that they were not going to bring him back no it would be it would be strange

at this point and it it seems like there's been like a tiny bit of buzz about that possibility i don't i don't know i mean just because you get to this point and it's like, all right, if Dalvin, if we can't trade him and releasing him would come with the dead cap that it would, even if it's post June one, you push some of that into next year. Could the best option still potentially be for us to keep him for one more season, rework the deal? Just, I mean, if he wants to take a pay cut and stay and and you can find a kind of an opening for i mean he you wouldn't even have to find opening for him he would just it would just kind of revert to what it's been the last few years i think potentially with the

the shoulder being better i that you could make a case i think and i still wouldn't do this i would i would release him and move on i think you could make a case to keep him for one more year and then it becomes much easier to release him with like no dead cap at all next year or maybe even trade him again but um i don't think that's gonna happen but it is the possibility that he stays it does exist a little bit if we get to like but it would be weird third and he's still on the team then the possibility goes up significantly and at that point then we're talking about is he going to be at mandatory minicamp and we have seen this before because uh one thing that happens is the player wants more money and then he goes and looks around, talks to some teams.

Hey, let's say I was to sign with you guys. How much money would you give me? And the answer is none. What? Almost nothing. We'll bring you in for very cheap. This was the Riley Reif deal, where when Riley Reif, they wanted to release him or rework his contract or something to bring in Yannick Ngakwe, he was like, cut me.

And then I think his agent just went out and called a bunch of teams to see how much they would give for him the answer was nothing and so he ended up staying I could see that but why would you draft a fifth rounder a seventh rounder you have Kenny Wong Wu who's a draft pick you bring back Alexander Madison this is a really interesting running back room that has a lot of talent and potential here to be good I think with the guys that we've seen the flashes from them or at least from Dwayne McBride what he did in college a lot of intrigue there to just be like nah once again none of you are playing I mean it would I just I

think it would make them look kind of silly. Yeah, I think it would send a weird message to Alex Madison. I know it's the NFL and nothing is guaranteed and handed to you, but it seems like, all right, these guys re-signed me for $3.5 million a year, which is a notable contract for a running back, just to then keep me in the backup role that I've been in for the last four years I don't I don't know it is an odd situation I still think the most likely possibility is Dalvin Cook ends up getting released or maybe still traded I mean maybe they could even still

find a trade where it's like Smith where we'll eat like a million or two of his salary if you throw us a 2025 sixth rounder or something. You just get something out of it. Did we ever get an update, and I've been looking for this, on how much they took back? Because Over the Cap does not have Zadarius. With Smith? I think it was like a million or 1.2 or something. Yeah, maybe there's something to do with that as well

because Zadarius' contract isn't updated on Over the Cap, and until it is, I'm not exactly 100 sure but anyway so yeah i think that if they were to bring him back it would look weird in relation to everything else they've done yeah harrison smith came back on a pay cut everybody else who is a veteran and now when you add it up it's a lot of people it's patrick peterson it's delvin tomlinson it's zedarius smith it's add it up it's a lot of people it's Patrick Peterson it's Delvin Tomlinson it's Zedaria Smith it's Adam Thielen that's a lot of old expense Eric Hendricks old expensive talent all gone and that's actually a good thing refreshing the roster in a lot of ways that it needed to be in the past and then no we're going to keep a guy who's going to get every snap and hold back these other players that have potential for what and also yeah i mean you could make an argument that maybe if his shoulder is

better he's better but we're also talking about another year of a ton of carries on this guy's body is he getting quicker probably not so i would be very uh befuddled i think if they decided to do that i don't expect that they will either and then we'll see what happens with hunter that one though i don't expect movement right away that could go on all the way throughout training camp and everything else uh we'll see on that but um i think we got a lot of interesting stuff out of otas today a little bit of intrigue here so yeah and we'll be back for one more next week and then it's then it's mandatory minicamp and better show up or you're getting fined so it gets hot yeah all right football football thanks

everybody