Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - With Risner signed, should the Vikings make other moves?

Episode Date: May 31, 2024

Matthew Coller talks about the Vikings bringing back Dalton Risner and if the Vikings should make more moves. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hey everybody, welcome to another episode of Purple Insider. Matthew Collar here and once again doing a little countdown to Wolves tip off by talking about football. So welcome all of your questions, comments, OTA analysis that you're looking for. I am here for you for the next hour to have that discussion with everybody here in the comment section. So I appreciate you all joining as I'm sure you are very anxious about basketball as the Wolves go in facing elimination here against the Mavericks. But yesterday, another OTA practice for the Minnesota Vikings. And of course, they also signed a left guard, which all of you were desperate for. And I hope that guard guy shows up in the comments because this should be really his show. We should just read only his comments. He's been advocating for guards really throughout the entire off season. So this is his day. But I did have a thought because we talked the other day with Andrew Kramer about Dalton Reisner

and where he fits in. And Andrew seems to think that this is still going to be a Blake Brandel production at left guard, that the coaching staff is high on Brandel and wants him to win the job, or at least he's going to be given every opportunity to win the job. And that Reisner might be more of a backup or a contingency plan versus Blake Brandel, which is interesting because I guess I had thought of it a little bit the opposite way, sort of, you know what you have in Dalton Reisner as an average guard. So he'll come in, he'll be the starter. And then if Blake Brandel outperforms him, he'll win it. But Andrew thinks it's the other way around from people that

he's talked to. So I guess we'll see how that plays out. It might make sense considering Reisner is not the best run blocker and that they want to improve with their run blocking. So more of that discussion if you want to go check that video out. But now that they have solidified that left guard position that we have discussed on a number of occasions here through the off season, what else? What else is to be done? Yes, I know there's a contract with a certain wide receiver to be resolved. Is there anything else that the Minnesota Vikings should be looking at? And now the first comment from JP is perfect for where my mind went as well. JP says, maybe we should consider a move for a wide receiver three, a guy like Hunter Renfro is a good route runner and can play the slot. Now, Renfro, my question is with him, is it a Dalton Reisner situation where he's holding

out for more money and he thinks he should be paid a lot more based on his very high production from a couple of years ago, not so much last year. And that's what is keeping him in free agency that nobody really wants to pay Hunter Renfro a big salary, but he thinks he's worth it. And then we just dance around until the guy finally takes a job. Is that the case with Renfro or was there something in his tape from last year where there was a reason that he didn't hardly catch the ball last season. Maybe you could say it was because Devontae Adams was the main target. Maybe you could say it's because

Aiden O'Connell is not an experienced quarterback. I'm sorry, got the hiccups here. Is not an experienced quarterback. And I guess when we're doing live, I could just pretend the internet zapped out there instead of having a hiccup. But, you know, was it something about Hunter Renfro's game that wasn't just circumstantial or the way that the Raiders offense played last year? Is it injuries that have piled up on Hunter Renfro? And we see this all the time in the NFL where I'll give you an example. How about Dean Lowry is a good example or even Marcus Davenport, but Lowry might be even better for this. Two years ago, Dean Lowry, now three years ago, three years ago, Dean Lowry had a great season. He had, I don't know,

40 pressures or something really impact player for the Green Bay Packers. The following season, he struggled. And then when they signed him, the big conversation around the Vikings was, hey, if he can throw back to two years ago, this is going to be a really good signing. But how often does a guy ever throw back to two years ago? That's usually not how the NFL worked. If you dropped off, there was likely a reason that you dropped off. And for Renfro, I would have a tough time thinking or expecting that he was going to get back to where he was.

Now, where he was was very, very good. So maybe even if he's 80% of that, he's a plus player. But in comparison to what the Vikings have right now, do we think that Hunter Renfro could add more than what they currently have at that wide receiver three position? And as I was watching OTAs, I was thinking about Brandon Powell and Jalen Naylor who are getting a ton of work out there with the ones, of course, with the first team with Sam Darnold and Nick Mullins on the starters field. And I think that Jalen Naylor

looks good. I mean, they're in shorts and this is not real practices and so forth. But I was talking to Dane Mizutani, the Pioneer Press, and he said to me, Jalen Naylor always shines in these things, right? In these OTAs and these mini camps. And there's a reason why they've been a fan of Jalen Naylor for a long time now. And Brandon Powell, last year, he was asked to be in that wide receiver three role, sometimes even wide receiver two, depending on what was going on when KJ Osborne got hurt. And I wouldn't say that he set the world on fire, but Powell proved that he could be a legitimate wide receiver. This was a guy who in college was kind of a hybrid slot running back type player comes into the NFL is almost exclusively a punt returner until 2022. And then because of

emergency Powell was used by the Rams a little bit as a wide receiver, but more as kind of a playmaker bubble screen type guy. And then last year he gets a few opportunities shows that he could win the job out of training camp over Jalen Rager, who had been more of a, say what you will, but more of a regular wide receiver in his career than Brandon Powell. Powell outperformed him in training camp. And then when he was asked to be a wide receiver, a regular player out there, he performed pretty well. And especially with Kirk Cousins in the game, but also caught the game winning touchdown from Josh Dobbs.

He was able to get open. It seemed like he understood the playbook very well. A competitive guy who can make some plays with his legs. I might rather want to see what Brandon Powell can do and Jalen Naylor can do. And even Trent Shurfield, to some extent, that one I'm a little less confident on because you just haven't seen him practice in pads with this offense where I have a sample size on the other guys. But with Brandon Powell, there's not a huge upside, but there's someone who could be solid

in that role over the next year or beyond that. And with Jalen Naylor, there is upside. There's somebody who has consistently in the OTAs, the mini camps and training camp when he was healthy two years ago. And then in a small sample, when he's gotten in games has seemed like there is potential there, but there has just been roadblocks in 2022. They were winning a bunch of really close games and they had three solid wide receivers that didn't get hurt and never came out of the game. And so we didn't see a whole heck of a lot of Jalen Naylor.

When he got in, he caught a few passes on deep balls, and that was really it. But we see the physical talent that he has when he's out there. And every time Kevin O'Connell has talked about Jalen Naylor, he has been excited about that. Seems like he's somebody that he wants to have on the team and give a chance. I might

prefer an opportunity to find out on Jalen Naylor beyond bringing somebody in that's just going to set right into that role like Hunter Renfro. And even the Renfro thing kind of reminds me of the times that they've tried this before. And that doesn't mean every time would have to fail, but history hasn't really been kind to the, let's add a guy late in the free agent process as a wide receiver and hope he can kind of work in the slot. That was Kendall, right? That was Tajay sharp, who I think had one target. Even Michael Floyd, they tried to work in, Hey, this is going to be their peer deep threat. They went through the whole kombucha thing and everything else hasn't usually really worked out, but Brandon Powell, you don't have to squint too hard to see

something like a Jarius Wright type wide receiver that has been kind of missing ish. I thought that KJ Osborne was even better than someone like Jarius Wright, but then last year was a difficult year for KJ Osborne, including, I thought that maybe some pressure got to him at times with a big season. And then he had the injury in the middle of the year. It just wasn't really the same. But Brandon Powell is a better route runner, I think, than KJ Osborne, where I viewed Osborne as more of a freight train, like get him the ball when he's moving, he can make plays and never really a hundred percent gelled with what Kevin O'Connell wanted, where maybe Brandon Powell is actually a better fit. And then there's a bunch of other receivers who are going to get a chance to battle

it out. There was a play yesterday in OTAs where Malik Knowles didn't make the catch. It would have been an unbelievable catch, but you saw a little bit of that speed and that quickness, and he's a guy that I'm sure most of you haven't heard of. He went to K-State, and last year they brought him in as a UDFA, but he was hurt or got hurt. I think he may have been injured, and he essentially had a redshirt year. I haven't asked what the injury was. I don't recall.

But we've seen him just a couple times out there, rookie camp OTAs. And each time you go, oh, okay, that guy's got some speed to him. He's got some quickness. And if you look back at his career at K-State, he was a good kick returner, kind of a get the ball in his hands, explode player. I might prefer the wide receiver battle be let's find out. And if nobody emerges, nobody emerges emerges but there's not that many positions on this roster that are kind of a training camp battle of youth or inexperience and the wide receiver three slash four type of position could be that and sometimes in the past when we've seen those battles somebody emerges and looks like they belong. So let's just say I'm a little bit out on that.

If they brought in Hunter Renfro, I'd be fine with it. I'm not going to complain. But if they don't, I'm okay with letting this battle play out. Plus, I need the content. So, you know, I need a training camp battle outside of the kicking battle, which is still on. I need other battles to be able to write about because that's what we need in training camp is battles. The interior of the offensive line, I wouldn't expect that they sign anyone else because they now have Dan Feeney. They now have Dalton Reisner.

It feels like a more complete group there now, and Feeney could play guard or center. Yesterday, Brandel was not participating, so Feeney was at left guard. Wouldn't look too much into that. He's played a bunch of games in his career, so he can fill in center or guard, kind of as the Austin Schloteman of the offensive line. They brought back David Questenberry, so they're good there. Now Now on the defensive side, I don't think that they need more defensive tackles. They need a great defensive tackle, which you're not going to find in free agency now, but I'm kind of intrigued with Jerry Tillery. This is a very OTA ish thing to say, but as Jerry Tillery was walking off the field and remember, they can't

go to war with each other in OTAs. First, that would be preposterous to do. But second of all, this is against the rules. So you're not really seeing these battles between the offensive and defensive line. They can really only judge on kind of how does he look out there? Jerry Tillery looks like a guy who was drafted in the first round. He's very tall. He's super jacked. And Marcus Dixon, the defensive line coach was talking about how, you know, he's kind of focused, ready to take this big chance because last year he made a case for himself as a situational rusher with the Raiders where he had improved significantly from when he did not work out

with the chargers and he's got my interest. So I don't think they need to bring in anybody else there. That's another kind of, let's find out what's there. They also brought back Bullard. They signed Jonah Williams and at the cornerback position, I think that the depth does offer a little bit of intrigue with Andrew Booth jr. The starters, I think is a fairly solid group that is going to be considered their biggest weakness on defense. But with Shaq Griffin, if he plays well, if he fits in well, which it looks like he is so far, but super early, then I don't think that they need another corner to be brought in here either. So as of this moment, I would say that the roster probably mostly is what it is,

unless there's an opportunity to bring in some other depth player of quality, maybe another veteran running back, for example, they're a little light there outside of Ty Chandler, maybe another pass rusher. That would be an area where I could say they could use some depth because at the pass rusher position, you have three guys that are impressive, you know, Dallas Turner, Andrew Van Ginkle, Jonathan Grenard, but that's really it. I mean, Andre Carter after that, uh, I didn't observe a huge difference in Andre Carter's physique after year one. Now, like I didn't tell him to take his jersey off and let me get a real close look at him. It's just sometimes when somebody is really beefed up in

the off season, they'll be talking about it and you'll see the guy like, oh yeah, he's got some pecs now or something. But you know, I'm not sure that that's there. We'll see if there's development in Andre Carter. This off season was very big for him. My point is just that's a UDFA guy who barely played last year. And right now he's your depth and Patrick Jones is your depth. Patrick Jones, when he had to play last year was legitimately graded as the worst defensive end who played that much or outside linebacker in the entire NFL by PFF. So they could use another edge rusher as depth. Maybe there's some veteran who's still bouncing around. If you guys have ideas or something, Yannick Ngakwe has got to be still out there, right? To come in and get six sacks and zero

pressure somehow and be the worst run defender in the league. He's still got to be out there doing it, right? So that's my thought is maybe that position could add another guy. But other than that, this roster I think is what it is. And we can talk about how good that's going to be and what our expectations are for this season, unless you guys have ideas. So I am interested in those, but any other questions from OTAs or Vikings or football thoughts on your mind in the comment section, fire them up and we'll chat for the next 45 minutes or so entirely on what's on your guy's mind. MKF asks, can you see improvement in JJ McCarthy so far? I'm going to answer no, but then let me give the caveat. The caveat to no is I've seen three practices from JJ McCarthy because that's the amount

that has been open to the media. So we had a rookie minicamp, one OTA last week, and then a second OTA practice this last week. Yeah. So last week and then this week. And there will be three practices next week for mandatory mini camp that we are allowed to be at. And that's going to provide a bigger sample, three straight practices, but progress is going to be hard to put a finger on when I I've only seen three practices, but also it's a,

it's a short amount of time and each practice that they're going out, they are putting more and more volume on JJ McCarthy. And I thought that Josh McCown put it really well, where he said a lot of these concepts that he's running, a lot of the footwork, a lot of where he's supposed to throw the football. It's the first time he's ever done it. So the reps that we're out there watching in a practice, this is the first real rep that JJ McCarthy has ever taken doing X, Y, and Z. So there will be times where it's going to look

pretty ugly. Now, I didn't think he looked ugly yesterday. I just thought it looked about the same as we saw last week, which is, I thought he got the ball out a little quicker for a couple of the plays, but it wasn't like the last time was some sort of disaster. He wasn't fumbling the snaps, but I didn't think that was actually an issue. It was just something that happened a couple of times in the first practice we saw. And, you know, he seems fairly comfortable out there, very comfortable with his teammates and everything else. And you see some throws that look really good. Some other throws where you go, okay, that one was a little high, a little wide,

a little wherever. And that's where we're at right now. And the reps didn't change either. And I'll tell you a little secret about training camp OTAs and everything that I don't believe in my magical ability to evaluate all the players on the football team in a practice that I'm standing on a hill watching. That would be insane if someone claimed that they could tell you how good everyone is playing in practice. But what I can tell you is where they're playing. I could tell you who is getting all the reps because I can write that down and take notes on that. And normally the reps will point us in the right direction. And I'll give you an example from last year where Ivan Pace Jr. was taking reps with the second team

in OTAs in minicamp, which was an indicator because a lot of times undrafted free agents are not taking first or second team reps. They're not on the first and second team field that early. So we kind of knew this might be a player to watch. And yesterday on defense, we're seeing Makai Blackman and Shaq Griffin and then Byron Murphy play a little more in the slot. So we go, oh, okay. We kind of see something going on here with the way that they're putting them out on the field.

And as far as McCarthy goes, as long as he's taking those third team reps, he's on the, I call it like the kids table side of the field in practice, that tells us that they think that there's still a lot of work to do there and that it's not a real quarterback competition yet. So we'll see if he looks a little more comfortable. I thought that the ball was coming out on time more often in the second practice than in the first one that we watched. This one was outdoors as opposed to indoors. Maybe that helped out a little bit with the comfort level of being out in the normal practice field. But yeah, I mean, I don't know. We're only seeing a handful of throws in practice, but in minicamp, we should get a little bit better of an idea.

But I think it's really training camp where we're probably going to see the most progress when it comes to J.J. McCarthy. It's just going to be a lot easier to judge when we get to minicamp. I'm sorry, when we get to training camp. But minicamp could tell us some answers about how he's coming along. And if he starts getting some of those second team reps instead of Nick Mullins, then that would be a really good sign. If he doesn't, then we'll wait till training camp.

Hey, us cellular customers. I've got some good news. So do not hit that skip forward button just yet. I'm talking about their special customer event us days what's us days it means exclusive offers just for their customers just to say thanks like twelve hundred dollars off any phone plus three hundred dollars off any tablet no i did not misread that they must really like you all us days at us cellular exclusive offers just for you just to say thanks right now us cellular customers get 1200 off any phone plus 300 off any tablet terms apply uh cj says uh uh you nailed. Well, that's all I need to know. CJ, that's a great comment.

And, uh, there you go. No, I'm just kidding. Uh, this channel can't ask for much more than a quarterback guard kicker competition. That's right. CJ Hamm and Andrew DePaula being studs is keeping us from fullback and long snapper controversy. You're right about that. They are in those positions, but, those positions but you know as far as training

camp goes we will have probably the most interesting training camp that we've had here since 2018 probably and 2018 came along with unfortunately the passing of Tony Sperano so I I mean that was muted in comparison to what we thought it was going to be with Kirk arriving and the whole Super Bowl or bus thing. And the team was believing in themselves. But there was some issues with Mike Zimmer and John D. Filippo. And all of that was really fascinating. But because Tony Sperano had passed away, it kind of took away from the, hey, isn't everybody so excited about all these things going on? Because, you know, Tony was a great guy who had played such a big role in the 2017 team.

The team was devastated. There's a funeral in the middle of training camp. That was really, really difficult. And, uh, it, it, it just wasn't the same. So I can't really throw back to, Oh yeah, that one was as, as you know, that was the most exciting. 2017 was interesting because that's when I've mentioned this on the show before many times, probably Sam Bradford was showing all the signs of looking like a franchise quarterback in training camp that a lot of times with training camp, you know, you could go either way on things unless it looks really terrible or really awesome. It's not that notable, but with Sam Bradford 17, it was that awesome. And Delvin

Cook also looked like an instant superstar in training camp. So there's that feeling where you go, this might be something going on here with this football team. And I, you know, 2022 was a little interesting with Kevin O'Connell, but the players weren't that different. So that, you know, it was okay. All right, let's see how O'Connell does stuff. But, uh, you know, I actually, it's less intense in training camp with O'Connell. So then it became less interesting because it was harder to figure out, you know, who was, uh, you know, getting the reps or who was standing out or whatever else. But this one, we got numerous positions now where we get to look, uh, in depth, uh, at especially the quarterback. Of course, uh, Ron says Jalen Naylor's health is a huge question mark when it comes to,

uh, Jalen Naylor's health. It's hard because some players just have bad luck so how do we figure out is it bad luck or is it something that is just built into this player because i have covered players before where their bodies were just not going to hold up they were banged up when they were younger this might be andrew booth jr i guess we'll find out they were banged up when they were younger they had injuries or something severe. And it's just really hard to come back from. And it kind of keeps cropping up.

Or was it that the guy just had a random strange calf issue that held them out for way longer than they ever expected? And then he finally gets in a game, makes a catch. Well, I can't remember what happened exactly and got popped. And then it's a concussion and they don't want to run him back out there and risk anything with the concussion. So then he's out for the year. Two things happen. You miss the whole season. Football's hard that way. Really straining mentally for these players. I would have a tough time calling someone injury prone when they're as young as Jalen Naylor.

It might just be that he went through a tough time last season. That's why I want to see the opportunity. Now, if someone does get hurt, if it's Powell or if it's Naylor, then, you know, if we're talking about Trent Shurfield and on down the line, yeah, you might want a veteran player to come in then, but I'm very, you know, when we make the list of most interesting players for training camp, I think Jalen Naylor is going to be on my list. Uh, Mr. Mankato front runners. Is that still a thing? Oh, it's always a thing. It will always be a thing. Uh, some people tried to rename it that now that it's an Egan, but, uh, you know, you can't, you can't really rename it. Who would be on the list? Well, you have a sixth round kicker. If the sixth round kicker captivates the masses, I mean, that's somebody who runs to the front of the list for Will Reichard has a good chance for a Mr. Mankato. Let me think who would

be Mr. Mankato? Because I got to remember kind of some of the rules here. Can it be a second year player if he's never really played before? I think that's also in the rule. And then it's anybody drafted or undrafted free agent. Gabriel Murphy goes to the top of the list, the high coveted linebacker, outside linebacker from undrafted free agency. Those guys are interesting. Oh, Levi Drake Rodriguez. Yeah. Marcus Dixon said yesterday, Oh, love that kid. Big fan of Levi Drake Rodriguez, the three names, the enthusiasm of that guy, the story coming from the nowhere college in Texas. If he stands out even a little in preseason, then Levi Drake Rodriguez is the front runner. I think a hands down. What about Bob says, Jordan Addison said McCarthy

throws a tight spiral and you got to catch it. That's all I need to hear. Jordan Addison always has, every time he talks to the media, one of those funny one-liners where he's a very matter of fact person. Jordan Addison is a good example of a guy who you don't want to try to judge him too much by his press conferences. He's a very straightforward, quiet individual. And yet as far as football goes, he's a savant. I mean, it kind of reminds me a little bit of Xavier Rhodes was this way. And Xavier came out of his shell and had more of a funny personality later on. But when I first started covering the team, he was very quiet and very to himself and he got more comfortable and had success and so forth.

And then we saw more of his personality, but Jordan Addis is not a big talker, but you know, the fact that he was explaining and breaking down how he was going to work on his releases to get off the line of scrimmage better, I thought was a good sign. It's what you want to hear from a second year player to go back and say, Hey, my rookie year was good, but it wasn't good enough. But as far as he throws a tight spiral and you have to catch it is exactly, Hey, no lies told from that. And I, when it comes to the tight spiral, I'm not close enough to tell the, is it NFL film style, slow motion, you know, rotating right into the receiver's hands, but the way that it moves

through the air, it's not hard to figure out. And we got a really nice comparison look with there's two guys that have monster arms and there's two guys that don't in, uh, on this roster. And so Josh McCown was standing maybe 45 yards down the field from his quarterbacks and they were throwing bombs to him and maybe they were working on the arc of the ball or something like that. But when Darnold and McCarthy threw the ball, it got there and it got there easily from their arm strength. And then when Nick Mullins and Jared Hall threw the ball, you know, moved a little slower through the air. So that's where, so we've already kind of given this conclusion about JJ McCarthy. Hey, you can see all of his skill. It's right there. You can see how big he is. You can see how well he moves and throws the football easily on the move. You

can see that and you can see the arm strength, but then you're asking for, well, has he made progress? Is there more there? And the answer is we're just going to have to see how this comes together because it's going to take a lot of reps for that to happen. But what I know is just from the outset, you can say that this player has the talent to play in the NFL and throws the football well enough to play in the NFL and throws the football well enough to be in the NFL. Beyond that, we're going to start to find out. Is the NFL going to rule on

the tampering stuff? I don't know. Someday. I wouldn't get your hopes up. Where did that come from? Did it come from the same person that all the other BS comes from? Because if it did, it's just time to ignore that. It's just time to move on because there's no factual information coming from there. I don't know why anyone would have thought that the NFL would have ruled quickly on something. Usually they let it disappear from the view of the fans and then bring it up way later. And then everyone goes, oh, is there tampering? I don't know. Is Kirk a falcon, huh?

Like it just usually they try to sweep it under the rug for a little while, come back a lot later and address it just so it's not a big thing for them, especially during the draft. They wanted all focus on the draft. They weren't going to start docking people picks that quickly anyway because they would have needed to have more of a investigation. And I think that you have to always think of what Roger Goodell is going to do as what all the owners want him to do. Do the owners want Roger Goodell to come down hard on the Atlanta Falcons for Kirk Cousins

having a conversation with their, I don't know, coordinator or something? No, because if we start investigating every free agent who does that, then a lot of draft picks are going to get docked from teams. I would not expect that the penalty for the Atlanta Falcons is going to be devastating when it comes to what that, uh, was from Kirk cousins. And it just, it was not the same as the owner taking Tom Brady out on his yacht and convincing him to buy a part of the team and join their roster or whatever it was that Steven Ross did. It wasn't anything like that, that, uh, or at least that is being talked about for the tamperings. I just, I don't know. I forgot about it two seconds after it happened

and assume that someday we would find out that there's not much penalty. Uh, uh, CJ says 2009 preseason was an absolute circus with far hype. I don't recall. Cause I wasn't here. Did he play, he played in preseason games. That's, that's funny. Just how far we've come with that. Even Mike Zimmer was still running out like the starters for a good portion of the preseason. The whole third preseason game, they would play the first half, which seems obscene in comparison to Kevin O'Connell, who cannot get his starters off the field fast enough in the one game he puts them in. And then he just puts them on ice the rest of the way.

And hey, they've been, well, they were fine in the first week one. And then last year they should have beat the Bucks, but didn't. But I never felt they were not prepared because of preseason. We did hear that a little last year when they lost the games. Was it because of the preseason? No, everyone's sitting starters now in the preseason. It doesn't work that way anymore. I cannot imagine what the Favre thing was like.

To have people told stories about the helicopter following is the car bringing him to winter park and all that sort of stuff. That must've been pretty cool for everybody. And I wonder about what the expectations were back then. I guess I'd have to ask Judd or Chip or Royce or something about, was it immediate Super Bowl conversation or was it, maybe this could be fun and weird, but because Favre had not played well in New York. So was there high expectations? Some of you would remember a lot better than me going into the season. I didn't remember thinking when the Vikings acquired Favre and and I was just starting my media career, I don't recall thinking, well, this team's going to the Super Bowl now.

They've got Favre. I think it was more of, is this a joke? Like, is he trying to get back at the Packers? And, you know, not the case. Evan says, someone suggested first-round player trade with Tennessee. What do you think of trading Louis Scene for Traylon Burks? Both teams could use the depth, but I do like Paul and thinks he deserves a shot at wide receiver three. Traylon Burks has done a lot more than Lewis scene. So sure. Yeah. I mean, I would do that.

Are they locked into trading Traylon Burks or do they view him as just more of a role player on that team and they want to give him more time? I don't know their situation. I have not looked into what the reporters are saying about Traylon Burks in Tennessee, but I saw him a little bit last year during the joint practices, actually got hurt during the joint practices and looked talented to me before he got injured. I think he actually got hurt on a really good catch and he had a little bit of success the year before. And then they went out and got a couple of wide receivers there. So he's down on the depth chart a little more, but are they willing to trade him for a guy who cannot get on the field pretty much no matter what, and is not even active on game days? I'm not sure. Maybe the Vikings would have

to add something extra to that. I'm all for that, by the way. If there's any teams, former first round draft pick that they're dumping, just take them, swap picks with them, and maybe you get something out of it. I think, what was it, Kansas City got a half a season or something out of Mike Hughes. If you get anything out of it, you're succeeding. But if the team is giving away a player in a trade for someone like Louis Seen, you got to raise an eyebrow there and go, are you really? Is there something going on there that is a reason why you are trading away that player?

But if I'm the Titans, I'm not doing that. I would need more draft know, more draft capital, which the Vikings don't have. They don't have any real draft capital at all to give to anybody. And that's, you know, maybe, maybe the problem. Uh, what about Bob says, uh, what's the steam? We got to use that all the time. Steam and buzz. If you guys want to frame every question is what's the steam or what's the buzz feel free. Cause that's, that's the good stuff right there. Uh, on the defensive tackle in the seventh round. Oh, that's a, yeah. The Levi Drake Rodriguez. Yeah. That's who you're talking about. So, um, I mean, yeah, Marcus Dixon said that he likes him and that's all we really

got as far as steam goes. Uh goes there's not too many questions being asked about levi drake rodriguez outside of i think one person said how's levi drake rodriguez look and he said good i like that guy so that's really it uh that's that is one where we'll definitely need to be training camp and pads before we talk about Levi Drake Rodriguez. I think that he has a chance to make the roster though. Andre Carter was able to do it as a UDFA and it's not a deep situation. James Lynch is back here, but how does James Lynch look will not be your first. How does that guy look in training camp? But I will be looking on a daily basis at James Lynch. Funny thing about James Lynch is that he actually fits now better than he did

from the group that drafted him. When the Vikings drafted James Lynch back in, what was it? 2020, I think 2020, uh, they didn't know what position he played. He had a lot of production in college and he looked like a three, four defensive end. That was sort of a defensive tackle ish, but was playing, you know, over the B gap. And sometimes, uh, you know, over the, the, what is it? The, the C gap or the, the five technique, that's what I'm looking for, over the tackle. He was playing more interior, but not necessarily a defensive tackle position, but that three, four defensive end. And then the Vikings drafted him and said, no, we're making him a defensive end.

And then we're making him a nose tackle, I think, after that. And like, what are we doing here? And neither one of those things really worked, but he was competent. And clearly this, you know, group of coaches liked what they saw. I think he actually performed a little better than I expected in would have been 2022 that he was a rotational player and gave them decent reps. So now he's got a chance to fight his way into a job. If he's back a hundred percent from that ACL tear,

it might be him versus Levi Drake Rodriguez. Maybe you don't want to cut him because there's other teams that might've been interested in him late in the draft that could potentially pick him up. Usually seventh rounders will make it through to the practice squad. CJ said mostly the, is he coming? Is he coming? Oh my gosh, my gosh he's here Super Bowl talk didn't really start until mid-season I was watching the game I remember this quite well against San Francisco where he threw the touchdown that kicked off I think most of the the Brett Favre steam if you will or buzz for this thing could be for real because the first couple of weeks, it was not as inspiring maybe, or maybe it was the first week. I don't remember when the San Francisco game happened, but the first week against Cleveland, it was checkdowns and handoffs

and Adrian Peterson went crazy. And so it kind of appeared like it was going to be just this regular old like you know old guy trying to do a Peyton Manning thing from 2015 and then all of a sudden it you know explodes and Brett Favre plays great and you know the rest is history from there so I'm always fascinated by how things were with this team when they have these explosions of excitement. There hasn't been a every single year. It's every so often, and it always has its different flavor. 2022 was all the random crazy games at the end. 2017 is Keenum. 2009 is Favre. That's what makes this franchise so unique is how many times that that's happened, which of course does lead me to another subject of intrigue, which is Sam Darnold.

And I was doing a appearance on the New York Giants team podcast. And of course, you know, week one, and they were asking me about just, you know, is this going to be Sam Darnold? Is it going to be JJ McCarthy? And I keep going back and forth on Sam Darnold because every time we talk about him in the comment section, there's five people who go, he stinks. You got to remember he stinks. Like, you know, you're not that wrong though. Like from the history, from the stats, from what he has produced up until this point, I can see that there's not a lot of evidence to suggest that Sam Darnold has been or will be anything more than what he's been. And the host of this Giants podcast was saying, and he's in New York and everything,

that he's kind of a truther. And it's funny because there's, you know, I was talking to, by the way, show announcement. If you didn't see it on Twitter, former intern of Purple Insider, Haley English, she was on a part-time role with the Detroit Lions in their analytics department. They made her full-time there. So now former Purple Insider intern, you know, remains in the division. That's going to be a big problem for the Vikings. But she was a Jets fan, if you recall. And we were chatting and she said that she thinks that Sam Darnold could be pretty good with the Vikings too. It's like the people who watched Sam Darnold in New York, Will Parkinson was on the show, turn on the Jets podcast.

And then the Giants guy who's there in New York and they seem to be saying, it's okay to go that way. It's okay to walk down that direction. Uh, the opposite example was when the Vikings signed Marcus Davenport and I get a couple of messages that say like, good luck. And that ended up sort of turning out. So the people who are there would have a little better sense for if it's possible for Sam Darnold to take that step forward. And it appears that those people, at least the people that watched him with the Jets, think that he is.

That's as far as I could really go from there. But OK, let's go down that road then. Let's go down that road and think that it's possible that sam darnold does take a big step forward from where he has been before and so far during otas i think that he has looked like a starting type of quarterback out there very comfortable with what they're asking him to do some inaccurate passes here or there but uh has looked like the guy that was the San Francisco backup that played pretty well when they put him in and the guy who at times was pretty good in Carolina. So I don't know, that adds to the intrigue that we're going to see. But so far, I can't go as

far as to say, wow, I've been so impressed by Sam Darnold because there's just not enough plays. And when they're practicing on two different fields, I can kind of only watch both at the same time. But no, I mean, this is such a different situation that Sam Darnold has than he's ever had before. You can't overstate it. It's not exactly like playing in another league or something. You had professionals around you. But when we see certain quarterbacks can be pushed one way or another, and the guy with the Giants, we were chatting about how Daniel Jones is an example of this, where right now we are thinking that Daniel Jones

is about the worst quarterback in the world. And two years ago, we were talking about Daniel Jones is about the worst quarterback in the world. And two years ago, we were talking about Daniel Jones as a guy that when he faced the Vikings defense, he gave him a lot of problems and he won a decent amount of games and he had a better situation at that time. With Saquon Barkley, he had a few more people to throw to, an offense that was built for him. Their offensive line was pretty decent, you know, the year that they beat the Vikings in the playoff. So we see even quarterbacks that we consider to be bad, be pushed into the middle. If they have the right circumstances, maybe that will be the case from Sam Darnold. But I just think it's interesting that everybody that I know who was a, was a jets fan or in New York or whatever,

they're all saying, Hey, maybe this will be, maybe this will be his time. I might speak to his likability because I don't think you guys were saying that to the 49ers when they signed Christian Ponder as a backup. And I sure know that when I was in Buffalo and they had EJ manual, he signed with the Raiders or something. I wouldn't have told someone from the Raiders, Hey, that guy needs another chance. I would have said, hopefully you don't have to play him. Uh, so, you know, um, we'll see when it comes to Sam Darnold, but I'm intrigued. Uh, CJ said we average one to two awesome teams per decade, usually with a retread quarterback, uh, or a core, a young quarterback was about to meet a career altering injury. Good luck, Sam and JJ. Yeah, you're right. Hey, both can't happen, right? I'll knock on wood for that. Both can't happen, right? One of those that they will,

they will have either the young quarterback or the retread rise to the challenge. And we will all hope, you know, I don't root, but I do hope that no one gets hurt uh so we'll see from there but that is funny that's a good observation uh daniel says i think this is the best overall team sam darnold has had guy has the arm and mobility he actually does run more than you think scramble when i went back and watched him in carolina uh koc offense he can average some big numbers that's where my i need like a limit on like how much how far do i want to go with this how much percentage do i want to assign it's actually reminds me of an old ej manual conversation that i had once with a colleague of mine when i was on the radio in buffalo where we

were talking about how much was ej manual's failure to blame on the previous coaching staff. So they'd had Doug Marone, Doug Marone literally quit long story, Google it. And, uh, Rex Ryan took over and they were going to have a quarterback competition. So the discussion was, well, how much of EJ's failures were based on that coach from before who was sort of a lunatic. And somebody in the room said 25%. I said 4%. I have a very tough time in putting so much emphasis on circumstances when there are fatal weaknesses and flaws to certain players. And see,, I don't really agree with, I mean, Evan says the situation could make Desmond Ritter look average. See, I don't think so. I think that occasionally you get a case Keenum season where every wild throw that that guy launched up in the air got

caught by digs or feeling the schedule was very favorable to that team as well. We can't forget that. He game managed his way through a lot of games where they ran the ball and played number one defense and then had some huge games here or there, but I don't think that would have lasted very long. So yeah, I mean, a situation could one time out of a hundred make somebody into a good quarterback for a minute, like it did with a case Keenum. But if they had run him out there for multiple seasons, would it have worked the same way? I don't think so. And with Sam Darnold, what percentage of his failure for his career is based on what he had around him. I would go more than 4%. I might go like 10%, but I would not go much higher than that. The interceptions that he throws, the fumbles, the sacks, the miscues,

those are not always entirely because you don't have the right coach. You don't have the right receivers, the inconsistency as far as accuracy, inconsistency from a week to week basis. There were times where he played good football with all those teams. And then there would be the following week where it looked like he had never started a game before in his career. We even saw it within one game when the Vikings played him with Carolina, where the first half of the game, it looked like he shouldn't even be in the league. And then at the end of the game, he has this crazy comeback. Inconsistency is a feature, not a bug with Sam Darnold. And he's trying to work on that, but there's only really so much you can do. So I might go 10%. If we made

him 10% better, then he could be 20th best quarterback in the league. Now he's got a, if you want him to be anything better than an average quarterback, now you're talking about having to blame a quarter of his failure on everybody else. That's hard to do. I do think that great quarterbacks raise all boats, middling quarterbacks get pushed around in the wind based on what is around them. I mean, heck, Kirk Cousins, an above average quarterback. Don't think I was going to say this is that mediocre or whatever. He's above average quarterback, but you can't deny that there was no person more blessed than Kirk Cousins when it came to his career and the wide receivers and the offenses that he got to play with. Shanahan, Deshaun Jackson, the two great tight ends, Trent Williams, Brandon Sheriff.

You got, he comes here with Thielen and digs and then gets Justin Jefferson. It's not exactly what Sam Darnold had throughout his career, but if you take 10 away from kirk cousins he is the 25th best quarterback in the league right like that's how thin the margin is so i this is the push and pull i know i'm talking on both sides of my mouth with darnold because i believe it but i'm not sure how far i want to go with do i believe over a 17 game season that the flaws will just be suppressed by having good receivers in a good scheme that I don't know uh Preston says Darnold has the advantage of KOC in his ear until 15 seconds before snap I mean that's true but that's everywhere um maybe maybe O'Connell is better than that uh than what he's had before certainly better than you know Matt Rule or Adam Gase or

well it was Joeel brady i think was his offensive coordinator in carolina is that right until he got fired everybody gets fired uh eventually when your quarterback doesn't succeed and that's the thing is it and then this is true cj says uh you know less ghosts with derisaw and o'neill but that is part of the problem is that what's unfortunate about him being caught on the air saying I'm seeing ghosts is that he does. That's part of my observation of watching him on tape is that he does sometimes see stuff that's not there or miss stuff that's there in the secondary. And that's how some of those turnovers happen. It's not just

him playing hero ball. It's not seeing something and just, you know, going for it. So I think that he can be really good. But I don't, you know, I don't want to go crazy and telling you guys, oh, yeah, it looks like the quarterback of the future here or something, because that would be misleading. What about Bob says, have you ever had a player look at you sideways after asking a question during a press conference? If so, what's the story? I mean, I've asked so many questions. I'm sure that some of them were not ideal. One of the things that can be hard is in post-game press conferences where you have just dozens of people there's

bodies everywhere so sometimes you kind of go uh hey you know take me through a play or something you just try to throw something out there to get your question in that you're trying to write about and maybe it doesn't always come out right i don't think that I've ever had something where I've had funny moments with players, but not where it was a controversial in any way. Uh, I, I mean, I can think of some funny ones where I said to a hockey player, you know, I've been thinking about you a lot. And he said like, yeah, I have like, well, that's my job, but that's about as funny as it gets. There are occasionally times where it could be a little tense when you have to ask difficult things or it's a tricky situation.

There's been lots of short answers, lots of great answers. But I don't know. There's not too many times where it gets weird in the press conferences. They're pretty straightforward. The ones that are the most are probably when you're trying to reach to make something happen where you're, you're looking for a specific angle, but you don't want to be overly leading. And then you get a, like, I don't really know what you're talking about there. So Anthony says, which side of the ball is better next season, defense or offense. I'm leaning

toward the defense. I would lean that direction too, As I hem and haw over how good I think Sam Darnold could be if he plays a lot this season, the defensive side is a lot contingent on health, which is also applied to 30 other teams in the league that don't have enough depth to have great defenses. But I think that there's fewer issues on this defense than there was last year. During training camp last year, we looked at the cornerback position and went, I don't know how this is going to work.

There's just so few people here who can play. How is this going to work? We did not know that Ivan Pace was going to be really good. We were looking at linebacker thinking they're going with the little guy, huh? Brian awesome. One, not, not working out. Uh, we did not know Josh Metellus was going to be as good as he ended up being, which made a difference. But at the time last year in training camp, or at this time in OTAs, we were just starting to notice that Josh Metellus was getting out there a little bit more and that ended up working out really well. Will there be versions of that? I'm not sure, but I think that they are more complete as a defense than they were before, where you can go

position by position outside still of that defensive tackle spot and say, all right, they've got enough talent here and Brian Flores is using them correctly, but some of it also comes down to, you know, when you're talking about just the scheme and how certain guys fit in it. Does Jonathan Grenard fit in it? Does Dallas Turner fit in it? Does Andrew Van Ginkle fit in it in the same way that he did in Miami? So there's a little bit of needing to project there. And then the schedule, the schedule last year, every time they played a good quarterback, that quarterback didn't have that many problems. Every time they played a bad quarterback, that quarterback had a lot of problems. And if you go by that metric for this year, they would have a pretty bad season.

They're going to have to be better this year than they were last year in order to get the same results. Jim says, have you compared McCarthy to say when Rogers, Jordan Lover, Mahomes looked like coming out? Maybe I'm just drinking the purple Kool-Aid, but I see some of them in him. I do not have any recollection whatsoever of what Aarongers looked like coming out of college because that was a really long time ago and I don't know how much access we had at that point to kale football if some of you were grinding the draft tape back then then you know bless you but I certainly wasn't so I don't know and I wasn't in his training camps or OTAs either with Jordan Love it's a little bit of a different story

because Jordan Love did play a fair amount of football. I think he was still pretty young, but maybe threw a lot more passes than McCarthy. It had some success. It had some failures in his senior season. He's a little more physically gifted than J.J. McCarthy. Like I talk about McCarthy has arm strength, but Jordan Love, I think it's even

on a different level than that. As far as what he can do off platform, he could throw from any and all angles. And he's got a really pretty deep ball when he lets it go. He kind of always had those tools that were there, but I could see a little bit of that where it's someone who's raw, whose college history doesn't wow you. So I can see a bit of that. And the accuracy is something that's getting questioned and it did with Jordan Love and it does with McCarthy. Mahomes, no, I see no similarity whatsoever to Mahomes because with Patrick Mahomes, he played for a college that basically won nothing and threw for a 10 gazillion yards and did it in the most cartoonish

circus way, which I loved and thought he was going to be great, but it was not something that looked like pro ready NFL football. It looked like an indoor arena football league team where they just dropped back and he ran all over the place and threw the ball like a crazy person. So I can see why some draft people didn't like him very much because of that. And you know why he wasn't drafted number one overall, for example, but Mahomes is an example though of and Jordan love and Rogers of when the guy comes out of college, it's really about what happens next. We know because he was drafted here that he's got the ability, but what type of work goes into it? What type of circumstances does he have? How long can you let him develop? And when he does, is he taking big steps? Just sitting

somebody doesn't do anything. They have to be making progress throughout that time. And clearly those quarterbacks made progress and succeeded. I see the plan as being similarly patient with those guys. And with Jordan Love is probably your best argument there, even though it was Utah State versus Michigan, a little bit of a different story, but some of the same things being said about the guy. Jordan Love is a bit of a scrambler, but he's not a running quarterback. So, you know, I could see some of that when it comes to that comparison, but you're not going to want to wait three years with J.J. McCarthy. It's going to be much more, you know, a one-year type of thing.

CJ says the question on Rodgers at draft time was whether he's a product of Tedford system. I do remember that. Yes, I do remember that type of discussion about the big numbers. And that's the other thing that was different is the numbers perspective from Rodgers and Mahomes. They had huge numbers and people weren't sure if they could do it the same way as opposed to, you know, when you're talking about, uh, you know, JJ McCarthy, who didn't have big numbers and the expectation is that he can improve and put up those numbers eventually. Uh, all right.

So, uh, last thing before I go really appreciate the discussion here before the wolves game wolves prediction, you say one Oh nine, one Oh one wolves win. If I met, see, I i'm gonna make the prediction but then the game happens right after this so i could like immediately be wrong that's like making the prediction on a game right before they kick off but i'll i'll give it a try and i will say that the wolves do win and force a game six and i don don't know the score, but we'll see. So everybody go watch it because they're about to tip off. That's where I'm going to go right now. So thanks everyone for the chat. There's going to be a lot of these throughout the off season. I mentioned

that we got a couple of days of mini camps. I'll be doing podcasts out from TCO performance center as usual. So keep your eye out on the channel for that. And then I'm hoping to come up with some fun things for the desert off season before we lead up to training camp. So everybody keep it tuned here and best of luck to the wolves and all of you. We'll see it football.