Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Zimmer-Cook drama and Star Tribune's Andrew Kramer breaks down Vikings camp storylines

Episode Date: July 26, 2020

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By him, okay. Ah, yes. The drama that never ends is the Minnesota Vikings. In a few minutes, we'll get into my conversation with Andrew Kramer of the Star Tribune. Matthew Collar here, as always, on Purple Insider. And before we get to that, though, I want to talk about a few things that Mike Zimmer had to say over the weekend on his conference call with the Twin Cities media, starting with Zimmer saying that Delvin Cook told him that he will be in camp. And then shortly after the Zoom call is over,

Cook's agent tells Adam Schefter of ESPN that Delvin never told Zimmer he would be at camp. And all along, we've just been playing this waiting game to see whether Cook would show up at camp or not, or whether he would just sign a long-term contract and then go from there. It turns out, here's the mystery of who told Mike Zimmer that Cook was coming to camp. It's Kennedy Palomalo, the running back coach. Turns out that Cook apparently told Kennedy Palomalo that he plans to come to camp, and he was the one that told Zimmer, which still does not fully explain

why his agent would say that Delvin isn't coming without a contract extension or that nobody told Zimmer this, because if he was at least telling someone with the coaching staff, that's about the same thing as telling the head coach. Honestly, with this one, who knows? We're going to find out very shortly within the coming days here what happens with Delvin Cook my question is whether Mike Zimmer's long-term deal impacts Cook in any way would the Vikings feel less panic to overpay him if Zimmer isn't pushing as hard because he has a long-term extension now like they can sit and wait and that's part of their leverage is that they don't have to see 2020 as Zimmer's last season or would it not change

anything I mean Zimmer seems like a guy who a loves Delvin Cook more than anything and also b is not looking at this season from talking to him on Saturday like this is oh yeah just a rebuild type of season I did not get that sense from Mike Zimmer at all so we'll see if Delvin Cook has an extension by the time we get to training camp coming up this week. I also get that there's a lot of leverage on the Vikings side with the CBA, but if Delvin Cook's side truly believes that he's going to get this long-term contract extension, then he can go through those steps. He can have the accrued season disappear.

He can get fined if he wants to. If he makes enough money on a contract extension, it's worth going through those things to get it. You just have to be really confident that you're going to get it. Otherwise, the Vikings could play some very serious hardball. And one thing I think about with this situation, as dramatic as it may be, the Vikings are generally very good at this game.

If you look at their past history, whether it's with Anthony Barr, Kyle Rudolph last offseason, getting Adam Thielen a contract extension with no drama whatsoever with Adam Thielen, when we expected maybe there would be a camp holdout or something. Nope, they signed the contract extension way before that. All said and done. And they did it with other guys, too, with Xavier Rhodes, Stephon Diggs, Daniel Hunter. And even though the cap is going down, you would expect the same thing. They have Rob Brzezinski, one of the best cap guys in the league.

But also, you know, that could play into it. I mean, if there are people in the front office saying, we cannot afford to pay him because of the salary cap, then they could play some pretty serious hardball here. Only the Vikings, of course, could make camp starting during a pandemic even weirder than it already is. All right, two other things that Zimmer said that really stuck out, and if you want to see more in a complete breakdown, purpleinsider.com is a good place to go because I wrote about it. Zimmer also said he wants Everson Griffin back. You know, I don't know.

I know that he texted me the other day telling me congratulations and things like that. You know, I'd love to have him back. You know, he's always been, you know, one of my guys. So if that happens, that would be great. You know, I don't know where you know, one of my guys. So if that happens, that'd be great. You know, I don't know where that's at right now, though. This is a question that comes up all the time, and I have not seen this as a likely outcome for the Vikings that Griffin comes back.

He showed last year that he still has it. He's still an excellent player. But would they rather see what they have in a Fadi Adenabo or young players like DJ Wanham and Kenny Willikies? Is that what the front office wants, even if Zimmer wants his guy back? And the other thing that came to mind is Zimmer's not going to say, no way, don't ever want Emerson Griffin back. It's one of his favorite guys.

He's not going to say that he doesn't want him. So they could probably use another edge rusher, though. The guys that they have right now, if it doesn't work out with the Fadi Adenabo, you really don't have someone else that you could plug in. And if you want to use a Fadi Adenabo inside, then you don't have anyone else who's proven at the moment that can be an edge rusher in a situational type of role either, and there are still free agents who are out there who could sign. Last thing, and then we'll get to the

conversation with Andrew Kramer right after I play this. Zimmer said that when it comes to cuts, they might decide to keep guys who have upside over those with a little more experience. So that's something to keep our eyes on when it comes to these 15 rookies and UDFAs who are trying to make the team. And he also broke down in pretty good detail how they're going to change things up in practice to try to simulate what players would go through in a preseason atmosphere. So I'll play that, and then Andrew Kramer of the Star Tribune coming up after that.

My record's been pretty good in the preseason, so that's going to go away. But other than that, you know, I think, you know, we're going to have to set it up so that, you know, a lot of times in practice the coaches stand back there and move to your left, move to your right, you know. During preseason games, they have to be out there and move to your left, move to your right. You know, during preseason games, you're not out there. They have to be out there and do it on their own. And so we're going to have to get these guys where the coaches aren't on the field, you know, figure out how to go play this thing, understand, you know,

and then the game situations, you know, we practice them all the time here with practice. But, you know, there's things that come up in games that you can teach the players about even during the course of the game. It's, you know, all right, there's seven seconds left. Ball's on the 10-yard line. Where are you going to line up? You know, there's so many different things that you can get out of that. And just seeing how a guy, you know, we've had several since I've been here, several guys that have been here several guys

that have been on the bubble and played good in the fourth preseason game and were able to make make the club and uh and really end up helping us throughout the course of the year so um the good thing about this is that we can keep 16 practice squad players and um you know instead of the 10 or 12 that we've been able to so I think think that's going to help them a little bit, and we can try to get these guys going forward. Before we get back to the conversation, I want to remind you to go to sodastick.com to get your original Minnesota sports-inspired goods.

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and to discuss some storylines, the biggest ones, in fact, from training camp from the Star Tribune covers the Minnesota Vikings. Andrew Kramer, what is up, Andrew? Hey, Matthew, good to see you. Not too much is going on, but, hey, I'm glad that we can at least have a practice to attend in, what, three weeks? Yeah, I know, I know. If you're hoping for those phone videos of like, here's a

great catch from Davion Davis. Yeah, it doesn't seem like you're going to get those, at least not for a very long time, if at all during this training camp. But at this point, Andrew, I mean, the number one story of training camp is just that training camp is actually happening. That's just it. It seemed inevitable once the NFL put its wheels in motion and was like, hey, we're going to press, press, and press. But then all of a sudden the date got closer, and you're like, wait a minute, rookies report Thursday and they still have no testing protocol agreements. They still have no how do we spread the financial shortfall

and all the money they're going to lose against the salary cap. All these questions that you had, how can players opt out? None of these things were solved until this week, but what's the old saying? Deadlines spurred action. So they did once again, and football is back for now. And I like the way somebody reported it. I think it was Adam Schefter or somebody that said, like, hey, you know, all the things they can control are now in place.

And it's like, oh, yeah, by the way, there's a massive pandemic and we might not play football. Yeah, right. I mean, let's not say for sure that we're even going to get to week one because we don't know how this is going to go. And if you were hoping that now that they've come to an agreement on things, which congratulations to them. For my entire life, it's always been players versus owners, and they've seen really far apart. But on this one, they got going quick. And I'm really impressed with JC Tretter, who is now at the top of the NFLPA, of getting players to organize, get their message out, and really push the owners to make this thing work. And then to actually work with them to get the financials done and all those other things that needed to happen. I would not have necessarily

expected that, but now the COVID thing doesn't just disappear because of that. And it will continue to be a huge story. Our players testing positive, our teams being honest about players testing positive. And the one thing that comes to mind for me, Andrew, is if a quarterback, say, tests positive for COVID, let's just say Nate Stanley. Does that mean that Kirk Cousins and Jake Browning and Sean Mannion all have to quarantine? Does it mean centers have to quarantine?

Did his signals bark out all the way to the linebackers? Do they have to, like, how does it work when this happens? Because even Eric Sugarman said on a call the other day with us that they expect sometimes guys to test positive. Yeah, and the threshold, I'd asked about the thresholds too, and they don't know because the protocols weren't out yet, and now it's not line by line necessarily going to be available right away. But it would be interesting to find out, is it 15 minutes?

That's the threshold that Eric kind of threw out there of saying like, okay, if somebody was positive, was around somebody long enough, then that person needs to be quarantined. And that might be 15 minutes. It might be shorter than that, maybe. And yeah, does that mean just being in a huddle with a person means you all of a sudden have to quarantine? There's just so many ways to go about it because we don't know how long it takes necessarily to get infected too. We don't know all these things. So these things are all just blanks that we have to try to force to fill in and hope that we're doing things.

The NFL has to hope they're doing things the right way. I don't know because you're right. What happens when it is Kirk Cousins? What happens when, you know, we haven't even seen in the NBA or the MLB yet return because it's happening now this week. But what happens when it's a star player or a coach? I did read that the NFL said that for sure, if a coach gets sick, it's not like they can coach from quarantine. So if Mike Zimmer gets sick, you have to replace Mike Zimmer. You can't just have him coach from some kind of booth up top. Not like the college coach who had back surgery.

I think it was way up in the booth and he was waving to his players down on the field. I guess we won't be seeing that level of footballiness. And I do think that they have the right message, though, to the players and to the coaches and everyone who works in TCO Performance Center when we talk to Eric Eric Sugarman, he's got to speak a language that they understand. I would love us all to be epidemiologists and truly understand the science behind a pandemic, but you can't expect all NFL players and personnel and staff to understand it. His point to them, Andrew, is if you follow what I tell you to follow and you stay healthy, we will win more games because we won't be losing players to COVID.

And that's the way to get it across, right? Because the locker room, the coaching staff, it's all just a cross-section of society. So not everybody believes that the coronavirus is as deadly or as dangerous as maybe scientists or epidemiologists do, or maybe somebody like Eric Sugarman, who, as you said, has to try and get it across to somebody like Mike Zimmer, who might think in a different way.

And he has to say, no, this is a competitive advantage. And that's kind of the key to getting everybody to think about it in a football way. Because as you had said, with a coach coaching in college from a hospital bed, they're maybe a little less well-adjusted than the average society member. So if you get them to think about it in a football term, you can maybe get everybody on board and be like, all right, if this is the best way we can win games in 2020, then so be it, because that just seems to be how we're going to do things now amid a pandemic. And that is the way you have to talk to Mike Zimmer about it. This is the guy who wanted to keep grinding tape even if his eyes

started leaking out of his skull. And so even then they had to say, like, Mike, you've got to go back to the ranch for a few weeks or you're not going to be able to coach for much longer. Now, moving on to things that are less COVID-related in terms of our camp storylines, the way that this is going to be laid out, Andrew, is wonky as hell. I mean, they're going to show up and they're going to do all this testing and then wait a couple of days and then do more testing and then try to get everybody in shape because they haven't had off-season programs

and not even everyone has a home gym to work out in, depending on how much money you were making before the pandemic. And so they're trying to get everybody in shape, and then they're going to have some non-padded practices. And finally, with only a couple of weeks before the season. And so they're trying to get everybody in shape, and then they're going to have some non-padded practices. And finally, with only a couple of weeks before the season actually starts, they put on the pads, and they'll have to cut from 90 to 80 before they do that. If you are a bubble player, this is not your year, is the way that I'm looking at it, Andrew.

No, it's tough. It's tough. I don't know if you mentioned that the practice squads are going to go up at least a little bit, so that helps. But in general, I think Adam Thielen said it best back in May. He said something like, if I were coming out this year in 2020, I'm probably not making it in the NFL because Adam needed one of those tryouts that did not happen after a rookie minicamp that did not happen. He would have needed the preseason games to impress to get that practice squad over, let's say, a seventh round draft pick. And the Vikings have 15 draft picks now. You've got to put them somewhere. I know a lot of them are going to make the roster, but a lot of them are going to take up these practice squad spots. So then the 10 undrafted guys that they brought in, including Courtney Davis, the receiver out of Texas A&M. He's going to have a hard time trying to make the roster now because you're

going to have that less opportunities. What is it, 14 padded practices total in training camp, and that's before you get to the regular season? This is going to be such a short ramp up, even with this extended strength and conditioning time. It's going to feel like a long time until we get to watch padded practices. But then when we do, it's going to be such a short time for those guys to try and make an impression. You've got to feel for them because this is a team that has found those diamonds in the rough.

They've found the C.J. Hams, the Marcus Sherrills. They've found those guys. And I don't know how you do it this year because it's going to be really tough. Right. Chad Beebe, Alexander Hollins, those guys are probably among the first 10 cuts if we were doing this last year. Alexander Hollins, I mean, is the skinniest player I've ever seen. And yet he ends up on the roster. But I wouldn't have expected that if we were just talking about in OTAs from how he looks. So a lot of guys are going to fight that fight. The other thing is, though, Andrew, you're talking about, you know, an offense and a defense that have some players that have to

integrate themselves here, and an offensive line that is unclear, a cornerback group that is unclear, and there is almost no time to experiment. You remember 2017 in preseason, there were four preseason games, four different offensive line combinations, and then they even settled on a different one to start the season. But they had all that time to tinker and experiment. Now they almost have to just pick something right away and go with it. Yeah, and you've got to wonder, too, with facilities opening up, do they bring back Josh Klein?

Do they sign some kind of veteran offensive lineman now that can come in and take a physical? There's so many other ways now that they can maybe add to the roster in this slow period that maybe some kind of, at least with the O-line, some kind of combination comes together. When you start talking about, though, this Vikings team, which I believe it's 87-man roster, like a third of it or more was in its first year in the NFL, which is just crazy to think. So of all the teams that are getting hurt by this shortened training camp, no off-season program, it's going to be the younger teams. It's going to be the Vikings. It's going to be the secondaries, the cornerback group, as you mentioned,

that is so young, so young. Mike Hughes is your most experienced guy somehow in 2020 at corner where they have so many high picks invested. Because of all the guys that left, that's going to be your most experienced guy right now. So, Jeff Gladney, good luck. Your first game is going to be against the Packers, and the Vikings have to hope that he's ready. We'll get back to the conversation in just a second, but have you ever heard of deal-dot-com? It's the best, most honest bidding site where you can win things you'd

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That is D-E-A-L-D-A-S-H-dot-fm-slash-insider. Give me your offensive line and cornerbacks. Do you have a good feeling for who's going to start here? I mean, the favorite for corner is, I would say, Gladney, Holton Hill, and Mike Hughes. And Hughes in the slot, tell me if you agree with that. The offensive line, I don't know. I mean, there's so many different ways that it could go.

I do. I do agree with what you've got going on at corner. I think Holton Hill's the guy that we kind of forget about because he's just kind of started in spots and has played well at times. And I think he's got quite the potential to maybe start if Jeff Gladney's not ready right away. But I could see Mike Hughes being an outside guy who moves inside as well.

And then Jeff Gladney comes in maybe just in nickel situations to play outside. But the offensive line, what do you do when your guard spots are Pat Elfline and then Dakota Dozier, Drew Samia, if he can make a massive leap from not even playing as a rookie? I just don't think you can expect some of these second-year guys, when we're talking about Ole Udo, Drew Samia, some of these lesser-known names, I don't think you can expect them to step in and start, especially in a truncated offseason.

So to me, that turns the attention to Dakota Dozier, who made, I think, three spot starts alongside Pat Elfline. That combination made three starts last year. One of them was in Chicago, so it didn't always go very well. But if that's going to be your offensive line right now, that might be it, with Pat Elfline still starting and Dakota Dozier at that right guard spot. And then you just hope that Ezra Cleveland can come along in a rookie season that might not give him a lot of opportunities if Riley Reap is healthy. So, but Matt, do you think they're going to sign somebody? I think that might have to be an answer to the fact that they have $12 million right now of cap space and no experienced guards outside of Pat Elfline. Yeah, I mean, the idea of potentially bringing back Josh Klein, he was not great, but he was by no means terrible either. Elfline, I would say, was terrible. One of the absolute worst

pass-blocking guards in the NFL, and I don't know how you can have confidence that he's going to step up when you only have 14 padded practices for him to improve his craft from last year to this year and plus it's two straight years of him getting smoked by interior rushers when it when it comes to especially the power part of it but way way too many swings and misses too from Elfline that I just I think that's a technical thing that's probably not going to change I'll give you my like low-key long shot that might actually happen would be, because of their veteran nature, Rashad Hill starting with Riley Reif going to guard, and then maybe Drew Samia starting on the other side.

Now, I know that a position change would be tough, but Riley Reif has been around for a long time. He's position changed before from left tackle to right tackle, and Rashad Hill at left tackle I think is better than he is at right tackle. And last year when he played against Philadelphia, he was terrific. He won a job out of camp in 2018. So they've always liked him. They brought him back.

I think that there's a small chance that that happens. That's interesting. I do wonder if they would consider that, although just knowing how much draft capital they put into Ezra Cleveland, knowing how Brian O'Neill even surprised them when he was a rookie. And I think it was week two he had to go in and Green Bay and play against Clay Matthews early on. And the Vikings thought he wasn't ready and then he turned out to be ready. Maybe I could see Riley moving inside, but maybe it's Ezra trying to get a stab at it

too over Rashad. You're right though, they lean toward experience, they lean toward veteran players, guys who know the calls really well, and you don't have to worry about a mental lapse as much with a guy like Rashad. That's an interesting combo. That's huge because then you're not talking about just two new positions potentially if you get – or one new position if you get a new guard in there or two. You're talking about more than by moving a guy at guards. That's three new spots if it's Rashad Hill starting. Gosh, no matter how you dice it up, Kirk Cousins is going to have,

you would hope, a lot of bootlegs taking him out of the pocket and getting him on the run. Yeah, no, that's very true that I don't think that we're looking at a massive improvement on the offensive line from last year. And then we're going to be saying, how many years in a row are we talking about the quarterback not having the greatest pocket to throw from it and so forth? What I do like about the Rashad Hill idea is for interview purposes, because Rashad is the nicest person in the entire world so if he was starting we would talk to him all the time um who's replacing Stefan Diggs which humans

because it's not going to be one one person does not replace that level of route running ability contested catches production overall uh had the number in an article that all the different quarterbacks who have thrown balls his way, so you know, you are Sean Hills and Teddy Bridgewater and so forth, Case Keenum, Sam Bradford, Kirk Cousins, combined 108.4 quarterback rating when targeting Stephon Diggs since he came into the league. That is not something that you just flip a switch and replace. So how are they going to make up for his absence? Probably with multiple people. Yeah, he's pretty good, huh?

And it's easy to forget sometimes when you're caught up in the drama that came with him, especially in Minnesota anyway. I don't know how it's going to go in Buffalo. But I think Justin Jefferson's about as good. If you were going into this offseason for the Vikings and you're saying, we're banking on the fact that we need a first-round rookie to come in and help replace him, that might be about as good as you could have done outside the top three guys, you know, with Jerry Judy and so forth.

That guy falling to number 22, the Eagles choosing Jalen Rieger over him, the way that they used Diggs too underneath in some of these option routes, not that they used him in the slot all the time, but the way that you would think about when they didn't have a running game back in 2016, I think it was, and Diggs was averaging eight yards a catch, and they wanted him to create after the catch. Jefferson's going to be deployed in a different way, but he can bring you some of the similar production in terms of being that guy who could break tackles underneath, create. He's not going to be the

burner. He's not going to be the guy that's necessarily, I know we ran a 4-4, but he's not going to be the deep threat that Diggs is, at least right out of the box. And that is where you're going to have that shortfall of, okay, can Adam Thielen be that deep threat, that lone guy that stresses the defense, that stresses the safeties. Because when you had both of them, you could deploy them both vertically, and it was a nightmare. And that's why Kirk was so great at times. I know Kirk did it with just Diggs this year, so that makes me think he can do it with just Adam. But underneath, I think they're going to need Justin Jefferson to do a lot. Because Tajay Sharp and the other guys on the roster are not going to do that.

I look at Irv Smith Jr. as the guy who, if he takes a big step forward, combined with whatever they can get out of Jefferson, who is like the rest of the rookies in tough here, combined with B.C. Johnson, who's reliable, and then you've got something. The one issue I would take a little bit with their off season is just, I thought, okay, Tajay Sharp is okay, but he's not like a playmaker guy. He had, what, 27 catches last year. I think that, you know, looking for somebody with some more speed that you could get the ball into their hands and get easy yards for Kirk Cousins

should have maybe been a priority for someone that you were trying to sign or someone that you were drafting later on. I don't know if K.J. Osborne is that guy who strikes me as more of a punt returner and not somebody who's going to step in right away. And so when you look even down the roster, Chad Beebe is the slot type and can't really stay healthy. I mean, Dylan Mitchell is your fastest guy, I think your best athlete, and I'm not sure he knows where to line up.

So they're still in that same position they've been even since 2017 where you go all right you got your really good players at the top but who is beyond that yeah somebody had asked me the other day um in in COVID times who cannot get the virus on the the team and of course that's just the same old question of who's the most irreplaceable or whatever and I immediately thought of Adam Thielen for that reason, because yes, you think Justin Jefferson can do a lot for you, but Adam Thielen is such a great wide receiver that you cannot afford that drop-off because it is such a steep drop-off behind him and even behind Justin Jefferson. Number three, I think is going to to be Tajay Sharp just because of the experience.

I think he's shown that he can make a play or two down the field. I mean, his first NFL game against the Vikings back in Tennessee was pretty good. He was torching Trey Waynes for seven catches and 76 yards, I think it was, and that showed the ability. This guy's got a refined route running game. He's just not that kind of next level athlete that you kind of look for at that position. So I think the reliability of Tajay is going to be a good veteran fit, unlike Kendall Wright, unlike some of the guys that they tried to throw at that spot over the years. I think we are going to see Tajay emerge with it, and that might hurt Chad Beebe fans, but I think in that three-wide set, they're going to want Justin Jefferson inside. We'll get back to football in just a second, but first, sports are coming back. So are your chances to bet on your favorite teams and events.

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That's promo code BLUEWIRE. Bet online your online wagering experts. I don't think you wrote a Jordan Taylor feature last year, did you? I was close. I was close. I think actually Mark Craig, one of my colleagues, might have because that was the classic Gary Kubiak's guy kind of story. And he, in OTAs, was getting, you know, the first team reps.

But I was thinking, I'm not falling for this. I've seen this before. I'm not doing it. It's the Tavares King showing up. Last big storyline I want to ask you about is replacing Everson Griffin. Is it with Everson Griffin? And if it's not, because he still is a free agent as we're recording this, although I do expect, I saw Mike Tannenbaum from ESPN and former executive in the NFL. He put out a full team of the free agents,

like a first team and a second team. And it was good. It would be a winning team or like a seven win team, just the free agents still out there. So should it be a free agent for a situational rusher or should they be okay with their free agent, Anthony Zettel, along with Eddie Yarbrough, these guys that most people don't know, but they've been around as situational rushers a little bit? Who is behind Afadi Adenabo? How are they mixing those packages in? I think

that that's a huge camp storyline. I think it is too. I think Anthony Zettel is going to get the first crack at it. I think because he's the most experienced guy behind Afadi and Daniil Hunter. And also he's had good games against the Vikings. I know he's a former 49er, but he was in Detroit for a couple of years and he had had some good games against them. That sticks in the mind of coaching staffs, and they tend to just kind of give that guy at least the first crack at earning a kind of role like that, because you're right, behind him, Eddie Yarborough might be one of the most experienced guys, because it's DJ Wanham, the rookie, and it's pretty slim pickings. So I wouldn't expect many people to challenge Anthony, and when it comes to Everson, I know it's a possibility, but I would when it comes to Everson I I know it's a

possibility but I would be surprised to see Everson come back because it would take him kind of coming back with his tail between his legs about money and I know he's already kind of had an awakening about the the offers that he did not get back in this spring but I also know that a lot of ownerships a lot of teams were reportedly worried about the cap potentially going down this year because of revenue shortfalls. Now that that's not happening and teams realize they can spend their money this year, they might want to hold it to carry it over next year, but some teams might be willing to shell out some money now that they weren't

willing to shell out maybe a month ago when they didn't have some of the financial stuff all worked out. So if you're spending that, then are you spending it on some I mean it's not just Everson there are a handful of situational rushers Terrell Suggs one of us but he's a free agent there are a couple guys who are out there where would you spend your money though would you spend it there or somewhere else? Well it's tough with Everson too because he comes with the baggage off the field and it's not just Jadavian Cl Clowney either, where, you know, you kind of question the effort sometimes. With Everson, it's not that. It's more the reliability stuff of, are you going

to give me 16 games mentally and physically? And so he's got that to kind of overcome too. So that's different because you're right. He's got so much competition out there. You know, if I'm the Vikings, I'm spending that on trying to get a guy like Ronald Leary, trying to get a guy like Larry Warford. I know that might be a pie in the sky because of how much money he can man, but at some point, these veterans have to lower their asking price, and that's when teams like the Vikings or teams that need help still can pounce, and I know Minnesota doesn't have a ton of cap space, but I think they've got enough to work with here and at least bring in some veteran help. All right, I'm going to ask you this question, and I can edit it out if something changes before this, but Delvin Cook, is he there on the first day to get his accrued

season with a new contract, or does this thing go into the depths of camp? I think he is. I think Delvin Cook is very much going to show up because it's such a different situation, as you said, with the accrued season. He needs to report. The new CBA outlines it flat. You need to be there on the first day of training camp. Now that we know that's for sure going to be Tuesday, I would be very surprised if Dalvin decides not to. I would think that he'd be getting bad advice by not showing up on Tuesday because the team is still going to negotiate with you. They still want you there. They still want you leading the offense.

They clearly still want to pay you. So why not show up and continue those negotiations? And, frankly, I think Derrick Henry's deal in Tennessee did a lot to move the needle when it comes to bringing things closer back to what the Vikings want, which is more like $12.5, $12, $11 million a year, as opposed to the $16 million that the Christian McCaffrey deal put out there that maybe raised Dalvin's expectations a little too much. And I think having that Derek Henry deal, the Vikings were very happy to see Tennessee do that because that might have brought the water level down a little bit. And you've got a bookend situation. Like,

you're going to get paid more than Henry because you do more than him, but less than McCaffrey because you do less than him. And there's your answer. Do it or don't for both sides. Like you know where the answer should be. And it's amazing to me that every running back who's recently signed a contract has gotten between 24 and 30 guaranteed. So I mean, it's really laid right out there for you, and it really depends on whether the Vikings, knowing that the cap will be going down next year, want to do something like that. Andrew Kramer of the Star Tribune,

your article, by the way, on Tony Sperano, which you just tweeted out again the other day. I know that you wrote it last year, but you just tweeted out the other day. Around this time, for probably the rest of my life, it will come to mind what that was like for a Vikings coach to pass away. And I just wanted to say that people should go back and read that piece that you tweeted out because you did a tremendous job with it. And man, that's always going to hit me around this time right before

camp. I appreciate that. Yeah, it's just such a sad situation. And it's, yeah, one that seems like it was many, many years ago, not just two years ago. But, yeah, just two years ago last week, Tony Spilano passed away. I appreciate your time and appreciate all of you listening once again to this episode of Purple Insider.