Minnesota Vikings Podcast: Rookie Pass Rusher D.J Wonnum Talks Offseason Program + Opportunities Ahead Learning From Danielle Hunter | Episode 50

Minnesota Vikings Podcast. Fifty we have officially done fifty since it became the Minnesota Vikings Podcast. We've got a great show for you today. We're gonna talk about some of the changes going on pre preseason. Our Chris Corso has an interview with new defensive end DJ Wantam, and we are probably gonna have to dive into the largest contract

in the history of professional sports. Joining me from Vikings dot Com or Chris Corso and Jay Nelson and guys, let's start with the news that is relevant to everyone in the league but also relevant to the Vikings, and that is that, due to the ongoing COVID pandemic. The NFL has announced that they are cutting the preseason schedule

from four games down to two. Each team will have one away game one home game, which means the Vikings, who during that time period had two away games, will have to have a bit of an altered schedule here. So we'll have to wait and see what it looks like. I think the players Union, you know, from my understanding, the players Association, wanted to scrap the entire preseason pandemic aside. I mean, obviously that's what's driving this, but the preseason

has been a talker for a while. Now. Guys, how are you feeling again past the obviously, let's be as safe as possible. How does this change make you feel? Chris? Yeah, I think it's kind of like cutting off the dead fat at this point. I think the players are pretty excited about only playing two preseason games. I mean, I know, as just being a part of it. Working wise, by the third fourth week, you're kind of like you're ready

to be done with it. Most teams, including the Vikings last year, didn't even play any of their starters in that fourth game in the preseason, so I think it should be two forever going forward. But we'll see if they get to in as you As you said with the NFLPA wanting to have zero preseason games, So I

am very very excited for this. Hopefully they play the games, but I think it's a positive thing for the league and for the player's health as well, because when there's a big injury like I remember Jordy Nelson a few years ago for the for the Packers, which was good for the Vikings, but you hate to see guys go down in the preseason. You might learn some things about

your league. With the NBA, well, they find out that starting at a different time and finishing at a different time is better in an effort to grow their fan base, you know. So with the NFL, I think there's a lot of questions about this preseason thing. They always happen, and obviously the players are going to love it. I think most fans are gonna love it because they are

just ready to get to the football that matters. But the other side of it is the conversation of the coaches and the general managers and the team personnel that are responsible for putting a good product on the field. And you know, there's been all these proponents of when training camp changed and the physical nature of offseasons changed, has that diminished the level of play. I'm not taking a side on that issue. I'm just saying that's been

a conversation that keeps happening. So now you're losing a chance to evaluate depth good for some people, bad for others. And if nothing else, it's something that needs to happen because of the pandemic, and you could probably use it as a real learning experience to see how it affects the quality of play, because to me, my answer to every controversial NFL question is what does it do to

the quality of play? Because you know, I remember a couple of seasons ago, just throughout the year, for whatever reason, it was just dud week after dud week after dud week. And I think that was more coincidence than anything else. But you want to see football played at its absolute best,

because when it is, there's nothing better on the earth. Yeah, And I think what you're seeing from this stuff now is that there is a lot of discussion going on between the league and the players union themselves, just because I think the league is kind of saying, Okay, we're going to take what your goal was or what your wish was into consideration, but we don't have to. There's other stuff now that's coming out as far as percentages and paychecks and other things like that too, now that

there's less games. I mean, I know internally here from our side, there's a lot of different stuff that goes into it, not only from the logistics side, but just the business side. And I think, yes, there's been discussion for a long time about adjusting from four preseason to three or to two. I on the other hand, at this point, will kind of raise my hand and say, if there was ever a time to have a little bit more preseason, it would be this year, purely because

they haven't had an off season. So as long as those two weeks of extra time that they have to work on this stuff instead of games, if they're able to utilize that to help with practice, great, But at the same point, if there was ever a time to get some more live reps with these guys, it might be this season. It's just frustrating that the pandemic being what it is, has been kind of the precursor to

make this happen. Hopefully there is a silver lining in the future that maybe they do learn some beneficial things moving forward when they have to do negotiations. But for me, it's just a bummer that we're going to lose more potential games in football. But you gotta do what you got to do at this point. I'm a big fan of the prove it method. People love to argue, and they love to debate, and they love to be right without any proof. So to me, this is a great

opportunity for the prove it theory. You know, these people who are saying shorter preseason, no, all these things, Well, here's your chance. We're gonna see what happens, and we're gonna see what the football games look like. We're gonna get into week four, Week five, Week six, and we're gonna go, hey, it would be nice to have some depth right now, and it is very clear that the lack of offseason preseason is affecting it. Or we're gonna look at it and we're gonna go, you know what,

We're fine. I think it'll be pretty clear cut. The great thing about the NFL is coaches are usually pretty vocal about the things that make their job terribly difficult. You know, you saw that last year with the past interference challenges. So if we get halfway into the season and all these coaches are recognizing what a shortened preseason did to their job, I have a feeling we're going to hear some of them say it. You definitely start to think about players like old BC Johnson who had

just such a great preseason. In those moments, whether it was towards the end of the preseason and only two games, that's limited reps for guys like that, limited reps for the late round draft picks. And when you're the Vikings and you have fifteen draft picks, you're not going to be able to see these guys on the field as much with two less games. But um, I think what the players want is more practices, and that's that's what

you see all over Twitter and all over ESPN. So they're they're going to have to value those practice reps. I well, let me let me be selfish for a second here. Now, the Vikings do have a lot of turnover. We've talked about it at Ton. They have a lot of new names on defense, but they don't have scheme turnover. You understand, they don't have like leadership turnover. You know, you had Kirk is still here, Dalvin is still here, Theeland is still here, Rudy's still here. On defense, you

got a lot of the leader's bar, Griffin Harrison. There is leadership and scheme in place here. So when you when you look at what teams really like, just selfishly as a Vikings fan for one season, do I think there are teams that are in even better shape than we are in terms of continuity and roster overhauled. Yes, But if you're breaking the league down and where do the Vikings land, I think you're near the top of the list, or at least in the top half of continuity,

and you should be able to walk out and play football. Yeah. I think that when it comes to you're talking about the coaching side and being more vocal, you're talking about these kind of changes with the players, are talking about the leadership. We have a set team here as far as being able to plug and play now. The biggest question mark has been what's going to happen in the secondary.

And I think as far as we are set when it comes to defensive line, offensive line, linebackers, wide receivers, quarterbacks, running backs, we have proven people within our ranks who can be the leaders on this team. What I'm hoping for, though, is that some of the younger guys from last year do step up. You do have guys that came back from injuries that you're hoping will be those leaders that

can step into some of those senior roles. And it's gonna have to be a shotgun start for those players that are new on this team, because man, I really hope that this past offseason they've been paying attention to those playbooks because now they're going to actually have to put pen to paper when they walk in the door and do it almost immediately. The thing that we are not going to have to wait to see how it develops for twelve calendar years is Patrick Mahomes's contract situation.

Who lee a ten year nearly if everything comes together jay five hundred and three million dollar contract. It's an extension on top of his already two year current existing agreement. I have ten million thoughts about this, But first I'm gonna courso because I tried to ask you a question about it before the show, and you sounded like an eighth grader trying to like describe molecular biology. You were like, well, because when the thing for he throws it like it

was nonsense. So you and I are going to be dummies and get out of the way, because Jay, you explained it better because my first question was like, I was surprised that none of it was tied to the cap. There's some interesting triggers. Do you want to kind of tell us what it looks like? Patrick Mahomes, I think he's got five hundred and three reasons that he should be very, very excited right now, and especially for his fas. I gotta be honest with you, Chris. I want to

apologize to you. When I criticized you and sent it to Jay, I didn't think he was going to use the old hackey. Well, there's about five hundred three billion reasons he's gonna love kids of city jeepers. Jay, what are you my dad's dad? All right? All right, there's twelve reasons why he should be excited with the next twelve years of his career. How about that one, Patrick Mahomes, at this point is set. Bruce is gonna love that intro. Keep going. I love Bruce. The thing about this contract

is it is unprecedented. It is the largest American sports contract on record, five hundred and three million dollars over

the next twelve seasons. Essentially the deal for him as he's got four hundred and fifty million dollars for the ten year extension, so that average is about forty five million a year, another twenty five million in basically escalators that he can hit on an annual incentive basis, and then for the next two seasons he's due twenty seven point sixty three million, so that gets you two year

roughly almost five hundred and three million dollars. So the crazy part about it is that technically people are citing it as a team friendly deal, which is insane to think about half a billion dollars being a team friendly deal. But when you're talking about a guy who's twenty four years old and who's essentially hitting the peak of his career, he's going to be thirty six when he's done, and the crazy part is he could actually hit another contract

after that. So the deal is the Chiefs are only on the hook for sixty three million dollars guaranteed at signing. There's one hundred and forty one million dollar hook in case he gets injured that they would have to pay

him off of this deal. But in general, the team themselves have an annual year to year basis that they can choose to honor the contract or choose to cut him, and it's a safety valve for them as well, to say, listen, as long as this guy is essentially our Tom Brady for the next twelve years of his career, we're going to keep hitting this contract year after year after year. But there is a no trade clause, so their only options are either pick up this side of the contract

or cut him. And I think for a guy like Patrick Mahomes, as young as he is, as talented he is, and he's the face of the league, five hundred and three million is a lot of dough. At the same point, you just go Everybody always thinks those quarterback contracts that are huge until you get five ten years down the road and then say it's actually not that bad. So I think, for a guy like Patrick Mahomes, good on him,

Good on the Chiefs for locking him up. It's going to be crazy over the next twelve years to see how this whole thing changes the league in general. So I looked at it in three ways. I'll tell you them. From the moment I saw the tweet. Let me tell you the three ways the contract hit me. The first way it hit me was as a fan, and I thought about how great it would be to be a fan of a professional football team who just locked up Patrick. What a golden era to be a Kansas City Chiefs

fan yesterday had to have been amazing. Right then, I think of it in terms of an angry fan. I go, damn it, the Chiefs are going to have Patrick Mahomes on a decent deal for the next not decent. It's obviously a large deal, but a decent deal. Like you said, people are saying it's somewhat team friendly. This isn't a Peyton Manning ruined your salary cap guaranteed situation with the Colts that makes it hard to put the rest of the team around you. They might have walked that line.

The third way I looked at it was what if I were Patrick Mahomes And I was looking some stuff up and I looked up in two thousand and nine, the top salary in the NFL for quarterbacks was Peyton Manning twenty one million dollars. Second was I can't remember who it was, but it was twenty million, and then

third was Matt Castle at sixteen million. Ten years later, the top contract in the league is Russ Wilson at over thirty million dollars, and you have over sixteen quarterbacks making nearly over twenty million dollars, which is what Peyton was making ten years ago. So with the popularity of the sport and the unknown of the possibility of growth, and you don't even know what the media landscape is gonna look like in four years, Like who knows how live TV changes and what the NFL does in terms

of putting their events on. Like you could see a situation twelve years from now where, like you said, you're getting forty fifty sixty million dollars and you could be worth eighty five ninety. Do I think that'll happen. No, I think it'll probably follow the trajectory of his contract. But if I'm him, I don't know, man, I might, dude, I might just play. I don't know. It's hard to say. Half a million, half half a billion dollars is a

hilarious amount of money. Do you ever think about the Bears just taking Mitchell Trubisky with the number two pick? I mean, you gotta love that. That might have set them back twenty years. Yeah, I just said the Bears. The Bears dodged a half. I saw somebody tweet that

the Bears dodged a five hundred million dollar bullet. The funny part for me was that as soon as this thing had I have a really good friend of mine who lives in Denver, and and I just sent him an image of Emma Stone eating ice cream crying, and I said, you can send us to your Broncos friends.

Given that they now have to deal with Patrick Mahomes for the next twelve seasons in the AFC, I think for a lot of team knowing that Patrick Mahomes is going to be and sitting in their neighbor's yard for the next twelve years, it's got to be very daunting. I for one, him happy he's not in the NFC, But I think overall, a guy like Patrick Mahomes getting rewarded at the age that he is, I think it's smart on all sides to jump on this deal, because guess what if it gets to a point where it's

really crazy in the future. I am sure they'd be willing to renegotiate if need be. But a guy like Patrick's going to be able to somewhat call his shot and do what he needs to do. But for right now, I mean, it's a gigantic chunk of money and it seems like it's going to work for all sides. Yeah,

that's the interesting thing to me. I think the reason that I was surprised it wasn't tied to the salary cap and I was surprised it was so long is because, you know, maybe other than Lebron, I just can't think of an athlete who has even remotely the type of leverage that a twenty four year old Super Bowl winning MVP quarterback like him. It's just it's nearly an precedented amount of leverage, is what the man had. I think he's smart enough to understand that they need to put

a team around him. But you have to almost believe virtually any demand Patrick Mahomes had would be met, because if they won't meet it, anyone else in the league would. It was just an odd amount of leverage. I will say that kicker that if he gets injured and his career is over, they have to write him one hundred and forty million dollar check. That would make me pretty apt to sign on the dotted line, that's a pretty

good amount of insurance. Yeah, agreed. And I think the fact that it's only sixty three million as a signing bonus when he starts, I mean in general that number is minor to any other contract you would typically see. So you've got that and one hundred and forty one million dollar guarantee. I mean, how many quarterbacks have we seen kind of boom and bust and have something like that happened due to some sort of an injury. I mean, we've had a couple of cases here with the Vikings.

I think for a guy like Patrick, that's a very good insurance plan and it's something that again the Chiefs are more than willing to put up there. So congrats to Patrick Mahomes. You can put as much catch up on stakes as you want at this point for the

rest of your career. All right, Well, let's go from a guy who got the biggest contract in professional sports history to a guy who just got his first contract the Vikings this year in the fourth round drafted defensive end DJ want him out of the University of South Carolinas. Somebody I know that a defensive line coach slash co defensive coordinator Andrea Patterson, a guy he was really pushing for in the NFL draft, a guy that he I know he really wanted, and we ended up getting him.

A guy who's speed in size kind of and this is laughable for me to say this because of the weird specimen that Daniel Hunter is, but he's got a little bit of that giant statue who runs really fast and crushes people vibe to him. Chris got to sit down with DJ and kind of get to know him.

Anything you want to tell us before we run this interview. Yeah, I think the biggest thing was he talked about being with coach Andre Patterson at the combine and he said, man, that conversation was so good that I didn't know one hundred percent that I was going to be a Viking,

but I felt pretty darn good about it. So you'll hear a little more detail around that in the interview, but that was really cool to hear how confident he was that the Vikings were going to select him at one point well, and as a staff and a leadership group that has put together a good roster since it

basically came together when Zimmer got here. You know, there are very few things I'm more confident in than our ability to develop defensive lineman, and so knowing how Andre Patterson feels and knowing the buzz about DJ, I'm not expecting him to walk out and be a superstar day one. But honestly, everybody's everybody's talking about Justin Jefferson, everybody's talking

about all these draft picks. DJ is the one that I am honestly looking the most forward to seeing what preseason and the regular season brings for him and what kind of player is going to be. So I was psyched to see you get this interview. Chris, Uh, let's let your other self take it away. This is Chris Corso here with the Vikings newest defensive end, Andre Patterson's pet cat is How is how we know him? At

the Vikings Entertainment Network. It's DJ one on the Vikings fourth round draft pick out of the University of South Carolina. What's going on? Man? It's going home? Man? How you're doing a longside to be here? No, you know, give a little talk to King's Nation. So how ya do it? We're very excited that you're wearing that Vikings purple T shirt right now. You must have been pretty excited for this interview. Oh yeah, you know, I had to. I had to throw it on man, you know, allprop everything.

So let's get it. So Vikings co defensive coordinator Andre Patters, and he is a big fan of yours. I mean, one thing that stuck out to me when he spoke last week is he said, DJ want him. I have a lot of things to teach him, but I can't teach these six foot five, two hundred and fifty eight pound body that he has. So other than that, he's

gonna be trying to teach you a lot this offseason. Yeah, definitely, just you know, having to zoom meetings, you know, throughout the past couple of weeks, I've learned a lot, you know, in that little span of time. So I'm excited to get to working with him in person. Yeah. What has it been like learning from Andre? He has had a twotelage of defensive lineman that he's taught over the years. I mean ever since Griffin, Danielle Hunter to name a few.

That's got to be pretty pretty awesome for you because you're like, I want to be one of those guys.

Oh yeah, definitely, you know, just you know, like I said, from the past couple of weeks, you know him just you know, watching my fan from college and being able to, you know, show me all the things that I've done wrong, and then you know him, you know, having a lot of you know, you know, praising me for me coming in and being able to you know, get on the him and learn from the things that he's taking those other great guys. So I'm excited, you know, to get

up there and get to work. What has it been like working with Neil Hunter? Obviously there's been the comparisons about your body type being pretty similar coming out of college. He's a little bit of a quiet guy, but he's definitely a leader from the Vikings defense out there. You know, it's just been great, you know, from just from you know, the little meetings that we've been having and walked through. You can definitely tell, you know, his leadership presence and

you know, just you know him being there. It's a great thing. So I want to go back to your career at the University of South Carolina. You were a young freshman, playing just about every snap that you could, and by your sophomore season you were named a captain. As a sophomore, you were a captain for the rest of the years there. So what was it like being a leader at such a young age of that defense. You know, it was a great name, you know, my team as you know, voting me as a captain as

a sophomore. It was an incredible feeling just knowing that, you know, you're a young guy and a lot of guys I already look up to you, so, you know, looking up to you know, the future at South Carolina. It was a great thing just knowing, you know, the guys looking up to me. So you know, I had to be on my p's and q's, you know, each and every day. The way your college had coach will Muschamp described you, He said, your football intelligence is off

the charts. So tell Vikings fans what to expect when it comes to your football. IQ. Oh man, you just said it right there. You know, football and tallenges I've chart, you know, uh, bringing my things that I've learned to college and being able to you know, learn even more and um and the pros is going to be you know a big thing for me. Um and being able to you know, took up some knowledge from Daniel Hern coach Andre Patterson. I feel like the sky's the limit,

you know, and I'm I'm excited. I'm ready to get to work. So tell Vikings fans probably something off the field that they should know about you, something that they wouldn't already know. They know you're a pass rusher. We know Andre Patterson loves you. But what would they not know about you off the field. It's hard, man, you just put me on spot. I can't really, I gotta put you on the spot a little bit, you know.

I'm just you know, I feel like, you know, I'm a great person, you know all around you know, I want others to you know, excel and exceed and whatever they want to do. So, you know, just being a positive light, you know, to my family, my friends, and even people that I don't know, you know, looking up to me. Um, It's just it's just a big thing, and that's what keeps me going. That's what keeps you know,

boosting and pushing forward each day. Speaking of your family, your younger brother doing played at the University of South Carolina as well. Um, two years younger than you. What

was that like playing with your brother? He was on the offensive side of the wall, all right, you know, it was a great thing, you know from him coming you know, straight to high school, straight to South Carolina, Um, and you know, just him, you know, having him under my wing and you know, just showing him the ropes and he's actually been doing you know, a great job up there, and I'm excited for the future to come

with him as well. So your junior season at the University of South Carolina, you suffered a few injuries there and you weren't able to play many games. You come back your senior season and you're the comeback player the year and you had an incredible senior season. So so what was that like just going through those injuries your junior season and then coming back and really showing out your senior season. You know, you know my junior season, you know, it was definitely a hard time, you know,

suffering injuries, especially never having injured serious injuries before. So just just um that happened to me my junior kind of you know, just taught me things. You know, you gotta go harder. Um, you gotta you know, be a leader for your teammates even though you're not you know, around and doing things like that. You know, just coming into a Viking's nation, I feel like my leadership and you know, my abilities is what's gonna set me the part. So it's pretty cool to be able to play in

the SEC in college. I can't even imagine the caliber of offensive linemen you were going up against. Who was kind of a guy on the other side that when you faced up against me, you're like, man, it's gonna be tough to beat him today. Um, you know a lot of you know, weekend week out, you know NBC SEC. You know, it's great competition. You know throughout um the office line. You know, it was pretty good. I want to gainst those guys. But you know, like every week,

you know, it's it's everybody's good, you know SEC. So just you know, being able to get better and play against you know how competition, and it was a great thing. Yeah. I think Andrew Thomas was on that Georgia team. He was a first round draft pick this year. Yeah, definitely. You know, a great athlete and you know he's from around the area, so you know, just going to get going up against him, you know, it was it was great. Yeah,

to playing against that kind of competition in college. How do you see that translating to your performance on the field as as a as a young rookie. Yeah, definitely.

I feel like, you know, it just kind of gives me, you know, kind of a step forward, you know, playing against guys that were first rounders and kind of just shows me what I'm going to be, you know, facing in the league you know, weekend and week out and mentally, you know, it's getting be prepared, yeah, and looking at your kind of your your arc coming up through the draft. You were selected to the Reese's Senior Bowl UM and performed really well there. Did you have any interactions with

the Vikings at the Senior Bowl? UM? I think I had a meeting, but it wasn't you know, it was just a small meeting. It was nothing big. But my first like big accountant was at to come by, you know, talking to coach Andre Patterson. I mean, you know, just him, you know, seeing the future and what my future can't can't be liking it. So just by talking to him, man, I was I was pumped, you know, I was kind

of excited, you know, being a Viking. Did you did you know the Vikings were gonna select you after having that conversation with coach Patterson? Uh? You know, I didn't know one hundred percent. But I had a great feeling, you know about coach Patterson, you know, talking with me and and you know it just leaving to me and talking to him. It was like, man like I got

to play for the Vikings, you know, I got so yeah. So, speaking of Minnesota, have you ever been to Minneapolis or seen the crowd and how how loud it gets at us being stadium? No, I haven't. I haven't even been yet, but you know, I've seen videos and it's it's a crazy Man. I'm excited, you know, being able to play there this year. Do you know what the skull chain is? Oh? It was like skull skull or something like definite we're

doing this, Yes, you will. You I can't do it that much justice And hopefully we have fans this year to be able to see it real, live in action. But that's gonna get you excited to hit some quarterbacks. Oh, definitely. Gotta have a fans and that's a that's a big part of what we do. So you gotta have a fan. So one big thing that that Everson Griffin did as a Minnesota Viking, he had a sack dance. Um, he

called himself to sack daddy. Um what what what can you tell Vikings fans about what you're gonna do when you hit the quarterback? You know, my my celebration is based off you know, how I feel wants something getting up at the quarterback. So I don't have a said damn sh it, but you know I'm gonna get out of that quarterback. You know I'm excited to get up. You better do some homework and get one. Get one ready for for opening day here for the NFL season.

Oh definitely, I'm gonna have one ready. I'm gonna have one ready. By the looking at the Vikings defensive line, it is just and um so great the past couple of years, I mean having veterans like Win Vall, Joseph Everson, Griffin, a lot of those guys are gone now had great careers with the Vikings. Uh, it's a young group now with Andre Patterson leading from the middle of the defensive line even toil to some of the pass rushers. So, um, you gotta be raring to go. But like you're gonna

have a big impact on this team. Is in your rookie season, Oh definitely, you know, and by you know, looking at those guys on film. You know, they get out to the quarterback, they played a round, they do everything good. So by me, you know, coming in, you know, you know, I gotta be able to match that. And I feel like, you know I have I'm going to do that and I'm ready excited to get there. What have your interaction has been been like with Mike Zimmer. I mean you gotta be pretty excited to have a

defensive minded head coach. Oh definitely. You know, great coach, you know, you know, great mind, and the things that he brings to this team is crazy and it's awesome. And you know, just having guys know that have played in the league, you know in the past, you know, telling me about how he is as a coach man, it just gets me more fired up to you know, get up there. So Daniel Hunter was the youngest ever player to reach fifty career sacks in NFL history. That

has to have you pretty pretty excited as well. Yeah, yeah, yeah, definitely, you know, just seeing the things that he's done on the field, you know, it's amazing. And coach coach Andre Pattison, you know, he knows, he knows exactly what he's talking about, and he's crazy. Um you know, just seeing Daniel Hunter do that, you know, at such a young age, you know, it gives me even more excited. Just so you know, Mike Zimmer calls him team sacks. They're not They're not

individual sacks around here in Minnesota. Oh yeah, definitely. You know, everybody's a part of that that once that you know, everybody plays you know, major role and somebody getting that sex. So definitely, you know, filming that. Going back to your college career, it seemed like you were m kind of an outside linebacker, pass rusher, defensive end, pass rusher, hybrid um,

what's it gonna be like? The play with a guy like Anthony Barr who has really become that type of player in the NFL and has been so successful for the Vikings his years. It's great, you know, just you know seeing him being able to, you know, did the thing that he does, you know, as a player, and being able to you know, play with him and learn the different things that he knows. Man, It's just it's crazy, man, It's so it's so exciting. Man. Well you seem excited

to be to be a Minnesota Viking. It's a shame that that you don't get to shake hands and be in person with your teammates just yet. But as we said, we don't want Andre Patterson. He's like, I'm ready to get my hands on this. DJ want him because he's my guy, he's my draft pick. Yeah, yeah, yeah, definitely. You know, I'm excided to get up there, you know,

and get to work with him. All right, DJ, thanks for joining us, and definitely a pleasure to meet you, and hopefully we'll see you pretty soon at the Vikings facility. Oh yes, sorry, you will see me soon. Appreciate you

talking with him. That was Vikings fourth round pick. DJ won him with our very own Chris corshow and while we were letting that run, here's a fun fact for our listeners, Jay puts together a wonderful document of information for all of us to work off of during the show, and he had stuff about the COVID pandemic and the DJ interview and then it was just a bunch of blank space, So I thought, oh, that's all we have

this week. During the interview, I scrolled down and he had the most detailed account of Patrick mahomes career and contract that I've ever seen in my entire life. And I've never felt dumber. I've never felt dumber that I couldn't scroll down to give our audience the hard work that Jay put in. But honestly, Jay, I think you deserve it for that five hundred and three reasons comments.

So one percent, I will take that credit off the five hundred and three reasons four of the other top five, and I'm not going to count Canalo ever as I don't I don't care about boxing. It's not a contract sport. I hate that that's even on the list. But you know, eight of the ten highest paid athletes are in the in Major League Baseball. So to see Patrick Mahomes out pace and the crazy thing to really think about because not only was his contract larger, but it is actually

larger per year than Mike Trout. You never hear that. You never hear a guy in the best guy in the NFL getting more money than the best guy in Major League Baseball. That's that's a pretty unique situation there. So that's me recapping Jay's recap that I didn't use during the Mahomes recap. Let's do a few final thoughts here. You know, we've got some really great stuff right now on Vikings dot Com coming up and on all of

our social media. One of our favorite staff writers, Eric Smith, has a lunch break feature on CBS which they ranked their head coaches, which I always think is very funny. I don't you know, I get ranking defensive ends. I think head coach is a bit subjective. That being said, they ranked Mike Zimmer tenth, which I think is complete Horsemen,

he got undersold. So Eric Smith discusses that Lindsay Young has an awesome piece breaking down how three draftees could impact the Vikings defensive line and her x as an O's feature, and Craig Peterson joins both Eric and Lindsay to break down ten key takeaways from the Virtual offseason program. If you're curious how the Vikings are preparing to play this year, keep up to date on everything we do on all our social media platforms, Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, Twitter, YouTube,

all of them boys. The offseason has slowly coming to a close. Here, any final thoughts. I think I'm just excited to see some of these young guys get going here. I mean fifteen players, I mean fifteen rookies, not even counting all the udfas. So that's my biggest thing. When they finally get in the building and seeing everything that goes on with the coronavirus is obviously the top of everybody's mind. But a lot of new players on this

Vikings roster, and I'm excited on my end. This is always the time of year where it's kind of the point of no return, your past fourth of July and you know at the seasons upon us, all of the discussions we've had for months and months and months about what's going to happen, how are they going to handle

offseason programs, the players, the coaches. We're at a point now where preseason is supposed to be happening, Training camp is supposed to be coming up here, and as long as things keep progressing within the league circles and the safety protocols, I'm hopeful that we will still have the preseason as needed and the season as needed. And I just want some normalcy that way with football. Let's get it back here and get back to being able to

focus on something fun that we all enjoy. Yeah, as I sit here in my Vikings shirt desperately, I think I'm a pretty balanced person that doesn't live and die on sports, But it is becoming more and more apparent how much I miss them. Right after the fourth of July is when you get that tingle you're like, oh, it's coming here we go, like you slowly start to feel that way, and then you get that first day of August when you're like, oh, no, it feels like fall.

But then it clicks in your brand like also fall means football, So I'm kind of transitioning. Obviously, We'll see how things transpire with the pandemic. It's important for us, you know, here at the Vikings and with the Minnesota Vikings podcast, we hope everybody's acting safe, taking care of your family, doing things correctly, washing your hands, wearing your mask. Just be smart, be safe, be happy, be healthy, and

let's all look forward to a fun football season. And we will also look forward to next week when Jay will probably do a lot of prep work and also say something my dad's dad said, see you guys then