MVP: 2022 NFL Draft - Day 2 Breakdown | Episode 143

the Minnesota Vikings Podcast. Episode one forty three to be exact recording got eleven fifty pm Central Time with the crew. I'm talking about Tatum Everett, Ron Johnson or John Ronson, whatever you want to call him. And we got Pete versus Jay Nelson on the ones and twos, and the Vikings dropped up tonight by selecting three players, three playmakers

according to quasi adopel menta. But similar to Day one, the Vikings traded back a couple of times and then traded up up to get some of those picks, starting with Andrew Booth Junior. We needed a cornerback and we got one, and a lot of us were highing him coming into it. We thought he was going to be there at thirty four, a quacodope mint to work some of his magic and ultimately ended up getting on Andrew

Booth Junior. Then, with the fifty ninth overall selection, the Vikings selective ed Ingram Interior old linment for the for LSU won a national championship in twenty nineteen, and they rounded today out by selecting linebacker Brian Asamoa from Oklahoma and Pete, I want to start with you Andrew Booth Junior. We knew this was going to be a need for the Vikings drafting a cornerback. A lot of Vikings fans wanted us to draft a cornerback and twelfth overall, but

we didn't do so. A lot of the cornerbacks were off the board. But your thoughts on Andrew Booth Junior, you know he was, Yeah, his name was thrown along around quite a bit early. I don't know if it's it's the fact they didn't run a four fours, you know, the thing people stay away from. But I look at it this way. Ed Donna Tell cut his teeth in this league as a defensive back coach. He was a

defensive bass coach for the Bears. Um you know, just he's been around this league and he knows defensive backs when he sees him. It's a little bit different of a system. You don't really you know, when when you have defensive lineman or outside linebackers setting an edge, you don't really have the need for a corner to be and run support as much like in the four three. You can stack tight ends and just keep blocking down and eventually that corner is the one that has to

crack and replace. Ralliot make a tackle and so he does appear to be physical. Um, but you're getting a good quality player. And we talked about this before the draft. He even started. If you want to start on this team, you want to be a safety or a corner, a defensive tackle or an edge rusher. Um on defense, that's going to be the easiest route. And so uh, it looks to be that they got themselves, you know, two

maybe three good starters all you know already awesome. Always going to take some time, but he's gonna be able to help along the way. There's so there's there's a lot um a lot added a lot of talent and you know the lot of guys that just can play football. Yeah, right, if you want to just use an old school term, because I am old so I use those terms. But the terms a lot, the terms you use are always endearing and they're always new. So game old man saying

new things. I feel like that's the new wave now right right, Like like TikTok, that's as an old man saying something new. Well, yeah, well I know someone who's on TikTok and that's Tatum. Not not quite. I got pressure into doing a TikTok in Vegas with our social media producer, so that was a good times. No. I. I think it's really important to think that a downtown is a big part of this decision making process because Quacy and Kevin are putting their full confidence in him.

And then today a lot of the scouts spoke on behalf of the staff as they were continuing to draft, saying that Downtell thinks he can really move a guy like Booth around and that he can be the sheer ability to turn the ball over. He's got the hands to do so, it has the length, and he brings a lot of things to the table that they're looking for as far as plug and play, like maybe he's not playing this quintessential role. They can kind of move

them all around. Ron being that you were from Detroit and seeing that the Vikings traded with Detroit last night from twelve to thirty two, selected Lewis Lewis scene with that pick, and then started the day the day off by trading the thirty fourth overall pick to the Green Bay Packers and then moving back up to sit like Andrew Booth Junior. What were your thoughts on just those moves to get a guy in Andrew Booth, Well, I

thought it was key. So when you look at Andrew Booth Jr. I thought that was the guy all along, Like I thought that was the guy that gonna take over Lewis scene, even though he was graded out as a second, you know, possible third round depending on how

this draft went. If that's a guy you like, and I've always heard there from scouts coaches, if there's a guy you like like, if you look at Pierre Garson with the coach people thought a kid out of Mount Union shouldn't be a third round pick, well he ends up being a really good player. Tony Dungee believe in what they saw, they drafted him. It worked out, and

so you can never the problem. And to your point, and this is what happens in the draft rooms is you have a guy that you that's sitting there at as it was a second round talent, and now all of a sudden you were late in the third and if you're gonna go true to your board, it's like, no, this this guy here is smaller school whatever, he's perfect as a third rounder. This, you know, we're stepping up him. We're making an aggressive move to get this guy. But

then everyone's like, yeah, what about this guy here? Because you know what I mean, it's so you know, I think Spielman and those guys like to put the star or whatever, red tag or whatever next to him. But that's that's tough. It's tough for an organization to stand up and just say you know what, no, we want We'll continue to pass on player A. Yeah, we're taking this guy. Yeah, because if that's your guy, you go get him, you know. And like Tatum was saying, ed,

donatell clearly has a vision. He clearly and we had Ryan Monis on, you know, and he mentioned that he said, look right away they came and told us as scouts, this is what we want. This is what we want you guys to scout. This is what we want you guys to look for. So clearly, Booth fits whatever they're gonna do. Like she said, if he's a move guy, he's a guy that can play in the nickel. If they put chan in Sellivan outside and certain you know

teams they're playing, they already got it matched up. Patrick Peterson, you're gonna be here. If we're gonna put someone so on the box. If we're gonna move our new linebacker who's two hundred twenty six pounds and runs, you know, runs a four or four in the field, you're gonna spy the quarterbacks. So Eric and Juice can rush. I think in the three to four you don't always have to, and that's why I actually like it. You don't have to stay into your true look like you can move

guys around. But the key is knowing your role, and I think that's the other part. They wanted smart guys that can come into this defense right away and say, if you line up at safety, but you're in the box, but I need you to get all the way across the other side of the field and be on the hash at the snap of the ball. We know Harrison Smith can do it. We know Patrick Peterson can do it. We saw games nothing against and I think he's gonna get better. Where Cam Dancer was just in the wrong spot.

And if you can get guys a line up in the right spot and do all that crazy move stuff, you can be a really good defense. Look at the Packers, look at the Ravens, and I think that's what ed Donatail is trying to create. He's trying to create. Uh. Some people call it controlled chaos, where it just it looks crazy at the snap, but then boom there in their spots, you know, and it you bring up a

fabulous point and it's ironic. And if you think about this is um you know, they they they they call coach O'Connell referred to it as as as us illusion of complexity. Right, it's hilarious how the offense will line up in a million different ways to run the same damn place. But for a defense, what do you want to do? Show the same damn look snap after snap after snap a play different things? How do you do

that as a defense? How do you line up in the same umbrella look and in adjust when you have all these shifts in motions and jet motions and things. You do that because you got guys that can play out of position, right, and when you're when you're a four three UM in your handicap, meaning you become matchup based, and you say, we just do not want this guy. We do not want Gabe Henderson covering you Ron Johns.

We just we do not want that. And we saw that on film with the ramsay, you know, with with with putting the running backs, flexing them all the way outside and all you gotta do is look up and say linebackers walked out man and man corner bumped up zone. Well, when you have athletes that are versatile um, and I think this is one of Harrison Smith's greatest strengths is that you don't know what he's gonna do because he

can blitz. So if he walks up, you have to pay attention to him because he can still drop in the deep half or deep third or whatever middle of the field and he can blitz. He could you know, be down to defend the run. He could do anything from there. And it sounds like scenes the same way, correct, right, And now you've got a corner who can do so What it does for the defense is you don't you don't have these matchup nightmares. Correct that you're saying, Okay, well,

we don't want this to have them. So anytime the slot goes and Nickel runs with them, but if the Z goes, then we're just gonna do you know, And then it's paralysis by analysis. And it's exactly what Kevin O'Connell coach wants to see and wants to see. You move one guy and then have three defenders move. We covered all this on those film segments. They motion or

running back out and there goes the linebacker. Now they got the number count they want, right, But if you can get four defenders moving right before the snap on one guy, one receiver moving, they will take that all day. Guess it really good? How do you stop that? Have guys that can play multiple spots. That's a really good point. But I mean, I think, like you said to Negate that if you got the defenders moving around so much, all, like you said, all the offense has to do is

go on motion and everything. Oh, we can't discuss this anymore because there's so many emotions going on. And I think that's where this offense is going to thrive and then moving to the offensive side of the ball. That's why the Vikings wanted to bring in another interior offensive lineman to be able to increase havoc for opposing defenses in at Ingram interior offensive lineman Lsu selected with the fifty nine overall pick earlier tonight. He is going to

be able to provide value because he is quick. He can put less pressure on a quarterback by being able to move. And now we have a guy Tatum that also can be in this competition battle easily. I mean, I think they're asking for him to be right there with all the others in the depth. As far as his versatility, because he played both right and left guard, mainly left guard in college, and I think we're clearly looking for more of a right guard rotation at this point.

But he's a guy that brings speed. He spoke to me earlier this evening and he thinks that his greatest strength is run blocking, but he's created out as the highest SEC pass blocker last season, and so you know, I think that that versatility is something that we could see, especially as like as in on third down, like if you're in third short to tuations in urine trying to,

you know, just get a yard. He said, just put me in stick down, cook behind me and let me go because I'm gonna block anyone out of the way. And I believe him. He's he's a big dude. Yeah, And that's all mentality too, right, It's like running behind me. Like every offensive lineman should have that mindset and ron understanding from the offensive side of the ball. When your receiver, it's like, throw me the ball, I'll catch it every

and anytime you put it up in the air. But having that mindset as an offensive lineman, what does that tell you about the kind of guys Quacy and Kevin O'Connor were trying to bring here. Yeah, I mean we've all done this drill, the base block drill. Some people love it, some people hate it. I ain't block as a receiver, but at six three, two hundred and thirty pounds, I loved it because every dB was smaller than me. And so you know, you put that board in between

those legs. You got to keep your base and it's just me versus you, and we're gonna push each other back and forth until somebody blows the whistle, until like, get your butt on the ground. And to hear Louis sne say that that, I want to break your wheel by breaking your neck. He said, this is the only sport I can hit somebody and not go to jail, and so and so. You know when you hear guys say that, and you watch that Alabama Georgia game where like Pete said, or you bought up the motion. Alabama

does a tun of window dressing motions. We know that with their offensive coordinator. But Lewis Scene was in the one I tweeted. He's on the right side of the field. He has to man up the receiver going all the way across. At the snap he was able to get over there with the speed and tackle him for a four yard loss. And so when you have a guy like that that wants to hit you wants to block him, you look at the offensive lineman same thing. Like Tatum said, he wants to get a guy in front of him.

Every time he pulled, he's looking for somebody to knock their head off. And I think we had so many offensive guards. I can't remember the one guy's name he was. He had a Commodo dragon in his yard. Said he's gonna knock. He's gonna punch the packers in their mouth boom. You know, we had guys that would talk about it, and then in the games we'd be like, where's the punch.

You know, this is a guy who's just saying, look, I'm a football player, like I'm not trying to be a bully, but when I put my pads on, you'll see what I can do. And I I even listen to the negatives of mail Kiper. And I don't really listen to mail Kiper much because he's always wrong, but you listen to the negatives. His negatives weren't bad like his negatives were. Like one of the negatives was he gets too handsy, and you can you can teach somebody

to not do it. And that's just being tired. Like conditioning. He's gonna change when he gets here. He's gonna have money now to pay for a trainer. Um, you know, his mail plans gonna change. Even though college LSU. You guys get paid a ton of millions and LSU, I know that to train and eat now we got the nil. But you know when you when you look at that the handsy, you know that's tired. That's, you know, playing long game technique exactly. You got a coach now who's

gonna teach a little bit different technique. He's gonna work on on one on one. You're my draft pick. I'm gonna make sure you get it right. And this is your job. You don't have class. So if you have issues with your hands and your technique, I want you here at six am. I want you here at four pm. Like he's going to have that, just like Xavier rolls with Zimmer. Zimmer had Xavier roles with boxing. Loves thee after practice work in says, so he would not be handsy,

and what happened he became a pro bowler. So the negatives like if he said, oh he's he's soft, you know he messes up on blocks, he misses a ton of it was none of that. Yeah, it was he grabs sometimes. They're not heart issues that correct. Yeah. Let me say this about offensive line real quick. There's a couple of things that matter. You have to do something well, either it's run blocking or pass blocking one or the other.

The second thing is consistency. And I know this from from coaching and with Brian McKinney, and we'd play somebody and Brian McKinney would play you know, Randal McDaniel esque, meaning he was grading out at ninety five ninety seven percent, and then a week later he would play a lesser opponent and grade out at like sixty. You can't game plan for that. As a coach. If I have a guy and my offensive line who I know can run block,

I can scheme around that. If I know the guy also needs help in the passing game, we can scheme for that as well. And with the way this league has gone with the bare front, which is what you cover up the guard, you cover up those guys are in tight though, so you cover up. It's man on man both guards and the zero knows and you need to be big and physical inside now because he's d

linemen are three twenty. First and second down you're blocking a three hundred and thirty pound man, and then third down you're blocking a two hundred and seventy five pound guy who can run a four to four. So as long as he can do something well and is consistent, then Kevin O'Connell as an offensive coordinator can help. You can help with formation, You can help with the different types of protections. We know when we do not want

to put this young man in a bad position. But if one game he can he's his road grading people, and then a week later he's pass blocking like a maniac but not doing the other, then that becomes a problem. So you know, that's what he has to do. He has to just come in here and make make make him make it known to the team and to coach staff that hey, I do this, this is my bed. I might need help in the passing game, but at least when we need a yard when it's fourth and one,

you know, right behind me, and we haven't had. We haven't had. When's the last super physical lineman that came through here. It's been a while, a long time, Hutchinson. Maybe. I mean it's because you know, and there's no other guard. Like Tatum said, there's gonna be a competition, and I think we thought, why, Davis, why exactly we didn't get that.

So this is gonna be a fun training camp. Why she'll definitely get a chance and another guy that will get a chance to compete, And I'm just leaving at that to compete is the seventy seventh overall pick in the draft. This year Brian as linebacker from Oklahoma. Pete, you and I have had numerous discussions about this guy months ago. Yeah, he's you know the thing there were at that position, at the linebacker position, there were a lot of guys that were slated to go later that were,

you know, damn good football players. It's like the running back position. That position has been devalued, I think a little bit in the eyes of a lot of teams. Um, he's a guy that when you watch him on film, you look at the height weight, and then you watch the film and you go back to the height and wait, and damn it if this kid was only two inches taller. And then you go watch the film and you're like, I don't care that this kid is six foot tall.

You know, but at two twenty he's gonna hurt himself. And he watched the film again and you're like, oh my god, he's so physical. How's he not busted up in a million people? You know, he's Um, he's he's a hell of a good football player. You know, he's he's he's around the ball, reads things well. I think

Manusky's gonna get you know, get his hands on him. Uh, you know, and with most extremely athletic linebackers, they let their technique and their footwork slide and he could overcome a lot of the crossovers and fall steps and things like that. Um, but he's not. I think he can get that out of him. And the other thing that he does very very well like most a lot of the linebackers in this in this draft this year, uh

complitz and you need that. There you go, you need that and you absolutely now he's not going to go take a center down the middle and dump him right, no question about that. How but he's got to speeding quickness TOI to cause problems with a running back. So he goes one on one against the running back. You know. Now now now we might win that. And you know that was one of the Anthony Bars things is that you put you can't block that guy with a with

a running back. So for Asomo, I may not be freight training people like you know, like Bar did, but he can definitely scoot, no question about that. I actually wanted to ask you guys a question for the way that this draft has gone. The trading of the picks three out of four of the pixel far up in defense. Has it been in the areas you think are the most concerned. Are these good fits in your eyes? I'll go with you run, I'll say yeah. I mean again,

Corner was one. He did it, you know, an impact player. He did it at safety, you know, because again Cam buying him. Is he a long term starter at safety? We don't know. But this kid right here, Louis Scene, seems to fit the bill. He's a heavy hitter. He's not afraid of contact. And that's what you need. You need a cam Chancellor. That Cam Chancellor. When you think about the legion of Boom, it wasn't Richard Sherman, it was Cam Chanceller. Richard Sherman just had the mouthpiece. Cam

Chancellor was the boom. He was the one that would come hit you. And I think that's what Louis Scene's gonna do for that back in and he's a guy that and Pete you know, he knows this. You you make a big hit that gets everybody going, yeah, now you can come up and stop somebody in their tracks. You're running full speed and he just boom goes under him and he picks him up, lifts him, dumps him.

Everybody gets decided, even the offensive guys because we see that, We're like, okay, let's go well and it hit in the fashion that he does it as well, being as I mean. But I don't think violence like a great word. But it's it's a great word. No, it's not. It's no law. I think it's it's what it is is it's a mentality rack right, it's it's it's a mentality that you have. And and and yeah, he exudes it, right, And I think Harrison's Harrison's just Harrison can hit, but

Harrison's really clean. Yeah, right, you need a little I want to we need some nasty in this defense, honestly, like you really needs some we need and I'll and I remember, like it was yesterday early on in the Baltimore Ravens game, because we were going up and down the field now, and I remember those guys during a TV time out the defense for the Ravens, those guys got together and said all right, enough's enough. And the

rest of that game they played very very well. Remember Now, the Ravens defense gave up more explosive plays than anybody. I mean, they had a rough year. That is what

this defense needs. You gotta have some pride about you, right, you've got to have you got to have someone that makes a hit like that and says and that shows enough is enough to everybody else and hopefully you know the you know, the easiest way to start on this team was corner, safety, defensive tackle, because we do you know, we need one more starter and um, you know those

those spots and we've addressed most of them. In linebacker depth, well, yeah, we've had a lot of backup linebackers, like backup linemen come and go through here, and not many of them have stuck. And so that's and so especially with the offensive line, because you stare at the offensive line, you got first round er left tackle, second round or left guard first round. At center, right guard has been a merry go round and a first rounder at right tackle.

You can't just build an offensive line with first round picks. Atlanta tried to do it last year. They had all every one of their offensive lineman was a first round pick. At some point, you gotta develop, You got to develop talent. Yeah, and there's gonna be a lot of development come in here shortly once rookie Minicamp stars. But I think Louis Seen was the biggest surprise for me. Especially in the first round, just knowing that the cornerback position was one

of the biggest needs. So I'm glad we addressed it early in the second round. But I think Brian Asamoa is going to be a guy that is going to be underrated because a lot of a lot of what people are saying is like, oh, like pezzat, he's six foot, he's only twenty pounds. That's it. That's the only complain can have about this kid. So you're just like, Okay, well, if the lineman gets to him first, then the lineman one.

But if a Samoa gets to the lineman first, which he usually does most of the majority of the time, then he's usually gonna win that matchup. So I think that is an underrated signing there. But I think once you put him in this Josh Hinks, Derek Keys, Marquis Johnson weight training program, this guy becomes a starter at some point. Maybe that's year two, maybe that's year three.

And I think just understanding that the Vikings needed to address the defensive side of the ball, we got better on that forefront, but there are some some glaring needs still to address tight end. It's one for me and we'll go around the room to just see what other needs the Vikings need. But tight end for me, and I know there are some guys out there. But and then cornerback. You can never ron. You said this earlier at the in our and our instant reaction that's from

Vikings dot com. You said the Vikings need corner like they need to breathe, and you can never have enough. And at seven or eight cornerbacks on the roster right now for the Vikings, isn't enough. And Patrick Peterson he's the only proven cornerback on this roster. Andrew boob Juiar love his swag, love his playmaking ability, but we still need more. I mean yeah, I mean we've been doing Vikings game and they live now there's our eighth year. And so I remember always talking to Pete about this.

We'd look at the who's gonna start or who's gonna dress for the game, and how many corners or is Mike's are gonna keep? How many corners are the Lions gonna keep? How many you know, and it's always like eight, nine or ten. When you think about special teams, you think about all the things you need for corners, for gunners, hold up guys and then just depth, Like when you have six guys, you know, a guy runs a goal round all of a sudden, Xavier Rhodes tasts his hamstring

A you gotta come out. Next guy coming in, You're like, oh my god, they about to attack him like every other. And so when you think about that, now, Patrick Peterson being older, can he go an entire game without you know, cramping or something or just neating a breather because he just ran on a go route with with Tyreek Hill or somebody. Um, that's when you can bring in another guy like Andrew Booth. You can bring Cam Buying him in to play corner. You can bring in now um

um Channon Sullivan to play you know. So you're adding guys and and that's why I think you still need to go get like a there's a Kobe Bryant out there, there's a Josh Job, there's a Tariqi Wool and, like I said, even in the lationship, was still out there. Yeah. And he's the number one corner on the board right now, eighty five. He's ranked eighty fifth overall prospect yep. And

it was not taken. So that's a guy that if the vikings and and again, man, people throw rumors out all the time while guys don't get drafted or you know, this guy's a you know, bad character guy. You know smoked weed last night. I saw him outside, whatever it might be. But you know, when you look at all these guys still out there, there are some good corners, cataracts, there's some good guys out there, and so that that's why I think corner like against the chairman, fifth round pick,

there there are a lot of them. Yeah, yeah, you gotta have It's not a death sentence, no, And like I said, you you always need special teams guys. And honestly, as a receiver, I'm not putting my hand up to go be gunner. Like if I got to do it, Yeah, am I gonna play the wing? Onna punt sure? I'm the fourth receiver on the browster. I don't want to do it. I don't want to do it, but I'm gonna do it because I want to get paid. But corners, that's what they do, like, yeah, put me at put

me a gunner, put me at the wing. I'll run out and tackle somebody because we don't practice tackle anymore. In the receiver dbs or how you do it. That's when so many teams run with ten when they come out there, and then you have to, you know, strategically look at the rest. Like like we talked about tight end, I didn't another good special team's position. Um, you know,

there's some good ones out there. To kid Jake Ferguson out of Nebraska, he's still out there, you know, or no Sharky Wisconsin, and you know, you look at him and the only reason I know that name is because he played against the Gophers and I hate him. But now he's done with college. So it's six five, two fifty five. That's a big kid, you know. And he was one of the better tight ends in the Big ten. Like that was PJ Flag's nightmare. How am I going to cover this guy? And you look at him versus

Boy Mafe who was the fortieth pick. He blocked boy pretty well Wisconsin. So I mean that's that's that's a guy where the vikings are like, Okay, who's our blocking tight end. Who's gonna be our bigger body tight end? He's out there. So there's a guy. Go ahead, Well, I'll say, you know you have Johnny Munt, right, Yeah,

and he's the block. Yeah so, but I agree with you this offense, at least the running game that we've seen now you know, Connell could change it, not but the running game we saw at the with the rams that depended on the tight end correct tone a ton, just like the forty nine ers. So now we'll CJ. Ham now be a be a tight end. I mean that's the thing. It's like, you have this, you have this talent and CJ. Hamm, what do you do with him?

It's pretty easy to integrate, you know, the tight ends a wing or you move over six feet and he's a fullback. Right so, but a great blocking tight end will help our running game more than any guard. I think we can we can find and throw in there because the way defenses are played now, so many bodies now on the line of scrimmage with the cutbacks and with the bend backs and all those other things that

they do. You know, you have a two hundred and fifty pound pass receiving pass catching tight end out there, you go, now you your jobs will go out there and kick out von Miller. You're gonna be like what euse me? Excuse me? Right, you know, and and so you need someone who's gonna just be like, all right, well you line up and go ahead and do it, you know, and we we also, I think this team also needs a good we need Unfortunately the big guys

who are great athletes are hard to find late. But a defensive tackle, yeah, because right now, you know who's going to be that if we do run the five man front, who's going to be that other three technique and or nose tackle in this defense? And those techniques are going to change quite a bit, you know, I mean frog stance, meaning all four on the ground, reading the block in front of him instead of just jetting

up the field. Now you can reduce one side, you know, cover up the lineback a little bit, let him play like a regular three technique or an end. But you know, you need some you kind you need some hogs in the middle. You know, there's a guy likes so well, he's a wide body ballerinam You were thinking wide receiver or I was thinking wide receiver earlier. I mean I think that there's a value in that. And right now,

I don't you know, I even mentioned bow Melton. Yeah, oh, I was gonna say if he can return punts, this team does not have a punt returner number one, And I don't care about how you return. You got to be a great decision maker and you got to catch the damn ball when it's punted. Tier. Yeah, Danny Green would always say that all I care about on punt return is that when the whistle blows, it's our ball.

That's your job. But we don't have that punt return on our side for a while, right, I mean kickoff return, we got that figured out. Who's going to be the number two running back too? I mean Alexander. I think there's opportunity there for somebody's contra year for him for sure. Yeah, yeah, I'm sorry, you're fine. Yeah. I just think I think that there's so much talk about this offense being so set that for me, I'm not you know, I have

no inside information of whatsoever. This is purely on conjecture right here. But but seeing someone like I think I mentioned in the in the uh the recap that we did that Calvin Austen is a two two out well in comparison, and Kevin is looking for toys in the toy chest. He's looking for these guys out there, and if he doesn't see it right there, seeing a more dynamic, shifty guy that he can just kind of pluck and

play and maybe even return punts things like that. That might be somewhere they go to next because they have picked up so many defensive pieces and it's not done obviously, but picking up somebody like that could be really appealing to Kevin, who's trying to create this illusion of complexity. And this was a top ten offense last year easily. Yeah, and we you know we have we have pretty much the same guys. I think our top three wide receivers. You mentioned kJ Osborne je well in BC's on the

rehab and you have. It's just that I agree with you one hundred percent on the punt return slash wiggle guy, right, the gadget guy, and that could be BC's called a fame if he can return punch. He did it a few years ago. Hey yeah, we got some more receivers here on this roster, but hey, BC is more valuable and special teams and that's I mean, we know that special teams gets you on the plane. If you can get on the plane, that's all that matters, because anything

can happen after that. But I think all that depends on how good this offensive line is going to be this year for Minnesota Vikings. Just from talking to Kevin O'Connell earlier this year, back in March, I had asked him, I said, you know, with everything, all these motions, all this zone reads and sweeps and all this illusion of complexity, does this make the job easier on the offensive lineman?

He said, no, it's the exact opposite. The offensive linemen are gonna have to work harder because we're gonna use them to make the defense work harder. We're gonna have our offensive lineman running one way, the players going the opposite way. They're gonna have to think on their toes and they're gonna have to do a little bit more in order for this entire offense to be gelling all

at once. And to that, to that point, I don't recall that their offensive line had a lot of changes, because it seems to be a thing now where a guy plays guard one one game and then plays left guard the other game, and then moves over to center and this guy's starting to tackle. Some of that was

COVID related. I get that, but you talk to offensive lineman of just even ten years ago, they're like, you'll line up and you know, and you can count on what the guy, you know, what the guy in the right's going to do, and let you know, there's there's a value to that. And so if you know whitworth you. He he was around forever, Um Haverstein was around forever. I mean, they're all there. They had a very i think experienced, in most in most cases offensive line that

and that's what they have to do. And I hope they just line these guys up. When's the last time we went through training camp with the same offensive line that we started with? Yeah, you know what I mean, it's been unfortunately for a number of reasons, it's it's been musical chairs. And so I don't think I can't remember the last time we've went to a training camp with this many veteran offensive lining, like with all this def veterans, And I think that makes for a healthy competition.

And you just look at just the opportunity for a young guy and and ed Ingram, even if he doesn't play right away, he's going to have an opportunity to learn from so many veterans and an offensive lineman coach that has done it already for the Denver Broncos and

now it only makes this entire offense better. Yeah, And I think I'll listen to is when Kevin O'Connell, you know, some of the things he says, he when he makes comments about the type of offense and the type of plays he wants to get for Justin Jefferson, I look at it. I equated to basketball. You know, Sean McVey talked about his offense as a basketball team. He talked about movement, quick setting, picks, all that kind of stuff.

That's the thing where I felt like, and I would bring this up in a pregame show all the time, I felt like the Vikings got away from the basics. It felt like Gary Kubiak and Clint Kubiak were always trying to create these huge, big momentum plays versus letting

Kirk Cousins work a lather up. If you look at Matthew Stafford and even go back to Jared Goff, it was throwing slants, it was throwing hitches, it was throwing bubble screens, tunnel screens, and then they would get into their offense or double shadows and then deep post with the you know comeback. And I think that's where Kevin O'Connell. And again, you never know because it's this first time actually taken over. This was mcveay's offense for the past

couple of years, and so he's gonna take over. Is he gonna do the same thing? Most likely, because his goal is I want to do the same stuff. I want to use Justin's usage like Cooper cup Um, and I think that's where the Vikings office is gonna go. And to the offensive guard point. If you think about the Rams, like Pete bought up their run game, it was it was precated on movement. They would move guys and they would try to count and they can count. If we got three guys here, run to the three

man side. If it's four guys here, they can run away from the four. And we would always ask Kirk Cousins or bring it up in the pressers, Hey, how much can Kirk Cousins change? Not really, you know, And that's a problem if a quarterback can't come to the line of scrimmage and count and say, okay, I should not run the play this way, or I should not pass the ball into this coverage, and he's just stuck checking to a run or he's just check going opposite.

Opposite is the easiest thing in the world. You can't always do opposite because every team knows that. You know, if you say something's up, something it looks Differenty're like, oh, there's gonna run the other and and that's gonna be I think the toughest hurdle for Kirk is just knowing the protections and knowings hot and not hyper focusing on whoever that hot. That's what the loose. So if you think about Jared Goffin what McVeigh did, it's the loose huddle.

As long as they're not completely huddled and everybody, everybody's off the line of scrimmage. He can talk to Kirk up to fifteen seconds. And I think that was what Jared golf got it. They got to the Super Bowl with that, and everybody thinks golf wasn't that good. But McVeigh he's spoon fed it. Well you stay away, what do you think do you think he's that good golf? But McVeigh is McVay smart. He's like, look you got I got, I got twenties, or I got ten seconds

to talk you through this quick. Just getting a loose huddle. Let me see what they're gonna do. And then they say, boom, here's two plays, get to the line, scrimmage and then he goes up there fifteen seconds. He can do all this stuff. Boom, check it, run to play. And I think Kirk's smart enough. And that's Parry. We don't start doing what they do in college. And that's the big picture of a game. It's a little of the money Tam Dave left. But yeah, I mean, but that's that's

what McVay did. That's what O'Connell's gonna do. He's gonna he's gonna help Kirk. He's gonna talk him through it. But at the end of the day, he said, he said, I want Kurt to have control of this offense. And I think that's the key. If you can't give your quarterback control, you need to get a new quarterback, you know, And we can't be afraid if that happens. This is a new regime, you know, this is not a regime who signed up for Kirk. Now, he did have them

in Washington and blah blah. But yeah, I'm excited to see what they can do with this. Like you said, I think add a receiver, a jitterbug guy deep diving into twenty twenty three. The guy you were just bringing up, Jelani Woods because Pete liked him. Indian up his coach draft. And there's a guy by name and Darnielle Washington. If you watch the National Championship game, he's the same number zero.

He's six seven, two seventy and caught a touchdown in the back of the end zone because he's bigger than anybody covering him. And so we're not looking forward into picks. But everybod keeps talking about if you're making all these trade why aren't you trying to get twenty twenty three picks? Well guys like that or why because next year? Everbody talking about the quarterbacks next year. Everybody's talking about the

receivers next year and the tight ends next year. So I mean, we definitely want to win a Super Bowl now, but I mean you got to give Quacy and Kevin Tying tight end. Go watch March Madness. Right ends are playing Champion Park High School. Hey, trying to play football in high school. He might be he might be the next Antonio Gates Tatum. We got five picks tomorrow, what are you most looking forward to. You know, I didn't get a chance to say this on the recap, so

I'm glad that you asked me. I am very curious to see the strategicy. This is very late in the day for me. I was in Vegas at six o'clock this morning. So, um, I'm looking forward to the strategic moves of this front office because I think that they don't know if they've necessarily surprised everyone with the way that they've moved up and down the board and kind of had a whole like who's on our dance card,

let's do this thing. Um. I'm just I'm just gonna be very interested to see how creative they're going to try and get in these last couple of rounds, because I don't I think it's a bit of a trend in this draft that all these teams are moving like this. It just feels like a little bit more movement than normal. But I also feel like this front office maybe this is maybe because we don't know, this is the way

that this will operate for the next couple of years. Well, it definitely hasn't been that expensive to move around, then

I think that's what's done. Yeah, that's because you know, you didn't have, you know, a hand It's kind of like you had a handful of guys up top, and then everybody else was like, hey, they're all like second third round picks, and so I think the moving around is not as expensive as it's been in the past with all the picks that Quasi has had and what he said about what he said about seventh round picks, which I hold a grudge because I was a seventh

round pick, which he was right, you know, we're terrible. Um just saying you know not, you know, a thousand of them aren't worth a first round or so It's like, okay, well, he's not just gonna throw darts at the end of the day tomorrow because he's tired and bringing three seventh round picks. I think he's gonna try to put something together and move up. Yeah, that's I would think there's at least one other guy out there he's got They have their eyes on. Oh, for sure, we've named a lot.

Hopefully Quacy is listening to this podcast, which I know exactly like call these draft picks getting his purple vest, Taylor. They're adding sleeves to the vests zip to the tie ratio was elite than the Browns color tie. Right. That is very talking, like you share a building with the guy. Yeah, you would think I shared a room with him too. There are different wings of the castle. Yeah. Well, look, the Vikings have five draft picks tomorrow. That's what we

do know. One thing we don't know is what they'll do with them. But that's what makes this thing fun. So Vikings fans, we'll see you guys tomorrow night. For Ron Johnson, Pete Versus, Tatum Everett, Producer Jay Nelson. My name is Gabe Henderson. Thank you guys for either staying up late or waking up early with us on the Minnesota Vikings Podcast