You know, super Bowl has to be the number one thing that you think about when you come to work every day for sure, no doubt. And so to be around a big umbrella of those guys and learn from those guys, what better way to do that? You know? For me, performance is all encompassing. It's not just weight room, it's nutrition, it's all of it. And so for me, like I'm very excited about being able to work with
these guys. This is the Minnesota Vikings Podcast, Episode number one hundred and fifty five is the final one of this offseason before training camp. I'm your host, Tatum Everett. We've got producer Jay Nelson here today, but we also have Gabe Henderson here after a few weeks hiatus. How's it going? It's going, feel reston. I feel like a grown up about a house, figured out how to fix the garage, figured out how to break a TV, and then figured out how to make it back to work
in one piece. So everything is good. Wow, I think you strategically broke the TV so you could get a bigger one. Oh so you didn't actually fix it, you bought a bigger one. Yeah, that was a good guess on my end. I understand that mentality. Yeah, this one fell. No, we have to get the eighty four. Yeah, I know Julia, she's not Damn she knew. Oh she told me to get it. Oh there you go. See that's another story
for another day. But yeah, we basically figured out a way to put some stuff in the house in areas that she didn't get mad. So I've key to happiness. I've visited the house every night and I come to work every day she lives there. Yeah, no, I like that. I might have to start using that in my house. Hey like that. That's the thing for the two of you. You now have new dwellings that you get to kind of figure out whose room is, who's who gets to
you know, decorate and deal with everything else. And I know any females that are listening right now can totally relate to this one. I said, you can have a room to put all of your sports stuff, all of your you know, video game nerdy kind of things like keep it all collectibles, keep it all in one room. As long as I get the bigger closet, maybe another closet,
maybe an extra closet, and you know all that stuff. Man, that's I respect that from Josh, because like Julia knows, I get the bigger closet, but she gets everything goes like I have the most. I have been most closed. So funny anybody that she's ever met. So it's my closet, her house. I am still living out of a wardrobe box. We don't have enough things to hold the clothes. Yeah, I don't know. It's an older home. See, I'm on
the flip side. I've been in that house now for fifteen years, and I'm at the we need to purge. We got to get rid of a life. I mean, we really try to. But I think the biggest, the biggest thing I've noticed is so I've been here a year, right, Josh has been here about two and a half years. We have like eight pairs of snowshoes. We have an entire clothing rack of snow jackets in the basement, and literally the closet in the basement is probably now seventy
five percent winter clothes. We are those people. It's get into that time of year though. Don't tell me that I just put them all away. Please don't tell me that it's July. No, no, no, no, no, It's like out there camp starting camp is starting, the weather is going to start turning at least we're hoping for. Oh it's gonna be so hot at camp though, it really well, welcome to camp in Minnesota. You know that happens every year.
I enjoy that. I enjoyed like training camp, being out there and getting a sweat on, seeing the fans, seeing everything happen, Like I look forward to that. It really does kind of ring it all together because we've been waiting for this for so long. I feel like we have because you think, well, I guess maybe because it's just been talking season for so long and I'm really tired of talking season. Yeah. It's just like when training
camp comes, it's just like a whirlwind of stuff. So like I look forward to like the fourth of July, and then after the week of the fourth of July, it's just like can training camp coming like a month and set of two weeks. So like, now that we're in it, it's like it is what it is, no turning back. But like training camp, to your point, it is arguably the most fun time of the year. Everyone is back in business. We're all I mean, we got
fans back here. I mean, especially after two years ago and I having fans and having fans for the first time back last year, but I feel like we'll be closer to one hundred percent this year. Have that energy. There's been a lot of excavation around training camp this year, so having all of that put together into a two or three week period, I think that the level of excitement does go up when you think about it from
that perspective. Yeah, And the schedule is also located on vikings dot com backslash training Camp because sometimes even I have to go to that website to kind of figure out, Okay, what's this day, when's the night practice, what's the theme this day. It's a great tool to use and buy your tickets because Ascape said, there's gonna be so many opportunities to watch this team. It's an exciting time. Autographs return,
you know, that's a big draw. That's a huge deal, and I know that that's something that for years and years and years everyone always look forward to. In man Cato when he came here, we were doing autograph lines as well. Again, COVID changed everything for the last kind of couple of years, and they were trying to figure out what they were going to do in that realm. But that is one of the things that I also know, not only professionally, but personally. I would hear from people saying,
you are they doing autographs this year? It's a big deal, and it's something fun because it's that that one personal moment they might get with a player that might stick with them for the rest of their lives. And I think especially when you see kids in those lines and just kind of the smiles on their face looking for those autographs, it's a huge deal. So it's great to
see it coming back. And I know that they're they're working really hard to get people as much access as they can, and I think the autograph line is something that's going to be a huge, huge fun thing for people to be a part of it. I feel like this might be a stupid question, but the number one name out there that that fans are going to get signed things as JJ right, Yeah, Jay Nelson, Yeah took
the fact is I mean Justice has never done that before. Yeah, and so fans for the first time a training camp. Can you know anyone drafted from twenty twenty on, this is this is it? This is They haven't really interacted
with them necessarily like this in this capacity. Yeah, it's it's something that you know, they do a really good job in the planning stages of all this stuff, getting everything organized as much as possible and just trying to make sure that they have, you know, kind of the adequate amount of people and time and everything allotted for it. So if they're doing it in a similar fashion as previous years, that'll be something fun. And again, i mean a guy like that, where else do you typically get
access to him? You don't, And so for someone like him, I think it'll be fun for him, especially with the kids. I mean, there'll be so many eighteen jerseys. Yeah, yeah, sure, so it'll be it'll be fun to see that dynamic, you know when that happens, And I think there's just gonna be a lot of people that are gonna be really excited to be able to have that personal moment
with players this year. I think on top of that, I'm just thinking of guys like the Cam Dancelers of the world or the Patrick Peterson's of the world that just got here the last two years, and they're just like, dude, we get a chance to be our own fans. Also, I'm just thinking of Patrick Peterson in particular. Of course, we know the story of being Arizona and then last
year things of being weird. So I think a lot of people understand that he's going to be a future Hall of Famer and now he's on our team, so it's like, oh, we get a chance to see JJ, but we also get a chance to see a future Hall of Famer in Patrick Peterson that we've been watching for for years and years. So I think just from kids to twenty five or thirty year olds or grown men, and they're going to be excited to see grown women. Also, they're gonna be excited to see all these players that
are going to be here. So it's gonna be fun. Yeah, I think it's fun for the entire family. Well, we're gonna get to training Cam talk a little about that in just a second. But this episode does have a really cool guest that we're having. We're really kind of putting a bow and wrapping up our big series with coaching staff interviews of guys maybe that you haven't really heard too much from, especially since they're new to the staff. But our one today is actually another carryover from the
last couple of seasons. It is assistant director of Player Performance Derek Keys, and really there's rarely a guy who knows the players better than Derek. He's always working with them, working on their performance as far as like you know, if you listen to last week's podcast with Tyler Williams, it's their weight training, it's their overall health. And so I thought he was a really really interesting interview. Yeah.
I know he has the title of Assistant Director of Player Performance, but a lot of people don't understand that he's a he's a life coach. Also, these players really they were a magnet towards him because of the energy he brings. And I know he spends probably ninety percent of his time in the weight room, but the majority of his time is spent teaching these guys how to
be grown in and be humans at life. So I think you need that like you need that in factor when it comes to a coach, because a lot of these guys, with their millionaires they come in the world is in their hands. You have to have somebody there, especially in the way room, that balances those guys out. And we know players spend most of their time in the way room. Ninety percent of their time is spent
with the training staff and the weight training staff. The other ten percent or five percent spent on the field and other five percent spent in the meeting room. So it's always great talking to him, especially a guy like this with the resume. He was in Cleveland for I think eight years. I think he did some time in San Francisco. He has a long history of a track record of understanding how to connect the players and getting
the most out of them. So hopefully that will ultimately turn into a super Bowl or at least a deep playoff run for this Vikings team, and looking forward to talking to him. I think the thing about Keys is that if you really think about the personnelity these guys work with, Yeah, they do their off season work outside of here with their own trainers and those kind of people.
Keys and those guys are basically the people that make sure that the foundation is solid with these guys on a week to week basis throughout the season, let alone for the off season is setting their kind of their regiment of what they want them to be able to do.
But more than that, you know, given the discussion we had last week, you're trying to make sure that you triage as much injuries as you can, and the best way to do that is to prevent it on the front end, and that is where guys like Derek Keys and his group, that is what they're doing on a weekly basis, is not only trying to work out the kinks and make sure that they're staying healthy during the season, but they're also trying to make sure that they're preventing
as many injuries as possible by working on certain muscle groups and whether it's physically or even mentally, getting them in the right headspace week to week. So a guy like Derek Keys is doing more than just making sure guys lifting the weights that he needs to do. Yeah, and if you want to check out the interview with Tyler or Williams from last week, he came here from the Rams. It's a good listen to right before you
listen to this one as well. So I would definitely check that one out because I think they kind of go hand in hand, which is really kind of cool. But we'll get to that in just a second. The countdown is on. Though training camp is just days away, the players are wrapping up their final days off before camp. The rookies and quarterbacks report on Sunday, Meanwhile, Vets arrive on Tuesday, just ahead of the first training camp practice
on Wednesday. And obviously, as we talked about earlier, the first time fans can come out is Saturday for the Back Together Day. So this show, just like every other sports media outlet, has been talking season. We've already kind of you know, talked about that actually a little bit as well. Seven months, everything that's been going on in the storyline. Yes, Juno, Yes, the storylines have been just
dissected every which way. So I thought that maybe as we head into training camp, instead of talking about that, we'll talk about maybe our most overlooked or underrated training camp storyline. And so, Gabe, I'm going to pass the mic to you. What do you think's the most overlook storyline of camp. Oh, it's got to be our outside linebackers. Right, I'm just thinking about the Madden ratings. Everybody's talking about
the Madden ratings. This guy is doing this, or this guy has his number, the Neil Hunter nor Zadarius Smith. We're in the top ten Madden ratings when it came to defensive end slash outside linebackers. We're talking about one hundred and five sacks between these two guys that were drafted both in the twenty fifteen NFL Draft. So when you look at just those numbers a loan the Neil Hunter leads his draft class in sacks with sixty. Dadarius Smith it's fifth in that twenty fifteen draft class with
forty four and a half. I haven't even brought up dj Wanham, who has eleven sacks and has a budding career. And then you've got Patrick Jones Jenarius Robinson, we haven't seen him play. Just the depth and the talent alone at that position. Nobody's talking about it. And it's like, dude, yeah, we get it, Kurk and JJ and Dalvin and all these offense right, but like this outside linebacker group has has a chance to be the best outside linebacker group
in the NFL. Like, you got two all Pro outside linebackers literally sitting there, healthy, probably as healthy as they've ever been in their life, ready to go attack Aaron Rodgers on Week one. So that needs to be a topic of discussion closer to training camp, as we as we get closer to how this thing is going to work out for this Vikings team, and nobody's talking about it.
I feel like that's probably like a national offing, right, Like I feel like maybe here in Minnesota we're well aware of what's going on there, and so let it be a secret to everyone else at this point, and like rightfully so right because people are like, well, these guys haven't been healthy the past couple of years, but still, like dude, we got two like legit outside linebackers that a lot of opposing tackles are going to be scared of. Yeah,
we're well aware of the potential. That's the thing, Like we've seen, We've seen what they can do. Yeah, the question is that they know elephant the room is can they stay healthy? And I think that again goes back to whether it was Tyler last week or Keys this week, Like that is their job is to make sure that these two ridiculous specimens can stay on the field and absolutely recav it because if they can, it's going to
be a lot of fun to watch. Yeah. No, that was a good one, Gabe, Jay, can you what you're going to give us? I'm essentially taking that exact same line, but I'm going from the outside to the inside. So for me, it's kind of weird, you know, the stack he's getting thrown around. If the Vikings hadn't let up scores in the final two minutes of the half and the end of the game, they'd be fifteen and two
last year exactly. I think one of those areas, though, that is most intriguing to me, is the middle linebackers of this three or four defense and the change in the Donetel defense. You have Eric Kendricks, who we all know what he can do. There's a lot of excitement around Jordan Hicks as well coming in as assigning. Anthony Barr has gone at this point, then he's still out there as a free agent. But in that PFF ranked our inside linebackers as the number five group in the
entire league, behind the Niners, Cults, Saints, and Packers. So that's kind of a cool thing to look at and say, you have two proven veterans here that everyone knows, but then what's behind them. We have a bunch of people that have some to little experience, and so what were to happen if these guys got injured or we're out In some facet, you're looking at Troy Dye, Ryan Connolly, Blake Lynch Chess, are at William Kenweku and rookie Brian Assimoa.
Those are who are behind those two guys. So and for me in camp, I want to see which group of those people jump out, not only as kind of the fill in or at least the people that are going to spell We kind of look at Troy Dye or Blake Lynch, they and even chess are at they had some run last year, But who's going to be that player that's going to step up and solidify themselves as the third metal linebacker let alone which ones of these guys are going to make the team special teams
wise and be a contributor. So there's a lot of I think expectations on a guy like Brian Assimoa as a day. I mean a lot of people picked him as they're like stand out at rookie camp and mini camp. But besides that, you're right though, no one's really talking about it besides his potential there and that's just it as you're looking at the rookie, but you've got your Troy Die, Connolly, Lynch sir At who have equity, but
they weren't with this defensive coaching staff. So again I'm intrigued during camp to see what happens with this group if the outside guys you know, can jump up and do what they're supposed to do, and you want to watch that. I think that entire four of the three four defense is what I think a lot of people are gonna be watching to see what happens because we think we know what that starting group is, but who's
in the backup roles that are really going to jump out? Now, Jay, you met a good point equity like they have, so I wouldn't say mileage, but they have so much experience behind Eric Kendrickson and Jordan Hickson and speaking of that a guy and Brian Asamoa, that only forces him to get better. So even if he doesn't start, he's going to be learning from guys who've already seen it and from different defenses, from different offenses. So I think that
that only makes that group better. And if you have, you know, a solid interior defensive line those guys, it makes their job a lot easier. This linebacker, I mean, that's a really good point. This linebacker unit, with all that experience, you can only expect him to make another step. All those guys in their careers, especially like a Blake Lynch But that's the thing that you see with these guys is you have clear cut starters in Kendricks and Hicks.
The other guys have come in, they've all had potential. You know, they've in college they were the best of their group, but nobody has really jumped up to really take that mantle or when they're out there flash when they're playing that linebacker position. So that's the thing is who's going to take the next step? And if you know, maybe Brian Asamoa has that physical talent for him, it's going to be trying to catch up mentally to the
speed of the game. If he can take that next level jump, he's going to leap frog all of these guys that have this equity, which is, you know, something we're going to be excited about as fans. At the same point, if he's still kind of trying to figure it out, especially during camp, let alone the beginning of the season of his first NFL season, which one of those kind of veteran backups is going to be the one that really helps during camp, That's what I'm curious about. Yeah,
I'm bringing up those guys. It's kind of an interesting storyline because some of them are obviously used to coach them are some of them are used their college coaches, and now they have at Dontel who is very well known as being a teacher, and you're not in this industry for as long as he has. If you're not connecting with players adapting to their new generational learning styles, I guess you could say a fancy word for that,
but I think that's an exciting group for sure. I'm actually going to go to the other side of the ball for my over looked underrated training camp storyline because I do feel like the amount of questions and this whole entire team or they're obviously probably the most than we've ever seen in recent years, just because of the new coaching staff. But I think we all can agree we will see the Vikings pass the ball more. If you look at the Rams last season, they only ran
the ball forty percent of the time. But you've got a guy like Dalvin Cook now, And so I'm going to go to the running back room because I think more than anything, I'm interested to see what will this coaching staff do with the run game. After you know, the expectation for this team is for it to really kind of be the bell Cow the last three four seasons. So my question, what's the running game look like. Dalvin Cook obviously the starter, You've got Alexander Madison back there.
But I think for me, the other two names that are interesting that are kind of hanging out there are Canai Wongwu and Ty Chandler. And you know, two recent draft picks. You gotta think they have a fighting chance on the roster. And plus Canay led the league in kick return touchdowns last season, so he's really carved a space out in special teams. So I'm I'm ready to see what they do with him. But what is Alexander Madison going to do this season? I mean, it's a
contract year for this guy. Dalvin Cook obviously has had health issues, so it's always good to have something in the cupboard just in case he does get injured. But when you see all these names, I mean, it's the potential as there. I mean, you want to see it. I mean Ti Chandler was great in college. Mean, he's
a very versatile player. He can catch the ball in the backfield, he's got speed, he has special team talent, so I mean, you know, he was a volunteer for Way longer just saying what have you done for me lately? But he's from Nashville actually, so I appreciate that. But but yeah, I think for me that's pretty much what's most overlooked because we talk so much about Kirk and this wide receiver room and oh it's the offensive line,
like who's at right guard blah blah blah. But I'm like, this running back room is an interesting mix of guys because then you also got t J. Hamm. What are they going to do with a fullback? It's a running back battle for sure this year. Like for that number two spot, like that, that is an Alexander Madison spot. As much as I love the guy, like you got kna wangu here for a reason, you dropt a running back in the fifth round for a reason, he has
to show up and show out. And I feel like special teams is going to be away for him to show up and show out. Usually in this Zimmer led team, the backup running back has never had to play special teams outside of kickoff return. So who's going to se to five place on the special teams unit. If that's Alexander Madison, he has a better chance of being the backup. Ifs Cane, he has a better chance of being the backup. And I think this offense is built around the quarterback.
Now if around Kirks or there's going to be more pressure on Kirk. So honestly, I think that ultimately helps Tyler and Derek Keys because we won't see Dalvin having thirty carries a game and running ISOs up the middle and being one on one with a linebacker. He's going to be out in space where when he catches the ball he can either get hit or he can run out of bound. So that backup running back position it's
up for grabs right now. So this is an underrated running back room because Curtis mockins he's got a really good problem to have. He's got a position battle, and that's what you want as a position coach and or a head coach. So you look at that and say, all right, Dalvin, you're the guy who's going to step up for me. It's the question of the Vikings have been a smash mouth running back team for basically my entire life. Chance Oh, it feels like it every morning
when I wake up last year, like twenty years. But that's the thing. As the Vikings have been known as the kind of this smash mouth running back team, and so now the attitude of shifting it towards the new age NFL style of quarterback play and getting people out in space. If that's what we're going to do like they did with the Rams, it's exciting for a lot
of people. But if you think about when Alexander Madison was drafted, you had Delvin who was kind of your shifty back, and Alexander was seen as kind of this more bruising guy who could be the short yardage guy and possibly hurtle a guy in space if he gets a chance. I think now if you look at of the rest of them, Delvin is tough and he will get those kind of yards, but he's not seen as the guy who's going to be able to take that kind of punishment. Typically. You know, he's gotten hurt over
the last few years. He's had those kind of issues. Alexander's had to step in. But if you look at the guys behind him, like you said, between ty Chandler and Knee, those guys tend to be more shifty guys that you would think that they're not going to be potentially having to smash through and get three yards on a third and two situation. What does this offense look like? Is it going to be the thing of getting everyone
out in space? And if it is, then Alexander's kind of a little bit stylistically, a little bit of an odd man out in the typical frame of everybody else is more of your shifty in space guy. But do you need that juxtaposition when you have shortyarded situations like you mentioned exactly. So that's the question with these guys, and especially with Alexander, with it being a contract year
for him. We've always we've tended to have these dynamic running back kind of abilities where you have one guy who's a smash mouth and one guy who's been the shifty. Delvin is so good you don't want to not have him on the field. So he's in the debate of would you rather have Adrian his prime or Delvin. A lot of people put point at Delvin because he's more versatile, you can catch out of the backfield, he can do
what he does, can block exactly. So with all of these different elements, that is why this is intriguing as a camp piece, is because Alexander's in the last year of his deal. What's his future going to be not only with us or potentially elsewhere if he doesn't resign with us, Because what is his role in this offense? So if we do you switch it to more of a shifty, twitchy offense, you know, Alexander's either got to fit in that mold or you know, the everybody else
is going to get more playing time. So yeah, that's a it's a huge thing to pay attention to here in camp. Also, they have all cute kids in that that room. Alex As a new dad, Cane as a new dad, motivation, Larry CJ's Hams, got his little unit. Yep, there you go like that. I just I'm looking at Vikings dot Com. I didn't know Dalvin was only twenty six, Like he's in his prime right now. Like I don't whoa that? Yeah, that's crazy. I mean, I mean if
we all we all felt we all felt that. But I'm just looking at But when you think of like a longevity of like a running backs career, like what you get more than three years, you're good. You hit twenty nine and you're seen as kind of a rat, a huge you know, aging vat at that point, which is crazy. That's why I'm so excited about Dalvin this year, right, because like this should be his best year of football,
Like he's in his best year. If you look at the lungs, every ever running back, when you know if they had a ten to twelve year career, year six or year seven is when they have like their peak years. So I think Vikings fans should be excited about that. And that is another point of this room is very overlooked because you have a running back that is in his prime and then you have some young guys behind him that are budding in their career starting to trend upwards.
And they got a running back of top five running back in the NFL to learn from. So exciting times. Well, one guy who knows all those guys and works extremely close with all of them is Assistant director of Player Performance, Derek Keys, and he is our MVP guest this week,
all right now joining the Minnesota Vikings podcast. A really good friend of the show, really good friend of mine, really good friend of this Minnesota Vikings team, mister Derek Keys, who just got a promotion to Assistant director of Player Performance. Welcome to the show, my man. He appreciate you. Appreciate you, thanks for having me. So first things first, you got this promotion, what what does that consist of? Because you've been here the past few years, I've seen you in
the weight room. We know there's there's more than just a strength and conditioning coach. But now with this new title and this new uh add of responsibility, what does that look like enhancing this team. I am very very excited for the promotion, UM, you know, and I'm very excited that this organization trusted me that I deserve the promotion. UM. As we speak, I'm in school full time, so I graduate next month and I finish up my classes right now. So I had to visit this process of going back
to get my master's last year. API, No, thank you, I appreciate it. So the NFL like changed the rule. UM. I want to say, like a year or two ago with the new CBA that you had to have a master's degree in order to become a head guy in your field. And you know, I was kind of bummed out about it in the beginning. But you know, at the same time, I'm not against education. I'm not against learning more. I'm always you know, super excited about learning new things. I'm a nerd at the end of the day,
I might not look might not look like it. Yeah, yeah, I'm like I'm a super nerd. And you know I love football. Yeah I love football, but outside of football, like you know, I'm into history and the body and everything, and so very excited about the opportunity to grow with the team once again. Very excited that Tyler, Kevin O'Connell, I work with Mike Petton in Cleveland, Quacy, all those guys trusting me to do a job for this organization,
that they know that I have value. That's right. You are a familiar face to these players, and so now you're heading your sixth season. You said, you know you weren't frustrated by the news about needing your masters, But what have you noticed about You're obviously at the doorsteps of graduating. What have you noticed about getting that degree that's maybe changed the way that you approach your job or you see the difference that it can make moving forward.
For me, I've always been like a big picture thinker, like I see everything with the big picture and then the game of football and I work back from it. So what are the demands of the sport. How do I work back from it when it comes to getting a guy ready to play football? So our goal is to get the guys to the race every week, every week. And so I'm a big picture thinker. I start there, and so for me to go through that process going back to the basics and fundamentals, a lot of times
people don't realize how important that is. It's like, yeah, I went through school, you know, ten, eleven, twelve years ago. I know what I'm doing. You know I've coached, you know, I've had all this experience, like I'm good man, I'm fine. But in reality, you know, the thing that you don't work on every year is the basics and the fundamentals, and when you get away from it, you're doing yourself a disservice. And so for me to go back through that process of just like going through it again, you
learn something new every time. It's been a crazy year for me because at the same time when I started school, my wife got pregnant, and so crazy year, full time, you know, thirty six hours one year. You know, baby on the way. So I'm managing baby, you know, the season and the entire thing, and all I could focus on was like, Okay, how can I add value? How can I help my team? You know, how can I
help these players? And? Um, for me, you know, I learned a lot more about leadership or different ways to approach it, because I think that's very important these days. Um, you know, in this game and in the changing environment, changing culture, the way football's changes. Um, I think leadership is very important. And a lot of people they say, hey, well, if you got talent and then you can coach, then you should be able to do you know, certain things.
And my personal opinion is that I think leadership matters just as much as talent does because you can learn skills as a coach. You can learn skill as a coach, But it's it's tough to manage people. It's tough to manage personalities, and it's tough to be the type of person who's going to come in every day with this mindset of like, Okay, how can I think about everyone else and not myself? You know, how how can I how can I get my staff better? How can I
get the players better? Um? You know, how can I cheer up? There's one person who I know is struggling with something very personal. Um, I'm a I'm the type of coach that you know, if you talk to any one of my players or probably anybody in the building that know me on this side, like I'm I'm a straightforward person. You know. Sometimes people like think that I'm unapproachable because I have a straight face all the time. In reality, I have a crazy sense of humor. And
my goal is start. Yeah, no, I do, And my goal is start always be a good teammate because I play football my entire life, and so in order for me to be successful at what I do is like, how can I be a good teammate to you? You know, I'm steal in the process of dealing with football, So I still can be a good teammate while I'm in the building, while I'm in the organization, And so that's how I approach the daily aspect of work. We're gonna talk football a little bit more. But how much has
being a dad helped with being a leader? Being a dad has helped me tremendously because you know, people always say, oh, you know, having a child changes you, and it's like, yeah, you know, I get it. I know, you know, bills and all these things, man, but yeah, no, sleep and all the stresses that come with it, but in reality to like really see that you were a part of a process where you're responsible for a human being that you made, Like it's so weird, Like, man, like this
child is a part of me. This is my DNA. This is so weird to see this thing and at the same time be so motivated and driven like I have to protect my little girl. I gotta protect I'm I'm a daddy, I'm a I'm a girl dad, and I love being a girl dad. Because I was very nervous about it because you know, I've been a part of football in my entire life. I was like, having a son's gonna be easy for me, bringing in the weight room. Life is good what my dad did with me,
But having a girl made me very nervous. It made me shake to my core because it was like, man, I do not want to miss this up. Like I do not want to mess this up. I want to be the right type of person where you know, she knows what it's like for a person to to love a woman, to love her mom, to love her and and treat her right way, and so um for her giving me that motivation every day when I go in and I deal with my players. I'm more patient, I'm
more considerate. Um, I have more empathy. Yeah. Yeah, it's those little things on the other side of you that come out of you that you didn't know that you had. And so I could say that my sensitive side came out a little bit more. So. You just posted a video on Instagram of basically you working the players off this off working the players out this offseason, and Tristian Jackson, receiver for the Vikings here commented and basically said motivator
and influencer. How much of motivating and influencing goes into being director Assistant director of Player Health and Performance for the Vikings. I mean, I think you know, at the end of the day, like this is what we have to do because we're asking guys to come in and train, and no one likes working out. In reality, no one likes to put themselves under stress. No one likes to come in and sweat and feel tired. No one likes
to do that. And so for me, it's my job to convince guys that, to say, hey, you know this is gonna help you throughout your career. This is this is where you plant the seeds you know every day investing in your body to become a great player on the field. And so for me, my approach, like I say, is I build with the guys one on one. I want to know about you. I want to know where you're from. I want to know how many brothers and sisters you have. I want to know about your experience
with football, How did you get into it? What's your favorite sport outside of it. I'm the type of person who likes to create dialogue and have subjective information so that I can deal with someone too, to grow with them. You come in here as being, like I've mentioned earlier, a familiar face for these guys, but there are a lot of faces around here that are brand new to them, new to you, and obviously, as you mentioned, really have accepted you and have put a lot of face and
trust in you. How has getting to know this new sports science performance and kind of and watching all of the I mean to be fair, watching all of the titles change and kind of figure out this new way that things are being run around here. Um, To be completely honest with you, I am super excited about this, this entire process and what we are part of right now. And like I said, I want to give so much detail, but I can't. I can't give you all of it
good anything. You can't give secrets secrets, but I can tell you this. I interview with the Rams two years ago for the head job, and so I met Tyler one on one for about an hour. And when we met, we hit it off instantly because I was I came in and I just started rattling off the m familiar with it, some familiar with Adham. For me with this, I worked with this part. He pulls up this big
screen and it's a player. Anything that you can think of from that type of information on a player and basically, like you would see an ESPN game, you would see a guy up and you'd have all his measurements. Basically, that's what he pulled up to me. And I was like, wow, like this is insane, and he's like, this is our approach. When I saw the light bubb went off for me.
And when I heard that he was coming here and had a chance to contact them when he first got here and he just said, hey, you know, he was straight up and honest with me, and that's what I respect about him. And he's a man of his word. And that's what I respect about a lot of these guys that are here right now, is that, Hey, I got a plan for you. I'm going to show you the plan. So he pulls me in the offer, shows me his plan that he has for me personally and
my development of my growth as a coach. And you know, like I said, once again, made me super excited because because I know we're ten years ahead of the NFL in my personal opinion, I've been in the NFL going on ten eleven years. I can tell you guys this. I've been NFL going on ten eleven years. I've worked for seven hit strength coaches in this business, I've worked for three different organizations, won a lot of games, lost
a lot of games. And the approach to the way we approach sports performance and dealing with managing player, managing load, it's ten years ahead of everyone. And I can honestly say that, hands down. If anybody want to debate me about it, we can do it. Man, do that, do that offer. But I don't think they will win that debating, be honest with you, because just just understanding what this new regime brings to this this organization and how that's
going to affect on the playing field. You look at that and say, Okay, I know your your your office is in the weight room. You you focus a lot on strength and condition I know that's not that I feel like I'm disrespecting you by saying strength and conditioning. Yeah. Yeah, and you know like it's not disrespectful. Like I've been around in my entire life, everyone has different names for It's like high performance in the conditioning, you know, performance enhancement.
There's so many different names and how people approach it. And to be honest with you, some of those names are completely different. Like some of those names are completely different with guy's approach to how they do things. So why would you describe it? You know, for me, performance is all encompassing. It's not just weight room. It's returned to play, it's managing player load, it's the sports science,
it's nutrition, it's all of it. And so, like I say, from Tyler's aspect, you know, what he's doing for me is that he's teaching me. And I appreciate that because if someone's willing to sit down and show you everything, then man, you you really have to really respect him because a lot of people in this business they won't do that. And so for me, like, I'm very excited
about being able to work with these guys. Have you had well, I know you had to because I don't want to ask any names, but I'll bring up Harrison Smith because I asked you about him the other day and I was like, how we're some of these guys in the weight room. How do you you know, let those guys work, but like save them from themselves because you I mean you were saying, like Harrison Smith and you're what, he's in double digit years, you still have
to save him from himself. Yeah, So Harry is a very unique guy um with his approach to the weight room and he likes to train on his own outside of the building when he goes back to Tennessee. He spends a lot of time in Tennessee and he has a trainer that he's been working with since high school. And you know, he has that comfort with with him because his trainer always challenges him to do, you know,
things that are not traditional. And so when he comes in, it's like, all right, Harry, like you know, let's put that down. You know, you know he's but he's very It's crazy what he can do because he's so acrobatic man like people you know, they think, oh, because of his age, Harry is free. He's sharp, bro. People. If people think that this guy lost a step, you're you're
sleeping right now. He is. He is very special because he's a true professional in the way that he takes care of his body, in the way that he approaches the game when it comes to film, and all those things. I can give you a story. I remember one day we got back late um from a game and like maybe three four o'clock in the morning, and he came in the following day and I was like, oh, what you know, what did you do? Did you get a chance to get to sleep? He was like, no, I
call on massage. Therapis over and she gave me hi massige for like two three hours and then out with to sleep. And I was like, wait, what, Like, you got a massage soon as you got home after we got off the planet. That's next level. A lot of guys won't do that, and he felt like he needed it. And so you know, he's that type of person that's gonna really be in tune with his body and know how to take care of him. And let's just be clear.
It's not like a massage that like is going to feel great at that point, Like that's like something that's nice, like yeah, this is Hey, I'm here to relax, you know. This is like deep tissue. Let me get the sowred and inside after you play a game side Yeah, absolutely, yeah, thank you. Yeah. I just wanted to make that clear because I think that might be a common misconception because that's why this is that that story significant. These guys
can deal with pain. Man, they're paying talance is insane. It's a car wrect every week. Rookies come in. They don't really know their body like that. So what is the balance of a veteran guy he knows his body in year eight, year nine, year ten, versus a rookie guy that's working out with this rhetoran guy that's still trying to figure out where he belongs on this team
as far as like getting his strength up. Yeah, I think from a lot of rookies when they come in, they feel the need to prove themselves, and so they can be over zealous and times they want to come in and lift the weight room their first day and it's like, hey, we're not going to approach it like this, we need to play football. We're not We're not here to win the World Wrestling you know, Federation Championship of Weightlifting. We're not doing that. We want you to play football.
And so some of these guys can get over zealous, but they're not too bad because I can tell you what colleges are doing right now, because they're getting a little bit more hip to sports science. I think they do a great job of like introducing things to players, and so by the time they get here to us and you know, it's time for us to measure it's great compliance. In the past, guys would be totally against it. Six seven years ago. Oh no, man, you know I'm
not putting that GPS on you. You know you're trying to do this to me, and in reality, we're trying to protect you and save you and prolong your career. And so with the rookies, the only difference is having a strategic plan of how do you go about your weekly process. I think that's the difference. Like professionals, I do this some mondays, I do this on Tuesdays. I do this on Wednesdays, like every week weekend. They have
everything mapped out these guys are very detailed. What year do players figure it out, like figure their bodies out. It's different for everyone. It's different for everyone, And my personal opinion is like always like week three for I mean not year three for for a lot of guys. Like year three. Some guys kind of have their their their system in place to say, Hey, you know, I like to do this type of training. I like to go to this trainer. Um, you know, I want to
get a massage on this day. I want to do polities on this day. Um you know, I want to do recovery on this day. And that's where you know, having Tyler and the rest of the performance staff and I'm going to shout all these guys out in a minute.
Having the rest of the performance staff, we get them, We give them a sustainability plan of how to go about doing things, and I think, you know, that's where we come in and teach these guys during OTAs or having the guys in the building for involuntary workouts than going into mandatory mini camp. Is there been one person that really sticks out is really embracing this new mindset or at least benefited maybe the most from this new staff coming in kind of injecting this newer way of things. Um,
I think it's going to be the veteran guys. You know, the guys have been here for a long time. You know, in the past, Um, you know, things were done a little bit more traditional, and a lot of guys in the NFL they're they're kind of a different They're kind of against the traditional way because they feel like that it wasn't saving them in their career. They feel like they were getting hurt in the offseason and they wanted to play for the season. They wanted to be ready
and prepared. And for us, our approach to the way we do things as far as you know, training, practice, the entire part of performance. You know, the older guys are always gonna, I think, in my personal opinion, gonna embrace it more. For sure. It's it's good to have that attitude change from the top down. Two, as far as veterans and rookie's not really knowing and just buying in, because the veterans are buying in right and right. And I'll tell you this about our veterans. Our veterans still
work like they work really really hard. You know, a lot of our veterans are over zealous guys sometimes too where you gotta like stop them from going too heavy, you know, too fast. Like I remember the first day, the first week, we came in and we were doing like an upper body lift and I got guys, you know, they're going above three fifteen and we're doing like sets of six, and I'm like, hey, hey, man, hey, hey, let's ease into this process. I don't know where you
guys come from. You guys haven't been with me for two months. That's one thing in the past that I dealt with with some teams is that some veteran guys don't feel like they don't they don't need to work anymore. And that's where you when you get complacent, is where
you're probably gonna fire your self out. I love Kobe Bryant, I love Jordan and those guys and their mindset and their approach to where they train and the way they go about things to win a championship is in my personal opinion that the best I've been around is the best I've seen in sports as far as like doing research and guys and when it comes to mindset and getting ready to be an athlete, do you send these players home with a workout plan or do you let
them kind of figure it out based off of their bodies with their trainers first and foremost. You know, there are guys, this is our team, and so we send them home with detailed instruction on what you should do from here to when you get back to training camp.
And so Josh put Josh Hainks the director. He put together a great plan and he sat down with me Marquis Dan, our sports scientists, and we went over the plan of like, Okay, how are we going to approach the summer training What do we need to do leading back up to a training camp? Like I always say, look at the big picture of work back from the demands of the game. What do we need to do to get ready for training camp? And so we sat down, came up with a strategic detail plan, went over the
entire plan with the entire performance team. And that's something I haven't done in the past, where you know, hey Tyler, we need to talk about this, Hey you're Ryan, we need to talk about this anybody. That's a part of the process where we have guys who are injured here right now, Like we are very structured in the way and very organized in a way that we do things that our days are mapped out, our weeks are mapped out, that they have a detail plan going into training camp.
I mean, I'm pretty sure that everyone listening now can just see how passionate you are about this and just the excitement that honestly, like you're you have exuded excitement about this whole system, which which for fans should also make them really excited to see the results in the field and hopefully, you know, a turnaround to what has been happening in recent years as far as the number of injuries. Yeah, and yielding more wins. Yeah, that's always
the goal, and that's what you're the business of her. Sure, not just winning winning, like but winning a championship. Yeah, you know a lot I think a lot of people like that's a misconception where it's like, all, yeah, I just I just want to compete, I just want to win it. Though I want to win a championship. I'm here to win a Super Bowl. Like when I go to work every day, I'm thinking about trying to win
a Super Bowl. That's why I was so excited for Tyler to come, because he just wanted a Super Bowl. Just won a super Bowl, Um, Josh, our director, he won a super Bowl in Philly. A lot of our coaches have won super Bowls. They know what it takes, and so to be around a big umbrella of those guys and learn from those guys, It's like, what better way to do that? You know? Super Bowl has to be the number one thing that you think about when you come to work every day for first, no doubt,
no doubt. Well, thank you so much for taking time out of data be on the middle of the podcasting you assistant director of Player performs. No, this has been great. Anytime you want to come talk about it, talk all day like you know. That's why guys let me in the weight room too. You know I'll talk their head off, you know, depending on how field I got enough caffeine at me, so, oh caffine or not, you're gonna be talking.
I know that. Yeah. Not appreciate you for sure. Now you have a great sense of humor, straight faced, a great sense of humor. I'm a funny guy. Big thank you to Derek Keys for taking the time to speak with us. Just as you said, Gay, I like the analogy used earlier. Just a life coach for these guys, but also just looking out for the good MS people and his players, and that's that's what counts in this
building for sure. I think that's I mean, that's obviously why you keep someone like that on despite a coaching chef. You need that in every department, whether that's v in or marketing or activation and on the football side. And I feel like Keys is a staple for this Minnesota Vikings football team and it's only going to continue to be shown as this Viking seam continues to elevate throughout the season. I just think it tends to show reputation
has helped him. You know, he's earned his reputation here. He's been able to survive and go through those different changes, and I think a lot of times the voice of the player is somebody that they also kind of survey just to see, you know, how you're feeling about, who do you like working with, who do you think is really helping you. And the fact that he survived this long through these changes, I think speaks volumes for his reputation at this point. So it's great to have him
still in the building. He brings that former player mindset, stand out running back himself at Louisiana Lafayette shout out raging Cajuns, but it is really nice to see him in the building for him to take the time to talk to us. We hope that you've enjoyed getting to know our coaches and staff a little bit better throughout this summer. But guys, I mean, the players get here Sunday, so it is go time. This will be our last
podcast with no players in the building. So excited to see what we have in store for you guys as training camp kicks off. So just to make sure, make sure that you are ready to go, be sure to subscribe to this podcast. You can download the Vikings app if you don't already have it, subscribe to our YouTube channel,
bookmark Vikings dot com. Whatever you need to do to keep up to date on everything Minnesota Vikings is we kick off the twenty twenty two training camp, which I feel like I should just say kicks off really the twenty twenty two season. I'm excited, guys, I mean, this is what we've all been waiting for. One day closer Hall of Fame games coming for the league. Where yeah, forty nine days out from the official kickoff to the NFL season. Yeah, it's definitely no time. One more full
week without football for the rest of the year. I'm excited about all right. Well, thank you so much for listening to the Minnesota Vikings Podcast. Be sure to head over to vikings dot com Slash Training Camp to get your tickets. Gabe, Jay and I hope to see you guys out there. At All begins next week Back together Saturday on July thirtieth,