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I mean there's players that do it with their mouth, they talk a lot, but then there's guys that do it on the field, and I think the nails that do it on the field. Guy like, they're going to see his work ethic, They're going to see all the things he.
Does pre practice, pre warm up. You know, he's big into the body like he has a body guy.
If you want to call him there he hit a nail on the head, Thul.
I mean Brian and Neils always said, you know, going against Neil Hunter has made me a better professional.
All right, Welcome to the Minnesota Vikings Podcast Training Competition. My name is Gabe Henderson. We are outside the Twin Cities Orthopedics Performance Center recording this podcast and I'm alongside Tatum Everett, Jay Notson, and our friend Ron Johnson. Eric Davidson, who I guess is going by DJE, is the producer. Tatum said he looks like a DJ with this setup today, which is different from our normal setup inside the TCO Radio studio, but so excited to watch walkthroughs right now.
The offensive linemen are coming out, the kickers and punters are out here, and it has been a very very interesting week so far. As we record this on a Tuesday, Monday was the first day of paddick practice, and right before practice started, the Vikings officially reached a one year deal with the Neil Hunter for seventeen million, which can be up to twenty million with incentives. And yesterday at practice,
you felt Danil's just presence. He didn't practice at all in team drills, but just his presence alone, his physical stature. I know. Caraacy Tatum talked to Quaycy and he said, and Caracy basically said, Danil got bigger this offseason because he wasn't training or rehabbing an injury. So Ron just looking at Danil's presence having him back this year, what does that mean for this defense?
I mean, have you ever watched the Avengers would Outthoor like That's that's what I feel like when I see Danail Hunter like Thor was on yesterday, and uh, you know they're for those who have seen the first one of the first Avengers Thor movies. He gets the hammer taken away from him, and then he has to earn it back. You know, he feels like he's not Thor, and then all of a sudden, lightning strikes. He looks super cut up and it's just Thor. And that's what
daneil Hunter reminds me of. Like daneil Hunter without the money, without the uniform, not being around here is kind of like Thor without the hammer.
They give him that.
Twenty million dollars. Like you see, I mean, he posted the picture of himself. I feel like the NFL is gonna drug test them, Like I don't saw that picture. It looked like he had just got done. Yeah, it looks like he just got done lifting weights, like you know, he had to looks like I mean, I remember, I'm old enough to remember Ultimate Warrior and he used to wear those armbands to make.
His veins pop out.
Daniel does that without armbands and so yeah, I mean, when you see a guy that size, if you're a defense and I always talk about guys that what my dad used to say, this, Let's send the biggest guy off the bus first to intimidate the other team. Sure, Daniel Hunter's that guy, like I would send him and Christian saw off the bus first because those are two big, imposing guys. But also I love watching Sauce Gardner Verus
gear Wilson in training camp. Right now with the Jets, I feel like Daneil Hunter, Marcus Davenport are gonna make sure you the better, same way Z did with Daniel, and then they're gonna make Christian dare So I'm Brian O'Neil better because they're gonna go against him every day, and so I think it's all encompassing of a team of like, here's our best pass rusher, and if I'm a cornerback, I feel comfortable knowing like that quarterback probably when he has three seconds, and I think that's what
Daniel Hunter brings his team.
Yeah, while Brian O'Neill did not practice, it's not practicing right now. He did post a picture on his Instagram welcoming Daniel back, basically with the picture of them doing a one on one last year at training camp. So Tatum, just understanding Denot's presence, how did they feel seeing him out here?
I mean, you hit it right on the nail on the head, Thum.
I mean Brian O'Neil's always said, you know, going against Daniel Hunter has made me a better professional.
So he just adds he elevates it. It's a young defense.
They got very very young after this free agency period, in the new signing and the draft, and so I think having a veteran presence in there is super is super helpful. I love that Qracy mentioned the rehabbing thing, but then he said, you know, we just went the baddest dudes on the schoolyard, and he's a bad dude, and the defense can walk a little taller knowing that
Daniel Hunters on their team this time around. I mean, I'm a little interested to see or if I could be a fly on the wall in the conversations of Danil and Marcus Davenport, because they're both very soft spoken, very introspective. They are not the biggest personalities. And so you know, you had Zadarius last year, which was quite the opposite. So now at these two, it's kind of like you've got these like like zen Masters assassins.
There you go, yeah, yeah, I mean Zadarius and Daniel accounted for twenty and a half sacks last year and they only had thirty eight total as a team, So like that one two punch was incredibly important last year, and hopefully, you know, Hunter and and Davenport are going to be able to kind of pick up where that left off. I just know that towards the back end of the season, the pass rush just wasn't there, and
so needing that to return to form. Hoping that Flores with his scheme coming up here and adding a guy like him now formally into that lineup, I think that's going to be a big, big deal. So they need as much pass rush as rush as they can, and a guy like Daniel Hunter is somebody that you can definitely form that cornerstone from given his track given his track record the last six years.
Yeah, the track record speaks for itself. Over seventy sacks, the first player NFO history to fifty well, the youngest player in NFL history to fifty sacks. And we understand what he does when he's off the field, But ron for this locker room that has so many young guys, young cornerbacks, young linebackers. What is a guy Daniel who doesn't talk much. What does that provide this locker room that needs that veteran leadership.
Yeah, I mean there's.
Players that do it with their mouth, they talk a lot, but then there's guys that do it field And I think Daniel's a do it on the field guy. Like, they're gonna see his work ethic, They're gonna see all the things he does.
Pre practice, pre warm up.
You know, he's big into the body, like he has a body guy, if you want to call him that, that he does all these weird like karate type workouts and all these weird like acrobatic aerobic type workouts. And then think about Patrick Mahomes, Like we got to see Patrick Mahomes on Netflix doing this type of crap where you put your body in weird positions and say, now throw a ball. So Daniel does the same thing. Put your body into a position, now try to get past
the passers. Now try to swim me. Because what happens in the game is a lot of players don't realize you're in weird predicaments. And we see Daniel Hunter get solo to the ground, dip that shoulder.
He's able to do it.
But then you'll see him warming up with the coaches with the hand pads with rubber bands and all kinds of things, and so I think for the younger players you see that too. Daniel Hunter is a guy that's gonna put his body first, rest, stand out standing away from being out late at night. I think that's another key. The younger a team, the more they end up in
a club. I'll never forget what the coach when Reggie Wayne got married and Howard Mudd, the offensive line coach, when we are joking about it, because I was like, you know, Reggie was one of my guys, and I was like, hey, Reggie, he's gonna be, you know whatever, a couple of minutes late because he said he had to drop his wife off.
And Howard Mud was like, what, Reggie got married? He was like, the streets of Indianapolis are safer.
And I think that's where that comes into this play of like having veteran guys that you don't ever see, like Daniel Hunter's never been in the media for being out late. He's never been in the media for a duy, and I think that's another big part of this team is having veterans that can explain that to these younger guys, like, look, if you want this twenty million dollars, if you want this seventy two million dollars.
This is how you get it.
And I think that's huge for a group of young guys coming in because you really don't know. For me coming as a rookie, you know, I had Ray Lewis. We had Pete Bowaer who.
Was an older guy.
We had Mike McCrary, We had the Dailius Thomas and so those guys we had, even.
Matt Stover as a punter or a kicker. He would tell us stuff.
And so I think that's the thing is having those older guys to explain to a team because when you go like teams say, oh there's the youngest team in NFL, look at all the drama that happens. Like look at the Cleveland Browns right now. They've had two fights and they've had to run like they're in high school. So that's the things you're not going to see, hopefully with a veteran group.
You know.
The thing with Hunter two is he just turns twenty nine in October, so like he should still have another fun five six years in this league at this point, and he's playing on a contract here. You know, he's got the idea that he's going to be advocating for himself on the field for what's going to happen for his future contract next year, given the way that the terms were worked out here with this deal with the Viking.
So it just feels like with Hunter, he's going to have to be the guy who his play is going to dictate what happens for Brian Flores on this because he's going to get the double teams. He's going to be the guy that's gonna be the focal point at least at that point of attack on the line. And I just feel like he absolutely knows that that's the case,
and so he's going to have to embrace that. And I think for a guy like Jim, you're talking the Mahomes thing and just putting him in a weird positions and weird situations for a guy like him who's so good off the snap and with his lean, you know, those kind of pieces are the things that kind of make him his bread and butter, and so the strength is going to be able to get him a little separation,
and that's the kind of thing. If he can still be as explosive as he has been over the last few seasons, I think you know he's going to be back to what four Pro Bowls out of the last five years kind of a situation for him. And so I'm just looking at daneil Hunter as kind of the focal point really on this defense. To really be the guy, you have to build her own.
Yeah, I think it's also note like I think it's part of this like acclimation process for him too, because like sure he was rehabbing the last few years, but he needs to understand this defense and get into the swing of things for a while. So I don't even know if we see that until the season starts. See what Brian Forest can do, because you can watch it practice all you want, but I don't think he's going
to be that up to speed with everything. Well by next preseason game, we may see him a couple couple of series and then not so much.
I'd say Kevin O'Connell last didn't really play any of the top guys. So I mean a guy like Daniel Hunter, you're right, like he like Brian floores Like talking to coach Chris Rump, he said, this is a brand new canvas and they're painting what the defenses looked like. So you're right, like, I think it's gonna be absolute chaos, and Daniel's gonna have to understand the calls and what does this mean?
And where do I go here?
It's a three four, he's technically a four to three d N. So yeah, so I think danil because I mean, honestly, you you think a little bit about the team, but you're also like, look, I might be traded, Like how much am I going how much time I'm gonna waste?
You know, until I know you guys really want me?
And you know who knows what Because Vin O'Connell said conversations we then have a conversation with with Daniel Hunter. So yeah, but I think this is gonna be the key for him. How fast and him and Marcus Davenport get on the same page because you're right, him and z right away we're taking pictures together. They were meet me at the quarterback two point oh. They had the celebration dance the.
Season right that we never saw again. I never saw the dance in the game, even though they did have twenty and a half sacks.
Yeah, true.
One thing I was really interested though too. Flores had kind of somebody had asked the question about him dropping back in past coverage and just kind of saying like, yeah, we're going to be a little more selective kind of and how that goes. And I think for a guy like him, Flores's whole thing was saying, we're just wanting to turn him up field right and let him create havoc.
So that's the whole thing is if everything could be sound behind him in that linebacker position and even in the back in the secondary, a guy like Danil, if he can get back to form of just being that demon to you know, take off on the ball, I think that's going to be a huge deal for them.
Oh that would be so great. And you look at just the guys that have been getting reps behind Denil since he hasn't been here the first week, DJ Wantam Patrick Jones says, like all both of those guys have really got some valuable reps. And I believe that's only going to make Daniel better this year because he knows he has guys behind him that are coming to rust
the quarterback. Speaking of a quarterback position, Kirk Cousins, it was recently announced that he was ranked forty second overall in the NFL Top one hundred and if you aren't aware of the NFL Top one hundred. This is a pier list. Well, I guess NFL piers players in the NFL vote and basically send it into the league and basically say, okay, these are my top one hundred players. The NFL kind of averages that out and then releases the list a couple of months later. So forty second overall.
Last year, Kirk was ninety nine. So when we first were seeing the NFL Network Top one hundred list, Kirk was the second person they got announced, and everybody's like, whoa, whoa, whoa, wait, Kirk finally has this respect ron Yeah, I mean Kirk Cousins.
When you look at the even the execs list that came out with the top quarterbacks Tier one, Tier two, Tier three, so on and so forth. By the way, Jalen hurts erroneous on all accounts, he should never be in tier two. But still the different conversation, you got the
social media quarterback in Justin Herbert and tier one. So when you think about those quarterbacks of the twelve, and Kirk Cousins is technically in that top twelve with Dak Prescott and all those guys in that list, Jared Goffer is below him.
He deserves to be up.
There because if you put Kirk Cousins in the nineties or the eighties, where are you putting Dak Prescott, Where are you putting Justin Herbert, Where are you putting Justin Fields? I think that's the key is Kirk Cousins, in my opinion, has outplayed those guys. He deserves that respect. Now it's Justin Jefferson made him better because some people are saying that like, oh, it's easy when you could throw it up. True, Justin Jefferson has helped him. But at the same time,
Kirk Cousins sells to make those reds. He sells to take those hits and seals to make those throws. And I loved how he talked about that on Netflix of like I've had to take hits, stare down a bullet, down a barrow, and just throw the ball knowing I'm gonna get crushed like in the Bills game, and throw blind passes. I think Kirk Cousins now people are understanding
he is good. Guys like Santana Moss came on My show and talked about that that he said he loved Kirk when he's in Washington, he said, this whole primetime thing is not a Kirk, It's a whole team thing.
And I think more and more players are going to start to come.
To bat for Kirk cousins simply for the fact of you know, his wife and him are they know they're da dad mom swag like they're they're at Costco shopping for clothes.
You know, shit, they're exactly millionaire.
Oh, Costco has some good deals when you're looking at if you look at for Gopher gear, Vikan's gear, go to Costco.
Like, guess some good deals for kids for sure?
Sound like a true dad adult t shirts.
Oh yeah, yeah, if we can find some some Vikings gear Gopher's gear at Costco, why not? But yeah, the Cole's cash and saning. Kurt has a nice new plaid shirt. But I think forty second is right where he should be. I think that's a nice.
Number for him.
Uh.
In order to get in that because people are like, what's that top twenty five, you've got to win multiple playoff games, like you've got to win the wild card, you gotta win the divisional, and you got to win the championship, like you've got to win to be considered like Patrick Mahomes without the wins, is just another quarterback that makes great throws.
That's where Josh Allen is.
He's a great quarterback, but he's not winning. He's not beating Patrick Mose, he's not beating Joe Burrow. Joe Burrow's going to be up there because of that. Justin Jefferson is going to probably be number two or three. You know, Kirk Cousins has to win, and I think that's the next step. It's not just him though, the defense has
to hell. But like NFL Networks say it with you with Bucky Brooks, Hey, the Vicers going to score thirty forty points a game, and I think that's gonna be enough to help Brian Flores out, which might be true.
No doubt about that.
I mean that that's we said it on the show, I think yesterday where it was like the defense, We've stayed on this podcast with them. The defense doesn't have to get that much better for this team to win. This offense can score points and score fast. I think this is a great leap for Kirk. I mean that's I wonder if he where he ranks in the biggest leap from last year's Top one hundred rankings to this year's hop was thinking the same thing.
Then I saw like Pats or Tam wasn't ranked last year anyway.
Well, then there goes that.
Like rankings. I get. I get that question because this is like, sure, how high is someone jumped that was ranking?
Yeah, I mean, that's that's an incredible jump right there, And like, I mean, I can't echo what Ron said more just the fact that his credibility goes up. And you know, part of me thinks that's why at least one reason he would want to like take a peek behind the curtain. Why Kirk would want people to see what goes into this because not that it matters to him that he has this credibility or that he gets
the masses to like him. I don't think he's worried about that, but I do think he probably wants people to understand what all goes into this job. And like he also knew that if he signed on to do this with a production company that's owned by Peyton Manning, another former quarterback whose process was I bet was very similar, then he knows he can trust them.
So I think this was all a really good move by him.
You know, all Not all publicity is good publicity, but when it's great publicity, you can only imagine that maybe this gives them a little bit of juice. I don't know, it might be kind of silly to overthink that, but in this offseason.
I mean, he jumped ahead of Dak Prescott at fifty six, Aaron Rodgers was fifty one.
Aaron Rodgers draft forty eight spots, which we.
Should talking about made the biggest seriously.
But one of the things that people have been speculating, given who they believe is still left on this list, is that Kirk's going to be like around the sixth quarterback on the list total, and that's behind her Mahomes, Hurts, Alan Burrow, and Lawrence. So for him to be in that kind of sixth position kind of requisite from last year, the six quarterback that was left with Matt Stafford. He came off a Super Bowl win at number twenty eight.
So you know, a guy like Kirk, I think is definitely starting to get more of the flowers, especially given the season he had last year. I think it's undeniable. When you have a guy like JJ going off on a historic pace, there's a guy that's got to get him in the ball and so to me, it just feels like it's finally at the point where people are saying, like, listen,
this guy is putting up numbers every year. He's very consistent, and he tends to be pretty steady at you, and so you know, a guy like Kirk definitely has to start getting his accolades.
That kind of brings me to my next question, because the Athletic just recently put out a list basically ranking the top ten quarterbacks, and the people who voted for these I guess this list were GMS, NFL executives and insiders, and none of those people had Kirk cousins in the top ten. So would you much rather be ranked higher by the executives and general managers and people inside the building or your actual locker room?
I think they'll all say locker room.
Yeah, I mean, at the end of the day, that's that.
That's what I would feel.
Mean sure, like the execs GMS is ever making the decisions. The insiders I would really not care about.
Got it, got it?
I just want it right.
I agree with you. Their media Jay made a good point early and I won't take it away from it.
It's Okay, Now, my gut reaction is you want the respect of the locker rooms so that it's your peers and everything. At the same point, you also want the respect of the front office because that's going to get you paid paid exactly right. But but for me, it would definitely I think in the end, you know, if you're somebody that's established and you're you're trying to be a top ten quarterback, you're probably getting top ten quarterback money.
So for you, it's it's definitely going to turn into the uh the kind of the accolades of your peers.
Conversely, would you say that if you have the respect of your of the locker room, it could get you further along with an EZECH or GM maybe who's on the fence with you.
Potentially just depends on your leadership.
But if the front office does it likes you and you're putting your teammates, don't that seems like a worse situation.
Yeah.
I think from our front office standpoint too, they're always going to go to the captains or other leaders on the team too. So I think it's it is you do want your locker room to love you and like you, and I think GM's also listen to the noise, because I'm pretty sure they hear these players too. So when you can start to like earn the respect of all these players and all these other guys and all these teams around the league, I think you're starting to change
the narrative of who you can be. And I think that's what Kirk Cousin's doing now. He's changing that narrative. And now again also it comes down now as wins. You can change every narrative, you can do everything you want, but you gotta win. And I think that's the key for this team. Thirteen and four is going to be tough to repeat. But then what does it look like If they're eleven and six is a competitive If they're twelve and five is a competitive they're ten and seven and they win the North?
Is it competitive?
You know?
Like you don't want to get.
Blown out every loss and then win every like last year, you know, And that's what you can't have blowout losses and then ridiculous wins. You got to be consistent where it's like, man, we're winning by two touchdowns or we're writing these games, but we're not having to come down to the last kick. Or the last player JJ on fourth down against the Bills, Like, you can't live like that. You're gonna eventually, Like people say, it's like a three pointer. You live by the three, you die by the three.
The Warriors lived by it for years and then Lebron three won.
Them and they died by it.
So it just they won two cents though they did. They did.
But but yeah, no, I think I think winning like that is like the three point in the NBA. It's not sustainable long term. You have to find ways to put your foot on the other team's throat. And I think that's where and we'll talk about these guys later, but I think that's where some of these defensive guys can help with that.
It's a success oriented business. And you start not only winning in the regular season and everyone goes a, but you lost in the playoffs. Now it's the next thing is going to be. You got to have success in the playoffs in order for people to get to that next respect level for him and to be able to the guy that's gonna put up those numbers. Think about guy like Matt Stafford. Everyone always looked at him, said, well, he's playing for the Lions. He doesn't have the support
and stuff like that. But then he goes to a Super Bowl winning team that's just absolutely loaded, and everyone's like stick him, you know, they suck him at twenty eighth on the list last year and now last year they just got absolutely decimated because a ton of their veterans and everybody left the team. And now everyone's kind of like, well, it's Matt Staff for the guy really with the rams, Like, yeah, he won a ring, but
it's what have you done for me lately? So for me, it just turns into, you know, for Kirk, he's gonna have to not only have a successful season, but then get a you know run in the playoffs in order for people to really feel like he's turned that corner in order to be the veteran that people respect.
Yeah, as we look at Kirk Cousins on the field right now, he is talking to Garrett Bradbury and they're doing walkthroughs right now. Defenses on the far field, offenses on the field closest to us, and you just look at some of these offensive linemen and defensive lineman, just the non skill guys. Ron will you when you look at will you understand now that pads are on all those conversations of the dB basically saying, you know, lockdown it lockdown, or you know, I put the handcuffs on them.
It doesn't really mean anything because there's an actual pass rush. So when you look at some of these intermediate positions, offensive line, defensive line, linebackers, tight ends, who are some guys that need to make that next step?
Well easier for me was gonna be TJ.
Howkinson, But I think everybody knows he's a star. I think Marcus Davenport has to make a leap. He has to be impactful.
One.
When you pick the number zero, you're all the eyes are on you. Now you're agent zero. You're zero dark ninety nine, like your zero whatever you want to call your ground zero like you have to be able to be And I loved watching some of the intricacies. I'm not gonna say some of the stuff I've seen because fans in the world.
Doesn't need to see it.
But there's gonna be some cool things that Brian Flores is gonna do with Agent zero that I feel like if it works. And there's the thing about the coach, It's like spaghetti. You throw it against the refrigerators, even sticks. If it sticks, it's ready to go. If it falls to the ground, put that thing back in the water.
Let's try something else. So when you think about Marcus Davenport, how they can use him moving around within this defense, being on the same side as Daniel Hunter, because Danil Hunter hasn't been here, so they haven't even been able to do that stuff yet. I think it's gonna be cool to see where he goes because he's a guy that's been hurt.
He's a guy that got drafted with.
High expectations and then injuries kind of set them back. It only takes one or two good years of health and being healthy like Zadarius, where you can actually show the world like I still got it. And I think Marcus Davenport one will benefit from Daniel Hunter because all eyes are going to be on him, speaking of Tupac and Cooper Cup, all eyes are gonna be on Daniel Hunter.
But when you look at.
Where Marcus Davenport fits, he's a guy where a lot of teams aren't scared of him, so he can early come in and get one on one. He can get some matchups versus fullbacks and tight ends where you have to. If you can't beat the tight end as an outside linebacker rush linebacker, you're not gonna last in this league long tackles Monoy Mono.
Yeah, tag in.
Tight ends aren't typically guys that are great in past rush. And I think Mark his dad board is going to benefit from the fact that Daniel Hunter is going to have a lot of protection go his way.
No, I like that a lot.
I think that a lot of these non skill guys that we may talk about right now are trying to They're in their second contract, so they're trying to earn their potential back like they had a lot of promise and now they're really just trying to elongate their career to make it go a bit further.
And I think that with Dalvin Tomlinson leaving.
It's literally and figuratively a large hole there in the line that is left open. And for me, it's Dean Lowry that I'm still trying to allow the pads aren I really want to see his physicality and and his
versatility out there. It's someone that you know, I think we brought on pretty early in the free agency process as a to literally plug the hole there, because I don't think that you know, he's not going to be like, you can't replace someone like Dalvin Tomlinson because he's just so gifted at his position and get some nice stalwart play right there.
I think Tomlinson left the team with like eighteen the team with eighteen last year.
So if you can get a little bit that production out of Lowry, I think that could be my guide to watch up there in the front.
Where As Harrison.
Phillips likes to call it where the doggy hydrant is that they just get peed on the whole time.
Yeah, for me, it's it's basically the guy's completely opposite across from a Lowry on that one I one thing that's been bugging me all year, and it was something that even last year was a storyline at the end of the year, was that interior offensive line play. But you know, between Bradbury, Cleveland and Ingram and so you know, there's rumor swirling about possible people coming in to visit,
et cetera, et cetera. But once you get pads on, that's where you're gonna find out, you know, what's really going to happen. Because Darisaw we all feel like we know what he is at this point, O'Neill's coming off an injury and you assume that he's going to get back to his his.
Pro Bowl form.
But those three guys in the middle, there's been a lot of question marks just in general on you know, are these the guys that we need in order to be able to make sure there's not that that rush right up the middle, because that's an absolute killer for a quarterback trying to be able to sit in a
comfortable pocket. Kirk had to do a lot of moving last year, and I'm hoping that whatever's happening there within the interior offensive line, they can show that up to give him more time, because we've all seen it.
You give him time and he's going to be deadly.
So I just want to see what's gonna happen between those three guys, and if those guys get a lot more stout this year, I think not only in pass pro, but even on the running game, Madison's gonna need, you know, some lanes to run through. So for those three guys, it's just super keen for me to see what they do this year.
All three good points offensive line. You gotta have that to keep kirkup. Got to have a pass rush tatam you gotta have a good a good person in the middle that can stop to run. I'm gonna go linebacker, and I'm gonna go Jordan Hicks simply because if you look it towards the end of the year, he was the one that was getting subbed out for Brian Asamoa.
Eric.
It was Eric Kendricks and Brian Asamoa the last couple of games of the year, like when they had that Joker package. If you know if the joker package is. Brian Asamoa talked about it in our most recent interview and chopping it up the other week, and what did Jordan Higgs work on this offseason? Like? Is it speed? Is it strength? Is it? Like I'm excited to see it? Can't He comes here with a new juice, a new energy. He understands what's on the line. He took a pay
cut to be with the team again this offseason. So what does that look like having the green dot being the guy that's gonna call the place for this defense. Like I'm excited. I'm just looking at him now and he has his hat on backwards. He has this new young energy that you can tell is affecting the defense in a positive way, but we don't know.
Yeah, he's the old guy in the room now with a bunch of young guys that are coming up. And we always just kind of looked at Eric Kendricks as that leader in that room. And now Jordan Hicks is that guy. He's got to be the man in that room. And yeah, there's a lot of young guys and looking at you know, awesome all and pace and some of these other guys that are going to be trying to
figure it all out. I just feel like a guy like Hicks really has to step up here because he's the veteran leader in that room.
Now, all right, next topic, now that we're talking about players, see the guys out here FOREL like everybody's looking at walk through, which was the ultimate goal of today to actually get outside watch walk through. See these guys in their mental element instead of their physical element. And the
mental aspect is a huge part of the game. So when you look at guys that have stood out thus far, I know there's as we record this, there's only been one day of padded practice, but Tatum, when you look at some of the guys that have stood out, who Who's Who's a player that really comes to mind for me?
It's Lewis Scene Okay.
I just feel like he has a newfound purpose and energy, and I know that his season didn't go the way it wanted to last year. And I think that his last press conference that he did, I.
Think yesterday after the first padded practice, just.
Gave me a little bit more tell into why it's kind of clicking for him. He said, this is very similar to what he's been doing in college. It's under that same Patriots umbrella, the Bill Belichick, Nick Saban, Kirby Smith styles.
He feels like he has a lot.
More free eat them, and you know, context clues will kind of give it away, like how did how the way that he spoke about this, He just feels like he's being himself out there. He's aggressive. He literally had this one play. I still can't get it out of my head. I think, like, what are they? It's like one of those things will keep you up at night.
He just like like it was like a missile just like coming through in front of I think it was Jalen Riger and it almost looked like he's supermandove and just like snatched the ball out of the way, and it was just like a really impressive hustle play.
And I think.
With this defense in particular and what they're gonna ask if these guys, I think he's.
Gonna really shine.
And he's just popped off for me, the new attitude, the I'm really sick and tired of y'all asking me how my leg is and I'm gonna let you watch me play on the field and then you'll know how my leg is right, So that's kind of I don't know. He's been really I've been really impressed with him this camp.
I've been impressed with seeing Ron Johnson out here, Like this is the most I've seen Ron at this early part of training camp and my four ears being an employee here. So Ryan, you've seen almost a handful of practices. Now, So who are some guys that stand up? Yeah?
You know, like this year was different.
You know, normally you don't have to come to every practice because you know most of the guys.
And this is a year for me that there's so many new faces.
But here's a repeat face that I feel like is gonna have kind of a breakout year. He's even said he wants to be I think the best cam buying them. And the reason I say is about Cam buying them is he's being actd to do a lot of stuff.
I know. One of the.
Practices he was as a far hash safety. So far hash means that the ball's on the right hash. He's on the left hash safety. Harrison Smith's on the near hash as they call it. At the snap he ran and became the robber. I guess you want to call it. In the flat Harrison Smith ran back there basically a simple cover three, but to get to it was so spectacular, and he read Kirk Cousin's eyes and so instead of just going right to the flat, he ran to where the ball was going. He almost picked it off, he
knocked it out the air. But when you see him move at that speed, I can tell he's not thinking anymore. I can tell he's playing with instinct. Even watching walk through, just watching the numerous places he's lined up over the last seven plays shows that he's one of the guys.
And this is the thing I always remember about Ed Reid and Will Demps when we played for the Ravens.
Ed Reid as a young guy, Brian Billick and Rex Ryan trusted every to say, look, we're gonna give you a lot of different looks. I remember Troy pop Molo was similar, We're gonna give you a lot of different looks. That needs a lot of different stuff. Harrison Smith has to be like Hawkeye from Avengers. You got to sip in that nest in the back with the bow and arrow, and you're just taking taking shots when you need to.
Cam bying them has to be able to move within this defense and be very smart because if he's telling him line up and cover four, but you're gonna show a cover two, he's got to understand how to get that look. And now cam buying him as a cornerback from college knowing he can cover in space.
I really think he stood out like I like the way he plays.
I like the speed in which he's playing, which shows that he's understanding understanding Brian Floyd's defense. Because Kirk Cousins and Justin Jeffson both said this, I heard him both their pressers. What's been different, Well, we don't have to learn a new offense. Well, I think cam bying them is learning a new defense. But you don't feel that
pressure from them. They're like, look, we're learning a new defense, but we're happy to learn this one because the one last year wasn't great for us as a team because it didn't fit what we do well. And now I feel like Brian Flores is literally taking each player, watching what they do well, say here's the defense I'm going to put together. And I think that's why you know, cam buying them so far to me has been he's been running and flying around the field.
That's great, you know for me.
I also it's a guy who literally and figuratively has been standing out walking out here as a guy in Josh Oliver. He's a guy for me that I'm really curious to see because We've had a lot of talk this offseason since the signing. People are like, he doesn't have a ton of stats, you know last year, only had what fourteen receptions last season, But the idea with him, they were saying, you know, he's one of the best past pass pro and even running tight ends in the league.
And so with that being the case, you know you've already he started to see some people commenting on some of the run plays and seeing him stand some of those defensive ends and linebackers up on those practice plays, and so a guy like Josh Oliver, I really want to see what he's gonna do for this offense and if it just makes this offense even more versatile given what happened last season. So for me, it's Josh Oliver oh Man, that.
Would be so so beneficial to this team. If Josh Oliver has a great year, I'm gonna go with Jowan Williams, just not really understanding his story until about two weeks ago. I believe he's prime for another, well not even for another, but before a big year. He's been injury prone the
past couple of years. Finally got his first start in the NFL last year in year three with the New England Patriots, and then made the most of it, got injured, got injured, reserve and it never you know, essentially worked out for him. But there's like a new, new, redefined purpose in his I guess the way he approaches the game. I mean, we already know he's he has the physical abilities. He's sixty two sixty three, looks like a linebacker out there.
He's like Harrison Smith's size basically playing cornerback. So I'm excited to see what he can do. Uh, not really knowing too much about him. I think a lot of defenses or offenses, excuse me, offenses are going to take him for granted because it's just like, oh, this is a former second rounder who's been hurt, never really got
the opportunity, and let's check fade to his side. So I think he's going to play with a chip on his shoulder, and I think that's going to make this defense, not only this defense, but this entire team a lot better as we close, as we close out training camp, is is there anything else you guys want to see? As pads continued to come on, we started to get into preseason games and we probably won't see the starters until week one at Homing it's the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Yeah.
For me, I want to see Jordan Adison impress, like I want to see one on ones. I want to see him in press because everybody keep talking about this weight you one hundred and seventy pounds, hundred and seventy five pounds, forgetting that DeVonta Adams was won sixty six and I got a chance to you know, neck with you know, Keenan McCardell and just listening to how he talks about Jordan Addison's size, and I think that's the key, is like Jordan Adisen's size is not a problem. Why
because he's been that size his whole life. You know, if it's one thing, if he was like two hundred pounds all of a sudden lost weight or something, or he was one seventy eight, he gain thirty pounds, or how do you play. He's been this skinny, long fast kid his whole life, so he knows how to take hits, he knows how to absorb blows, he knows how to get skinny if he's you know, dealing with the double
team and all this kind of stuff. So I want to see him impress and not so much against his own teammates because we know they're gonna compete, but they're not gonna give you like I hate you slapping the face, punch to the chest. I want to see him with these joint practices, like Jordan Assen in pads, joint practice one on one. I'm all eyes, like I'm sitting right next to wherever the one on ones are, and I want to see how jordanasen because if you notice, you
have to figure out who goes in the slot. If I'm a coach, I'm putting kJ Osborn or Justin Jefferson because I know they've been there before and I know I can dictate coverage by putting Jefferson in a slot. You can't double a slot guy like you can double an outside guy. So I want to see what Jordanas is going to do because I feel like if you put kJ Osbourne and just Jefferson on the left, jordan As on the right, he's manned up. And if I'm manning up a guy with that speed, I probably want to.
I don't want to give him too much space. I want to get in this. I want to make him uncomfortable. So it's going to be that, like can he deal with a guy like Jalen Ramsey, You know, a guy with physical presence that's going to hit you in the chest, like I mean, Xavier Rose is old. But you're gonna deal with the Buccaneers defensive backfield. They are scary, they are nasty, and they will hit you. And so that's
what I want to see in this joint practices. How does he handle bigger, stronger cornerbacks than want to jam him up?
For me, it is the backup quarterback situation. I want to see Jaron Hall and Nick Mullins because a lot of people have been speculating saying that we're only going to keep two quarterbacks on this roster initially. But if Jaron Hall does enough, especially in preseason, to warrant him not being able to pass through on waivers or something like that, like he's got to make the decision very difficult for the quarterback coaches and the head coach himself.
So I'm going to be very curious to see just how both those guys produced here in the preseason.
Well and don't you think that?
And I was talking after I was talking about this with the other day, it's if you're serious about the quarterback position, like the future of the quarterback position, Like you need to make the decision of Charon Hall's your guy and how much you want to invest in this?
Yeah, you know.
I mean if you if you believe you are a team that can win the division again, you're not going to have a super low draft pick or a super high.
Draft pick next season.
Do you have enough draft capital to move up if that's where you're going next? If Kirk's not gonna be your guy, the next year, and if Nick Mullens isn't the future, Yeah, the decision.
There is really tough if you only plan on keeping too.
So that's why they get paid the big bucks to make those kinds of decisions, and we don't have.
To we don't have to do that. But I think it's a really interesting situation.
And the thing is Kirk's been super durable, so you really haven't had to worry too much about the idea of, you know, who's coming in behind him in case he gets hurt. But you know, you still have the future playing for that kind of stuff too, And it's like which guy gives you the best option during the season if something like that were to happen, So they still got to try to figure out, you know, what strategy
they want to run with. But for me, that's why it's such a crucial battle here and training camp and and basically preseason with everything.
So those are my guys, I'd say for Jaron Hall, I like that point too. I think for Nick Mullins and Jaron Hall, it's going to be actual games. Nick Mullins is going to be a pocket passer. Jaron Hall is going to be a guy that can scramble a little bit, and I think he will be able to open some eyes like on that because Kevin O'Connell talks about this the off schedule. Patrick Mahomes talks about that the off schedule, Like we heard that all through Netflix,
the off schedule. Kirk Cousin said, I know I'm not a great off schedule guy. Well, if Jaron Hall comes in all of a sudden and he's like hitting the third progression read because he was able to make a guy miss and he's scrambling, and all of a sudden he makes a dot throw and then he comes back the next time, maybe runs for ten yards, gets back in the huddle, some type.
Of power where he's the actual runner.
People are gonna be like, oh, okay, this is something different that the Vikings have not had. And it's not to say he can't become that guy, because we know, like Russell Wilson was drafting the third round, you know, there's been some Dak Prescott was in the forefront. There's been some late round guys that have actually gotten into games and then open up a ton of eyes, So like, oh, this guy could be our future. And so I think for Jaron Hall, it's gonna be games in practice. He
hasn't had some great practices. But again, as a QB in this league, at this level, your head is swimming, you know, Anthony Richardson, Bryce Young, those guys are getting c J strout, They're getting the playbook fed to them, spoon fed. Hey, you need to know this. Jaron Hall is being thrown to the wolves. Yeah, get out there, here you go. I don't have a ton of time to spend. You got to pick up what I'm telling
Kirk Cousins. So it's a big difference when you're number one drafted and when you're drafted as a potential backup third quarterback.
Yeah, when you're the number one, they're kind of catering the playbook to what you can do well, and a guy like him, it's you know, get in here because we're feeding Kirk at this point, so you better get on the page what we want. The one thing I remember watching a couple BYU games with jarn Hall when it would get to those situations where he'd be scrambling, he'd be looking downfield, but you could kind of tell like he just prefers to tuck the rock and run.
So you know, Now I was really curious, Like I've been talking for the last how many years saying, if you look at some of the guys that have been coming out with your Russell Wilson's and Kyler Murray and some of those guys that were more baseball oriented, and they have that kind of Patrick Mahomes arm to him kind of a thing, like all of those guys have the ability to on the on the run make just
unorthodox throws. And so when Jaren Hall had the baseball background, he likes to run that kind of stuff, And like, how's that going to translate when he gets to the pros Because if he's stuttering at all when he's trying to make his progressions, he's going to miss his windows
to throw. But if he's somebody that can actually put it together all across the board that way and make those split decisions, and he's got the athleticism on his feet and he's got the ability to throw the ball accurately, Like that's a potential diamond in the rough that you took in the later chunk of the draft. So he's been one of my guys from the beginning when we
draft him, Like, if this guy pans out. This is a huge, huge get for this offense, especially in a position that we've been looking for, you know, future proof guys for a very long time.
Man, that would be great.
Yeah, it's the whole.
I mean, that's why you draft later quarterbacks just in case they're that the one guy that did.
The Tom Brady yes, and I mean Cracy, that's what he's known for. I mean, he's been in organizations where in San Francisco where you never draft a quarterback in the first round. You pretty much build a system around him and let the quarterback just be that final piece of the puzzle and just make sure he doesn't make any mistakes. So we know Kirk can do a little bit more than that. That's why a lot of teams
won them. And I'm glad that he's in purple. But still to have a guy in Jaron Hall and Nick Mullins behind you're starting quarterback and Kirk Cousins, I believe this offense will still be very, very good in twenty twenty three. Well, guys, appreciate you. Today was a lot of fun. Vikings fans. If you want to be out here with us one of these days during training camp, go to Vikings dot Com Slash training camp and secure your ticket for Have you figured out a DJ name yet?
Eric?
Oh, well, if you're ready for DJ, we got the Thursday night game or on Thursday, so you definitely want to get your tickets for that. They're still available two for one. Busy's Ron that was directed to you.
Like, Byron gets to the point, give me straight bourbon.
I don't think they're doing They should.
Talk about a sold out practice. Yeah. Well, appreciate you guys. This was fun. Vikings fans if you're listening, appreciate you tuning in. My name is Gabe Henderson and I wim and I am alongside j Note, Sentatum Everett, and Ron Johnson as well as Eric Davison aka DJ Easy. We'll talk to you guys next week.