Minnesota Vikings defense providing lessons for JJ McCarthy

Minnesota Vikings defense providing lessons for JJ McCarthy

Purple Daily is daily Vikings entertainment. Do you just want the Vikings to win a Super Bowl before we die? I will ride with this group. Seriously, man. Please. And away we go. You guys will be very excited to know here that our guy, loyal listener Brady Lorac, whose father was a longtime legendary Dallas Cowboys PA announcer, the Lorac family of voice over professional and artist. He has sent in a Jud’s Campotes intro here. Would you would you mind if I fired? Yeah. See what this Okay, of course. And I will right after we go to Quick Trip. Let’s go to Quick Trip first. Yeah, no question about it. Because Quick Trip should always be your first place to stop. Why? Well, I mean, if you’re watching this right now, just look at at the options. And not only are there great options, but also don’t forget to gear up for Quick Trips Mountain Dew Quimb now through August the 17th. Play each day for free in the Quick Rewards app and score bonus plays with every eligible item that you grab. We’re talking about Pepsi, Mountain Dew, Gatorade, Propel, Sparkling Bubbler, Starbucks, Pure Leaf, and Rockstar. Grab one of those with hot food and earn two bonus plays. Every week, someone’s cashing in. To what tune? Well, each week that prize is climbing by $5,000. And the one player who reaches the top $250,000 cash. Are you kidding me? Open your Quick Rewards app and get climbing for a chance to win with Quicktrip and Mountain Dew. No purchase necessary. See full rules at quicktrip.com/swepstakes. Purple Daily presents Jud’s Camp Notes. Here’s your host, Chud Zul. Oh, wow. That is old school. I like that. That is That is really old school. This is your featured presentation. Yes. Please silence football league. Sounds like a movie. Silence your cell phones. Please. No talking. Oh, that’s awesome. Uh, so we all got our bucket of popcorn here. We’re ready for the feature presentation. Jud’s camp. No, it was a sweltering day. It was the first full padded practice at Vikings camp yesterday. Jud even assigned me some homework. So, I will I will sprinkle in the findings from my homework throughout this, but let’s fire it up here. Jud’s camp notes. Jud’s camp notes. All right, kids. Okay, calm down. Calm down, children. You got to calm down so I can talk about what transpired at TCO Performance Center on Monday. It was a glorious day for some sweaty football practice, which is what coaches love. football and um if there was to be a headline on each of my camp notes, which thankfully there’s not, but if there was to be a contrived headline, there actually is. This one this one would be JJ got florist, not flossed, florist. Phil was there, too. So, we we’ll both um go back and forth on this one, but here’s the situation for the end of the of the practice, which again, full pads featured a lot of different situational 11 on 11 work. Late game situation. So, this is where the fur is flying, boys. 115 left. Offense down 13- 10. One timeout, ball spotted on the offense is 35. So 115 left. Long way to go. Uh but there’s certainly time to be able to move the football. And just for because I think I don’t know if every fan certainly not everyone has been to training camp. That is a madeup scenario. Just so people know like it wasn’t it wasn’t like they were keeping score throughout an hour of practice and it was only 13 to 10. It they literally just make up a scenario that they want to see happen in the last like 10 minutes of practice. So that was that was the madeup scenario. Exactly. Right. And it’s one v one. This is where this is where we get it. One v one. So it’s Brian Flores’s best against Kevin Oonnell’s best led by young JJ McCarthy. Let’s just go through it and then let’s talk about the the results and where this sort of puts you from both an offensive and defensive perspective. So, at the 35, JJ and shotgun and here comes Flores. And keep in mind, Brian Flores pulls no punches. And I don’t know if Okonnell I don’t think he loves this, but I also don’t think he stops it from happening because he is the head coach. So, this is with um with intense pressure. JJ McCarthy takes a now he can’t be hit. Okay, so this is all to like Phil’s point, hypothetical again, but he gets figuratively sacked, which means he gets wrapped up. The ball didn’t come out of his not going to the ground. Correct. And and and in the real world, he would have been sacked. A loss of eight yards. Oh my. So now the ball’s at the offense’s 27 yd line. We have JJ McCarthy again, heavy pressure. So Flores is bringing it. So like for all of you who are like, “Well, he’s done blitzing. The blessing is done. No, it’s dialed. It is dialed up to 10. Yeah. And the and the def and like Grenard’s coming. Like we are talking about heavy heavy pressure here. JJ gets the ball off. Not a great pass, but it’s caught by TJ Hawinson, but there’s a flag on the play. The defense was so geared up to pin their ears back. They had jumped offside. So, we have there are officials. This is not uh they’re not yet and they’ll come in for a couple of practices. the NFL officials who I think will be here probably for the joint practices, but they’re like local officials who come out and throw some flags and basically try and keep uh try and keep you as honest as possible. They’re not dictating as like sometimes they’ll throw a flag and and no one will acknowledge it and they’ll just like pick it back up. Correct. And they threw the flag here. The Vikings got the play off. Uh but it ends up being a an because I think the completion was probably like three yards. They take the penalty. Um, so now we’re now we’re at the 32 yd line. Shotgun again. JJ McCarthy. All right, let’s go here. Here comes the pressure. Here comes the snap. Here comes the pressure. Uh JJ tries to get a pass off to Jordan Mason, who we’ve talked about is going to be I think now he’s going to be part of the passing game. But anyway, um because of the pressure, it’s not a good pass. In Mason’s defense, he had no chance in my opinion at this ball. So, so this is just a poorly thrown ball. Uh, that is an incompletion. So, now the final play of the period for the one v1s. 48 seconds on the clock. McCarthy again in shotgun and he is sacked again. And that is it. That was it. It was pure Brian Flores domination. And depending on sort of how you view the Viking season or these practices, first of all, it was it was one drive, you know, it was they’ll they’ll do more of these. I what one thing on this and then I’ll give you an anecdote, too, but I thought cuz usually they give the offense and the the defense a second crack at it. I feel like in those end of practice two-minute drills, okay, it’ll be one one offense versus one defense. Whatever happens happens, and then the twos come out and then they rerack the ones for a second time, maybe the twos get back out there, but sometimes they’ll just put the ones back out there. And I kind of thought based on the way that that first drive went offensively and Kevin Oonnell being an offensive coach and wanting to see his young quarterback develop that he might just add another drive to the agenda and say let’s let’s see that again just for fun. I we can’t end practice on that note offense, right? He didn’t. And I kind of love that. I don’t know if it was just, hey, this is the schedule we had today and we’re sticking to it, or if he consciously thought, I’m going to make my offense and my young quarterback have to stew and sleep on that for a night for 24 hours until Tuesday’s practice. That’s very possible. And as far as the pressure goes too, so Will Fry, for the first time since practice started, returned to some team drills. I think he took part in like two or three periods. Just to be clear, in this case, Blake Brle was at right guard, Justin Skull was at left tackle. Yeah. And so we are talking about a situation where you were without two of your of who will be eventually once Darasaw comes back, your starting offensive lineman. So all of this is important to say you cannot pin this completely on the quarterback. There were other things at work here. There were mis blocks. Uh but yeah, this is I I would say this. If you’re Okonnell, this provides some great film. This provides some great teaching film. And this is where the Flores thing is a double-edged sword. The bad the bad thing is they’re seeing looks from Flores that they probably will not see all season long. And so it’s not like what they’re going to see. So it doesn’t help them as far as that goes. But the good thing is it also provides you with looks from a defense that is run with more intricacies than most and they’re not pulling punches. So I think the good outweighs the bad as far as what you are putting on film and what from an offensive standpoint you can definitely and again as a whole this is not just all JJ McCarthy what you can learn from. Not to jump too far ahead in in Jud’s camp notes here, but I I felt like McCarthy it it wasn’t his best practice of the last week, but I thought there were some some good highlight moments. I don’t know that there was like a 60-yard bomb to Addison in there, but there was it the the bulk of practice wasn’t all bad for McCarthy. There was he he did get on the run, flushed out to his right at one point, which nice job kind of evading the pressure and he had a receiver flash open over the middle and he threw it just behind a receiver and he was very frustrated by that at one point like halfway through the the 111 team drills, but I didn’t think it was two hours of bad for the offense. Would is that fair? It was it was definitely like the offense was throwing some punches in the 11on1 team drills before the two-minute session. In fact, statistically, it was not all bad at all. JJ McCarthy on the day, uh, by the way, no seven on sevens done. So, all team stuff and it was an 11 period practice and we had actual team drills from periods 8 through 11. JJ McCarthy 8 for 10. Yeah. The pass of the day to me to to go to uh to your point, Phil, the pass of the day to me was early on in the team stuff uh a drill that was a first down at the offenses 41 yardd line and McCarthy threaded a pass very nicely uh to Lucky Jackson who is clearly getting way more opportunities because Justin Jefferson is out and he put it basically through Theo Jackson who originally I thought was going to pick the ball and I want your opinion This to me felt like far more of a layered pass and it didn’t feel like the throw had plenty of of bite to it, but it also felt like he took a little bit off to complete it as opposed to try to, as I’ve talked about, throw it through the defender. Yeah, it was. And there’s some there’s some fan video. I saw a couple different angles of it of that pass. It was very 50/50. It I thought it was a pick at first. Theo Jackson came in, he read it, he sprinted in, he jumped up, it became a 50/50 ball. Lucky Jackson makes the catch. And because Theo is sort of moving toward the sideline, it was a walk-in touchdown. Uh, but it very if if that pass is made 10 times, it’s probably an interception going back the other way five or six times. But there’s there’s going to be times this year where the right play is to throw the ball up 30 yards down the field to Jefferson or Addison and let them make a play on it. And in this case, it was Lucky Jackson that made a play on it and scored a big touchdown. Yeah. And let’s go back actually. I think it was the two was it the 2023 training camp? It might have been Kirk’s second camp here with with KO. And Okonnell specifically talked about, and this applies very much now, opportunity balls. And his point at the time was Kirk doesn’t necessarily throw balls that he should because he’s so afraid about being picked off. Which by the way, we don’t don’t want him throwing. This is not an endorsement of dumb passes, but it’s an endorsement of if you have a play that’s going to get us a big chunk of yards, you can’t just dismiss it. It feels like McCarthy is far more apt to throw opportunity balls. Will they get picked occasionally? Absolutely. Yes. Yeah. But this is But we complained for a long time about, well, that throw was sort of there and Kirk wouldn’t. So, so just keep in mind if you’re going to complain about McCarthy, we complained, it’s a little bit hypocritical because we complained about the exact opposite thing with Kirk, which is, dude, you are a veteran quarterback with a pretty good arm. Why are you not attempting that throw? And that’s where Okonnell, you know, talked about opportunity balls and the opportunity to make plays. It’s not an endorsement of dumb plays. It’s an endorsement of sometimes you have to take advantage. Yeah. And I think another way to phrase it would be like probability balls or I think one of the hardest things as a quarterback is trying to figure out on every type of throw like a checkdown is a very lowrisk throw. It’s not unless unless you fire a fast ball off target and the ball bounces off the running back’s hand and we’ve seen that before. Uh it it’s going to be a high completion a checkdown is going to be a high completion percentage throw, but a but a low upside. You’re not going to hit a home run dumping it to the tight end and the running back 20 times a game. So the further you go out and the tighter the windows, you’re trying to calculate the risk versus reward. Is this a positive value like a a plus EV throw down the field? And I I don’t think that’s going to click in a quarterback’s first year as much. So that’s where Kevin Oonnell has to come in and say you’re your job and I think he did this with Kurt Cousins. Your job isn’t to just mitigate all risk as a quarterback. You have to take risks as a quarterback or you’re not going to cuz there’s going to be games where we got to score 30 points to win this game. And you’re not going to score 30 points by just avoiding risk for three hours. So that’s one of the interesting themes I think throughout this camp is McCarthy is testing the limits of what’s possible in this offense. I do have one anecdote here uh off of the McCarthy stuff notes. So football and I’ll I’ll give you this anecdote and kind of throw it back to to both of you guys just observing JJ McCarthy through these practices and his personality over the last year and a half. So I did have a chance to sort of walk off the field with him and just it wasn’t like an on there conversation, but you know we we’d never met in person one-on-one before. My guy JJ McCarthy. You guys are boys. Just say it. We’re boys. We’re tight. We’re tight like that. You know, we like to walk off the field both sweating. Me because I’m standing there for two hours in the sun. Him because, you know, he played football against Brian for defense. Essentially the same thing. Same thing. Same thing. 100%. I think he’d be comfortable with me sharing this part of our conversation. He So, right away he he made a comment about the end of practice like, “Man, I uh I think he said flush it and get better is like what what he and I didn’t even ask. He just I think it was on his mind that holy crap that defense just absolutely trucked us on those three or four plays, but he was almost my observation is he was almost excited to get the Flores treatment. It was it was like his competitive juices were flowing after that practice. He had a big smile on his face despite feeling terrible about the way practice ended. And I’m kind of paraphrasing here, but he kind of just he loved getting punched in the mouth because in his mind, it’s not a failed practice. It’s learning and absorbing and expediting the process of getting to a place where he knows how to dissect it. So, I I guess in my 20 years off and on covering Vikings training camp and football, I don’t know that I can recall a quarterback u with the first team offense getting smoked like that. And it happens, but reacting the way that he did, which is I want more of that. I want I want them to throw everything at me every single time so that I can get as comfortable with it as possible as quickly as possible. That was my main observation, just catching up with him after practice. I know it’s only been what, one full padded practice. Uh obviously we can go back to mini camp and stuff too, but I mean and and Jud, you’ve obviously you’ve been watching him a little bit more closely with the field glasses than uh Phil has and I obviously haven’t been there. Has he been more riskadverse? Is it too early to tell? Has he taken his shots? Has has he been pretty the opposite of risk averse? He’s been taking like some some legitimate chances down the field. He’s slinging it, right? He’s not afraid. Yeah. If anything, you might have to at some point in time re him in, but I think what makes this camp so valuable is the work also on the throws and like the textures of that the throws and the layering of the throws. He definitely sometimes does have the old college thing of I’m going to just throw it through a guy, which is which is going to be picked off sometimes. their depth. But but I mean this is the thing that Okonnell so like if you’re going to give a a quarterback like this who is partially a piece of clay right to a coach you got to hand it off to the right coach like if you just throw him into I don’t know let’s say Seattle all due respect to Clint Kubak I don’t know that he can mold that. So like what this is this is the okay so this is the thing that’s interesting about those that complain about keeping stats in training camp and this is where I agree now I will continue to to keep stats I’ve got the stats right here but this is but this is where I agree with that with that thought process when when coaches are like you don’t really know what we’re doing so like you’re keeping stats of things that you don’t understand what you’re watching I think you think well oh yeah oh Katie because you don’t know what the defenses are. You don’t know what the offense is trying to accomplish. But with McCarthy, I think it’s this simple. He’s also like yesterday. He’s trying, they are literally working on his throws right now, right? And so he is like I think that the pass to Lucky Jackson cuz it looked different to me than just trying to put it through Theo Jackson. It looked like he was trying to layer the ball. So that’s a type of thing where if that gets picked off, do I think Okonnell explodes about that? No. I think they’re working on this and that’s the work in in progress part. So there are a lot of things especially with a young QB and this is sort of where where KO and he did a good job with this but this is where he was trying to sort of retrain Kirk Cousins mind. Well with McCarthy it’s not really a trained mind yet. It’s a very open mind. And so like there are a lot of intricacies here and and and in training camp an interception is not necessarily just oh it’s a terrible pick. Sometimes you are deliberately working on how you’re trying to do things to see if you can improve there. Yes. And all the while especially in the two-minute drill full padded portion of practice here where it’s as intense as you’re going to get until a joint practice or a regular season game. You’re going up against one of the best defensive front sevens in a defensive system. This is something I I mentioned this to McCarthy too, just kind of walking off the field like this defense now. They added Jonathan Allen and Jaching them up like let’s Well, listen, let’s pull back. It goes Kevin Oonnell, maybe Wes Phillips and Josh Macau. No, it’s not and then Purple Daily clearly are the authorities here. It’s KO, Josh, Phil, and then a sort of Wes. Hey, what’s going on? But the and I said, listen, I far be it for me, a kid who uh his last year of football was eighth grade, I just spew into a microphone. So, you know, take my opinion for what it’s worth. But, but that defense has been working on this system for going on three years now, and they added two new key pieces, uh, Hargrave and Jonathan Allen, who are kind of absorbing the some of this new system too for them. Uh, but it’s a lot of guys, Matelis, Harrison Smith. Now you’re going year two with Van Ginkle and Grard and year two with Dallas Turner. Ivan Pace has been here like these guys have now been playing together for two almost three years in a lot of cases dialing up the complicated twists and looks and things. And JJ McCarthy is getting practice reps the last three months for the first time since the surgery. So you’re if if you’re going to practice and you’re watching the defense four steps ahead of the offense, there’s a lot of reasons why that’s the case. In fact, bonus episode later today of Purple Daily. Warren Sharp, who’s one of the brightest football analytics minds, and a glorious mustache. There’s going to be a great mustache off today. I should have trimmed this up. Might have to trim this up before we hit record. Just FYI, just I don’t think there’s anything you can do. It’s a great mustache with what what’s going to pop on our screen for that. But you need I I need I need the right play sheet for for this, you know? So, like I need to just like McCarthy, I I need to struggle against the defense so I can, you know, show back up. Yes. Thank you. Yes. Yes. Uh but he but he has ranked the Vikings defensive front seven number one in the NFL. They were 25th last year. And he said based on the additions of Hargrave and Jonathan Allen and another year and Dallas Turner getting better, right? And and we’ll get to him. He flashed yesterday. Y that JJ McCarthy is facing a top five defense that got better and might have the best front seven in the entire NFL. So that and that’s kind of what it looked like in that two-minute drill yesterday. We’ll see what it looks like in a month from now. In fact, you know what? Fire the sounder. Let’s move on. Okay, I love this. We want more camp notes football. All right, let’s talk about it. The defense and the defense looked absolutely and I think it’s going to be really good. It looked fantastic and you can tell. Now, here’s what I love. Okay, I’ll I’ll just start with this one, too, and we’ll we’ll get to Dallas as well. But what I love with the first team is you can now see and and in fact, Phil, I do believe that you were charting this, you can now see not just the Harrave presence, Allen presence, Harrison Phillips presence, but you can see the wave like now now you’ve put all of those guys who sort of got or who might have been forced into action and they might not have been prepared, but they’re very much prepared to play in waves. Mhm. That second group. Um I think that this is in my opinion this is the final ingredient. Like if Flores was trying to cook a a awardwinning meal the first year he had some you know sprinkles here and there but he was he was up against a little bit. Okay. Year two you know you had Blake Cman Grard Van Ginkle. It’s better. It’s a better meal but that but that front wasn’t really set yet. And that front is now set. And so, yeah, I think it’s important if we’re going to say that the offense did not perform well in one v one. And by the way, the 2v2 was just as bad. Sam Howell 0 for three. But it’s very important to point out it was because like you said, the defense looked fantastic and I think that front is going to be a huge gamecher as far as what opponents can and can’t do against this team this season. Yeah. Part of the homework you gave me was defensive line units and rotations. What are they doing? What do the sub packages look like? So, here’s uh here’s Mackadak reporting back with the homework assigned from Jud’s camp notes. So, the first team base defense, the three down linemen are obviously Harrison Phillips, Jayvon Hargrave, and Jonathan Allen. When they go to uh the sub packages, and there’s a few different variations of them, but like it’s third and must pass, right? It’s like third and eight, third and nine or uh or or it’s just a practice drill where they’re they’re setting up their sub packages. Harrison Phillips is coming off the field, so they’re leaving Hargrave and Jonathan Allen who in their careers compared to Harrison Phillips have much better pass rushing rates. Harrison Phillips a very good wide-ranging defensive tackle, but in terms of getting after the quarterback up the middle, Hargrave and Allen have been better in their careers. uh Hargrave one of the best in the NFL the last five years than Harrison Phillips. So Phillips comes off the field and Dallas Turner comes on the field as the third edge rusher with Granard and Van Ginkle. Dallas Turner is getting a ton of snaps in practice because he is he is he’s playing a lot with these sort of like third down uh defensive packages with the first team defense and then he’s the the main dude with the second team defense. He’s the number one edge rusher with the second team defense. The second team base defense, the down lineman, Levi Drake Rodriguez, who was the kind of the Cinderella story of he was seventh round pick out of Texas A&M Commerce last year and just just a guy that you’ve observed him all throughout last year. Motor, personality, work ethic, all these things. Jaylen Redmond and then Tyen Ingram Dawkins, the fifth round pick, kind of the raw rookie fifth round pick is up there ahead of a couple guys, Taki Tymani uh that were popping up with that second team on last year’s depth chart. So, and then uh when they get into the must pass situations with that second team defense, the rookie Ingram Dawkins comes off the field and they put a third edge rusher in to get after the quarterback. So, they’ve got some interesting and they love Levi Drake Rodriguez, I think, and Jaylen Redmond. And those guys are going to be likely mixed in. Not 50/50, but they’re going to be mixed in uh throughout, I think, some regular season games to start the season. Can Can we at least also now temporarily put to rest the Dallas Turner was a bust because what we’re seeing so far to me is impressive. First of all, kudos to him. He has reshaped his body. Like, he looks stronger. He looks he looks sleeker. He looks faster. Um and I also think and this is what we’ve talked about the Brian Flores defense takes time to learn. Like if you’re a kid stepping in and I know Bama’s good, but it’s a different world. Like Brian Flores and Brian Flores is not if you’re going to play for him, he’s not going to go easy. He’s not going to say, “Well, you’re a first round pick kid. We’ll we’ll sort of give you a simple assignment.” I think the Grenard Van Ginkle, Dallas Turner package is going to be an absolute bear. A and we did see also uh in two in 2v2s. So, and I believe Dallas Turner was the left was lined up at the left outside end to rush, but he pulled a Van Ginkle on Sam Howell and almost picked off a ball just like Van Ginkle does and it was glorious. And now now Howell was at fault because again he holds onto the ball too long, but still it’s a heck of a play. Uh there there were plays on which I saw Dallas Turner stunting. There were plays on which Dallas Turner was in the quarterback’s face. So I think it’s a I think you need to leave the door open for Dallas Turner to have a very good season. Now does that mean he’s going to get a ton of sacks? Who knows? cuz with Grenard out there, Van Ginkle, like the sacks are going to go to people I don’t know who Hargra probably will have sacks. Allen will have sacks, but do I think that Dallas Turner looks like he can uh wreck a game plan? Yes. And that’s the most important thing. Agreed. He flashed a bunch of times yesterday, you detailed some of it. Uh, one of the notes I wrote down as I was just observing some of these drills in the 11on11 full team, there was a portion where they had Dallas Turner lining up over the second team left tackle. Was it Walter Rouse? I don’t remember 100% who the I think he’s a second team right tackle if I’m not mistaken. But uh one of the the depth running back, Xavier Scott, was assigned to help the left tackle chip Dallas Turner off the edge in a practice. So he was I mean he was just just beating everyone yesterday and they uh they assigned chipping help out of the back field which was interesting. So I have uh before we get further in Jud’s camp notes, I actually have a hottest Vikings take of the week defense related here presented by Standard Heating and Air Conditioning Decks. Yes, make sure your HVAC is uh is working properly here. It’s been hotter than heck. We all know that. Uh but it’s going to cool off. It’s going to cool off this week, which will be very, very nice. And you know what? When it’s not 98 with humidity and it’s more in that mid70s, you can have Standard Heating come out and make sure that that air conditioning is working properly for the next big heat wave that could be coming at you. 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And Federated is here to put together a customized plan for risk management. And again, if you’re a small tomed medium-sized business owner, go to federated insurance.com and find a list of industries that they specialize in, and you can find out more about the uh 100 plus year history of this great company as well. federated insurance.com, where it’s our business to protect yours. So, every week, one of us gives our hottest Vikings take presented by Standard Heating and Air Conditioning. And just after this defensive conversation and the McCarthy number one offense versus number one defense in the two-minute drill, my hottest take is too many people are fixated locally, nationally, maybe even on this show were guilty of this. Too many people are fixated on JJ McCarthy as the key figure for whether the Vikings are going to contend for a Super Bowl. He is a key figure, but the key figure is the Vikings defense, which I think is going to be better than it was last year. That’s where the conversation should start with. If the Vikings are going to go to the Super Bowl, it will be because of this Brian Flores defense, the talent that they added in free agency the last two years, the scheme, the depth. The Vikings defense last year was fifth in scoring, ninth in yards per play allowed, sixth in pressure rate, second in passer rating against, and fourth in rush yards per attempt against. And I think they’re going to be better in most if not all of those categories. And the first week of practice only enhances my opinion. So that’s my hottest take is JJ McCarthy is a key figure for a potential run here, but we need to talk more about this defense and how good it this could be a 2017 situation where they just straight up have the best defense in the NFL. Absolutely. Yeah. And look, they they are we we knew that with the guys that they brought in that they were going to be good, but this is a really really impressive as long as they have health. what they’ve done up front now to me game changer because now you if you have interior pressure you know over the center and guard and that’s immediate pressure that those aren’t guys from the edges those are guys who are in your back field before you can say hut uh that is an absolutely huge thing the other thing too and and Okonnell brought this up unprompted at his Tuesday press conference to open training camp last week and it’s something we need to keep in mind which is it’s the game manager thing and and Okonnell said I’m paraphrasing here something along ong the lines of it’s like a dirty word, but I’ll tell you what, if you don’t have a guy, if you know all 32 teams have quarterbacks who hopefully can ma manage the game, and if they don’t, I’ll show you a losing team. So, like JJ McCarthy, if you look at the talent on the offense, too. JJ McCarthy needs to manage the game well. He needs to make some big big plays. Does he need to be everything to this team? Absolutely not. He does not need to, you know, this is why the Vikings got Jordan Mason. This is why the Vikings improved their line. They need to run the ball more efficiently and they know that. So, I I think you’re that’s a spot-on take, but this defense now could be scary. And and that’s the thing is, you know, well, now they don’t have to blitz as much. Now, it’s quite clear Brian Flores is going to have, I would say, five to eight wrinkles that are going to be different because that’s what he does every year. And that’s what makes life hell for opposing teams because they can’t have then studied the film of what the Vikings are going to do. all summer because it’s going to be a different twist, a different wrinkle. So, yeah, I I agree with you. Also, I mean, just think about this from a we’ll take away all the I could pepper you with stats and hell, we might get into the weeds with Warren Sharp on the bonus episode today, but last year the fifth ranked scoring defense, the Vikings, allowed an average of 19.5 points per game. The Chargers had the number one scoring defense. It was like 17 or 17 and 12 points per game. If the Vikings defense is in that ballpark and I and I believe the 2017 Zimmer peak defense was like 16 17 18 points per game allowed, I think that is the range that this defense is going to be in. And we’ll see if it ranks first or fifth or sixth or whatever. That takes so much pressure off the first year starting quarterback. Hey. Um, so unlike the Bengals or, you know, pick some other terrible defensive teams in the league where they’re allowing 25, 27 points a game, all we need from you today is like two touchdowns, maybe a field goal or two, and we’re going to be right there at the end of the fourth quarter. If you can get us 28, we might win by 10. So, it’s it just it makes it so much easier. You don’t have to score on every drive. put together like three awesome drives in three hours offensively. We’ll get you some good field position a couple times and uh and we’ll win the game 23 to 16 if needed. Right. That’s how they did it. I mean, they had some blowouts in 2017, but it wasn’t 42 points, 38 points. It was 21 to 10. And this is where 23 to 17. And this is where it also be becomes important that you establish your run game, not just for success in gaining yards, but also eating clock. Like the one thing you can’t do to this defense, in part because it plays at such a high intensity and in part because it does have a few older guys, you can’t be putting them out on the field constantly. So if you can, so instead of, you know, incompletion, incompletion, third and 10 run, punt, if you can actually work the clock with the run game and keep the defense off the field, that becomes huge, too. So yeah, I I think this is a pretty wellthoughtout scenario of how you’re going to win football games. And I don’t think it’s all about JJ McCarthy. Yeah. Yeah. It’s uh Stella agrees. Stella’s just loving this conversation here. Yeah. I don’t know what’s wrong with her. I’m going to have to go out and take care of her after the show. She’s just I think she’s fired up about the defensive front. Yeah, I think she’s just the last two days now. She is now violating the agreement with Pop Pop to keep her mouth quiet during recording. And there there’s going to be hell to pay out there in just a little while. Hell to pay. You’re going to give her five. I’m going Ben Johnson. I’m going to kick her out. I’m going to kick her out of the couch. Go. Be quiet for Pop. Be quiet for Jud Camp. Hey, Phil. Are those Vikings training camp notes I see? Uh, you tell us, Jud. Are there more training camp notes in there? I I thought I thought you might have some more from your note takingaking like like like your homework assignment. You did really well. I do. Thank you. Awesome. Thank you. Your uh your football Spidey senses kind of led to this homework assignment yesterday. you said, “Hey, why don’t you keep an eye on Jeff Auda for part of this practice?” And and maybe this can open up a larger cornerback discussion because Jeff Auda right now is, from what I can tell, the number two cornerback on the depth chart because Isaiah Rogers has been working off to the side. Something happened. Do we know specifically the injury that Isaiah Rogers suffered? No, Connell talks today, this afternoon. So, we we’ve not talked to him since uh Isaiah started to sit out, which was on Saturday. So, he’s been out. He was working with a trainer on the side field today. We don’t know the severity of it, but in the absence of Isaiah Rogers, you’ve got Byron Murphy Jr. as the bonafide number one quarterback. And then yesterday, Jeff Akuda was the number two quarterback with uh I think it was Mai Blackman working in as the third quarterback and then Murphy uh moves into the slot. Right. So, you asked me to keep an eye on Jeff Akuda. Is he rotating to the short side of the field depending on which hash mark the ball is on? So if the ball is on the left hash mark, the short side of the field would be to the left of the offense. Less field to cover. Are they moving a Cuda around based on where the ball is hashmarked? And from what I could tell over two hours, every single snap of full team and nine on seven running drills, Jeff Akuda rotated to the short side of the field. So your football Spidey senses were correct. Now, you could say that they’re cuz he’s he’s not a bust yet because the Vikings are putting him in a pretty big spot here, but his career has not worked out the way that his number three overall pick status were to have indicated. And according to PFF, he’s been really bad in coverage. So if the Vikings think, listen, he’s playable and we think he’s got a ton of upside, but let’s make it a little easier on him. You’d assign him to the smaller part of the field, right? So there’s less ground to cover. So that was something that they were doing yesterday. I don’t know if it’s in their plans going forward, if it’s something they’re just kind of easing him into first team defensive work here, but uh what are your thoughts on that? I think it’s a sort of a big risk. Like if if you don’t trust him because as you brought up on the show yesterday, Phil, you’re going to have teams say, “Okay, that’s fine. There might be less space to work, but go against our number one receiver, Jeff.” And the PFF grades uh spell it out pretty clearly that in his career, which has not gone as planned, he’s not been very good in coverage. So, I I think it’s a very interesting thing. And I will say this, if Isaiah Rogers is going to be a guy who gets dinged up, you know, like if this is the start of I don’t know, let’s say it’s a hammy right now and and then it’s it’s something else. Uh I don’t know I’m completely comfortable. Like if you think Jeff Okuda has to start if Isaiah Rogers can’t. Um I don’t know I am as comfortable as I thought I might be when training camp started. So, I think this is definitely remains like if there’s a position at which this team is going to go need to get some help out at, which a lot of people have said it’s quarterback. I think that is a probability. Like I just I don’t know that you can tell Jeff, hey, just take the short side of the field and oh, but by the way, uh uh stop the Packers top receiver and then do it for the Bears. Just seems like a very dicey ask. And if you go through the list, the Vikings are facing some pretty good talent this season on the offensive side. So Stefon Gilmore, I wouldn’t be surprised. I’m not saying he’s great, but I wouldn’t be surprised if a guy like that gets a phone call. Yeah. And a guy like Stefon Gilmore in his mid30s, he doesn’t want to be out here grinding. It’s a defense that he knows now. Played well in it. Last year, he did this last year and he didn’t know the defense that well. Yeah. So, you show up in like two weeks or whatever and get ready to rock and roll. So, I get what they’re doing, but you just made the point and I’ll echo it. I feel like it makes it way too easy to put your number one receiver. Oh, we know that Jeff Akuda is going to be on this side of the field every single time. We’ll just put our It’s kind of the opposite of what sometimes defenses do, which is let’s have our best cornerback shadow their best receiver. It takes that option out of your hands if you wanted Byron Murphy Jr. to to do some shadowing. So, but we’ll keep an eye on the short side of the field going forward. And hey, are those Vikings training camp notes I see? Yes, they were. I’m trying to think fine work there. I’m trying to think of the workaround for that and I just can’t think of of one. So like and especially since Byron Murphy Jr. is your top corner, but he moves inside, which he’s the one guy that can. So there’s not really a great shadow opportunity from the Vikings perspective because Murphy’s not going to switch sides. So yeah, it just it feels to me like if and hey Jeff Okududa, I hope he does well, but the reality is if that’s how how they think about him and they really don’t trust him fully, um it doesn’t feel like a sustainable thing. It feels like a short-term fix more than a sustainable action. We will go through the rest of Jud’s camp notes here. There’s there’s more toward the bottom of that notebook cuz yesterday was a juicy day at practice. But, uh, the Meadows at Mystic right now, if if you enjoy summer golf, the Meadows at Mystic is a great place to book a tea time, right? Or if you’re fired up after Happy Gilmore sequel, Meadows at Mystic. That’s right. Uh, Will Zelator Turus, I don’t know if he’ll be there. Yeah, he’s that kid. Are you the same kid as he’s getting choked out a little bit there? Uh, but Meadows of Mystic Lake welcome all types of golfers. Whether you’re like me and you’re firing a 100 plus, whether you’re breaking 80, the Meadows of Mystic Lake provides a fun experience. Plus, they have that great patio out there. So, you can go out there and sit one, enjoy a cold one right after your round or, you know, I don’t know if they’re going to be doing shotguns of espresso and coffee like Happy was doing in the second one. Uh, but it’s a great place. It’s got a great uh pro shop, too. Go to gulfthemets.com to learn more and to book that tea time. Also, Park Dentl is back for the 2025 season supporting Purple Daily here and uh supporting our teeth. I’ve had some great appointments at Park Dental. This was me last fall walking into my new dentist. I was dentistless in the wilderness. My old dentist retired or lied to me. Just didn’t want to see me anymore. I don’t know. Uh yeah, that CEO of the Evil Golf League could probably use a new dentist with his halattosis problem. But uh yeah, Park Dental’s great. 50 years caring for and cleaning teeth in Minnesota and western Wisconsin. And uh there’s probably a location within a few minutes of wherever you live or work all throughout the metro area. So schedule your checkup at parkdental.com. parkdental.com. All right, Jud. Judcamp. Come on. All right. Some good news. And I don’t think that this means he’s close to to being back to practice cuz quite frankly, I don’t think it matters that much. But Justin Jefferson out on the field again yesterday has a wrap on that leg and I believe it’s the left leg where he has a minor slight hamstring strain, but he looked pretty spry. I I don’t It doesn’t look concerning. Um again, you do not want to make it worse. So, he needs to not practice for or not play for as long as possible before the what September 8th or September 7th opener against the Bears. That being said, I thought that would was good good news. Brian O’Neal told reporters andor just the Star Tribune. I saw it in the Star Tribune story uh that Christian Darasaw expected to take part in team practices soon, which is a huge step. If he could take part in team practices in the next week or so, and that’s what it sounds like, then I think he’s on track to play against the Bears. I think that one puts you like it’s one thing to do individuals and a little bit of work here and there, but if you’re out there with the first team this early in training camp, to me that means that there’s a confidence unless there’s a setback, he can play against the Bears. Yeah, it would mean that you’re no longer behind schedule. Like if if you can get in there within a week or two of the first camp practice, you can you can play catch-up, especially if you’re a veteran. But that’s another thing just kind of tying together the the first talker JJ McCarthy and the first team offense struggling in that last portion. You’re also trying to fend off that defense without one of the best left tackles in the league in that instance without your starting right guard who did mix in Will Fry and he’s progressing too, but he wasn’t in for that two-minute drill. And even though Donovan Jackson has been receiving rave reviews, uh Ryan Kelly spoke highly of him after practice yesterday talking to us media schleps. It’s a rookie left guard going through his first training camp week against that defense, too. So, those are just once Darasaw comes back and Fry is in there and JJ McCarthy has another couple weeks, we would expect the offense to uh to punch back a little more aggressively in some of these full team situations. Yeah. And my guess is they’re going to be in pads again one of the next two days. They’re off on Thursday when I I think then they’ll probably be back in pads on Friday and they do practice on uh Saturday and Sunday. I have a punting training camp note if you want it. Oh my gosh. Let’s fire this up. Well, hang time. The eyes are always on the field. That’s all I’m going to say. Or fields plural. Okay. So, I’m just going to say this right now. I have no knowledge that there is a punting competition. There are two punters in camp. uh Oscar Chapman from Australia who has punted uh who was a college punter, but he is the he is on the I believe it’s an exemption of sorts because um he is from Australia. So he’s assured spot for instance on the practice squad that I don’t think will count against the 15. But let me just say this in seeing Oscar Chapman take part in uh punting drills yesterday and I don’t know if you caught this or not, Phil. the amount of different punts. He’s got like two or three he three or four possibly different punts, how they come off his foot, how they how they travel through the air. He definitely has the Australian, that sort of drop punt. He also has what looks to be a cannon for a leg. So, I’m just telling you, keep an eye on Oscar Chapman. I don’t think Ryan Wright’s job is in jeopardy, but Ryan Wright’s history here is not exactly of Ray Guy Sterling variety. So Oscar Chapman might be a guy who could end up with the punting job at some point. I I loved the leg and I love a guy that can have that has an array of different arsenal weapon punts in in his back pocket. Yeah. So is he just it’s not a competition but kind of because he’s there he’s like the 91st guy on the roster. Is that okay? Yeah. Yeah. He’s got an exemption but he’s getting a chance. So, like he got a chance to punt against Wright, so there has to be some type of competition. And I just keep going back to I don’t know that like Ryan Wright should be some untouchable. Like he’s never to me it’s not like oh my god all of these years of Ryan Wright, it’s like okay, he’s been okay. But Chapman has a very interesting leg and you know that is one area where I don’t think it’s a stretch to say the Vikings could definitely have some improvement. So, keep an eye on on him. I believe Let’s see here if I can find it. I think he is number 91. Is that right? I’ve got the roster right here. Let me see here. It’s a great number for a number. No, no. I’m sorry. 86. Wow. Even Oh, no, no, no, no, no. I’m wrong. 91. I’m looking at Gavin. I’m There’s two sets of lists here of guys that aren’t practicing or have exemptions. 91. 6’3, 211B punter. Yeah. Yeah. Gavin Bartholomew is is number 86. and he’s still not practicing yet. Actually, uh Chaz Chamblas returned to practice yesterday. He did indeed out of out of Georgia. And I think he got some work with the second or third team. He was he was mixing in there. So that leaves only one current player on the pup list. The physically unable to perform Gavin Bartholomew with Isaiah Rogers and Justin Jefferson. Yes. Sort of sidelined from practice. and then Will Fry and Christian Derasaw limited and mixing into certain drills. But the fact Bartholomew has a bad back concerns me a bit though and I think a decision is going to have to to be made at some point in time. Do they feel like they have uh a tight end three in camp or do they have to go out, you know, as guys get let go, especially the final cuts in a few weeks, do they have to go out and get one? Like I’m definitely keeping an eye on the cornerback depth and it’s not that they don’t have a ton of corners, but we are clearly seeing they don’t feel super comfortable. Like Dwight McGlthin I think is decent, but he has not gotten as far as I can tell any reps with the one so far. Yeah. And so cornerback definitely won and then tight end if you feel comfortable enough with the guys who are practicing because Bartholomew you don’t know with a back that could be you know that could be weeks. Who is right now and maybe maybe this is just a question to answer for a future Jud’s camp notes. your uh number three tight end Johnny Muntz memorial power rankings right now is your is Yurosk right now like would it be number one on that the Georgia kid? Yep. Okay, that that’s him. Yes. Yeah. I think the other guy in I think the other uh guy that they signed as an undrafted free agent is far more of a practice squad guy. Bryson Nesbit. Yes, I think he’s a practice squad guy. Yurosk would get the three job and then there’s also a veteran Giovani Reichi put some respect on there. Western Michigan row the boat sky. Yeah. Yeah. But I don’t know that he would I don’t know he would be the preseason games to me are going to be really intriguing from the perspective of tight end three. Yep. and Josh Oliver is my guess is in the absence of TE3. If your TE’s one and two are healthy, then those guys just get all the snaps. Then you just like you wouldn’t extend to they extended to Johnny Munt in the regular season because they trusted him, right? But not every team heavily uses a TE3. Now, if you want to go meat and potatoes, some heavier packages where you’re doing 12 personnel, two tight ends on the field more often, then okay, you’re probably going to dip into a third tight end or some of like the goal line packages. So, interesting battle to watch. If and when uh Addison gets suspended for three games, I do wonder if we would see a heavy helping heavy dose of 12 personnel. Or is it more semantically is it more CJ Ham in some spots where it’s it’s it’s two running backs quote unquote. So 21 or 22 personnel maybe just a little extra beef on the field cuz I mean CJ Ham has been around forever. Yeah. pretty rarely plays more than like 20% of the offensive snap. So would you and so and there’s ways to deploy a fullback similarly to a tight end. You’re not going to have him lining up with his hand in the grass, you know, in line with the offensive line. But I I think that there uh would be a case to be made, especially with them running more, to have Hawinson, who you know can catch, Oliver, who’s an outstanding blocker. But here’s the thing is he can catch. Like that’s that’s the thing is among among the myths is well Josh Oliver can’t catch the football. Actually no he can. And and I do think as we watch practices unfold especially early in the season as as McCarthy sort of getting his bearings about him. I am convinced the tight ends are going to become incredibly important to him. Yeah. Good session here. Got any more camp notes, Jud? Come on. Football tomorrow. Sam Howell. Four of six yesterday. Four of six. 0 of three as well though in the uh in the late game drill. And he was picked off once. Uh he did. Well, one of those completions was after a very clear Dallas Turner sack. Oh, you got to go kill it. Did you count that in the the four for six or did you take that off? You and I looked at each other like I don’t think that counts. Yeah, but if you get the ball off, I’m going to give give you a completion. I only He shook his head in shame before he threw the ball. That’s I only ding you. Well, Sam Howell, if you want Okay, if you want to play that game, Sam Howell’s probably been sacked five times or more. Yeah. Like Like he doesn’t deliver the football. I don’t know what else to say. Hey, I hate to get on a show uh where where it’s the backup QB and bash him every day, but you saw it. But here we are. But you saw it. He doesn’t deliver the football. Like he doesn’t get rid of the football. I JJ McCarthy, it wasn’t pretty, but he has a mechanism at least where I think he’s like, “Okay, I got to get rid of the football.” And sometimes he does, sometimes he doesn’t. But with Howell, he’s literally just sort of surveying and surveying and surveying the field. And at some point you got Dude, just throw it away. Dude, got to cut that thing loose. Cut her loose. Football. Throw it to Mackey. Dang. Like McCarthy did. You know, I’ll catch it probably with one hand. One hand in a water bottle. That’s right. All right. Great, great session of Jud’s Camp Notes here. Uh, plenty more tomorrow, including also write that down predictions. And then be on the lookout on your Purple Daily podcast feeds YouTube channel. Click that like button, the subscribe button. We’re almost to 60,000. We’re just like a few thousand away from 60,000 YouTube subscribers. So, thank you for helping us get here. But Warren Sharp with an analytical preview of the 2025 Vikings. Purple Daily. We just want the Vikings to win a Super Bowl before we die. See you.

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