Preseason recap: Is Sam Howell GOOD ENOUGH to be Minnesota Vikings’ QB2?

Preseason recap: Is Sam Howell GOOD ENOUGH to be Minnesota Vikings’ QB2?

Purple Daily is daily Vikings entertainment. I 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. Right. Another Sunday brunch live edition of Purple Daily here on the Purple Daily YouTube channel. We’re going to recap that second preseason game against the Patriots yesterday. And a couple really interesting and important and maybe even somewhat dire uh discussions need to be had here about a couple points on the Vikings roster. But before we do anything, Jud, a shout out to MSP Plumbing, Heating, and Air Conditioning. Uh it’s like 95% humidity waking up the last few days. If your air conditioning is not working, here’s the place to call. Uh absolutely true. Because guess what? just for a tuneup. $49. That’s right. $49 for an AC tuneup. It’s been an up and down summer. There have been a lot of unpleasant days. Hot, muggy, steamy, and your AC doesn’t have to be out for it not to be as effective as it should be. And therefore, your house isn’t as comfortable as it should be. Well, guess what? MSP, Plumbing, Heating, and Air to the rescue. How do I know? Cuz I’ve used them. And I’m going to tell you right now, courteous, outstanding, quick. everything that you could possibly want from someone who comes into your home to fix something that just simply needs to be fixed. MSP Plumbing, Heating, and Air uh checks all of the boxes. So, give them a call 651-6154292. Check out their website, callms msp.com. Callmsp.com for all the details. Yes, Jud Campes. Well, let’s let’s go through some of the key themes from yesterday’s preseason game. And uh I’ll tee you up by just throwing out the statistics combined from the three Vikings quarterbacks not named JJ McCarthy who played in that game yesterday. Mhm. 23 of 43 for just 219 yards. So 219 yards on 43 attempts. So under six yards per attempt, no touchdowns, two interceptions, four sacks taken for 33 yards. all by Max Bromer and a 51.7 passer rating on the day against that New England Patriots. Uh well, they started with their first team defense and their their first team offense was out there for basically the entire first quarter because Rael was not happy with what he saw in joint practice. But let’s let’s start with the quarterback discussion. Take us wherever you want, Jud. Well, let’s just start with the unknown here and or or the known. And it’s going to be a very tough discussion. But so Sam Howell actually I I told you all throughout the offseason workouts and then through the first part of training camp, I was completely unimpressed. Now he’s learning a new offense in his defense, but he also for a veteran quarterback just looked really slow processing and it seemed odd. Now I got some confidence because I thought against the Texans when he replaced McCarthy he played pretty well. In fact, he played well. And then in the past week of practice, he was pretty good, improved again. And so I thought, okay, he’s going to get the start against the Patriots. He’s going against the first team, but let’s keep this in mind. And I think it’s fair if JJ McCarthy gets hurt and Sam Howell has to play. He’s going against f the first team defense of whomever he’s playing. So it’s not like, well, that’s unfair. Sam Howell had to go against starters. That’s who he is gearing up to have to go against. And he was, for lack of a better word, he was abysmal. I thought he was absolutely terrible. I mean, the stats are bad, the box score is bad. So, he played, if I’m not mistaken, three series into the second quarter, one of five, 13 yards, uh, a 0.0 passer rating, which unlike QBR is pretty difficult to achieve. QBR can penalize you pretty heavily. passer rating usually allows you to have numbers. Uh, and then the elephant in the room, which is the interception he threw when he was under pressure when he basically falling backwards instead of saying, you know what, I should take a sack. The Vikings should have five sacks here. Bromer should have four and Sam Howell should have one. Um, and he has been known for taking sacks. So perhaps he said, “You know what? Damn it. I’m not going to show this team that I’m taking sacks still.” So he did something worse than something else he’s been known for. He threw a ball up in the air that was it was intended on the score on the uh playbyplay for Lucky Jackson, but it lofted up. He literally lofted it up in the air towards the sideline supposedly to try to get it out of bounds. Now, it never had a chance of going there and it was picked off in Vikings territory. Mhm. And to me, it was the equivalent of, and by the way, I think Nick Mullins is a better quarterback than Howell, but I said Mullins, part of what Kevin Oonnell didn’t like. There was a backup quarterback who would occasionally go yolo. And the play that sticks out for us is the Bengals play in Cincinnati. He’s being sacked. And instead of just saying, “Okay, screw it. I’m sacked.” Nick Mullins throws the ball up to nobody and it’s of course picked off. Well, this was a much longer pass, but it was the same thing, which is I’m in trouble. I’m in trouble. I’ll try to get it out of bounds, but I don’t have enough of a foundation on my at my feet to throw it that far. So everything I saw yesterday is why I why I have been saying I don’t think he is your number two quarterback because if McCarthy goes down, those are the type of plays you simply cannot have. Yeah. So I agree with almost everything you just said. I I do think it it is I don’t think we should gloss over the fact that any conversation involving QB2, so Sam Howell or for those of us Max Bromer truthers that and and he wasn’t great yesterday. There was a couple little flashes here and there, but I think the in fairness part of the conversation is those guys aren’t throwing to Justin Jefferson, Jordan Addison. They aren’t playing behind Christian Darasaw and Brian O’Neal and Ryan Kelly and the first team offensive line. So when they go out there and and the receivers aren’t getting separation and we’re going to have a receiver conversation on this episode, too. And the offensive lines are a little bit leaky, it would look different for any of these three backup quarterbacks, Brett Ripen included, if they were playing with all of the first team pieces that JJ McCarthy has been practicing with and playing with. So, I will just highlight that that if you’re if you’re playing against the Patriots first team defense and you have the second team offense with some third team components because of injuries, it’s probably going to look bad. That being said, where I 100% agree with you is this quarterback 2 discussion should be solely answered u I or should solely be reflective of this question. I think is this backup quarterback good enough to step in in case of emergency and still drive this car to 10 11 plus wins, a playoff appearance and potentially a playoff win or two. And you might think, well, Phil, that’s crazy. Why would you expect your season is nuked if a backup quarterback has to come in? Right. Right. Not if your roster is really good. And the Vikings have one of the fiveish best rosters in the league as soon as Jordan Addison gets back in week four. I think that’s unequivocally true. And if you look at Vikings history, it’s been true on a regular basis for 25 or 30 years. 1998, you go into the season, Brad Johnson’s your starter. Your roster is loaded. He gets hurt in the second week of the season. Well, you got dusty old Randall Cunningham over here who’s on the verge of retirement. All he has to do is throw deep balls to Randy Moss and drive the car, right? And it was the greatest season in Vikings history. uh offensively n the next season they got Jeff George capable backup Randall Cunningham goes over the age cliff they inject him in 11 wins they I think they won a playoff game in 992 or at least they got to the second round 2008 Gus Farat comes in for Tavvaris Jackson they wind up winning 10 games division title they get beat in the playoffs 17 case Keenum last year Sam Darnold was kind of 50/50 to start but is Sam Howell at that bar or higher do you trust asked him, “Hey, something happened to JJ McCarthy and it is Sam Howell’s car to drive for 12 weeks, right? Are you going to are you going to lose most of those games?” And I feel like even with the inferness part of it, hey, he hasn’t thrown to the first team receivers. I don’t think I trust him as QB2 right now, if I had to make a decision today on this Sunday. Yeah. And I guess what I sort of like about him not having the first team guys though is we learn exactly what his state of mind is. that interception with the first team without it. that’s his state of mind, which is, “Oh my god, I’m going to be sacked.” And he panics or whatever he thinks he’s doing. He thinks his arm is stronger than it truly is. And so, I sort of like the fact that it strips away, it strips away the strengths and says, “Okay, Sam, what are you going because all you have to do is eat the ball. You just take the sack.” And as they say, you live to fight another down. But instead, he makes this incredibly stupid play in, by the way, deep in his own territory. So, it’s a real problem. Now, the Patriots didn’t score, but that’s by the grace of God. Um, but I think so I was thinking about this because we’ve talked about this a lot and I was thinking about how can I contextualize this? Like what am I watching with him? What am I seeing? And here’s how I would put it. What came to mind? Some people can be backup QBs. Now, Cunningham was probably at the point of his career because there was a time when he wouldn’t have been, but there Cunningham was probably at the point of his career where it was an acceptance of that and he was fine with it. Um, Jeff George was always trying to find a job, so he was gonna battle. Sam Howell, though, and this is gonna sound very harsh, but I don’t know how else to put this. Sam Howell is at this point in his career, fair or not, to him, a failed starting quarterback, but he’s a failed starting QB. I don’t think in 2025 that makes him a backup QB. I think the backup QB has to have a mentality now. And I don’t know that he has that. I see a guy who is when he plays I see a guy who is sort of beaten down by football life. And he’s through four years now. He had what? Three in Washington, one as a starter. It was abysmal. They they were terrible. And one with uh Seattle. But like right now, if I had to choose, and this is going to sound crazy, and I don’t trust this guy could win games, but I’m just saying as far as my quarterback room, like Kevin Oonnell always talks about that. And and we can joke about it, but it’s serious. like how does the room look? And when you talk about the room in this case, I would trust Brett Ripen to be my backup quarterback before Howell because I don’t think he would sabotage you. Now, I don’t think that that’s the answer. Just let me be very clear here. But Sam Howell as your backup quarterback feels like uh okay, we’ll just do this. But I don’t know that he is wired to or has real any desire to hold that role in the way that it should be be held because the guys that do it best now definitely have a wiring that is it’s one of acceptance but it’s always being prepared and that’s how I feel in watching Sam. I just don’t see a guy who’s going to really have thrive on or off the field as a backup QB and that is a problem. Yeah, I was still kind of on I mean he he drove them 94 yards in the first preseason game. There’s been a few little flashes lately in practice. Although by and large is it fair to say that in three weeks of training camp practice, Sam Howell has also struggled to move the ball regularly in practice. Yeah, I would say this. Starting with the Houston game and through up until we got this uh past Saturday, yesterday, that was his best work. Besides that, yes, I think what you just said is fair. Yeah. And so, so I was kind of I was still kind of on the fence and still thinking about, well, it’s not how you look with the second team unit, it’s ultimately like how would you look if if you were given the keys to the first team unit and trying to bake that into the equation. But the interception that you’ve been talking about here yesterday was almost disqualifying for me. It was it was quite literally one of the worst interceptions you’ll ever see in the NFL. I mean the the Mullins one is a different level cuz he was literally being taken to the ground and just flings it up. Yes. This was pretty close though. So first of all, he holds the the protection wasn’t terrible. He holds on to the ball for 2 and 1/2 or 3 seconds it looked like and then the interior starts to cave a little bit and rather than like getting the ball out just get it out within two and a half or 3 seconds. Okay. Oh my god, I’m still holding on to the ball. Now it’s time to go into panic mode. And um instead of if if he would have bailed to the right and I don’t again it’s probably hard to process when there’s defenses barreling down on you but if he bails to the right he actually has a a clear runway to roll out maybe buy some time. Y he panics and bails to the left right into the arms of an edge rusher. And so now it’s like you’ve made three mistakes now which whatever like you’re going to make mistakes as a quarterback. Mistake one was not getting the ball out on time. Mistake two was panicking blindly and bailing out right into an edge rusher. Yep. Okay. Play over. Disaster. No, he makes the third mistake, which is I’m just I’m just going to throw the ball up to nobody and it’s going to be intercepted. Now, maybe Kevin Oonnell and Sam Hollow would say he was trying to throw it out of bounds, dude. Like, it doesn’t matter if you’re if you’re getting lit up by an edge rusher, you just hang you eat that ball and take a sack. So, it was like a three-part interception failure. And that combined with just generally struggling to move the ball in practice, uh, I don’t know. If he stayed in quarterback rehab school for another 6 months to a year, would he look different next summer? I don’t if he gave him the keys to the first team offense, would he look a little bit different? Probably. But I the trust factor is just very low for me yesterday. My problem is like if you go back and watch the or look at the egregious 2020 through two three stats in Washington with sacks and picks. Okay. Yes. The commanders were terrible. Yes, they didn’t give him help, but those statistics are so eyeopening that there’s no way that you can blame them across the board on everything else. It can’t always be the circumstances. Yeah. And so I don’t Here’s the here’s the thing we don’t know, too, because he was uh definitely not the first choice for this assignment. And Okonnell has never seemed super enthused about his presence here. We don’t even know if he was truly accepted into the vaunted QB rehab school because remember O’Connell doesn’t want everybody like this is not a oh you’re a quarterback of course come in the door. I mean he’s talked about it before. He has killed a lot of ideas for potential quarterbacks for the Vikings. So I don’t even know that Howell’s that Howell really qualified. It feels like they settled there and now we’re seeing that and that’s part of the problem. But don’t you think Kevin O McConnell has You’re not saying that he had zero influence on Hal or you’re basically saying they had other they had a small handful of plan A, plan B, plan C, Daniel Jones, whoever else and those all went arai and then they settle they settled further down the list essentially. He would Yeah. I’m saying that he never would have ordinarily wanted this. I I’m not saying he had nothing to do with it. He definitely had to, but I don’t think he ordinarily would have wanted this. And it’s it’s sort of like, okay, we’ll do this, but we’re also seeing what the results are. I just part of the Okonnell equation in trying to get guys back on track is I don’t know that you can that he can coach carelessness out of certain quarterbacks. And that’s what that was that play cuz yes, Howell rolled right. There was nothing there. He sort of at that point you could see him start to panic. And the thing that got me is he’s not only about to be sacked, but he is off. He has no uh he has no strength to make the throw. He’s like falling like this and he just goes like that. Mhm. And it’s like, okay, that ball if you think that’s going to go out of bounds if you make a good throw, that’s great. But you can’t make a good throw if you can’t set your feet. So, but yeah, there there there’s a carelessness to this that I think becomes a major problem because if McCarthy gets hurt, and unfortunately we can’t dismiss that possibility. What is the one thing that his replacement can’t do? His replacement cannot make massive mistakes that he has control of. That’s my thing, right? Like at that point in time, it purely becomes a can you step in here and run the offense and manage the game. Just manage the game. Yeah. It’s really because you at the end of the day, the other thing about that Howell interception is and and I get that you’re not thinking about this as you’re being, you know, attacked by an edge rusher, but you should have this in the back of your head if you’re any of these Vikings quarterbacks, whether it’s a preseason game or a regular season game, that this is one of the best defenses in the NFL. not necessarily the one that you saw in the fight yesterday, but just like philosophically as you are quarterbacking this team. You don’t need to do a ton. This defense is and people are people are talking so much and we are too about JJ McCarthy because it’s the great unknown and it’s this fresh exciting time at the most important position franchise history. We haven’t had many of these examples of a high draft pick stepping in to take the keys to the franchise. And that’s that’s like the big flashy story and it’s the fun thing to talk about, but the number one winning quality about this team is the defense. This defense was top five last year and they added pieces. So, you know, whether you’re McCarthy or Howell, whether you’re playing in a preseason game or a regular season game or practice, it should be baked into your head that boy, like I definitely want to be hunting for big plays down the field, but I also can’t be giving away possessions and making life more difficult for the entire team when this defense, if you just if you just let them operate and don’t give the opposing team position and things, they’re going to hold teams to like 17 points a game this year. Yeah. So, just Yeah. the whole the carelessness of like, dude, you are in charge of this oper as a quarterback. You’re in charge of this operation. So, I don’t know, maybe I’m overreacting, but that throw physically altered me yesterday. It bothered me. I think it also bugs you because of where it came from. Like, if that throw it’s, and I’m not saying that this is a good thing, but let’s say that that throw came from the red zone. So, now it’s at like the two yard line or something. Okay, that bothers you, but it’s a different ball game there. You cannot turn the ball over on stupid plays in your opponent’s plus territory like that can’t that is the that is how you lose games there’s probably a recipe of things right five 10 things probably more like 10 that will lose you a football game and that is one of them I mean fumbles interceptions carelessness and I asked Okonnell about the pick and he tried to be as diplomatic as possible but You had to know that that bothered him greatly. There’s no way that he went back and watched that film and thought, “Oh, I can justify this.” He went back and watched that film and thought, “Oh boy, we cannot have this.” And believe me, Kevin O’Connell is not going to say, “Ah, gez, it’s the backup QB.” I keep seeing that, you know, I mean, who’s why are you guys so obsessed about the backup QB? Because it could be extremely important to a talented roster. Yeah. No, he was. And he was very clearly still pissed in the third quarter when he joined the broadcast team. I mean, he he grinded his way through it and he made it fun and yeah, it was great. He dropped an F-bomb at one point because of uh a messed up pre- snap motion. Before we get into some of the other things, including the current wide receiver situation, which is a lot more dire than it looked a couple weeks ago, Max Bromer, so he got the bulk of the work. He basically played the entire second half and it was very rickety at times. There was a It’s funny. There was a couple times where like that go ball that Kevin kind of teed it up and said, “All right, great.” Um, this is uh plan A here is a go ball down to down the right side or maybe I think they might have had two routes going down either sideline. Sure. And unless they give us the two high safety and then we’re probably going to check it to a run. And he goes, “Oh, there’s that safety creeping down. This is it’s a green light here, boys.” And they and they snap it and Bromer drops back, throws it. And I’m trying to remember who was the receiver. It wasn’t like Desawn Jones. Deshawn Jones. Deshawn Jones. Yeah. And Kevin pulls him aside as he’s cut. He basically ripped Jones for either not getting off the line fast enough or not getting his head around. So he he blamed that’s one where you’d watch on TV and think, “Dude, Brosmer missed it. He missed it one-on-one.” And Kevin, maybe being a quarterback guy, actually blamed the receiver for that misconnection. Yes. But uh just general thoughts on Max Bromer yesterday. Well, I would say this about him. In fact, I I would say this about outside McCarthy. The entire situation as we record this this morning, and yes, uh, Gucc on the broadcast was incredible. In fact, the three guys in the booth could have walked out and just let KOC talk. It was that good. My overall feeling on Bros is this. The only thing I know about this entire thing right now outside of JJ McCarthy is Max Bromer has to make the 53. Now, I do think there’s a big conversation. I’ve I’ve always said this. I’ve teetered recently, but I I think I’ve come around back to where I was previously, which is, do I want him to have to go into a game if JJ McCarthy gets hurt? And the answer into a National Football League game regular season, and the answer right now is probably no. Do I see talent that I do not want to put on the waiver wire? Absolutely. And Max Bromer, see, here’s the difference. In fact, this encapsulates it perfectly. Here’s the difference between Sam Howell performance with backups and Max Bromer’s performance, not just with backups, but with third team guys. I thought Max Bromer maximized himself in the face of the fact that he wasn’t playing with good players and at almost every turn made good good decisions. He had balls dropped. His protection was abysmal at times. He took sacks though and yes, we can hold that against him, but you know what I’d rather do? And the one pick he threw was at the end of the game where he was basically in in fight or flight mode. But the but overall what I saw was I saw enough again to say this guy should make the roster and I’m not convinced that someday he will not be a starting QB. The Deshawn Jones ball I thought was gorgeous because okay that’s a tough play. And was it perfectly thrown? No. But here’s what I loved about that Phil. It was thrown out front of Jones. Mhm. So, like that’s a throw because I about this. If you throw that short, it can be picked off. So, that was a go ball and uh okay, we’re going to take a chance here ball. But what was it? It was going to be caught by Deshawn Jones or it was going to hit the turf. Like that arm strength, the arm talent if you will, I absolutely loved. And I thought Brosmer the the uh fourth and 17 throw. I think that was also to Deshawn Jones where and I saw this I think someone put it on Twitter uh and it was a great point where he is throwing to a spot. Deshawn Jones hasn’t even broke I don’t think he’s broke the route yet to go get the ball and and Brosmer on fourth down’s like screw it and again trusted his arm tal enough he made that throw to that spot and Jones then caught it. Now, can you imagine if that is Jefferson Addison? Um, and that’s the thing. That’s the inference part of this whole thing where it’s like, okay, right, but but it also but what I love about it, Phil, is it challenges the quarterback who’s in? It’s like, okay, we’re stripping out your the best of what you could have. Now, show me what you can do without that as far as are you still making the proper play. Right? That’s the answer. Cuz I, you know, on the Howell pick, I don’t think that having cuz that pressure was not like, oh my god, I’ve never seen pressure like this. I thought that that play could have played out with the first team in front of him and he still made the exact wrong decision. I thought with with uh Bromer for a lot of those plays, yeah, things broke down and they didn’t go great or they weren’t perfect, but he still played like he needed to play. He challenged himself and I thought he did a really good job. Yeah. Yeah. He it it does seem like he in terms of accuracy, decision making, uh even just some of the body language, leadership stuff. Yeah. And I know we’ve we’ve been able to follow him throughout his his last year at Minnesota, too, with the Gophers. So, we just we’ve seen more of Max Bromer College and pro than maybe Sam Howell, but there does seem to be some juice there. By the way, Kevin Oonnell was asked on the broadcast about Max Bromer and he said, quote, “He’s running our system as if he’s been in it much longer than he has. Just the way that he’s picked up the system and and processed it is uh is something that Kevin Oonnell no, and I feel like anecdotally he’s dished out more praise for Brosmer over the last month publicly to you guys media who’s out there than uh than for sure Howell or or Brett Ripen. So maybe he’s just getting asked more questions cuz you know Minnesota connection. He loves ripping but I think he loves him as a quarterback room guy. Yeah. Yeah. And you do need some of those guys but at some point you need like the to put a bow on this conversation. You you also need someone that can step in and play 10 games if needed. And I think that’s where this inst. Do you think the backup quarterback for the 2025 season right now is in the building? I don’t think it’s Sam Howell. So, it would depend on their level of Max Brosmer trust, which is that would be incredibly risky. That’s another good conversation. I could see it if Joe Burrow’s your starting quarterback and it’s like, all right, we we we have a dude here that injuries are going to be a thing. So, let’s take that away for a second. There is still, despite all of the JJ McCarthy propaganda throughout the last 18 months on this show, not only do you have the injury stuff that every quarterback has baked into the risk equation, he’s never played a regular season snap. So, yeah. uh to go in with either rickety Sam Howell or even as as much as he has flashed Max Bromer, undrafted rookie free agent who’s played one year of football above FCS level and he was very good last year with the Gophers. Yep. It it feels like if there was uh if there was betting odds on this that they would be in the market for a trade or I don’t know some sort of waiver claim. Somebody I saw somebody comment here, you know, the Giants have Russell Wilson and Jackson Dart is Jameus Winston. Now you talk about risk like that dude threw 30 interceptions one time too, but at his you get a lot of upside though like he has special playmaking ability. Is there a guy like that just like a household name that you know the Kenny Picket thing even though I’m not huge on Kenny Picket. He’s been out with a hamstring injury throughout most of camp. Is there a household name like that that they could say all right well we tried with Sam Howell. Let’s dish out a sixth round pick for one of these guys. I think the one thing they wouldn’t do is I don’t think they would trade or claim a a veteran interception merchant. Yeah, that’s my that’s my guess. They just I mean I in my opinion Ok Ok O Okonnell can’t tolerate it. He just can’t. And it it would be have to become a very if McCarthy got hurt, it would have to become a very like Okonnell would sort of be driving the backup QB. And the problem is if your backup QB tends to short circuit on the field and you can’t fix that, that’s the one thing I don’t think that he could accept. Yeah. Well, let’s get to some of the let’s get to the wide receiver discussion and some other things that stood out in yesterday’s preseason game. It’s pronto puff season though, Jud. Oh god. Yeah. Oh god. Yeah. And let’s talk about it because guess what, ladies and gentlemen, what is coming up but the state fair and the original food on a stick at the state fair is the pronto pup. Uh, in fact, it’s the best food value at the fair. A day at the fair not complete without a pronto pup. Founded in, get this, 1947 by the Carnes family. Eight great locations throughout the fairgrounds. So, make sure to when you come to see us at our booth right by the grand stand Thursday. Make sure that you come up there with a pronto pup in hand to show the sports dad that you are supporting those who support us. And don’t forget when you come by our booth, stop by the Score North booth and pick up your very own Oh, hold on a second here. Wait. Oh, look at this. Jud, it’s right here. Jud on a stick. Jud on a stick. In fact, look at that. Look at that. I got Oh my god, you have four Juds on sticks. Yep. Four Juds on sticks. So, check it out. But again, Pronto Pup. Uh, thank you for their support as well. Yeah. Yeah. Uh, scorn.com/fair for the full schedule for when Purple Daily and other Scorn shows are going to be out there. We’ve got the Scorn North podcast stage and there’s going to be some seating and tons of standing room area for you to come hang out with us uh noon to 3 every single weekday starting this Thursday at the Minnesota State Fair. And again, scornorth.com/fair for more information. Uh also, the Renaissance Festival is going on. Uh it started yesterday. It’s weekends all the way through September 28th, 9:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. and also Labor Day. The Minnesota Renaissance Festival is back with uh a bunch of new adventures and entertainment. 16 stages of exciting entertainment. Bring your family, your friends. Could be a fun date night for you and uh and the significant other. You can throw axes, shoot a crossbow, climb a rock wall, all sorts of things for kids to do as well. So, check out the full schedule at renaissancefest.com. renaissancefest.com. And a shout out to those of you who have clicked the subscribe button and the like button on the Purple Daily YouTube channel. We’re inching our way to 60,000 subscribers. So, if you haven’t already, maybe you’re just new and you’re you’re frothing at the mouth for daily Vikings shows and podcasts. Well, uh this is the best Vikings fan community that you’re going to find out there in our opinion. Click that like button and the subscribe button. And then on the audio side, Apple and Spotify, you can help us by giving us a fivestar rating and a positive review. wide receivers. So, I mean, my take on it right now is with Jaylen Naylor nursing a hand injury of some kind, and there’s not a lot of details on it, but like he had a hand wrap on the other day. Yeah. Um there’s Well, I guess we’ll wait for more information officially, but like there’s a chance he could miss the first part of the season. So he’s kind and even without that like you know he’s had some drop issues in his career. Jordan Addison out for the first three weeks. It is for the first few weeks the only certainty is Justin Jefferson and the fact that Addison is not going to play. Lucky Jackson yesterday had a really bad drop deep in the red zone toward the end of the first half. So if if you were looking for like man Lucky Jackson’s been kind of a star at training camp, this is your chance to take a spot. maybe as the number two or number three receiver to start the season and he just he just hit a couple bad ones yesterday and there’s no regular season track record to lean on there so it’s not like oh it’s okay he dropped a pass but he caught 400 of them over 5 years we don’t have that track record the rookie third rounder very promising um a lot of different tools that you like and project but he fumbled a kickoff yesterday he’s still really raw so I don’t know I feel like you have to go get someone that’s outside of your current 90man training camp roster. What do you think? Absolutely. Absolutely. Yeah, my guy Lucky was and he actually this started on the I think it was the Thursday practice joint session where he dropped a red zone touchdown pass and yesterday he I thought he dropped at least two. One was an egregious drop, one was a little bit of a difficult catch covered on the sideline, but it was a ball you have to catch and he didn’t. And so I’ve gone from he is a lock and who knows he might be the number four or something like that to I’m don’t know about him. So yeah, I think you have to go out and get somebody. Um Deshawn Jones four catches for 39 yards did flash a little bit yesterday I thought but again there’s questions there. I mean heck that go route he ran that Okonnell talked to him about clearly they don’t think he’s there yet. And so yeah I think there is I I think there’s two huge discussions here. one is who can you get? And I’m not talking if Naylor’s out, which I suspect you might be right. Okonnell said yesterday that they’re still evaluating it, but that always makes me concerned cuz that means he’s buying himself time to tell us cuz his thing is they’re evaluating it. We’ll keep you up to date on that, which means we’ll keep you up to date when we want to tell you what’s wrong with him. So, if that’s the case, I don’t think you have a choice. But the the second part of this discussion is and is probably off of the same position eventually. Who returns punts? Now, Miles Price was uh he had a really nice game for the most part at at in special teams. He made a great play on kickoff coverage. Uh he had a huge kickoff return. Ty Felton Okonnell basically said postgame that’s Ty Felton’s job. But the punt return job wide open. But is Price going to make the roster? Like that’s a big question to me. And so I I don’t know if you’re looking at one or two potential pickups. You could go get Brandon Powell back to return punts, but does that solve your receiver thing? Probably not. It doesn’t. So I definitely have and you know, you got Hawinson, you’ve got outlets. I get that. But these are three games and we’ve been hammering this home since the schedule came out. The early portion is where you make your hay. The schedule gets exponentially tougher. So, I don’t know that you’re not two guys away. One one whose name you’ll probably recognize and the second one just somebody who can catch punch. You know, the Brandon Powell thing was made because they were frustrated much like Declan was by the lack of explosives off the punt return game because Brandon Powell fumbled once each of the past two years, which is not great, but it’s not egregious. And the Vikings are like, “Yeah, but we can get more, but be careful on that because the first thing you got to do is catch that damn football.” You know, there’s certain things if if we’re going to harp on Sam Howell can’t make that throw deep in his own territory, guess what else you can’t do in your own territory? Fumble a damn punt. Yeah, cuz that that is how you lose. That’s how you lose a game against the Bears at Soldier Field, right? Like, think about all the weird things that happen in that stadium. Night game under the lights in that stadium. Yeah. Well, so let’s unpack this a little bit. They will probably, let me go back to Jud’s uh 53man roster projection from last Monday. So you had of the 24 offensive players. So Addison on the suspension list, so he doesn’t count toward the 53. And your your projection had Jefferson, Naylor, Lucky Jackson, Ty Felton, and then the veteran Tim Jones who led the team yesterday in receptions and and and yards. But in Tim Jones career, three years with the Jaguars, I think he caught a total of like 16 passes or maybe 20 passes in three years. Yeah. Yeah. He’s another story. Yeah. He concerns me for he he concerns me because he can’t stop taking penalties on special teams where he’s the special teams ace. Yeah. So, and the Naylor thing is okay. If there’s any question about him missing week one, don’t you put him on the short-term injured reserve? So, he would then miss four games if you did that, right? Yes. If if you think he’s going to be out for that long now, if you think he’s just going to miss the first game, like that’s what we need to know is what did he do? Did he break the hand? Because they did say now it’s a hand. I think originally they they said wrist it might be. And now they’re saying it’s it’s a hand. So I guess my my question here is let’s say you’re going to keep five guys on the active roster, not counting Jordan to start the season. The only two locks for me right now are Justin Jefferson and Ty Felton because he’s a third round draft pick. Yep. But but not a guy that you would trust to go out there as one of the top three receivers necessarily from week one. Naylor is the third guy unless you put him on short-term injured reserve and that opens up a spot. So let’s say let’s say Naylor’s injury is not bad enough like maybe he misses week one or something. Sure. So you go Jefferson, Naylor, Ty Felton. Would you really if you at the end of the day said, “All right, Lucky Jackson, who’s 28, he’s been available for any team in the world across a bajillion different leagues.” If you just decided, “Yeah, you know what? We’re not He’s not 20. He’s not a 23-year-old prospect, right? He’s just kind of he’s a guy. Like, he’s a camp guy and he flashed a little bit.” Yeah. And then Tim Jones also just kind of a guy. So, what I would probably do is go bring in Brandon Powell to catch punts until you figure out a better, more explosive punt returner. And then the guy that you keep mentioning, 26-y old Gabe Davis, who was cut by the Jaguars as a postjune 1st designation earlier this summer. And it was it was a disaster signing for them because they they brought him in coming off a knee injury in Buffalo, but thinking that he was going to recover and be a great deep threat for Trevor Lawrence. And it just it and he’s got some quotes talking about how Yeah. his knee it was like a late season knee injury, I think. And November. Okay. Yes. and he he came back and his he said his knee never quite fired the way that it was supposed to last year. Yep. So, you got to figure out is that knee back to normal? But in the two previous years to the Jacksonville disaster, Gabe Davis as a deep threat, he caught 23 passes over two years considered deep passes, 20 plus yards or more in the air and nine deep pass touchdowns from Josh Allen over those two years. Mhm. So, and again, we don’t know like he’s he’s sitting out there for a reason. You’d think that if he was fully healthy, you know, oh, we could get the Buffalo version of Gabe Davis that a bunch of teams would jump at that. So, there’s got to be some reason there. But, if you went into the season and it was Jefferson, Naylor, Ty Felton, and then Gabe Davis at 80% of what he was before the knee injury and Brandon Powell to catch some punts and then you figure out when Addison comes back, do you just do you bump someone off or do you keep a six receiver? I would feel way better about that than the current group that we’re watching in these preseason games. Yeah, just from a standpoint of the wide receiver role itself, I don’t see how they can’t make a move. And to me, the Naylor thing is the football gods trying to help you. They’re like, “Okay, you don’t think you have problems? We’ll give you another problem because you’ve got problems.” Yeah. Um Skull says, “Yeah, dude, stop talking about Powell.” Uh Skull, I got bad news for you, man. Okay, that’s the punt return. Nobody is suggesting that Brand that Brandon Powell be signed and be the third receiver on opening night, but you just wait. You fumble a punt in Chicago. Guess what you’re gonna say? Man, I didn’t mind Brandon Powell. Yeah. Yeah. A lot. By the way, like let’s acknowledge that the majority of the comments coming in here are Adam Thielen. And I think Theelen would love to end his career in Minnesota. I think the Panthers at some point would would love to get some draft capital for Adam Thelen. But I also think the Panthers are looking at their schedule and looking at that division and saying, “We don’t play a playoff team from last year until week eight or nine.” Yeah. So, let’s let’s see if we can get hot to start the year. Bryce Young, let’s keep the momentum going forward. I think that’s more of a trade deadline discussion on Adam Thielen than like a pre-week one discussion. Well, and what here’s my question, too. If you go pursue the right now, there’s a couple of problems. One, the Panthers know you’re up against it. So, two, what’s the compensation? Because I think it goes up. Yeah, it does. Like, like if you were to get the because the Panthers are just like sort of me, we don’t really need him and the Vikings are like, “Oh, we’d love to have him back. We’ll take him back.” And we’re talking about like a conditional fifth round pick or or a conditional pick that’s like a sixth round pick based on snaps or a fifth round pick based on snaps. Well, right now you’re calling from a position of we got to have a guy. And the Panthers are going to say, “Okay, that’s great. How about a third round pick? How about a fourth round pick?” So yeah, I think that’s I don’t know right now that that’s possible, but what I do know is this morning, in fact, as we record this, I would hope that the Vikings are on the phone right now checking out the possibilities because you can’t send in Justin Jefferson and a group of and a group of guys that are backups andor just training camp guys because The Bears already have a game plan, I guarantee you, to try to take him away on opening night. And now you’re going to invite it and say, “Okay, Jefferson, you know, JJ, Jefferson is going to be triple covered here, but you’ve got the number two guy is Lucky Jackson.” And so he’s going to force a ball into Jefferson. It’s going to get picked off and we’re all going to say JJ McCarthy stinks. So I just don’t see this as workable. Yeah, it’s uh they also they also I’m sure they run all these scenarios like uh what’s the worst case, what’s the best case and their best case scenario based on their offseason roster would have been Rondale Moore is healthy and emerges into the player that you kind of hope that he would have been throughout his time in Arizona. Ty Felton clicks right away. a guy that led the Big 10 I think in catches and receiving yards last year had some touchdowns and uh you know somebody else like a Lucky Jackson or somebody and you and now you have an embarrassment of riches behind Justin Jefferson and Jordan Addison. Instead they were hit with probably the worst case scenario of all the possibilities which is Rond Del Moore blows his knee. Yep. Uh Jaylen Naylor hurts his hand and none of the and Ty Felton is just kind of raw and and toolsy but not a guy that you would immediately trust to start in week one, week two as a as a guy that you would target. And then nobody else really flashes to the point where so they they got a little unlucky running all the possible scenarios with the injuries and um and other guys not flashing, but they still have time to fix it. I I’m with you though. The Bears are looking at this right now. If that game was this weekend, they would say, “Well, we know who’s not going to beat us. Let’s make the rookie quarterback and a bunch of random receivers.” Right now, they have TJ Hawinson. It’s worth pointing out that the Vikings are at least in a really good spot with and Oliver can catch some passes. if they want to just go heavier personnel, two wide receivers on the field instead of three and have Josh Oliver out there for basically the whole game with TJ Hawinson and you run the ball, you throw to your tight ends, you find Jefferson where you can, I think there’s a way to trick it up that way, too. Yeah. What concerns me about that is what if you, you know, if the defense does not play as well as we expect and you fall down by 14 and now you got to drive the ball downfield and now it’s harder like cuz they do have Look, I I saw a comment and it it’s right. It looks like that they do have, praise the Lord, a screen game. Like there’s been some but but I don’t know there I think there’s a difference between tricking it up and and having a bunch of slappies behind Jefferson and making it easy for a team to basically contain your receiving core. So, but I’ll tell you right now, my biggest my biggest long-term concern because the wide receiver thing stinks right now, but it will fix itself a little bit. My biggest concern is the return game because they’re gonna roll with Ty Felton on kickoffs and he fumbled one yesterday. Don’t keep that in your memory bank and the punt return. I am genuinely concerned and it’s not that they’re not going to get a bunch of uh uh big uh returns. I’m concerned about ball security. I really am right now. Yeah. Let’s do just like a rapid fire last couple minutes here. Some other things that stood out to us. Maybe we just go back and forth. Uh a shout out though to uh LifeSource which is is here to talk to the men of purple daily. A really important message. There is a massive need for organ donors in Minnesota right now. Only 50% of people in our region are registered on their driver’s license or state ID as a donor. And there’s 2,000 people meanwhile in Minnesota that are waiting for a life-saving transplant. So, there’s a shortage of donors and there’s a surplus of people that are looking to have their lives saved by an organ. So, uh any of us could be one of those people at some point in our lives waiting for a transplant. There’s four ways to register as a donor. Your driver’s license. So, click that donor box when you’re renewing or applying for a driver’s license online at life-source.org in your iPhone health app or when you’re purchasing a hunting or fishing license online. Uh so get get registered as a donor and help people who need an organ. Uh also you you mentioned uh the screen game. So just a few shout outs here. Last things in our bag. Xavier Scott had big chunk gains on three different screen passes yesterday. That was impressive. Just the overall and then Kevin Oonnell talking about the nuances of the screen game. How it’s more about it’s it’s not like he doesn’t call screen passes. He said we’ve been bad at the execution. the spot where you have to get to as a running back, the offensive line getting out in the spots they need to, and if you can click on all these things, it could be huge gains. So, I think Donovan Jackson showing that he can get out in space. Obviously, didn’t play in that game yesterday, but in the joint practice and uh and and just having an emphasis on this, it feels like during training camp, maybe the Vikings finally turn the corner in the screen game. And how great would would that be because that will be a huge thing. And yeah, I I mean I’ve I’ve never thought that Okonnell doesn’t want to call the screens, but they’ve been executed so poorly. And yes, it has. It’s funny because the screen is one of those plays that when it works looks very very simple. Yeah, it’s just a short dump off pass and you block it up and you get 20 yards, right? But then when you see it not work, you’re like, “Oh, oh boy, this isn’t good.” So yeah, and I do think that that and what Scott had uh Scott had 10 carries for 28 yards on the ground yesterday and um and also caught three passes for 44 yards including that long of 18. It appears that Ty Chandler’s days are done here, right? Yeah. Like Scott is I I didn’t feel that. So Ty Chandler carried three times for 12 yards. And I know he was technically with the first team yesterday, which is the second team, but it didn’t strike me as he was being rested because he’s a veteran. It’s the first two games have struck me from that position as they want a long look at Scott to confirm what I think practice is telling them, which is he’s just a better all-around fit. Because Chandler, it’s funny, he gets the ball and he can run, but at the end of the day, there’s too many things the Vikings want from that position that he can’t do or or has not learned to do. So, in my opinion, Scott’s excessive workload in the first two preseason games is more of the Vikings trying to confirm that they are going to that that they’re going to keep three backs and it’s going to be uh Aaron Jones, Jordan Mason, and Xavier Scott. uh our guy Jason Harmon, uh Jason777 on Twitter, who’s going to jump in as one of the co-hosts of the Before I Die podcast on the Purple Daily feeds this season. So, he tallied the yards from scrimmage for Chandler and Xavier Scott per touch for the two preseason games. And if my quick math is right, it looks like Xavier Scott is averaging like five and a half, six yards per touch, maybe six yards per touch. Yeah. And Ty Chandler is three and a half yards per touch. So it’s, you know, it’s sort of a small sample size, but Xavier Scott’s got some juice, man. He’s got some juice. We’ve seen it. If Xavier Scott can uh block, can pass pro, right? The other thing, too, is so I think if you just handed them both a football a number of times in the back field and said carry it, Tai Chandler is going to show more. But when it comes to receiving, which is a very important thing, and the we should not discount the fact that Xavier Scott did his job and looks so good in that screen game. So, there’s just a lot of things there in the totality of what Kevin Oonnell wants, I think, that make a difference. I’ll throw one at you that I found to to be intriguing. That’s the punting. So, I’ve assumed that Ryan Wright, and there’s been nothing in practice that has shown me that he is not the guy. Okay. So he punted twice on Saturday. He averaged gross 50.5 and he had a net of 32. Oscar Chapman, the Australian punter who punted at Auburn, so he’s an SEC punter. So he’s not just he’s not just some guy that came from Australian. It’s a cute story. He punted twice, averaged 52.5 gross and 48 net. And furthermore, and this is what I found most intriguing, he held on three of Will Riker’s four field goal attempts. That was Yeah. And Riker was four for four. Now, because that was the question in practice, it felt like the majority early in camp when I sounded the panic alarm and said Riker is struggling. The majority of holds that Riker had missed on were by Chapman. But yesterday, there was no problem there. So, I’m not saying Wright’s going to lose the job. I am saying I’m going to be keeping a closer eye on that now than I was going into Saturday. Yep. Yeah. The holding thing that that’s kind of a sign of All right. Now they’re they’re actually test driving this for real now. So, we’ll see what that looks like. Uh a couple defensive things that stood out to me. Tyrone Ingam Dawkins, who we we shined a light on during the joint practices, getting a ton of run with the first team defense uh on Wednesday and Thursday. So, he was in there with the second team defense. Just they’re giving him reps, man. like they they think he’s a super physically talented guy that might be a little raw and they’re trying to get him as many reps clearly the last month as possible. Blows up a run play in the red zone in the first quarter. And also there’s a clip going around I see this has gone viral on Vikings Twitter of him absolutely forklifting Garrett Bradberry backwards with one arm into Drake May making Drake May throw a ball off platform. So, and and Patriots Twitter is is like, “Wow, you it’s just one play, you know, everyone has bad reps.” And then Vikings Twitter’s like, “Well, we actually watched it for your world.” Yeah. Uh Gabe Murphy was a part of a couple big plays again on defense, blew up a red zone play in the first quarter. Bo Richtor, he uh he vangled a screen pass in the third quarter. I like Bo Rich. Tipped it almost a pick six for Bo Richtor. Very active. And then shortly after that, it was like two plays after that, he uh as they say, held the edge and stuffed a run play. So he he holds the edge. He’s an edge rusher. It’s a run play. And uh and the running back has to cut back inside, which is like normally you’ve done your job, right? You usher that play back to the inside. No, he finishes by making the tackle himself. Mhm. And then uh the only other thing I will point out kind of defensive related was when Jonathan Grard joined the fourth quarter portion of the broadcast. One of the most fascinating things KOC was great. It it was great having Jefferson on, you know, in the first game. Jonathan Grard was calling pass or run plays based on offensive lineman body language. Did you catch that? No. No. In fact, I I came home and watched it. The whole third quarter was posted on the Vikings YouTube channel. Okay. But I have not seen now I I recorded the game, so I’ll go watch that. But that is really interesting, dude. He goes, “If you get a chance, it was like three different plays.” And so he’s just he’s got the little earpiece on and they’re talking to him and uh he goes he just jumps in. He goes, “This this be a run play right here.” And they’re like, “How’d you know that?” He goes, “Well, some of these younger especially the backup younger offensive linemen, he goes, “They’re really bad at disguising. like you can tell based on Oh yeah. either their stance or where they’re looking or whatever it is. And then he did it like three plays in a row where he said so this will this will be a run play or it’s a play action but the the offensive I can tell by their body language the offensive line is getting ready to fire off the ball like it’s a run play. So that’s awesome. You know, you think you never know. Sometimes these guys are just like athletic guys with maybe not that smart and then other football players are genius level IQ. And it was just interesting getting that glimpse into the brain of Jonathan Grard who’s clearly athletically talented, but that mental aspect is something that uh probably plays into him putting up the productivity that he does. The the last thing I’ll say on defense is it was interesting to me that because I thought, you know, they were going to sit the starters, but I thought the one starter that might play get some playing time outside at quarterback was Jeff Okuda. Uh but it appears to me that Brian Flores is as in on Okuda as he was Isaiah Rogers, which we knew pretty quickly because Okuda didn’t play. So your starters for sure just hammered home again. Byron Murphy, Isaiah Rogers, Okuda. I am very curious about the cornerback that they trust ne to be the next man up. Zamaya von played played a ton. They I think they love his length. I think they are in love with the fact that his his uh uh body profile fits their system. He had a really nice open field tackle on I can’t remember what quarter it was, but he flashed there for sure. Uh Dwight McLeather and Mai Blackman are going to make it. I think they both will, but I’m the fall of Mai Blackman. And I don’t know if he’s still sort of banged up and the knee’s not great or if they’ve just decided that they have better, but the fall of Mai Blackman, who I expected to compete with Okuda for a job going into training camp and has not gotten a sniff of that and was playing, you know, into the second half yesterday. Yeah. To me is one of the most interesting things. I am very conflicted about what the quarterback depth chart is behind the starters. Yeah. Yeah. It but it does feel like I I think I think you’re right. Zomaya Vaughn seems like he has skyrocketed up the the depth chart here. I think that’d be a surprise cut at this point just with all the plays that he’s made. So agreed. The one I’m looking for and I think he makes the team is it feels like Dwight McLather is not as in nearly as much favor as he was a year ago and and Zam and if they did cut him it’s sort of a one for one, right? Because uh Dwight was a UDFA in 2024. Zamayavon’s the same thing now in 25. I think they all make the roster. But how they stack up as far as the trust tree with Brian Flores, that’s my question. Yeah. All right. Juds, camp knows camp is is winding down. The fan portion of camp is over now. You’re going to be out there for a couple days early this week. Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, they practice. Thursday, they’re off. They play their last game on Friday. And then the way it works now is the final cuts are August 26th, 3 p.m. Central time. Yep. And and so you’ll be you’ll have a few final Jud’s camp notes reports throughout the week here. And then we’re going to be Purple Daily is going to be live at the Minnesota State Fair um 1:00 most of the days central time. There’s a couple days where we are going to go live at noon. Uh and then other Scorn North podcast too between noon and 3 every day at the Score podcast stage. You can find a map and a full schedule at scor.comfair. All right. Uh a little little brunch session here coming to an end. Jud, good stuff, man. Oh, that’s Campnotes on fire as usual. Oh, the Campnotes brunch is the best. Are you kidding? It’s delicious. Yeah, it’s become a tradition here. So, thank you guys for hanging out with us again. Click that like button, the subscribe button on the Purple Daily YouTube channel, and we will see you tomorrow. We just want the Vikings to win a Super Bowl before we die.

Mackey and Judd recap Saturday’s preseason game between the Minnesota Vikings and New England Patriots. Should the Vikings trust Sam Howell as QB2? Or do they need to look outside the organization for JJ McCarthy’s backup? Did Max Brosmer’s stock take a hit this weekend? Also, the latest on wide receiver depth — which is shaky, at best, headed into the regular season. Should the Vikings sign a free agent WR? Plus, a few defensive players who flashed, Zavier Scott in the screen game, and more!

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