Vikings announce 53-man roster

Vikings announce 53-man roster

[Music] Regulator mount up. We’re coming. [Music] Hey everybody, welcome to the episode. We have waited a long time for the Minnesota Vikings have officially announced their 53man roster. But this year we have to really emphasize initial 53man roster because going through it there’s a lot of areas where this thing should change. So I am going to call it up here and we’re going going to go position by position look at everybody on the initial 53. what the biggest surprises were for guys who made the team and some surprises for guys who did not make the team. So, I’m not going to waste any time here. Let us get right into the Minnesota Vikings 53man roster. So, the quarterbacks unsurprisingly, JJ McCarthy, Max Brosmer, and Carson Wentz. Uh Max Brosmer is I think the co- Mr. Mano. We’ll get to the other guy that I think deserves that honor as well. But uh if you haven’t seen JT O Sullivan’s breakdown of Max Brosmer’s final preseason game, the quote that stood out to me from Mr. C O Sullivan was that it warmed his football soul to watch Max Brosmer play in that game. So, make sure you go check that out when you get a chance because his breakdown was excellent of all the anticipation throws, the smart plays that Brosmer made and deserves to be on the 53 and is a guy that I think can develop into next year being their QB, too. So, they keep three quarterbacks, four running backs, Aaron Jones, Ty Chandler, Jordan Mason, and Xavier Scott. So Xavier Scott was absolutely another guy that we identified throughout this preeason and training camp that stood out for the Minnesota Vikings. He caught the ball really well. Uh he ran hard. He made big plays in preeason and it seemed like there was even a chance that they could cut Tai Chandler and just keep Xavier Scott as RB3. Now, there still is a chance that they could make a change at running back if they feel there’s an upgrade. But, you know, something we talked about throughout every time Cha Tai Chandler’s name came up was why cut Tai Chandler when he has experience as a kick returner. And I think they’re going to need Tai Chandler to be a kick returner this year. There’s extra emphasis on that play. They’ll probably need somebody who has experience back there. And even though you could go around the league and say, are they going to sign Cam Acres again? He got cut. And maybe they will. I think Chandler for his explosiveness, for his special teams capabilities, and if he has to go in the game, he’s been in this offense for several years. So, I was not shocked and I thought he had a pretty good overall training camp that Ty Chandler was there. And Xavier Scott, uh, somebody who definitely earned it as well and got some kick returning in also. But I would say if there’s one guy out of this group that if they make a change in another area of the roster, Xavier Scott would probably be the guy who you would be able to get to the practice squad if they were to wave him uh after this because we’re going to have to talk about that for every single position is all right, who’s definitely here and then who might not definitely be here. So uh CJ Ham was banged up throughout the end of training camp. They placed him on injured reserve with a designation to return next week. So, let’s get to the wide receivers. Very interesting group here. Justin Jefferson. Obviously, Jordan Addison is on the suspended list. That’s why he’s not listed. And Jaylen Naylor, Ty Felton, Tim Jones, and Miles Price are the other wide receivers. So, not Lucky Jackson, not Feyer Thomas, the two guys that probably took the most reps during training camp with JJ McCarthy outside of Justin Jefferson and Jaylen Naylor, or I’m sorry, Jordan Addison and Jaylen Naylor. It was Theer Thomas and Lucky Jackson. And they don’t make the team as they go with Felton, Tim Jones, and Miles Price. But this is a spot that should be different within the coming days. So far, no Adam Theland trade. We will dive into that and the other options at wide receiver, but as for right now, you could see either Jones or Price staying on because both of them stood out on special teams. I know Jones had a couple penalties. Uh Jones also played pretty well at wide receiver. Miles Price had a couple of big returns. huge kick return, huge punt return, but Miles Price is a guy that you could get to the practice squad if they let go. My expectation though is that even if an Adam Thielen trade it does not happen, which it does not look like it’s happening now, that they will still add a wide receiver by tomorrow, I would think. Uh, tight end three was a discussion quite a bit during this training camp. Ben Urisk ends up making it as tight end three. Gavin Bartholomew was injured for the entire time. I would assume that he is going to end up on injured reserve and be out for the season. I guess it was a back injury and it must have been uh pretty serious. But Uric took the lead in the middle of training camp, never really looked back, was the guy who was out there first. This is another area that could potentially change. But I also think that URIsac being a former Stanford guy who caught a lot of passes there turned into a blocker when he was at Georgia. I thought he played well enough to have potential as a tight end three. And he kind of does remind you when you see him of somebody like Johnny Muntz. So uh Ursack, the undrafted free agent, makes the 53 in that tight end three battle that never really was much of a battle overall. It was kind of once Bartholomew went down, Uraisek was really the guy uh they brought in Nick Vanette for a bit, but they they brought him in too late in the game uh really to get into the competition there. So, Uric is your tight end number three. The offensive line features one surprise, and this was one where when I made my 53s, I was trying to make this happen and every time I made a 53, I couldn’t quite figure out a way to do it, but the Vikings did. And that was include Joe Huber, another undrafted free agent who had a flatout terrific training camp. I mean, Huber was one of their highest graded offensive linemen, especially in the first game. He made a great impression on this team. I want to pull up his PFF grades here for you uh for Joe Huber in the preseason because he he just had a really really solid preseason. Well, I guess he didn’t grade quite as well in run blocking uh in the second game or quite as well as pass blocking, but overall a 74 PFF grade. 88.6 run blocking, 73.1 pass blocking and and he was very good in practice. So Joe Huber makes this team uh along with Michael Jurgens, Walter Rouse, Blake Brle, Justin School, all the guys that we expected and the starters of the offensive line. So Huber becomes another one of those good stories for this team and I would expect that they will stick with this with 10 offensive linemen and keep Huber. Uh to the defensive line, one surpriseish, I’m going to say is here is Elijah Williams ends up making the team along with Jonathan Allen, Jayvon Hargrave, and Jaylen Redmond, the starters. Ty Ingram Dawkins, Levi Drake Rodriguez, and from Morgan State. To me, the co- Mr. Mano 2025, a guy who stood out in the H.B.CU uh bowl game, and then they get him in rookie camp. They identify some stuff about him that they like there. They sign him. And you think, and I know a couple of his family members have jumped into the live stream and said, “What do you think of Elijah Williams?” And my answer was, I really like what I see, but it’s hard to see him making the roster because once again, every time we do the 53, it had Harrison Phillips on it. Once it didn’t have Harrison Phillips, then Elijah Williams became possible. He’s got some jolt to his game. He was getting in the backfield, created a bunch of pressures, and had a very, very good preseason in training camp. He ends up making the squad. And when you look at this roster, it’s like, yes, they do have the two older starters, but Redmond, Ingram Dawkins, Rodriguez, and Williams, that’s a bunch of younger guys with some potential there on the Dline to the outside linebackers where we got our biggest surprise of the day, which was Chaz Chamblas makes the team. Now, I had mentioned that as a possibility because of his special teams work. Chamblas did a ton of special teams work during the preseason and in a season where they are going to have a lot going on in the kick returns. You’re going to need special teamers who are specifically out there to make tackles and make plays on those kick returns. And Chamblas did a really good job there. He played multiple positions inside and outside linebacker. We know they love the versatility and he ends up making this team along with Bo Richter and of course Dallas Turner, Grard Van Ginkle. Uh but Shamblas over Gabe Murphy is the surprise of the day because Gabe Murphy had an excellent game against the New England Patriots and it seemed on a practice to practice basis that he was winning a lot of reps. He was creating a fair number of pressures and just appeared to be a guy that they were having as a that Patrick Jones type of development player who might carve out a role for himself. And I remember one of our takeaways, I believe, after the Patriots game was that Gabe Gabe Murphy looked really good and looked like they might actually use him. Well, we got that one wrong. Uh, and you know, preseason does tell us lies, but I thought he was good in camp, too. A few people had asked me like, “What are they doing? What are they thinking? And if I had to give you a guess here, RTOR and Chamblas are two guys who are really good on special teams. Uh Richtor had a quietly very good training camp, very good preseason, very solid for Bo Richtor again for the second straight year. But Chamblas’s versatility and special teams ability uh may have put him ahead of Gabe Murphy. They also might believe that Murphy’s a guy they can get back to the practice squad where maybe with Chamblas they were concerned about him being picked up. I don’t know. I thought Chamblas wouldn’t be a guy they’d be worried about being picked up, but if they really really want him on the roster and they like his upside, another undrafted free agent here ends up making the team. And you know, I mentioned this on Twitter earlier that just because we don’t know the exact explanation doesn’t mean there’s no explanation to Gabe Murphy being cut. I mean, Gabe Murphy is like 25 years old. They’ve had two years to evaluate him. And sometimes you just get to a point with a player like that where you might say, “Okay, but is there anything else that we’re going to learn from him?” and Gabe Murphy played five, no I think it was seven snaps of uh special teams during the preseason. So clearly they didn’t have a special teams role carved out for him and that would make a difference. I mean you’re going to play Grard Van Ginkle and Turner and these other two guys are very unlikely to get on the field on the defensive side. So it really does become about special teams. uh the inside linebacker. Another big surprise here though I did notice him a number of times was Austin Keys. I thought Austin Keys did play well. This could be a guy that they do cut and put on the practice squad if they are making additions and we’ll talk about those areas. But Austin Keys showed some physicality again special teams ability made a number of tackles in the preseason. So he ends up making the 53. That was a guy that I don’t think anybody had on the 53 because I assume that they could cut him and get him to the practice squad. But Cashman Pace Jr. and also Eric Wilson naturally. Now the cornerback position, this also featured a bit of a surprise throughout the entire summer. Zamaya Vaughn was CB, what do you want to call it? Four. He was on the field for all second team reps throughout the entire summer. And they must not have seen enough. And and he really botched that play against Van Jefferson in the final preseason game. But they must not have seen enough. They must have loved the potential and wanted to get as many reps as possible to evaluate Zamaya Vaughn. But once they saw everything there was to see, they decide to cut him. And he’s a guy that could very well get to the practice squad. And I’ll just say that about all players that you love who are getting cut. Just keep that in mind. What about this guy? What about that guy? Oftentimes with practice squads this big, they are not picked up on waiverss and there’s very good chances for them to get to the practice squad. But Zamaya Vaughn being cut must be that kind of a play. It must be that kind of a calculated risk to say if we cut Dwight McGloin, someone might pick him up. Uh clearly they already traded Mai Blackman away. This is an area the Vikings for sure must add somebody else at the cornerback position. They cannot go into the season with four corners and just three starters and then Dwight McGlon. But uh Murphy Jr. Rogers, Jeff Okuda ends up being one of the great stories of camp that Okuda is on the redemption tour here in Minnesota. That’s something I’m still really I would say interested to see how it plays out. I thought he had a very good camp and he earned it. And with Dwight McGloin, there was a moment there where we thought that Vaughn might make the team over him. It ends up being McGlon. He has more experience. And we’ll see if Vaughn ends up getting to the practice squad. But that was a big surprise for me because when somebody gets that many reps as CB4 or the second team outside corner, usually that guy is making the team. So they must have wanted as big of a sample size to evaluate as possible and then they end up deciding to wave him. Safeties Josh Batellis, Harrison Smith, Theo Jackson, Tavier Thomas is another key special teamer. So both of the special teamers, him and Tim Jones, the specialists end up making it. And Jay Ward, who I thought overall Jay Ward had a pretty solid uh training camp and preseason, and if anybody goes down, Jay Ward should be able to step in. But Javier Thomas is maybe the surprise here uh because they kept Tim Jones. So two special team specialists. You don’t see that a ton. Could be a guy that they move on from if they need to add somewhere to the roster. And yes, Ryan Wright makes the team. They cut Oscar Chapman yesterday and Ryan Wright is your punter at least for now. Uh there are other punters being released around the league and you know so maybe there’s still an option there for those of you who are very concerned about Ryan Wright. But there are your 53 initial Minnesota Vikings and the breakdown of some of the biggest surprises. Now let’s go through it again and talk about the options for the Vikings where we stand now. And that has to begin with the wide receiver position. As I mentioned, Ty Felton, Tim Jones, Miles Price are the depth wide receivers. I don’t know how you could go into week one with if Jaylen Naylor is banged up, how you could go into week one with basically just Justin Jefferson. And then Jones has caught, I believe, 17 balls in his career. Felton is a third round draft pick who I thought made significant progress through the off season, but I don’t know is ready to take on a big role. And then Miles Price looks like more of a returner, maybe an underneath type of wide receiver, but has never played before in the NFL. So those guys, there’s a lot of room for improvement there. The Adam Thielen trade, here is my understanding of where it stands right now. It appears to be not likely almost. I I don’t want to go farther than that. It appears to be very much not likely because the Carolina Panthers cut Hunter Renfro today. And all throughout training camp, I was reading from Carolina reporters that they were very happy with Hunter Renfro and they were impressed by him and that his performance and this might be a guy to look at for the Vikings. But his performance was so good that Carolina a lot of the Carolina reporters and I’ve chatted with some of them as well just hey where what do you guys know? Where do we stand? Things like that. Uh they thought that it was very possible that Renfro would make Adam the expendable. Well, cutting Renfro is a pretty clear sign and they might bring him back on their practice squad or whatever, but a pretty clear sign that they are set with their starting wide receivers, Coker, Legette, McMillan, and Adam Thielen. And also from the Carolina reporters, Thelen was at practice today uh with Carolina, so they weren’t holding him out of the practice. That thing appears to be on life support. And my feeling is that where they got to was the Vikings need a wide receiver really bad. And Carolina doesn’t need to get rid of a receiver really bad. They can use Adam Thelen. Even if he is bumped down to wide receiver three or four and they want to get looks at the other guys. If one person gets hurt, then Adam Thelen is back to playing as much as he did the last two years. They don’t have to do that. So, if you are in a position where if as Carolina, you like Adam Thielen as a veteran wide receiver for you, your quarterback has had good connection with him in the past, you’re going to have a pretty high price. You’re not going to say, “Oh, yeah, just give us a sixth because we’re trying to get rid of him anyway.” This is not a yard sale. This is a a store. There are those there are two situations when it comes to players being traded in the NFL. There’s going to the store, which means you pay the market price, or there’s going to the yard sale, which means we’re moving to Connecticut. We got to get rid of this stuff. And you see a lot of those trades that are a fifth or a sixth rounder or a pick swap. We’re moving this guy anyway. That’s Harrison Phillips. That’s Sam Howell. We’re moving this guy anyway. We’re moving to Connecticut. We got to just put everything out in the lawn. And if we get five bucks for it, that’s great. But if you go to the store, they’re going to have a price on it because they don’t have to give it to you. And that’s exactly what it was with the as far as I understand, which makes it less likely that it is going to happen. Uh I wouldn’t say it’s 100% riped, but there is not good signs for the Vikings uh trading for Adam Thielen at this point unless they come in at the last minute and say, “All right, fine. We’ll match your price.” I don’t know exactly what their price is, but that is my understanding of where this stands is if Carolina doesn’t have anything in terms of incentive to do it, you have to reach a point as the Vikings to incentivize them to do it. You have to say this is so much draft capital as Carolina, we have to accept. So if you had a glass of water and somebody else really needed a drink, but you were kind of thirsty, too. If they said, “I’ll give you 50 cents for your glass of water,” you’d be like, “No, I’m not giving you that. I’m I’m a little thirsty.” If they said, “I’ll give you 50 bucks for your glass of water.” Well, I’m not that thirsty. Here you go. That is uh a little bit of what I learned in economics 101, my friends. So, football economics 101 sounds like to me the Vikings did not make it worth their while. So, now we get on to what are the other options for the Vikings. Now, two names stood out to me in particular for getting released today that would make by far the most sense for the Vikings to just sign these players and not have to give up anything. Number one, and we’ve talked about him a bit, is KJ Osborne. Osborne just seemed to never really launch with Washington. Had a tough year last year with the New England Patriots and he ends up getting on the initial cut list of the Washington Commanders. Now, KJ Osborne is a guy that has not seemed to stick with other teams, but when he was a Minnesota Viking and he was working with Keenan Mardell, Osborne was a good wide receiver for this team. Uh, I thought that he struggled a bit in 2023, but overall had a good Vikings career. And at one point, we thought this guy’s going to make a lot of money on the free agent market. He had in 2021 his breakout season, 50 receptions, 60 catches in 2022, a 13- win season with Kevin Oonnell there, and then 48 receptions in 2023. Missed some time with injury, and was just always a pretty solid receiver. Not somebody who is going to go up and win contested catches like he’s Kelvin Johnson. uh not somebody who’s going to break 50 tackles like he’s Debo Samuel, but can at least execute within an offense well enough to catch 50 to 60 passes. And I don’t know where he’s at right now with his career. I did wonder about the injury that he suffered against the Atlanta Falcons. Well, uh, in 2023 during the Josh Dobs game, if that impacted him negatively or if because he’s only 28 years old, there shouldn’t be a collapse for KJ Osborne. And I don’t know of any other serious injuries. It could just be that KJ Osborne is a guy that does not really wow you in any way. He’s not super fast. He doesn’t I mean, he’s, I think, sizable, but he’s not humongous. Uh he’s listed at 5’11, 203 pounds. Like he’s not enormously muscular where he’s just going to compared to me he is, but not like other NFL receivers. He’s not going to break a 100 tackles. He’s not going to line up at running back in slot and re he’s not going to even be a good punt returner. But he’s a very smart player and he can make some plays with the ball in his hands and he can make some plays down the field as he made several huge catches during his career as a Viking. the Colts game, the comeback game in 22 comes to mind. Uh there was one in uh 2021, was it against uh or was it 22 against the Lions? I think it was 22 the first game against the Lions where they missed a field goal. Osborne had a huge catch down the field. He could do a lot of things well. I think he’s a guy that is a C++ in a lot of areas. And with some teams, if you get him in a training camp, you’re not the team that drafted him. You’re not paying him a lot of money. and you go, “Well, where does he wow me? We’re gonna go with a younger player.” I think that’s probably what happened in Washington. So, Osborne is still a good option. Where he’s at physically, I I’m not sure because he hasn’t wild these other teams, but at 28 years old, still in his prime, KJ makes a ton of sense. The other guy is Robert Woods. And the fact that Robert Woods did not make the roster of the Pittsburgh Steelers is a little on the concerning side for Robert Woods. Now, he’s had a great career. This is a 33year-old wide receiver who has taken a lot of punishment during his career. He was enormous for the Rams for several years. The emergence of Jared Goff, he was great in 2017, 2018. He had multiple thousand-y reception seasons. went to the Super Bowl with the Rams. Great blocker toughness. They got open, made plays, but in recent years with the Houston Texans, 40 catches in 2023 and only 20 receptions last year for him. And he played uh it looks like the entire schedule and only came up with 20 receptions. But in the situation the Vikings are in, they’re really just waiting for their number two wide receiver to come back. So, can you work your way through three games with Robert Woods and then he becomes part of your depth? Or can you work your way through three games with KJ Osborne and then he becomes part of your depth? I think that Woods would fall under that category, especially with his previous experience with Kevin Oonnell. Now, there’s a number of other guys who got cut as well that, you know, at least have been thrown out there. uh Marquez Valdez scantling which I when I I was just bored like everybody else. So I’m tweeting like maybe for every guy who gets cut and uh most of them got no reaction at all except for when I said Baldez Scantling who a lot of people basically just yelled no all at once. Uh Valdez Scantling had a couple of big plays against the Vikings when he was uh with Aaron Rodgers and he had some plays for the Kansas City Chiefs in big moments but uh has not really done a lot since then with Kansas City in 2023. He had 21 receptions and then last year 19 for 411 yards and four touchdowns though. I mean there’s that. There’s Gabe Davis is still out there as a possibility, but with every receiving option that we talk about, you just have to prepare yourself for like it’s going to have flaws. The Adam Thielen idea had flaws. Vulb Scantling would have flaws. Robert Woods would have flaws. KJ Osborne like none of these guys are going to make you super happy. But there is one that I think people would maybe be excited about and that is Trey Palmer of the Tampa Bay Bucks. Because at the very least what you can talk yourself into with Trey Palmer is that he has been just pushed down the depth chart after an impressive 2023 season by the fact that Tampa Bay just keeps going out and getting wide receivers and they have a great receiver room. Palmer in 2023 had 39 catches for 385 yards, so only about 10 yards a catch. Was more of an underneath guy, was more of a a Rondale Moore type of wide receiver, and then last year only had 12 receptions. Looks like he just got into a handful of games last year, but at very least 24 years old and 433 speed for Trey Palmer. So, there’s a there’s some upside there. there’s some potential intrigue there for uh somebody like Trey Palmer that might not exist so much in the old wide receivers. And the benefit of Trey Palmer is that last year he had 18 punt returns for 136 yards. So he was also a punt returner for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers last year. And thus ends the list of guys that you would be mostly interested in who got cut today. Otherwise, it’s going to be trade candidates. I saw Kendrick Bourne made the New England Patriots roster. That was somebody that was on my radar as a veteran wide receiver that could potentially uh come to the Minnesota Vikings if he got released, even though I think he’s also banged up. But, uh, even then, he, you know, ends up making their team. And there’s not a lot of other players that jumped out to me that I ran to throw on my list of uh Minnesota Vikings potential wide receivers. As far as corners go and that one that is so wide open, but Russul Douglas is off the table and it looks like Mike Hilton is probably going to sign with the Colts. Douglas signed with the Dolphins. So there’s two guys that would have been of interest that look like they are not going to be available as well. I don’t know what Stfan Gilmore’s uh situation is. Uh but I maybe they’re making that phone call to Gilmore in in a role where he doesn’t have to play as much. I think Stfan Gilmore, if he’s just like last year, would be probably fine or pretty good as a backup, but they need to do something at that spot. So, when you look at the initial 53 and maybe you scratch your head at some of these and go, “Well, why did they keep this guy or or what were they thinking there?” could be very different when we’re doing an emergency podcast or tomorrow night’s show at its typical time uh in the evening. So, there you go. Your 53 man roster for the Minnesota Vikings. I am curious about uh your reaction and there’s still things coming in uh on, you know, I’m still getting endless alerts from Pro Football Talk and from uh you know, Adam Shfter. So, if you see things coming in that you notice, please uh feel free to let me know. So, all right. What are you guys What are you guys thinking? What do you guys want to know? Uh, I’m aware that Gil See, this is this is the worst the worst the worst comments that you can make are that a guy is old. Like, everyone knows everyone knows that someone’s old. Uh, but last year, Stfan Gilmore played a bunch of snaps for them and was fine. So, he’s remains old. He was old last year. I bet you left the same comment last year and said, “Did you know that Stfan Gilmore is old?” Yes, I did. I did when they signed him last year and they had a top five defense. So, if they do it again and you have Byron Murphy and Isaiah Rogers and Jeff Okuda and then another veteran, that would be a good situation, I think, for them. But, I don’t know if Stfan Gilmore would want to come back and play for a team where he’s not going to get as much work as he did last year. So, I’m not really sure. Uh, so let me just dive in to your comments here. Paul says no Renfro or Thelen. Well, if the Thelen thing is uh is off the table, then I guess you get your dream there. As far as Renfro goes, we just don’t know what Hunter Refro looks like right now. The the people who know are in Carolina covering that team and that camp because once upon a time, like let’s not forget, he’s not even 30 years old yet. It wasn’t that long ago when Hunter Renfro was good. like he was a quality wide receiver and then he had this illness issue but he caught 103 passes in 2021 and then 36 and 25 as he you know faded there with the illness but uh I’m not saying that’s a great idea and and just as I mentioned that every single receiver idea is going to come along with oh I don’t want that guy he’s not that great you you’re not looking for uh the next Jordan Addison here you’re not looking for the next Chris Carter or Jake Reid here. You’re looking for someone to come in for a couple weeks and then be wide receiver 4 to be able to give you reasonable NFL level football play. I mean, look, this team is down so bad at receiver. And I do want to talk about this. They are down so bad at wide receiver right now that the guy who took the most reps in the absence of Justin Jefferson by far with JJ McCarthy got cut today. That’s where they’re at. Lucky Jackson got a ton of reps. He took almost all of them with the first team with Justin Jefferson out and he got cut and he is a guy that they could probably get on the practice squad. They could probably elevate and get him into the game. And you know, maybe that’s why they did this is that they know they can put him on the practice squad, but maybe someone might grab Miles Price as a punt returner. I don’t know. That might factor into it. But when you’re talking about a scenario that is so dim or grim, I guess at wide receiver that the guy who took the most reps when Justin Jefferson was out of camp got cut on the day that they do the 53 initial 53 roster. That’s bad. So you are looking at guys like Hunter Renfro. You’re looking at trades like Adam Thielen. You’re checking into maybe potentially someone like Valdez Scantling or KJ Osborne. And every single one of them, their recent resume is not good. I promise you, whoever they sign, whatever they get, what we will be talking about is, well, that guy’s not that great. I think everyone would be happy with Trey Palmer because he runs a four or three and he’s had punt returning success. He’s caught some passes in the league. I think of all the options, I like the Trey Palmer option the most because I could actually see him continuing to contribute. But when I bring up names, you’re not going to like them because it’s cut down day. And I can’t remember another time where on cutdown day we were talking about filling out a position and you’re like, whoa, Super Bowl. Uh, so, you know, Gabe Davis might still be out there. We’ll see. Oh, and at the quarterback position, I did want to mention probably no coincidence that Asante Samuel Jr., there was an update from Jeremy Fowler on him and if he can convince teams that he’s in good shape. There was a CT scan that was mentioned, but that could be a potential option still for the Vikings. And uh the day they sign him, I’ll call him longtime Viking Asante Samuel Jr., but we’ll see on that. That’s another potential option out there. But it’s just a PSA that receiver watch 2025 is not that fun. It’s not because of the rash of injuries. And we do have to to take a second as this come as this 53 comes out and it’s Tim Jones and it’s Miles Price and we’ll talk about Felton in a second. We do have to ask like did they do enough in the last off season? Like was this foreseeable? because I think everybody and their brother knew that Jordan Addison was getting suspended and there was a certain talk show online banging the drum for drafting a wide receiver high. Okay, happy with the Felton decision because they need that down the road. But there’s a reason for that. There’s a reason for talking about drafting a receiver high. And I’m not down on Donovan Jackson after this camp. So don’t make it about that. But I think what that is is a little bit of you could see this and I liked the idea of Rond Del Moore and it was really unfortunate what happened to Rond Del Moore. That was just a total bad break. It’s also a total bad break that Jaylen Naylor hurt his hand in joint practices. That was a random thing just going down to try to make a catch and he hurts his arm. But when you knew that Addison was going to be suspended and you knew that, you know, Jaylen Naylor, I think they were overconfident anyway in Jaylen Naylor’s ability to step in. It’s really easy to forget the games that they won when Naylor was wide receiver two. They were ahead from the jump against San Francisco. They were ahead from the jump against Houston. Those are games where they didn’t need their number two wide receiver. wasn’t a shootout against Atlanta or a shootout against Cincinnati, which are both possible for week two and week three. U so hoping and dreaming that Rond Del Moore leaning on a third round pick to try to be a guy like it just it wasn’t enough. They needed one more body just in case of this situation. And you know, I I texted uh Kevin Seaffort today and I said like, “Is it rational to criticize a team for getting rid of Trent Sherfield?” And I think the answer today is is yes, it is rational to criticize the team for getting rid of Trent Sherfield or at least letting him walk and and not matching whatever his price was because he did make a couple plays for them as a receiver and he was an excellent special teamer. So now they may have to lean on a Tim Jones if they can’t find another answer. I do expect them to have another answer shortly. Uh I don’t know when. I don’t know if that’s going to happen now, but I do think that uh they will have one soon enough and that there’s been one in the works. But you know, Naylor’s been he got injured what 10 12 days ago and they knew about Addison for a long time and did not make a move yet. So they must have a plan here. They must have an idea. Which uh by the way, that leads us to the FanDuel question of the day, which is if the Vikings go into week one with Tim Jones as their wide receiver, too. If they don’t make another move, put it that way, at wide receiver, what’s the overunder under for uh total points in that first game? What is the overunder for total points if they go into week one without another significant receiver option? So, it’s just Jefferson, Tim Jones, Miles Price, and a heck of a lot of two tight end sets. What would be your overunder for total points if that happened? That is our FanDuel question of the day. So, let me get back to some of your comments here. Uh, Wallace says, “Addison sure caused the team a lot of problems and damage with his irresponsibility.” No disagreement here, Wallace. And the only thing you can hope for there with Addison is that he learns from this and that uh he will grow as a person after this because you are absolutely right. If they were going into week one with Naylor hurting, you know, okay. All right. Well, that’s no problem. Just have somebody else play Jaylen Naylor. That guy got, you know, a catch and a half per game anyway, right? That wouldn’t be that big of a deal. But missing three games because you couldn’t properly handle yourself behind the wheel or call an Uber, that’s that should be a life lesson for Jordan Addison to never ever let that happen again. Uh, Grateful Dad 78. Is Felton that bad? No, I do not believe Ty Felton is that bad. I think the reality of Ty Felton is he’s that young. uh Felton, I mean, we can we can go, you know, look at this with his college career, but, you know, Ty Felton was a guy who developed for a couple years with Maryland and then got some catches in 2023, had a big breakout 2024, but a lot of it because Maryland was not very good at football and didn’t have a very good quarterback. A lot of it was short passes, a lot of it was just, you know, goal routes. This is a system that asks a lot from its wide receivers in terms of details. If they had to play Ty Felton today along with Jaylen Naylor, I think they could do it. He caught the ball. He made plays in camp. He made plays in the preseason and he showed a lot of potential. I mean, clearly from them wanting him to be the kick returner. There’s a lot of potential there. But just like once upon a time with KJ Osborne, you can’t draft a guy in the middle rounds and then just be like, “Oh, why aren’t you a star right away? You should be a star right away. What’s your problem?” I mean, this is a guy who I think needs to put on some muscle. I think he needs to be a little better at getting off the line of scrimmage, a little sharper coming in and out of his breaks, needs to learn football more, but the potential is there. So, you know, I think that we just fall in love with the draft so much. And this goes for some undrafted free agents, too. We fall in love with the draft so much that we read about these guys and oh my gosh, this guy’s got such a great background story or he’s, you know, he’s so exciting and he’s got this number or that number at the combine and we forget that the guys who play a long time in the NFL, they got a lot going on upstairs in terms of knowledge of techniques and details and systems and all those things. Now, could you put him on the field for 15 plays in the first week? Yeah, I think you can. So, I I wouldn’t write off Ty Felton. I would just say that it’s very hard to be ready to play in the NFL uh as a complete player and play 45 snaps or something right away if you’re not Justin Jefferson or Jordan Addison who are freaks like first round draft pick freaks. It’s a little bit different. Uh I can’t uh fully understand your very long name, but players over the age of 30 might as well be in a wheelchair the way you guys some of you guys talk. Uh, that is 100% true, right? Yeah. If someone has reached 30 years old, just get them the heck out of my face. Uh, what’s wrong? Paul says, “What’s wrong with Deontay Johnson or Trey Palmer?” I like Trey Palmer. I like him a lot. Here’s the problem is that the waiver order is not ideal for the Minnesota Vikings. So, their waiver order, they are 24th. And if you’re trying to pick up somebody that a lot of teams might like and you’re 24th, you’re probably not going to get them. Uh, and the reason for that is, you know, to help those bad teams get better by giving them the first waiver claims. And Trey Palmer can help a team. So, I’d be a little surprised if somebody doesn’t claim him before the Minnesota Vikings, but if they can get to him, uh, then they should. Deontay Johnson, I just wouldn’t touch that with a 50-ft pole. I mean, that guy has been on how many different teams? Uh there was a story that he didn’t want to go in a game when he was with the Ravens because he was cold. I think he was missing practices. He goes to Cleveland. He can’t make the roster. I mean, half of you guys could make Cleveland’s roster. So, I don’t know. Uh I I don’t think that there’s anything left there. Uh Edwin, do we have anyone receiving punts on the current roster? That would be Miles Price. Uh Price clearly showed an ability with the football in his hands to kick and punt return. There’s got to be some nervousness about actually catching the ball, which does not make you feel great going to Soldier Field, but at least it’s not November going to Soldier Field. They’re going, it’s probably going to be a beautiful evening for him to try to catch the ball if he’s that guy. I still think you’re looking at a DeAndre Carter. If you could get Trey Palmer, you’re looking at somebody like him. I mean, I think that they are going to go outside the building for the punt return position, but Miles Price may made the team on the fact that he was very good in that area. And if he ends up being the odd man out who gets cut when they bring in somebody else, I would assume that they put him on the practice squad and that he’s a guy that they will continue to develop because look, even if it’s preseason, it’s not easy to make plays in the NFL. It’s not easy to run over a guy, to find lanes, to be quick, to show your talent, and he was able to do that. Uh, so I think that he will be uh I think he will be there um in some capacity still. Uh Evans says, “Felton isn’t bad, just needs experience and development. Wouldn’t be fair to put him at wide receiver, too, as a rookie.” Yep, I agree with all of that. It would just be it would just be difficult. It would be difficult for him to do. Uh expose says uh bit nervous on corner and wide receiver even with the addition of wide receiver three is sketchy. If the running game isn’t what we expected, do we worry about JJ forcing to Jefferson? Well, I mean, we we can’t forget that they do have, you know, one of the best receiving tight ends in the NFL. They do have one of the best receiving running backs in the NFL. And they have a second tight end who is probably one of the best tight end twos. I know that seems like a backhanded compliment, but I think Josh Oliver could start on 15 teams as a number one tight end. So, it’s not like McCarthy has nobody to throw to in the same way that Darnold didn’t have nobody last year. Some of this just depends on where Naylor’s at. I didn’t think it sounded great, but if Naylor ends up being okay, well, then it feels less dire. It feels less grim if they have uh Jaylen Naylor back and then it feels like you’ve got almost your entire lineup and look, you know, football teams miss players. It happens sometimes. Atlanta’s tackle just went out for the year and they had to trade for a tackle. Like that’s that’s life sometimes in the NFL, but Naylor getting hurt makes it a lot more difficult. Are you worried about him forcing it to Jefferson? I mean, you’re you’re always a little concerned about that, but I think where McCarthy was good was even if it was Theer Thomas out there and Lucky Jackson, if that’s where the Reed took him, he threw the ball there uh during training camp. And at least that’s I think a good sign for McCarthy still distributing the football, but you need somebody to catch it. You need somebody to be open and be able to make somewhat of a play. uh if he’s targeting anybody outside of Justin Jefferson, like that’s where the experience factor and you’re talking about, oh well, this guy’s older, but if he’s been in the league this long, he at least could catch the ball and be in the right spot. That was kind of the argument for Adam Thielen is at least he’s going to be able to make a play if it’s there where we don’t know if Tim Jones can make a play. We don’t know if Miles Price or Ty Felton can do it, the guys currently on the roster, or if they, you know, bring back Lucky Jackson and elevate him. I don’t know if they’ll do that. That all just leaves you pretty pretty darn nervous. Uh, so I Yeah, I think that that’s I mean, I think that’s a legitimate concern though is trying to force it to Jefferson too much. And Chicago does have a pretty darn good corner, Jaylen Johnson. Just talking about starting the season there. Uh, Robert, uh, Chaz Chamblas was a surprise, but I’m guessing he won’t be there for long. No, you know, I think he will. I think he will because of the special teams ability, and it’s clear from this initial 53 that they valued that with Tim Jones, Tavier Thomas, and Chamblas. Now, like you said, that could change by tomorrow, but I think they really liked Chaz Chamblas. And you know, it’s hard to know what they’re going to do, what spots they’re going to need, but six outside linebackers sounds right to me. Let me double check that. I think it was six, right? Or was it five? Uh, no, five. Six defensive line, five outside linebackers. Five outside linebackers seems right to me. Unless they’re going to make the m the Micah Parson’s trade. Make the Micah Parson’s trade right now. Not that trading with Dallas has ever worked out badly or anything for the Vikings and Jerry Jones, but maybe, you know, maybe maybe Jerry’s so crazy right now that you could be like, “Oh, it’s just like Hershel Walker, man. Like, here’s here’s a couple UDFAs and some draft picks and like are you happy?” Okay. Micah Parsons, sure. Uh, I don’t think that’s the case. RTOR, I mean, they already have Turner there, Van Ginkle, Grenard. I mean, RTOR and Chamblas, I I think for a for a fourth and fifth outside linebacker, those are those are fine guys to have, but especially on the special teams, I just think that that’s really important. So, I don’t know. I mean, you could be right that he might be one of the first guys to be cut, but I think they they do care about that. And he’s also got some positional flexibility. I think he did earn a spot there. Uh John says, “Noah, Ian.” [Music] Oh man, I thought I had it there. The Igbian I think. Is that right? The corner who he drafted in Miami who’s bounced around. He was released today. Yeah. I don’t know. I mean, familiarity might matter. I think they’ve had other chances at getting that guy, but I, you know, I don’t know. When when you’re talking about corners, it’s going to be a lot for them about fit, and that makes it harder to figure out. With wide receivers, it’s okay. KJ Osborne, you catch football? Sure, come on to the team. With corners, it’s a little more nuance. Duke Shelly got released. Vikings legend Duke Shel. Uh Jason says, “I’d like the Vikings to trade for a receiver in a corner. Vets are going cheap and we have lots of picks.” No, I agree. I I agree. if they if they can if they can make a deal. I think it gets harder after today though with the initial 53 because usually those trades happen before the 53 because it’s the yard sale theory where teams are just saying hey you know we got to get rid of this and we’re going to cut this guy so why don’t you just take him as for whatever price. So when you say like, oh, they’re going cheap. Well, that’s that’s why is because they are trying to get rid of those guys and there’s they’re making phone calls. Hey, do you want like anything for this guy? Um, Athena, what’s the deal with Shaq Griffin? Is he available? I don’t think so. I think he’s is he making is he on Seattle? Is he making Seattle’s team? I have not checked up on Shaq Griffin. Uh, Scott Gilmore refuses to tackle. Not what his number said last year. I know there were a few ugly uh missed tackles, but I think his tackling numbers were fine overall. I will check with our with our PFF friends where he ended up in tackling. Uh 68.9 grade last year. That’s okay. He had seven missed tackles. So, it was a little bit above his usual average, but it wasn’t it wasn’t horrendous by any means. I mean, he’s a bigger corner. He did. There were a few Olay type of plays, but I mean, look, again, when we’re talking about this age, so Fabian Morrow was released. Okay. When we’re talk we’re talking about guys who are this age, guys who are uh this available right now, there’s going to be a flaw when it comes to their background, their recent performance, but is that flawed player better than what you have? So, just for example, if Jeff Okuda got hurt today, would you rather have Dwight McGloin or Stfan Gilmore? I think a lot of you would rather have McGloin because you’ve never seen him before, but if you’re trying to really win, uh, Gilmore is a a better option who’s been with this Bellich inspired Flores scheme forever and played well for them. I wouldn’t want him playing as many snaps as he did last year, but I think it’s a reasonable option if he wants to play. Uh, Vegas Pro says, “We lose draft picks for the plenty of old average wide receivers right now.” I just I just implore you to look it up. I just implore you to look it up. Go compare their old receivers you’re talking about. Compare Thelen’s last two years to Robert Woods. Robert Woods has 60 catches in the last two years. Thelen has 151. That’s the difference. The difference is when when Bryce Young threw the ball to Adam Thelen, he had over a 100 quarterback rating. When he threw it to anybody else, he was nowhere close to that. It’s He’s been good. That’s the point. He’s been good. And so, you know, it’s been days and days of people telling me the old and there’s better options, but no one can prove it. No one can prove that there’s a better option on paper with what these guys have actually done recently. But it just seems to me that they also feel that way. Carolina also feels that way that they can’t just give up somebody for not very much. Uh that they’re going to have to be convinced. And as of right now, they have not been convinced. Uh Matt says Renfro was pretty decent not that long ago. If he helps for a stretch, then becomes a checkdown guy. Fine with that. Um yeah, at least from the reports from Carolina, it looked like he was making plays and he was getting open in their practices. And that’s all I can really tell you. Uh I can just tell you what the reports from Carolina said. But when we’re down to these types of options, Robert Woods getting cut off a team that needs wide receivers in Pittsburgh because I’ve seen their writers talking about, “Yeah, they could really use another receiver.” and then they’re cutting Robert Woods. That’s not screaming to me that that’ll be just fine. Whereas the reports from Carolina camp were like they they thought this guy would make it because he’s been pretty good. So that seems to be a little different. Uh is the Thelen trade officially off the table? Well, not not officially. Uh does it make sense for both sides to wait until today’s cutown day to assess the market? It’s not officially, but them cutting Renfro made it a lot less likely. I think if Renfro had made the team, then they would have had one too many cooks in the kitchen there, one too many guys needing targets, and it would have felt like it was still possible. But if they’re willing to part ways with Renfro, that to me says, “No, Adam’s probably still on this team.” Yes, that could change. It’s not a guarantee. It’s not over until it’s over. They could make it happen tomorrow. It just feels like that idea is on life support at the moment, unless the Vikings come in at the last minute. Maybe Mark Wolf goes full Jerry Jones and he calls Quy and he’s like Quy, my kids all got their number 19 jerseys out. We’re all ready for Thelen. Bring him home. Uh but at least from Shfter’s reporting and what I’ve heard today, just sounds like they’re not willing to match the price that Carolina is asking. So, uh, Roberts says, uh, Lucky Jackson dropped a bunch of passes and I think that that really did hurt his chances in the preseason game in a couple of practices that if they couldn’t trust him to catch the ball, that was where Tim Jones was a little more reliable catching the football and Price is just a pure special teamer. But I think that that did hurt Lucky. I agree. If he had stepped up in that preseason game and been great and made plays and, you know, so forth. I mean, look, after the first preseason game, he was good. And we were talking about like he’s going to get catches, right? And it looked that way with all the reps and everything else, but it just seemed like, and this is so hard about football, and it’s what you take for granted with great players like Justin Jefferson and Jordan Addison, is there’s so much pressure that these guys put on themselves. And I’m sure for Lucky, he felt the weight of his journey to get there going to the XFL and all that sort of stuff. And it’s hard to continue to perform when you feel like you’re on the edge of finally breaking through. And I I think it kind of happened there in that preseason game. So that was a little tough. It was a little tough. Uh, Red Star says, “I hope Jordan Edison looks at this and understands uh why we are in this position and why next year we should think about a a first round wide receiver.” Well, let’s get uh let’s give Jordan Addison time here before they have to go decide in next year’s draft. Uh next year’s draft is not even though I’m always pro- wide receiver, not something I’m thinking a lot about at this moment. Uh, with Jordan Addison, I am perfectly willing to give him time to prove all the things that they’ve said about him. You are 100% right. He got them here with this. He got them to this position because if if he wasn’t out for three games, this would be fine. We wouldn’t even be talking about it. We’d be like, “Oh, Miles Price, that’s cool.” Like, whatever. They don’t need to go get another wide receiver. No big deal. But now they they feel like they do because of this three-game stretch of three very important games. In my mind, you got to come away at worst two and one. Three and 0 is ideal. Two and one because of what’s next after that. Two games overseas. You know, one of them is very winnable against Joe Flacco or Dylan Gabriel or whoever the heck is starting for Cleveland, but it’s still London and it’s still you never know. Pittsburgh’s not going to be easy. They’re never easy in any scenario except for the first round of the playoffs. Hey yo, but that’s been true. Uh, and then after that, then it’s hell month after that and it just, you know, everything goes crazy. So, you got to find ways to win these games that you’re supposed to win that you’re going to be favored for. Going to be favored in Chicago, favored at home against Atlanta, and then we’ll see where Cincinnati is and where their defense is. They do have Trey Hendrickson back, so that one might be a pick them depending on how things go. But those are games you have to win and Addison put him in this position. But that was a year ago. There hasn’t been any issues for a year. If there’s not any issues for two years, I think you’re going to feel very good about where Addison is because let’s not forget he is a great player. A very, very, very good player. So, uh, let’s see. Joe says, “Is it not concerning that we aren’t discussing the recent third round pick as someone who can fill in for snaps in the first three weeks?” Uh, you know, I still don’t think that. No, because when you say third round pick, it makes him sound like he was the first pick of the third round. He was the last pick of the third round. He was essentially a four. I mean, he’s almost the hundth overall player picked. Uh so, is it concerning to me? Not really. Uh because I understand that players need development. I mean, would if we go through the players who have become something for this team over the years, I mean, Ivan Pace is one that showed up as an undrafted free agent and started right away. But how many how many did that? How about a a Josh Matelis, for example, somebody who was a what, sixth round draft pick that needed to develop? KJ Osborne was a fifth round pick that needed to develop. It’s not it’s not unusual to have somebody who’s drafted in the third round that isn’t a perfect player right away. I do think from what I’ve seen from Felton if he gets out there that he can be a good player and he can contribute for them in a limited type of sample size of plays. I just don’t think he’s ready to do that yet. I think he needs a whole year as an NFL player to be really ready to be wide receiver three next season and he’s got to show them behind the scenes that they can believe in him. But it’s just a lot to ask. You you draft a a a guy who was supposed to develop behind Naylor and then be the next man up. I mean, he was even, I think, probably going to be behind Rond Del Moore and and get that time and be a returner and play in the league. That’s how you would ideally want to do it. Now, if he has to get in, then we’ll find out. But, uh, I don’t think it’s concerning for Felton yet. I think it’s much more along the lines of normal that that would be the case. It’s just that you just expect every draft pick to step right in and and be great because you get sold on their uh their skills and everything else on draft day. But there’s a there’s a lot there’s a lot that needs to be uh learned for somebody like Ty Felton and then we’ll see how it plays out. Timothy, maybe the Vikings take a look at Micole Hardman. Did he get released today? I I suppose I’ never been all that wowed by him, but you know, I mean, guys who only succeed in Kansas City certainly are concerned. Kind of like uh guys who used to only succeed with Tom Brady in New England. Um, let’s see. More concerned about DB depth than wide receiver. Um, yeah, I think that’s probably right because at wide receiver you have the best wide receiver in the world. So that’s that does mitigate some of these problems as we’re going off about all these different options and everything else. That does mitigate some of the issues is that if you do throw to Justin Jefferson 15 times is not ridiculous. And if you throw to TJ Hawinson 15 times, not ridiculous, and you have Jones and you have Oliver and it’s not like if Naylor’s healthy that he’s never done this before. the DB depth that I would say is uh concerning because you’re one injury away from being in a really really tough spot there and you’re asking Jeff Okuda to be cornerback number two if someone were to get banged up. Where they are starter-wise is fine right now. And that’s another thing to keep in mind as we, you know, it’s it’s cut down day. So, of course, this is what we’re talking about and we’re talking about those storylines. At starter, they’re they’re good. Isaiah Rogers and Byron Murphy. Rogers, I thought, had a very good camp. Byron Murphy, I think, is a very good player. Josh Matelis plays nickel corner a lot of times. They’ve played three safeties a ton in the past. I think Theo Jackson had a good camp, and we know that he can make plays. We’ll see about Harrison Smith. I assume he’s going to be back from the illness where he missed some time there. But the starters are fine, but one level down, that’s where you would start to get concerned. I agree. Uh Vegas Pro, Odell Beckham, Gabe Davis, Nelson Agelar, you know, I’m talking about the guys with guys with uh concerning recent histories, right? Michael Gallup, DJ Shark, Donovan Peoples Jones. Like these are these are just names, man. I mean, the Odell Beckham thing is kind of interesting because, you know, as we’re talking about, you know, Adam Thelen, can you just catch the ball? Can you just get to the right spot and catch the ball? I mean, Odell Beckham, but does he come along with something more? Does he come along with a bit of a circus there of Odell Beckham? Does he still think that he is a superstar? for like last year he ended up playing in a handful of games he had nine catches on 18 targets and averaged six yards a catch. That’s pretty pretty bad for last year. Uh in Baltimore in 2023 he was he was decent. He had 35 receptions, 16 yards a catch in 2023. But we know this I I I call it the Marcus Davenport fallacy. The hey two years ago this guy was pretty good. I don’t like to go down that road too often. That that’s usually that’s usually unless it was an injury like a Jayvon Hargrave or something, but even then that came along with some risk. Uh but you know, two years ago he was useful. He would be on a team right now if anybody thought that that was a good idea, but it’s an idea and and they are not in a position to turn down too many ideas at this moment. I think for me it would probably be KJ Osborne would be the clear obvious one. Uh Osborne would be the the one that you know knows the offense. I’m sure at least some of it still with some tweaks in there, you know, can come in and and what he’s going to be in your locker room. Uh how he’s going to get along with your staff. Keenan Mardell and KJ Osborne, that was a great combination for them. Uh Kina Mardell was really behind KJ Osborne’s development when he was here. So you know that that was uh something that would matter to this evaluation as well is that I think Keenan was always very high on KJ Osborne. Trey Palmer if he gets through waiverss would be a pick. I mean, if you if you grab those two guys and you have Palmer as your punt returner, wide receiver, whatever, five, KJ Osborne, wide receiver four, Osborne can move up to wide receiver two if Naylor has to miss a week. Like, you’re not feeling horrible at that moment despite Osborne’s recent issues, and you would feel like you at least got somebody with some potential. Uh, I noticed uh what’s his name? Corley. Is it Malachi? Corley got cut from the Jets. That was another guy where, you know, really fast former third rounder. Just didn’t do anything. At least Trey Palmer had some history though. Corali only had three catches for the Jets. I mean, none of these ideas are super exciting. But if they did the Beckham thing, like, okay, that’s going to be maybe a lot of attention for a guy that you hope can still run any routes and catch any passes, I think that someone like him catching that few in a place like Miami where they throw the ball a lot, that’s that’s concerning. But with Osborne, it looks like he just hasn’t fit with the teams that he’s gone to. Though, I can’t say Washington had a ton of talent at that wide receiver position. Uh, in terms of the FanDuel question of the day, the overunder for points in week one, if they have to play Tim Jones as wide receiver, too, 15, uh, 24 Expose goes with Robert goes with 20, Brett with 13, 20 from Vikings fans, 13 to 10 is good from Matt, 19 and a half from Sizzleman. Uh, 51 to zero, of course. Of course, why not? So yeah, you know, I uh I think that in that scenario, you would be talking about trying to run the football a lot more, trying to play ball control a lot more, and thinking about your defense getting seven sacks in the first game and proving that Ben Johnson can’t change anything about Caleb Williams. I I wouldn’t count out the idea that they could still score. They did score a lot of points in two games last year, but it took great defensive performances uh for the Vikings to score the way they did and a 97 yard touchdown. So, what they should do is they should use the 97 yard touchdown play against the Bears. That’s what they that’s how they can rack up their points. Just throw the 97 yard touchdown one. Gus Farerat used it with Bernard Barry and Once Upon a Time. Cause and effect. What’s wrong with going after Tyreek Hill and Jacobe Meyers? Uh, a few things. I mean, Tyreek Hill, uh, yikes. I don’t think you want Tyreek Hill on your football team because that is a ticking time bomb, but Tyreek Hill also, how are you getting that done from a salary cap perspective? And when Addison comes back, like does Tyreek Hill, is he just your number two wide receiver? And what are you doing there exactly? Is Tyreek Hill even on the trade block? That’s I see his name come up every night in the chat. I don’t really understand that. As far as Jacobe Meyers, that’s that’s another one where your investment would have to be pretty big. Um if they didn’t, now it’s a totally different situation, but both guys are free agents after this year. If they didn’t want to trade out for Adam Thielen, like do they really want to give up a lot for Jacobe Meyers? I think Jacobe Myers is a great wide receiver. I think he’s a very solid if you were ranking every number two in the league. T. Higgins is probably first. Jordan Addison somewhere in that ballpark. And I I think Jacobe Meyers is a a number two receiver to Brock Bowers there really. I know he’s tight end, but he’s really their number two option is is very good 100 type of target guy there. uh he’s gotten a thousand yards before, but uh are you making him your clear-cut number two wide receiver? Are you giving him another contract? Are you paying out a second round draft pick for him? A third round draft pick for I think a third would make the most sense because the Raiders would probably want to get back at least what they’re going to get for a comp pick. Are you tr I mean I guess in the position they’re in right now if they traded a third round pick for Jacobe Meyers and gave him a contract extension you’d be like oh uh how much do they believe in Jordan Edison going forward right or you just have a great three deep but you’ve also got Hawinson to feed and so forth. So I don’t know that one’s a hard logistically because you’re talking about probably a lot of draft capital you have to give up and then money that you have to give up. Uh let’s see Denver is paying 3.25 25 million. Too much for a guy that caught 10 balls all season. Uh yeah, I get is 3.25 million a lot of money. I I’m not sure I agree with that. Sherfield was an elite punt gunner who could step in and play wide receiver when they needed him to do a lot of things. Yeah, I know he only caught 10 balls last season, but he was he was quality receiver depth. He was able to step in if they needed him to. A lot of experience, you know. Uh, Bitter Bruce says Jaylen Armor Davis was released a surprise release by the Ravens. I saw that. Yep. I don’t know a lot about him. But the corners, that’s the hardest part is figuring out. There’s a lot of corners who get released. So, who is going to be the one that fits the best is really the question. That’s something I don’t know. Uh, Hercen says Darasaw is not on short-term IR. Is he playing week one? I think so. I think so. Based on what we saw in the scrimmage right before the end of training camp, the last day of camp is a scrimmage. And out of I think McCarthy was out there for 33 passes, I want to say probably like 20 something Darasaw was there for ramping up, ramping up, ramping up. I think he will be ready by week one, but I’m only taking a guess at that. We’ll see when the injury report comes out. But as far as his track to week one, when he got in, the fact that he was able to have a full day of practice against the New England Patriots, that was really positive for him. Uh, in the joint practices, he didn’t do the second day, but he did the first day. That was positive for him. And as you said, not going on short-term IR. Uh, that’s pretty good as well. Uh, yeah, I see uh Corley’s name coming up a couple of times here. He was a third round pick from last year who I I get they I saw some Jets people tweeting out video of Joe Douglas like just desperate to get this guy and then he had three catches last year. So it Yeah, I mean he’s one of those guys that you would pick up if you’re a team that’s not really ready to win and you’re just taking swings. Oh, a third round pick. Let me just grab him. But I think the Vikings need somebody who can help them win, not just kind of a swing like that. Uh, let’s see. Ty Chandler with lots of question marks. Yeah, I’m not I’m not terribly surprised by TH Ch Ty Chandler making the team. I’m not terribly surprised by that. I think I had that uh in my last 53. There there was a bit of an overreaction from maybe uh everyone after Xavier Scott had that big preseason game. Not an overreaction to Xavier Scott. Xavier Scott has been legit and he makes the 53 today. Will he stay on it? I’m not sure. But he was good in this preseason. Legitimately good. Caught the football. Uh ran hard, had explosive plays, showed some burst. Like he he was a guy I think they wanted to keep and that they were very impressed by. But Chandler has history as a returner. Returners are going to get hurt, too. like this play when you watch this play sometimes returners it’s like uh wy coyote or something sometimes where it was like full speed and then smack into a wall. I think you want someone with some beef to them like a running back or you know that’s why Miles Price kind of makes sense because he’s got some muscle to him that can take some punishment. Um, that’s a little bit of my concern with Ty Felton returning all the kicks is like I don’t know, man. Sometimes those guys get really smacked. But that’s one reason. And also, you go around the league and hey, it could still be Cam Acres. He got released. But you go around the league, how many RB3s have any games like Ty Felton, I’m sorry, Tai Chandler had a couple years ago against Cincinnati or Detroit? Like not many of them. Most of them are undrafted free agents or seventh round draft picks or something. And there’s not a lot of great RB3s, so it’s better to just keep someone who has been here before. Uh, is the faithful shocked by the Gabriel Murphy release? I think so. Shock. This became funny on the social medias today for me because there was I was surprised, but I wasn’t shocked. And another word that was used was uh baffled. Someone said they were baffled. I wasn’t baffled. Surprised is right. surprised means, yeah, I thought that he would be on there 53 and I thought that he would maybe carve out a little bit of a a role, a Jiad Ward role or a Patrick Jones where he mixes in on some pass rushing downs. Thought that was possible based on what we had seen. He played every rep with the twos at outside linebacker, but shocked or baffled, no, I couldn’t go there because he didn’t play special teams. That’s a big deal for this year. And I mean just for making 53s and we’re talking about OB4. I mean anytime anytime you’re not talking about one of the first three players on the depth chart at any position, it’s not it’s not a shock. They had two years to evaluate him. They probably got to the point where they said there was a a Hard Knocks, you remember, I don’t know if you watch Hard Knocks with the Lions a couple years ago, but there was a a Hard Knocks scene with Dan Campbell talking about whether to cut a running back. And his thing was, look, we we don’t need to learn anything more about this player. We know exactly what we have here. We know the limitations. We know there’s not another level to this guy, so we should just move on. And I think that’s where you get with Gabe Murphy is they there’s not another level to Gabe Murphy. It’s he kind of is what he is. And if he’s a one-dimensional player to where he can only pass rush and he cannot play special teams, well then you’re going to go with Chaz Chamblas who might have more upside or at least turn into an Eric Wilson type who can play a couple positions, who can, you know, drop back in coverage. They want they want guys who can drop back in coverage. Let’s keep that in mind. Like that is a coverage position. Those plays require Dallas Turner to drop back, Andrew Van Ginkle to drop back, even Jonathan Grenard. Sometimes if he couldn’t do that and he couldn’t play special teams and they saw that stuff from Chaz Chambl, so they’re going to go with him. It’s two undrafted free agents. Like there’s no there’s no shock. It’s just that we just were a little surprised. I know that’s that nitpicking a little bit. Uh completely completely out on Deontay Johnson. 1 million% out. That guy can’t stick with a team for five minutes. Uh, is KJ Osborne or Tim Jones a better option for depth receiver? I mean, I think Osborne has a much more significant history as a number three wide receiver than Jones does. Uh, Jones has barely played wide receiver in his whole career, 17 receptions, whereas Osborne has three good seasons. So, I would go with Osborne there. But Jones at very least uh does have special teams. Uh but I I would I would go with uh with KJ Osborne there. And yeah, I agree with Blowfishes. Osborne would, you know, he would not have a steep learning curve. He would be able to jump in there. Uh Clark says, “Is there a wide receiver we’re not thinking about that Quy could trade for? Thinking he has a trick up his sleeve?” No. Yeah, possibly. Possibly. I mean, but after today, this is where it does get a little bit there’s only a couple days left before we play football, which is awesome, but that’s not a lot of time to be negotiating more trades and having too many more discussions. Like, if you’re going to do it, you better do it. Like, you better get this done pretty darn soon if you’re going to make a deal. Uh, Alec Pierce is the name that has kind of come up as maybe a surprise one. He made the Colts roster with no problem today. Um, but you know, maybe uh maybe there’s somebody like that. I mean, it’s that is all allgether possible. It is altogether possible that there’s something in the works behind the scenes. And you know, we have had over the years with the Minnesota Vikings plenty of surprises. And, you know, there have been plenty of surprises even today where stuff doesn’t necessarily get out into the public and then you go, “Wow, Gabe Murphy, huh? I didn’t didn’t see that coming.” Uh, oh, by the way, I did want to mention just to circle back to because we spent so much time on things that are on fire that can we just quickly go through the the great stories here today. Just I mean Elijah, what a story Elijah Williams is, right? This guy Morgan State, very productive in college, shows up to the Vikings, what number would he have been on the roster overall as kind of the last guy in as a rookie tryyout player? Now, I remember going through when they signed him, there was a little bit of a, you know, we did a show and there was some focus on Elijah Williams and we talked about him because he was intriguing and when you looked at how he performed in that All-Star game, the Vikings have been good at identifying these guys. Levi Drake Rodriguez, another one that they identified at an all-star game and Elijah Williams has this great H.B.CU All-Star game. He gets like seven pressures or something crazy like that and then fights his way onto this roster. That is a very cool story. And you know, we could say what we want about the draft and most of it’s right. I think some of it’s too far, but it’s right. They haven’t drafted very successfully. But sometimes I think to myself, if they had just drafted these guys in the seventh round as opposed to undrafted free agents, we talk about how great they were at finding late round draft picks, right? I mean, Ivan Pace is is one of them, but Joe Huber makes the roster today. Elijah Williams makes the roster. Max Bromer. They got the best undrafted free agent quarterback out there. That’s for sure. Uh if you watch the QB school on Brosmer, he was JTO Sullivan was loving what he saw from Brosmer. We liked it uh all season all offseason long. Bromer was extremely impressive. They have been good at finding these guys and Elijah Williams, great story. Joe Huber, a great story. Uh forcing them to keep an extra offensive lineman uh was pretty cool for him. So did just want to kind of like press the brakes a little bit on what are they going to do? What are they going to do? What are they going to do uh to as a reminder? I mean, even Miles Price, I don’t know if he’s sticking or not, but that’s a guy who kind of showed up and showed them something. Ben Urisk, I think, has some potential. The two draft picks from last year, Jurgens and Rouse, make the team. So there’s two more late round guys, Levi Drake. Last year, they found Jaylen Redmond. So that’s been the other part of the story of this team and their team building is that they have been able to rely on that over the last couple years. It’s not a perfect way to do it. Even McGloin had his downs during training camp, but he’s one of the four cornerbacks remaining. Um, so that is something that they’ve been able to make up some of the difference by finding those types of guys. So, uh, let’s see. Don and Bethany says, “Uh, watching all the dumpster fires, it’s odd to me how much criticism the organization gets when they are building a pretty solid track record.” Well, you know, I think that what that is is that is kind of the moment that we’re in right now. So, just for example, a at this moment when we watch a preseason game and we do a very real and intense postgame show and everybody who cannot wait for this Viking season watches that preseason game and if Kobe King misses a tackle, it’s oh my gosh, they drafted another bust. This guy is Look, Kobe King’s not going to make a difference in this season. It’s just not. And the same thing for a lot of these a lot of these areas and a lot of these situations is if you get to the point where the fourth linebacker is out there needing to make a difference this year, you’re in trouble. And they are a little bit in trouble at wide receiver. But let us not forget they have the best receiver on earth and a Pro Bowl tight end and those like because this is the moment that we’re in and these are the storylines of the day. I think it’s easy to lose perspective on the bigger picture that the Minnesota Vikings have one of the best rosters in the NFL, but where it does become important is that the margins are not going to be very big for this team. The NFC North is fantastic. Their their schedule with the NFC East, I mean, even the Giants could cause some problems. Jackson Dart might be playing by them. He looked great in the preseason. Their Dline is a problem. Abdul Carter looked like a freak. We know what Dexter Lawrence can do. Dallas is still got a lot of talent. As much of a circus as that is, the Steelers, they can be a problem. So, I think that that’s that’s where it’s fair. But like, let’s not lose the forest through the trees as we’re talking about, you know, going out and getting KJ Osborne or something. Let’s not lose our minds with, hey, you know, this team is, you know, lost or screwed or what, you know, I see some of that. Oh, we’re completely screw. Oh, hold on. I mean, hold on. I don’t think they’re completely screwed because of the fact that their wide receiver situation is lighter than you’d like it to be for the first three games, just like their fourth quarterback or, you know, they cut an undrafted lineman. Like I, you know, I don’t think that that’s enough to be saying screwed. Probably not. It’s more along the lines of everything matters this year. In previous seasons, I didn’t feel as much that way because I thought they were in transition. And at this time last year, I thought every single player that’s young that makes the team, uh, that’s like that’s good for them. That’s good for the Vikings. Find out what you have. You know, if your seventh rounders make the team, then that’s great. Make sure you make sure you get those guys developed and see what they could be next year. Just like Levi Drake Rodriguez. I didn’t know they were going to win 14 games at the time, but that was my thought. If Levi Drake makes the team, that’s great for them because they need that guy to develop to be something next year. Jaylen Redmond, when he made the team last year, we’re like, “Oh, okay. That’s interesting. Maybe he’s there’s something there.” And there is. And so that mentality lived in a transition year type of spot. Whereas this year when you have this much money invested and you’ve spent so much on free agents and you’ve built around JJ McCarthy the way that they have and you look around the NFC and you go, “Well, could you be better than the Lions?” Yeah, if you get the quarterback play, could you be better than the Bears? Of course. Usually you are. Could you be better than the Packers? Certainly you could. you have a better roster, then every single detail starts to to matter. Every single detail becomes important, like when we’re talking about, you know, extra wide receivers or extra corners or, you know, which guy they pick for special teams because the kickoffs are going to be a huge deal this year. That’s why that’s why it feels intense right now at this moment. I think that’s my theory. Uh Charles says, “We have the money and the draft picks. Why not trade for Jacobe Meyers? Sure, we have to pay him, but he could even replace Addison in a year when he wants to get paid. Uh, yeah, I don’t know that that timing quite works out because he is significantly older than Jordan Addison. Jacobe Myers is sort of toward the end of his prime at 28 going on 29, I believe. Whereas Jordan Addison, the reason he’s so important and Addison getting his life straightened out is so important is that you can have a one superstar and one very very good number two wide receiver for a long time if Addison is in good shape. Uh because he’s what 23 years old now. I mean you’re talking Addison hasn’t even hit his prime yet. So, if you want to throw him overboard for a guy who by the time you sign him to an extension and then you give him a three-year extension or something’s going to be into his 30s, like that doesn’t quite work out the same when Addison is also a better receiver than Jacobe Meyers as well. Uh, I think that the signing Meyers part would be hard except for there is a little bit of a loophole here. And here’s what I’ll give you is there is a little bit of a loophole here and I would call it the Denil Hunter or now Trey Hendrickson loophole to unhappy players which is would you like some money out of my wallet right now? Will that make you feel better? That’s the loophole because let’s let’s just go down this idea because I mean I like it as far as the player goes. So, let’s go down this idea. Let’s say the Vikings give up a third and two sixths for Jacobe Meyers. Let’s just say that the Raiders are willing to do it now that they have Amari Cooper. All right, third and two sixths or a fifth and a sixth. What the heck ever? Who cares, right? The couple of late round draft picks. They say, “Yeah, okay, great.” Myers gets to the Vikings and they redo his contract to put a lot more money into his wallet in whatever way it takes. void years. I I don’t know whatever what, however you do that, Rob Brzinski, that I don’t fully understand. So, you get him 10 more million dollars right away to play for you this year. And then he leaves in free agency and then he signs a pretty big contract and then you get a fourth round pickback for a comp pick. It’s not a bad idea. It’s not a bad idea. I think it’s a little on the hard to figure out how to do side. They do have some cap space. I mean, I I don’t dislike it. I don’t dislike all of you who want Jacobe Myers. I don’t dislike it. That might be the only way to go down that road. Will they take that though? Because if you’re Jacobe Meyers, I mean, like, I see why you want to leave and I see why you want to raise, but why are the Raiders doing it? Why would the Raiders like you’ve got a you signed a contract, go play? Like, I I don’t know. The Raiders are trying to win, so I don’t know why they would do it. Uh, Surirly Vikings says, “Concerning is all the unhealthy veterans.” Well, at the moment, they’re healthy. We’ll see if that holds up. Ryan Kelly, I think, would be the most concerning just for his recent history. Fries, one bad luck injury. Kind of the same with Hargrave. Allen came back at the end of last year, was fine. Uh, I don’t think Isaiah Rogers has had issues. Uh, let’s see. Bryant says, “Regardless of who they bring in at wide receiver, the other team has to say Jets is going not going to beat us and take him away. Can the other guys be good enough to pull them away from Jets?” Well, they never really have been. Uh, so that is one key part to remember. They ne I mean Addison, yes, but Addison never gets doubled. Addison has even mentioned this. He I think Addison said at one point last year that he’s never been doubled in his entire career. I he probably was when Jefferson was out in 2023, but like stay with him. Never when Jefferson is in has he ever been doubled. So if it’s Tim Jones, he’s going to get a single man on him the same way. They’re just always going to do that and that’s something that they have to be ready for. Uh TLS, thanks so much for the super chat. Really appreciate that. So they’re always going to double them no matter what happens, honestly. Uh and they just have to figure out the rest. But teams go into every game saying Jefferson’s not gonna beat us. When teams do their preparation that some have a different name for it, like a red dot player or a star player or whatever, whatever it is, the designation, he’s the one they circle every single time. Every single game with the Vikings is Jefferson and he still gets 150 targets and they still the whole offense is designed to beat that stuff. So, they still can get him the football. I I don’t think that that is the uh issue is whether they can get him the ball. It’s that if Jefferson catches eight passes for 110 yards, you probably need to throw for 250. Like who else is catching the football? Uh Casey says, “What a strange 53 roster.” Um let me think. Is there anything where would the strange areas be? I think 10 offensive linemen is a little bit surprising. Maybe one more running back than I expected. um four corners, but they’ve done that before. That’s not that unusual. I don’t think it’s strange. I think it’s just that we’ve spent so much time focusing on all of these decisions that when we finally get them, there’s some surprises and that’s why we do it. It’s why we like sports surprises. Uh West Coast Yeti, that’s a great name. Thoughts on MVS Remfro Corley and cornerback Mike Hilton? Hilton just visited with the Colts, so I think that might happen. I like Hilton. He played well last year. Mike Boon just got cut by the Dolphins. Great guy, Mike Boon. It’s bounced around. Uh MVS is not very good, but neither is anybody else that you’re going to get. Had a handful of deep catches. That’s all he’s ever going to be. Maybe that’s what you need in a wide receiver for these first couple weeks. I like the Renfro idea and that I know is not based on recent statistical performance and is really just based on what I’ve seen reported from the Panthers media. I’ve been paying a lot of attention to their reporters and it just seems like he’s had a very good camp. So, that kind of interests me. Corly is much more of a project. I’m not really into that idea as much because I don’t think they’re in a spot right now where that’s what they’re looking for. Uh going back to the FanDuel question of the week, 17 points from Son of Beaver. 17. That’s what they I think uh the overunder you guys are putting it at if he if the number two wide receiver is Tim Jones would be 17 points. I might go with I might go with 21 and a half. I think they would have to play a ball possession game, but I think they could still score. Chicago’s defense is not special. Uh Blowfish is any solid tight end three options. There was the guy from the Giants, Greg Greg, what’s the last name? Starts with a D. Greg Dorch. Is that it? No, that’s a receiver. Greg Doulich Dolic. Yeah. So, there you go. That’s how that’s how solid he is. But I I recognize the name. He had a couple He had 33 catches from Denver in 2022 and he’s kind of bounced around since then. But that’s the that’s kind of where we’re at with tight end threes. I’m I’m good with Ben Ursk. I think Ben Ursk had a good camp and that he should be their tight end three and go from there. And we’ll see what happens long term with Bartholomew. They can compete next year. But uh you know I I think that Uricack as far as tight end threes is probably fine. Uh Pavlov’s frog says Aaron Jones is the third best receiver on the team. I do not disagree with that. I think that that is true. Uh the folks that want him to play wide receiver probably not. But uh he’s I think that he can uh and and Pavlov’s frog says, “Can he move to the slot?” No, he can’t move to the slot, but he can certainly catch a lot of passes. That’s one thing he can definitely do because he is one of the best passcatching running backs in the entire NFL. So, they can It’s not like they have nobody to throw to. Uh never played Madden says for Naylor. No injury designation, so maybe not as badly hurt as feared. That is certainly possible and you’re right to point that out. Uh we just don’t know. And when Okonnell says they’re assessing options, again, that’s where you go, I’m not sure. If Naylor is in perfect shape and he’s good to go week one, this conversation’s a little bit different. But it gives you a lot more pause when he is banged up the way that he is. Uh Blowfishes says, “Addison is better than Meyers. Why trade for the latter when the former is better?” Well, you’d want all three for this year. That’s what would be nice is if you had all three. That that would be good. Uh if you trade for Meyers to start the season and like I said, let’s just say you find a briefcase of money to leave in his locker for this year, but it’s not into the future. Kind of like the Denil Hunter deal when they worked things out with him after his very short hold in or what just happened with Trey Hendrickson. So you get So okay, Jacobe Myers wants more money. Here’s more money. And you get to hit free agency. Here’s a third round pick along with a fifth and a six to the Raiders. Okay, they’re happy. Then when Addison comes back, you just have three really good wide receivers for this year. And then Meyers hits free agency, you get a fourth round comp pick. Like, yeah. I mean, it it’s not the craziest thing I’ve ever heard. That would be how you would deal with that. You wouldn’t be getting rid of Jordan Addison because you got Jacobe Myers. that really doesn’t quite uh work out. Uh Mike says, “What happens when CJ comes off of injury?” I would assume that that will have another move that goes along with it. So, that might be Xavier Scott going to the practice squad, getting cut, going to the practice squad. That’s possible. Uh Kumar says, “Uh, if Gabriel Murphy played special teams, would he be on the team? Do players choose not to play special teams? If so, seems like a strange decision.” Uh, I have I actually have heard of that happening. Yeah. Where players Now I I’m not saying that Gabe Murphy did this because I don’t know that some guys are just not good at it. Like it’s it’s a skill in itself that we sort of take for granted until your team is terrible in special teams and then you’re like, “Oh yeah, that’s right. There’s there’s uh talent to that.” But so there is a fit also. There’s different positions just like offense, defense. We just don’t focus on them a lot. But there’s a lot of detail. Maybe I need to get Matt Daniels on the show to explain all the different positions that they have. They all have names. We just don’t we just don’t dive into it because it’s like it’s kick the ball at the back of the end zone, start the offense in the last few years. So maybe we’re going to have to know all those positions and details uh by the end of this year. But the point just being that sometimes guys aren’t good at it. And some and a lot of times what happens is they really don’t dedicate to it. It’s like, “All right, fine. I’ll go out there, whatever.” But are they really are they really putting in 110 and the coaches are going to notice. And if you have one guy who’s an undrafted free agent with versatility and can cover and can play inside linebacker or outside linebacker and plays all those special teams reps and is really into it versus a guy who you’ve seen for two years and has looked good at times, but he’s a one-dimensional edge rusher who can’t go back in coverage, can’t play multiple positions, can’t play special teams. You’re just going to go you’re just going to go with the guy who can do a lot more now. And also Gabe Murphy, he might be on the team tomorrow. You know, when they announce the practice squad, he might end up being on the practice squad still if he gets through waiverss. So, we can’t count that out that he doesn’t have to necessarily end his time as a Minnesota Viking because of this. I I just think that that special teams thing, it’s always hard to explain because we just don’t look at it a lot. So, it becomes hard to break down. Well, you know, when this guy was L4 on the outside or whatever the positions are called, I I guess I’m gonna have to ask Matt Daniels myself when when this guy is in this position and he defeats blocks and he gets off this block and he’s got this like that’s all stuff Matt Daniels knows and would take into account and that’s why Chambble’s played so many snaps there. Uh Blowfishes, what type of contract do you think Meyers wants right now? He’s wide receiver one with the Raiders, won’t accept wide receiver two money elsewhere. That’s that’s why I’m trying to like make something work there that isn’t a long-term extension because if you’re Jacobe Meyers and you’re looking at contracts around the league and then looking at your production, he should be in the 20 million range. That’s why can the Vikings get him in the 20 million range for this year if they could make that type of trade. Now, that would be I think uh take a little bit of acrobatics from them, but they have some cap space. It’s not like they’re out of cap space. Could you just get him some more money right away and then make him happy for right now and have him become a free agent after this year? Maybe. Maybe you could do something like that. Just rework it for Jacobe. But as far as what he’s looking for, if he wanted only a long-term contract, well, I just don’t think the Vikings could do that. Then you’re talking about way up over the 20s. Uh we’re going to have to find out who they bring to the practice squad. That that would be tough to guess one at a time. Uh, as far as they uh YouTube’s acclaimed board of algorithmic nonsense, that is one heck of a mouthful. Maybe just go by like Jim or something. Uh, you think Theer Thomas is being unfairly painted or as a one-trick pony. Seems like he caught everything his way. Uh, yeah. I mean, I think with the Thomas, he was what they would call in baseball quad A guy. Same thing with Lucky Jackson. These guys are both really darn good football players. Really, really good. And I’ve seen Theer have great practices and I’ve seen Lucky have great practices and you get out in the game and it’s in preseason and you go, “Okay, well that looks all right.” But out in the regular season, out with the ones, it’s just not the same. Just not the same. I mean, because then you’re talking about the freaks of the freaks, the best of the best, the guys who are 99th percentile athletes who have dominated the league before and have been stars and everything else. And then it’s just not the same level. It’s like, can the guy in practice hit BP fast balls? Yes. Can he hit 97 mph from Randy Johnson? Probably not. And I think that both of those guys just fall into that category. Very hardworking guys. You’re right. They catches everything, but there’s not likely enough explosiveness there to get open consistently in the NFL, which is why uh you go out and you look for other people. Casey says, “Chandler makes the team backup wide receiver. It is a disaster for wide receivers.” So, this is uh good luck in the NFL. Quacy isn’t of course I I should have known that like fire fire Quesy for keeping four running backs take should have been included on my bingo board for today. I should have known that that was coming. I just had a national NFL reporter on the show yesterday picking the Vikings to win the NFC North because he thinks they have the strongest roster in the NFC. But, you know, fire the GM. I Why wouldn’t that be rational? That’s a great point. As far as Chandler making the team, I mean, why why does there are certain guys I just don’t get why they make you folks so angry. Ty Chandler and Ryan Wright are two of them. I get it. Like the the head coach of the team is taking jabs at Ty Chandler. He’s the third running back. If he was number two like last year, I would feel differently. Then I would also have my concerns like I did last year. But as far as I mean, he’s somebody who’s had some success in the league, who can help you as a kick returner, and that’s it. That’s a That’s what you get for a number three running back. I don’t know which teams that you guys follow that have these amazing third running backs, but this team has never had that as far as I Well, let me take it back. Let me take it back. 2017, they actually did have an amazing third running back. That was Jerick McKinnon. But other than that, that’s the only year I can remember with third great running back on the team. Uh, and backup wide receiver, I think it was Quacy who got suspended, right? Oh, no. It was actually Jordan Addison got suspended. Well, Quy probably tackled Rond Del Moore, didn’t he? What was he thinking? Tackling his own player and injuring him on the punt. No, that wasn’t. That was somebody from another team. It was a an accident. So, I don’t know. Yeah, these things happen and you got to work around him. So, that’s what they’re in the process of doing and there’s a lot of options on the table, but I think they have to look at Trey Palmer first. If anyone claims him, I think someone will. 43 speed, punt return, history of catching the ball, probably is getting claimed, and then they got to look at other options. Um, so I I haven’t seen too many like trade for Alen Lazard, just not a big Alen Lazard guy here to tell you the truth. Uh, when Blowfishes says, uh, Blackman, Mai Blackman, who they traded yesterday, had a strong first season, was in line to be a starter, hasn’t been the same since. Yeah, no, I I agree with that. I was a little surprised that they moved on from him yesterday, but it just tells you kind of how far that dropped. Robbie Chosen. I’m gonna pass on that. Seven undrafted free agents made the team. Yeah. Uh hear me out, Darius Sllayton. Okay, if they’re interested, that’s the level of player. So that that is the level of player. Uh Casey Casey now giving credit to Quacy, I think, for Elijah Williams and Levi Drake Rodriguez. found a lot of depth in that defensive line room. That defensive line room is is is pretty remarkable because you have the two big paid free agents, but then it’s UDFA, fifthrounder, seventhrounder UDFA, and yet all those guys had very good training camps. Uh, love the QB school video. Highly recommend. Highly recommend. I’m gonna have to ask JT if I could play some of it on the show, get his permission, because I think you guys would really like some of his breakdowns. Uh, I am aware that the NFC flag behind me is a little crooked. It’s Look, arts, arts and crafts. When I was in grade school, my mom did most of my arts and crafts. It’s just not my thing. But, you know, they look great, though. I think overall, I got out of the way of the Vikings one. That was a common complaint when I had the mic over here. It was like in the way of the Vikings one. So, I did that. We got the We got the camera. We got unfortunately my my lit up sign over here in the corner isn’t quite showing up, but I like it. It says Purple Insider. I’m working on a multicam setup so you can see it. So, I’m working on this and you guys will have to tell me if that looks good or not. The multicam setup so you can see the Purple Insider Man. So, I’ve been working on that, but I’m mostly answering your questions. So, I end up forgetting to ever change the the angle. The angle was supposed to be like this. So, I would be looking at your questions over here. and it looks like I’m looking at you. That’s kind of the angle, but then when I flip back to the other screen, I can’t tell if I’m looking at you or not. So, I guess we’ll have to figure that out. Uh, can Mason catch the football? I think so. I was actually uh surprised by how well Jordan Mason did catch the football. I think that uh he has shown a little bit more than I ever would have expected, but he’s not going to be going down the field. Jordan Mason’s going to be catching a lot of swing passes, a lot of just, you know, checkdowns and stuff like that, and he can catch those and make something out of it. Uh Willis says, “Criticism isn’t about having a solid roster. It’s about exploiting a rare opportunity to win a Super Bowl. We’re at 3% to do that.” 3% of what? What’s 3%. What is Where does 3% come from? 3% odds to do that. Well, who has high odds to do that? Kansas City, Buffalo, Baltimore. Who else? Maybe Detroit, maybe Philly. Who in the NFC has super high? You’re gonna have to tell me that. Who has super high odds to win the Super Bowl? Also, do uh preseason odds tell you who’s going to win the Super Bowl? That’s another question I would have there in the NFC. Like, where where was uh what was Philly’s odds going into last year? What was San Francisco’s in 2023? What was San Francisco’s 2019? What was the Rams in 2018? I don’t know if if uh I mean Vegas can’t predict the Super Bowl any better than you can. I’m not saying the Vikings are going to win it. It’s just like what does that mean? Like that’s proof that they haven’t built a good enough roster. They have built a good enough roster from top to bottom to to very reasonably compete in the NFC for a Super Bowl. That’s just a fact. I mean, if you’re you’re talking about, okay, the number three four corner is concerning to you. All right. Well, Philly’s got a a corner or a a guard or something. Like, every team, how about Detroit, their offensive line? Like, every team’s got some position. There’s 32 of these. Like, every team’s got some position they’re concerned about. But I think when we go position by position, and this isn’t even just me. You want to talk about outside objective measures, like go go to Mike Clay and his rankings where he ranks the Vikings for position by position. Like, this isn’t just me. Like Mike Clay of ESPN ranks every single position. And I went through those and added them up for outside of quarterback. Where did the Vikings rank in his rankings for all teams, all rosters, and it was in the top five. They’ve done an excellent job putting together a roster that has a little bit of maintenance to do on it. It’s I like house hunters, so I’ll make a house hunters comparison. People go into a house. Actually, I kind of had this experience myself, uh, buying a house. You really like everything about it, but you walk out back and there’s a garage that’s falling apart. You’re like, “All right, well, going to have to replace that garage if we buy the house.” That’s the when we bought our house, the garage had wires hanging down off of it and it was about to blow away, you know, so we had to replace it. Oh, okay. There’s some investment there. There’s a move there. You don’t like it’s still a very good house and I think that about this roster right now. It is a very very good roster but they need Addison playing and that’s something what are you gonna do? That’s a suspension and you need guys to stay healthy. Of course every team needs everyone to stay healthy and then yeah there’s some of these other depth positions that you don’t feel solid about and they need they need to build a garage at backup corner. They need to, you know, build a they need to build a garage at number three wide receiver. Uh Will says, “All this talk about a great roster, but it’s ninth to 12th by PFF.” I mean, do they factor in quarterback there? Because if they factor in quarterback to in entirely when it comes to Okay. Yeah, there you go. Uh and Pavlov’s frog says that has no basis to rate JJ McCarthy. Yeah. No, that’s that’s right. That’s right. So, if it they didn’t include the uh quarterback, where would that rank if they were ninth? You know, I just I mean, it’s it’s pretty clear. It’s pretty clear that this is a great roster and that they have a chance to compete this year, next year, probably the year after with a lot of the bones that they have. They’ve done an amazing job putting it together. The free agents that they’ve brought in have been fantastic. They’ve developed players. They made a great trade to get uh Mason. They made the trade to get Hawinson in even a a you know the signings the we’ll see about the left guard draft pick but they’ve done a ton of great work here and we’re at the final part of the race with building this total roster and there’s a couple of things that haven’t been resolved but I haven’t changed the 11 win prediction based on what we’ve seen. It’s just that, you know, they need one or two more guys and I think that within the next day they’re going to be able to find some options here, some answers. We just don’t know exactly what those answers are. Uh, Rogers had a broken hand. Well, I mean, see, when you guys talk about like players being injured, I mean, hurting your hand is not like some for a 27y old is not something that’s going to have, oh my gosh, he’s injuryprone. Like I can understand with Ryan Kelly. He’s he’s missed over multiple years. Breaking your hand is just bad luck. Uh how about a trade for Braxton Barios? Did he make their team? Uh I mean somewhat interested. Trading right now is just a little tough. Evan with the super chat says Kina Mardo’s wide receiver too. It’s just a little bit It’s just a little bit tough right now because everyone’s made up their rosters and their rosters are all set. So, it’s very hard then to go make trades after this. Usually, the trades happen before this. As you saw, there was kind of a flurry of trades because teams are moving on from the guys that they are not going to keep. Uh Chuck says, “Do we think we could put the trade together with the Colts for Alec Pierce? It’s a name that keeps coming up and yet I don’t see I I think it’s a great idea, Alec Pierce, just like I think Jacobe Myers is a great idea, but can you actually do it?” Pierce would be a downfield type of option for them. That would be really good. Uh Brandon Powell, just haven’t heard anything regarding Brandon Powell. Maybe that’s an option for them. Jake says MVS is a marginally worse nailer. Both have unreliable hands and mostly run clearing routes, but you have to respect them deep. Yeah, I that’s the thing. As soon as I made a crack about MVS, I got so many people who were like, “No, no way, no way, no world.” It’s like, “Okay, come on now.” Uh Pat says, “Wish you’d leave Twitter.” No, I mostly have. I just only only today I was looking at it for updates. I very ba very much barely look at that website anymore. Uh but you know, today I’m waiting for who’s going to get cut, if the Vikings are going to trade somebody, you know, whatever. So few more things to do. So, the other uh the other teams in the list, I mean, this is this is right when you talk about 3%. I mean, first of all, that doesn’t mean anything, but uh Buffalo, Baltimore, Kansas City, Philly. Yeah. I mean, those teams 13% 10%. Of course. Yeah. Why wouldn’t those teams I mean, they have elite quarterbacks, they’ve been close to winning Super Bowls or have win the won the Super Bowl recently. Of course, they’re going to have the best odds, but it’s not like 3% odds be because they, you know, have a uh quarterback who hasn’t played yet. I mean, that that is why, you know, that’s why they have lower odds. I mean, that’s why they have eight and a half win total is because they have a quarterback hasn’t done anything yet. But if you think that these are greatly predictive measures, well, then the Vikings should have won six games last year, but instead they won 14. So, I don’t know. If if we all knew what was going to happen, it would be a lot less fun. A lot less fun. Uh Conrad was How was the foundation of the house? How old was the HVAC system? Uh the uh the HVAC was fine. The foundation I think has been okay so far when we bought it. Uh those are the important things. Yep. Those are your Justin Jefferson and your JJ McCarthy, I guess. But the garage had to go. Uh, wouldn’t Blackman have been included in attempts for Alec Pierce? Not necessarily. I just don’t It doesn’t look like they’re moving Alec Pierce. I think he’s a great idea. It just doesn’t seem like there actually was something there. Uh, Jay Mulls wants Malachi Kley. I I think that’s okay. I think that’s an all right idea as sort of a Rond Del Moore type. I don’t think it’s exactly what you’re looking for if they’re trying to trade for Thelen. I think what you’re looking for is a more veteran type of wide receiver. Uh don’t forget to answer the FanDuel question of the day, by the way, which is just how many uh points would be your overunder for Vikings if they have to start Tim Jones at wide receiver 2? And there’s a lot of really low numbers. And I think that that’s fair because I don’t think they’re going to be crazy uh aggressive in a game where they only have Jefferson as their only wide receiver. if that’s the case. But I still think that this offense can move the ball and score. And I what I’m really most interested to see and once we get to game week, we’ll really dive into this like crazy, but just is what this running game can really do. And then is there anybody else who can rise up to the challenge? We’ve seen it in the past. Remember, go back to 2016. I when I arrived in Minnesota, I thought Adam Thelen was kind of a mascot. Like, oh, you guys got a Minnesota player? That’s so cute. You know, Buffalo had a Buffalo player. he was okay. Uh, you know, his name was Namon Roosevelt. Great guy, you know, went to University of Buffalo. So, I thought, oh, it’s just one of those guys. And then there’s an injury to Diggs and Thelen has to take over and all of a sudden, man, this guy just breaks out like crazy against the Houston Texans. Never turns back, has a great career. So, sometimes opportunity is just what somebody needs. And there will be opportunity when Justin Jefferson is on the field for other wide receivers to make plays. I don’t think that they cannot win the first three games if they don’t find another great wide receiver option, but I do think that you need to turn over every single rock and consider possibly even giving up a decent amount of draft capital to get somebody else in. But for now, uh, as we kind of put a bow on this, uh, conversation, didn’t Thean return punts early in his career? Yeah. Uh, it didn’t go well. I think it didn’t go well. Um, that’s right. Yeah, AI predicted the Vik That’s right. AI predicted the Vikings to be the number one pick. I think ESPN as well had that. Or maybe that was the AI ESPN model. That maybe that’s what it was. Maybe that’s what Yeah, I think that’s what it was. It was like some model predicted them to have the number one pick. And uh Kevin Oonnell referenced that, by the way. He saw it. Don’t think he didn’t see it. That’s my point though, right? is like don’t miss don’t miss the big picture here that they’ve built the team that they sought out to build when they got here in 2022 around JJ McCarthy. The people who will determine this season are JJ McCarthy, Justin Jefferson, Aaron Jones, Jordan Mason, Christian Darasaw, Ryan Kelly, uh Jonathan Grard, Andrew Van Ginkle, Blake Cashman, the stars of this team will determine whether they succeed or fail. It’s not that likely that I mean if you get to the fourth wide receiver, you get to the fourth corner over any long period of time, it’s not that likely things have gone well for you. That’s just the reality of the NFL. Um, but today there is, I think, a lot of pressure on them to get a wide receiver in a corner. So, we could put those two things in two separate boxes. What they still need and the bigger picture of 2025. So, let’s uh let’s wrap on this. Steve says, uh, Brosmer is the likely Mr. Mano. Here’s my thing about Mr. Mano. Mr. Mano is whoever you want Mr. Mano to be. There’s not a vote. There’s not a big presentation. There isn’t some sort of official, oh, this guy is officially that that kind of faded a long time ago. I think early on there was maybe a trophy or something, but it’s it’s gone away. It’s more of a concept. It’s more of an idea of the guy we never see coming who captures our hearts who may not have anything to do with the success of the season or may someday become great. We don’t know. It’s a magical part of the season. And this day is a magical day for Mr. Mano because when that guy makes the team, you go, “Wow.” I think Elijah Williams for me is Mr. Mano because that is the most unlikely player I think I’ve ever seen make the team. The only other guy that I think is more unlikely that’s ever made the team is Dan Chennenna because he basically didn’t play college football. At least this guy was good in college football. It was just at a university not known for its NFL lineage too much. But that it’s an ultimate underdog story. But, you know, if you wanted to be Max Bromer, that’s perfectly fine because Bromer captured the hearts of Vikings fans as well as the Gopher, the local guy, because you kind of think, same deal with the Oh, like they got the Gopher quarterback. That’s great. But no, like this dude can really play uh as Gopher fans know. But yeah, I mean like lots of undrafted free agents, like all those guys, you know, they kind of deserve their attention uh for making the team. It’s a great day for for those guys. Joe Huber making it as an offensive lineman. That’s That’s really good. So, yeah, it used to it used to be like Yeah. Right. A gift basket or something, right? So, you know, I mean, it’s whoever you’d like it to be, but for those guys, what a day to be undrafted free agents and make it. And what a day for our discussion. So, here’s what I’m going to do. I think we’ve covered every part of this that we can and all the options that we can. So, I’m going to hang it up for right now. And if there is more to come, if there are more developments, if they sign a former fifth round corner, probably we’ll wait till tomorrow to talk about that. But if there’s a shocking Adam Thelen trade, if there’s a shocking big move that we didn’t expect coming, then I will be back here tonight. I’ll be staying fairly near the computer. Uh, and I’ll be ready if anything should come up. So, we’ll see. But if it if it’s a late night pod, if there’s a move at 10:30 at night, I’ll be here for you to break it down. And if not, then definitely we’ll be back on the show as usual tomorrow and we will go from there. And so, uh, you know, Maggie usually joins on Tuesdays. We’re planning to have her join tomorrow just cuz day threw everything off. And those of you who have you’ve begged for it, you’ve cried for it, you’ve screamed out for a Jud Zulgad appearance on this show, it will happen. Scheduled to figure that out probably tomorrow to have Jud on the show tomorrow night. So, you can definitely look forward to that. And uh lots of other guests in the leadup and there’s moves on the way. I can almost guarantee that there are changes that will be made that we need to break down within the next day. But for today, the 53, the initial 53 is out. One last step before we play some real football. So, thanks everybody for jumping on as always. Really enjoyed the discussion and conversation and we should get a lot of these answers pretty soon, I would think. So, take care everybody and we’ll talk to you tomorrow or maybe later tonight. We’ll see. Either way,

Matthew Coller breaks down the Vikings initial 53-man roster including surprising cuts and players who made the squad, plus the moves that still need to be made.

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