Minnesota Vikings defense is SMOTHERING the offense at training camp

Minnesota Vikings defense is SMOTHERING the offense at training camp

Purple Daily is daily Vikings entertainment. We just want the Vikings to win a Super Bowl before we die. I will ride with this group. Seriously, man. Please. And away we go. Happy Thursday, America. We got our guy Thorne Istrom from math’s fantasylife.com. And we have another glorious batch of Jud’s camp notes. Jud’s camp nodes. Let’s Thanks, kids. Go. Always like to hear from the kids. Yeah. So, um, Phil Mackey and I took in the entire padded practice number two. They practiced in full pads on Monday. They went shorts and shells on Tuesday. Padded practice number two off today. And then I’m expecting they’re going to be back in pads on Friday. But there is a lot to get to, gentlemen. There is. And uh and we’re going to get to all of it here. We’re going to get Thor’s reaction to these last few practices through the eyes of Jud’s handcrafted camp notes here. MSP Plumbing, Heating, and Air Conditioning, though, is here to help us through the uh the hot days of summer. Jud, they are. And also, if you’re thinking about going duckless, call them as well. They’re a Mitsubishi Elite Diamond contractor for Duckless. If you have an older home like mine, no duck work, that’s no problem. They specialize in smart and efficient duckless installs. And look, keep in mind these systems aren’t cheap, so you want it done right. MSP will help you also make the best uh decision for your home and budget. That’s because you can trust them. Quiet, efficient, just comfort where you need it. MSP has been serving the Twin Cities for more than 100 years. Check them out uh online. Callm MSP.com or give them a call 651-615-4292. Callm MSP.com. Juds Campotes. You can trust them. But when it comes to plumbing, heating, and air, don’t trust the sports dad. Trust the people he talks about. MSP. Well, where do you want to where do you want to start us here? Sports dad judge camp notes. I I think so. Can you break the news to Thor that uh old Pookie’s been a little rough in practice? Pooky is missing. Pooky is missing. Pooky was rough yesterday. So, I I’ve been thinking about this. So, we we’ll get to that. And and look, um the defense, and this is a yearly theme, too. This is not just a pooky thing. Uh JJ McCarthy is the latest quarterback who has probably been somewhat frustrated, probably more more frustrated, Kevin Oonnell, by the fact that Brian Flor’s defense absolutely in padded practices, you know, to a large degree. I I talked about this with Chip this morning on Purple Access as well, which we’ll post this afternoon. The other thing too is the run plays are the run plays like they are sort of done at sort of a half speed. A guy gets bumped and stuff. The pass plays are where you could pin your ears back. So I think where we should start boys is this though because this is the Vikings versus the Vikings. I think we should start with a defense and how absolutely fantastic. And there is a difference here between in my opinion I’ll set it up this way. The defense at this time of year, not surprisingly, always looks good. And Brian Flores does love to mix things up on the pass plays, confuse things. But here’s where I’ll start as a I think a sign of real encouragement. Okay? And I think Phil will back me up here. What we have seen and where the Vikings defense dominated was they did a two-minute drill, Thor, at the end of practice on Monday. the defense uh against the first and second team dominated. And then yesterday in the team drills, the defense was outstanding. And the difference that I see though is this. The front the front. So previously, you know, they love to blitz. They’re still blitzing. They’re going to blitz. But Jayvon Hargrave, Jonathan Allen, Grenard now, Van Ginkle now with a better front. And then a guy that we need to start to talk about, Dallas Turner. That that is the difference to me. It’s not just the scheme now. It’s the beef. It’s the guys up front. Um I’ve been really really impressed. Yeah, the the the defense which was so good last year. You you made all the personnel improvements to it and you know, you’re talking about the defensive front. Brian Flores has the craziest play calling tendencies of any defensive coordinator in the NFL to the point where we’ve never seen the polarities that that he’s tossed at opponents uh in terms of the zero blitzes against the drop eights and and everything in between, right? And then and moving the players around, etc. Uh last year you were working around a defensive front whereas now you have one of the better ones in the NFL and you think about the way that that’s going to manifest for a play caller as creative as Brian Flores and his ability to create havoc uh on the quarterback. I mean you you you love to see it even if Pooky has been a victim in recent days. Yeah, there’s there’s a few forces at play here. I think well I’m getting ahead of Jud’s camp notes here and I apologize. I’m sure we will we will circle back and touch on these, but up until yesterday, the Vikings first team offensive line didn’t have now Darasaw mixed in for most of the 11on1 stuff yesterday until 2-minute. I think they took him out for two-minute cuz it’s just a little it’s like you got your work in. Uh so they’ve been working him back in. Will Fry had not been an every snap participant. Uh now he’s kind of working back in. And then uh you got a rookie left guard, a brand new center who’s who’s weaving his way in here. And a by the way, JJ McCarthy not only did not play a regular season snap last year, he missed a lot of real liveaction practice reps, too. Potentially, Darnold would have gotten like like the bulk up to a certain point unless McCarthy took his job. Uh so so it’s the offense should be behind the defense. I actually think it’d be a little concerning for the defense if they weren’t dominating the first week of camp practice. So, you’re trying to balance, wow, the defense looks incredible, I think, while giving the offense a little bit of a grace period here over the next two or three weeks during camp to get more chemistry. McCarthy figuring out the timing of everything. Uh, but like you’re not going to face many better andor more confusing defenses in the regular season than the one you’re facing in practice right now. Is that fair to say? That’s Yeah, that that’s fair to say in terms of both personnel and the play call, right? I think this is a top three defense in the NFL and and you’re mentioning the the you know the the shifting in and out with the offensive line and and the people coming back and and all this sort of stuff and then uh McCarthy getting out there after the year off of the injury and you have this nasty uh defense and Brian Flores uh going deep into the bag of tricks early. I think we may have lost our guy. Oh, no. Frozen. Frozen Thor. There he is. Oh, he’s back. Hold on. Go ahead, Dex. You put him back on. See here, he’s back. Okay. Yeah. Okay. Nice. All right. You we you tripped out like 10 seconds ago uh with just like Flores’s confusing defense, etc. Yeah, it you know it’s it’s not a surprise like there’s the old adage in football that early in the seasons that defenses are are the ones who are going to kind of carry the day. Um offenses take a little bit longer uh to catch up and early on in camp that’s that’s all more the case. Um so it’s not necessarily a surprise. You have the shuffling with the offensive line. JJ’s coming off the injury. Not necessarily a surprise, but I I think the story is that the Vikings are going to have a top three defense in the NFL this coming season. Yeah. So, Jud, where is that line for for Jud’s camp notes between, “Wow, the defense, as expected, is incredible. Everything looks great, and then there’s like another gray area, and then another line that’s when does the offense need to start looking a lot better than it has the last three practices. May I suggest, because today’s an off day, may I suggest today might be one of the more important days of camp because I think it needs to be discussed.” Like I think and I know that Florida is going to show things and look I mean the defense Thor was working on like choreographing it celebrations yesterday. That’s how dominant they they were. Dwight Mclathan picked off a pass from Max Bromer at one point and in air quotes pick six, right? He ran it across the field to Justin Jefferson to deliver him the ball to be celebrating his pick. Dwight Mclathrin. By the way, just quickly, three picks in the past three three days. I think he might need some first team reps. But I think today’s going to be a very interesting day in deciding that because if you look at what the the offense is trying to do, you do want them to be prepared and you don’t want to give JJ and company a pass, but you also don’t want to be showing exotic blitz packages. I’ll I’ll give you an example and and we can talk about this guy too because he’s been fantastic. But there was one play, Thor, yesterday in team drills where they brought Byron Murphy Jr. on a blitz, okay? And he basically came up the A gap. So he’s a quarterback and he like stunts and comes up the A gap. And as JJ McCarthy is like literally in his drop back to throw the pass, Byron Murphy Jr. comes in like he’s a def like a defensive lineman and bats it down. Now, Byron Murphy, I, you know, two years ago, his first year here, I thought, okay, he’s okay. You know, he’s fine. If if he’s here, he’s fine. If he’s gone, that’s fine. Then last year, he steps up and sort of it’s like, oh, okay, yeah, sign him back, which they did. I’m not going to lie, in camp right now, and you know, small sample size alert, but he looks absolutely fantastic. But I guess in McCarth in McCarthy’s case, I don’t know that showing a quarterback blitz coming up the A gap is going to help him a ton. So, I do think that there is a conversation between Below and KO about what they need to do to prepare the offense entirely because the other thing too, and unfortunately we lost Thor again, but Phil, the other thing too is the offensive line’s new and and as you just said, Darasaw’s just back and the interior is new. So, you do want to get them you do want to get them some cohesiveness. I don’t know that an ass kicking every day of camp is the best thing, right? I do think it’s a good thing to get them some some live reps and the bullets flying is fine, but there’s a happy medium between Okay, that was a really good spirited practice and the defense just basically schooled the offense by showing them things they’re not going to see. Is that a question have I’m trying to think. I mean, with with Cousins, it was never a thing. Uh, Darn. I mean, is is like would this be the first time in the Kevin Okonnell era where that question would even be posed? No. Cousins complained about this. That’s right. He did complain about Cousins complained about this. He basically said, “I’m seeing looks I won’t see.” Well, oh, in 20 in 23 he complained about Flores’s first. And the inference though was, “You’re showing me looks I’m not going to see. I want to see looks I’m going to to see.” And we sort of chucked that up to Kirk being Kirk. And JJ McCarthy, by the way, will not complain publicly at least. like he he did a press conference uh on Wednesday and had some very interesting quotes done before practice. But JJ McCarthy, I have not seen him pout. I have not seen him and moan. He is going to say, “I’m going to handle it. I might it might not go well.” Um but I think from Okonnell’s perspective, it probably becomes at least a discussion. And I also think this though, if this is going to keep up, the most important days of training camp, and I think we brought this up yesterday possibly, are going to be the joint practices with the Patriots. Yeah. And those and it might be that those are actually easier defenses to deal with than the one that you’re facing right now. I mean, this is it’s a top five defense that added Jayvon Hargrave and Jonathan Allen to the front. And there was a play yesterday where I think it was Hargrave literally pushed Ryan Kelly, who’s an excellent pass protecting center, a veteran pass protecting center, pushed him back into the lap of JJ McCarthy, who then twisted out and then, you know, they I think Grard wrapped him up for a sack. Uh but and it kind of goes back to our conversation two days ago that if you’re looking for reasons why the Vikings can get to the Super Bowl or get to the NFC Championship game, the defense is probably going to be reason number one. So from that from that perspective, this is great. You’re see they’re just there’s a lot of cohesion. There’s players flashing in camp that you need to see flash in camp. And I’m sure we’ll get to more of a Dallas Turner discussion here. But if if the Dallas Turner that we’ve seen in the first week and a half of training camp shows up in the regular season, that dude is a stud. He has been Any questions about what happened in his rookie season there? Why wasn’t he on the field more? Why didn’t he produce more when he was out there? Um, and again, these are just these are practices. These are 11 on 111 practice sessions. But you you do get to glean a lot in full team, full padded 11on1 action. And that Dallas Turner has been in the back and he’s working he’s getting more snaps than like almost anyone because he’s playing all of the snaps with the twos. The second team edge rushers are uh Gabriel Murphy and Dallas Turner. And then he’s playing a huge percentage of snaps with the ones when they’re running out the sub packages and they put three edge rushers on the field. Van Ginkle, Granard, and Dallas Turner. And that dude is flashing and getting by left and right tackles and flashing in the back field and batting passes like he didn’t he have a pick six at one point or he almost had one yesterday for playing on special teams. Yeah, he’s he’s all over. His body looks different, Thor. Like Yeah, I I would expect now. I think he is. I could put him on a very big year right now and be comfortable with that. I’m I’m back. And as you guys notice, my internet only glitches out when there’s JJ Slander being tossed out. That’s what happened. Okay. The McCarthy bang. Yeah. Uh but no, as far as Dallas Turner goes, the other first round pick from that class. I expect a big season out of him, right? Like you’re going to assume all the snaps that were vacated by Patrick Jones, plus the snaps that Turner was already playing. Plus, then they’re making a concerted effort to uh cook them up into some of these sub packages, these crazy things that that Flores is doing between all that. And then you have primo edge depth. You have some of the best edge depth uh in the NFL as well. So, you’re guarded against that. But I I think it’s it’s you’re going to see an ascension of Dallas Turner this year. And I think like last year, you know, it was like, oh, you know, we we use a second first round pick on this guy and we barely got to see him. And it’s like, oh, is is you know, should we be concerned about this? I don’t think at all. Dallas Turner was one of the youngest players in that draft class. You you look at him against the other two edges, you know, Jared that we’re taking in the first round, Lu and and Jared Verse. Those guys were way way older. Jared Verse came out of college, he I think he was a starter in COG for like five years. Jared Verse, multiple years older than Dallas Turner. There was things that Dallas Turner had to work on, right? I mean, he had to get bigger. Um, and then he had to flesh out his game. You know, got the the repertoire of pass rushing moves. And then the the smoothness and fluidity flipping between them when your first plan of attack is shut down. That was the thing you’re going to work on with him. And then learning how to set the clean edge against the run as well. But they they sort of spoonfed him in year one as they got him up to speed. You worked on his body, you know, in the offseason, whatnot. Now, he’s going to become a a valuable uh rotational player and a heavily used rotational player and situational player uh this coming season and might get a bigger opportunity if if there’s an unfortunate injury, but he’s going to play a lot of snaps either way. Yeah. And um so because he he’s on special teams, Matt Daniels, the special teams coordinator, talked yesterday and was asked about like Turner’s progression there. And Matt brought up a really intriguing story, but but again, this goes back to how young Turner was. And keep in mind he was a star at Bama which is at that time basically like the 33rd team in the National Football League. And Matt’s point Matt said every day this off season when I came in and he said the coaches get there around 6:30 or 7:00. He said one of the first people I would see in the trainers room getting ready this year was Dallas Turner. And basically it’s cliched but it’s important. He his point was he’s learned to be a professional. And like that’s the thing is like you play at Bama or you play at a big-time college and and and now hell you’re getting paid. I mean you you were before but they didn’t talk about it but you play at a big time program and you’re probably like I’m a first round pick. I’m going to come in here especially when you’re young right? So if you’re not that old and you get here and it’s all men and more importantly too just as important as the physicality is the schemes. Like Brian Flor is a scheme and what he wants from you. If you can’t do it, you’re not going to play. And by the way, learning how to do it takes some time. So, I think the I think what we don’t account for is, you know, there’s a difference between a player who’s not mature and never going to mature and doesn’t really like football that much, just dominant in college because he was so good. Dallas Turner, I think, likes football absolutely, but he didn’t have the skill set. He didn’t have the knowledge to know where he needed to be. and that locker room, you know, Van Ginkl, Grenard, go down that list. You got a lot of veterans there that can show you if you’re willing to listen. And I think that behind the scenes, that’s going to be a very important part of the maturation of Dallas Turner. The Dallas Turner selection was not made for the 2024 NFL season. That selection was made for down the road, and we’re going to see it more this year and then especially in in the years ahead. the the verdict in the book on Dallas Turner is far from written and far from in. Just circling back to one last thing uh from the the McCarthy versus this ferocious defense conversation when you uh your internet there suspiciously kind of folded into itself and yeah, we’ll see what happens here when JJ’s there. He’s unplugging it. That’s what’s going on. He’s like off camera. He’s like it’s like the movie Airplane if anyone gets that reference. Um, what is there a point of diminishing returns with like Brian Flores is just unleashing his defense against an offense that looks like it needs to start, you know, like on a on like Madden, you can start at rookie level and then like work your way. It’s like he’s being thrown into the fastest, hardest level of a video game here. Can you sort that out and figure it out? Just being blasted in the face with a fire hose or do they need to Hey, Brian, listen dude. Like, we get it. We know. But for a few of these sessions, we need a little more vanilla base situation here so that JJ and company can work through this. No, I I don’t think Keep the fire hose on. Yeah, keep the fire hose on. Uh sink or swim and and JJ is going to swim. um you know like early on here again coming off the injury you’re you’re facing uh the live bullets live action uh for the first time in what a year and a half was the last well outside of the Raiders game but you know it’s been a while since he played football but yeah like he you’re not going to break JJ McCarthy you know and and you know for Vikings fans out there you know think about the uh Christian Ponder you know Christian Ponder I seen him on a a show or a podcast a couple months ago and he was talking about like oh you know People don’t realize my shoulder there was there was more of an issue than people thought when I was coming out of FSU and so it was a little bit harder for me and like all this different and then and then when things started going badly they you know they kind of compounded etc etc. Christian Ponder was a guy that got inside of his own head and the the confidence it it just depreciated and then everything sort of went into the tank. Uh Jay McCarthy it’s not that kind of a thinker. It’s it’s the growth mindset kind of a guy where if if you know you you get him on uh one rep, you get him on five reps, you get him for an entire day of practice reps, he’s in there with a smile after practice and he wants to get right back at Brian Flores. Brian, you got me this time. Uh let’s go get back after it tomorrow. It’s a guy who hasn’t seen some of these looks before and against athletes of this caliber, you’re going to start thinking as as as quick as them, but you have to see the looks. And you know, like Kirk Cousins said a couple years ago, he had never he’s not going to see looks like he was getting in practice during the season. And and I think the same applies here. But yeah, you you’re not going to break JJ McCarthy. So in his uh press conference he did before practice on Wednesday and McCarthy, we want more camp not football. McCarthy had some interesting stuff about also the layering of throws, which has become an important part of this camp. And his point was, and he’s not wrong, when you miss a year, you know, the touch of throws, like you got to rework that a bit, like like his arm is not going to desert him. But when you’re talking about touch, that’s not your arm strength. That’s the touch on your passes. and he talked about that and he also talked about the the fact that he is at times and it’s a fine line to walk but he’s at times now purposely trying to um take something off throws in practice. Now his point was it’s a competitive practice so I’m not going to just like take something off constantly. But he he essentially said because I I asked him I said it seemed like you were trying to zip throws in a lot at the beginning of practices and now the last week or or the last few practices it feels like there’s more of a a curveball or a change up. You’re taking something off the ball and he said yeah he said I’m purposely trying to do that. So like there are a lot of things here and this is where I think the why do you keep statistics sports dead? you’re an idiot thing uh comes into play because he is going to try to do different things. We are going to see situations where in the regular season he probably completes a pass that that he doesn’t complete in training camp. But it’s all part of a process and that’s what makes this so intriguing and important is like where are you as far as comfort goes in every one of your types of throws from screen passes, intermediate, deep shots. And that’s sort of the game that he’s playing here as far as trying to like he wants to look good, but he also wants to properly prepare. And that’s what fans and people like us don’t think about. He’s not just trying to win every pass. He’s trying to also see what he can do and can’t do before he plays the Bears and they pick the pass off. Yeah, that’s right. And and you know, you go up the level and now you’re an NFL starting quarterback. It’s like when the baseball team takes an amateur pitcher that can throw 100 miles an hour and then when you you bring him up in in the case of baseball development, it’s in the minor leagues. The thing that you’re teaching them is breaking pitches and and change up. You don’t need to teach him how to throw the fast ball. He’s already world class at that coming out of the box. And some of these nuance things, it’s for getting more clubs in your bag for when the situation calls for on the field in an NFL game, right? Like I mean Pat Mahomes back at Texas Tech, the reason that he was malign coming, you know, in his draft process was like, “Oh, this guy’s a swashbuckler and all he does is is is gun the ball down the field um and and and do bombs and stuff like that and you we’re never going to, you know, like that that game’s not going to translate to the NFL, whatever.” Like he had to learn how to carry the other clubs in his bag. Not only develop those clubs, but then learn when to take them out, which situations uh call for them. And and that’s that’s the process going on right now with McCarthy. We got more Judge camp notes coming around the corner here. There’s plenty more where this came from off of a festive practice yesterday. But uh Two Men in a Truck, in fact, maybe you’re an undrafted cornerback and your role is about to be elevated and you’re looking for something more permanent. Two Men in a Truck can help you with your next move. Maybe Josh Matelis upgrading the home. Nice little contract extension there. So yeah, need to find someone to move. Hell. Uh maybe may I should let the Mackey’s maybe do the next two men in a truck. We are we’re well we uh we will be soon. I mean I like I’m not going to encroach on your uh your but like we will be using two men in a truck here pretty soon. More details to come. Yeah. So I I use them for my move. Mackie using them for his move. I’m sure Josh Mattelis and maybe Dwight Mcloth could be using them in the future as well. You don’t want to get your friends to do your move for you. Let the experts handle it. Go to Two Minute a Truck. They’ll get you the quote. No service fees. No little hidden BS there. They’re just going to give you the nice uh uh uh uh easy process to make that move as easy as easy for you. So, go to twomen truck.com. 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Purple Daily presents Jud’s Camp Notes. Here’s your host, Jud Zul. We’re back from Intermission. Hey kids. Hey everybody. It’s uh it’s Sports Dad with some more camp notes. Thanks for that setup. Shout out listener Brady Lorac for his uh brilliant production work there. Just the gray pipes. Very FM like too. I feel like dude Thor. So Brady Lorac, who uh he does some audio production for his for his career. His dad was the in-house PA announcer for the Dallas Cowboys for a number of years. Heck yeah. The Lorac family of voiceover artists. Texas Stadium. Great. Legend, man. Great pipes right there. So, um, next page of Jud’s camp notes. Let’s talk about the cornerbacks. Okay. The cornerbacks are a situation where I think that there’s been, uh, lots of intrigue about how this is going to shake out. Now, the good news is Isaiah Rogers, who had missed a couple practices because of general soreness, if that sounds familiar, Jimmy Butler. Uh, he was back on the field in pads yesterday. Uh, and so the first team, the first team corners, if you include the nickel, are Byron Murphy Jr. inside, Isaiah Rogers outside, Jeffa outside. But Dwight Mclathan, who’s playing with the special teams, UDFA in 2024, had his third pick in three days. Now, now this was off of Max Bromer, but Dwight Mcloth Thor continues to flash. And I’m just curious. I mean, the Yokuda thing, if it works, that’s awesome. But I’m certainly not assuming it’s going to work. And and I’m assuming that the Vikings want to have their three best corners playing as much as possible. I’m wondering if Dwight McGlthn is on the precipice of getting more first team reps because he’s playing like a guy who deserves it. Yeah. and and you could definitely see that that uh Dwight McGloth was awesome in college. I mean, he started uh I think three plus years in the SEC, right? First at LSU and then went to Arkansas and he was really good throughout his career. He has the the measurables from a a physical measurement uh perspective. Uh you know, long angular outside uh press man quarterback with very very long arms and he knows how to use them. He’s he’s very physical. He he blankets you. It’s like, you know, getting whitewashed by paint. He’s all over you off of the line and it’s just really difficult to sort of get angles on him and try to create leverage against him in order to try to get open. The only question that we had and the reason that he fell out of the draft was the athleticism metrics on him. But I I think he has proven that he’s at least athletic enough for it not to be nullifying. And that’s where the skill of his game, you know, comes into play. And when you test him and he’s close to that window, he has those long arms and and he’s he’s got very good ball skills as well. So that that’s a guy that that I’m intrigued by as well and he’s a perfect fit for the Flores offense or the defense, I’m sorry. Yeah, I was I was kind of curious. My I think my biggest hesitation with McGloth had nothing to do with his measurables or how good he was in college. It was about the fact that he went undrafted as a quarterback. And I just don’t like anecdotally I just didn’t really think that there was that many undrafted high-end quarterbacks like multi-year starting quarterbacks in the last 20 years in the NFL. And there it’s it is a it’s very much a first, second, third round position. Like it’s you got to have a certain level of talent and measurables and stuff to hang with receivers and be reactionary. But there’s I think there’s a lot more high-end undrafted quarterbacks in the last 20 years than I certainly thought. Chris Harris Jr. with Denver for a decade was excellent. Uh Brent Grimes who uh had Brent Grimes was a multi-time Pro Bowler with Miami like seven, eight years ago before Brian Flores got there. Tran Williams was undrafted. Kenny Moore from the Colts was undrafted. Malcolm Butler, Super Bowl hero Malcolm Butler was undrafted and and a pretty high-end player for at least a little bit. Uh, most recently I would say Charvarius Ward with Kansas City and San Francisco is a name that flashes. So there’s definitely dudes out there that that go undrafted somehow at that position. Now, you know, there’s a lot more that go undrafted and you never hear from them after the first round of cuts ever again. But I think that’s that’s what he’s fighting Thor is can he become a starting caliber quarterback despite seven rounds of teams passing on him? Dwight Mcloth. Yeah. And and Zamaya Vaughn, I’ll throw his name out there, too. He’s had a good camp. He Yeah. And very much in the same vein. Uh I mean, they they they’re sort of cut from the same cloth with their play style, the the big boundary corners that that get their hands on you. But yeah, like McGloth coming out 6’2, 185. Uh but the Raz was 40 45th percentile, and that’s that’s obviously what killed him. Uh 44740, not terrible, but he had a 32 inch vertical, which is is really bad. the broad jump was bad, too. It was the idea that he lacked the explosion, right? And then the off the line that the receivers, you can’t get your hands on them. All of a sudden, they’re running free and you’re not going to be able to catch up. Uh and and that sort of stuff. But his last year on campus, uh Dwight Mclthan, 91.3 PFF grade overall for that season. And again, acquitted himself really well in the seasons leading up to that. He has plenty of experience against NFL receivers from college, right? I mean, he was invariably the cornerback one on the the teams that he was on and and would be matched up against that and was very very good. Uh, and again, the the question about his game, the athleticism thing, he has shown that it is not nullifying. That’s a guy who’s going to hang around for a while. I got more. Oh, we want more campnos. Obligatory mention. In fact, in fact, Phil brought this player up yesterday because I don’t think he had a pick previously in camp, but he’s a guy who’s always around the football and he’s a sports dad special. He’s guy the sports dad found. There’s Johnny Munt and on defense Theo Jackson. A and all four quarterbacks, so Pooky, Sam Howell, Brett Ripen, and Max Bromer threw picks during practice. And the final play of the of the practice was two-minute drill. Second team versus second team, I believe it was. And Sam Howell tries to throw a ball. Not great. High over the middle. Theo Jackson picks it off. So there is your Theo Jackson is always around the ball. He’s going to play. Uh now, now is he going to play as much as Cam Binham did? No, I don’t think so. I I think they’re going to have different packages, too. I I’m not so sure that they’re not going to alter things a bit. I wouldn’t be surprised if we see Mattelis play a little bit more traditional safety. I was going to ask you that first week of practice, it feels like Mattelis is playing back more often than in the last couple years. He is. And here’s what I think we’ve got. I think because the personnel just continues to improve, it allows you to have different packages with different guys and different position groups now. Like I think the first year Flores literally looked at his personnel, right? And I’m not saying that it was all crap. It certainly wasn’t. But I also think he said, “Okay, I’ve sort of got the Swiss Army knife in Mattelis. I’m going to going to move around.” And it worked great. But for instance, now I think that three look is going to become a staple and and that might put Turner at a linebacker off ball at times or somebody else. So I’m not saying it’s going to be traditional because it’s not. Brian Flores’s defense are not traditional, but I also think Mattelis is going to play more traditional safety with Harry back there. And I wouldn’t be surprised if Theo Jackson’s going to get a ton of snaps, especially if you know there’s an injury, but I don’t think it’s going to look like it did with Binham. For sure. Yeah. And that um you know, you think about that stuff with within the box there. uh you know moving Mattelis back whatnot like you you can create some snaps for that again situationally by having the three edge rushers on the field just as as one example I I I think you know doing some of that stuff getting turner on the field more you allow the the safeties to stay back you don’t have to bring as many guys up so so that could be one extra manifestation of that yeah how many right now just off the top of our heads how many players on that defense are almost certainly going to get like significant snaps. I mean, it’s far more than 11. I think I think at linebacker, I think off ball, look for I I’ve seen this a little bit, but I just have a I’ve got an inkling about this. Kobe King, no. Eric Wilson, special teams ace. Look at his PFF pass grades. And then look at Ivan Paces. And I could see Blake Cashman and Eric Wilson. I mean, Wilson was here with Zimmer and his special teams guy and he did play quite a bit on defense, but if you look at he sort of establish established himself now as a reliable offball linebacker as well and they did use guys that they had who are now gone last year a little bit. I would not be shocked if Eric Wilson comes in on passing downs and Pace comes out and so like I do think there’s going to be moves like that like the chess board is changing. Yeah. With the coverage utility there, you love to see it. And then the the pass rushing, you would assume that some of those the extra uh pass down reps from that spot are going to go to Dallas Turner, right? Like and that that’s a pretty damn good player when it’s like we’re gonna Frankenstein monster Ivan Pac’s run defense with Wilson’s coverage with Dallas Turner’s coming forward on the blitz. Yeah. Exactly. Yeah. They’ve got it’s like they’ve continued to systematically fill the gaps, the weakness gaps while maintaining and not letting go of the strengths. Like you don’t just cuz Ivan Pace is kind of a first second down backer doesn’t mean that you need to replace him with someone who’s a full like Okay, cool. like a lot of Ivan Pace on first and second down and and run situations and then he’ll come out the field, he’ll be a 600 snap guy instead of a thousand snap guy or whatever it winds up being. Yeah. And and Phil, I think this is speaking to um some of the cleverness from this off seasonason with with the Vikings and and the moves they made. There was you had, you know, you you had your certain amount of like holes holes in the ro in the starting lineup where we got to get aggressive with that the the interior offensive line, the interior defensive line get super duper aggressive. I I thought it was really neat how the Vikings, you know, so that’s sort of from the treetops, but then they get sort of into the weeds and some of these these situations spec circumstantial things. They’re they’re shoring up these these these these weaknesses with mixand match guys. Jordan Mason was the answer to the short yardage thing and then keeping Aaron Jones uh uh more fresh uh down the stretch that between the tackle stuff um you’re mentioning Wilson being used to mix and match. we we can help out the upall linebacking core uh coverage. They they did that at a whole bunch of different positions wide receiver with whether it’s Rondell Moore, whether it’s Ty Felton of like our boundary receivers are some of the best route runners in the NFL. They will be able to win downfield. Uh Hawinson could take this seam. We could use a manufactured touch situation specific wide receiver uh for concepts like that. So, they did a really good job of of sort of going the the flashy moves is we talked about a lot, but some of these in the weed moves, they they directly address like a sort of micro issue on last year’s Vikings team. Absolutely. You got a you got a couple more for us? I got a couple more. Oh, yeah. Judge Camp, we can spill over to tomorrow. We got Well, I’ve got a couple more. So, so as bad as things went for really the majority of the offenses on on Wednesday, Thor, um the twominut drill this time with one v one was not bad. In fact, the first two passes McCarthy threw were completions to Naylor. They began to metriculate the ball down the field. Now, I will say this of all the things like McCarthy was under duress quite a bit and there were some things where like the line probably just has to hopefully see what the schemes are, what the stunts are and hold up uh better. My least favorite play by McCarthy of the day came in the twominute drill where he was under duress. He’s running towards the sideline and I think Phil and I are assuming okay, he’s going to stop the clock. He’s going to get out of bounds. He literally torqus his body as he’s getting to the sideline and throws back across the field for a receiver and Blake Cashman had a damn near pick. That ball can’t be thrown. And then what’s bad about that is bad beat for McCarthy there and then one of the worst write that down beats in the history of right that down occurred. Phil, I’m going to let you explain how the two-minute drill ended. And by the way, don’t forget your good friend Jud Zolad aka the sports dad tried to help you on this and so did D. I did. I did too. I knew it. I So I made the prediction on Write That Down yesterday that JJ McCarthy and the first team offense would bounce back after getting destroyed in the two-minute drill two days ago where they went backwards like eight yards. It was just a massacre. I said they will the next time they do a full padded two-minute drill, they will score points because they always start at like their own 30 yard line or whatever and then you got you got to get into either field goal range or score a touchdown. And so he hits Jaylen Naylor on a couple passes. Um he had the one near interception thrown across his body. Couple runs. Yeah. Looked good. Couple of runs, but he had they they ran cleverly. They were like at the they had gone past midfield to like maybe the 45 or like probably the 40 yardd line. So they’re on the fringe of field goal range and they dial up a draw play to Jordan Mason which I loved. And this is like probably 35 seconds left. I think they had one timeout left or something and they dial up a draw play. Jordan Mason huge wide open hole up to the right side down the hash marks and he gets out of bounds. And I will say I think he got out of bounds inside the 20 and they spotted it at the 21. I’d love to see the tape of it, but I said Jud Judge said, “Hey, sometimes they don’t finish with the actual field goal.” So like if they stop the drive once they’re in field goal range, what’s the yard line? I said if they if they get it inside the 20 and they stop the drive, then it’ll count. They spotted the ball at the 21 and nowhere was Will Riker warming up anywhere. They just brought the offense off the field and put the twos in there. One yard away from a correct write that down prediction yesterday. But it was Yeah, I mean among a lot of ugly stuff with some clever play calling, a couple nice passes by McCarthy. Uh they did redeem themselves the first team offense against the first team defense by getting inside and they would have I think they had some time left too and they just stopped the drill. So they did get they did get one over at the very end of practice Thor. So we’ll take it. I got screwed out of it, but that’s part for the course. Yeah, I mean, we we got to go back to the tape on that one, you know, uh throwing the challenge flag. Maybe we can get a reversal there. Um just like we should have gotten in the last regular season against the Rams when that guy almost ripped Darnold’s head off and they didn’t throw the the flag. Sometimes mistakes are made on a football field and this time it it caused Phil and you hate to see that. Uh the mistake was Phil’s he didn’t listen to us. D and I tried to tell him cuz Riker kicked the day before so they don’t like like you don’t kick back to back days. What are they doing? Like what the what? Like what were they weren’t even out there doing practices? I’m just telling you. I knew that. I tried to help you. Oh, he can’t kick back to back days. Somebody might get too hot. Yeah. Will the throw be he was the He was the best kicker recruit coming out in his class and then he kicked at Hoover High in high school. It’s like this power. All he does is kick. Just let Will let him kick. He would have gone out if he knew Mackie had stuff on the line. All he does is kick unless it’s unless it’s Wednesday at practice apparently and we don’t we don’t need him and it’s like please please perhaps he’s a fan of the show and he’s like I’m going to screw Mackey. I like Jutter Declan more. It’s an insight. Wow. Emanuel Class A in baseball and Will Riker in football. Wow. Oh man. All right. We got we got time for like one more nugget. One more. I’m I’m going to combine two. First of all, Justin Jefferson supposed to be re-evaluated this week. He’s been out on the field consistently with that mild hamstring strain. I think he looks fine. Um Okonnell was asked about this a couple days ago and it remains very like like he wants him to practice, but he just keeps saying that there’s plenty of time before the opener. And by the way, I don’t blame the Vikings however long they keep Jefferson out to assure that he’s healthy by the opener and they’re and going on. But that being said, I do think that there is a conversation of it sure would be nice to have Jefferson when the bullets are flying like they have been the past two times in pads to be out there. The last thing when Matt Daniels talked, I think it was for the first time in training camp when the special teams coordinator talks. Sports dad wants to know what the depth chart is. Who are you going to use here and there? I have not seen the last time I saw the kickoff returns, you guys, I did not see Rond Del Moore on kickoff return. He said he is, but as of right now, I’m going with Rondell Moore is your punt returner. And I think Ty Felton and and Ty Chandler right now, Ty Chandler being the blocker. Ty Felton being the guy that they want the ball in his hands, are the kickoff return guys. So, my early odds are Ty Felton’s going to touch the ball on kickoffs and Rondell Moore is going to get the ball on punt return. Yeah, Thor. I I’m I’m maybe I’m still high off of like 2018 Purdue or something, but I’m I want to see Rond Del Moore in this ecosystem. Like I just I want to see what it looks like. Rond Del Moore is Yeah. I mean, he single-handedly won games at Purdue. I remember a a huge upset they had that year against Ohio State where it was it was Rond Del Moore against against the entire Buckeye Nation. It was like Jon Snow and all the the horses are coming and Rondale Moore beat him like basically by himself. He’s so good with the ball in his hands. He has He’s small, of course, but he’s he’s like a muscle hamster, right? I mean, he’s really well built. He’s kind of the pint-sized guy, like a a trash compactor. And when he gets going north south, he he runs with a little bit of power and and and he’s shifty as well. It’s just about getting the ball in his hands, right? And um you know, going back to the thing of Vikings looking for a manufactured touch guy. Uh Rondale more absolutely could function as that if you know, if he gets healthy. I I think Felton, you know, and Felton’s more explosive straight line, but they’re different kinds of guys, right? Like Felton’s more angular and explosive in the long speed, whereas Rondale’s that that sort of muscle hamster guy um who who’s going to burrow forward for yards. Burrow forward for yards. Let’s go. Oh, burrowing. Just burrowing forward. Getting up, putting a foot in the ground. Let’s do it, Thor. Awesome stuff, man. Uh, it’s too bad that your internet gets sabotaged every time we uh start to criticize uh your guy JJ McCarthy, but we’ll see. We’ll see what what practice looks like this. Yeah, I I’ll call the internet company about that one. Uh, you can find more of Thor, by the way. Thor Ku on on Twitterx and also pumping out content, a lot of draft related content all year round at Matthew Barry’s fantasylife.com. So, we love you, Thor. Happy Thor’s Day to you and we’ll do it again next week, man. Great stuff. Appreciate you guys. Appreciate you guys. For Judge Camp notes, for Thor, for Dex, I’m Phil. This is Purple Daily, where we just want the Vikings to win a Super Bowl before we die. See you guys.

Minnesota Vikings defense is smothering the offense in the early days at Vikings training camp; Why the Vikings offense is taking longer to get going; Vikings first-round pick Dallas Turning is dominating; Why Vikings QB JJ McCarthy will only benefit from seeing Brian Flores’ defense; Thor Nystrom joins Purple Daily to discuss the latest Vikings observations and more on Purple Daily.

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