Minnesota Vikings QB JJ McCarthy is the next Brock Purdy?

Minnesota Vikings QB JJ McCarthy is the next Brock Purdy?

Purple Daily is daily Vikings entertainment. I just want the Vikings to win a Super Bowl before we die. I will ride with this group. Seriously, man. Please. And away we go. Hello and a happy Thor’s Day to all who celebrate Thor Nestrom from Matthew Barry’s fantasylife.com every week here on Purple Daily. We also announced yesterday, it’s been years in the making, people have wanted a Gopher football, Gopher sports related podcast. And so, starting uh I think next week, we’re going to launch the first episode, if not the week after that, but sometime in the next couple weeks here, Gophers 101 can be found on Apple, Spotify, and also the Scor YouTube channel. Ross Brendle and then Thor’s going to join as a guest to talk college football and Gophers and uh also Manny Hill our guy who’s been uh around for years at 15 Hardy ESPN and the early days of Score North 2. So Gophers 101. Thor before we get your take on the latest JJ McCarthy take making the rounds and talk more about joint practice day one standard heating and air conditioning decks is powering this Thursday’s day on Purple Daily. Do not let your air conditioner get like mine. This is This is a visual of my air conditioner. This is the backyard at Dex Tweets’s house. My guy Cameron took a look inside that thing, paused, thought about his life, and then continued about his work because he was like, “What the hell is wrong with this air conditioner? It’s 20 years old. It’s never been clean before.” He even showed me tips. Look at this thing. Look at that. I mean, it’s full of dust, and now it’s working nice and smoothly, and the cold air is blowing through this house. He showed me tips to make sure to keep this thing clean, too. Uh, so that’s what standard heating can do. They can come out, they can fix that AC or morons like me. And then even give them tips to make sure to keep it running nice and smoothly. If it’s not for standard heating, I wouldn’t be able to figure that out. So go get Standard Heating, come out to look at your air conditioning in your HVAC. I’ll go to Standard Heating, tell them Purple Daily sent you. We appreciate them. Go contact Standard Heating and Air. Let’s go. Thor, we love how much you enjoy sparring with uh Colin Cowurd through this podcast and on Twitter and other national pundits. And so the clip that was making the rounds here recently is that like JJ McCarthy is basically he’s going to be Brock Party or or that a couple weeks ago I know that uh Collins said JJ would have to be bad to not have some Brock Party level of success. So when you hear JJ McCarthy and Brock Perie as comps, A, what do you make of that? And B, is that a slight or is that actually a compliment to JJ McCarthy? No, that’s a clever rhetorical device by a guy Colin Coward that appears to know that he is wrong with his initial take that JJ McCarthy could not be a competent quarterback. And so now he’s changing the goalpost to say, well, if he’s not a top 10 quarterback like Brock Pury, then he’s bad. So, he he has to get there or else I’m right. Um, it’s a it’s a joke. But here’s the thing, like if he if he and and I don’t think they’re they don’t comp in terms of like physical skill sets cuz one guy the whole draft process led one guy to be a seventh round pick tools-wise and obviously like in retrospect, okay, like if you rerafted Brock Party would be much higher drafted. The other guy was a top 10 pick by evaluator. So, that that does matter. But if the Vikings have a guy that’s capable of steering a loaded vehicle and throwing for like 4,000 yards and some touchdowns and use his mobility a little bit, which is what Brock Perie has done. Play you up, play action, leverage those things, and just command an offense, you’re going to the Super Bowl. That’s what we’ve that’s what we’ve learned about Brock Pury, right? Yeah, definitely. I mean, they they don’t have the same games. You know, Brock Party, it was the really quick processor. He doesn’t have the arm that McCarthy does, and he’s not as good of an athlete as as McCarthy, but very, very quick processor at the field. Obviously, he’s had a lot of success, and qualitatively, you know, top 10, top 12 quarterback in the NFL and has been since the get. Um, the Vikings would certainly take that that play this year with with the roster that they have. You are by definition a playoff contender if you have top twopart play in the league this year. We’ll see. I I’m pretty bullish, like we’ve talked about that JJ will be a top half of the league starter in his first year. There’s going to be some mistakes. I I think it’s going to be a different game than uh Pertie, especially initially. You’re going to get more explosive plays. I think you’re going to get more wild plays. I think you’re going to have a little bit more turnovers as well that the first year, but yeah, I mean, if you’re talking qualitatively and you want to get away from their games and just sort of zoom out, sure, qualitatively, yeah, that that that’s what you’re hoping for initially. But yeah, they’re they don’t play the same way. So, did did Colin come to the realization though that the Vikings have a pretty good offense around him? Cuz like the comparison to Perty to me would not be a physical one. It it would be uh you’re being put in a pretty nice car here, kid. And that certainly helps. So, I think he’s decided I think he’s hedging because he’s realized that McCarthy might be successful. And it doesn’t mean he’s going to like McCarthy, but it means when when you’ve got, you know, Justin Jefferson, TJ Hawinson, Addison coming back after three games, and by the way, we could talk about it. The chemistry with those two has been phenomenal. An offensive line that can block. So, I feel like Collins moving of the goalpost is more like I might look silly here because this guy might be good because the Vikings have done a very good job of surrounding him with talent. And that’s where he’s like, “Okay, cuz Pertie’s not good either because he has talent.” Which is of course uh a very flawed argument. Yeah, that’s what it is. It’s a It’s a rhetorical device and nothing else. It’s And it’s coming from a guy that told everyone out there, “Jay McCarthy is not a good athlete. JJ McCarthy has a wet noodle arm. JJ McCarthy is a project. Jay McCarthy, you know, it’s going to take years.” And now, right before it happens, he start his take is already wrong, right? I mean, J.J. McCarthy is going to be he’s the handpicked starter in his second year coming off the injury for one of the great quarterback whispers that we have in the NFL. So Colin Coward’s already been proven wrong, but now he’s moving the goalpost again. So it’s like, well, maybe I’ll be right with my new the new parameters that I’m setting for this argument and just raising the bar up to he has to be a top 10 quarterback right away or I’m right. And no, pal, you’re already wrong. Sorry, pal. Pal. Um, here’s another I we we we always have the door open for ask Thor anything questions here. So, if you ever we do feedback Friday where you can ask the three of us anything you want, but um you know, we can open up on a regular basis. We did this a few weeks ago during the dead of the offseason if you have a question specifically for Thor. And I like this one from Jake Barton here and it’s a little bit of a different twist on the McCarthy conversation, but he says, “This might be a fun discussion if you guys haven’t done it yet. In an alternate universe where Kevin O’Connell is paired with Caleb Williams and Ben Johnson is paired with JJ McCarthy, which tandem would you think would have the most success with their tenure together? That’s that’s a really good question. Um Johnson would have success with McCarthy um you know running the concepts. I I think Johnson would have more success I’ll put it this way. I think Johnson would have more success with McCarthy than he’s going to have with Caleb Williams. Again, I you know, I and I’ve made this point on other shows. I I just think Ben Johnson’s such a a bad stylistic fit with Caleb Williams. Um I I think it’d be a better one uh with McCarthy. As far as Okonnell, that one’s interesting. I I I think that McCarthy is a better fit for Okonnell as well, but I I would have been curious to be a fly in the wall of the Vikings war room and an Egan when they were discussing all the quarterbacks. Kevin Okonnell’s mentioned that he’s the quarterback killer. um in you know he has been at Egan in the pre-draft processes going back years he obviously does he I mean he’s just outright said it he does his own evaluation on the quarterback prospects what I would not have given to have seen Kevin O’Connell’s personal draft rankings for the quarterbacks in the 2024 class I am guessing that they were vastly different than you know folks in my industry and and what we had and I would be very interested to see for instance Caleb Williams against JJ McCarthy, where would you put that? We know that the Vikings really like Drake May. Um, I think Drake May might have been higher. I think I think old KOC was looking over off the corner at the other field out of the corner of his eye a little bit yesterday. Just Well, I saw I saw Drake May sort of longingly wandering around that field by himself. You know, he’s sort of looking around like, man, this could have been me. This could have been me. And instead, I’m playing with this dog, you know what team over here. That’s too bad. Yeah. and and a coach that loves meat and potatoes defense in instead of a QB guy. Yeah, my guess is Okonnell and I would love to to your point, Thor, I’d love to know where he like draws the line on quarterbacks because he definitely has a line. If I was to guess off the top, I I don’t think Caleb was close to one on Okonnell’s board. I I think it was probably Drake May, Jaden Daniels, JJ McCarthy. Like Like that’s the thing. and you were on top of this months ago and now it’s it’s being talked about more so nationally, but you know, Caleb Williams is a really good, but he’s not everybody’s cup of tea. And to your point, he is not Ben Johnson’s. So, and that and that’s sort of again the interesting and we don’t talk about this enough. We talk about raw talent, but where a really good quarterback’s coach potentially draws a line and says, “This guy can be good, but he won’t be good in my system.” And we don’t know that. And like I mean Ben Johnson took a good job or in his mind, right? But he was foisted. Now Caleb is foisted on him and he’s told fix him. To me that’s a different story than I’m going to handpick you and work with you to maximize you as opposed to I’m just going to try and fix a guy who I know I might not be able to fix because he doesn’t fit my profile. Yeah, that’s right. And and this sort of the the game thing of the quarterbacks. It goes back to one of the reasons I was bullish on JJ McCarthy. When we talk about in structure and out of structure play and McCarthy excelling at both and Caleb Williams to this point, he excels in out of structure. We have not yet seen it in structure. Uh uh uh Ben Johnson is one of the more structured offensive play callers that we have in the NFL. And we saw that to devastating effect in uh Detroit where you had a quarterback that will run that script for you. you you were playing behind one of the best offensive lines in the NFL. You had two dynamic running backs. You had a a pretty solid uh passcatching court. And so that thing worked out. But can Ben Johnson teach Caleb Williams to play within structure? That’s where it sort of breaks down for me because Caleb Williams has never done that. He’s never wanted to do that. It’s not the prerogative of his game. Uh whereas JJ McCarthy, we have seen him excel both in structure under Jim Harbaugh um at Michigan, winning the national title there and then also out of structure when the first couple options are taken away for him and the creativity and and and running around making people miss and then hitting guys downfield on broken plays. By the way, on this sort of Bears Vikings kind of a Bears Vikings uh discussion in some ways here too. I just pulled up, there’s a bunch of different platforms you could pull up, but I pulled up ESPN bet and the Vikings are sitting at 8 1/2 still. The Bears are still sitting at 8 1/2. Their odds to win the Super Bowl are pretty similar. 25 to1 Vikings, 30 to1 Bears. What is the argument? Help me reverse engineer this because I I have I’ve I have not seen I’m not saying the Bears won’t be improved. They should be improved. Maybe there’s a schedule discussion to be had here, Thor, but can you make the argument logically or feasibly that the Bears are going to be better than the Vikings? Because when I look at it, I Okay, let’s just go through the tail of the tape. Ben Johnson at this point as a head coach is just a theory. We don’t we don’t know yet. Kevin Oonnell is a bonafide excellent head coach. He has yet to win a playoff game, but he is one of the top 10 head coaches easily in the NFL. So, head coach check. Uh, defense check. Offensive weapons check. Vikings offensive line. Both teams did a lot of revamping. I think I would take the Viking. Give me the left tackle certainty of Darasaw. Like, give me the Vikings offensive line. Check. And you might say quarterback. Well, Caleb Williams was the number one overall pick. Has a one-year head start. He was also a sack and mistake machine last year. So, like you maybe I’ll give you Caleb Williams check, but I know you would fight that. like what is the what am I missing is my question here. Um well the the odds don’t make any sense. So I I think it’s more the public and the betting markets that are that are missing it there. I I think the Vikings over eight and a half. And I said this this go back to the episode when did that drop in March or whatever. That that was one of my favorite bets was going over that. And then the under on the Bears is one of my other favorite uh win total bets in the NFL. and you’ve seen in other sports books now the Vikings some of them have toggled the Vikings up to nine and a half because of the action coming in on on the over the Vikings but yeah I I don’t see much of a good justification for having you know and having had the Bears and the Vikings with the same win total it just goes back you know you look at the last I I think it was 12 of the last 13 years the Bears have gone under their win total their preseason win total the Bears are always overrated in the preseason so this is just sort of part and parcel with what we see every year and the Vikings invariably are often uh discounted in in the preseasons and you often see the lower win totals on them and that leads to profit on people that go over. I think the Bears get that that way in part two because they’re such a a you know national type of team, right? Big city, big name team and there’s always like this hope that they finally found a a quarterback or b now a coach. And so it always it it feels like that we are as a as a whole that we’re trying to like will them to be competitive and they’re like we’re not really compet competitive yet. Now that could change but I mean this division to me is not that tough to to figure out. One I think it’s really really good. the North is. And two, I mean, Detroit until unless we prove that these that the coord coordinators are a step down, they should have more health than they did certainly defensively in 2024. So, the Lions should be good. The Packers and and Vikings, I’m curious. Like, I’m curious about both. I I could see it being Green Bay and the Vikings. I could see it being the Vikings Green Bay, but this need to like anoint the Bears now. It’s just like let’s wait and see cuz Phil’s right. The Ben Johnson thing to me is a like he’s kicking players out of practice, okay? So don’t tell me he’s like a Kevin O’Connell. Like we don’t know that yet. And he should have his own style, but if he is trying to be Dan Campbell, that’s a long way from the patient type of coach. So, there’s a lot of Bears things that I’m not buying till I actually see them. You know what’s funny, too? I I thought like, oh, there’s got to be, you know, their schedule must just be really weak, right? And and and we could look at strength of schedule for for whatever that means. Dude, their the Bears schedule is wild the first half of the season. So, Vikings out of the gate. And I think Bears fans and media think like, well, yeah, let’s we’ll go take it to JJ McCarthy and that’s a win. Okay. Well, that game is going to be a fight. uh at Detroit short week week two because it’s a Monday night game week one. So at Detroit short week week two then home against a Dallas team that you know it’s kind of a punchline but if Micah Parsons inks a contract and Dak Prescott’s back and CD Lamb like that’s not an easy game in week three at a Vegas team that’s revamped with Pete Carol who is at worst a seven- win coach every single year of his career and Gino Smith. They have a quarterback and a coach and they’ve got some pieces there by week at Washington. Then you go home against New Orleans. Okay. At Baltimore, at Cincinnati, that is the first nine weeks for the Chicago Bears. Yeah, they’re not going to start well. They’re They’re not going to start well. They They have the homecom JJ McCarthy’s homecoming, the opener. I the the odds on that one are are coming in the the Vikings favor, you know, getting closer to kickoff. Anything beneath a field goal, I absolutely love the Vikings in that game. obviously and then you know you you mentioned the slate after that. I think it’s going to be the slow acclamation with Caleb Williams into that system and and that offensive line like they’re the Bears are projected to start a day two left tackle from day one. Azie Trapio and I didn’t mind Aussie Trapo at Boston College. He’s a big skyscraper guy. doesn’t have a lot of power, but this is not like an elite left tackle prospect, and that’s who you’re sticking in at the blind side, but playing in front of this quarterback that loves to extend the play beyond 3 seconds back there. I I don’t know about that. And of course, I take the Vikings defense over the Bears as well. Uh you compare the two teams and um I’m happy to say this on record before it happens, I don’t really see a comparison between them. So, Thorski, joint practice, Patriots in town. Now, it it was it was bumpy at times. It was not a all-around great day, but McCarthy did make some plays. But let me tell you one thing again that is we are seeing now and and we’ve talked about theorized about and now we are seeing it. The TJ Hawinson safety blanket connection is there. I charted him I think with seven receptions between the team drills and the seven on seven drills. And that is one that is going to be, I think, an outlet for him consistently. Uh Hawinson, this this is going to be where it’s going to be interesting cuz the dude’s got good hands. There was one pass and Phil and I talked about this on the PD that we did postpractice yesterday. There was one early pass. JJ’s definitely getting the feel back for his passing also on short passes where Hawinson made a very nice route adjustment and it was just a short pass but he made it a nice adjustment pass was thrown a little bit behind him adjusted stopped which isn’t ideal caught the ball and gain yards. So, I really think at least for the first quarter of the season and certainly when Addison is out for those three games that the Hawinson factor is going to be a huge one and it’s going to be very very um um fruitful for McCarthy and the Vikings. Yeah, Hawinson’s going to have a big season. And you know, we’ve talked about the prerogative of JJ’s game and and how that goes with with Hawinson. you look back at the 2023 Michigan National Title team, the way that JJ used Coulson Loveland, I think you’re going to see a lot of similarities there uh with TJ Hawinson. But then also at the beginning of the season, like you’re kind of alluding to Jud as as a as a safety blanket or uh you know, he’s like the you know, like uh having like your teddy bear, right? Like it’s it’s just someone that you can rely on initially while you’re sort of getting your feet under you in the NFL. TJ Hawinson has that enormous catch radius and it’s really difficult to work through his back. So for a for a guy who loves throwing those bullets in the intermediate range, he TJ Hoggin is gonna catch a lot of balls. Work through his back by the way. That was a underrated great phrase. Work through his back. That was really good. It’s 100% correct and I love it and I will work that into a casual conversation today. Dude, I would have been more Johnny on the spot with that uh football sounder if I wasn’t scrolling through prize picks right now. So Thor, maybe you can help me here. Prize picks, by the way. already I’ve already bet the overs on T.J. Hawkins all of his season longs. I I could almost tell you what they are. Is that Is that what you’re going to talk about? Well, I mean, I want to talk I’ll talk long term with you at some point. I’m more fixated on So, so I just uh I went into the this weekend’s preseason games prize picks has Lucky Jackson at 23.5 for the number. I am hammering the more button on Lucky Jackson 23 point. I know preseason’s kind of tough to figure out. He’s going to play and they’re trying to see if he can be a viable option here in the absence of Jordan Addison. So, by the way, prize picks the best way to win real money this football season. You select between two and six players like I am doing right now. There he is. Oh, lucky Ty Felton’s sitting there too. 17.5 receiving yards. You pick more or less on their stats. You place your entry. It’s super easy. Prize Pick offers Venmo, Apple Pay, Mastercard, and more. Download the Prize Pick app today right here. You see it, YouTube friends. And uh use the code purple daily. Get $50 in lineups when you play just $5. That’s $50 in lineups when you play $5 on prize picks. Run your game. Jud, the uh the the the numbers on TJ Hawinson for the season long. It’s only three and a half touchdowns for Hawinson all season in 17 games. I’m I’m think he going to be there in October. Like what are we what are we doing here, guys? Give me a break. That’s free money. zero last year and that’s why they they’ve completely blown the judgment. Jud, if prize picks had a pronto puff number on the sports dad at uh 3 and a half at our state fair shows August 21st through the 29th scorn.com/fair. We’re going up. Hammer the over. Hammer it. Hammer it. And keep going because we’re talking about with Yeah, exactly right. Why? because we’re talking about the state fair’s original food on a stick. You don’t get more state fair than that. Uh founded in 1944 by the Carnis family. Eight locations. Eight locations throughout the fairgrounds. So, you know what? A pronto pup is always nearby. Declan has told me it’s mustard. No ketchup. So, this ketchup guy, he’s out. He’s out on that cuz he’s going mustard. And Thor, here’s the best part. Don’t forget, in fact, when you come by the Score North booth at the fair, and I know that you’re going to stop by for a few shows, you can pick up your very own Jud on a stick to go with your pronto pup. Oh, so you get Jud on a stick, a pronto pup on a stick. What more could you possibly want? And yes, three and a half, not even close to being accurate, man. I I I can’t wait for this state fair. My gastroenterologist is on retainer. Um, he is on standby for that week. I think I’m going to need them. Yeah, the whole schedule is at scornorth.com/fair with it’s our first time doing daily shows there in several years. So, Purple Daily every single day at 1:00. There is a day where we started at noon, but it’ll be a live stream every day. Scorn North shows in general, the window is noon to 3 at the Skorn podcast stage and you can find a map and other information at scor.com/fair starting a week from today. We’re looking forward to it. We can’t wait. love to see as many of you as possible. Um, and then one other thing before we get into an interesting topic that I saw pop up yesterday from from uh joint practice. We are almost to our $20,000 goal for our power of sports auction benefiting the Courage Kenny Rehabilitation Institute. Scorn.com/bid. There are still So, in terms of Vikings related things, dinner with the purple daily crew and a signed Justin Jefferson jersey and a Harrison Smith signed football is up for auction right now. There’s a Pepsi Cares package that includes $300 in Vikings locker room gift cards, a Jefferson signed jersey, a Jared Allen signed print, and a million other things right now at scorn.com/bid. We are so close to $20,000. A shout out to Rolex Vans for their support of Courage Kenny and for offering up some matching funds this week. So, I didn’t hear this verbatim, but I saw it aggregated on social media that uh so Paul Allen from KFXN radio and the Vikings Entertainment Network, boom, he said apparently on his radio show yesterday that um it just to sum it up here that there’s a little concern about Dallas Turner. the team is thrilled with Gabriel Murphy, but Paul, and I agree, by the way, that that he said Gabriel Murphy has outplayed Dallas Turner in camp, flashed more in the first preseason game. Um, what are your thoughts, Thor, on Dallas Turner? I know you’re not like sitting out there at every training camp practice, but is there a chance that like Gabriel Murphy could actually be better than Dallas Turner? I guess is like I mean I’ve been on Gabriel Murphy for two years here and Sports Dad hears about it every day at practice, but what are your thoughts on what’s at stake for Dallas Turner here? Well, I I think it’s too early to to write the book on Dallas Turner. Dallas Turner was one of the youngest guys in his draft class along with uh our friend JJ McCarthy. But those were two of the youngest guys that we had in that draft class and talked right away about some raw elements of of Dallas Turner’s game that were going to take a little bit of time uh to try to work with him on Gabriel Murphy went, you know, switching to him. He went undrafted, but he was super polished coming out. He didn’t go undrafted because he wasn’t polished. He had a ton of sacks uh at at UCLA. It was in his case, he’s T-Rex armed, right? Um, and he wasn’t a crazy crazy good athlete, but the lack of length is what really hurt him. But, uh, Murphy’s got some cool tricks to his game that I appreciated when he came out. He absolutely should not have gone undrafted. Um, his thing of timing up the snaps. He’s one of the better time up the snap edge rushers that I saw in college football last five or six years where it was just kind of uncanny where you’re watching his cutups and you’d have to pause it and go back slow-mo of like I think he was off sides but it’s like you line it up and it’s like he wasn’t offsides like he you know and and so because of some of these different tricks that that Murphy has he’s able to overcome some of the physical limitations. Um, but yeah, they’re just different uh kind of uh players and prospects and evaluations those two guys because Murphy is near already coming in what he is going to be, right? Whereas Dallas Turner that’s it’s theoretical, yes, and that’s the scary thing, but there is the the theoretical ceiling there because of all the physical ability and the flashes we’ve seen from him. So, I have a question when it comes to Turner. What is going on here? So, this is interesting. Number one, he’s had a good camp. Like, he has flashed. Phil’s seen him. He’s changed his body. He’s looked pretty good. And this is not to denigrate Phil’s guy. Phil’s guy’s played great. And he had a great Slander. Gabriel Murphy. Gabe Murphy had a great game on Saturday. But let me let me try to put the the uh connect the dots here a little bit. Okay. If I’m the play-by-play guy of the Vikings and I also host a daily show, I probably don’t go on and just off the cuff say that I think Dallas Turner there’s not something, you know, he’s not blah blah blah. Right. If it’s if it’s critical. Yeah. I’m probably I’m probably told by a coach, hey, we won’t we won’t mind if you like here’s what what we think and you can say that. Um, now Dallas Turner did not flash on Saturday. So, I wonder if this is a mechanism for this to get back to him be because like if he was a bust all camp, I think there’d be genuine concern like if Dallas Turner showed up and he was still not in great shape or something like that. This seems to me to be a a potential motivational tactic though cuz one preseason game, I mean, we all know does not define a guy. That’s just an it’s a very interesting thing for a guy who’s employed by the team to bring up and and that guy in my opinion does not say stuff a lot of times unless it’s like greenlighted by the team to say, “Yeah, it’s fine. Share this with your listeners.” Totally agree with that. Yeah. Um Paul Allen very clearly had a conversation with someone there um and he’s conveying some things that were said in that conversation, but I agree with your interpretation of that. I think they’re trying to light a fire under Dallas Turner. Um, but yeah, you know, I don’t think that any Viking personnel is insinuating Dallas Turner could be a bust. I I think it’s more trying to light that fire under his butt like you’re you’re sort of alluding to. Might be one guy named Brian who tried that. I could see I could see Below being big on like I’m going to give you a kick in the ass despite the fact it was one preseason game. Yeah. and and that stuff is, you know, probably conversations that are happening behind closed doors as well of like Dallas, pick it up, man, because the undrafted free agent from your class is up on your heels. And if you want that role this year where you’re, you know, not only the snaps you had last year, but you’re going to vacuum up all Patrick Jones’s snaps and maybe even use you situ situationally even more than that, you we’re not handing that to you, bud. Like, you have to outplay these other guys on the dep chart and you’re not doing that right now visav Murphy. Yeah. Um, yeah. I’m I think Jud, what I’ll do today is I will peek at the defense a little more. I I really like to have two sets of eyes on McCarthy and the offense because that’s the thing that’s the unknown. But I will go peek at the defense a little bit. See if Dallas Turner is wreaking some havoc while sports dad uh is perched on top of the Yeah. the offensive uh platform there watching and maybe they switch the fields up. That’s the wild card we don’t know. Do they flip-flop those fields today? I hope not. I really like my field right there. It is a good purse. That’s a good point, though. I I I have Let’s just say I’m concerned. I don’t want to harp on it, but I am concerned about the field locations for today. Yeah. Uh Thorbuff, it’s a little bit of an abbreviated Thor Thursday here just because we have to bolt in a couple minutes to get to day two of joint practice. But, uh, it is it is fantasy football season and, uh, you do also you do the daily stuff and you do, um, we’d love to for the next couple weeks too, just you floated a couple fun little what’s like a fun nugget as you’re doing your drafts or like a piece of advice. Hawinson is one. So, you think you think people are too low in the dailies and in the season long leagues on Hawinson, right? Yes. Uh, what what’s another little nugget you can throw at us here as we prepare for drafts? one from the Vikings and it’s starting to get closer. It was egregious before, but it’s still not close enough. Is in fantasy drafts, Aaron Jones is going too early and Jordan Mason is going too late. Those guys should be getting drafted dang near right next to each other. And there was this big gulf beforehand. Um uh and and we’ve been banging the drum on this of like th those guys need to be ranked right next to each other. So I don’t have Aaron Jones on any teams. I have Jordan Mason on multiple. I’m hoping to get Jordan Mason on even more, but as you guys know, and as the team said right from the jump when they made that acquisition, this is going to be more or less split touches. Aaron Jones is cool with it. Aaron Jones was saying back in April to the media that this is going to be split touches here. It’s going to be split touches. And the guy who’s getting the goal line work is Jordan Mason. So, those guys need to be getting drafted right next to each other. Yep. And and if Jordan uh indeed is an outlet in the passing game, which I expect him to be, which a lot of people do not think he will be, it will change that dynamic more so too, cuz I I would say Jones is in in most leagues, Jones value will come from rushing yards, not touchdowns, rushing yards and receiving yards. But if Mason starts to to do that, and back in my day, what Mason would be called, he he’s gonna be a vulture. Yes. So, so if Aaron Jones goes 50 yards and now the ball’s at the three, guess who’s not getting the touchdown? Aaron Jones. Little vulturing right there. Yeah, that’s right. It’s it’s the David Montgomery thing with the Lions, right? Like in the last year with DeAndre Swift, uh Jamal Williams led the NFL with 17 touchdowns and then now then they went to Montgomery after that. And it’s you’ve seen the same thing with Montgomery and Gibbs and and all the touchdown work that that Montgomery gives. the the sort of fantasy football industrial complex is not baking in enough the amount of touches that Jordan Mason will get and where those touches are going to come. Uh speaking to the goal line thing and the one other thing I wanted to mention cuz the the day we were out there for the night practice, you saw this too of the throwing to uh Jordan Mason and and you guys have seen that all camp long. I think the other really clever thing about working on that with Jordan Mason is it really does give you insurance against an Aaron Jones injury. And that’s something that you you have to think through because Aaron Jones misses a few games every single season. The fact that you won’t theoretically have to change your offense very much if Jordan Mason can catch the ball, right? I mean, so that’s what they’re trying to work with with him. And you see this stuff of them getting him the ball with an envoy in front of him and getting him out on the perimeter and letting him rumble down the field with some offensive linemen in front of him. If he can just do that where it’s the dump offs, screens, and swings, just those three things. Jordan, we don’t need you running down the field, Jordan Mason. We don’t need you, you know, doing, you know, catching the ball 30 yards downfield. But if he can do those three things and then run after the catch, uh, you know, they’re going to have something there. Football. Yeah, envoy. Yes, sir. Envoy. Speaking of envoys, it was it was it wasn’t Jordan Mason. And it was Aaron Jones who caught the screen pass. Did you see the clips from camp of Donovan Jackson absolutely destroying It was by By the way, Jud, we couldn’t see from our angle live. The the bunch of fans took video. He trucked two different defensive backs on his way down up the sidewalk down the field. Yeah. And it’s you’re not supposed to like, you know, it’s not a full contact practice, but there’s this gigant it was like Happy Gilmore where like that big giant dude is running after shooter Gilmore’s and he’s just he he can’t you know if you’re you haven’t hit someone since Ohio State and you’re like oh my god here’s this Patriots guy who’s half my size standing in the way and he flattened two different dudes for like a 40 yard screen pass gain yesterday very agile by the way Donovan Jackson you guys remember the the scene in Inception with the train on the street and it’s just mowing down all the cars in front of it that’s that’s Donovan Jackson out in space Donovan Jackson a crazy good athlete and he’s super smart. So, they’re going to be able to do some cool things with him using Donovan Jackson as a hammer weapon out in space picking people off and and maybe leading that envoy that we’re talking about. Love it, dude. Thor Istrom from Matthew Barry’s fantasylife.com. Our Gophers Buffalo Suite did sell out in like a day, so we’ll be having fun uh in a couple weeks for that Gopher football game. And Jud, come on. You’re invited. You know, Jud, please come. No, no, I want you guys to have fun. Okay, John, I need to celebrate Ky Par’s first offensive touchdown in 2025 with you. So, you better be in that. The Vikings need to be finding a way to get him first round draft. You don’t put that on film against Buffalo. You save that Kore touchdown. You save save any sort of trickeration with Oh, he’ll have a defensive touchdown with the Bulls. He’ll have a defensive touchdown. Pick off a pass. Okay. Yeah. Maybe special teams, too. Oh, maybe all three. All three game. Let’s go. All right. Thor Nestrom. Thor KU on Twitter. Matthew Barry’sfantasylife.com for the sports dad for mustache producer Declan. I’m Phil. We just want the Vikings to win a Super Bowl before we die. See you guys.

Minnesota Vikings QB JJ McCarthy is the next Brock Purdy; Thor Nystrom joins to discuss the latest Vikings news; Thoughts on the Vikings-Patriots joint practice; Comparing the Vikings to the Bears; Dallas Turner vs. Gabriel Murphy on the Vikings depth chart; Plus more Vikings news on Purple Daily.

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