Latest / The Skol Hop / Our beer needs a name and the Vikings need Free Agents and Draft Picks | TSH Ep. 82

Transcript

Our beer needs a name and the Vikings need Free Agents and Draft Picks | TSH Ep. 82 · The Skol Hop

0:00
Speaker 1: All right, Hey Vikings fans, welcome in to another episode
0:02
Speaker 1: of the School Hop. I'm Evan and I'm Austin. We're
0:05
Speaker 1: a couple of dudes from Iowa. We like drinking beer
0:07
Speaker 1: talking about the Viking.
0:08
Speaker 2: Yeah we do. And tonight we gave our thoughts on
0:11
Speaker 2: a new beer, at least new to us that we
0:13
Speaker 2: haven't had, the Recreational red Ale from Great Revivalist Brewing. Yes,
0:18
Speaker 2: it was super good. We would highly recommend it.
0:21
Speaker 1: We also took a peek at a few articles from
0:23
Speaker 1: friend of the show, Dustin Baker, which we're very insightful.
0:27
Speaker 2: Yeah, and tonight ar now is the perfect time of
0:29
Speaker 2: year to talk about early free agency and draft talks,
0:33
Speaker 2: which we got from Dustin's articles. Yeah, we did.
0:36
Speaker 1: And we also quickly gave an update on the beer
0:39
Speaker 1: that we've been brewing and we'll hopefully get to try
0:43
Speaker 1: here on an episode very soon.
0:45
Speaker 2: Hopefully. Yeah, that'd be really good. But until then, go
0:48
Speaker 2: ahead and grab a cold one. Join us for episode
0:50
Speaker 2: eighty two School all right, we just want to say
1:26
Speaker 2: thanks to show sponsor Big Top Ventures for sponsoring today's episode.
1:30
Speaker 2: If you're looking to take all inclusive trip to Mexico
1:34
Speaker 2: or Jamaica. Reach out to Big Top Ventures. They've got
1:37
Speaker 2: some good connections with quite a few resorts between those
1:41
Speaker 2: two areas, so there's definitely a lot of options. And
1:45
Speaker 2: if you if you have any idea what it costs
1:47
Speaker 2: to go on an all inclusive trip down there, or
1:49
Speaker 2: if you have no idea, reach out and they will
1:52
Speaker 2: give you all the information. I promise you'll be pretty
1:55
Speaker 2: surprised at the reasonable prices that that you can pay
1:59
Speaker 2: to get a really nice vacation down in Mexico or Jamaica.
2:02
Speaker 2: So Evan, you gotta do it. I'm doing it twice
2:06
Speaker 2: in the next I don't know, five months or so.
2:09
Speaker 2: But listeners, if you want to reach out, Evan's pointing
2:13
Speaker 2: out their email address right now, send Big Top Adventures
2:15
Speaker 2: an email at Big Top Ventures LLC at gmail dot com. Again,
2:20
Speaker 2: that's Big Top Ventures LLC at gmail dot com, and
2:24
Speaker 2: just let them know you're interested and they will get
2:26
Speaker 2: you hooked up. Well, it's on my to do list. Wow. Really,
2:31
Speaker 2: I think I'm gonna make a hot take right now.
2:34
Speaker 2: Oh man, We've been the podcast of hot takes for
2:37
Speaker 2: the last month or so, so I'm interested. In less
2:41
Speaker 2: than one year, I will go on a trip with
2:44
Speaker 2: Big Top all right, in a year, okay, So I
2:47
Speaker 2: have until March third of twenty twenty six market, all right,
2:51
Speaker 2: and you'll go on the trip. I will go. Just
2:54
Speaker 2: book it. Well, I'll book it. I'll book it. Okay,
2:58
Speaker 2: I'll book it. Okay, I'll tell you right now. As
3:02
Speaker 2: of this moment, I have trips booked for May July,
3:07
Speaker 2: yes I know, and then next July, so twenty twenty six.
3:11
Speaker 2: And there might be another one or two sprinkled in
3:13
Speaker 2: there before that next July trip too. Somehow I believe that. Well,
3:19
Speaker 2: and we've got we've got the hookup. We've got Big
3:21
Speaker 2: Tip Ventures. They will hook you up, Evan and listener.
3:25
Speaker 2: So yeah, thanks Big Time Ventures. Yeah, thanks guys. All right,
3:29
Speaker 2: I got some beer. Yeah, I'm excited to try this one. Actually,
3:33
Speaker 2: I sent you a picture because I went to a
3:35
Speaker 2: different high V than we normally would go to. We've
3:38
Speaker 2: got two that are pretty close to both of us,
3:41
Speaker 2: and I went to the other one and it was
3:44
Speaker 2: just kind of perusing the shelves. I was there for
3:45
Speaker 2: some other stuff, and I'm like, well, let's see what
3:47
Speaker 2: they have in there, Iowa craft beer section, and I
3:50
Speaker 2: saw some stuff that kind of stuck out to me, like, oh,
3:53
Speaker 2: I haven't seen this at our normal high V and
3:56
Speaker 2: this one from Great Revivalist it's called Recreational red Ale
4:00
Speaker 2: definitely jumped out to me because I like reds and
4:05
Speaker 2: I was just looking for some new stuff that we
4:06
Speaker 2: haven't had before. So when you first told me about
4:09
Speaker 2: this one, just the name and the can art, everything
4:12
Speaker 2: about it kind of made my ears perk up a
4:14
Speaker 2: little bit. It made me think that this is like
4:18
Speaker 2: like a THC beverage, like with that substance. Everything I
4:24
Speaker 2: can see is no, it is just a regular red Ale.
4:28
Speaker 2: There doesn't seem to be any other substances in this beer.
4:34
Speaker 2: But the can art's hilarious. It's a bunch of like
4:37
Speaker 2: woodland animals that are drawn to look like they've gotten
4:41
Speaker 2: into some of that substance as well. I would love
4:45
Speaker 2: to hear from the artist and the brewers what the
4:49
Speaker 2: decision making went behind all of this can art. But
4:53
Speaker 2: before that, I'm really excited to give it a try.
4:55
Speaker 2: Let's pour it up. See what we got here. It
4:58
Speaker 2: doesn't smell like the substance. Oh, I'm totally positive that
5:04
Speaker 2: we're not like like doing anything that we shouldn't be
5:09
Speaker 2: doing because it would say it on the can if
5:13
Speaker 2: there was anything in there other than alcohol to disclose that. Yeah,
5:17
Speaker 2: absolutely so, and I do believe great revivalist has. I
5:20
Speaker 2: don't know if it's THHC or what is legal. We
5:23
Speaker 2: both have jobs where it's not worth it to even
5:27
Speaker 2: kind of delve into that area. But yeah, when it's
5:32
Speaker 2: totally legal, maybe maybe someday I'll try stuff like that,
5:34
Speaker 2: but until then, we'll go with the red Ale school
5:37
Speaker 2: school good poor by the way. Yeah, man, no, you're joking,
5:40
Speaker 2: You're you're making fun. That's a great poor mind pills
5:45
Speaker 2: in comparison to years. Let's try to be Oh yeah,
5:51
Speaker 2: that's red up my alley. That's a red Ale. It's
5:55
Speaker 2: kind of kind of got like a lighter almost, like
6:00
Speaker 2: I don't know, fruity, Like, yeah, there's more refreshing, there's
6:05
Speaker 2: something there's some fruit on the back, like the aftertaste
6:09
Speaker 2: like maybe some apple or something like that. Yeah, something
6:13
Speaker 2: like that, something crisp. Usually you wouldn't say a red
6:17
Speaker 2: Ale is like refreshing, you know what I mean, like
6:21
Speaker 2: like perking. Like red Ales usually have like a lot
6:25
Speaker 2: of earthy flavors and they're they're really good darker tasting beers.
6:29
Speaker 2: This is a really good darker tasting beer, but it
6:32
Speaker 2: does have that, like that nice lightness in the back end.
6:35
Speaker 2: It's really good. It's got a lot of like caramel
6:37
Speaker 2: notes too, Like it kind of reminds me of like
6:39
Speaker 2: a caramel apple, not like not like the caramel apple
6:42
Speaker 2: fandango that we tried from Toppling Goliath that was like
6:46
Speaker 2: the like caramel apple sucker that you get at Halloween time.
6:49
Speaker 2: It's not like that intense of a flavor. But it's
6:52
Speaker 2: just like it's mellow, it's it's it's very chill and relaxed.
6:56
Speaker 2: And this is what I like in a beer. Like
6:58
Speaker 2: if I'm gonna go to the store and I'm gonna
7:00
Speaker 2: for something, I want something that doesn't pretend to be
7:03
Speaker 2: a beer. I want something that just is a beer
7:05
Speaker 2: and it's just really good. Yeah, and this hits the spot. Yeah.
7:08
Speaker 2: I think the can says it's five point four percent.
7:12
Speaker 2: I don't know, man, this is a home run to me.
7:14
Speaker 2: This is really good. I'm really enjoying this. Thank you
7:17
Speaker 2: for bringing it, Thank you Great Revivalists for brewing it.
7:21
Speaker 2: Great Survivalists is close enough that we need to get
7:23
Speaker 2: up there. I was just saying that we should make
7:25
Speaker 2: it a point to get up to Clinton. It's less
7:30
Speaker 2: just less than an hour, about forty five it, I think.
7:35
Speaker 2: But yeah, I think we talked about it with Forrest
7:37
Speaker 2: last week that great revivalists. There. Brewery is amazing. It's
7:41
Speaker 2: really cool to look at and be in, and on
7:44
Speaker 2: top of that, their beers are just fantastic. So yeah,
7:46
Speaker 2: we should definitely try to get up there. Yeah, all right,
7:50
Speaker 2: Well let's get into some vikings talkers here. We do that.
7:55
Speaker 1: We Yeah, when we talk about the vikings, we really
7:57
Speaker 1: haven't a whole lot the last couple of weeks we've
7:59
Speaker 1: been really focused on the beer brewing. So if you've
8:02
Speaker 1: been around for the last three episodes, episode seventy nine,
8:05
Speaker 1: Episode eighty and episode eighty one, we had good friend
8:08
Speaker 1: of the show for ust On.
8:09
Speaker 2: For all three of those.
8:11
Speaker 1: We did a pre brew episode, we did a brew
8:14
Speaker 1: Day episode, and then we did a post brew episode
8:18
Speaker 1: last week, and we interspersed some football talk kind of
8:22
Speaker 1: in there. But a lot of what we talked about,
8:25
Speaker 1: I think was beer, yeah, and the brewing process, what
8:29
Speaker 1: we were using, how the beer was coming along. Do
8:34
Speaker 1: you have any updates because it's been sitting in your
8:36
Speaker 1: basement for a couple of weeks now.
8:37
Speaker 2: Yeah, so update is it's just about done fermenting. I
8:41
Speaker 2: haven't seen too much action from the airlock on top
8:45
Speaker 2: of the fermentor, and I think everything is ready for
8:49
Speaker 2: us to move it from the fermenting jug the fermentor
8:53
Speaker 2: into the keg. And then once it's in the keg,
8:57
Speaker 2: I think it has to This is where I'm gonna
9:00
Speaker 2: not know exactly timeline of what everything needs. We need
9:03
Speaker 2: for another show for us for that, but I believe
9:05
Speaker 2: once it's in the keg, then we introduce the CO
9:09
Speaker 2: two to it, which is what will actually carbonate it,
9:13
Speaker 2: and it has to be in that environment for a
9:16
Speaker 2: certain amount of time. I don't remember if it's like
9:18
Speaker 2: a couple of days at minimum or a week or
9:20
Speaker 2: two at minimum. Forrest would definitely know more about that
9:23
Speaker 2: than I would. But yeah, I believe tomorrow, within twenty
9:27
Speaker 2: four hours, we'll be moving it from the fermentor to
9:29
Speaker 2: the keg. So I'm pretty excited, which means sometime in
9:33
Speaker 2: the next few weeks. Yeah, probably what is today episode
9:38
Speaker 2: eighty two, eighty two, probably before or a round episode
9:42
Speaker 2: eighty five ish, we should be ready to have Front
9:46
Speaker 2: of the Show Forest back on the show and trying
9:49
Speaker 2: at least on the podcast our first taste of the
9:52
Speaker 2: nut brown ale that is yet to be named, yet
9:55
Speaker 2: to be named, so we do have a segment on
9:59
Speaker 2: the beer. Maybe we can just bump that up to
10:01
Speaker 2: the top quick and then we can talk football. Even
10:04
Speaker 2: still we said we would talk football, we still need
10:07
Speaker 2: a name.
10:07
Speaker 1: So if you have any ideas for a Vikings themed
10:12
Speaker 1: nut brown ale out there, hit us up with a comment.
10:17
Speaker 1: Let us know what you would name a beer in
10:19
Speaker 1: that style.
10:21
Speaker 2: There were a couple of lines in those two AI
10:25
Speaker 2: generated songs that I sent you today that got the
10:28
Speaker 2: gears turning. They said something And of course I don't
10:32
Speaker 2: know if we'll ever release us songs at all, they're
10:34
Speaker 2: not great, but some of the lines were like, oh,
10:37
Speaker 2: there's something there that could lead us to a good
10:40
Speaker 2: beer name. So there's something out there. I'm not above
10:44
Speaker 2: using AI or you know, comments or suggestions to find
10:47
Speaker 2: a good name. I think we just we haven't. It's
10:50
Speaker 2: like naming a child. You know, you know their name
10:53
Speaker 2: when you hear it. And maybe I was gonna say,
10:56
Speaker 2: maybe we have to try it before we name it.
10:58
Speaker 2: But that's a big no no too, So maybe we
11:00
Speaker 2: just have to like see it and then we won't
11:04
Speaker 2: be able to physically drink it until we name it.
11:06
Speaker 2: So I don't know. It's tough. Shouldn't be this hard
11:09
Speaker 2: to name a beer, but it is. Well, we would
11:11
Speaker 2: appreciate any help out there from fellow wordsmith's help us
11:15
Speaker 2: figure this out. And yeah, we need a name.
11:19
Speaker 1: We've already talked about fermentation, timeline and kegging date a
11:23
Speaker 1: little bit first episode to taste it. I'm almost wondering.
11:27
Speaker 1: I don't want to rush the process.
11:28
Speaker 2: Yeah, but I'm almost wondering if we do it on
11:30
Speaker 2: episode eighty four. Randy Moss, Oh, that would be a
11:33
Speaker 2: good one. That'd be a good one. We could call
11:35
Speaker 2: it the Goat Brown Ale. Please, I just shout it
11:40
Speaker 2: out there.
11:40
Speaker 1: Can we put a picture of Randy Moss doing the
11:44
Speaker 1: full moon over at Green Bay?
11:46
Speaker 2: Can we do that? We could? Have you seen the guy?
11:48
Speaker 2: This is kind of a tangent, the guy that his
11:53
Speaker 2: I feel like I just brought him up on the
11:54
Speaker 2: podcast last week, maybe even two. He's on social media.
11:59
Speaker 2: He does the wood art. Oh yeah, I think his
12:02
Speaker 2: cover your ears, Young Ones his like actual company name
12:06
Speaker 2: is That's Badass wood Art, and I've seen, Yeah, he
12:10
Speaker 2: does a lot of Viking stuff. I think he does everything.
12:13
Speaker 2: I have a piece of his that just says skull
12:15
Speaker 2: and it's the wood art. But he's got a really
12:17
Speaker 2: cool version of that wood art of Randy mooning the crowd.
12:21
Speaker 2: I think it's called disgusting act because that's what that's
12:26
Speaker 2: what Joe Buck said. Yeah, that's a disgusting That's a
12:30
Speaker 2: disgusting act. Have you heard too Joe Buck talk about that.
12:33
Speaker 1: He's kind of taken that back and he's like, it
12:35
Speaker 1: really wasn't actually that bad.
12:37
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think he said some version of the idea
12:40
Speaker 2: that he wishes he would never have said that, although
12:42
Speaker 2: I love it. For a while it's like he Joe Buck,
12:45
Speaker 2: He's the worst. But honestly, I don't mind Joe Buck
12:47
Speaker 2: at all. And I love that he said that, you know,
12:49
Speaker 2: in twenty twenty five. Now, I love that he said
12:52
Speaker 2: that back then. But yeah, yeah, I've thought about reaching
12:55
Speaker 2: out to that wood art guy, see if he'll do
12:57
Speaker 2: a customs skull hot piece, but I just I've never
13:01
Speaker 2: reached out and we have a budget, but it's it's
13:05
Speaker 2: a growing budget so far, So thanks Big Top Ventures.
13:09
Speaker 2: Maybe someday, maybe someday, that'd be a cool set piece.
13:12
Speaker 2: That would be Yeah, but maybe we might be onto
13:14
Speaker 2: something with a Randy Moss themed beer. Yeah like that,
13:19
Speaker 2: We'll need to talk to Forrest and make sure that
13:23
Speaker 2: the beer is ready to go. I'm not against having
13:26
Speaker 2: episode eighty four would be a nice homage. We haven't
13:30
Speaker 2: really done that for any other player. We kind of
13:32
Speaker 2: did that for episode forty Jimmy clein Saucer, but that
13:35
Speaker 2: was just like a happy accident and we were like, oh, yeah,
13:38
Speaker 2: this guy, it's a client Saucer episode. He deserves it.
13:41
Speaker 1: But yeah, maybe we could play off of straight Cash homie.
13:47
Speaker 2: Yeah, I don't. It's a It actually causes me anguish
13:52
Speaker 2: a little bit trying to figure out the perfect name
13:55
Speaker 2: for this beer.
13:55
Speaker 1: Or I was born, ready, came out of the womb, ready,
13:59
Speaker 1: we got to find something.
14:00
Speaker 2: There's plenty of Randy Moss one liners.
14:02
Speaker 1: Or there's the one where he and Dante Culpepper on
14:05
Speaker 1: the sideline and Randy's like, was that we always call
14:09
Speaker 1: when we're playing the PlayStation what's that we always call
14:12
Speaker 1: tales never fails?
14:14
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, I don't remember who said I think Randy's like,
14:18
Speaker 2: did you say tales? No? I said heads, you gotta
14:21
Speaker 2: go with tails, tails never fail, which is true. I
14:25
Speaker 2: always go tails. Do you do you do heads at all? No?
14:27
Speaker 2: Tail tails? Yeah, that's that's my m O for sure.
14:32
Speaker 2: Maybe that's the name of the pier Tales never fails.
14:36
Speaker 2: Oh that's so bad. Tales never fails. F A L
14:41
Speaker 2: E s. Yeah, and an emphasis on me. I think
14:45
Speaker 2: we're getting closer, or maybe we're both walking into really
14:50
Speaker 2: bad ideas and we need Forest here to be like guys,
14:52
Speaker 2: come on. But I think oh Man, Forrest.
14:56
Speaker 1: Will listen to this and then he can give us
14:58
Speaker 1: some feedback on it. We'll send it to Yeah, we'll
15:00
Speaker 1: make sure we'll get one more listen this week. I'm
15:03
Speaker 1: really vibing on Randy Moss though.
15:05
Speaker 2: I think there's something there, Randy Moss themed beer that
15:08
Speaker 2: we try on episode eighty four that could be that
15:12
Speaker 2: could be really cool. Yeah, almost, something like we had
15:14
Speaker 2: planned it out and not just came up with it
15:18
Speaker 2: on a whim on episode eighty two, that Kyle Rudolph episode.
15:22
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, forgot about that. Yeah, So that's kind of
15:27
Speaker 2: where the beer is sitting it's it's coming along. Hopefully
15:30
Speaker 2: it'll taste good. We'll be honest too, I think if
15:34
Speaker 2: it's awful, we'll say, man, we got four gallons of
15:39
Speaker 2: nut ale. But I'm really holding out hope Forrest. Everything
15:45
Speaker 2: he said and has seen makes me believe this will
15:49
Speaker 2: this will be a good one.
15:50
Speaker 1: Well, and everything we tried on brew Day tasted really good.
15:53
Speaker 1: It reminded me of what we tried on brewd Ay
15:55
Speaker 1: last year when we brew a beer that was all
15:57
Speaker 1: really good.
15:59
Speaker 2: You've said this many times, You've never had a beer
16:02
Speaker 2: that Forrest has brewed that was bad. Yeah, I think
16:04
Speaker 2: the worst of his beers that I've ever had were
16:08
Speaker 2: just like fine, Like that's you know, they're not not gross,
16:13
Speaker 2: They're just fine. And that's only been one or two.
16:17
Speaker 2: I think, just a general statement here, general statement we are.
16:23
Speaker 1: We're pretty easy to please. Yeah, as beer fans, like,
16:26
Speaker 1: we're not picky. We will drink pretty much anything, and
16:31
Speaker 1: we've even, like I think both of us, since starting
16:34
Speaker 1: this show, we've expanded our our beer taste palate. Absolutely,
16:40
Speaker 1: sours were not really my favorite, and we've tried plenty
16:43
Speaker 1: of sours now in the past eighty two episodes and
16:47
Speaker 1: I've enjoyed every single one we've tried, even though, like
16:50
Speaker 1: the Crushberry Sour, did we have it on an episode?
16:53
Speaker 2: I'm pretty sure you had it officially. I tried part
16:56
Speaker 2: of episode fifty. I tried it at lion Bridge, But
17:00
Speaker 2: I think did we bring it? I don't know if
17:02
Speaker 2: we haven't had it.
17:04
Speaker 1: No, we haven't had it here, but we did have
17:07
Speaker 1: it at lion Bridge and it was so good.
17:10
Speaker 2: Yeah, it tasted like cap'n Crunch or the Berry Crunch
17:14
Speaker 2: or whatever. Yeah. Yeah, And I think that's what they
17:17
Speaker 2: were going for, and they hit the nail on the head. Yeah,
17:19
Speaker 2: We've had so many good beers. I think maybe it's
17:23
Speaker 2: just hyperbole. I don't know. The state of Iowa has
17:27
Speaker 2: a ton of great breweries and just really good beers.
17:31
Speaker 2: Like I'm trying to rack my brain, I don't if
17:35
Speaker 2: we had ever had a nasty beer on the show,
17:38
Speaker 2: we would say that right, Like, I feel like I
17:40
Speaker 2: would have no problem saying, hey, this beer by this brewery, well,
17:44
Speaker 2: I don't know if it's a bad batch or what,
17:45
Speaker 2: but this is not this is not great, Like we
17:47
Speaker 2: would say. We wouldn't be like you're the worst ever
17:49
Speaker 2: and just close up your brewery. But we would say, like,
17:53
Speaker 2: this isn't a great beer, But we've never said that.
17:55
Speaker 2: I've never bit my tongue on saying something like that,
17:58
Speaker 2: and we've only ever been like, yeah, at least this
18:02
Speaker 2: is fine. If you like this kind of beer, then
18:03
Speaker 2: it's fine. Like that's the worst thing we've ever really
18:06
Speaker 2: said about beer. So yeah, maybe Iowa just is the
18:09
Speaker 2: beer capital state of the world. I don't know. But
18:11
Speaker 2: if you don't live in Iowa and you like craft beer,
18:15
Speaker 2: you gotta come here. Sometimes. We've got some really good stuff.
18:17
Speaker 1: Even if you just drive through on I eight and
18:19
Speaker 1: you go straight through from west to east, you go
18:22
Speaker 1: Omaha to Davenport, and you can stop probably in ten
18:26
Speaker 1: different places. We did it, we can confirm, and they're
18:30
Speaker 1: all like very accessible and just super good. And a
18:34
Speaker 1: lot of them serve really good food too. So yeah,
18:37
Speaker 1: come to Iowa. We've got really good beer here, absolutely,
18:40
Speaker 1: the least of which is not to mention great revivalists like,
18:44
Speaker 1: oh yeah, this is super good. Hitting the spot.
18:48
Speaker 2: Absolutely, it's really good. All right, you know what else
18:51
Speaker 2: is good? The Vikings prospects in free agency coming up? Yeah,
18:56
Speaker 2: so free agency eight days away, I think slightly less now,
19:00
Speaker 2: but yep, well.
19:02
Speaker 1: It begins four o'clock March twelfth, and by my account,
19:05
Speaker 1: today's March third, So by the time people are listening
19:09
Speaker 1: to us, it'll be eight days, give or take.
19:12
Speaker 2: And that's also not taking into account the the legal
19:16
Speaker 2: tampering period that starts, I think one week from this
19:20
Speaker 2: moment right now, March tenth, I believe, is when that starts.
19:25
Speaker 2: It's like forty eight hours or seventy two or whatever
19:28
Speaker 2: however long of legal tampering, and that's when you're going
19:31
Speaker 2: to start hearing the reports of where Sam Darnold's gonna sign,
19:36
Speaker 2: if players like Kirk Cousins are getting released, and stuff
19:40
Speaker 2: like that. We're already kind of seeing some movement here,
19:42
Speaker 2: Debo Samuel got traded, Darius Slay got released today, there's
19:46
Speaker 2: some movement pre free agency, but it's really going to
19:49
Speaker 2: ramp up. So this week that we're living in right
19:52
Speaker 2: now is going to be the week of intense speculation,
19:56
Speaker 2: Rumors flying everywhere. What could they do, what should they do?
20:00
Speaker 2: What will they do? For every team? And it's I'm excited,
20:04
Speaker 2: this is this is a fun time. This is yet
20:06
Speaker 2: and Dustin alluded to this the last time he was
20:08
Speaker 2: on our show, Dustin Baker of Vikings Territory, he said,
20:12
Speaker 2: you guys, just wait, we're coming up on some of
20:14
Speaker 2: the best content for Vikings fans like these are. These
20:19
Speaker 2: are good times, maybe more so than the regular season,
20:23
Speaker 2: which is when we're all, you know, caught up in
20:26
Speaker 2: game to game, what happened previously, what's coming up. So
20:30
Speaker 2: I'm excited for it as well. It's always a fun time.
20:32
Speaker 2: It seems like pretty much from now until April until
20:36
Speaker 2: the draft, really we get a lot of stuff to
20:40
Speaker 2: talk about. So speaking of Dustin Baker though.
20:43
Speaker 1: Yeah, he put out a really good article that I
20:45
Speaker 1: found today and it's called eight things to Know eight
20:48
Speaker 1: Days before Free Agency.
20:50
Speaker 2: So here's what I want to do with this, and
20:53
Speaker 2: just real quick, you can find that article on Vikings
20:56
Speaker 2: Territory dot com. Yep, and we'll link both of the articles.
21:00
Speaker 2: We're going to reference another one here in a little bit,
21:01
Speaker 2: but we'll link both of these articles, both penned by
21:04
Speaker 2: Dustin Baker. We'll have those linked in the description below.
21:08
Speaker 2: We would strongly recommend bookmarking Vikings Territory. We do. We
21:13
Speaker 2: We're there daily. It's my go to website to log
21:18
Speaker 2: into let alone NFL News. Yep, so really good stuff there.
21:24
Speaker 1: But with this article eight things to Know eight days
21:27
Speaker 1: before Free Agency, I want to list the eight headers
21:31
Speaker 1: that he gave. I just want to list those outright,
21:33
Speaker 1: and then I want you to pick the one that
21:35
Speaker 1: you're most keyed in on right now, Like, what's the
21:38
Speaker 1: one that you're going to be watching the most Because
21:40
Speaker 1: you just mentioned there's gonna be a lot of stuff happening,
21:43
Speaker 1: a lot of rumors flying, we're going to be here
21:45
Speaker 1: for it all. Which one of these eight items are
21:48
Speaker 1: you going to be kind of keyed in on in
21:51
Speaker 1: the next week or two. So the first one is
21:53
Speaker 1: vikings have optionality. I think that just means we have options.
21:57
Speaker 2: I think it's specifically referencing a quote from Quasi Daffamensa
22:02
Speaker 2: talking about the quarterback position.
22:05
Speaker 1: Sure, yeah, so that's the first one. Minnesota wants Aaron
22:10
Speaker 1: Jones back. Fair there's a new running back incoming from somewhere.
22:14
Speaker 1: Maybe a competing thought a little bit, but not too much.
22:17
Speaker 1: I think those are complimentary. Yeah, yeah, A defensive tackle
22:22
Speaker 1: is on the way. O'Connell walked back the interior offensive
22:27
Speaker 1: line talk, which I think he talked up a little
22:30
Speaker 1: bit a few weeks ago in a press conference. Defensive
22:33
Speaker 1: secondary could look a lot different most cap space in years,
22:37
Speaker 1: and Sam Donald is probably gone.
22:40
Speaker 2: Yeah, so I have four of these points that I'm
22:44
Speaker 2: going to point out, but it's really going to turn
22:46
Speaker 2: into two points, I think. And I think I kind
22:50
Speaker 2: of said this last week too. I've been saying it
22:52
Speaker 2: for a few weeks. Can we as the skullhop kind
22:55
Speaker 2: of put the whole Sam Donald speculation to bed.
23:00
Speaker 1: I think we're on the same page there, and I
23:02
Speaker 1: think even today, I think it came out. I think
23:07
Speaker 1: several big NFL guys. I think Schefter tweeted something, and
23:12
Speaker 1: I think maybe Ian Rappaport maybe said something to I
23:15
Speaker 1: could be wrong on that, but it sounds like the
23:20
Speaker 1: Vikings will not tag Donald, and the tag deadline is
23:23
Speaker 1: like what this week? Yeah, a couple of days, I
23:26
Speaker 1: mean Tuesday. So Tuesday, say tomorrow, probably by the time
23:30
Speaker 1: most people have listened to this, the deadline will pass.
23:34
Speaker 1: It's four pm Eastern on March fourth, and actually, funnily enough,
23:40
Speaker 1: Adam Schefter as of right now, tweeted twenty minutes ago,
23:43
Speaker 1: which is the evening of the third of March saying
23:46
Speaker 1: Vikings QB Sam Donald is unlikely to be franchise tag
23:49
Speaker 1: ahead of the deadline, per sources, and then he says
23:53
Speaker 1: Minnesota is still interested in working to resigne Donald, but
23:57
Speaker 1: it is likely to be without any tag. I don't
24:00
Speaker 1: believe that second part at all. I think the Vikings
24:03
Speaker 1: are going to be content thanking Sam Donald for the year,
24:08
Speaker 1: celebrating twenty twenty four with him, and congratulating him on
24:12
Speaker 1: the big deal that he's going to sign with another
24:14
Speaker 1: team next year. And I don't think there should be
24:17
Speaker 1: any bad blood about that because nobody's getting hurt by it.
24:19
Speaker 2: The Vikings have JJ. They have the plan already set
24:24
Speaker 2: almost a year ago in drafting JJ. That's going to
24:27
Speaker 2: work out. That's the route they're going to go. It's obvious.
24:31
Speaker 2: So when I said I was going to talk about
24:33
Speaker 2: four of the points, So this whole Sam Donald thing
24:36
Speaker 2: is obviously the Vikings have optionality, which I think is
24:39
Speaker 2: just Quacy and Kevin O'Connell kind of leaving the door open.
24:45
Speaker 2: Never these coaches and gms, I never really speak in absolutes.
24:48
Speaker 2: They always leave the door open publicly for anything to happen,
24:52
Speaker 2: but really till they've made their decision and it's finalized.
24:55
Speaker 2: But I think the decision has been made. It's JJ
24:58
Speaker 2: and somebody else at backup Sam Donald will lead successfully
25:02
Speaker 2: lead another team next year. And with that, the other
25:05
Speaker 2: point is Sam Donald is probably gone, which I think
25:08
Speaker 2: it amazes me that it's even a talker like to
25:11
Speaker 2: say what do the Vikings do at quarterback? Is almost
25:14
Speaker 2: the same as saying what do the Chiefs do at quarterback?
25:17
Speaker 2: Like I'm not saying JJ McCarthy is Mahomes level. I'm
25:21
Speaker 2: just saying the plan is there. It is Yet the
25:26
Speaker 2: Vikings have already started this path of drafting a quarterback
25:31
Speaker 2: highest they've ever drafted before. And yes, it worked. It
25:35
Speaker 2: was successful with the bridge quarterback that they got, and
25:40
Speaker 2: also the last two games of the season for Sam
25:43
Speaker 2: Donald make it all the more easy to be like,
25:45
Speaker 2: thank you goodbye. It'd be different if Donald had single
25:49
Speaker 2: handedly led the team deep in the playoffs, to the
25:52
Speaker 2: Big Game, to the Super Bowl, to a Super Bowl win.
25:55
Speaker 2: That'd be different. But I don't know. I think everybody
25:58
Speaker 2: should and obvious it should be ready to be like
26:01
Speaker 2: all right, come on, JJ, yep, thanks thanks for your service.
26:06
Speaker 2: You did great. We had a fun season, you crumbled
26:09
Speaker 2: in the moments that mattered the most, and we wish
26:12
Speaker 2: you well. Yeah, And I want to be clear too,
26:14
Speaker 2: I am a personal fan of Sam Donald and I
26:18
Speaker 2: will be forever. He seems like a good, stand up dude.
26:23
Speaker 2: He gave us Vikings fans an incredible farv like here,
26:28
Speaker 2: if only for the regular season, it was a lot
26:30
Speaker 2: of fun. I'm grateful for the work that Sam Donald
26:34
Speaker 2: did for the Vikings, all the good he brought. And
26:36
Speaker 2: I have no I'm not saying maliciously congratulations on your
26:39
Speaker 2: next team. It's just the writings on the wall. And
26:43
Speaker 2: I'm here for the JJ McCarthy plan. And I don't
26:45
Speaker 2: think you have to hate Sam Donald to be ready
26:47
Speaker 2: for JJ McCarthy.
26:48
Speaker 1: One of the rumors I've heard is that Pete Carroll
26:51
Speaker 1: really wants him in Vegas, and I've heard Brady has.
26:57
Speaker 1: Even Tom Brady, partial owner of the Raiders, has already
27:02
Speaker 1: I think kind of extended the invite to Sam, like, hey, man,
27:04
Speaker 1: come out, I'll take you out to dinner and we'll
27:08
Speaker 1: chat and we'll see if this is a good fit
27:10
Speaker 1: or not. So I don't think Sam will have a
27:13
Speaker 1: shortage of places to go. I've said this multiple times.
27:17
Speaker 1: The NFL has a supply and demand problem when it
27:20
Speaker 1: comes to quarterbacks. The demand is higher than the supply.
27:23
Speaker 1: There will always be a high need for quarterbacks in
27:27
Speaker 1: a quarterback needy league where everybody wants the best possible
27:31
Speaker 1: guy they can have at that position. And Sam played
27:34
Speaker 1: well enough this last season to earn that role somewhere else,
27:38
Speaker 1: whether that's Vegas or who.
27:41
Speaker 2: Knows where else. I think there's a handful of other
27:43
Speaker 2: teams that are floating around out there, the Browns, the Titans,
27:47
Speaker 2: going back to New York, but with the Giants, I
27:51
Speaker 2: don't know that any of those are like super realistic.
27:55
Speaker 2: But I don't know.
27:56
Speaker 1: I guess time will tell. And I agree with you.
27:59
Speaker 1: And the other thing to add to your point on
28:01
Speaker 1: that with the optionality thing is the Vikings have no
28:07
Speaker 1: shortage of quarterbacks. Yeah, right now, before anything changes, before
28:13
Speaker 1: the apple cart is upset in free agency, the Vikings
28:16
Speaker 1: have Sam Darnold, Daniel Jones, JJ McCarthy, Nick Olin's Brett Rippian. Like,
28:23
Speaker 1: there's no shortage of quarterbacks, and obviously only one guy
28:28
Speaker 1: can be the number.
28:29
Speaker 2: One and can be the starter. And I think we're
28:31
Speaker 2: all in agreement that that's going to be JJ. I
28:34
Speaker 2: don't know if you're a Vikings fan out there that
28:36
Speaker 2: doesn't think that, you're probably a little delusional. There's probably
28:40
Speaker 2: a good subset. I haven't really heard from them, but
28:42
Speaker 2: there's probably a portion of fans that are devastated that
28:46
Speaker 2: JJ is the option.
28:48
Speaker 1: And we've already we've already mentioned Sam's probably gone. That
28:52
Speaker 1: leaves you with JJ as your QB one. And then
28:57
Speaker 1: you have options, right, you could get rid of the
29:01
Speaker 1: other guys and say bye bye to Rippian and Mullins
29:05
Speaker 1: and say, Daniel Jones, you're here, you're the backup, and
29:09
Speaker 1: let's see if we can get you back on two
29:11
Speaker 1: feet and either work you into a role here or
29:15
Speaker 1: probably not more likely, work you into a role somewhere
29:19
Speaker 1: else where. You can be the Sam Darnold of twenty
29:21
Speaker 1: twenty six and you can go take over a starting
29:24
Speaker 1: job again and you know, you get some time with
29:26
Speaker 1: the QB whisperer and Kevin O'Connell.
29:28
Speaker 2: That sort of thing. But if that's not an option,
29:31
Speaker 2: and Daniel Jones is like, no, let me spread my
29:33
Speaker 2: wings and fly.
29:33
Speaker 1: I want to test the market, Okay, cool, I'd say
29:37
Speaker 1: keep Nick Mullins because he's proven he's a really good backup.
29:40
Speaker 1: And I don't know, maybe keep Brett Ripion on the
29:43
Speaker 1: practice squad as your emergency QB three and let's just
29:47
Speaker 1: roll like we've rolled for the last couple of years,
29:50
Speaker 1: only with a rookie quarterback. I mean, he's not going
29:52
Speaker 1: to be a rookie next year, but he's gonna function
29:54
Speaker 1: like that. So and I think we should touch on
29:58
Speaker 1: this too. I think a lot of the people that
30:00
Speaker 1: are saying that I can should franchise tag Sam Donald
30:03
Speaker 1: is with the idea that they tag him and then
30:06
Speaker 1: trade him to get value out of an asset that
30:09
Speaker 1: they helped develop, which I totally understand that mindset too.
30:13
Speaker 1: I just that's a lot of risk. It's high risk
30:17
Speaker 1: chiro reward for.
30:18
Speaker 2: A non guarantee. And what does Sam Donald even get
30:23
Speaker 2: you Maybe a second round pick? May debo just got
30:30
Speaker 2: traded for a fifth round. Yeah, he's also pretty expensive too.
30:34
Speaker 2: It seems pretty low for me for a player of
30:36
Speaker 2: his caliber to go for a fifth round pick only.
30:40
Speaker 2: I don't think there was any cash involved. I think
30:42
Speaker 2: it was just a fifth rounder. Yeah. I think the
30:45
Speaker 2: Commanders pretty much are on the hook too for his contract. So,
30:51
Speaker 2: and that's a little different. Donald does play the most
30:53
Speaker 2: important position in the sports and has a recent short
31:00
Speaker 2: but a recent history of playing well in that position
31:03
Speaker 2: except when the lights are the brightest, which I think
31:05
Speaker 2: really scares a lot of people off. But I think
31:08
Speaker 2: it's too much of a risk. It's a forty million
31:10
Speaker 2: dollar risk, which totally hampers the rest of your free agency.
31:14
Speaker 2: It could ruin. It could be a decision, a career
31:17
Speaker 2: career ruining decision for crazy documents, and to do that,
31:21
Speaker 2: it'd be great, And if you were guaranteed even a third,
31:26
Speaker 2: I'd be all for it. But the Bankings are draft
31:29
Speaker 2: needy too. Yeah, this year black picks. There's also the
31:32
Speaker 2: idea that Darnold will factor into comp picks next year,
31:36
Speaker 2: which neither of us are smart enough to know or
31:39
Speaker 2: be able to plan for. How that works, because there's
31:42
Speaker 2: a whole formula and it's what other guys signed for
31:44
Speaker 2: and what you sign other guys for. I don't know,
31:46
Speaker 2: But ultimately I think QB position will work out for
31:50
Speaker 2: the Vikings and it will be JJ at the Helm.
31:53
Speaker 2: I definitely agree. Yeah. So, the other point that I
31:57
Speaker 2: wanted to bring up about Dustin Baker's article Things to
32:00
Speaker 2: Know eight days before free agency senators around the running
32:05
Speaker 2: back position. The two points are Minnesota wants Aaron Jones
32:07
Speaker 2: back and new running back incoming from somewhere. I was
32:14
Speaker 2: pretty pretty adamant last year when they signed Aaron Jones
32:18
Speaker 2: that I wasn't really thinking he'd give much job. Wasn't
32:22
Speaker 2: mad that they signed him. He wasn't super duper expensive,
32:25
Speaker 2: but pretty pricey for a one year I think seven
32:28
Speaker 2: up to ten million for this past season, and it
32:31
Speaker 2: sounds like the Vikings would want Aaron Jones back for
32:34
Speaker 2: pretty much that price or a little bit less, which
32:40
Speaker 2: if he can get more somewhere else, good for him.
32:42
Speaker 2: I'm an advocate for players getting every dime they can,
32:47
Speaker 2: but you're also an advocate of not paying running backs. Yeah,
32:50
Speaker 2: that's true. Although in this year, when the Vikings have
32:53
Speaker 2: a ton of cap space, if they spent seven to
32:55
Speaker 2: ten on Aaron Jones again, I'd be all for that.
33:00
Speaker 2: Dustin makes another point too, that it sounds like if
33:02
Speaker 2: they do bring Aaron Jones back and it is a
33:05
Speaker 2: good price for the Vikings, that the idea is that
33:09
Speaker 2: his workload would be less, which is where I think
33:12
Speaker 2: the second point of that comes in the new running
33:14
Speaker 2: back incoming. I'm not a draft expert, our friend of
33:18
Speaker 2: the show Forest he's probably the closest to a draft
33:21
Speaker 2: expert that we've got, unless maybe Dustin Baker. Two. He's
33:25
Speaker 2: probably pretty smart on all that. But it sounds like
33:28
Speaker 2: this upcoming twenty twenty five draft is the year of
33:31
Speaker 2: the running back. Like there's going to be starter worthy
33:34
Speaker 2: running backs, you know, second, third, fourth round, you know,
33:37
Speaker 2: stuff like that. If that's the case, try to sign
33:41
Speaker 2: Aaron Jones back at a price that works. If not,
33:44
Speaker 2: oh well, they'll figure it out. But even if you
33:46
Speaker 2: do sign Aaron Jones, draft one of the up and
33:49
Speaker 2: coming running backs, whether it's the I think gent will
33:52
Speaker 2: be gone by the time the Vikings pick, or if
33:57
Speaker 2: there's a logjam and you can maybe trade back, can
34:00
Speaker 2: still get a good running back. I think KILEB. Johnson
34:05
Speaker 2: from Iowa kind of hurt his stock a little bit
34:08
Speaker 2: with a four to five eight or something forty yeah
34:11
Speaker 2: at the combine, but that's still pretty fast and his
34:15
Speaker 2: style like he's proven on the field. He can play
34:18
Speaker 2: too so and he.
34:19
Speaker 1: Played to be fair as from Iowa. We watch a
34:24
Speaker 1: lot of Iowa football, even though I'm not the biggest
34:26
Speaker 1: Hawkeye fan. You probably watch more Hawkeye football than I do.
34:31
Speaker 1: He just he played in a very run heavy scheme
34:34
Speaker 1: and so he was relied upon a lot and I
34:37
Speaker 1: don't think was successful. Yeah, and we didn't see the
34:40
Speaker 1: big gash plays. You saw him every once in a while,
34:42
Speaker 1: but he was just more I think in his college career,
34:45
Speaker 1: that steady three four five yard guy that like, you
34:49
Speaker 1: give him the ball, he's gonna yeah, he's gonna move
34:51
Speaker 1: the ball forward. He's not gonna, you know, get stopped
34:55
Speaker 1: for zero yards or a loss of two or whatever.
35:00
Speaker 2: I just feel like the koc era of running backs
35:03
Speaker 2: has been kind of crappy. Yeah, Aaron Jones being a
35:08
Speaker 2: shining point of that. I think he had a career
35:10
Speaker 2: high in rushing yards and everything with the Vikings, although
35:13
Speaker 2: I also think KOs pointed out Aaron Jones has been
35:16
Speaker 2: a running Back by Committee member his entire career, and
35:20
Speaker 2: this year with the Vikings was the first time he
35:22
Speaker 2: was like the RB one and he held up. I
35:27
Speaker 2: figured Aaron Jones would have a couple one hundred yard games,
35:31
Speaker 2: do some good and then get injured and be out
35:34
Speaker 2: for a significant part of the season, and that just
35:36
Speaker 2: wasn't the case. He was just good.
35:38
Speaker 1: Yeah, and he wasn't. He wasn't without injury. I mean
35:42
Speaker 1: he wasn't. I mean there were games where there was
35:44
Speaker 1: one game I remember specifically where he didn't come out
35:46
Speaker 1: after halftime, probably getting an ivy or something.
35:50
Speaker 2: I think he had kind of a lingering hamstring or
35:53
Speaker 2: something like that. Yeah, throughout the second part of the
35:56
Speaker 2: season too.
35:56
Speaker 1: Yeah, and there were I think there was that and
35:58
Speaker 1: maybe some other just little kind of things that were
36:01
Speaker 1: bugging him here and they're nothing major, nothing to keep
36:03
Speaker 1: him out, nothing to cause him to lose time.
36:06
Speaker 2: But yeah, he was definitely he was. He was very
36:12
Speaker 2: resilient this year.
36:14
Speaker 1: And that was also a good sign too, because you know,
36:16
Speaker 1: in years past we've been used to Dalvin Cook, who's
36:20
Speaker 1: notorious for missing time. Not that he was a bad
36:22
Speaker 1: back at all. He was really good, very dynamic, but.
36:25
Speaker 2: Until he wasn't that just happens.
36:26
Speaker 1: He missed a lot of time too, even when he
36:29
Speaker 1: was good for the Vikings. I mean you could count
36:31
Speaker 1: on Dalvin Cook missing three or four games a year
36:34
Speaker 1: due to injury just because his shoulder was always bothering him.
36:38
Speaker 1: And then I think he had some other lower body
36:41
Speaker 1: thing that bugged him to at some point I can't remember,
36:44
Speaker 1: but yeah, I'm definitely interested to see how well.
36:47
Speaker 2: Dalvin remember his rookie year towards ACL too. Oh that's right.
36:51
Speaker 1: Yeah, anyways, I'm I'm very interested to see how running
36:54
Speaker 1: backs shape up for the Vikings because Aaron Jones is
37:00
Speaker 1: like the consummant team guy.
37:02
Speaker 2: Yeah, he seems like a great locker room guy. Just
37:04
Speaker 2: seems like he seems like he wants to be in Minnesota.
37:07
Speaker 1: He made that clear pretty much all season and at
37:10
Speaker 1: the end of the season too, like I want to
37:11
Speaker 1: be here. If they want me back, I'm here for it.
37:14
Speaker 1: I'll sign a contract. And I think he would maybe
37:16
Speaker 1: even be willing to take the same or maybe not
37:21
Speaker 1: much more than what he made last year to stay
37:23
Speaker 1: in Minnesota. He seems like that kind of guy that's like, yeah,
37:26
Speaker 1: this is this is home for me. Probably maybe until
37:28
Speaker 1: the end of my career.
37:29
Speaker 2: I don't know. But with that point being said, too,
37:32
Speaker 2: if another team even offers yea a million more than
37:36
Speaker 2: the Vikings will like good for him forgetting every dime. Yeah,
37:39
Speaker 2: I think that's just like with Darnold, we will say,
37:43
Speaker 2: you know, congrats Aaron Jones, Thank you for twenty twenty four.
37:45
Speaker 2: It was great. Good luck moving forward, except when you
37:49
Speaker 2: play against the Vikings. That's another one. No malice, no
37:53
Speaker 2: no hatred or bad feelings. If he takes a little
37:56
Speaker 2: bit more money with another team because he has played
37:59
Speaker 2: it so well on the field off the field, being
38:03
Speaker 2: just a stand up guy for the better part of
38:05
Speaker 2: a year now.
38:06
Speaker 1: So I think the Vikings have options at that point
38:10
Speaker 1: or at that position too, whether it's in the draft
38:13
Speaker 1: or in free agency. Yes, there's a huge draft class.
38:17
Speaker 2: Coming in with some really good backs.
38:18
Speaker 1: I was even looking down this list that I found,
38:20
Speaker 1: like I almost forgot about camp Scataboo.
38:23
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, the Arizona State guy.
38:26
Speaker 1: Or yeah, Arizona State. And there's some other ones too.
38:32
Speaker 1: Judkins from Ohio State was pretty good. So there's no
38:37
Speaker 1: shortage of running backs in this draft. And I could
38:41
Speaker 1: see the Vikings going the draft rout for running back
38:45
Speaker 1: maybe in like what picks they have, what like a
38:47
Speaker 1: third and a fourth rounder?
38:49
Speaker 2: Maybe well they've got I think with camp picks, I
38:54
Speaker 2: think total they're supposed to have eight or I'm sorry four,
38:59
Speaker 2: a first, a third, and I think two fifths and
39:05
Speaker 2: two fifths. I could see in the third or the
39:08
Speaker 2: two fifths if those are the picks, and that's a
39:12
Speaker 2: whole nother talker is the draft. I think that they'd
39:14
Speaker 2: be prime spots to trade down out of the first
39:18
Speaker 2: round and get one or two picks added. I think
39:23
Speaker 2: what you just pulled up doesn't account for the third.
39:25
Speaker 1: Round competitory pick from Kirk, Right.
39:29
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's what they'll get. Yeah, I think they've already
39:32
Speaker 2: kind of announced even the order for that. Those compicks.
39:35
Speaker 2: They're at the end of the round two, so that's
39:37
Speaker 2: a very almost a fourth round pick when they add
39:43
Speaker 2: those compicks, but it's still it's still nice. I like
39:46
Speaker 2: that the NFL does that for teams that work the
39:49
Speaker 2: system a little bit. As far as free agency goes. Yeah,
39:54
Speaker 2: I'm excited for the whole draft thing. And again that's
39:56
Speaker 2: that's a whole other episode that we will probably multiple
39:59
Speaker 2: that we'll have here the next few weeks. So I'm
40:01
Speaker 2: gonna zero in on one that we didn't talk about yet.
40:04
Speaker 2: I was gonna ask you you picked four of the eight,
40:07
Speaker 2: which is great. I mean they were strongly related and
40:12
Speaker 2: I think also just strongly tied to the needs that
40:15
Speaker 2: the Vikings will have this year and some of the
40:18
Speaker 2: biggest talkers that we'll be talking about from now until
40:21
Speaker 2: August really, but one that I think has kind of
40:25
Speaker 2: it's kind of popped up in the news a little
40:27
Speaker 2: bit is the defensive secondary. Yeah, and like there's been
40:33
Speaker 2: some rumors like Byron Murphy wants a big pay day,
40:36
Speaker 2: he might be on his way out, even cam binam
40:40
Speaker 2: has played himself into probably a pretty decent contract. I
40:46
Speaker 2: don't know what's gonna happen with all that. I'm not
40:48
Speaker 2: going to pretend to have this crystal ball that can
40:51
Speaker 2: look into the future. But you didn't even mention Harrison Smith. Well, yeah,
40:55
Speaker 2: this moment, we don't know, I.
40:57
Speaker 1: Know if he's coming back or not. Well, and then
40:59
Speaker 1: you know you've got the you've got now I'm blanking
41:04
Speaker 1: on the name Stefan Gilmour. Oh thing too, like well
41:07
Speaker 1: he retire. Like you've got those two old guys that
41:10
Speaker 1: are basically our age, maybe slightly older than us, but yeah,
41:15
Speaker 1: they're they're getting up there in terms of football age,
41:18
Speaker 1: and they're on the fence about coming back or not.
41:21
Speaker 2: I don't know, I don't know what's going to happen
41:23
Speaker 2: with that.
41:23
Speaker 1: But something that came out of the combine, and we're
41:27
Speaker 1: kind of blending topics here because kind of the next
41:30
Speaker 1: article has to do with the combine. But this isn't
41:33
Speaker 1: part of Dustin's article on the combine that we'll talk about,
41:36
Speaker 1: which is why I want to talk about it now quickly.
41:39
Speaker 1: A fellow graduate of our high school, Yeah, performed super
41:43
Speaker 1: well at the NFL Combine this last week, Darien Porter,
41:48
Speaker 1: out of bed Norf High School and bed Norf, Iowa.
41:52
Speaker 1: He he turned some heads and he he had he
41:56
Speaker 1: had the stopwatches going, especially on the forty four to three, Yeah,
42:01
Speaker 1: four to three oh four three forty yard dash, which
42:05
Speaker 1: is really impressive.
42:07
Speaker 2: He was fast in high school. I can attest to that.
42:10
Speaker 1: I never worked with him as a coach, but I
42:12
Speaker 1: am a track coach, and I know that he holds
42:14
Speaker 1: the state record in the four hundred in Iowa at
42:17
Speaker 1: forty six point nine to nine, a record I don't
42:21
Speaker 1: know that will ever be broken.
42:24
Speaker 2: Probably not in Iowa, at least not in no Well,
42:26
Speaker 2: it's a state record. I know there are faster times
42:29
Speaker 2: in other states that were around the country, but in Iowa,
42:31
Speaker 2: I have a hard time believing that will get beaten
42:34
Speaker 2: anytime soon. Anyways.
42:36
Speaker 1: But in addition to being just really naturally fast, I
42:39
Speaker 1: think he's just generally athletic, and I think from what
42:42
Speaker 1: I've heard out of Iowa State where he's coming from,
42:46
Speaker 1: he's just he's a hard worker, he's a good kid,
42:49
Speaker 1: and he's coachable, and I think he could be a
42:53
Speaker 1: really good fit in the Viking.
42:55
Speaker 2: Secondary that's given to Brian Flores. Yeah, that's what I think.
42:59
Speaker 2: I said this before we started recording. I don't know that.
43:04
Speaker 1: Brian flores defensive scheme would be familiar to him.
43:09
Speaker 2: I think it might familiar to anybody.
43:11
Speaker 1: I think it might be the moon to him for
43:12
Speaker 1: a while, but eventually, with time he would adapt and
43:16
Speaker 1: figure it out. Again, I don't have a crystal ball.
43:21
Speaker 1: I kind of just selfishly want that to happen because
43:23
Speaker 1: it'd be really cool to be like, oh, yeah, we
43:25
Speaker 1: went to high school, or we went to the same
43:26
Speaker 1: high school that that guy did. We weren't there at
43:28
Speaker 1: the same time he did, because he's.
43:30
Speaker 2: A much older he was a six year senior. I
43:33
Speaker 2: just pulled that up.
43:34
Speaker 1: Yeah, he is a little bit older for a player
43:36
Speaker 1: entering the draft. I think he benefited from the COVID
43:39
Speaker 1: year and stuff.
43:40
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, Yeah, that'd be really fun. That'd be cool.
43:44
Speaker 2: I think I told you before we started recording, that's
43:47
Speaker 2: a jersey I would buy. Heck get the local connection.
43:50
Speaker 2: Our area only has a handful of NFL players or
43:55
Speaker 2: a lums. That'd be a fun episode actually to talk about,
43:59
Speaker 2: like who are the local guys in our area? We
44:02
Speaker 2: probably mentioned him all at one point, but yeah, that'd
44:04
Speaker 2: be really cool. It sounds like he's he's in the
44:07
Speaker 2: draftable conversations at the moment. I'm seeing four or five
44:10
Speaker 2: six round for him, which that that's kind of hard.
44:14
Speaker 2: Every once in a while you'll see guys tagged with
44:16
Speaker 2: you know that range, and then they'll go undrafted or
44:19
Speaker 2: they'll be like a red Ellison and go on like
44:21
Speaker 2: the second round. I'm not saying Darian Porter is gonna
44:24
Speaker 2: be in the second round, but yeah, you never know.
44:26
Speaker 2: I think another Bette norf Alum pat Anger, he was
44:29
Speaker 2: a second round pick, and I don't know what his
44:31
Speaker 2: pre draft talker was if he was talked about as
44:35
Speaker 2: a third, fourth, fifth round pick, but I know he
44:37
Speaker 2: was drafted higher than he thought he would be. Yeah,
44:41
Speaker 2: that'd be that'd be super cool just reading up on him.
44:44
Speaker 2: Sounds like just his role at Iowa State, he had
44:47
Speaker 2: a lot of opportunity to play special teams. Didn't start
44:51
Speaker 2: at a cornerback role until this previous season, But sounds
44:55
Speaker 2: like he's a well versed special teams player, which I
44:59
Speaker 2: don't know if you can fly there and then you're
45:01
Speaker 2: always gonna perk someone's ears when you run a four
45:04
Speaker 2: three forty like, that's that's fast, dis just in, that's
45:09
Speaker 2: super fast. Yeah. I think what's the record, like a
45:12
Speaker 2: four to one nine or something like that. I thought
45:15
Speaker 2: it was four to two something. I could be wrong.
45:17
Speaker 2: Let's look quick well for Combine, a fellow Northern Iowa
45:22
Speaker 2: panther at one point, I think he ran an unofficial
45:25
Speaker 2: like four one nine at the University of Minnesota Pro
45:30
Speaker 2: day back in the day. Didn't even say his name.
45:34
Speaker 2: Trent Sherfield, That's who ran that. But yeah, I don't
45:37
Speaker 2: know what the what the record is? John Ross? Is
45:39
Speaker 2: that who it is? John Ross? Four two to two guy?
45:43
Speaker 2: So I thought I knew it was in the four
45:44
Speaker 2: to two range. Four to one would be unreal. Yeah,
45:48
Speaker 2: but John Ross, yep out of Washington. I think it
45:51
Speaker 2: was Ross. There was a year that I think Adidas
45:55
Speaker 2: was offering like a private island to anyone that like
46:00
Speaker 2: broke the forty record, and I think there was a
46:03
Speaker 2: little bit of controversy because John Ross like did break it,
46:07
Speaker 2: but like tied it or something like that. So I
46:10
Speaker 2: might be mixing up stories there, but there's something to
46:13
Speaker 2: John Ross potentially getting an island from Adidas because of
46:17
Speaker 2: his forty time.
46:19
Speaker 1: So this list that I'm looking at comes from NFL
46:21
Speaker 1: dot com and it's the top eleven forty times interesting
46:25
Speaker 1: and the eleventh fastest time was Fabian Washington cornerback out
46:29
Speaker 1: of Nebraska with four two nine and Darian Porter ran
46:33
Speaker 1: a four to three to oh yeah, so that squarely
46:36
Speaker 1: puts him in the top fifteen probably all time, yeah,
46:39
Speaker 1: easily top twenty.
46:40
Speaker 2: And there's probably more than a handful that I've run
46:43
Speaker 2: a four to three zero, you know, like he's probably
46:44
Speaker 2: tied somewhere.
46:45
Speaker 1: But again, as a as a track coach and knowing
46:48
Speaker 1: the systems that they use to time those things, those
46:52
Speaker 1: things are pretty darn accurate. And uh, I would believe
46:57
Speaker 1: an older time like Fabian Washington, I don't remember how
47:01
Speaker 1: long ago that was, but it was a while ago now,
47:05
Speaker 1: you know. And there's another one here, Tyrone Calico out
47:10
Speaker 1: of Middle Tennessee. I think he maybe played a while
47:13
Speaker 1: ago too. Maybe there were some discrepancies in the timing
47:18
Speaker 1: back then, but nowadays to have a laser timing system
47:22
Speaker 1: is just kind of like, well, yeah, you're gonna host
47:25
Speaker 1: a track meet, you're gonna have that.
47:26
Speaker 2: Yeah.
47:28
Speaker 1: They're very reliable, they're very they're very efficient too, Like
47:33
Speaker 1: you can run a race, start the timer, and you
47:35
Speaker 1: can look on the computer and you can see pretty
47:38
Speaker 1: quickly who won, and you can see what their times were.
47:42
Speaker 1: So I have a lot of faith in those systems.
47:44
Speaker 1: So to get a four to three out of Darien
47:47
Speaker 1: Porter at the draft, I believe that. And he's got
47:50
Speaker 1: the high school times to back that up.
47:52
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's future Viking, Darien Porter. Let's go. So yeah,
47:57
Speaker 2: talking about the draft, we do have one more article
47:59
Speaker 2: by Dustin Baker on Vikings Territory dot Com that you
48:03
Speaker 2: brought up. It's called things learned about the Vikings at
48:06
Speaker 2: the NFL Combine, which we know the Combine is as
48:09
Speaker 2: much about these upcoming rookies, you know, getting the information
48:14
Speaker 2: on them, the numbers, the measurements, everything. It's as much
48:18
Speaker 2: about that as it is about the league coming together
48:21
Speaker 2: and having the like unofficial, unofficial free agency. And we've
48:26
Speaker 2: seen some news come out during this time, like Matt
48:31
Speaker 2: Stafford apparently got enough information around the league to know like, okay,
48:35
Speaker 2: I'm going back to the Rams and they did a
48:37
Speaker 2: deal for I don't even know if the numbers are
48:39
Speaker 2: out on Stafford's deal yet to come back for twenty
48:42
Speaker 2: twenty well, this year twenty twenty five, you see things
48:46
Speaker 2: like Darius Slay from the Eagles get released, probably due
48:51
Speaker 2: to some information that was talked about at the combine.
48:54
Speaker 2: You see Deebo Samuel. I feel like he's been a
48:57
Speaker 2: story for the better part of a year. Now I
49:00
Speaker 2: want out or I need a better contract. And we
49:04
Speaker 2: finally see that that shoe dropped where Deebo Samuel is
49:08
Speaker 2: traded to the command the Commanders, and I think we
49:11
Speaker 2: talked about that earlier for a fre thround pick. So yeah,
49:14
Speaker 2: this combine, there's there's some conversations over Bruce and there's
49:18
Speaker 2: some some unofficial deals that are made there too. So
49:22
Speaker 2: this this article kind of talks about some of the
49:25
Speaker 2: news points that have come out, some of the rumors
49:28
Speaker 2: that have come out. Evan, you did it for me
49:30
Speaker 2: on the last article. Can you think of any specific
49:34
Speaker 2: of these topics that kind of peak your interest. Well,
49:37
Speaker 2: I'm gonna come back to what you talked about on
49:39
Speaker 2: the previous Dustin Baker article. Ashton Chanty is somewhere on
49:45
Speaker 2: the radar. Yeah, he's somewhere.
49:47
Speaker 1: In the orbit of the Minnesota Vikings right now, and
49:51
Speaker 1: I think that's a good thing to have the top
49:54
Speaker 1: running back in the draft class, at least in the conversation.
49:59
Speaker 2: Will it I don't know.
50:01
Speaker 1: Again, No, Crystal Ball, we can't sit here and say
50:04
Speaker 1: this is absolutely what the Vikings will do.
50:07
Speaker 2: I refuse to do that because then we end up
50:12
Speaker 2: being wrong, which is fine. Sometimes it's okay to be wrong.
50:16
Speaker 1: But I'm just encouraged that it seems like from the
50:21
Speaker 1: people that know best, from the people that were maybe
50:23
Speaker 1: there in those conversations over a pint or whatever, Ashton
50:29
Speaker 1: Chanty is in that conversation. Whether or not he becomes
50:32
Speaker 1: a Viking, that's a whole other thing. But the Vikings
50:36
Speaker 1: need to address the running back position. You said it earlier.
50:41
Speaker 1: Aaron Jones has been a running back by committee guy.
50:44
Speaker 1: He shouldered a heavy portion of the load this last
50:47
Speaker 1: season and it was pretty clear there was no other guy. Yeah,
50:51
Speaker 1: I mean it just yeah, it did not go well.
50:57
Speaker 1: So if it wasn't Aaron Jones, the Balden' move, you know.
51:02
Speaker 2: And so.
51:04
Speaker 1: Obviously a guy like Aaron Jones, especially at his age,
51:07
Speaker 1: can't be out there every single down.
51:10
Speaker 2: He's not that durable, yep.
51:11
Speaker 1: And you need to save a guy like that for
51:15
Speaker 1: certain situations in the game, maybe some third down situations,
51:18
Speaker 1: maybe some key blocking situations where you know he can
51:21
Speaker 1: lock in on a linebacker or somebody that's coming.
51:24
Speaker 2: In on a blitz.
51:27
Speaker 1: He needs help, he needs somebody else, and I think
51:30
Speaker 1: he will thrive again when he has that ying.
51:35
Speaker 2: To the yang so to speak.
51:36
Speaker 1: Absolutely, somebody that can come in and you know, be
51:42
Speaker 1: that thing that he lacks. So I'm excited about that,
51:46
Speaker 1: and I'm hopeful, whether it's Ashton Chanty or not, I'm
51:49
Speaker 1: hopeful that the Vikings, either in free agency or the draft,
51:53
Speaker 1: pick up a running back.
51:54
Speaker 2: Yeah. So specifically, in this article, Dustin kind of points
51:58
Speaker 2: out that it's probably He points out the Vikings did
52:01
Speaker 2: talk to officially have a meeting with Genty, but it's
52:05
Speaker 2: probably more of a due diligence thing. He says he
52:09
Speaker 2: probably won't fall to twenty four, but he's kind of
52:13
Speaker 2: opening the door for if he falls to somewhere like fifteen,
52:17
Speaker 2: sixteen seventeen, eluding that the Vikings might trade up. I
52:20
Speaker 2: highly doubt the Vikings would trade up unless, like some
52:24
Speaker 2: other team that's higher than them is in a bind
52:26
Speaker 2: and they need help, you know, like the Vikings don't
52:29
Speaker 2: have enough draft capital this year to trade up. They
52:31
Speaker 2: need to be trading down. But it is probably smart
52:33
Speaker 2: to get an idea of even if it's to say, like, well, yeah,
52:36
Speaker 2: Gent was touted as the best, but we like this
52:40
Speaker 2: other guy better because of these reasons after talking to
52:43
Speaker 2: both of them, Like, it's it's smart to do the
52:45
Speaker 2: due diligence.
52:46
Speaker 1: So in speaking of due diligence, the Vikings also held
52:50
Speaker 1: an official meeting with Kim Wore, the highest ranked quarterback
52:53
Speaker 1: in the draft class. Like, I think most teams are
52:56
Speaker 1: going to try to meet with these top ragged prospects
52:59
Speaker 1: regardless of position, because we can. Yeah, you know, it's free,
53:04
Speaker 1: we might as well. We might as well see, Okay, yeah,
53:06
Speaker 1: let's sit down with cam Ward, who knows.
53:07
Speaker 2: Maybe there's something in there, maybe just in the conversation,
53:11
Speaker 2: we can uncover something we've said for a long time.
53:13
Speaker 2: JJ's the guy, Sam's gone. That's probably what's gonna happen.
53:17
Speaker 2: We're not going to sit here and debate that any longer.
53:20
Speaker 2: Cam Ward will probably not be a Viking. Yeah yeah,
53:23
Speaker 2: I'd be questioning if that were the case. But they will.
53:26
Speaker 2: They will leave no stone unturned, and that's just part
53:30
Speaker 2: of the process. And a part of this too is
53:32
Speaker 2: they may be I mean, they're scouts. They need to
53:36
Speaker 2: have information on all players pretty much, whether it's incoming
53:41
Speaker 2: rookies or eighth year veterans. And I mean maybe it's
53:46
Speaker 2: just easy to get in a good conversation, a good
53:49
Speaker 2: interview with a guy right now when you never know,
53:52
Speaker 2: maybe seven years from now, you need a running back
53:56
Speaker 2: and for whatever reason, Jante's available, and you have have
54:01
Speaker 2: you know, a sheet of paper with notes on what
54:04
Speaker 2: he was like seven years ago when you talked to him.
54:06
Speaker 2: It's a piece of information that it's not bad to have,
54:09
Speaker 2: just like you know, cam Ward, maybe sometime he becomes available,
54:14
Speaker 2: or you know, Kirk Cousins tears his acl randomly, and
54:18
Speaker 2: you need to look at available running or available quarterbacks,
54:21
Speaker 2: and you have a conversation that you had with cam
54:25
Speaker 2: Ward three years ago, and he's tradable for you know.
54:28
Speaker 2: I just think it's it's a good practice to be
54:31
Speaker 2: able to talk to and get a little bit of
54:32
Speaker 2: idea personally from as many of these players as you can. Well,
54:36
Speaker 2: I think like if you're a coach or a GM
54:40
Speaker 2: get you get on the player's radar too, and then
54:42
Speaker 2: like you get into that desperate situation. I think I'm
54:46
Speaker 2: just reiterating what you said, but it's just like, oh no,
54:49
Speaker 2: I had a conversation with that kid before the draft
54:52
Speaker 2: two years ago, and now we're in a bind and
54:54
Speaker 2: I know he's not playing much over here. Let me
54:56
Speaker 2: give him a call, let me see what happens.
54:58
Speaker 1: And you've already got that connection, and then you can
55:00
Speaker 1: work that connection and who knows, maybe you can make
55:03
Speaker 1: something happen well.
55:04
Speaker 2: And it can go every which way too. You could know, like,
55:08
Speaker 2: holy cow, this player that's supposed to be, you know,
55:13
Speaker 2: a top five pick is you know, not going to
55:17
Speaker 2: be available, but you know, five years from now he's
55:20
Speaker 2: he's available. And you know, like geez, I did not
55:23
Speaker 2: like that conversation we had with him. He was an
55:25
Speaker 2: idiot whatever player. It was, Yeah, like it's it's just
55:29
Speaker 2: good practice to get, like I said a minute ago,
55:31
Speaker 2: all the information you can about every available player, because
55:36
Speaker 2: maybe that was something that came up when Josh Dopps
55:38
Speaker 2: was available. Somebody had had a conversation with him in
55:41
Speaker 2: the pre draft process years ago or somewhere that he
55:44
Speaker 2: worked with him, and maybe it was Koc himself that said, like,
55:48
Speaker 2: we need to look at this guy. You just never know.
55:50
Speaker 2: It's that what do they say all the time about
55:52
Speaker 2: any employment. It's not about what you know, it's about
55:55
Speaker 2: who you know. And that goes both ways from the
55:57
Speaker 2: employee the player, or the the employer or the GM
56:02
Speaker 2: or anything like that. So probably smart either way to
56:04
Speaker 2: talk to everybody. What about you, what are you most
56:07
Speaker 2: interested in or what are you kind of key in
56:10
Speaker 2: on here with Dustin's five lessons learned Things learned from
56:14
Speaker 2: the vikings of the combine. Yeah, so I'm kind of
56:16
Speaker 2: concerned about one thing. It's it's the middle point. I
56:21
Speaker 2: don't know. Did we go down all five points. I
56:23
Speaker 2: don't know if we have to. But this point that
56:26
Speaker 2: I'm kind of concerned about is it's titled Inside Offensive
56:31
Speaker 2: Line Replacements dot dot dot not guaranteed. This is coming
56:35
Speaker 2: from I don't know if Koc was on a radio
56:40
Speaker 2: show or on kfa N or something, and he had
56:43
Speaker 2: a quote at the combine talking about how he kind
56:47
Speaker 2: of wanted to reel back from replacing inside offensive lineman.
56:52
Speaker 2: We're talking Blake Brandell, g Bradberry and well Edin Reiser slash. Yeah,
57:00
Speaker 2: and that's kind of concerning that he's leaving the door open,
57:03
Speaker 2: like we don't need to replace anybody, or he's probably
57:06
Speaker 2: also looking at the backups from twenty four to the
57:10
Speaker 2: other guys that I think there's a couple of rookies
57:13
Speaker 2: that were on the offensive line stuff like that too,
57:14
Speaker 2: but I think Walter Rouse was one of them. Yeah,
57:19
Speaker 2: I think he's a tackle, but he said he could
57:20
Speaker 2: slide in inside. And Dan Feeney he's probably gone. I've
57:26
Speaker 2: never said a nice thing about him, which is funny
57:28
Speaker 2: because I've never met him. Mabe. He as a good dude,
57:30
Speaker 2: but yeah, I don't think he played any snaps and
57:32
Speaker 2: maybe like ten on special teams. Anyways, it's kind of
57:35
Speaker 2: concerning to hear that they aren't fully saying, you know,
57:39
Speaker 2: we're going to kind of overhaul that area because that
57:42
Speaker 2: was such a concerning area. I think the inside offensive
57:45
Speaker 2: line directly contributed to Sam Donald's collapse in the last
57:50
Speaker 2: two games of the season. They definitely helped Sam Donald
57:54
Speaker 2: look crazier than he had all year in a bad way.
58:00
Speaker 2: And I say it's concerning because there's another position on
58:03
Speaker 2: the inside defensive line that quasi A dappha Mensa specifically said, like, Yeah,
58:10
Speaker 2: we need to switch things up. We need to focus
58:14
Speaker 2: on that and put some resources towards that and build
58:16
Speaker 2: it up. So to have Koc kind of say the
58:19
Speaker 2: opposite and say we don't necessarily need to replace everybody
58:23
Speaker 2: or we don't need to do any overhauls in that position,
58:28
Speaker 2: that's kind of scary to me. And I hope it's
58:30
Speaker 2: smoke screen. Maybe they're just protecting themselves from getting fleeced
58:34
Speaker 2: by either a free agent or another team in a
58:37
Speaker 2: trade deal. I don't know, but I definitely hope there's
58:41
Speaker 2: at least one new starter, either in the draft or
58:43
Speaker 2: free agency in those three spots. And I don't even
58:46
Speaker 2: care who it is, because anything is better than not
58:50
Speaker 2: changing anything at all. So yeah, I agree with you,
58:53
Speaker 2: a change needs to happen. I almost wonder if size
58:59
Speaker 2: is better than weight you know, if body is better
59:04
Speaker 2: than brain, brawn is better than brain at that center position.
59:08
Speaker 2: And I know that's been the attractive feature of Garrett
59:13
Speaker 2: Bradbury is well, yeah, he's undersized, but he's so smart
59:17
Speaker 2: and he knows how to call those you know, audibles
59:21
Speaker 2: at the line, and he knows how to call protections.
59:23
Speaker 2: He knows how to look out and see what he's
59:25
Speaker 2: looking at and you know, get the other guys around
59:27
Speaker 2: him in the right spot and get them going in
59:29
Speaker 2: the right way and the right scheme and whatever. Okay,
59:33
Speaker 2: but that doesn't matter when he gets bowled over and
59:37
Speaker 2: Sam Darnold gets sacked for a loss of ten yards,
59:40
Speaker 2: which is what happened several times. It doesn't matter if
59:43
Speaker 2: you call the right protection. If you don't know that
59:45
Speaker 2: that guy's coming up the middle, you're done. You're cooked
59:48
Speaker 2: your toast. You know. You know who else is really smart?
59:52
Speaker 2: By seven and nine year old daughters. They're both smarter
59:56
Speaker 2: than me. And yeah, they with enough time and practice,
1:00:01
Speaker 2: they would be able to get down the idea of
1:00:04
Speaker 2: calling protections. And I'm that's that's outrageous to say. I
1:00:09
Speaker 2: understand that, But you could be smart enough to know
1:00:12
Speaker 2: what to do that's why coaches exist. That's why koc
1:00:14
Speaker 2: is Coach of the Year when he was never a
1:00:17
Speaker 2: halfway decent quarterback. You're You're absolutely right. You need, if
1:00:22
Speaker 2: nothing else, to be able to say, oh crap and
1:00:25
Speaker 2: block the guy, whether you made a mistake in the
1:00:28
Speaker 2: first place at all.
1:00:29
Speaker 1: I don't think we can count on four hands. I
1:00:33
Speaker 1: think it would take more than four hands, I think,
1:00:35
Speaker 1: is what I'm trying to say to quantify the number
1:00:40
Speaker 1: of times that that happened to Garrett Bradbury. That's just
1:00:42
Speaker 1: gets over. Yeah, he just gets run over and it's
1:00:45
Speaker 1: frustrating to watch. And again that's the selling point. That's
1:00:50
Speaker 1: the that's the that's why he's stuck around for so long.
1:00:54
Speaker 2: Oh he's just so smart.
1:00:56
Speaker 1: He just knows how to call the right protections. Great,
1:00:59
Speaker 1: he might be successful somewhere else where. Maybe they all
1:01:02
Speaker 1: need a big guy plugging up the center hole. But
1:01:06
Speaker 1: we do, especially when we're going against some of these
1:01:09
Speaker 1: bigger d tackles in the division, Like you gotta find
1:01:14
Speaker 1: somebody else.
1:01:15
Speaker 2: And especially with essentially a rookie quarterback coming off of
1:01:19
Speaker 2: a year altering injury, you need protection.
1:01:23
Speaker 1: And so I don't have any hard feelings towards Bradbury,
1:01:28
Speaker 1: either as a player or as a person. I think
1:01:32
Speaker 1: he was put in a pretty tough position even when
1:01:35
Speaker 1: he was drafted several years ago. I think he had
1:01:38
Speaker 1: a tall task because he was undersized. I think he
1:01:41
Speaker 1: was drafted maybe a little too high for what he is,
1:01:44
Speaker 1: and he's had to try to live up to that
1:01:49
Speaker 1: and he hasn't necessarily, and I think it's time for
1:01:52
Speaker 1: the Vikings to move on from him.
1:01:53
Speaker 2: That's my opinion. Whether or not that happens, whatever, it'll
1:01:58
Speaker 2: be what happens. But the one caveat I would have
1:02:02
Speaker 2: with this, and I think you'd agree to. There's somebody
1:02:04
Speaker 2: on Twitter. I think it's I'm gonna butcher his name,
1:02:09
Speaker 2: and that's awful because he's a really good follow Ali
1:02:11
Speaker 2: Sadiki on Twitter. I think he's the one that constantly says, like, yes,
1:02:17
Speaker 2: inside offensive line needs help. Although I'd be okay with
1:02:21
Speaker 2: keeping brad Berry if they add a bunch of help
1:02:25
Speaker 2: on both guard positions. If you can make his right
1:02:29
Speaker 2: and left side easier, then I think that's when his
1:02:34
Speaker 2: intelligence and his knowledge of protection schemes, that's where it
1:02:39
Speaker 2: is enough. Even if he gets bowled over because it's
1:02:41
Speaker 2: not every time he gets bowled over, No, but it's
1:02:43
Speaker 2: lots of times even if he still gets bowled over,
1:02:46
Speaker 2: and every once in a while if they help him
1:02:49
Speaker 2: out desperately in the guard positions, and then especially when
1:02:55
Speaker 2: stare saw it's healthy again, which might not be until
1:02:57
Speaker 2: mid season. That's another talker too. The tackle positions. Brian
1:03:01
Speaker 2: O'Neil probably had his best years a pro and twenty
1:03:03
Speaker 2: four before he got injured. Christian Darrisaw he had earned
1:03:07
Speaker 2: one hundred plus million dollar contract. He's really good. The
1:03:11
Speaker 2: Vikings have a top when both are healthy, which is
1:03:14
Speaker 2: a caveat because you never know. Darsaw may never come
1:03:16
Speaker 2: back to the same ever again not predicting that. And
1:03:19
Speaker 2: Brian O'Neil's getting older and he's thirty. I think he's
1:03:22
Speaker 2: turning thirty, so getting up there a little bit. But
1:03:25
Speaker 2: offensive lineman they can play a little bit longer than
1:03:28
Speaker 2: like running backs, but if with too healthy. With the
1:03:31
Speaker 2: healthy O'Neil and Darisaw, Vikings have a top five tackle
1:03:36
Speaker 2: you know room in the NFL. So if you can
1:03:40
Speaker 2: help out Brad Berry with good guards, which I think
1:03:43
Speaker 2: Brandell played okay, but I'm over the the Reisner experiment
1:03:50
Speaker 2: and then at Ingram it seems like the Vikings obviously
1:03:52
Speaker 2: said moved done too. If you can get two good
1:03:56
Speaker 2: guys in the left and right guard, then Bradbury could
1:04:00
Speaker 2: still be there. Otherwise they need to do something. Like
1:04:03
Speaker 2: I said, they need at least one new starter in
1:04:05
Speaker 2: that group of three.
1:04:06
Speaker 1: Yeah, I definitely think some fresh air would be good
1:04:09
Speaker 1: for that line, and hopefully Darris comes back sooner rather
1:04:14
Speaker 1: than later and healthier than ever.
1:04:15
Speaker 2: Yeah, you never know. I mean sometimes guys will bounce back.
1:04:20
Speaker 1: Quickly from an injury like that, and other times it
1:04:22
Speaker 1: takes them a while, and sometimes they're not the same guy.
1:04:25
Speaker 2: So well, we saw it kind of firsthand too. It
1:04:28
Speaker 2: sounds like darrisaw had a very similar injury to what TJ.
1:04:33
Speaker 2: Hockinson had in twenty three and twenty four. Between time
1:04:38
Speaker 2: missed and kind of knocking the rust off, twenty four
1:04:41
Speaker 2: was kind of a last year for TJ. Hockinson. Yeah,
1:04:43
Speaker 2: for sure, there were definitely a game or two where
1:04:46
Speaker 2: I think there was at least one game where his
1:04:48
Speaker 2: like third and eight catches, multiple first down conversion catches
1:04:54
Speaker 2: saved the game for the Vikings. But I don't think
1:04:57
Speaker 2: he had a touchdown this year twenty four. I think it,
1:05:02
Speaker 2: and I think he'll be okay. He'll still knock the
1:05:04
Speaker 2: rust off, but that's still to be seen. And when
1:05:07
Speaker 2: you think Christian Darrisaw had a very similar injury, just
1:05:10
Speaker 2: for that reason, I'm not expecting to see Darrisaw until
1:05:13
Speaker 2: at least the midpoint of the season.
1:05:15
Speaker 1: And the good news for a player like Darrisaw is
1:05:18
Speaker 1: he's not a skill position player. Not saying that he
1:05:23
Speaker 1: lacks skill, yeah, but he doesn't interact with the ball.
1:05:29
Speaker 1: He just simply needs to get healthy enough to go
1:05:32
Speaker 1: out and do hand to hand combat with other players again.
1:05:36
Speaker 1: And if his knee is healthy enough to do that,
1:05:39
Speaker 1: he doesn't necessarily have to be cutting you know, corners
1:05:44
Speaker 1: on routes, and he doesn't have to be ready to
1:05:46
Speaker 1: catch the ball. He just has to go out and
1:05:48
Speaker 1: he's big enough. The dude's huge. I think, you know,
1:05:54
Speaker 1: there could be this upside too, like, well, he's healthy enough,
1:05:57
Speaker 1: let's put him out there.
1:05:58
Speaker 2: I don't think we're gonna do it any damage by
1:06:00
Speaker 2: putting him out there. And maybe he's on a pitch
1:06:02
Speaker 2: count to you know, minimize any sort of like swelling
1:06:06
Speaker 2: or any sort of like further damage to anything. But
1:06:10
Speaker 2: I don't know. I have a little bit more optimism
1:06:12
Speaker 2: that we see him a little earlier, okay, then later.
1:06:15
Speaker 2: That's just a really early take on all that well,
1:06:19
Speaker 2: and I think we'd both agree too. His recovery is
1:06:22
Speaker 2: all the more reason to bolster the inside of that
1:06:25
Speaker 2: offensive line too, for the same reason that you would
1:06:30
Speaker 2: need Brad Burry to have some help on both sides
1:06:33
Speaker 2: of him. If darrisaw coming back is you know, not
1:06:37
Speaker 2: one hundred percent yet, it makes it his job a
1:06:39
Speaker 2: whole lot easier when the guy right next to him
1:06:41
Speaker 2: is really good too. So yeah, they need to bolster
1:06:45
Speaker 2: that offensive line. Yeah, for sure. We're starting to run
1:06:50
Speaker 2: out of beer, yes I am, And we're getting to
1:06:53
Speaker 2: that point in the episode too. So we've gotten a
1:06:56
Speaker 2: little long winded, which is surprising because I was worried
1:06:59
Speaker 2: about having enough to talk about tonight. But yeah, Evan,
1:07:02
Speaker 2: we should never be concerned. I don't. I'm just gonna
1:07:05
Speaker 2: stop doubting us. We could sit here and talk for
1:07:07
Speaker 2: three hours, which would be impractical. We've We've probably done
1:07:10
Speaker 2: a two hour episode at one point, haven't we We've.
1:07:13
Speaker 1: Gotten close tonight it will not be two hours but
1:07:17
Speaker 1: what did you think of this recreationalist?
1:07:21
Speaker 2: Is that what it's called the.
1:07:22
Speaker 1: Recreational red Ill from Great Revivalists?
1:07:27
Speaker 2: Got thet I love it. This is legitimately fantastic. This
1:07:34
Speaker 2: isn't just a good beer. This is a great beer.
1:07:37
Speaker 2: And I don't say things are great lightly. I would
1:07:43
Speaker 2: will gladly have this time and time again. I've only
1:07:48
Speaker 2: had the better part or almost three of them so far,
1:07:51
Speaker 2: so it would be crazy to say this is in
1:07:53
Speaker 2: favorite beer category. But man, this is extremely delicious. People
1:07:59
Speaker 2: need to try this and all that to say, like,
1:08:03
Speaker 2: outside of being a really good red Ale, it's not
1:08:06
Speaker 2: like anything crazy, It's just freaking delicious. It's just a
1:08:11
Speaker 2: good beer's beer, and that's what I'm after for sure.
1:08:15
Speaker 1: Did not disappoint. Has that good CARAMELI red kind of color.
1:08:23
Speaker 1: It's it is squarely in my category of beer. I've
1:08:28
Speaker 1: enjoyed it.
1:08:28
Speaker 2: It's a refreshing red's that's super good.
1:08:31
Speaker 1: Yeah, so thanks Great Revivalist. And seriously, we need to
1:08:36
Speaker 1: coordinate a trip up there.
1:08:38
Speaker 2: What are you doing? I don't think they're closed yet.
1:08:40
Speaker 2: We could probably drive up there right now. We'll save
1:08:44
Speaker 2: that for another time. But where can people find us.
1:08:49
Speaker 2: We're out there. If you want to reach out to us,
1:08:51
Speaker 2: We're on every social media Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, or x. Yeah,
1:08:57
Speaker 2: just reach out to us everywhere. You can find us
1:08:59
Speaker 2: at the skull Hop sko l Hop. We have a website,
1:09:05
Speaker 2: the school Hop dot com and if you want to
1:09:08
Speaker 2: send us an email, we are at the school Hop
1:09:11
Speaker 2: at gmail dot com. Don't forget, we also have merch.
1:09:15
Speaker 2: Evan and I accidentally matched tonight. We're both wearing the
1:09:18
Speaker 2: school Hop hoodies right now. You can find the merch
1:09:22
Speaker 2: on our website too.
1:09:23
Speaker 1: Yeah, and don't forget, we're still trying to come up
1:09:27
Speaker 1: with a name for our nut brown ale that we
1:09:30
Speaker 1: will be trying soon. This is episode eighty two, so
1:09:33
Speaker 1: maybe in a couple of weeks episode eighty four, we
1:09:37
Speaker 1: spent a little bit of time talking about maybe maybe
1:09:39
Speaker 1: a Randy Moss themede that'd be fun. So we'll chat
1:09:44
Speaker 1: with friend of the show Forest and also Master Brewer Forest.
1:09:48
Speaker 2: Yeah, master Brewer, Yeah, that's probably most accurately his title. Yes,
1:09:53
Speaker 2: he's all of the things.
1:09:55
Speaker 1: But yeah, if you want to drop a comment and
1:09:58
Speaker 1: let us know any suggestion you have for a name,
1:10:01
Speaker 1: we would happily consider that because We're still struggling to
1:10:04
Speaker 1: come up with something at this point. But anyways, yeah,
1:10:08
Speaker 1: expect us to try that not Brown Ale very soon.
1:10:13
Speaker 2: Absolutely. I can't wait, all right man? Great episode, maybe
1:10:17
Speaker 2: best episode. Yeah, it could be school at School. Hey
1:10:43
Speaker 2: if I can spans Evan here from a school Hop.
1:10:45
Speaker 3: And we just wanted to say thank you again so
1:10:47
Speaker 3: much for listening to the School Hop. And we also
1:10:50
Speaker 3: wanted to take one more opportunity to let you know
1:10:52
Speaker 3: that this episode of the School Hop has been brought
1:10:55
Speaker 3: to you by Big Top Ventures. If you're considering taking
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Speaker 3: an all inclusive trip to either me or Jamaica, reach
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Speaker 3: Ventures LLC at gmail dot com.
1:11:07
Speaker 2: Once again, that's.
1:11:08
Speaker 3: Big Top Ventures LLC at gmail dot com. You can
1:11:12
Speaker 3: get the lowest rate possible on several all inclusive resorts
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Speaker 3: throughout the region. Big Top Ventures step right up to
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Speaker 3: your next big adventure and thanks again for listening to
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