Latest / The Skol Hop / Foil Wrapped Beer, Mini Camp Talkers, and Upcoming Key Dates in the Vikings Offseason | TSH Ep. 44

Transcript

Foil Wrapped Beer, Mini Camp Talkers, and Upcoming Key Dates in the Vikings Offseason | TSH Ep. 44 · The Skol Hop

0:24
All right, Hey, Vikings fans, welcome into another episode. Let's go
0:28
hot. I'm Evan and I'm Austin. We're just a couple of dudes.
0:31
We like drinking beer talking about the biking. Yeah we do. And we
0:34
got another mystery beer tonight. These beers just keep showing up wrapped in tinfoil.
0:39
And I brought the beer and I did the tinfoil, and I was
0:43
not as time prepared as I usually am, so I wrapped these in tinfoil
0:49
in the car on the way here, not while driving, don't worry,
0:55
but it kind of looks like maybe you did while you were driving. Now,
1:00
it's kind of what it looks like. Hey, you know what?
1:00
They're covered? Mostly. I think there's a couple that you could see,
1:06
like the prominent color of the can in various spots. But I made sure
1:10
those were on my side, because really we only need too true genuinely,
1:15
just one, but probably two covered the one I'm holding. I can't tell
1:19
anything, but I will because you gave me a hard time, oh absolutely,
1:23
about my foil wrapping job last week. I have to say something about
1:29
this. First of all, when you put this can in front of me,
1:32
it leaned over at about a similar angle to the leaning Tower of Pizza,
1:37
Pisa Pizza. I don't know however you pronounce it. Probably that one
1:42
famous leaning tower in Europe. You could probably eat pizza there. Yeah,
1:46
at Pisa, Pisa, Pisa. That's what I meant to say. Anyways,
1:49
Hey, if you had us talking about the leaning tower of Pizza in
1:53
the first two minutes of podcast, you win, so contact us for what
1:57
prize you heard. It was a better line on one of the betting sides.
2:01
It's also we got like a smooth side here, but then we've also
2:07
got this really crumply side over here. So yeah, it's coming off at
2:14
the top here. I'm trying to keep it on so that I can maintain
2:17
the integrity of the mystery beer game. I also didn't bring tinfoil with me
2:23
to the store, so I bought a thing a tinfoil at the store along
2:28
with the beer, and I cheaped out. It was ninety nine cents for
2:31
that roll of tinfoil. Sorry, your problem. So we're going to put
2:35
the low quality of tinfoil that's at least two percent of the was it like
2:39
the high V brand? It was the what do they call it? The
2:44
Good or the Smile or whatever they call it. It's their their house brand,
2:49
the cheap Oh yeah, not the Reynolds. No, you didn't go.
2:53
It didn't go full Reynolds wrap. All right, this is not a
2:55
tinfoil podcast Reynolds wrap. If you want to sponsor us, let us know.
3:00
Yeah, because we are proving your point. This is no Reynolds wrap.
3:02
We'll wrap every single beer in your tinfoil and we will only say good
3:07
things about it. Yep. Well, anyways, we do have a sponsor,
3:12
so I'll quickly shout out to them and then we'll get into these really
3:15
poorly wrapped they're covered all right. All right, So just a quick shout
3:22
out, so Big Top Venture for sponsoring today's episodes. They can get you
3:25
the lowest rate possible on several all inclusive resorts in Mexico or Jamaica. Big
3:30
Top Ventures step right up to your next Big Adventure. And Austin was gesturing,
3:35
we'll have their email right down here. You can type that in to
3:39
your favorite email thing ima jig and send them an email and they'll hook you
3:45
up with the best right and you're leaving in like a few days for your
3:49
trip with Big Top Ventures. So the next podcast, the next chronological podcast,
3:55
I will hopefully be tanner. I will probably just be redder, and
4:00
if the storms do what they say they're going to do, I will be
4:03
exactly as pale as I am right now. So either way, I'm excited
4:08
to go. It's all through Big Top Ventures again, their email. We
4:11
put it up on screen. Also, by the way, if you are
4:14
not watching on YouTube or Spotify, you're really missing out. So we do
4:18
video record our podcast. We throw it up on well, you can watch
4:21
it on Spotify and also on YouTube, So yeah, you're missing out if
4:26
you're not watching those. But all that to say, if you are watching
4:29
it, you will see their email, Big Top Ventures LLC at gmail dot
4:33
com. Did you say that. I didn't say that. You said that.
4:36
That was my fault. I forgot to include that very important detail.
4:40
That's why. That's why we're a team, man, and Big Top Ventures
4:44
is a part of that team. So thanks guys. Yeah, all right,
4:47
let's get into this mystery beer here. Yeah, I'm excited. We've
4:50
kind of morphed and changed the rules to this game as we've gone along.
4:55
We've just defined the rules. Yeah, that's a good way to say it,
4:59
and so I have to guess the type of beer, the ABV and
5:06
the brewery, kind of going from most recognizable to most challenging. Yeah,
5:13
I would say kind it's easier to guess the beer the type than it is
5:16
to guess the brewery, because the brewery is almost unguessable without some clues or
5:20
hints or answered questions. So yeah, let's just we're diving into the deep
5:27
end here to do it. All right, you made me pre guess last
5:31
time? What's your pre guest? My pre guest, Well, I've already
5:34
opened it before you smell it before anything. What's yours? I'm gonna guess
5:40
it's an IPA of some sort and it's from Iowa. Oh well, it
5:45
is from Iowa, but I can't confirm or deny anything else. Pre guest,
5:49
Well, of course it's from Iowa, because we only drink Iowa beer
5:54
on the school hot We drink other beer when we're not recording episodes, but
6:00
we do on this podcast. Sitting at this table, we only ever drink
6:04
beer brood in Iowa. This is not an i p A at first glance.
6:08
Okay, why do you say that? What's it look like? It's
6:11
a little more ambery in color. It's actually hazy, but it's not got
6:15
the like more yellow y yeah color that an I p A typically has.
6:20
It's a little a little more orangish brownishe you're smelling it? Now? What
6:30
are you getting? What are you getting from the smell? Kind of citrusy?
6:34
So now I'm like kind of changing my mind a little bit. Maybe
6:39
it's like a darker hazy I p A. I don't, I don't know.
6:42
We'll never We'll never know until you guess school school. Wow, that
6:53
is that's a sour of some sort. Yeah, it is, Yes,
7:00
so I've I'm close to getting the type. It's a sour. Is it
7:08
any you got the sour? Like you got the type? There's I mean
7:12
it's not like a fruited sour or a pastry sour or anything like that.
7:15
No, I mean sour is sufficient. I'll say that, right. Yeah,
7:19
it's a sour for sure. And I can I don't know, I
7:23
smell like orange or tangerine or something in there. Okay, it's good,
7:30
I don't mind it. ABV. We'll say it doesn't seem super intense.
7:39
We'll say six point zero, all right? Is that your official guests.
7:46
Yes, okay, you're a little high, a little high, really high.
7:48
Okay, it's like five point two five or something like that. It
7:51
says on the can I forget a lot lower than I would expect. Then,
7:57
okay, interesting. Right now for the brewery. Have we had this
8:01
brewery on the show before? Yes, we have. It's it's rare to
8:07
have a new brewery on the show, you know. I was just thinking
8:11
we need to start making some brewery friends. Yeah, because as much as
8:15
we love our Devil's Glenn Hive, we're starting to go through the regular options
8:22
we might have to, like, yeah, we might have to find some
8:26
other sources of ile of beer. Forty four episodes in and there's two or
8:31
three episodes where we have multiple beers we have. We're we're putting a dent
8:37
in the options available. So I think, hey, if you're a brewery
8:41
out there, and specifically the one that we're going to feature here in a
8:45
few minutes, once having guests, we will accept your your beers, your
8:50
suggestions. We'll even be paying patrons. But yeah, we need more options,
8:56
and when we're in one location, our options are starting to get it.
9:00
Did Okay, So I've got the list here pulled up. I'll ask
9:05
some questions first, Yep, is this an immediately local beer? Like could
9:11
we get in the car right now and be there in ten fifteen minutes?
9:16
Okay, so it's outside of kind of our bubble of locale. Is it
9:22
within an hour of where we are? I'd say yes, I think so,
9:28
if it's where I think it is. Do you think it's in Iowa
9:31
City. I think it's in that area. Yes, Okay, all right,
9:35
Well that narrows it down to a few. We'll just list off some
9:39
of the ones that we've had from that area because we've had a lot.
9:43
We've had Big Grove, we've had Reunion, we've had back Pocket. Jeez,
9:50
Iowa City, you have a lot of breweries around there. Maybe we
9:52
should hit that area up. I think we will. I think we will.
9:58
Isn't there one in coral There? There is this one in Cora.
10:03
There is one in Coralville. Okay, I may not have it recorded correctly
10:11
here on our spreadshee and may it may just say Iowa City on the spreadsheet.
10:16
Hmmm, which one is actually in Coralville? But we've said that it's
10:20
in Iowa City. I'm gonna say big Grove. Not Big Grove, darn
10:26
it. Uh. This is one that we have had recently. Okay,
10:33
back pocket, we had last week, not quite as recent, but still
10:39
pretty recent. Well we had we had Big Grove, Birch the Bear.
10:46
Yeah again not not Big Grove. Okay, Uh, well, more guests
10:52
before we open it up. If we go back to recently, it's not
11:01
on here. Oh I told you the total wrong area. This is a
11:07
Knoxville brewery, and didn't we look that up one time? And it's this
11:16
that's this is on me, This is on me. I'm sorry. It
11:18
is not a Coralville or Iowa City area brewery. To be fair, Knoxville
11:24
is not a very commonly known town, not to us, but people in
11:31
Knoxville, people in Knoxville. It certainly is or in that area. And
11:35
to this brewery, which is it is peace Tree. It is Peace Tree.
11:39
So so this one's on me. I'm sorry. That's my bad.
11:43
That's all right, though. I misled you though, so so you got
11:48
you got the type right away. You were pretty close to the ABV.
11:52
And I will take the l on the brewery because I'd read you wrong.
11:56
Prickly pair, Yes, all right, there you go. So we've got
12:03
Peach Tree prickly Pear sour Ale. Something that caught my eye on the can
12:09
was that it's part of their sour Wood series. What does that mean.
12:13
I don't know. We'll need Peace Tree to let us know what that is.
12:16
It is a limited edition. Here's what it says on the can.
12:20
We've taken our sour Wood series to the next level with prickly Pear sour Ale.
12:24
Hints of melon and earthy undertones unfold with every sip brimming with fruits of
12:30
the prickly pear cactus. This subtly tart brew brings its desert sweetness to you.
12:35
Yeah, and I would say that that every descriptive tone on that can
12:41
the melon. It's probably more of like a honeydew melon type thing, not
12:46
like a watermelon undertones. It's not a puckery sour. It's definitely a sour,
12:54
but it's not like a warhead. You know, you're not getting the
12:58
pain in the bottom of your your jaw. And one of my complaints with
13:03
most sours is that they have this really vinegary flavor to them, and I
13:07
don't like that. My wife loves it. She loves a good sour,
13:13
but I don't know. This one's pretty good. Yeah, I think just
13:18
them saying subtly tart brew, that's that hits the nail on the head for
13:22
this. I'm not a sour person mostly because of that tartness that you know,
13:28
really tart in the bottom of your jaw. Your wife likes it,
13:31
that's that's good for her, But that's why I don't like sours most of
13:35
the time. This one is not bad at all. Just like last week
13:39
the hazy forecast, how I said that that was not like a crazy heavy,
13:45
hoppy flavor. This in the same way is not an aggressive, crazy
13:50
heavy sour flavor. In the best way possible, I would agree. Well,
13:54
I'm gonna pour another one here, all right, fill my glass up
13:56
here, and it's as we do. We can kind of get into things
14:01
here and start talking about mini camp. Yeah, because we've officially had some
14:05
of the first mandatory practices for this twenty twenty four Vikings team. And guess
14:15
what, Justin Jefferson was in attendance. He was there. Now. It
14:18
probably helps that he just got a nice fat contract, well deserved a big
14:24
fat contract with a pH But even last year he didn't show up for otash.
14:33
What's the word non mandatory? What's optional? What OTAs are organized team
14:37
activities which I think are optional. But when you get to mini camp,
14:41
you have Rookie Minicamp first and then you have regular Mini camp after that,
14:45
and I think rookies have to report to Rookie Mini Camp and then everybody has
14:50
to report to mandatory Mini camp. But yeah, last year, Jefferson wasn't
14:56
at the non mandatory OTA, but then he showed up to the mandatory Mini
15:03
camp, which is what we all expected even before the extension anyways, and
15:07
he signed and it wasn't a big deal and he was there and we saw
15:11
pictures of him greeting JJ McCarthy and and everything is great and super Bowl bound
15:18
Minnesota Vikings. But yeah, we got some talkers here. So I was
15:26
trying to look for some good, like total good articles out there that kind
15:31
of like wrap up and give an entire information on what we saw at Mini
15:37
camp. And there was a few out there, but I found one on
15:39
the Daily Norseman dot com that was pretty good. Warren Ludford wrote this one
15:46
up. He just kind of took a bunch of information. It seems like
15:48
an aggregate article, but it's still pretty good. I think he wrote most
15:52
of it anyways. But he talks about a few big topics that came up
15:56
through Mini Camp, and I thought it'd be a good talker for us.
16:00
So what's the first one? The first big thing in that article? By
16:03
the way, go check out the article listeners. We'll link it down below.
16:07
It's a good I don't know confirmation. I'm not able to find words
16:14
right now and I've had three SIPs of beer. It's a good collection of
16:18
information from mini Camp. You've done a fine job, I thought, yeah.
16:22
So he just he compiles a bunch of information around the different topics,
16:30
the different storylines kind of heading into mini caamp here. The biggest, most
16:34
obvious now that the Justin Jefferson contract has been inked, it's done, it's
16:41
set and stone, and he's going to be a Viking for five more years.
16:45
The biggest, at least, yes, the biggest storyline is the quarterback
16:49
situation. And this is really the first chance for coaches, the media,
16:59
anybody watching at TCO and us not as fortunate that have to kind of watch
17:07
through Twitter and whatever we see on other social media outlets and whatnot. But
17:15
it's the first chance to see JJ McCarthy up against Sam Donald and the other
17:22
quarterbacks. Yeah, because there's at this point two other quarterbacks on the roster,
17:26
and you've got Jared Hall, rookie from last second year pro drafted last
17:30
year, and then Nick Mullins who started a few games last year. But
17:34
yeah, right, and I think it's still very much Sam Donald, JJ
17:38
McCarthy, everyone else. But I think the big storyline up to this point
17:48
Monday, June tenth is when we're recording currently, has been that Sam Donald
17:52
has looked pretty darn good. Yeah, and it has seemed to impress the
17:56
coaches and doesn't seem like he's gonna be a pushover for that starting job.
18:03
Yeah, which we've been saying this whole time, since you know, midnight
18:08
the first day of free agency when he signed with the Vikings. We've been
18:14
saying, like, okay, this is it's it's a bridge quarterback situation.
18:18
You know, the quote unquote Baker Mayfield type opportunity for Sam Donald to come
18:23
in have arguably as a starter, the best team he's been on, the
18:30
best coaching staff, best weapons. Obviously San Francisco is a better situation.
18:36
Last year for him, but he wasn't the starter he came in. Even
18:41
when he came in was still when they were thinking like, oh he might
18:44
he might be third behind Trey Lance and Brock Purdy. But yeah, Sam
18:48
Donald's coming in best opportunity he's ever had. And there's a little bit of
18:53
you can kind of look at it both ways. The pressure is kind of
18:56
off because everybody knows, even him that he is not the future of the
19:03
franchise. He's not quarterback of the future. However, I mean, and
19:07
we've talked about this before. I think I brought this up with the guys
19:10
in Breakfast Ball, like he could make things really frustrating and really interesting if
19:15
he comes out, And as Dustin Baker has said, the most Viking thing
19:19
ever would be for Sam Donald to actually be good. I mean, if
19:22
Donald were to orchestrate it's not gonna happen, but if he were to orchestrate
19:27
some kind of undefeated season that culminates in a Viking super Bowl like Holy Cow,
19:34
that would be a big, big and good problem to have if you
19:41
were Quacy and the rest of the team. But yeah, he's not gonna,
19:44
like you said, He's not gonna just roll over. He's not just
19:47
keeping the seat warm. I mean, he's a competitor. All these guys
19:49
on this team are competitors. They're going to fight for their lives. Whether
19:53
Sam is thinking he's fighting for his next ten years as being the Vikings core
20:00
back number one, or he's really trying to put it out there and show
20:04
people like, yeah, it took a while for my career to warm up,
20:07
but I'm not laying down, like I'm fighting for my career and I'm
20:11
going to be a starter for the rest of my career somewhere, whether it's
20:15
in Minnesota or not. Obviously we're expecting McCarthy to take over, but yeah,
20:21
that was kind of the gist of this section of Warren Ludford's article,
20:23
though, is for Darnold, this is kind of a prove it type of
20:29
off season and potentially regular season two. Like, even if he's not the
20:33
bona fide starter once we get into the season, he's he's got a lot
20:41
to prove. And this is what Warren Ludford is trying to say here,
20:44
I think is this is kind of his last chance. If he doesn't prove
20:48
anything here, he's washed up and he's done and he might be a career
20:52
backup and that's it at best. Yeah, it's his last chance and probably
20:56
his best chance. I don't think he could have really asked. I mean,
21:00
yeah, I'm a Homer, and I'll be the first one to admit
21:03
it, But I don't think there's a reason media guys were saying Minnesota is
21:08
one of the best opportunities for any of these highly tied rookie quarterbacks to come
21:12
in. Same for Sam Donald, he couldn't have asked for a better situation
21:17
to walk into and sit immediately in the QB one seat until he makes them
21:22
take it away from him. Well, I think because we're both Homers,
21:26
because we're both Vikings fans until we die, we kind of reserve judgment on
21:34
a guy like him, Like, we're not immediately in love with this guy.
21:38
We're not like Sam Donald. He's the guy, he's the answer,
21:41
he's gonna lead us to a super Bowl. But we're also not sitting here
21:45
saying like, I can't believe they took him in free agency. I can't
21:48
believe we're stuck with him. You know, it's the Week one starter for
21:52
sure. I hope JJ McCarthy, you know, comes in and just lights
21:56
it up and takes that starting job from him almost immediately, and blah blah
22:02
blah, Like there's there's a lot to be seen. The proof will be
22:04
in the pudding and I don't know this. This quarterback competition is really interesting.
22:10
Yeah, it's gonna be an interesting storyline from now until probably the end
22:14
of this season. Yeah, until JJ proves he is worthy of the starting
22:22
position or not. Yeah, you're right, it's gonna be something that we
22:26
kind of talk about until it's not a talker anymore, which should drag on
22:30
for a while. I think you had a really good point though that I
22:33
hadn't really thought about. Is Sam Darnold isn't the guy that would have totally
22:38
divided Vikings fandom in Like, Yes, he's the guy, and I don't
22:44
care who they who they draft, like he's gonna do it or no,
22:47
this guy's terrible. Like think about if Russell Wilson, like if they actually
22:51
would have signed him, like that would have been well, think about think
22:55
about Kirk Cousins. Kirk Cousins was kind of polarizing absolutely first became a Viking.
23:00
I mean there are people that loved him and people that hated him,
23:03
and I remember this was long before this podcast started, but my opinion was,
23:08
well, let's just see what he can do. I mean, we
23:11
kind of saw what he can do in Washington, but he didn't really have
23:15
a team in Washington. He didn't have the supporting cast around him. I
23:18
mean, he had like maybe one or two decent receivers. He didn't have
23:22
a running game to speak of at all, and I think their defense was
23:26
terrible. So and then of course we got six really good seasons, mostly
23:33
good mostly, I mean yeah, up and down. I'm guilty of having
23:37
periods of time with Kirk Cousins or I'm like get rid of him, Like
23:41
I did start off like, oh, I'm super excited, he's really good,
23:45
and then it's like I did wishy washy for probably two to three seasons,
23:48
and then ultimately, I mean I came around and he was my quarterback.
23:52
But obviously right now, I'm not upset that the Vikings have Donald and
23:56
McCarthy. So I saw a really funny video. It was one of those
24:04
I don't know, TikTok real kind of things where it's obvious that they've come
24:11
up with a script and it like cuts back and forth between the different players,
24:15
and it was I think it was like Arthur Blank, the owner of
24:19
the Falcons, and the fans maybe of the Falcons, and it was kind
24:25
of going. It was like this conversation back and forth between the owners and
24:27
the fans or something like that, and it was like, yeah, we
24:34
got we got Kirk Cousins. This is this is gonna be great. He's
24:37
a really good quarterback. And then the other side of the conversation is like,
24:41
yeah, on Sundays before seven o'clock. And that was just like the
24:45
rolling theme of the whole video. I'm probably misrepresenting the whole thing, but
24:49
the theme was like, yeah, on Sundays before seven o'clock noon on Sundays
24:55
is the best, the only good Kirk Cousins, which have fun with that
24:59
Falcons fan. It's kind of dawning on me that we're not until Donald or
25:03
McCarthy make their own narratives, Like we are done with the primetime they can't
25:08
win in primetime and hasn't beaten a winning team and stuff like that, like
25:12
that's that move to Atlanta's that narrative has moved on from Minnesota. It's gone
25:18
south and east, which is fine, but hopefully neither of those guys develop
25:26
a similar narrative with the Vikings, that would just be frustrating to be stuck
25:30
in this like, well, maybe it's not the quarterback. Maybe it's the
25:34
franchise that just can't win those big games. They can't win in primetime,
25:38
they can't win on Monday Night, they can't win those Christmas Eve games or
25:44
whatever. Yeah, that's frustrating. There is something cool right now to be
25:48
in a situation where not all of our eggs are in one basket quarterback wise,
25:52
Like I think most rational Vikings fan is perfectly fine with Donald being the
25:59
week one star and starting the majority, if not all, the games this
26:03
season and seeing how it goes as long as you develop JJ. But like
26:07
I said, I think last week with with Dustin, JJ kind of feels
26:11
like that Mario Kart mushroom, Like he's the thing in your back pocket.
26:15
If things aren't going right, you can just do the mushroom and up and
26:19
then that'll obviously solve all the problems and Mcarthy's going to be great. And
26:25
then but like last year, if you know what were we won in four?
26:30
What could you do? Like you're not Nick Mullins is not Kirk Cousins.
26:34
You know, you can't just bench Cousins and automatically be better, whereas
26:40
right now there's some kind of magical thought process where JJ is learning and he's
26:44
going to be really good, and if Donald stops being good, then we
26:47
could just bench him and then we get JJ and automatically that's gonna be way
26:49
better. So do you believe any of the stuff that's come out because we've
26:53
heard a lot about Sam Darnold, I think this week about Yeah, through
26:57
mini camp, he's been pretty good and he's he's really kind of solidified himself
27:02
as the Week one starter. Do you believe any of the stuff out there
27:07
that's saying JJ's bad, JJ's terrible, He's I think it's hard right now
27:11
to really put a lot of stock in any of it. I mean,
27:15
even if it was, oh man, JJ's throwing two hundred yards and hitting
27:19
a paper plate in the wind from you know, a thousand yards away,
27:23
But when it's you know, when it hits the plate, it's still going
27:26
one hundred miles. Now, like you can't you can't really put a lot
27:30
of stock into really anything right now. Now. I'm sure if somebody was
27:34
just horrible, like hadn't completed a pass at all, you know, like
27:41
I think you could. You'd be able to tell if somebody was just terrible
27:45
if you threw me out there and Vikings, you know, at quarterback for
27:48
mini camp, it would be pretty clear pretty quick that I'm not I'm not
27:52
an elite level athlete. But and I think Donald's whole career, he's had,
27:57
you know, nice good things to say about him in mini camp and
28:02
in training camp and stuff. It's just everything's so different and so much more
28:06
real once the games start, even between preseason to the game, Like,
28:10
we won't really know how good or bad anybody is until they start playing.
28:15
So we've already done this at least once. But let's do it again with
28:19
a little bit of a twist. Okay, the Vikings make the Super Bowl
28:25
this year, who's the quarterback? Oh, you're saying, like, hypothetically,
28:30
we have the Marty McFly Sports Almanac, and you just see that they
28:36
made it to the game. We don't see anything else. Who do you
28:41
presume is the quarterback that leads them to the Holy Grail? I don't know.
28:45
I mean, because you could in that totally far fetch scenario, I
28:49
could believe a ton of things, like maybe it is you know, Darnold
28:56
played well and then tore his achilles, and then McCarthy came in and lit
29:00
it up and became Rookie of the Year. Or maybe it was Donald wasn't
29:04
doing great, but McCarthy wasn't ready, so they put in Mullins or something,
29:10
and then suddenly Mullins had a Case Keenum year and something clicked and everything
29:14
went good. Case Keenum almost brought this Vikings team to the super Bowl.
29:18
That's true. I think the way things sit, if I have to answer
29:22
it right now, I think if the Vikings were to somehow make the Super
29:26
Bowl. And I'm not saying that's gonna happen, Please don't actually do comment
29:29
and tell me how crazy I am for saying that. I think, realistically,
29:33
the way things are sitting right now, it's because Donald turned it on
29:37
and figured it out, and Mark bruneled his way into the into the That's
29:41
a good reference, right, Mark Brunell, what a guy. Yeah,
29:45
but like look at him, like, yeah, he had a historically great
29:48
defense. The Vikings defense right now is not the two thousand Ravens defense.
29:52
I'm not I'm not saying that, But I think a lot of people are
29:56
thinking this team is going to perform all lie worse than they're capable of,
30:02
just because they had seven wins last year. If Kirk Cousins would have been
30:04
healthy, they would have won a lot more than they were heating up.
30:07
They would have won a lot more than seven wins. I'm not saying they
30:11
would have won the Super Bowl, but the defense was playing well until they
30:15
stopped after the Cincinnati game, and there was just a huge loss of momentum.
30:21
Yeah, when Kirk went down. Yeah, and think about it too,
30:23
like I mean, justin Jefferson was out for a third of the season.
30:30
More than a third of the season. Addison was still a rookie learning
30:33
how to do things. It was, you know, once the season was
30:37
pretty well lost. But Hockinson went down and he might not be back until
30:41
Week seven this coming year, which that's another talker we'll get to. But
30:45
I mean, yeah, they say every year there's not a lot of difference
30:48
between the best team and the worst team in the NFL because they're all talented,
30:52
they all have professional football players. But yeah, I think this Vikings
30:56
team underperformed last year for whatever reason. You want to look at and I
31:02
think they're going to regress back to the mean, which will mean they will
31:06
be better than they were last year. There you go, Yeah, what
31:10
do you think? How if they make the super Bowl? How does that
31:11
happen? If I'm sticking with JJ, I said this, I don't remember
31:17
what episode it was, but I will stand pat and I will not go
31:22
back on what I've said previously. I think after the bye week, JJ
31:26
McCarthy takes over. I think that's a it's just a natural break in the
31:32
season. They'll travel internationally, play that game in London against the Jets,
31:37
and then come back, have a week off reevaluate. Things won't have gone
31:42
very well. I don't expect in those first handful of weeks and they'll make
31:48
the change. And if again that's a big if, And if the Vikings
31:53
were to make it all the way to the super Bowl, I think JJ's
31:56
the guy. He's the one. Well. I don't have a lot to
32:00
back that up. Is intuition. We get to watch it unfold, and
32:06
if they make the Super Bowl, who cares how it happened. I don't
32:08
care if somehow they change a rule and Kevin O'Connell is the starting quarterback,
32:14
Like I just I want to see it kind of player coach. Yeah,
32:19
but yeah, I'm not putting a lot of money on the Vikings making the
32:22
Super Bowl this year. I don't think that's I don't think a player coach
32:24
has happened since Michael Jordan did it in Space Jam. Maybe, yeah,
32:29
it's been a while. Yeah, that's true. What a good movie,
32:32
Space Jam. And to be real, I don't think a player coach could
32:37
happen like the rules like, yeah, I don't care. Totally hypothetical and
32:45
not real. But what is real is the fact that Nikhil Harry might become
32:49
a tight end now Yeah, and reading this article, it kind of makes
32:52
you think that might be his position of not choice, like the most value
33:00
spot for him to be on the field as opposed to wide receiver because he
33:04
is a bigger dude you'll read in the article when you do check out The
33:08
Daily Norseman Warren Lunford Warren Ludford's article that'll here Harry. He even says
33:16
in the article he's basically physically as tall as TJ. Hockinson and like ten
33:23
pounds lighter, so TJ's big, Like he's tall but he's a big dude.
33:29
I think and kill Harry right now is like two hundred and forty pounds,
33:34
which for a wide receiver is way too big, but for a tight
33:37
end that's that's kind of perfect, especially if you're a pass catcher. So
33:40
he's bigger. And I guess the knock on Harry his whole career because he
33:44
was a first round wide receiver in twenty nineteen. One of his biggest knocks
33:47
consistently has been that he doesn't have the speed to break away to get to
33:53
get separation just off of his speed, which in the article points out as
34:00
a tight end, that's not as big of a concern when you're going up
34:02
against linebackers and safeties and you're not in a position that you have to rely
34:09
on being wide open, because Harry is good at making the contested catch too.
34:14
So after reading this article, I went from thinking Harry is just making
34:21
a last titch effort of switching positions to try to make a team somewhere to
34:24
now thinking, I mean, with Hogginson out, he could fight for some
34:30
like considerate play, considerable playing time on the field as a tight end for
34:35
the Vikings. And yeah, I think the tight end position is definitely a
34:43
pretty underrated question mark going into the season right now with TJ's injury and with
34:52
this kind of interesting shift of Nikhil Harry to that position, along with some
35:00
acquisitions at the position through free agency and the draft as well, So it's
35:06
going to be really interesting to see who ends up making that fifty three man
35:09
roster in that position group. The most interesting thing will be how quickly t
35:17
J Hawkins and comes back, I think, and the thing that Vikings Fins
35:22
are hoping for is that he's back. I don't know that we're necessarily holding
35:25
our breath for anything before the bye week at this point, but yeah,
35:30
he could not could He will likely end up on the pup list to start
35:37
the season, which puts him out six weeks, right yep. So yeah.
35:44
Robert Tunyan, the NFC North familiar face, played for the Bears and
35:49
the Packers. In the Lions, yeah, he's he's started for or at
35:54
least made I don't think for the Lions, he was not a squad It
36:00
might have been a practice squad guy for a little bit, but he made
36:02
regular season appearances for the Bears and the Packers. I don't think he did
36:07
that for the Lions. He's now made the full circle. He's hit for
36:10
the cycle in the NFC North and apparently he's performing well in mini camp.
36:16
Yeah. Surprisingly well, it sounds like in the the articles I've been reading,
36:22
although, like I said earlier, it's hard to take a lot of
36:27
these things too seriously in mini camp unless it's like, consistently, this guy
36:32
is horrible. Everybody's gonna look okay in mini camp when not everybody knows the
36:37
playbook yet, and it's still that that practice mentality. But yeah, it's
36:45
nice. It's better to hear he's looking good rather than he's looking terrible.
36:49
So and then, of course you have the two guys that were on the
36:52
roster last year that are coming back, Johnny munt Nick Muse both I think
36:58
better known for being blocking tight ends over receiving tight ends. Yeah, I
37:02
think maybe a little bit more balanced, whereas Josh Oliver is absolutely capable of
37:08
receiving, but he's absolutely the blocking tight end, so much so that in
37:13
this article, it's just kind of a given that there's going to be four
37:16
tight ends on the roster five if you include an injured Hockinson, and then
37:23
that really means three tight ends plus Oliver who is the blocking tight end.
37:29
So once Hockinson comes back healthy and ready to go, which probably realistically is
37:34
that week seven game, if not later week eight, because week seven is
37:39
the bye, right week six? Week is week six to buye somewhere in
37:43
there. Yeah, we should know this Week six is either the bye or
37:45
the London game, but I thought it was. I got it right.
37:50
We'll figure it out, but either okay, So Week seven against the Lions
37:55
is probably the most realistic At this point time, Hockinson could be back for
38:01
although I think KOC did mention something at some press conference not terribly long ago,
38:07
something about the IR rules are pretty nice now, and they could put
38:13
him on IR and designate him to return and he'd miss less guaranteed time than
38:20
putting him on the pup list. But let's just as Vikings fans set ourselves
38:23
up, he's gonna miss the first six weeks and they'll be okay. I
38:29
think even without him, this tight end room is set up to be decent,
38:35
not elite, not Travis Kelce, but decent. Well, you think
38:38
about the position right aside from the Chiefs and Travis Kelce, you need somebody
38:45
who can be a reliable run and pass blocker on the outside, and you
38:52
need somebody who can break out, run or rout and catch a pass and
38:58
buwl his way forward for a handfull of yards. And you may have just
39:01
described in order Josh Oliver and if we're reading this article right, maybe even
39:07
kill Harry Yeah, or Johnny Munt. Apparently Nick Muse was out all of
39:12
Mini camp with they said it was disclosed injury, which that's not the time
39:17
you want to be out a while if you're a bubble player. But yeah,
39:22
yeah, you're right that there will probably be four or five guys,
39:30
and right now there are five or six guys in the mix, and so
39:37
someone's gonna have to go, or a few someone's are going to have to
39:38
go. And it'll be interesting to see which of those tight ends make the
39:45
cut and which don't. And hopefully TJ makes it back, and hopefully he's
39:50
the same type of player that we saw kind of before his injury. He
39:54
he's a heck of a guy, heck of an athlete, absolutely, and
39:59
hopefully I mean nowadays acl Yeah, it's a season ender, not a career
40:06
ender, right anymore. It used to be a career ender, so hopefully
40:09
he can come back stronger than ever and yeah, lead us into the black.
40:20
The rest of the article goes on to talk about specific position competitions at
40:24
left guard and cornerback. I think left guard you're talking it's that Blake Brandell
40:30
and Dalton Reisner, which after seeing the contract numbers for Reiser, which I
40:36
don't think we had when we talked to Dustin last week, we just knew
40:38
that he had signed. Reisner and Brandell are basically this year making the same
40:45
money. It's just Brandell is also he's got two more years left on his
40:49
deal with some more guaranteed money, and Brandell's a couple of years younger,
40:53
which is kind of surprising to think that this is more going to be a
40:58
head to head competition, which Brandell in Mini Caamp was running with the Ones
41:02
and Reisner was not running with the Ones, which he is the most recent
41:07
starting left guard for the Vikings, so I'm a little surprised by that.
41:12
But I mean, I will agree with you what you said a few weeks
41:15
ago about being a little quote unquote sappy about guys and being fans of the
41:20
guys as well as the team. But I think we would both agree.
41:23
I don't care necessarily care who it is as long as it's the best guy
41:29
in the spot and as long as the team is winning and it's clear that
41:32
they're winning because the guys are the best. Well. Reisner said in his
41:38
press conference after signing his deal that he's ready to go. Yeah, and
41:45
he's ready to play whatever he needs to play to make the position. He
41:49
said, I'll play. I'll play left guard, right guard, center,
41:53
right tackle, left tackle, running back, wide receiver, whatever you need
41:58
me to play, I'll play. Yeah. That's not a direct quote,
42:00
but that's a summary of what he said. And I truly believe if in
42:05
a game they said Dalton, you're you're the flanker, get out there,
42:08
he would he might in his head be like what, but he'd be like,
42:13
let's go, which I mean, yeah, I definitely believe that,
42:16
and then we'd all talk about it and hear about it in his locker room,
42:21
press conference or interview session. But I'm a Dalton Riisener fan, absolutely
42:25
sure. But like Dustin Baker said last week, as a as it relates
42:30
to the offensive line and KOC I'm going to trust the coaches. I mean,
42:36
if they think. I mean, if they thought one of these rookie
42:38
guys was better than brad Berry at center, like, all right, I
42:44
guess he won the job, you know, like I want the team to
42:45
win, and then I want these guys to be good. You know,
42:50
I want to like these guys. At worst, at the left guard spot,
42:53
I think you've got depth. At worst, Right, you've got two
42:59
guys that are familiar with that position. They're familiar with brad Berry right next
43:04
to them, and they're familiar with the offensive scheme. At this point,
43:09
both of them are Brandell and Reisner. Yeah, Brandell's been a Viking for
43:14
a few years. Yeah, So at worst you have depth. At best,
43:20
you have a really healthy competition and the better guy is gonna play and
43:27
the other guy's gonna come in when the other guy either a needs a break
43:30
or I think Brandell's the better run blocker and I think Reisner is the better
43:36
pass blocker. So at best or at worst, I don't remember which one
43:39
I started with now, But anyways, when it all comes down to it,
43:45
you can you can flip flop based on what kind of play you're running,
43:49
and that doesn't happen. It's not like hockey where you can in line
43:52
make substitutions kind of as the play's going. But I mean you can,
43:57
you can make substitutions every several if you need to, and you can run
44:00
a guy in and run a guy out. Yeah, based on what you're
44:04
doing. And of course you don't want to show your hands to the defense
44:07
and ohis and so we're gonna pass obviously, But I don't know. I
44:12
think having two guys at that position opens up a lot of really nice possibilities
44:17
and the depth alone is encouraging. Yeah, it's also I think it says
44:23
a lot about Brandell for the guy to I mean right now, he I
44:30
think he's sitting in that LG one, you know, seat, like it's
44:34
his job right now to lose. And maybe it's just a let's see what
44:37
he can do with the ones in mini camp when we're just trying to see
44:40
what everybody can do. But for a guy, I mean, Reisner and
44:44
Brandell have both been on the team. Riisner one year, Brandell for a
44:47
handful of years with these coaches everything, you know, this offensive coordinator everything.
44:52
Brandell's not some random guard that they signed from the Chargers or something.
44:58
You know, like they both have equity with the playbook and the team and
45:00
the coaches. I think in that scenario, if Brandell is still getting more
45:07
looks, that kind of makes you more impressed with Brandell because sure he's he's
45:14
showing some improvement and maybe, like you said, competition can only make this
45:20
better. And I think either way, this means left guard position is going
45:24
to be in a good spot. Iron sharpens iron. And maybe he was.
45:28
Maybe Blake was sitting on the sidelines last year watching Dalton get all these
45:34
reps at the starting left guard in game and he just was taking mental notes
45:38
like, all right, this is what I need to do in order to
45:43
be more successful at that position. Yeah, maybe I don't know. Either
45:46
way, I'm excited and I know, regardless of what Reisner's feelings internally are,
45:52
he's only ever going to be outwardly a good teammate and they'll all play.
45:57
When have we ever seen all five offensive linemen play every single play of
46:02
every single game. Oh no, I got out of control fast, evn't
46:08
got excited. His beer overflowed, that escalated. Oh you got a whole
46:14
roll of paper towels down? I do have some paper towels we're ready to
46:16
go. But either way, left guard position, it's gonna be in a
46:21
good spot no matter who's actually playing on game Dame cornerback position, which was
46:25
really the rest of that article basically was saying, Shaq Griffith Griffin, Griffith
46:32
Griffin, he's running with the ones. And then who else did did it
46:38
say? Was it Andrew Booth was running on the other side with the ones
46:44
and Byron Murphy was taking a lot of time on the inside. I might
46:49
be getting that wrong. I think maybe they said Byron Murphy was on the
46:52
outside. Byron Murphy on the outside is what the article says. And yeah,
47:00
Makaia Blackman some reps with the ones as well. It also mentioned undrafted
47:07
rookie mcglovern Dwight mcglovern is working one on one a little bit. And maybe
47:14
that was one time for a few minutes after one practice, or maybe it's
47:16
been every practice. He's been kind of taken under Byron Murphy's wing a little
47:22
bit on getting some veteran mentorship from Byron Murphy, which is nice because mclevern
47:30
was other than Jashn Jones was one of the other guys the Vikings gave some
47:35
pretty good, pretty hefty guarantees as far as undrafted free agents go this year.
47:39
If he makes the roster, you know that there's gonna be all sorts
47:43
of McLevin jokes out there, and that could bode even more into the idea
47:50
that people are you know, hot takes right now, or that Caleb Evans
47:53
might not make the team, or like we spent some time last week talking
47:57
Andrew Booth might not make the team. You know something, some defensive backs
48:00
are not making this team, and if mclevern does make the team, that
48:04
means another guy or two are surprisingly not on the team, which, again,
48:09
if it makes for the best team possible, let's go, yeah for
48:14
sure. And I think that cornerback position has the most competition good because it
48:22
was pretty weak last year. So competition iron sharpens iron. Like you just
48:24
said, competition can only be good because what do you carry typically on a
48:29
fifty three man roster, six cornerbacks, five to six something like that.
48:32
Although this version of the vikings with Brian Flores, they will carry more safeties
48:38
than most traditional teams, well yeah, because which will cut into your cornerbacks.
48:44
Flores will use a safety as a cornerback he'll use a safety as a
48:46
linebacker. He'll use the safety as a defensive tackle exactly. He will throw
48:52
those Josh Mattelis players everywhere I've in pace. He'll put them everywhere on the
48:59
field. They'll they'll look like they're a safety, or they'll look like they're
49:01
a corner, or they'll look like they're a defensive tackle, but they're not.
49:07
So Yeah, it's interesting how that all kind of shakes out, for
49:12
sure, But a lot of a lot of competition in not just mini camp,
49:16
but then moving forward, I think into training camp and the preseason and
49:23
mm HM and we're really starting to it feels to me more and more that
49:30
we are seeing Quasi's Vikings team. They've turned over a heavy percentage of the
49:36
roster while keeping some key pieces and some you know in the Rix Pielman area
49:44
era pieces that were not so good are developing into into good players. I'm
49:50
thinking Josh Mattelis not that he was ever not good, but he's definitely developing
49:54
into a good player. Camp Binehm is developed. He's a he was a
49:58
full season starter last year. He's helped and we're seeing Quac really mold this
50:02
team into what he wants and how he's gonna build it while still keeping the
50:08
golden nuggets from the team that he inherited. I On the defensive side of
50:14
the ball, I think I saw something this week that said Harrison Smith and
50:17
Cam Bden had the most percentage of snaps defensively, which the Vikings. They
50:24
led the team defensively in snap camp, and Harrison Smith is that's not going
50:30
to be the case anymore. No, And we've seen that come in for
50:34
a couple of years now. He's getting old and starting to slow down a
50:37
little bit, but he's still a heck of a player, and he's a
50:40
guy you want on your teams. And even if he's not on the field
50:45
every single play, he can still make plays and make a difference in a
50:51
lesser percentage. Harrison Smith, even though he's famously not the raw, raw
50:58
guy in the locker room and the fire him up leader, you know,
51:01
the guy that's gonna make the big locker room speech. He is the guy
51:06
that is going to lead by example and make other team other teammates better just
51:10
because they know, Oh, Harry does it this way and it works for
51:14
him. Why does it work for him? Why does he why does he
51:15
have that weird two by four contraption in his basement? Obviously it works,
51:21
so let me ask him about that. He is gonna he's showing up.
51:23
He's played for a long time, he's seen the best, he's seen the
51:25
worst. And Harrison Smith probably is as valuable off the field as a player
51:32
then as he is on the field as a player, and when it comes
51:37
to the locker room and everything like that. So yeah, I think I
51:40
think this team is That's all why I think this team is in a good
51:44
position. Yeah, I'm excited, and I think there's there's a huge upside
51:49
to the Vikings and no one's really expecting a lot out of them, which
51:55
that's that's kind of a good place to be, honestly, got all lot
52:00
of upside, no one really expects a lot. Let's see what we can
52:02
do. Mm hmm. And because they finished seven and ten last year,
52:08
people automatically put them in that tier of teams. Vegas has them in that
52:13
tier of teams, a lower tier, and I genuinely believe they are better
52:16
than that tier. Yes, I'm homer, Yes I'm gonna see the good
52:21
over the bad, But I really think they're gonna if they perform the way
52:24
they should, they'll get ten wins. You are and we can go back
52:30
and viewers out there, you can go back. You are more optimistic now
52:36
than you were a year ago. Yeah. I think about the vikings absolutely,
52:39
but I will be able to back this up, and I will back
52:43
it up when we do in the next few weeks, when we do our
52:46
week by week win our lose prediction of the whole schedule. I'm excited for
52:52
that episode. It's gonna be fun. Yeah, that's that's coming, and
52:53
we're gonna have to squeeze that in here because we've got a busy We got
52:57
a busy schedule. Yeah, coming up here. And speaking of the schedule
53:01
NFL, a lot of casual fans, even myself, unless I specifically look
53:07
it up after the draft, I don't really know what's happening in the NFL
53:13
world schedule wise until like I know, training camp starts at the end of
53:16
July. But other than that, for some reason, it's always like,
53:21
oh, I guess this week is OTAs or oh yeah, there is a
53:23
mini camp this week, or man, I haven't heard any news NFL wise,
53:29
like for like two weeks. What's going on? Yeah, I just
53:30
don't know the off season schedule, so I thought it might be cool to
53:35
look it up kind of give our viewers and listeners some idea of how the
53:39
NFL is going to work for the next few weeks or a couple of months.
53:44
Yeah, so you kind of put this together. Yeah, I just
53:46
looked up. Really, I just looked up the dates from last year,
53:50
because even like Training Camp twenty twenty four, they haven't really announced specific dates
53:54
yet to the public. So I just looked at last year and figured it'd
53:59
be pretty similar. Sure, so kind of run us through some of the
54:02
key dates. Yeah, you all right. So obviously we've already passed the
54:06
draft. That was late April, and then a week or two later was
54:09
the first round of OTAs. I guess the Vikings are doing it a little
54:14
bit different, and I read in the article we talked about last segment they're
54:17
kind of splitting their OTAs up into two different, you know sections. The
54:22
first round was a few weeks ago of OTAs, and then mandatory Mini camp
54:28
was this last couple of weeks just finished up last week, I think,
54:31
and then soon within the next couple of weeks will be the second round of
54:37
OTAs, and that next round of OTAs is is what is going to be
54:42
considered that quote unquote rookie OTAs. You're gonna see guys that are on a
54:49
tryout basis or you know, have been in the league less than three or
54:53
four years. So the whole draft class will be there. Hopefully JJ will
55:00
have signed his full contract by then. I think he and maybe one other
55:04
player haven't signed their contracts with the Vikings yet. They're on some like provisional
55:08
injury guaranteed contract right now, but they'll sign. That's not a concern.
55:14
People aren't holding out. Rookies aren't holding out like they used to anymore.
55:16
So yeah, we'll have that second round of otis and then it's gonna be
55:20
pretty quiet for like two months, a month and a half or so until
55:24
training camp. And like I said, we don't know the specific date that
55:30
training camp will open up this season, but last year the players checked in
55:35
on July twenty fifth, so just looking at the calendar kind of lines up
55:39
this year to be the twenty third of July, so that should be like
55:44
when we see, you know, the videos of the players walking up with
55:47
their backpacks and their TVs and checking into the used to be dorms, but
55:52
now I think they stay at the hotel. But yeah, we'll see all
55:57
that towards the end of July, okay, and then like not even a
56:05
handful of days later. I don't there are some things on here that I've
56:08
never heard before, so like, this is kind of new to me.
56:12
I've never paid attention to the off season schedule at a granular level like this.
56:19
But you have you have Back Together Weekend. So last year, I
56:22
guess, and I don't know if this is an annual thing, but the
56:25
Vikings held. I think it's like a fan welcome to training camp type event
56:30
that they called Back Together Weekend, And last year was on July twenty ninth,
56:36
which I think was the Saturday after every player checked in, and I
56:39
think that's when they open up because training camp is like a publicly you can
56:44
go and attend training camp and sit in the stands, and you know,
56:47
they have it's like a little mini fare, like they have food trucks and
56:52
stuff and you can, you know, buy things from the merch tent and
56:54
like see training camp happen most days of training camp. So I think that
56:59
back Together unquote back Together weekend. It's like the introduction of that publicly available
57:06
part of training camp. It's like opening day for training camp yep at TCO,
57:12
which I want to go to sometime. I would be cool. I
57:14
went to training camp years and years and years ago, my wife and I
57:17
did when they were in Mankato. I think it was like when we got
57:21
the year we got married, So what twenty eleven we went to man Cato
57:25
and did a little mini honeymoon because we were poor college students in the hotel
57:30
in Minneapolis was about all we could afford. But yeah, I haven't been
57:35
a training camp at TCO yet, and they've been there more than a handful
57:38
of years now, so yeah. And then their first padded practice is kind
57:44
of that following Monday after the weekend yep. So last year it was July
57:47
thirty first. This year, calendar wise, it looks like it could be
57:52
the twenty ninth if they follow the same kind of calendar. And then there's
57:57
always a couple of one or two night practices where that's another fanfare event where
58:02
they basically play a simulated game as their practice, and they I think they
58:09
sell tickets, but they're like five bucks for adults and free for kids at
58:14
the TCO Stadium and it's this whole big event and after the game, Kocu
58:21
will like take the mic and talk to the fans and say, hey,
58:22
thanks for coming out. This is gonna be the best team ever. You
58:25
know, all the raw ras stuff. So yeah, they're gonna have one
58:30
or two of those. Last year, the Thursday night practice was on August
58:35
third, so probably similar ish time this coming year. And they already have
58:40
announced they an now sit in like February that they're gonna have joint practices in
58:46
Cleveland with the Browns because week two of the preseason they visit the Browns for
58:53
a preseason game. So there will be a week or so that the Vikings
58:59
will hold train camp away from Minnesota because they'll be in Cleveland for those joint
59:04
practices. I think that's the only Last year they had joint practices for two
59:07
weeks with the who was it the Titans and the Cardinals. But this year
59:13
so far we only know about Cleveland, and I suppose that's probably a good
59:16
opportunity for the operations team to pack up the gear, get on a plane,
59:23
take everything from one place to another, get it all set up like
59:28
they have to do week after week during the season. Well, and players
59:31
too. They always talk for these joint practices. Usually they're towards the end
59:36
of training camp, maybe even after the first preseason game or so. The
59:39
players, you'll hear it every year, like, oh, it's nice to
59:43
get out here and hit somebody other than your teammates that you've been hitting for
59:46
a month or so, so you know, hit somebody else. There always
59:52
seems every year in the league there's always one big fight between two teams that
59:57
are holding joint practices. Not every joint practice is a fight, but there's
1:00:01
always at least one across the league. Somebody there's one day of practice is
1:00:07
canceled because there's this big tussle. So I think that's more for show than
1:00:12
anything. Players just they just want to cancel a practice, so they they
1:00:16
say, you want to fight today, so let's put on this big fight
1:00:22
and then we don't have to practice it. Let's do it at eight o'clock
1:00:24
in the morning. Yeah. Yeah, So that's kind of the gist of
1:00:30
things. Training camp essentially will start up July twenty third or so, and
1:00:37
it'll go all the way up until cut down day and there used to be
1:00:42
like two or three levels of cut down day, like for years you had
1:00:45
to be you know, down to seventy five by this day and then down
1:00:50
to fifty three by this day. But they kind of went away with those
1:00:52
tiers of cutdowns, so now it's just one cutdown day. Last year,
1:00:57
and again they haven't announced when that specific cut down day is yet for the
1:01:00
league this year, but last year it was August twenty ninth at three pm
1:01:07
Central that every team had to be at or below fifty three players. So
1:01:13
this year that lines up to be the twenty seventh of August. Yeah,
1:01:16
you can kind of use your deduction skills. Here's when week one is,
1:01:21
here's when training camp is, and you can kind of guesstimate. So yeah,
1:01:27
no, you did a great job putting all that together and doing all
1:01:29
the research to kind of figure that out. That's thanks. It's really interesting
1:01:34
though, Like honestly, like I until now, until looking at what you've
1:01:39
put together and having you kind of explain it out loud, I never really
1:01:44
understood how long and how extensive training camp was. It's a month long.
1:01:49
Oh yeah, it's a big deal. Yeah, and especially when they cause
1:01:52
it's only been two or three years that they did away with that first cutdown
1:01:57
day. I mean, when you have all ninety players in training camp until
1:02:01
for a whole month, until the end of August, that that's tough because
1:02:05
I'm sure it gets pretty evident pretty quick, like, oh, these two
1:02:08
guys are not making the team, but like they're still here, you know.
1:02:14
And then after cutdown day, you still get that week or two where
1:02:17
it's like a little bit of shuffling because other teams will be surprised that the
1:02:22
Vikings cut so and so, and they'll pick them up, and then they'll
1:02:25
have to cut somebody else, so it'll shuffle around a little bit, and
1:02:29
the Vikings will pick up somebody that another team cuts, so they have to
1:02:31
let go somebody else. So yeah, so end of July to end of
1:02:38
August, that's gonna be a pretty interesting time yea training camp. Possibly some
1:02:43
interesting storylines coming out pretty much from now until then, though, it's kind
1:02:49
of and one thing about that between now and then, so we'll have like
1:02:53
one week of OTAs, that rookie ish type OTAs before training camp now,
1:02:59
but between now and then now in training camp is when you don't want your
1:03:05
team to be in the news because either it's good because they signed a guy
1:03:10
like Justin Jefferson, or like they reworked a deal or they traded for another
1:03:15
good player or something, or it's more than likely bad because then these players
1:03:21
are essentially on summer vacation for a few weeks, and some guys get in
1:03:25
trouble and that's when you hear so and so, I mean, Jordan Addison
1:03:30
got pulled over for going one hundred and plus miles an hour and said he
1:03:34
had to take his dog to the vet or something like. Usually the news
1:03:37
stories in that month or so are so and so got arrested, or so
1:03:42
and so did something bad or got in trouble. So you don't want your
1:03:45
team in the news for that month or so. Go enjoy, go relax,
1:03:52
don't get in trouble, don't do anything stupid. Yeah, or just
1:03:54
like work out, play video games at home. You can't. There's only
1:03:58
so much trouble you can get in your own bit, yeah playing video games.
1:04:02
Well, hopefully things stayed pretty quiet for the Vikings between now and then.
1:04:08
It's been a pretty eventful offseason for the Vikings, very pivotal one.
1:04:14
Like, yeah, there's been a lot of moving pieces. Obviously, the
1:04:17
quarterback situation has been the main headline, but you've got a bunch of other
1:04:25
headlines that have kind of emerged as really important ones, one underrated one that
1:04:30
I don't think we've talked about. I don't think we've recorded since they've done
1:04:33
this. But they announced are they really revealed those jerseys. So when I
1:04:41
saw the initial leaks and you know, just the cartoon drawings of them,
1:04:45
I was not on board. I didn't really like them in person, like
1:04:48
physically on a player. They're sick like they're they're awesome. So if you
1:04:54
haven't seen them yet, those of you watching and listening out there, they
1:04:58
released these Winter War You're kind of all white, kind of like a white
1:05:01
out type uniform. And I don't think there's any really good like verbal description
1:05:10
that we can give. You just need to go, like, yeah,
1:05:13
google it and find it. Yeah, they said they removed all warmth from
1:05:16
the uniform, so there's no gold whatsoever. It's no white and purple.
1:05:21
Yeah, it's white and purple and silver. The face masks, I don't
1:05:27
think they're chrome. Excuse me, and to burp, I don't think the
1:05:30
face masks chrome, but they're gray. They're pretty sweet. And then the
1:05:34
numbers. I've always liked the seraph on the numbers. How they the first
1:05:40
one of a two digit number has the like, I don't know, kind
1:05:43
of the extra little yeah, but they did away with those on this this
1:05:47
alternate jersey. But they did do some kind of like icy drip on the
1:05:51
inside of the numbers. It's hard to explain, but just google it right
1:05:56
now. The Winter Warrior jerseys, it's they're pretty sick and I don't know
1:06:00
if i'd want them to be the every game jersey, but as an alternate,
1:06:04
you know, the what's becoming an annual whiteout game for the Vikings,
1:06:09
they're pretty awesome. Evan's got the pictures pulled up for us to look at
1:06:14
right now. I wasn't sure about them changing the horn on the helmet too
1:06:20
much, but really all they did was swap out the yellow from the horn
1:06:25
to be purple, and it really works for what they're doing. So we're
1:06:29
not fashionistas. We're not walking a runway or attending a walkway or whatever anytime
1:06:35
soon. But I mean, yeah, you can take a look at the
1:06:40
kind of the traditional Vikings helmet here and just get rid of the purple altogether,
1:06:45
it's a white helmet and then more purple right here instead of yellow.
1:06:51
And maybe it is a chrome face mask. It's either chrome or gray.
1:06:55
I think it's great. The face mask is cool. Obviously this is not
1:06:58
a football helmet, but they do have a silver line down the middle,
1:07:05
stripe down the middle, which is pretty sick. I don't know that's one
1:07:09
that I would display. That helmet. That's pretty cool. But yeah,
1:07:13
other than that, there hasn't been a lot of news since our last recording,
1:07:17
and hopefully, like I said, hopefully there's not much news between now
1:07:21
and training camp because it could really only be negative other than like a JJ
1:07:26
signing, like McCarthy signing. Yeah, there shouldn't be too many big things
1:07:30
happening. No news is good news this time of year. No news is
1:07:34
great news. Perfect, Well, you're going on a trip. I'm going
1:07:41
on a trip. So the next episode of The People Watch will be a
1:07:45
little different because we're gonna take a step back in time in terms of the
1:07:50
school hop setup. Yeah, it's a pre recorded episode. We recorded it
1:07:56
a while back, but version one point zero of the school before the desk
1:08:00
yep. So if you watch it on YouTube, it'll look a little bit
1:08:03
different. Also, we talk about jersey numbers and those have changed up a
1:08:06
little bit since we recorded. Specifically, when we recorded, there had only
1:08:13
ever been one number zero jersey in Biking's history, and nowaday's another one.
1:08:17
I think we made a nod to Ivan Pace possibly taking that number zero in
1:08:23
that episode. It's enough. Maybe we should listen back and on air production
1:08:27
meeting maybe prior to record a quick like, hey, guys, these are
1:08:32
the big things that are different now. I don't know. Yeah, we
1:08:35
might have to do that. And honestly, you're gonna be sitting on a
1:08:39
plane for a while so you can do that. And I'm a teacher on
1:08:42
summer break so I have time to do that too, So yeah, good
1:08:45
idea. Yeah, we'll put that on our list of things to do,
1:08:49
all right, But when you get back from your trip to Mexico. The
1:08:56
plan is to continue a little series, a little minise, yeah, through
1:09:00
that kind of aforementioned quiet time kind of in this off season NFL calendar year.
1:09:09
So we're going to continue. Our goal is to try and cover all
1:09:13
of the greatest vikings from zero to ninety nine, yeah, to who have
1:09:18
worn the jersey numbers of zero to ninety nine, so it won't be a
1:09:23
total list of the one hundred best Vikings. It'll be the best, the
1:09:27
best Viking to wear this number and this number and this number. So unfortunately,
1:09:32
for a while, the only Viking to ever wear number zero was Marcus
1:09:38
Davenport, so he was the de facto best Viking to ever wear number zero.
1:09:41
So yeah, that was a little little sneak preview of the episode.
1:09:45
So if I remember right though, and we recorded that one, we moved
1:09:48
on pretty quickly from number zero, and we moved on to number one,
1:09:51
yep, because that was more relevant and more exciting to talk about than the
1:09:57
number zero. But I have in pace taking over zero. That's a good
1:10:00
thing. Yeah, oh yeah, I'm excited. And he showcased it with
1:10:04
the Winter Warrior jersey reveal since he did so, in the next five weeks
1:10:10
or so, will be best to ever wear ex jersey number. And we're
1:10:14
going to cap that all off, yeah, with a pretty special episode,
1:10:17
episode fifty. Which is crazy to think that this is episode forty four right
1:10:23
now, but in just six short weeks we're going to be recording episode fifty.
1:10:30
We're taking a little road trip. Yeah, we are a broad trip,
1:10:33
this brooch trip, a little a little brew hop, a skull hop
1:10:42
brew tour. We need to come up with an official name. It's all
1:10:45
that to say. If you are in Iowa brewery and would like us to
1:10:49
come visit, we said it a few times. Come visit, check out
1:10:55
your beers, maybe even talk to one of your brewers, maybe even see
1:10:59
your equipment, and showcase how awesome you are. We'd love it. Let
1:11:02
us know. We're going to reach out to a handful soon. But yeah,
1:11:08
if you're listening, or if you know of somebody who is affiliated with
1:11:11
an Iowa brewery, let us know. We'd love to spend some time at
1:11:15
the brewery and checking out all the awesome things about all these cool Iowa breweries
1:11:23
because we're pretty passionate about it, you know, the Vikings and Iowa breweries
1:11:26
in general, like that's something we both love. So we'd love to showcase
1:11:30
how awesome these breweries are across the state. Peach Tree, We'll come to
1:11:32
Knoxville. We'll figure out where you are. You are not in Iowa City,
1:11:36
I'm so sorry. We will. We will come to you, and
1:11:41
we will learn the geography. Of the Knoxville area. And regardless, even
1:11:45
if breweries don't reach out and welcome us in for a brewery tour or anything
1:11:48
like, we're still gonna go and visit places, and we'll be paying patrons
1:11:53
and well mannered, respectful citizens, but we'd still we're still going to try
1:11:57
our best and the most respectful and proper way possible to showcase all these breweries
1:12:01
that we attend may be armed with some GoPros, we'll see, maybe,
1:12:05
yeah, but we also don't want to be annoying and rude, So we
1:12:08
won't be annoying rude, but we will do our best to be complimentary of
1:12:13
all of these breweries because we love them. We love them all. What
1:12:15
we want to do, number one is we want to celebrate the great beer.
1:12:19
That's brute and I which I would say, this is a pretty good
1:12:23
beer. Yeah, this is this is solid. I mean we're through a
1:12:26
six pack now almost and I don't like sour beers typically, but this one
1:12:32
is good. And my wife, who typically likes sour beers and made a
1:12:38
half of a cameo, she didn't like it as much, So I don't
1:12:43
know that's a good beer. I would ladly like I think I mentioned like
1:12:48
a lakeside or a pool side beer recently. Oh my gosh. This.
1:12:53
If you said, hey, Austin, I'm not a pool guy. I'm
1:12:56
not one that is going to sit by a pool for eight hours. If
1:13:00
you said, okay, your wife wants to sit by pool for eight hours,
1:13:03
okay, I guess I have to. But I got a cooler full
1:13:05
full of these prickly pear sour ales. I'm instantly pumped, not just like
1:13:12
okay, like I'm super pumped because these are delicious. There are five point
1:13:16
two five percent, so that's crushable. That is square in the crushable category.
1:13:21
You're drinking fifteen of these and still making it to dinner on time.
1:13:28
Fifteen of these beal. Yeah, don't drink, don't drink fifteen. But
1:13:32
if you got nothing going on, you're not gonna drive or ruin anybody else's
1:13:35
day or hurt yourself, drink fifteen. It's okay. But if you are
1:13:39
gonna drive, don't don't do that. Responsible. Yeah, but this beer
1:13:44
is fantastic. I like it a lot. It's a good beer, and
1:13:46
that's what we're all about here. We're celebrating the great beer brood here in
1:13:50
Iowa while talking about our favorite football team, the Vikings. Of course.
1:13:57
Yeah, we got a lot of fun stuff up. Some episode number not
1:14:02
episode Jersey number episodes. I got those things backwards. Some Jersey number episodes
1:14:08
coming up, and then are pretty big kind of hopefully on location brewery tour.
1:14:15
That we're even camping out for a night. That's how dedicated we are
1:14:18
to this, this brew tour. Yeah, you better get your bug spray
1:14:21
and stuff ready. Now it'll be good. We'll be good. Did you
1:14:24
get a tent figured out? Got it all figured out? I've got it
1:14:27
all figured out, even to the point that we could share that tenn if
1:14:29
we wanted to. Boy, I'm going to bring my own you know fine,
1:14:32
ge okay, I guess if you want to come on a brew tour
1:14:36
with me, not evans, we have a room for a plus one.
1:14:41
Yeah, it's true sweepstakes right now. So we invited breweries and other people
1:14:46
to reach out to us. How can they reach out to us? Everywhere?
1:14:50
But more specifically, email is a pretty good place. The school Hop
1:14:55
at gmail dot com, or you could hit us up on Twitter at the
1:15:00
school Hop or Facebook message. It's also a pretty decent Spot or Instagram,
1:15:05
they're basically the same thing. Yeah, but those are probably the best places
1:15:11
to get in touch with us. But honestly, if you can find us,
1:15:15
if you can click on a link after googling us, we're gonna you're
1:15:18
gonna get in touch with us in one way, shape or form. We
1:15:21
have a website. Did you say that the school Hop at the school hoop
1:15:25
dot com. We did not say that, but yes we do, which
1:15:28
as of this moment is fully updated and ready to go. Good job school
1:15:32
And I forget what I was gonna say. Yeah, I don't know,
1:15:35
it doesn't matter. Reach out to us, though. We'd love to hear
1:15:38
from you. And uh yeah, we're we're excited. We're nearly fifty episodes
1:15:45
in and we have no intentions of slowing down. We're gonna keep doing this
1:15:48
thing. You're stuck with us. Yep, yeah, all right, man,
1:15:54
great beer, great episode, best episode yet. School School Hey Vikings
1:16:18
fans, Evan here from the School Hop and we just wanted to say thank
1:16:21
you again so much for listening to the School Hop. And we also wanted
1:16:26
to take one more opportunity to let you know that this episode of the School
1:16:30
Hop has been brought to you by Big Top Ventures. If you're considering taking
1:16:33
an all inclusive trip to either Mexico or Jamaica, reach out to our friends
1:16:38
at Big Top Ventures at Big Top Ventures LLC at gmail dot com. Once
1:16:44
again, that's Big Top Ventures LLC at gmail dot com. You can get
1:16:47
the lowest rate possible on several all inclusive resorts throughout the region. Big Top
1:16:53
Ventures step right up to your next big adventure and thanks again for listening to
1:16:57
the skull Hop School. Ye