Training camp preview: LEFT GUARD FIGHT!!! Is there a backup running back battle?

Matthew Coller continues to talk about the positions on the Vikings’ roster, starting with the battle on the interior of the offensive line and in the backfield.

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[Music] [Music] regulator Mount up we’re coming [Music] a [Music] [Applause] [Music] hey everybody welcome to another episode of purple Insider and we are continuing to break down the training camp battles and preview every position on the Minnesota Vikings so I’ve got offensive line and running backs here tonight and I know an episode about offensive line should draw a lot of you to the yard here to discuss preview at least the Le guard and Right Guard battle if there is a bell Right Guard and what we should expect from the offensive line and their depth as well and at the running back position I got a very good question today about the split of carries between Aaron Jones and Tai Chandler and also whether cam acres is a member of the team or not uh we’re gonna have to find that out as well because the Vikings have not officially announced the signing of Cam Acres but there have been reports that he is going to be a viking so we’ll dive into all of that and very happy to answer any of your questions whether it’s about the offensive line the running backs we’ll do this in a very casual manner where I can answer your questions as I’m going through the different positions and battles and storylines as well but before I get into all that I do need to offer an update from last night I mentioned that my AC had gone out and that my camera overheated because of it and I’ve set up the backup camera just in case that happens again uh tonight so we won’t have so much of a snafu at least I hope if that happens because it is still very hot down here I brought some Diet Dr Pepper down for myself uh but it was not just something as simple as needing to turn it off and turn it back on it wasn’t as simple as adding a little more Freon uh it looks like we’re going to need a whole new unit for the thing so I got a lot of messages with people with ideas of what it might have been but unfortunately it was worst case scenario for the old AC unit rip uh but hopefully within the next few days as it gets up to 90 degrees we’ll put in the new AC unit we’ll move along uh I’ve discovered that it’s not the cheapest thing in the world but we’ll be all right and then it will be nice and cool back down here in the studio again and maybe my face won’t be so red although I golfed earlier today which I was out in the sun for 18 holes and uh here I am still wearing the golf shirt uh just after golf so yep rip to the old AC unit it was 23 years old how crazy is that right it’s survived a couple of generations and now we’ll replace it as uh is the case with quite a few things in this house so thank you again though to all of you who reached out sent me DMS emails messages hey you might want to check this you might want to check that it turns out that people know a lot more about Heating in air than I do uh and maybe it doesn’t need to be replaced but I think W with its age and so forth it probably does so that is I know the most pressing news that I needed to start the show with but why don’t we get into uh now the Minnesota Vikings and their training camp I want to start off with running backs because we can go through this pretty quickly but it is a fascinating question of how much will Tai Chandler be on the field uh with Aaron Jones they bring him in as a guy who has split the carries largely over his career he is not an every single down 300 carry type of back those really just don’t exist anymore uh in the NFL but especially with someone like Aaron Jones he’s split time quite often with AJ Dylan in Green Bay and he comes here with somebody to split time with and Ty Chandler but how much time the Vikings are willing to split with Tai Chandler really depends on Chandler because last year when he got the football he was very explosive I I remember a stat that they hadn’t had a run over 20 yards or something and then he got several of them as soon as the ball started to get into his hands runs under a 44 he’s a fairly big guy for somebody runs that fast he’s over 200 pounds he has a really nice shiftiness about him and even when I went back and watched that Cincinnati game that was a breakout for him I saw a lot of plays where Tai Chandler didn’t really have a whole lot to work with and found holes or pushed forward slammed into people and at the end of the day he ends up with four and a half yards per carry and about seven and a half uh yards per reception so he was pretty effective for them when he played the issue was at times it seemed to be jumbled what his assignment was supposed to be and in terms of the pass blocking there was only a handful of reps that he was on the field to pass block and they were not great so he could end up being more of an early down back and have Aaron Jones if there is going to be a true rotation Aaron Jones could be second third down especially in Long Aaron Jones is terrific at catching the ball out of the back field but they have to make sure that they don’t lean so heavily on Aaron Jones because he’s more trustworthy than Tai Chandler that you end up with Aaron Jones getting worn down throughout the season getting injured having to miss games because as we’ll get into here the depth Beyond Tai Chandler is not very impressive so Tai Chandler is a swing player for this backfield if he can earn the complete Trust of the Vikings coaching staff off the bat throughout training camp and they feel that he’s got the offense locked in and they believe in his pass protection a little bit more and his assignments and that he’s going to be right place right time then he can be a huge asset and this could be a Duo rather than just being the Aaron Jones Show it could be a lot more back and forth maybe you’re talking about 160 carries 140 carries something like that 50 catches 40 catches that’s what you would love for the backfield in the ideal situation is that Tai Chandler makes himself unbench that he is so good and and he plays as well as last year with the ball in his hands but then improves the other parts that you have to keep him out there because he can uh come up with big plays and find a way uh to create explosive runs a lot more than they had last year that’s the ideal spot what do they do if they don’t feel confident in him is another question he would still be on the field he would still get the ball in his hands from time to time but what you don’t want is the opposing team knowing every time Tai Chandler’s in there he’s not going to stay in and pass block and more likely they’re just gonna hand it off because he’s in there and they want to try to get him the ball and then when they’re going to do everything else it’s going to be Aaron Jones you don’t want to be predictable based on your personnel because that’s the easiest thing for the defense is to say when Tai Chandler and every team has data on this in the entire league when Tai Chandler’s in the game they run this amount or they pass this amount when Aaron Jones is is in the game and so forth you don’t want to be predictable in that way and so Chandler actually has a big training camp here to show the coaching staff that they can fully buy into him and how those first team reps are split up will be very much fascinating to see with Chandler and just listening to what they say about him is there going to be some hedging of well Aaron Jones is the guy and we’ll see or is it going to be no we’re very impressed and he’s going to get the ball a lot so I will be watching that one closely with these two running backs just in general also how Aaron Jones looks but I don’t have any doubts about how good he is at football just a new member of the Minnesota Vikings and a very interesting one now when we talk about the depth of course we also have to discuss the fullback CJ ham and his role on this team a few people asked me if there was a chance that ham doesn’t make the team I don’t think so I don’t think there’s a big chance of that unless there’s an injury for him because he is such a valuable member of the special teams that he’s going to have a big role there and this is a year where they’re bringing the kickoff back or at least they hope they’re giving the bringing the the kickoff back you’re going to need lead blockers for that CJ ham should be here how much he actually plays on game day in the back field is what I’m curious about uh Kevin oconnell has never seemed fully uh willing to lean into him as part of the running game that he’s not out there that often for run plays and he used them last year as a pass protector that was a good idea from Kevin oconnell because ham is an above average pass protector and played a big role on a number of plays where blitzes were coming and he had to ID it and jump up and stick a gap or something he was good at that and I wrote a story about that however if you have Aaron Jones who can already do it and can also be a major threat out of the back field you’re probably not using CJ ham very often as just a pass protection you know sort of situational player instead he might not have much of a role on the offensive side unless they went into the off season and said we’ve got to find a way to run with a fullback in the game because under Gary kubak and Ste Kevin stefansky system they were able to do that very effectively to run the outside Zone with CJ ham in the game but Kevin oconnell has not been able to execute that very well and some of it is definitely talent but I also feel like he never used this before in any of his offenses so is he familiar enough with when you’re supposed to do this how you’re supposed to do this uh using the running back as part of I’m sorry the fullback as part of the running game overall but he’ll make the roster I have no doubts about that uh and when we go to the backups and the on the bubble the the battle behind the two players that are most likely to be in there in Jones and Chandler uh cam Acres we could talk about because there is a report that they’re going to sign cam acres and it would make sense that if they had a plan to announce that then after what happened with Kyrie Jackson they would say let’s put that on hold let’s not be saying the very next day hey we signed a player because then of course everyone’s going go guys you’re filling the roster spot already what the heck even if that was planned beforehand that’s something you don’t want to have to explain uh or it might not be true I don’t know I I’m assuming that it is because I did see cam Acres there working out um on the rehab type of thing one day and that would make sense he was there and okay then you know signed with the team if they felt like he looked good enough uh coming back from that Achilles injury he fit well he seemed to fit well with the other running backs in the room he seemed to fit well with Kevin oconnell but didn’t really produce a lot he did have a handful of heads up plays uh there was a block on a Josh dobs run that was very impressive and some carries where he broke tackles and showed his quickness if that’s still there then cam Acres makes for a nice running back number three and maybe could rotate in a little bit with Aaron Jones or even possibly be ahead of Tai Chandler if they trust him more but I think Chandler is so much more explosive at this point that it makes more sense to have him in there that would add assuming his health is up to par a a different element than what they have right now behind Tai Chandler and Aaron Jones which is basically nothing I mean miles gasin and Dwayne McBride are the other two guys on this roster that are running backs outside of Tai Chandler and Aaron Jones and CJ ham that’s just not a lot uh because miles gasin had a good season a couple of years ago and he caught the ball a little out of the back field and had a handful of good runs but has not done anything in several years which for a running back immediately makes you go is there anything really left uh and he had fallen off already with his production and then Dwayne McBride who they drafted in the seventh round last year and a lot of people got excited about Dwayne McBride because he had this amazing highlight reel at UAB and it was and go to go to YouTube and look it up it was spectacular he was throwing people off his body breaking tackles doing spin moves all sorts of stuff he was a freight train and he was very very good in terms of his numbers and yards after contact and so forth but when we actually saw him in the games against NFL Talon it didn’t look the same and they brought him back on the practice squad and I saw him working a little bit with kick returns and maybe there’s something there with his kick returning ability if they decide to go with two kick returners but I have a tough time seeing Dwayne McBride take a jump so enormous that he would be considered a significant role player on this team it’s always possible that someone from the seventh round could do that but it feels right now like that is unlikely and that’s your whole running back group right there uh the biggest probably question is if they bring in cam Acres how is he going to look can Tai Chandler handle the entire role if he has to because Aaron Jones has been banged up as recently as last year and missed a good chunk of time so could Tai Chandler handle all of the duties is Cam Acres a viable option or are they trying to give him a shot but you know the guy coming off of those severe injuries what’s it actually going to look like and can anybody else make a case anybody else being miles gasin and of course Dwayne McBride or do they have to go elsewhere and look outside and say all right there’s a free agent out there let’s bring him in I don’t think it’s a good idea to bring in someone like Kareem hunt it has been a while since he’s been good at football I just don’t see the purpose really there if you’re bringing in someone who has not had good numbers in several seasons and saying well I think it’ll do better with us uh they did a good job of picking the right time to move on from Delvin cook and so why would they bring in someone like Kareem hunt I know they had him in for a visit last year and didn’t sign him maybe there’s someone with a little less usage on their body that could possibly be a running back number three but this group mostly if Cam ACR signs uh looks to be what it is which I would say if it stays healthy at the top with Aaron Jones that it’s going to be a really good backfield because Chandler is a great Duo type back a mix it up very explosive lightning quick back but if anybody gets injured and now Tai Chandler has to be rb1 and cam Acres uh if he makes the team and looks good then he’s got to be rb2 and if he doesn’t make the team is it miles gasin who is pretty far down the depth chart it can unravel fast if Aaron Jones is not healthy so that’s the running back group if you have any questions or comments on that uh feel free to let me know and otherwise we’re going to start talking offensive line and I’m very glad to see guard guy here in the comments I was hoping that this was sort of your bat signal guard guy that we were gonna talk about the preview for the left guard position in the battle that is uh but first I’m already starting to get a little hot let me uh open this it’s a little toasty down here I gotta tell you okay thank you thank you okay we’re good and also I I need a little extra fuel if I’m gonna talk about left guard uh so guard guy says on a scale of one to 10 how much does Kevin oconnell Love guards I don’t think Kevin oconnell loved his guards last year uh really at all it was probably maybe a three for his left guard last year because they had Ezra Cleveland and they traded him away to the Jacksonville Jaguars he never really clicked his numbers by PFF weren’t bad but it was a lot of Boomer busts where he would have some really good weeks but then other weeks depending on maybe the defense or the matchup would have a tough time and I never felt like he had a guard mentality that he had come up entirely as a tackle he was tall he was athletic he wasn’t a get behind behind your pads and get down and dirty and grind and some of these guards most of them have a personality that’s a little more vicious a little more violent and I never thought that that was the case with Ezra Cleveland his his personality did not really fit that position and I don’t think he played with quite the the violence that’s required to play the guard position effectively that sort of mental element of it of like I’m gonna get underneath my pads I’m going to push you back I’m going to be it’s me versus you type of thing where tackles are more technical they’re more technicians where it’s a lot of I have to read what you do and then react myself and then we come to blows as opposed to just ball snapped and bang you’re going up against somebody and Cleveland was not much of a body mover even though he was a good athlete when he would get out in space so he didn’t fit as well uh as far as how he did in Cleveland uh I don’t think that his PFF grades were all that good in CLE or I’m sorry not Cleveland his name is Cleveland in Jacksonville where he got traded uh they kept him around I think if someone wants to look it up while I’m talking uh go ahead and let me know what it said for him in in Jacksonville they also have some pretty poor coaching I feel like with their offensive line it hasn’t been good in many years and I’m not sure how good of a fit he was but at left guard Dalton Ryner did all right uh not so great in the Run game pretty good in the pass game didn’t allow any sacks didn’t allow a lot of pressures fit into the team pretty well but it appears that they’re looking for better so let’s get into that and then uh I can answer some more of your questions feel free to drop them in to the comment section and I’ll go through those as well uh but as far as the left guard position everything that they’ve done is signaled that they would like Blake brandle to win that job and that Dalton Ryner is in case of emergency that Blake brandle is someone and we talk about this all the time with young offensive linemen when they draft an offensive lineman in a win now season to try to fill a spot as the Vikings under Rick Spielman did numerous times we saw the pitfalls of that it’s hard to be a young player in the NFL at the offensive line position so Blake brandle was a guy that they drafted late in the draft sixth round developed him over a couple of years taught in multiple positions probably assuming that he was just going to be a swing player and then liked what they saw of him at guard and he played something like 150 snaps at guard last year and they must have been happy with the way that he looked and so now he’s going to get an opportunity to start training camp I believe day one that he will be the starter and then it will be up to Dalton riser to take his job that’s how it looked like it was going to be during mini camp that that was going to be the case and where brandle has an advantage is well one he’s he’s younger he hasn’t been beaten up over the years like Dalton Ryner and I don’t think Ryner was ever a very good run blocker but he is a snowplow this man is enormous he he has huge everything he’s got a giant Noggin giant shoulders long arms he is just a humongous person so if he can get under the pads of defensive tackles and be more of the if I gotta go super football here Road grater type that it could be an improvement on what we’ve seen from the guard position and he was already a good pass blocker at The Tackle Spot you remember he had to come in that game against Buffalo when Christian daraw got hurt and he was one of the heroes of that game that just kind of survive was he going against Von Miller that day just survive the pass rush that the bills were throwing at him that day and that was his Forte coming out that was the reason that Blake brandle was drafted was because he was a good pass blocker and there it wasn’t really clear if he was a good enough athlete to be a great left tackle and maybe though you take someone who’s not as good of an athlete on paper move them into guard give them some powerful assignments and then you know there you go you have a developed player who’s ready to go that doesn’t mean it’s a guarantee by any means that he’s going to be good enough to start but the coaches Chris Cooper their offensive line coach Kevin oconnell Wes Phillips they have all talked even since last year about how much they liked the way Blake brandle played and maybe his football IQ plays into this well that he understands the game understands his assignments and then his size combination and it’s something that they would like to see come to fruition because in part you know what you have with Dalton Ryner it’s right there on paper you could go to PFF and you can get a pretty darn good look at what Dalton Ryner is and it matches up with everything that’s ever been said about him and it matches up with how he has not been paid which is he’s a pretty good offensive lineman against the pass but cannot really get low on linebackers isn’t all that quick getting out to the second level and just isn’t a body mover as a guard so he’s not ideal because that’s such a key running position and that’s why nobody the league is giving him big offers is because you want your guards to be able to be effective and not get beat quickly and not get stifled or stalemated as often as he does at the line of scrimmage well you know that you have a baseline there though of competent guard play from somebody that the team seemed to get along with and like as part of the locker room at least they came across that way they wouldn’t have brought him back if he didn’t so he gets along with the culture fits in pretty well and in the worst case scenario you you end up with someone who is above average of pass blocking and you have to work around in the Run game but they would more likely prefer somebody that was very effective or more effective in the Run game in Blake brandle if that can work out so that’s the left guard position at the right guard position Kevin oconnell said that he wants it to be very competitive and that Dalton Ryner is part of the competition at Right Guard now that’s where I’m not entirely sure that I believe that because when you look back and you look at what they did at Right Guard the last two years with Ed Ingram and he was never benched now go and look at the games that he had that were the down games and how many opportunities there were to potentially bench him to potentially try someone else or even to put Dalton ryer in at Right Guard instead of putting him in at left guard when Ezra Cleveland got hurt but Ezra came back and Ryner stayed on the left side still could have gone to the other side based on some of Ingram’s play and even two years ago I wonder if they even had a competent Right Guard if they would have kept Kurt Cousins off the ground a lot more and maybe even won a little bit more how about maybe on a fourth and eight instead of a check down maybe it is a throw down the field because there isn’t pressure coming from the right guard position maybe maybe but they stuck with Ed Ingram thick and thin all the way through didn’t look for any other options really uh we never saw anybody else last year in training camp taking those first team reps it was always Ingram the only sign we ever got of some concern was that nobody else in one of the preseason games on the starting group played except for him and so maybe it was a bit of a message to him that you know he needed to kick it up a little bit but there has been almost no pressure whatsoever on Ed Ingram for the last two years that doesn’t make me believe there is um I suppose if he struggles Big Time throughout the season then maybe Ryner could take over there or brandle and it’s possible that that’s what they’re trying to say to him is we’ve been patient we’ve been patient but we need better performance from you it just feels like he’s got that position pretty well locked in he did improve last year in the second half of the Season it was not big enough Improvement for me to say all set you’re good to go H but this is year three and this is where you expect a little bit of a jump there uh from Ingram if he makes it then that will be a good draft pick and gosh do they need a good Draft pick from that draft class because as we’ve gone through this the uh the defensive side and we’ll get to the secondary eventually on one of these preview shows uh you know it’s not good talked about Brian aena last night that 2022 draft needs Tai Chandler and Ed Ingram to uh to be pretty good so let’s talk about who else is in the mix here because there is one of name that could be a part of the guard position and uh that would be yeah uh Ed Ingram did have a strip sack we should bring that up so there there was that last year as far as highlight moments that he got more sacks than a lot of their big men uh last season so there is one other guy that could be a part of this interior offensive line battle and that is Dan feny now Dany was a fairly high draft pick believe third right round of the Chargers a few years ago it did not work out very well there at all he ended up being a backup caliber player over multiple seasons and then played with the Jets and was a backup when he got in he performed okay and now he’s here um but he is another player that we could talk about as the Raw Talent might be there a bit and can he have that step forward after struggling early in his career it’s not that that unusual if somebody has a tough time early on and then goes somewhere else and eventually becomes something we’ve seen this here even in Minnesota with someone like Joe Burger uh where uh Joe burer I’m sorry uh and you know Joe for example was a backup player for a long time got his opportunity to start turned out to be a really good player for the Vikings in 2016 and 2017 it does happen so Dan feni in the mix here as a veteran journeyman and this was the approach that I kind of wanted to see them take which was throw numbers at it throw dudes at it we got feny who’s been around you got Ryner who’s been around somebody win this job and David quesenberry as well who’s more of a tackle I suppose he could play guard he’s played multiple positions in his career but David quesenberry uh a good resigning he played pretty well after showing up in the last minute uh last year when he was called upon for a couple of games so he’s back they did lose Austin schan who I thought was their best interior offensive backup lineman but you have much more experienced players in quesenberry Ryner and feny and then you got this last spot of which quite a few guys are going to be battling for and we can jump into that in just a second let me uh answer a few of your messages in the chat um I’m sorry guard guy you’re too funny we should all turn off our AC’s for the night if we’re going to be talking about sweaty nasty guards there you go now it’s too hot I wouldn’t wish this on anybody I am just really sweating here but I I feel like a left guard myself right now not with the size strength or knowledge of football but the sweatiness absolutely I feel like I’m in the third quarter of a game uh Big Mike says offensive line takes two years or so to grow I agree with that and that’s why it’s okay if we’ve gotten here with Ed Ingram to give him another chance it’s also interesting with Blake brandle that he’s had all this opportunity to grow and to develop not so much in a lot of game action but enough to know what it’s like and a lot of practice that they would see and pre-season that they would have to evaluate and training camp practices so they’ve built up their sample size of brandle and I don’t think it’s Preposterous that someone who is a later round pick could develop over three years to be a good lineman uh we’ll see because it doesn’t make you super confident but what they did this year that I think the previous regime made a big mistake in not doing was okay they’re going to look to this former sixth rounder who hasn’t really played much great and if it works out great but if it doesn’t here’s a backup with a ton of experience who we know to be pretty decent that was what the previous regime did very poorly it was Dakota do is going to play and if he doesn’t play well then it’s Drew samama time what there was very little in terms of quality backup with experience even Tom Compton had never really started a full season what’s the other option behind him nothing and uh it was a major problem for years on the Vikings offensive line This is better because you have two guys as interior players who have a lot of playing time and then a tackle in quesenberry that I’m sure with his experience if he had to play guard he could figure it out for a few games lot more experience a better overall approach uh to the offensive line even if it’s not exciting and I and I also wouldn’t put it in the top 10 in the league or anything like that uh because Brand’s gotta click and Ingram’s got to improve we know what Garrett Bradberry is they need better from those two than we’ve seen in years really in order for this to be a above average offensive line as a total blocking unit throwing in CJ ham Josh Oliver the tackles more than capable but the weaknesses as of this moment are still the weaknesses how well can they run the football Behind these guys will they have these major lapses and pass protection can brandle pass protect at a high level all these things still need to be resolved uh Matt says any word on whether Sirles is returning for Tuesday morning left guard absolutely Jeremiah suros will be back as far as I know I have asked him we usually just don’t do a lot of shows in the off season because it’s the off season and I know that some of you want to know what he thinks of the Vikings drafting JJ McCarthy we’ll get into it he was concerned about that to say the least uh before the draft when we did a show H but summertime he’s got a big family and like we give siros his space he’s got like multiple dogs he’s got a lot going on in the summertime so give him a little bit of space and then he will be back for the season as he always is uh guard guy wants to use the mega jumbo formation this year with David quesenberry is a six lineman Ryner subbed in at left guard brandle in at halfback and ham lead blocking you know guard guy you’re flying a little too close to the Sun there but I this is just to make something out of nothing there guard guy they do have the bodies to play with big Personnel I wonder if Kevin okon is comfortable with the big Personnel in the same way that those who are more of the Gary kubak type of style Mike Shanahan type of style that use multiple tight ends they use a lot of the play actions the wide zones the Shanahan stuff that was so much of a staple even going all the way back to Denver with uh was it uh Byron Chamberlain and Dwayne Coswell and Shannon sharp for going way back multiple tight end fullback Howard Griffith in the game I mean that’s that’s great stuff that you could still use today sparingly but we did see it from Kevin stefansky in 2019 where they used CJ ham and Ivan uh or Irv sorry Irv Smith Jr and Kyle Rudolph all on the field at the same time the Vikings could do this with CJ ham Josh Oliver and then I mean yeah you can use a six offensive linemen but they’ve got the tight end and they’ve got the fullback and you can run a lot of play action stuff off of that with Jordan Addison and Justin Jefferson are they going to be willing to do that or would they much rather be in just a three wide receiver type of thing I I think we will more likely see three wide receiver stuff but I am sort of curious uh about that uh Evans says with 26 million in cap space should the Vikings go after Connor Williams once his knee is healed if no one gets better I am very much for that considering how he’s played but is he going to be up to 100% is he going to be ready to play what percentage of the season when his agent came out and said hey stop calling me about Conor Williams he’s having serious surgery and he’s gonna be out for a long time and he’s GNA weigh his options then that made me think probably not coming back for the beginning of the season I could be wrong I just would read that situation and say unlikely to be back right away how effective can someone be coming in to a spot like that in the middle of the year if they don’t participate in training camp it it would be very difficult now if you signed him with the idea in the middle of the Season that he could be depth at first eventually maybe work into playing and then possibly a multi-year deal if he’s healthy okay because he is an above average interior offensive lineman no doubt about it that’s the type of guy that the Vikings have not signed in years and they should be looking for next year if this brandle and Ed Ingram thing does not really work out they should be looking to do something like that but I’m very skeptical about Conor Williams and his uh his actual Health he played really great for Miami and mostly played center but he could play the guard positions I think he’s a good player it’s just entirely about whether he’s gonna be healthy enough so let’s get into get another sip of this and then we’ll get into uh the backups here uh quite a battle quite a battle there’s going to be quite a few guys um who are fighting for spots here well Walter Rouse is the other guy that I listed as being on the team so as far as how many guys are going to make it the starting five quinberry Ryner feny and Rouse there is a possibility for maybe one more to make the starting lineup but nine seems like a good number considering that there’s some flexibility there and what you have behind is just kind of a bunch of names outside of Michael Jurgens Who was the seventh round draft pick I was trying to fit him into the roster somehow but I was struggling when I was making my 53 I’m not sure that they have to worry too much about it when it’s a seventh round pick you can cut those guys you could sign them to your practice squad but Jurgens will have a chance to battle with the veterans and every once in a while some rookie some young guy looks better than the veteran players and you’re surprised oh wow he made the team uh but when you’re talking talking about a sixth and a seventh rounder in Rouse and Jurgens how much can you lean on that uh the answer is probably not much and with Jurgens seventh rounder if you cut him is somebody gonna swoop in and grab him I suppose that’s possible but usually with seventh round draft picks they end up making it through unless somebody really loved them to the point where they want to uh use a roster spot on that player they would have to really like what they saw from Michael Jurgens so I’ve got him not making the 53 uh right now and then some guys who have kind of bounced around Henry bird was with Denver Tyrese Robinson was with Philadelphia Spencer Roland and Doug Nester who I just don’t have a whole lot of information on as far as trying to figure out if those guys can play or not they seem like they would be extreme long shots to make the team the more interesting battle is really for the starting positions but uh as far as yeah I mean Matt asks uh what are the the prospects on the two late round draft picks are they just additional depth or looking for them to become more contributors in the years to come what you’re looking for when you draft a guy in the back end of the first round I’m sorry in the back end of the draft not the first round then you’re looking for a starter in the back end of the draft on the offensive line is a backup and backups on rookie contracts are really good you need need that you absolutely need the depth on the offensive line we are in a 17 Game season we may someday be in an 18 Game season in the very near future you have to have backup linemen they get hurt and banged up all the time they miss a week here come back miss a week there and if you have them as far as guys who are reliable and and cheap because eventually they’re going to be more costly we even saw guards that were more costly this year on the free agent Market because there’s so few of them that teams can trust that somebody becomes a free agent who’s even decent Damen Lewis or whatever from Seattle someone jumps on them and I think that’s part of the reason the Vikings didn’t sign someone at guard even though guard guy and everybody else Under the Sun wanted them to was the prices were just very high for guards also another reason to think that brandle could win the left guard position because if anybody in the league was high on Dalton Ryner then he would have found a team pretty quickly uh it’s quite clear that um you nobody thought that that nobody thought he was a complete enough player to sign for a starting level salary and here we are with brandle competing for that spot but Rouse and Jurgens those guys are depth right now uh is how I would put them maybe they make the roster I’m assuming one out of the two of them does and then that’s what they’re going to be but if Walter Rouse develops into a swing tackle if he’s Rashad Hill if he’s David quesenberry that’s good that’s a pretty good pick because that guy’s gonna play how many times did Rashad hill come into a game and play uh it happened a few times it happened in the Minneapolis Miracle game he was going up against Cam Jordan in that game you have to use those guys a lot through the years and it’s valuable to have one so quinberry is good but you’d rather not have to pay them that’s why you pick one in the late rounds you might say well why not pick someone who could become a starter well at which position though because usually these guys turn into some sort of depth well there goes the camera but don’t worry never fear the backup camera is here I think if I can get it to work hold on hey look at that I’ve got it a little better angle it’s a little twisted but we’re a little better angle today so thank you to the backup camera uh and we’re we’re still good to go and we can carry on uh so I don’t have much more to say about the offensive line though as far as the battles go for position um but if you guys have questions then I would be happy to answer them as we carry on if there’s offensive line running back but really anything that’s on your mind regarding the Minnesota Vikings U Good To Go would be happy to answer anything that you have and we can continue to chat uh I’m curious if any of you guys have watched on Netflix wide receiver show I have not gotten all the way through it I’ve read everything about about Justin Jefferson I’ve watched the clips and and everything else and a little bit of the New York Giants Hard Knocks but I haven’t watched the entire thing it seems like what people have mostly fixated on isn’t really so much about Justin Jefferson but is more about a scene where Kevin oconnell goes off on the team about fumbling the football and showing that he’s got that club in his bag which is good I suppose I mean I figured that he had that cap ability if he got the Buy in from the team the way that he has over the last couple years that I don’t think that NFL players fully respect a pushover I I think that they uh want somebody who is going to have a strong message for them at times but also you know know when the right time to bring that is as opposed to Mike Zimmer who thought that was all the time um I figured that he had been very very upset about the fumbles as any coach would when you played as well as they did at times and then literally fumbled the ball away in a lot of those losses last year but that was part of it uh that a lot of people talked about Justin Jefferson a very likable personality nobody’s shocked by that and disappointing to me was that there wasn’t a little bit more about that contract situation think about when we were going into last season and I know it’s hard knocks it’s the NFL product and they get the ability to take a look at at it and so forth but I mean that was a pretty big moment of last year not getting that contract signed and we didn’t get anything behind the scenes on that would have liked a little bit more this one just doesn’t have a lot of juice to it for me last year with the quarterbacks it’s a more fascinating position quarterback probably should have just done three more quarterbacks wide receiver it’s it’s not the same and they also picked all great wide receivers this guy’s good this guy’s good this guy’s good okay well there’s not much change up here out side of a tight end in a show that you called wide receiver I don’t know I mean as a big time enjoyer of the old school Hard Knocks and NFL films and everything else this is probably more of a Miss than a hit uh for me uh guard guy again uh not a guard question which I’m a little perplexed but but but I like it uh how much will Aaron Jones make the offensive line better like how Justin Jefferson makes whoever play quarterback better this is yes now there you go guard guy next season guards let me tell you if they did a Hard Knock with the offensive line and they did several guards people would absolutely love it guard personalities these are some of the funniest people that you will ever run across and their Universe I doubt that many would agree to do it my guess is that they wouldn’t because they don’t like to be the center of attention they want the receivers the running backs they want those guys to be the center of attention uh I would be very surprised if guards agreed to do something like this but if they did you would find out how much those guys deal with physically mentally emotionally and how they deal with it and how they get themselves ready to play and the things they go through during a game it would be terrific they should try they should try to get a few guys in anyway how much will Aaron Jones make the offense line better so a few years ago uh Eric eager longtime guest of the show who now uh works for the Carolina Panthers he did this study that showed how running backs performed under perfectly blocked and unper perfectly blocked situations so think of it this way all five guys do their job and they all block well at least a stalemate but maybe better and they all do their job how many yards per rush and then if someone makes a mistake and they get a negative grade on a play from PFF then how many yards and as you wouldn’t be surprised that the numbers were pretty Stark in in terms of the difference between if you block it up you are very successful and I don’t remember him exactly off the top of my head but five and a half six yards a carry if you block it well versus three yards a carry if one person makes a mistake which is why it’s so hard to lean on a running game with an imperfect offensive line however ever there were some running backs Jonathan Taylor was one of them but there were some running backs that still were able to succeed even when there weren’t perfectly blocked runs and I don’t know where Aaron Jones ranked in this I’d have to dig up the article my guess is pretty good because Aaron Jones is so Shifty he’s so smart he’s got toughness to his game he is one of those guys that doesn’t really exactly win with just pure speed which might be more the typee of player who has to have everything perfectly blocked for them as opposed to if it’s not perfectly blocked he can make a man miss he can run through somebody he can make something happen there because I didn’t look at the Packers offensive line last year and go oh perfect Flawless loved them everything about him was great I didn’t think that about the Packers offensive line last year I thought they were just okay as an o line as the Vikings are just okay uh right now so my answer would be I think he could make them quite a bit better and the same thing for Tai Chandler who with the same offensive line as Alexander Madison average four and a half yards a carry the running back does matter in this equation and Jones is one of the few that I think matters probably a lot uh but we’ll see Matt says uh think they might look for offensive line running back depth at cutdown day cut down Dave training camp trades training camp signings we love love them to the point where I’ll never forget when Cory vedvick got traded for and fans out at TCO performance center gave him a standing ovation as he was practicing his kicks or hey Chris hearnen this guy could bring a lot to the table but how often does that ever really play a a big role now you talk about offensive line they did get David quesenberry after the cutdowns last year every once in a while there’s a guy and someone like latavius Murray throughout the years has played for a couple different teams and he’s bounced around and sometimes he’s found a spot where he could be pretty effective but it’s not all that often that one of those guys makes a big difference same with the wide receiver position we’ve seen aldri Robinson uh Josh dachon it was every year there was somebody showing up that got cut from another team that they picked up and Robinson caught a few touchdowns but I think he had 17 catches throughout the entire season it’s just a hard thing to find extra guys now I would almost rather them at every position just let backups play and see if somebody can do the job running back is the spot that if Cam acres is not back to a a point where he can really be a Difference Maker that they should take a look at because running backs sometimes do get cut that are late guys that turn into Terrell Davis or something hey this guy was a sixth rounder who got cut and look with the Vikings T became whatever that does happen all the time in the NFL so that’s something to keep an eye on but other than that uh they really if they feel like the need is so significant they shouldn’t wait till cut down day they should sign somebody now and and you’re always keeping your eye out I’m sure but there’s nothing that they’re going to do at the end of Camp that’s going to shift what this team is going to be so before I wrap up for the evening and I appreciate all you guys joining it’s been fun uh I I was going to mention the conversation that I had with my buddy Sam xtram uh who you guys know if you’re longtime listeners to to the show and does his own stuff with lockdown now uh we play golf together pretty often and of course we talk football as we’re playing golf as one does and we were talking about this year under what circumstances could the Minnesota Vikings be an interesting team and this is a question I’ll probably pose to a lot of guests uh going forward because the guests will ramp back up next week uh a very special episode coming up and then you know we’ll get Dane motani for a porch podcast and we’ll do the whole thing so we got a lot to go but uh we were talking about under what circumstances the Vikings could be one of the most interesting teams in the NFL this year and I really only came up with two number one is if Sam darnold is pretty darn excellent and wins 10 games has them in the playoffs they’re going into a playoff game kind of like Baker Mayfield last year we don’t know what to expect darnold’s had this great year it’s uh you know it’s an anomaly in NFL history that a high draft pick can find it at age 26 and wow Kevin OK connell’s got him playing that’s one way they could be one of the most interesting teams the other way is if JJ McCarthy either wins the job out of camp or if he wins the job at some point during the season and does a little winning and then you start to become a team that everybody’s going to be talking about because you have your rookie quarterback that is succeeding and I think that those are really the only two ways that the Vikings can be an interesting team this year aside from us locally but thinking on a bigger perspective locally we’ve got a lot to look at I think we’ve got a lot of young players to look at a lot of guys wondering what they’re going to be for the future who’s going to emerge all those types of things but from a bigger picture main storylines they would need one of those two quarterbacks uh to really be fascinating in order for it to work uh hornfan 2 says why does Jaylen Naylor have the nickname Speedy when he runs a 453 40 yard dash well one thing about speed is that game speed and 40 yard dash speed are not always the same thing there is a safety who was drafted in the first round who runs a 438 that if you were watching practice you might think he ran about a 493 uh because it’s a lot to do with the read and react and all that and with Jaylen Naylor it’s a lot to do with his acceleration and 40 yard dash in shorts not exactly the same as accelerating off the line of scrimmage long speed 4050 yards down the field versus somebody else in pads trying to play a technique and so forth where he can get up to full speed really quickly uh yeah of course if you run a 42 very fast but are you playing at the type of speed that your 40 time list because a lot of guys John Ross was one of them hey one of the fastest 40s of all time did he play that fast not really uh and I I don’t know about Naylor’s background but I’m sure wherever he came from I know that he came from Michigan State and had big plays and that was his thing was big plays explosive plays at Michigan State he had a couple in the NFL when he came in in 2022 uh but I’m sure that where grow up grew up Las Vegas I believe most of these guys are the fastest guy out there so you get a nickname like Speedy if you’re making the NFL 45 is still pretty darn fast it’s not quite 43 uh but they’re expecting him to be a deep threat and it probably refers more to that’s a particular skill as being a deep threat wide receiver that’s what I think so anyway well this was fun great stuff guys I really appreciate everybody stopping in we’ll continue with the live shows breaking down position by position get more into it uh as we go forward and then we’ve only got another week and then we’re there it’s starting uh I’m not ready but uh I’m trying to get ready by reviewing the offensive line the running backs we still got a lot to talk about including we’ll have to do a huge preview show for the quarterback situation get all your opinions in and everything else about what’s going to happen this year maybe we’ll just try to make predictions for the quarterback uh episode of this so thanks everybody so much for watching listening and we’ll talk to y’all again very soon football