Emptying the notebook from the NFL Combine

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1:00From athletic stuff like a full-core pickup game, swish to athletic-ish stuff like a half-mile stroll. Get those steps in. Head to Sierra or Sierra.com for the brands you want at the prices that let you do it all. From athletic to athletic-ish, Sierra's got it. Hey everybody, welcome to another episode of Purple Insider presented by Fandool Matthew Collar here and the NFL Combine has come to an end and made a joke on the internet about how going into this draft everyone said this is not a very deep draft. It's not a very good draft and then by the end of the second day of workouts it was look at all these incredible prospects that are now in this draft kind of a tradition as old as time. I think my theory on that is that it's probably a good draft but maybe not at the positions

2:02that are as premium as attractive or as debatable for television than in years past. You see some great linebackers and a couple impressive, you know, safeties and tight ends and maybe those aren't the positions that are going to get talked about the most but yet, you know, hey, it looks like it's a pretty decent draft class after all. Now that the dust is settled on the NFL Combine and we will have lots of analysis draft simulations with all this new information, very exciting stuff. So I'm going to follow along with a tradition here that I've done. I think every single year following the NFL Combine, which is to empty the notebook. I'm going to give you everything that I heard and what was talked about around the Combine some takes on different performances in the drills and so forth. Just give you everything that's on my mind following Indianapolis. So why don't we dive right in and a natural place to begin.

3:03Of course, is you guessed it, the quarterback position my friends and I want to go through just the things that we're kind of bouncing around the most, some of which is reported and some of which has just been talked about at Indianapolis with the entire NFL there. We're going to start out with this. The two names that were brought up the most in connection with the Minnesota Vikings were Kylamory and Geno Smith and I'll give you an on the record one of that, which was Tom Pelicero when he was on the Rich Eisen show, Pelicero was asked, Hey, what are the Vikings going to do at quarterback and he mentioned those two names. And then in Rappaport was also on NFL network talking about the quarterback carousel and he mentioned the fact that those two quarterbacks, if they are released, could sign deals for the league minimum with whatever team they want to go to and their team, former team would

4:04have to pick up the bill at if they are released. But with Kylamory, he reportedly has asked the Arizona Cardinals to release him or would quote, prefer that the Arizona Cardinals release him and with Geno Smith, it's very difficult to believe that the Las Vegas Raiders could find a trading partner. So considering the Vikings limitations with their salary cap, considering that Rob Brazinski said at the combine to us that a we're not going to sell out the future for 2026, well, when you talk about threading a needle and what options might work Kylamory and Geno Smith for a million bucks, yeah, those options financially definitely work. Now there was some debate over whether looking for another starting quarterback means that the Vikings are done with JJ McCarthy or if they want JJ to be able to compete and realistically have a chance to win the job. I think that there is a difference between Kylamory and Geno Smith in this area.

5:09Kylamory has been a top 12 quarterback in the league in 2024. PFF had him is their 12th best quarterback and he had some spectacular games. He's been a clear cut starter. He's a former number one overall pick. And I think that if Murray truly had to compete, well, if he's a free agent and can sign wherever he wants, I don't think he's signing in a place where he's going to have to go battle it out with a former first round draft pick, unless he's told you're the starter for our team. So if Kylamory ends up here, in my opinion, he's the guy. He's the starter from the day that he gets here. Geno Smith is a little bit different because Geno struggled so much last season. Remember Kyler was hurt and then they were tanking and he didn't come back. But his last performance was that of a clear cut NFL quality start and quarterback. Geno Smith has had more interceptions and more sacks than any other quarterback over the last two NFL seasons.

6:10That does not scream to these quarterback needy teams. Oh, yeah. Come here. Geno Smith be our guide. That is much more along the lines of JJ McCarthy would have a chance to beat out Geno Smith. So those two are being put together, but I think that they are different. Those are though, by the way, the two names that repeatedly kept coming up. Now from what I was told, two different people told me at the combine who have some knowledge of dare car that he may want Minnesota and this thing may have been entirely about Minnesota letting them know, Hey, if you want dare car, I will come out of retirement and we can make this thing happen naturally if you're dare car and you look around at the other teams that need quarterbacks. It's really hard to find any other team that would be interested in him unless he was going to go to the Raiders and be their bridge quarterback because he knows Clint Kubiak,

7:10but at his age with the amount of money he's made, a solid NFL career, does he really want to come back to a team that's drafting number one and is not in very good shape overall and needs a lot of work to be done. I think you would be coming back as he said on his podcast only to try to win and that would be Minnesota where you would have an opportunity to do that. However, Prof. Paul talk reported that no teams have yet contacted the New Orleans Saints about dare car and his availability and by no teams, I think that means the Minnesota Vikings, not that that could not happen into the future, but if they didn't have any discussions at the combine about a potential trade for dare car, does that mean that the Vikings are not that interested in bringing car out of retirement. I know that my official purple insider prediction was car to Minnesota as the starting quarterback for next year, but you might have to shift that back to Kyler Murray, which has been

8:12my favorite option all the way through, but I thought dare car makes sense as a KOC type of quarterback is being similar to Kirk cousins, a rhythm and timing player who could step right in, whereas Kyler Murray would take a little more adjustment. And I also think the same thing is true for Geno Smith, even though he's a pocket quarterback that doesn't necessarily mean he is an under center quarterback or a guy that's going to be out there with multiple tight ends or a fullback. If the Vikings get one of those, he has been mostly a shotgun stand back there 11 personnel and fire away. I don't know if that's really a fit with what Kevin O'Connell wants to do. So that's a bit up in the air, but the favorites it seems from what most people were talking about are Murray and Geno Smith. Now I asked around about Mac Jones, because what I was wondering about Mac Jones is are the San Francisco 49ers just kind of put it out there, we don't want to trade Mac.

9:14No way in the world. Here's a decent draft pick and here's Mac Jones for you, right? Is it the case that they really do want to trade Mac Jones, but they're just waiting for the price to go up? And what I was told is that the price for Mac Jones is very, very high. The words first round pick were thrown around with one person that I talked with about Mac Jones. Now that's not coming directly from someone with San Francisco, but at least enough knowledge of the situation that I can say the price for Mac Jones is going to be very, very high. And hey, if you are the 49ers, why would you give them away? He saved your season last year when Brock Pertie went down. If Brock gets injured again, who's going to come in that could be a better option for you as San Francisco, then Mac Jones. So what they're waiting for is, hey, somebody go nuts. And I actually don't think anybody is going to go nuts. And if the price tag is that high to try to get your hands on Mac Jones, we will not

10:19be seeing the Minnesota Vikings making that offer. It is clear from Brazinski's comments that they want to retain their draft capital. They are not going to sell it down the river for somebody that has probably a pretty distinct ceiling like Mac Jones. Now that could change. And San Francisco might say, well, we've got another option in free agency or whatever that we like. So maybe we'll lower the price for Jones, but at least as of the combine, it is astronomical to try to get the backup quarterback away from San Francisco. Speaking of high prices, Malik Willis, this is according to Jordan Schultz reported that Malik Willis will be earning expectedly somewhere in the ballpark of $30 million a year. The question is, if that's the asking price for Willis, does that preclude the Vikings from being interested? And I think the answer is mostly yes, but it doesn't have to be yes because you can always design these contracts in a certain way.

11:21And I know we're just talking about not wanting to sell out the future, but you can always design these contracts in a certain way to be very manageable in the first year and then go up after that. So if Malik Willis said, I only want to be a Minnesota Viking, but I have to make a reasonable salary. They could probably shift things around in that contract and make it work for a single year with plans to move a lot of money off the books next year. But I also think that there's going to be some teams that have very healthy cap situations. And our quarterback needy that can say Malik, you can have exactly what you want in terms of your price. Arizona just makes so much sense for Malik Willis, the Laflour connection similar. I'm presuming offense that they're going to run there, very familiar with Malik as a person and they do have some weapons. If you go to Cleveland, maybe not so much. If you go to Miami, maybe not so much, but I think that Minnesota's offer would probably

12:26be not that not to the level that Malik Willis wants after the way that he performed in a very small sample size with the Green Bay Packers and the Vikings may very well want if they're going to make an investment someone who is more proven has more experience than Malik Willis. I still like the idea because 30 million sounds like a lot, but when you actually break it down, that would be 20th. And average annual value at the quarterback position in the NFL. And if the guy plays well, then you are getting huge value over what you actually played. If he is even the 15th best quarterback in the league, well, the 15th best makes like 45 million in the NFL today with the way that the prices are. But I think that Willis being as expensive as he's expected to be might put the Vikings on the outside of that conversation doesn't have to, but it might the next note is we

13:28talked about this a lot the other day on the show about Anthony Richardson and the quote mutual interest, the question that I have that I don't think I brought up enough on the show the other day is whether Indianapolis will actually do that because just because someone demands a trade doesn't mean you have to trade them. It's not like, oh, sorry, guys, he demanded a trade. So here you go, Vikings for a sixth round draft pick, Anthony Richardson, everybody. Well, Tray Lance went for a fourth. Do you want to give up anything more than that for Anthony Richardson and keep in mind that Richardson was better than Tray Lance and actually had some very good games in the NFL before the injuries, the struggles with accuracy, but it's not like he never showed anything. There were times where Anthony Richardson was very exciting, he had a 10 touchdowns rushing alone in his first two seasons, it wasn't a lot of actual play in those two seasons,

14:30but when he was on the field, 10 rushing touchdowns, his rushing was prolific. And he led the league in yards per completion in his, I think it was 11 starts in his second year for the cold. So it's not like he did absolutely nothing and never flashed anything. And he is also very, very young. He is younger now, I mean, think about this. He's younger now than Bonix or Jayden Daniels when they were drafted. He's also six months older than Jackson Dart, who was drafted last year and was a rookie. That's how young Anthony Richardson is. So I don't know if Indianapolis is going to trade him or if they're going to say, well, hey, we don't really know what Daniel Jones is going to look like with his Achilles. We might need you to play. So that one's a, I think I'm moving target also in rap report reported that Aaron Rogers is not going to wait around. He's not going to pull a 2010 Brett Farve and make somebody fly down to the ranch or whatever and give him a pair of jeans and convince him to come back and play.

15:32It looks like he's going to make a decision very soon, whether he's going to retire or not. I don't think that Aaron Rogers is anywhere near as good of an option as some of the other ones that we've talked about, especially Kyler Murray. I think that there's a huge gap between those two for the ceiling and the high end and just making sense like somebody who you could see still ascend in the NFL. It should be mentioned with Kyler Murray, by the way, that the ownership of the Arizona Cardinals were given in the NFL PA survey that Kaylyn Kailer reported of ESPN and F for their ownership and F. So that is not exactly the franchise that maybe sets up players the best for success at the quarterback position. Who else would have gotten an F? Oh, yeah, the jets. Who did they have? Sam Darnold. That's right. Let's start putting together the connection there. So anyway, Aaron Rogers, I'm not really like that idea for the Vikings.

16:32I think that his physical limitations really showed for Pittsburgh and well, he had a couple of magic moments for them. It was very obvious in the postseason that he was physically breaking down and not really able to deal with any type of past rush, which is also why I like the Kyler Murray idea. So we'll find out soon about Rogers. I don't think he's in the mix, but none of us really know how it's going to. One ice coffee 99 cents, please. For real? No way. One ice coffee 99 cents, please. For real? No way. What a deal. Your new morning groove ice coffee from McDonald's, any size for just 99 cents to 11 a.m. Pricing participation may vary. Can I be combined with any other offer? Before you begin your road trip, ask yourself, do you really need five full suitcases?

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18:38Woo! And the super athletic stuff, like fishing gear for chilling by the creek. Nice cast. If it is a pair of the push for higher reps, you got this. Take off ball's price so you can afford to lose one. Or a few. Head to Sierra or Sierra.com for the brands you want at the prices that let you do it all. From athletic to athletic, Sierra's got it. A playing out. And the last note was something that took me by surprise and I had to double triple quadruple check to make sure this was actually real. I actually texted Kevin Cifer and said, did this really happen? Was it AI? Was it a deep fake? That Adam Schaefter reported that there's an expectation that Carson Wentz will return to the Minnesota Vikings. And you may have had the same reactions me have like, but why? And then, but you know, you get the wheels turned a little bit. Well, first of all, the Vikings have been connected to 742 quarterbacks and some of them will

19:40play here. But I think the answer for why would be when you think about the two seasons where the Vikings had quarterback issues and injuries. They got to the number three quarterback each time. And it was Max Brozmer, who was not ready to play in the NFL and that's certainly not ready to play against the Seattle Seahawks. I mean, it's really ironic that Max Brozmer, you know, one, two of the three games that he was in. They weren't spectacular wins, but that did happen and then the bad loss against Seattle. But I don't think you want Max Brozmer to be the next man up if you get to the number three quarterback. So if Carson Wentz was willing to come back to the Vikings because I don't know, he grew up a Vikings fan, loves the area, loves KOC and wouldn't mind being QB three if he had to be or maybe competing with QB two with someone or there could be the option that if you brought in Geno Smith, JJ McCarthy beats him out and looks spectacular, then you trade

20:43Geno Smith to someone else, kind of the way that ish that Cleveland did with Joe Flacco, where when it was time to play the younger quarterback, they said Joe Flacco go get traded. And then you still had their backup situation. Well Carson Wentz might be that where you bring him in during training camp and kind of loser gets traded. I mean, if JJ McCarthy loses out a camp battle to Geno Smith, who again has thrown more interceptions than anyone in the NFL over the last two years and has been sacked more than anyone else in the NFL. I mean, you might consider trading JJ McCarthy at that point. You may consider I'm not saying that it that's imminent or I was told that, but if it looks like it hasn't made any progress at all, you may consider it and you've still got Carson Wentz as your backup or if you don't like the way, if you still want to hang on to him, but he loses the job and you think Wentz is a better option to run the whole offense than you've got your three quarterbacks there.

21:43Remember at one time Jordan love was behind Tim Boyle as the Green Bay Packers backup. So reliability, knowledge of the offense, I could see it with Carson Wentz, especially since he knows that at this point in his career, he is a backup quarterback. So there is your QB rumor takeaways for the Minnesota Vikings. If no one is contacted the saints that I need to change my prediction, Kyler Murray makes the most sense to me always has from the beginning as a guy for the Vikings to go get, but Murray and Smith are the ones that have been talked about the most not counting out dare car, just saying if that's the case, then maybe that starts to percolate soon after the NFL combine. I think that those caliber of starting quarterbacks though are the ones that are being discussed the most for the Vikings. All right. Let's get to some other just random Vikings notes from the NFL combine, Jordan Schultz reported that the Vikings are trying to trade Javan Hargrave, which is usually a last

22:48ditch type of throw something at the wall, have an insider put it out there, hey, maybe somebody calls and says, you know what, we've got 147 million in cap space. Why don't we take Javan Hargrave off of your hands? Hargrave's cap hit is said to be $21 million. It doesn't seem likely that anyone would make a trade for him, but you might as well see, I think what that tells us is that Hargrave is probably going to be released, which has always made the most sense. And when we look at just the Vikings cap situation overall, there's a few guys that are pretty obvious that are not likely to be here. And Hargrave is one of them. And well, that signing will not go down as a huge success, especially in the middle of the season, they struggled to stop the run. Hargrave was kind of getting pushed around. When you look at how he played down the stretch, it's a little unfortunate that they don't have a better cap situation or contract situation for him, because overall, the amount of

23:51pressures that Jonathan Allen and Javan Hargrave were able to create, if they had had better quarterback play, better offense, the opposing team, having to drop back past more often, based on the rate at which those guys were able to get pressures, probably would have been a different discussion about whether that was a success or not, but it will ultimately go down as not a success if they move on from Javan Hargrave. Eric Wilson is somebody that I asked around about a little bit. And at least from what I was told, it sounds like Eric Wilson may want to try to test the market, which doesn't mean he's not coming back to Minnesota. It means that he may want to wait until the start of free agency to see what he's hearing and what type of offers come in before he comes back to the Vikings to see if there's a big dollar figure out there. When we look at players who performed similarly to Eric Wilson last year and just based on last season, those guys tend to get seven to 10 million dollars per year,

24:58which would be a lot for a 31 year old player who had mostly been a special teamer for his career. And I certainly think that he could do it again. The fact that he goes outside linebacker inside linebacker can play multiple different, you know, coverages or rush. And I thought he did better against the run than the last time he was with the Minnesota Vikings in the locker room. He is one of the most widely respected players you're going to find. He was back in 2020. And he certainly was last year, but the Vikings on the shoestring budget may not be able to say, okay, Blake Cashman, you're making X. And now that means we got to pay, you know, Eric Wilson, the same sort of money because he played X number. It's not like it could get a little dicey. So that's not me reporting that he's not coming back. It's just my understanding is from right now that there's a decent chance he decides to test the market. They may come to him and sort something out before that. There was also these are moving targets because last year, if you remember,

26:01there was a thought that maybe Aaron Jones would do that. And then he signed it the last second Byron Murphy actually made it last year to the first day of free agency and then ended up coming back late in the day on a big contract after some other corners signed. So just test the market. It doesn't mean he's gone for sure. But there may be a domino effect to that, which I was told It's a realistic possibility that the Vikings pick up Ivan paste juniors RFA tender because you know, if Eric Wilson goes and they really have no depth at all, I mean, truly, no depth at the linebacker position. There's I mean, they had guys like Chaz Chamblis in there, Austin Keys, is that his name? He I think I ended up getting picked up by someone else off of the Vikings practice quite like they got nothing. So pace, even though he slipped for sure in the snap count and was mostly relegated to being a special teamer picking up his RFA tender does not cost the whole heck

27:04of a lot of money. He knows the defense extremely well and worst case scenario and he has been good at times. And I think under certain circumstances, he still can be as a blitzer as a runstopper when they, you know, maybe have a little more beef up front. I think pace can still make plays that way. But as a special teamer, he was a huge player for them. And when you consider how much the kickoff matters now, that might be a reason alone to keep him around. So just because someone snap count went down, doesn't mean they're necessarily going to move on from Ivan pace. A couple of center options popped up in free agency. The Tennessee Titans moved on from Lloyd Kushnberry and a Tyler Biotis was surprisingly cut by the Washington commanders. Now, Biotis had an injury at the end of the season, actually on Christmas day that forced him to miss the last week of the year. And that makes me wonder because he was a top 10 fringe top 10 center by PFF the last couple years.

28:08It makes me wonder how serious they think those injuries are and whether Biotis will be able to come back and be the same version of himself. If a team that really needs offensive line is releasing a good player who's 28 years old, there has to be a reason. And from what I read, they're only saving like $3 million on the cap or something like that 2.8. That's that that one's got some serious question marks. And I think they've been down that road with the injuries before. And this is maybe not the off season to take a bunch of swings with injured players. Kushnberry has been at times in his career, a above average blocker, a past blocker, but has never really been a dominant run blocker. So he had one top 10 season by overall grade and PFF was below average last year as a run blocker did play for a pretty darn bad football team, but has been decent as a past protector has a ton of experience. So even if the guy's not perfect, you have some other athletes

29:11around on this team for run blocking purposes. Maybe that's a veteran option. I think it should still be on the table to consider drafting a center as well. So there's kind of your your Vikings notes right there from the combine that have, you know, not so much to do with the draft. Why don't we get into the draft here in a second? But let me give you a Fandall question of the day to answer in the comments section. Fandall now has up on Fandall's website. The number two, the odds for the number two overall pick. And the top guy there is Arville Reese from Ohio State at minus 120. Who would you be most shocked at that went number two? So I'll give you David Bailey's plus 135 Rubenbane plus 600. And then it drops significantly in the odds to plus 3300 for sunny styles, who I think made an unbelievable impression at the NFL combine. So who would shock you that went number two or who is your favorite to go number two is the Fandall question of the day.

30:17I think we've got a pretty good sense that Fernando Mendoza is going number one. So here's a few things I want to look at from the combine, the safety position, a gentleman emerged and caught my attention. Now I had a sense after looking into Dylan Thiniman from Oregon that he might be a good fit because when I looked at his NFL calm profile and the main thing they're talking about is he's a defensive coordinator's dream. He could play nickel. He could play deep safety. He could play in the box. And I'm like, okay, who does that sound like? And at Oregon, you know, he was kind of their guy like their Harrison Smith. And I'm like, okay, I'm following along here. But you know, what kind of what kind of baller is this guy? And then he gets out there for the combine. And just lights this thing on fire. It is not often that you see a safety run a four, three, five, 40. And I mean, all the other events that he did, including the onfield workout,

31:21were eye popping to the point where I started to wonder, wait a minute, is Dylan Thiniman going to be available for the Minnesota Vikings? I think those draft simulations that we've done on PFF's mock draft simulator where he's available sometimes at 49 in the second round are probably out the window. And you could say, oh, man, well, what are they really going to let the combine change this guy's value? Number one is, I think teams would have probably already had a sense for this level of athleticism, but this confirms that there is some true freakishness with Dylan Thiniman. And he might be more than just a safety. I mean, he might be a guy who could play everywhere on the field and kind of screams Harris and Smith, doesn't he? As far as a manual McNeil Warren goes, it was not as impressive of an onfield workout. Now he's bigger. So he was not going to run a four, three, five, but he only ranked 13th in athleticism score when you're coming from Toledo and your

32:26quality of competition is already a little bit less than not being a freak athlete may hurt you a little bit in the draft process. Now I haven't seen people saying they're taking him out of their first round where he's mostly lived and the Vikings were mocked a manual McNeil Warren from Toledo by I think it was Bucky Brooks recently. So he's, you know, still getting a lot of that attention, but I wonder if there was more expectation that he would show up and just run everybody else out of the building with the impressive size speed, explosiveness combination. And it was more just okay, which makes you wonder, with the Vikings really go for a Toledo safety, whose athleticism does not blow your mind and any comp to, you know, Nick even wore a has to be thrown out like yes, he's tall, but he did not put up Nick even wore a type of numbers. And again,

33:26that doesn't mean from a combined perspective that this totally changes everything, but it could make you go, you know, the fact that even wore a was a second round draft pick. Maybe he's more of a second round draft pick than he is a first round investment for an NFL team because even though all these guys got a ton of hype, believe it or not, some of them will drop in the draft from where expectation is. So I'm curious about him. Some other safeties stood out at the NFL combine, including AJ Halsey, who did not run a fast 40, but I think we know that the 40 is not, I saw someone tweet that a fast thinker, and I think we know this from Lewis scene, a fast thinker at safety that runs a 4 5 5 is faster than a slow thinker that runs a 4 3, and that was kind of a cam binem, not a super fast guy, yet certainly played at above average NFL speed. So I don't want to be super down on a manual McNeil Warren because of that. I just think

34:31it hurts him a little bit or it has to hurt him at least a little bit that you're the Toledo guy that was kind of supposed to light this up and you're just sort of okay, but AJ Halsey from LSU, kind of a second round prospect was in the 4 5s, but really moved well when he was out there. So if the Vikings don't want to spend a super high draft pick on one of those top two guys that are other than Caleb Downs, there may be some other quality options down the board at that position. Now the running back position also interesting, uh, Breeze Hall is going to be franchise tagged. I believe the general manager of the Jets made that clear. So he is off the table leaving Kenneth Walker as the top running back in the class, although I've started to just throw out the idea that the Vikings are going to chase any of those day one free agents. I think the free agency special on day one for the live stream may be a little bit slow this year for the Vikings when we do that. I still do it, but I think it might end up

35:37just being a little bit on the slow side. So Breeze Hall off the table that pushes everybody else up and I was throwing out there the name Travis ETN, but ETN might get paid pretty well. I think we know the teams are still not going crazy at the running back position with the contracts, but if Hall's off the table, we'll see about Kenneth Walker. He might work out a long term deal with Seattle still before the last minute. The pickens may be slim. And what I was told is the Vikings are really looking for past protection when they're thinking about running backs to add. So they may be looking and we'll get to some of the guys in the draft that have my attention, but in terms of free agency, they do need someone because CJ Ham was a big player in that. And Aaron Jones was at least serviceable as a past protector. Jordan Mason was not Jordan Mason ranked as the sixth worst past protecting running back by PFF. That's not someone you can trust

36:38back there. We know he can run with the football, but if you're a third and eight, who are they going to find now, if there is a split the difference type running back, who is got potential to be an all around type guy that you could pair with Jordan Mason and could pass protect Tyler Lger of the Atlanta Falcons has graded well over his career at past protection was one of the top guys in the NFL last year by PFF grade in a small sample is all past protection is, but also was pretty successful. Now with the Home Depot receive 12 months special financing and free basic installation on carpet projects with life proof, life proof with pet proof technology, home decorators collection, and traffic master carpets. Bring a new look to your floors or give them a durable surface that stands up to life's tough messes. Get 12 months special financing on installed carpet projects right now at the Home Depot. Offer valid March 12th or March 29th, 2026 exclusions and additional charges may apply for licenses. See home Depot.com slash license numbers.

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38:42The Bleacher Report app is your destination for sports. Right now, the NBA is heating up, March Manus is here and MLB is almost back. Every day there's a new headline, a new highlight, a new moment you've got to see for yourself. That's why I stay locked in with the Bleacher Report app. For me, it's about staying connected to my sports. I could follow the teams I care about, get real-time scores, breaking news, and highlights all in one place. Download the Bleacher Report app today so you never miss a moment. Well, as a runner as well, and I think you know that you need a duo, another guy that came up on the PFF list that I didn't think a lot about was Chris Brooks from the Green Bay Packers who was used there as a past protector. So there's some names out there. There's not a ton. Rashad White is another one that would be a good investment or a significant one that could pair with Mason and is a good past protector. There's not a lot, you know why it's really hard to pass protect in the NFL,

39:45which is why the Vikings may want to look into fullbacks around the NFL because I think it was the top four or five past protectors for the backfield were all fullbacks and CJ Ham was one of them. I think that was something that just went overlooked the last two years is how important he was to blocking on third down. So at the Combine, a name that we have not mentioned on the show was much more of a later prospect that people were considering is Mike Washington Jr. Now he may be a guy whose name that you have to learn after this. He ran a 4 3 3 40 at 220 pounds and what have we been talking about on the show when it comes to the running back position explosiveness that is I think an absolute must and with a running scheme that is now going to be influenced by Frank Smith who came from Miami. What it was it that they did in Miami. They got dudes who are

40:50fastest hell Raheem Mostert, Devon H and and they got those guys moving. So it would make a lot of sense to me to look at someone like Mike Washington. Now I was looking into his draft stock and where it is and a website for that grinding the mocks will show you where guys have gone up and down. PFF has a version of this as well and Washington is was on the move up already going into the combine could now shoot up into is he a third round player is he a late second round type of player. I don't know if the Vikings want to spend a second round draft pick on him, but he did average 6.4 yards per attempt this year was pretty darn impressive. So this combine may have taken his stock up could also be a guy the Vikings might look at in the third. I like that idea. I like a third round freaky speed type of running back to pair with Jordan Mason and maybe another veteran as a past

41:50protector. Jadarian price had a great workout. His numbers for the actual events were solid, but in terms of how he actually looked out there at one point Daniel Jeremiah said I think Jadarian price from Notre Dame is having the best day of anyone not named Jeremiah love and I didn't put it down as an official note because I feel like this is kind of obvious now. Jeremiah love was not going to be a Minnesota Viking and Charles Davis on the broadcast. It was funny because Jeremiah loves out there and he's running routes. It looks like a wide receiver and he's running 436 and at one point Charles Davis NFL network analyst says, you know, I I sent him to the Vikings in a mock recently. I'm taking it back. Sorry guys. He's not going to the Minnesota Vikings. He's not getting to number 18. Jeremiah love is going to be a top pick in the NFL draft. And I think he solidified that here at the NFL combine, but Jadarian price is a nice consolation prize as a bigger guy,

42:55his movement skills are very smooth. I don't know if he has long, long speed, but I think he has explosiveness from what I saw the 10 yard split was very good that he could be someone the Vikings might consider in the second round. Now, Emmett Johnson of Nebraska, the big question was, well, what's this guy's speed really going to be? And you know, it's funny about how the combine works now because these guys train so much that they put up ridiculous numbers in the 40s and ridiculous numbers in terms of the vertical jump. So they're they're putting out stuff that's like, wow, you compare this guy. Historically, he's top this, this, this, I looked back. So Emmett Johnson ran a 456 40, which is certainly in the range of guys who have succeeded as NFL running backs. It is it's not Sequoam Barkley. It's not some sort of crazy freak man, but there's a lot of running backs who've been good in the four or five's Delvin Cook ran a 449. It doesn't really tell you

44:02exactly how that guy's going to look out there on the field. But I think that Emmett Johnson, who is a very smooth runner, they can catch the ball out of the back field, kind of an all-around guy, it didn't take him off the board for me because I'm a fan of Emmett Johnson. I watched a good amount of his games this year. I feel like he's got maybe not the highest ceiling in the world, but strong potential to be a duo type running back that can be your guy that learns how to pass protect, that can run the ball, catch the ball out of the back field, somebody to pair with Jordan Mason for years to come. That didn't take him off the board for me. I thought his explosiveness was good enough. It is not going to blow your mind, but I thought it all was checking boxes and somebody pointed out, let's not forget the Bucky Irving thing that Bucky Irving had a bad work out and he dropped in the draft and they overthought it and he turned out to be a good running back. This underwear Olympics, everybody calls it. It doesn't always tell you all the answers,

45:05even though it's the last thing that we saw on the other side of that. Two guys really stuck out to me. Seth McGowan from Kentucky had crazy explosive numbers at 223 pounds and that is impressive because you're talking about somebody with the size to run over people and even though his 40 was not insane, it was good, but the numbers on the vertical and the broad jump, I think those are going to tell you a little bit more about someone's explosion abilities to hit a whole quick and then get out. I mean, think about where does most of a running back success come from. It's within the first couple of steps, right? And then you're off and running and you know, maybe you could take it to the house, maybe not, but explosiveness is probably more successful than long speed. And Seth McGowan was a guy who's a projected maybe third round draft pick that really showed out here. And one of my favorite players in the draft, who I'll probably make a list of guys that I like the most, I saw Eli Hydenreich play. I don't know. Three,

46:10four games this year for Navy. And I loved watching this guy. But always your thought is, well, he goes to Navy. Can he really, you know, stick with the big boys? Is he really athletic enough? And then he comes out and runs a 442. You go, okay, Eli Hydenreich and his numbers were right in the range of these other guys. Now he was kind of a hybrid running back slash wide receiver. A David Palmer, if you will, I kept thinking David Palmer with Eli Hydenreich because when he was running his routes, it looked like a receiver. He caught a ton of passes for Navy, but also was a quality runner for them as well. Could he be like a slot receiver who can go into the back field and return punts? I love the idea of this guy as a ball player. And oftentimes when you see a guy, Cooper Cup was this at one point who just is a ball player and then does meet certain caliber of, you know, athleticism to play in the league. If they put up numbers like that, you know, there's a

47:13chance. So I was intrigued by him. There was a lot of freaks in this combine a lot. And I'm going to go through a couple of them and then we'll get some final thoughts. Kenyan Sadiq. Holy cow. This guy, the tight end from Oregon ran a 439 at 241 pounds, which is one of the craziest performances ever at the NFL combine. And no one is shocked because they knew Sadiq was really the only guy that is thought of in the tight end class to be a first round pick. Now I mentioned, I think if I didn't mention, then maybe I want to mention, I don't think that the Vikings are going to cut TJ Hawkinson. I don't think it makes a lot of sense to draft Kenyan Sadiq if he's there. I mean, I guess it does because maybe you're moving on from Hawkinson after a year and Josh Oliver's a blocking tight end. That is a crazy amount of investment at the tight end position. I mean, trading for Hawkinson, making him one of the highest paid tight ends in the league,

48:17first round pick and paying Josh Oliver would be absolutely wild for that position in terms of investment, especially since that's a spot that tends to be like a development thing where guys will show up two, three years later. But if the Vikings, if they decided to do it, if they decided to draft Sadiq, keep Hawkinson, play three tight ends and Justin Jefferson or two tight ends sets and flip them back and forth between who was out there with Addison and Jefferson. Seattle did it a lot. The Rams did it a lot. I think that this league loves big personnel right now and then you could move on from Hawkinson after this year and go forth with Sadiq and Josh Oliver. It's not the craziest thing I've ever heard. It's not likely, but it's not the craziest thing I've ever heard, especially after seeing this guy's athleticism. This is someone who has a chance to be special in the NFL. Taylor Green, shout out to quarterback Taylor Green of Arkansas,

49:20who is six foot six and ran a four three six 40. What in the world also has an absolute cannon. And I know I saw the comparison to like Randall Cunningham for the, I think Nate ties through it out there for raw skill. And it's probably right because Cunningham was that kind of top speed when he was at, you know, Philadelphia early in his career, his agility, his speed were through the roof absolutely outrageous. I mean, if you were talking in the sixth round, I mean, how many how many quarterbacks are legally allowed to be on a roster? Kevin O'Connell may find out that they may have one linebacker on the entire squad, but like seven quarterbacks. So it's not that likely that the Vikings would take Taylor Green and he's being talked about maybe as moving positions like a Tarell prior kind of thing. He did have, you know, good numbers in terms

50:21of throwing down the field, but this is a big time type of project. But I could tell you this that if Taylor Green had been around when I was playing Madden back in 05 and you could make players better with the training camp things, I would have been getting him and making him the best quarterback in the NFL. So that'll be a guy that's interesting to see what happens with him. Like does he become a receiver? Does he become a tight end? Does he stash on someone's roster and maybe come in in the goal line or something? I don't know, but you got to do something with a guy that has that crazy of athleticism. Bryce Lance, Tray Lance's brother had the second best athleticism score and I think one of the trends also a wide receiver Brennan Thompson ran a 4 3 40 and was absolutely flying. You know, I think that this is a draft for the wide receiver position where there's a lot of guys that I think will be available in the second and third rounds. So as you know,

51:22no one's shocked to hear me say it. Advocate of wide receiver always always pick receivers. Doesn't mean you need to always pick them in the first round if there are intriguing guys and I think someone like Bryce Lance, someone like Brennan Thompson, these crazy speed guys or great athletes. If you're not going to invest a very high pick, there were a lot of receivers who stood out for their explosiveness, their speed, their quickness in potentially day three type of area that I think we could take, you know, we could see the Vikings taking some shots at that position if they are not going to just say, Hey, we're done with Jordan Addison after this. We're going all in on this guy or that guy, one of the top players at the receiver position. So those guys were some freaks there Eli Stowers, the tight end jumps 45 inches. I don't know if the guy could play at all, but that's insane. Michael Jordan's vertical was allegedly 46 inches and Eli Stowers was 45.

52:24This guy's Michael Jordan in terms of jumping and someone who could be interesting for the Minnesota Vikings Caleb Banks, who weighed in at three 27 six foot six and 11 inch hands are almost 11 inch hands, which is insane, insane size for this guy. He ends up with the fifth best athleticism score among DTs, his production at Florida, not mind blowing. And he did end the on field workouts a little early due to what they said was a cleat issue. I assumed he got like a blister or something, which would be a nightmare to try to do that. If you've ever had a blister, you know, don't try running on it. It's horrible. So I don't know if that was the problem or not, but overall showed the potential probably that is the highest of anybody in this draft. But I also think that he's on the raw side. Did the Vikings want to do that in the first round with an investment for a guy who could be a monster, but also might take some time to get to monster level that I am not quite sure.

53:30So there's the notebook. There's everything I thought. Now look, we're going to have a deeper analysis with Christopher Paso, the official draft analyst of purple insider and formerly of CBS sports. We will have that on Monday. But these were a bunch of things that popped out to me that I was thinking about. We could go position by position. 40 players that showed something over the last couple of days at the NFL combine. But those are just a few and a bunch of stuff that I either talked about with people or reports that were out there. And my final thoughts coming out of India or this, it, it does seem that the Vikings want to start in quarterback for 2026. It does seem like their best case scenario is maybe developing JJ McCarthy for another gear. But here's what I'll say. I wouldn't count out anything. Any option is on the table, because where you think you've kind of settled on one thing, there are moving parts. There are other

54:32teams. There are other things that can happen where someone might come and surprise you with an offer for a quarterback or someone might become available that you never expected to actually be available. There was another report that the Texans are absolutely not going to trade CJ Stroud. That's probably true. But my point is that this thing is happening and it's going to be a circus when it comes to these starting quarterbacks, all finding different spots. And one of them will be in the Minnesota Vikings uniform. Who that is will tell us a lot about what they think of JJ McCarthy's future. I just got the sense, just the feeling that they'd like someone with starting experience to be the guy or to set a very high bar for JJ McCarthy to jump over. That was the feeling there. And in terms of draft needs, how they're going to approach the draft. The only thing I could say is

55:33there's a lot of players in this draft that I think makes sense for the Vikings. In some previous years, there were times where I thought, well, it's either guard or corner and that's what they're going to do or it's either receiver or edge right, right? Like this is not one of those years. I think that there's a lot more positions that I'm going to have to prepare for to talk in depth about, which makes it more interesting for sure. And as far as the Vikings free agency approach, my expectation is and we're going to do this this week. It's going to be a lot of fun. I'm going to do the ethical offseason this week because in previous iterations, what I've tried to do is let me create as much cap space as possible with every restructure and squeeze as much talent into the roster from free agency. That's been my approach because I thought that was what they were going to do. But after Rob Brazinski said, maybe not there's a future to this team and I'm going to protect it.

56:35Well, what would an ethical offseason look like? It just may not be a mind-blowing free agency, which believe it or not, could work out better. Sometimes when you have to be more shrewd and less throwing everything at the wall, you end up making better decisions. So that could be the case. That is on the docket as well. It's going to be a fun week breaking down and look, Ian Rappaport said it on TV and I totally agree. He said, hey, don't turn, don't turn, tune out. Don't go somewhere off the grid where your phone doesn't work because these movements with quarterbacks could happen at any time. So don't tune out of purple insider because we're going to have a lot of stuff. Again, Christopher Paso is going to break down his favorites from the NFL combine. We are going to draft Sim. We are going to simulate the offseason again and we're going to keep our eye on any news. I will be right here if anything comes up as always. So thanks everybody for

57:35all the kind words and support for my work at the NFL combine. I had a good time there. Meeting a lot of people. If you didn't hear the interviews that we did, go back and check those out. Try to do my best there to get as many people on the show as I possibly could bend, gasoline, Dane Mizatani, Q Myers from Raiders Radio. So had a good time there. I think we took away a lot and now it's time for Domino's to begin falling. So another reminder that Fandall questioned the day. The favorite to go number two is Arville Reese. Do you think he'll go number two or you think it'll be someone else? Let me know in the comments. Thanks everybody for watching slash listening and we will see you all again. Pretty much all the time. Pretty much all the time from here on out. It's offseason, baby. Off we go. Football. Now at the Home Depot, receive 12 months special financing and free basic installation on carpet

58:36projects with life proof, life proof with petproof technology, home decorators collection, and traffic master carpets. Bring a new look to your floors, or give them a durable surface that stands up to life's tough messes. Get 12 months special financing on installed carpet projects right now at the Home Depot. Offer valid March 12th or March 29th, 2026. Exclusions and additional charges may apply for licenses. See Home Depot dot com slash license numbers. Hmm. One ice coffee. 99 cents please. For real? No way. Hmm. One ice coffee. 99 cents please. For real? No way. Hmm. What a deal. Your new morning groove. Ice coffee from McDonald's, any size for just 99 cents to 11 a.m. Pricing participation may vary. Cannot be combined with any other offer. But uh, but before you begin your road trip, ask yourself, do you really need five full suitcases?

59:39With a 2026 Kia Sportage X Pros class leading cargo space, you'll have room for what you need. Find out more at your local Kia dealer today. Keep the adventure going. Kia, movement that inspires. Call 800-333-4K for details. I always drive safely and obey all traffic laws, comparisons based on second-row legroom and cargo space behind second-row seats in the subcompact SUV class according to Kia segmentation as of October 2025. The Bleacher Report app is your destination for sports. Right now, the NBA is heating up, March Manus is here, and MLB is almost back. Every day there's a new headline, a new highlight, a new moment you've got to see for yourself. That's why I stay locked in with the Bleacher Report app. For me, it's about staying connected to my sports. I could follow the teams I care about, get real-time scores, breaking news, and highlights all in one place. Download the Bleacher Report app today so you never miss a moment. Hi, this is Alex Cantrowitz. I'm the host of Big Technology Podcast, a long-time reporter and an on-air contributor to CNBC. And if you're like me, you're trying to figure out how artificial

1:00:41intelligence is changing the business world and our lives. So each week on Big Technology, I bring on key actors from companies building AI tech and outsiders trying to influence it, asking where this is all going. They come from places like Nvidia, Microsoft, Amazon, and plenty more. So if you want to be smart with your wallet, your career choices, and meetings with your colleagues and at dinner parties, listen to Big Technology Podcast forever. You get your podcasts.