Welcome back to the Minnesota Vikings Podcast. Training Camp is wrapping up as the Vikings host joint practices with the New England Patriots at TCO Performance Center in Eagan, MN. Tatum Everett catches up with a couple great reporters to get their takes on what they've seen so far this week in anticipation for preseason game #2 on Saturday afternoon at U.S. Bank Stadium. Jourdan Rodrigue from The Athletic stops by to break down the Vikings coaching and team vibes so far, her impression of the Vikings facility, and the overall outlook for the Vikings upcoming 2025 season. Patriots Senior Writer Evan Lazar helps breakdown the logistics of pulling off joint practices this week, the Patriots receiving prospects with Stefon Diggs this season, and what it will take for the Patriots to get back to their winning ways. All of this and more is in episode 308 of the Minnesota Vikings Podcast.
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Speaker 1 (00:06):
Welcome back to another episode of MVP, the official Minnesota
Vikings podcast.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
I'm your host, Tamum Everick, coming at.
Speaker 1 (00:12):
You from the Twin Cities Orthopedics Performance Center Radio studio.
The Vikings kicked off the preseason last Saturday with a
twenty to ten victory over the Houston Texans. The team
practice on Monday, held meetings on Tuesday, and just wrapped
up hosting joint practices.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
With the New England Patriots.
Speaker 1 (00:29):
To hear you guys up for Saturday's preseason game against
the Pats, we have two special guests on this episode.
On Wednesday, we sat down with Patriots reporter and analyst
Evan Lazar to dive into the storylines and takeaways.
Speaker 2 (00:43):
But first we're gonna hear from.
Speaker 1 (00:44):
One of the most respected football journalists, the athletics senior
NFL writer Jordan Rodrig. She has some exciting pieces coming
out on her website, but she's also followed the Los
Angeles Rams beat for several years, so she knows head
coach Kevin O'Connell and i'll lot of his staff very well.
So let's go outside to our conversation with Jordan. Jordan,
(01:05):
we are so excited to have you. You are going
to also be a part of our Voyage series.
Speaker 3 (01:10):
I'm so excited to be here.
Speaker 4 (01:11):
I keep remarking on, like, how gorgeous the building is.
I have the right coffee, apparently I brought that in today.
I complimented the airport. I'm basically a Minnesota resident now,
so that's.
Speaker 2 (01:23):
Very true, compliment our Caribou coffee. We're good to go.
Speaker 1 (01:26):
Yeah, but you know, bringing you here, a lot of
ties that you have from your journalistic background covering the Rams.
You know, Kevin O'Connell and a lot of people that
are building really well why come out this year? Are
you working on something special?
Speaker 4 (01:41):
Yeah, a couple of things, and everyone's been so gracious
to help me out with those things. I think that
this is a team that's really on the forefront of
a lot of ideas that are important in the.
Speaker 3 (01:50):
NFL and football right now.
Speaker 4 (01:52):
Overall, Kevin O'Connell certainly on the offensive side, but also
on the defensive side with what Brian Flores is doing
with the most radical defense in the NFL right now.
And it's also becoming a quarterback development factory and that'll be.
Speaker 3 (02:06):
Really interesting to see with with.
Speaker 4 (02:08):
JJ McCarthy and then overall the organization is a fascinating
study in the combination of team building and modern yet
old school culture at the same time, it's just a
fascinating place to be. When I was organizing my training
camp schedule this year, I was like, I got to
spend as much time as possible out there.
Speaker 1 (02:25):
Yeah, it kind of sounds like you come here to
be a bit of a sponge. When you mentioned the
hot word quarterback development, and so obviously JJ McCarthy, Kevin O'Connell,
they're very excited about that. JJ McCarthy wanting to be
here and only here. He's made that very clear. So
how have you seen that play out from your vantage
point being more of like on the national level.
Speaker 3 (02:46):
It's interesting.
Speaker 4 (02:47):
I don't think that the outside is as patient with
quarterbacks as they should be. What's kind of neat is
in here in Minnesota they are very patient with the
quarterback development process. It is the perfect place for a
quarterback to get not only the master's degree, but the
PhD and the five hundred and six hundred level coursework
on being a quarterback and everything that it means in
the NFL right now. And I think it's really interesting
(03:09):
because there is such a focus and a care on
specifically that development. It's going to be so important that
JJ McCarthy gets has all of the right steps in
place for him as he continues to grow, and that
he sort of shielded a little bit away from like
the national people, and he shielded a little bit away
from the expectations, because the expectation is to learn, it's
(03:30):
to grow, it's to develop. Now, when you have a
coach like Kevin O'Connell, coordinator like West Phillips, you're going
to obviously have some advantages.
Speaker 3 (03:37):
You're going to fast track a little bit in some
of that development.
Speaker 4 (03:40):
But it's so important to strike that balance of competition
and going and trying to win football games and being
this modern and very explosive scheme that they've had while
also not skipping any steps for that young quarterback. And
I think striking that balance has been a fascinating study,
not just this year but last year too, trying to
balance or winning a lot of football games. You know,
(04:01):
if you're the Vikings and then you're also developing a
young quarterback at the same time behind the scenes. So
it's so interesting to me this sort of two year
process and now first year really on the field. It's
been interesting and you can kind of see him growing
in confidence as time passes, which I think is important
too for young guy.
Speaker 3 (04:17):
Why do you.
Speaker 1 (04:18):
Think Kevin O'Connell is able to strike that balance.
Speaker 4 (04:22):
I think he understands quarterbacks. I mean, obviously from his
own experience. I have always had this theory about him,
from watching him work with veterans and young players, players
who are struggling and need to revive their career, or
players who are on maybe the back five years of
their career and want to go push to the next
level for the first time. It's like he wants to
(04:45):
be who he didn't have as a coach, and he
had some great coaches, but he wants to that extra
step forward. That level of education, combined with understanding of
the player as a player as a person, how you
can get at the most out of that person without
making them feel as if they exist to be have
(05:05):
the most gotten out of them, if that makes sense,
Like a very non transactional relationship. How you can grow
somebody while building their confidence without being unrealistic with them,
while being brutal on them, sometimes being tough on them,
but also with the expectation that that's functional and that's
necessary for growth. I think that he's always tried to
(05:25):
be that person for the quarterbacks he's worked with specifically,
and it just so happens that he can call a
really good offense and build a really good culture. So yeah,
that's why he's a head coach.
Speaker 3 (05:34):
But I think that element of it.
Speaker 4 (05:36):
We're starting to understand more about the position than I
think we used to in terms of all the little
nuances of it, and Kevin is really at the forefront
of sort of preaching that.
Speaker 2 (05:44):
That's so interesting that you say that. And I think
another thing.
Speaker 1 (05:47):
We all know he likes to throw the ball right,
but he has really tried to We are that league now,
but he's also trying to build it off of a
better run game. He says, talks about an improved run
game over and over again. When you look at the
pieces the Vikings have added this offseason, how much did
that reflect that commitment.
Speaker 4 (06:06):
I mean, sneaking Jordan Mason out of San Francisco in
the dead of night has got to be one of
the most objectively funny things in terms of like, how
did everyone just let that happen? Because I think He's
a perfect fit for this system. You know, Kevin has
talked about wanting to run the ball, and it just
(06:26):
hasn't quite in the year's past, hasn't quite gotten to
the level that is required to really make his offense
sing the way that he wants it to. Despite the
impressive statistics in the past game and the you know,
not league low stats in the run game, but certainly
you want to lift that floor a little bit. And
I think not only with the personnel additions, but also
(06:50):
really committing to it, really committing to that physicality, really
committing to trying to move people at the line of scrimmage,
make identifying that as a resource that was needed as well,
and then finding a running back who just fits. He
just fits here, he just works. And I think that
that's going to be really interesting to watch that come
to life, and it has to. That's the best thing
(07:11):
JJ McCarthy can have is a stable run game.
Speaker 1 (07:14):
Yes, definitely, And obviously we'll conversely talk about the defensive
side of things. Brian Flores back at the Helm, that
consistency in the building for a lot of those guys,
and to think that Jonathan Grenard and Andrew Vank Gingkle
is their first year in this scheme. Obviously Van Goingle
a little bit more experienced from Miami, and now they're
all going.
Speaker 2 (07:32):
Into year two.
Speaker 1 (07:32):
You've got Dallas Turner, the additions in the front and
the interior defensive line. What are the expectations for this group?
Can they take a step forward?
Speaker 4 (07:41):
It's so interesting that they already came in so high
and now they're like preparing to exit the atmosphere right now.
Speaker 3 (07:49):
I mean this defense.
Speaker 4 (07:50):
The first day that I was here watching practice, I sat,
I took an all twenty two look behind the defensive
field and I just charted the entire thing.
Speaker 3 (07:59):
I position movements and drew arrows where all the players were.
Speaker 4 (08:04):
Moving and rotating and all of these pre snap and
post snap looks that they show. And it is terrifying.
I'll just say that objectively, but it is so much fun.
It's a beautiful thing to watch. How alive this defense is.
It is it has like a heartbeat collectively, and that's
something that's so important. And we talk about analytics, we
(08:25):
talk about stats, we talk about all these things technique
and scheme and all this, but having a defense that
is its own shared heartbeat, that play as players, like say,
play on a line together where you have so much
of this nonverbal communication that's necessary to actually make this
defense come to life. Veteran players and players who are
such fines, homegrown fines. I think of Josh Mattelis, who
(08:47):
is just the perfect do it all player for this
defense and was just sort of biding his time and
waiting for his opportunity within this own the same roster.
And it's a beautiful thing when you have a mix
of play who believe in what they're doing. And oh,
by the way, it is terrifying watching these guys come
(09:08):
off the line of scrimmage. I mean, the pass rush
was already good. I mean, okay, let's just add more people.
How about that?
Speaker 3 (09:14):
Like so they just keep letting them do it? You know, yes,
they do so.
Speaker 1 (09:17):
I guess with that being said, what are your expectations
for this Minnesota Vikings team?
Speaker 2 (09:22):
What can they accomplish this year?
Speaker 3 (09:24):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (09:24):
I think that because the nature of a young quarterback
who's developing, you're gonna see the defense have to lead
the way I think right away in these early months,
you're gonna have to see them tone set and you
want that if you're this culture that they've built together
under Kevin and Brian Flores as a collaboration. You want
to be able to lean on that group as the
ones who are going to tone set your.
Speaker 3 (09:45):
Start out of the gate.
Speaker 4 (09:46):
And as you get settled, as you're the young quarterback,
and as you understand what it is like to play
in real NFL games that count for something over the
course of time, and you settle into your habits and
you settle into your workflow, that's when I think you're
gonna start to see the wind come out into the
sales of the offense a little bit.
Speaker 3 (10:01):
I don't think that they will be bad out of
the gate.
Speaker 4 (10:05):
I think that their floor is very very high, certainly
on both sides of the ball. But this offense, even
with the unknown at quarterbacks, still extremely high floor for them.
But you are going to see I think a JJ
McCarthy who's going to start feeling more confident, who's going
to start to have a little bit of that gamer
come out of him as time passes, because that's what
the culture is here. And I think that's important to
(10:25):
be patient. If you're a fan with reasonable expectation, this
is still going to be a very good offense right away,
but to understand that once the collective comes together, once
the offense and the defense meet each other during that
time of year, this is going to be one of
the best teams in football.
Speaker 3 (10:39):
I have no doubt about that.
Speaker 1 (10:40):
Well, thank you so much, love the optimism, and thanks
for coming to visit us here. We really enjoyed it.
You can look for more of her work at the
Athletic dot com. Jordan Rodger, thank you again.
Speaker 3 (10:49):
Thank you for having me. It's a pleasure.
Speaker 1 (10:51):
We've got to take a quick break here on MVP,
but we've got Patriots writer Evan Lazar after the BREAKO
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Speaker 2 (11:11):
There's a spalon close to you.
Speaker 1 (11:13):
Visit online at spelon dot com. Thanks for listening to MVP.
Up next, we have our second guest of the episode.
Patriots reporter and analyst Evan Lazard, checks in with us
from Trading Camp. Well, Evan, thank you so much for
joining us today.
Speaker 5 (11:30):
Happy to be here.
Speaker 2 (11:30):
I know, you've had a long day so far.
Speaker 1 (11:33):
You wake up, you walk the short walk from the
Omni Hotel over here to the facility. Yeah, what were
your first impressions of TCO twin Cy's Orthopedics Performance Center
and the Viking setup that we got going on?
Speaker 5 (11:47):
This is impressive. It's really impressive.
Speaker 6 (11:50):
And we had heard about how impressive it was from
the player surveys and things like that, so we knew
we were coming to a cool facility and we were
all wondering compare it to the Raiders and the Dolphins
also have great facilities.
Speaker 5 (12:03):
You guys might have the number one spot. This is
a great setup.
Speaker 2 (12:06):
He hasn't seen it all yet, no, but it is.
It is really really fun.
Speaker 1 (12:11):
I think to see how other players, excuse me, how
their teams, you know, run their practice, how they how
they're set up, where the players go, and it's it's
from your point of view. The ability for your team,
the Patriots, to uproot everything they've been doing at camp
and bring it on the road here.
Speaker 2 (12:30):
That must have been a really big lift.
Speaker 5 (12:32):
Oh yeah, one hundred percent.
Speaker 6 (12:33):
I mean we took two plans to get here, so
there was a lot of us and a lot of equipment,
and I will just say that our equipment stuff is
just incredible, and we do a lot of really great
work trying to amplify that and show them behind the
scenes with our video team and stuff like that. And
it's fascinating to watch them work and at the long
(12:54):
hours in the season that they put in. Sometimes you're
not going home, like during regular season weeks and stuff
like that. So it's incredible to see how they uproot everything.
And I'm sure they I think they ship a lot
of stuff ahead of time to try to get ahead
of it. But over at the OMNI, they have rooms
for each position group and then everybody's got a hotel
(13:14):
room obviously, so there's a whole setup. Now we kind
of took over the hotel for the week, so it's cool.
Speaker 3 (13:21):
That is really cool.
Speaker 1 (13:21):
At least it's convenient, Yes, exactly, not too far, it's great.
So your first observations of camp as far as like Erthio's,
everyone seemed to be gelling well, not too many moments
where you were a little worried it would get too overheated.
Speaker 2 (13:38):
Things like that. Everything seemed to be pretty well.
Speaker 5 (13:40):
What were your thoughts on it?
Speaker 6 (13:41):
Yeah, yeah, it was a really good competitive practice, and
I think from a Patriots perspective, it's refreshing to be
able to say that there was a back and forth,
because frankly, the last couple of years, there hasn't been
as much of that in some of these joint practices
and the practice that we all go back to last year,
the Eagles came to Foxborough for a joint practice and
they took it to us pretty good, and it was
(14:04):
very clear that one team was about to win the
Super Bowl and one team was about to pick in
the top five. So the fact that these practices last
week with the Commanders and then today with Minnesota have
been competitive and the Patriots have made some plays and
the Vikings certainly made some plays today, that's a good
sign of progress for Mike Rabel, who's also been fantastic
(14:24):
and has just been a ton of fun. So in general,
I would say the team's mood, everything around the team
is very very positive right now. But as Rabel has
said in the past, we haven't played any games yet,
haven't lost any games yet, so we'll see how it goes.
Speaker 1 (14:38):
It's funny I covered the Titans for three years when
Mike Rabel was with the team. So I feel like
a lot of his isms are still the same. The
humor is still there. If you watch his press conference,
the humor is still there.
Speaker 4 (14:50):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (14:50):
And I love that he.
Speaker 1 (14:51):
Was asked about Kevin O'Connell and their time on the
Patriots together and he's like, well, yeah, I'll tell you
what I said about Cliff Kingsbury. He's no Tom Brady.
But it is kind of interesting to see these guys
that have been in the league former coaches become head coaches.
And obviously it's worked before, and I wanted to kind
of get your perspective on the way that the Patriots
(15:15):
have changed from obviously Belichick to Girod Mayo to now
Mike Rabel, Like how that transition has been for you guys.
Speaker 6 (15:22):
Yeah, I would say that obviously Mayo and Rabel are
cut from the same cloth as Belichick, so they have
some elements about them that are very much like Bill.
But the bad thing I with Rabel that we have
noticed is just his knowledge of every single aspect of
the organization, not just x's and o's or you know,
(15:42):
being able to motivate guys, but also just how to
run a ship. You know, how to steer the ship
in the right direction, and that stabilization has been felt
around the entire team, which has been really good. He
does like to bust chops, which is fun for us.
Sometimes you got to be on your toes. But I
would say that is the number one thing that stands
(16:03):
out is that he's got his hand in everything, and
he's got that ability a lot like Belichick did to
really be a CEO of the football team. And you know,
he's a great excess in O his mine too, But
that's a thing from a head coach perspective. And then
I would also just say, you know, one of his
non negotiables the day that he got hired and was introduced,
(16:25):
one of the things that he said was that he
wants the team to play with great effort and finish.
Those are two buzzwords that they're right up on in
the meeting rooms and things like that at Jillette Stadium.
So going and seeing you know, them put it a
pretty good performance together against Washington in the first preseason game,
and then today the effort that they put, you know,
against the Vikings that is rubbing off on the players
(16:46):
and you can sort of see the team starting to
take on his identity effort in finish.
Speaker 1 (16:51):
That's something that I think this administration here at the
Vikings also really really emphasizes. Could be from the whole
coaching background of to O'Connell's time in New England, but
I do think it's really appropriate or appropriate that you
bring that up as far as how it applied to
today's practices, because no matter what if it looked like
(17:11):
it was gonna be a tackle, there was no contact.
They allowed players to finish all the way to the end,
which provided some exciting moments. Mac Collins with the touchdown
and the ball punting.
Speaker 5 (17:22):
Yes.
Speaker 1 (17:23):
And then I was on the far side, so I
was looking more at the Vikings offense. But then all
of a sudden, I see j Ward with an interception
and he punted the ball too, So it was like
paying back. I guess to each other, what were your observations?
I saw you watching the Patriots offense against the Vikings
number one defense. What are your observations from that side
of the field.
Speaker 6 (17:41):
Yeah, so I actually my partner in crime, Mike do So.
He's a big defense guy and I'm a big offense guy.
Speaker 5 (17:47):
So it works.
Speaker 6 (17:48):
He goes and watches the defense and I watched the
offense and then we come together and compare notes at
the end. But in terms of the Vikings defense, he
can't talk about this practice in my opinion, and not
talk about the pressure that was on Drake May. The
Vikings really did put a lot of pressure on him.
It's always difficult in practice. Was it a sack what
you have gotten out of there? You know, those types
(18:08):
of things. But there were four or five times where
it seemed like Drake May was in the grasp of
a Viking defender. You know, you guys know the names
Greenherd and Hargrave and Dallas Turner and all those guys.
Brian Flores obviously schemes up a great defense and that
was a big challenge the Patriots. On Monday during their
practice back home, they actually did some in game in
(18:30):
season scripting to game plan Brian Flores's defense, and we asked,
you know, Vrabel about it this morning, and he said
he thought it would be unfair for it to be
the first time that the offense was looking at this
type of defense to be here and joint practices on
Wednesday and Thursday, so they actually did some scout team
work on Monday It was the first time they had
(18:52):
done that all training camp to try to get ready
for Brian Flores because they knew how exotic and how
different the scheme was going to be. That tells you
right there how much respect the Patriots coaching staff has
for Brian Flores. So it was a challenge, absolutely a challenge.
Speaker 1 (19:06):
Yeah, just one of the many names for the crossovers
between the Vikings and the Patriots right now. So I
think I'd be remiss if I didn't mention Stefan Diggs
And you said, you're an offensive guy. So what's it
been like with Digs, who obviously is mister Minneapolis miracle himself. Yeah.
Speaker 6 (19:23):
Absolutely, he's pretty loved around here, I would assume, which
for a good reason. So he's been obviously on this
little bit of a plan with the ACL and coming
back from the ASL. But I have just been wowed
by how quickly he has recovered from the injury. I
thought that there was no chance he would be practicing
in full in training camp, and he was out there,
(19:45):
no pup list, nothing, day one a training camp and
he was healthy and ready to go, which is incredible.
We went through this with Kendrick boorran ourselves a year ago,
and it took Kendrick a long time to get back
on the field, and he missed most of training camp,
and the injuries happened right around the same time in
October of this previous season. So to put those against
(20:05):
one another and see how quickly Digs his bounce back
has been incredible.
Speaker 5 (20:10):
There are times where.
Speaker 6 (20:11):
I feel like practice he's he's Stefon Diggs and he
knows that he'll be ready to go when the games
actually start, the count and things like that. But then
all of a sudden, he'll turn it on and for
a period, you know, a series of plays or one
on ones or seven on sevens like he did today,
and you start to see that old Steph Diggs come out,
and he's just the best player on the field, you know,
(20:32):
in those moments. As a Patriots reporter and you know, fan,
it's pretty cool to have the Patriots with the receiver
of his caliber, because it's been a while since we
could say that, yeah, and it's it's nice to see.
I would say he's probably the best receiver of the
Patriots have had since Julian Edelman retired and Julian Edelman
retired in twenty twenty, so it's been that long. Yeah,
(20:56):
so it's been a while. He's actually going into our
team Hall of Fame next month. That's how long it's been. No,
not that second perfect.
Speaker 5 (21:03):
Yeah. Yeah, so it's cool.
Speaker 1 (21:05):
Well, that's so interesting you say that because you obviously
take Drake May in the first round of the draft
last year, and you want to be able to put
a quarterback in a manageable situation and set them up
for success. It's something that Kevin O'Connell really has emphasized
for us this offseason because he says so much of
(21:26):
the pieces they added on the line and they have
so many weapons, and so really that quarterback position like
manage the game, do your job, do what's necessary for
you because you have all these veteran pieces around you.
Speaker 2 (21:38):
Whereas Drake May didn't really.
Speaker 1 (21:40):
Have that situation as much, but now he has to
find digs right. However, he really had a fantastic rookie
campaign even given that situation. How have you seen him mature?
I guess in this camp, especially now that maybe he'll
have a little bit more of a weapon out there.
Speaker 4 (21:58):
Yeah.
Speaker 6 (21:59):
Yeah, it's a great question. And then it's cool to see.
Last week we had Daniels in town, Jade and Daniels's training.
This week we're going up against JJ. So it's like
the twenty twenty four rookie class up against one another
every single week. And so that's been cool to see
what the progress and where everybody.
Speaker 2 (22:16):
Is and yeah, that's a stack, yeah.
Speaker 6 (22:18):
Right, And I think it's similar to what I've heard about,
you know, JJ McCarthy, where it's not the development is
not linear, right, It's not like Drake May's arrow is
always pointed upwards and every single day is great or
the other way, you know, hopefully not as well. But
it's not like that. It's there are some peaks and
valleys to his development. But with Josh McDaniels now back
(22:40):
with the Patriots, I think there's a lot of optimism
of Josh's ability to develop a quarterback and work with
quarterbacks and things like that. So the difference I was
between Drake this year and last year's there's a lot
more on his plate at the line of scrimmage in
this offense than the old offense that he was in
as a rookie. As a rookie under Alex Van Pelt,
(23:00):
the center controlled the line of scrimmage and the center
was making all the calls and changing all the protections
and the mic points and all that stuff. Now that's
on the quarterback, So that's all on Drake May. So
it's a situation where we're all interested to see how
he handles that, because, honestly, Tom Brady was Tom Brady,
and the fact that he could get up there and
(23:20):
he could be that field general and get everybody pointed
in the right direction was an elite trade of his.
So to put that on a second year quarterback who's
a different player and just a different guy is a
question mark. I think for the Patriots moving forward, how
much do they want to put on his plate. They'll
have to balance that. But he's had some moments, just
like he had his rookie season where you see that
(23:42):
franchise quarterback potential. Consistency is the name of the game,
and he talks about it all the time. Can they
be consistent down to down because he can make throws
that are rare, you know, that are top five, top
ten quarterback in the league type of throws, but he
needs to be more consistent.
Speaker 1 (24:00):
New center. I mean, that's the same one. It's a
name that Vikings fans will find very familiar. Garrett Bradberry
is the starting center right now on the Patriots depth chart.
How have you seen their relationship blossom?
Speaker 6 (24:12):
Yeah, I really enjoyed getting to cover Garrett Bradberry. He's
been a really good quote and just a cool guy
to be fun. Yeah, And he's he's been really a
pros pro since he got to New England. And I
think he's taking a lot of pride in the fact
that he knows that there's a young quarterback back there
and trying to help Drake May along here and all
those types of things. And I also think that way
(24:34):
it ended here like Garrett Bradbury has something to prove
himself about that he still belongs in this league and
that he's still a starting caliber player in the league.
So there's a little bit of, you know, both those
buckets for Garrett Bradbury right now. But I've seen him
really try his best to take Drake May under his wing.
And in some ways, as I was talking about the
(24:54):
way that the scheme works in terms of the setup,
I do think Garrett Bradbury's had to pull back a
little bit because it's not his responsibility necessarily to have
that final say so, that's been a fun conversation with him,
where he's like, this is the least amount of pre
snap responsibility I've ever had, you know, and trying to
balance that with what he's done in the past.
Speaker 3 (25:14):
Well that's pretty cool.
Speaker 2 (25:15):
Yeah, he was such a great guy.
Speaker 3 (25:16):
I love the guys.
Speaker 1 (25:18):
Got to see him today, which is Wednesday, we're taping this.
Got to see a lot of I think he made
his rounds and spoke to the media as well today,
said hello to everyone.
Speaker 2 (25:28):
Let's look ahead to Saturday.
Speaker 1 (25:31):
Is there a name that or a position metal that
people on the Vikings, you know, camp should have their
eye on when they're watching the preseason game.
Speaker 6 (25:39):
So wide receiver is always going to be a question
for the Patriots or an area of You can write
a piece about wide receivers and it will click better
than any piece if any position, because people in New
England are just starving for them to have good receivers.
Speaker 5 (25:52):
Again.
Speaker 6 (25:53):
Obviously Diggs is a big part of that, but Demario
Douglas has had a really nice camp too, and he
fits right into that Josh McDaniel's slot receiver role that
we've seen Edelman and Welker and Troy Brown going all
the way back. So that's been a role that's been
a high volume role and one that's been really productive.
And you see Pop's ability on those quick hitters. We
(26:13):
even saw it a little bit today where he can
get open quickly off the line of scrimmage and give
Drake May those fast completions off the line, and that's
the Josh McDaniels offense, and that's what they're trying to do.
Speaker 5 (26:24):
So in general, that.
Speaker 6 (26:25):
Depth chart, you know digs Pop Kaishawn Boody, Matt Collins,
and then there's a lot of conversations in New England
about who are the fifth and sixth guys gonna be
in that room. They have an undrafted rookie named Efton
Chisholm who is a clone of Julian Edelman and Danny A. Mendola,
so he's kind of got that thing going on. Javon Baker,
(26:46):
who's probably saw a little bit of today. He's trying
to compete and make the roster as a fourth round
pick last year. So that's a I hesitated to say
a deep room because I think we're still questioning how
much talent is truly in that room based off of
how things have gone. But there's a lot of numbers
in that room and trying to figure out the five
or six guys that are going to keep is difficult.
Speaker 1 (27:08):
Well, I hope that you enjoy your time here in
Minnesota Thursday. Let's hope for another you know, fun, lively environment,
some good weather for you on Friday, because you're going
to be here absolutely in Minnesota and Rex with a
whole day to do.
Speaker 2 (27:21):
I mean, yeah, you gotta. I'll give you some restaurants
or something that you guys gotta got to hit up.
Speaker 1 (27:26):
But yeah, and we are really excited about Saturday noon
kick so then you guys look get home at a
decent hour.
Speaker 6 (27:33):
Yeah, it sounds like it, which is rare for a
preseason usually their night games. So it's a good, good,
all around fun week and then a good early kickoff.
Speaker 5 (27:42):
So I'll take it.
Speaker 1 (27:43):
Well, thank you Evan so much for your time. Really
appreciate it and enjoy your visit in Minnesota.
Speaker 5 (27:47):
Thank you, thanks for having me.
Speaker 1 (27:48):
That will wrap up today's episode of MVP, but a
big thank you to our guests as well as a
big thank you to you all of the fans who
made it out to the twenty twenty five Vikings training camp.
It was a wild ride and we've had so much
fun hosting you.
Speaker 2 (28:03):
Here in Egan.
Speaker 1 (28:05):
Now it's time to look forward to Saturday's preseason game
number two kickoffs at for noon right here at US
Bank Stadium. You can't make it, you can watch it
live on Fox nine or listen to the Vikings Radio
Network on KFN.
Speaker 2 (28:17):
Thanks for tuning in and we'll see you guys next week.
Speaker 1 (28:23):
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(28:44):
com backslash Vikings for exclusive offers to Vikings fans
Welcome back to another episode of MVP, the official Minnesota
Vikings podcast.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
I'm your host, Tamum Everick, coming at.
Speaker 1 (00:12):
You from the Twin Cities Orthopedics Performance Center Radio studio.
The Vikings kicked off the preseason last Saturday with a
twenty to ten victory over the Houston Texans. The team
practice on Monday, held meetings on Tuesday, and just wrapped
up hosting joint practices.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
With the New England Patriots.
Speaker 1 (00:29):
To hear you guys up for Saturday's preseason game against
the Pats, we have two special guests on this episode.
On Wednesday, we sat down with Patriots reporter and analyst
Evan Lazar to dive into the storylines and takeaways.
Speaker 2 (00:43):
But first we're gonna hear from.
Speaker 1 (00:44):
One of the most respected football journalists, the athletics senior
NFL writer Jordan Rodrig. She has some exciting pieces coming
out on her website, but she's also followed the Los
Angeles Rams beat for several years, so she knows head
coach Kevin O'Connell and i'll lot of his staff very well.
So let's go outside to our conversation with Jordan. Jordan,
(01:05):
we are so excited to have you. You are going
to also be a part of our Voyage series.
Speaker 3 (01:10):
I'm so excited to be here.
Speaker 4 (01:11):
I keep remarking on, like, how gorgeous the building is.
I have the right coffee, apparently I brought that in today.
I complimented the airport. I'm basically a Minnesota resident now,
so that's.
Speaker 2 (01:23):
Very true, compliment our Caribou coffee. We're good to go.
Speaker 1 (01:26):
Yeah, but you know, bringing you here, a lot of
ties that you have from your journalistic background covering the Rams.
You know, Kevin O'Connell and a lot of people that
are building really well why come out this year? Are
you working on something special?
Speaker 4 (01:41):
Yeah, a couple of things, and everyone's been so gracious
to help me out with those things. I think that
this is a team that's really on the forefront of
a lot of ideas that are important in the.
Speaker 3 (01:50):
NFL and football right now.
Speaker 4 (01:52):
Overall, Kevin O'Connell certainly on the offensive side, but also
on the defensive side with what Brian Flores is doing
with the most radical defense in the NFL right now.
And it's also becoming a quarterback development factory and that'll be.
Speaker 3 (02:06):
Really interesting to see with with.
Speaker 4 (02:08):
JJ McCarthy and then overall the organization is a fascinating
study in the combination of team building and modern yet
old school culture at the same time, it's just a
fascinating place to be. When I was organizing my training
camp schedule this year, I was like, I got to
spend as much time as possible out there.
Speaker 1 (02:25):
Yeah, it kind of sounds like you come here to
be a bit of a sponge. When you mentioned the
hot word quarterback development, and so obviously JJ McCarthy, Kevin O'Connell,
they're very excited about that. JJ McCarthy wanting to be
here and only here. He's made that very clear. So
how have you seen that play out from your vantage
point being more of like on the national level.
Speaker 3 (02:46):
It's interesting.
Speaker 4 (02:47):
I don't think that the outside is as patient with
quarterbacks as they should be. What's kind of neat is
in here in Minnesota they are very patient with the
quarterback development process. It is the perfect place for a
quarterback to get not only the master's degree, but the
PhD and the five hundred and six hundred level coursework
on being a quarterback and everything that it means in
the NFL right now. And I think it's really interesting
(03:09):
because there is such a focus and a care on
specifically that development. It's going to be so important that
JJ McCarthy gets has all of the right steps in
place for him as he continues to grow, and that
he sort of shielded a little bit away from like
the national people, and he shielded a little bit away
from the expectations, because the expectation is to learn, it's
(03:30):
to grow, it's to develop. Now, when you have a
coach like Kevin O'Connell, coordinator like West Phillips, you're going
to obviously have some advantages.
Speaker 3 (03:37):
You're going to fast track a little bit in some
of that development.
Speaker 4 (03:40):
But it's so important to strike that balance of competition
and going and trying to win football games and being
this modern and very explosive scheme that they've had while
also not skipping any steps for that young quarterback. And
I think striking that balance has been a fascinating study,
not just this year but last year too, trying to
balance or winning a lot of football games. You know,
(04:01):
if you're the Vikings and then you're also developing a
young quarterback at the same time behind the scenes. So
it's so interesting to me this sort of two year
process and now first year really on the field. It's
been interesting and you can kind of see him growing
in confidence as time passes, which I think is important
too for young guy.
Speaker 3 (04:17):
Why do you.
Speaker 1 (04:18):
Think Kevin O'Connell is able to strike that balance.
Speaker 4 (04:22):
I think he understands quarterbacks. I mean, obviously from his
own experience. I have always had this theory about him,
from watching him work with veterans and young players, players
who are struggling and need to revive their career, or
players who are on maybe the back five years of
their career and want to go push to the next
level for the first time. It's like he wants to
(04:45):
be who he didn't have as a coach, and he
had some great coaches, but he wants to that extra
step forward. That level of education, combined with understanding of
the player as a player as a person, how you
can get at the most out of that person without
making them feel as if they exist to be have
(05:05):
the most gotten out of them, if that makes sense,
Like a very non transactional relationship. How you can grow
somebody while building their confidence without being unrealistic with them,
while being brutal on them, sometimes being tough on them,
but also with the expectation that that's functional and that's
necessary for growth. I think that he's always tried to
(05:25):
be that person for the quarterbacks he's worked with specifically,
and it just so happens that he can call a
really good offense and build a really good culture. So yeah,
that's why he's a head coach.
Speaker 3 (05:34):
But I think that element of it.
Speaker 4 (05:36):
We're starting to understand more about the position than I
think we used to in terms of all the little
nuances of it, and Kevin is really at the forefront
of sort of preaching that.
Speaker 2 (05:44):
That's so interesting that you say that. And I think
another thing.
Speaker 1 (05:47):
We all know he likes to throw the ball right,
but he has really tried to We are that league now,
but he's also trying to build it off of a
better run game. He says, talks about an improved run
game over and over again. When you look at the
pieces the Vikings have added this offseason, how much did
that reflect that commitment.
Speaker 4 (06:06):
I mean, sneaking Jordan Mason out of San Francisco in
the dead of night has got to be one of
the most objectively funny things in terms of like, how
did everyone just let that happen? Because I think He's
a perfect fit for this system. You know, Kevin has
talked about wanting to run the ball, and it just
(06:26):
hasn't quite in the year's past, hasn't quite gotten to
the level that is required to really make his offense
sing the way that he wants it to. Despite the
impressive statistics in the past game and the you know,
not league low stats in the run game, but certainly
you want to lift that floor a little bit. And
I think not only with the personnel additions, but also
(06:50):
really committing to it, really committing to that physicality, really
committing to trying to move people at the line of scrimmage,
make identifying that as a resource that was needed as well,
and then finding a running back who just fits. He
just fits here, he just works. And I think that
that's going to be really interesting to watch that come
to life, and it has to. That's the best thing
(07:11):
JJ McCarthy can have is a stable run game.
Speaker 1 (07:14):
Yes, definitely, And obviously we'll conversely talk about the defensive
side of things. Brian Flores back at the Helm, that
consistency in the building for a lot of those guys,
and to think that Jonathan Grenard and Andrew Vank Gingkle
is their first year in this scheme. Obviously Van Goingle
a little bit more experienced from Miami, and now they're
all going.
Speaker 2 (07:32):
Into year two.
Speaker 1 (07:32):
You've got Dallas Turner, the additions in the front and
the interior defensive line. What are the expectations for this group?
Can they take a step forward?
Speaker 4 (07:41):
It's so interesting that they already came in so high
and now they're like preparing to exit the atmosphere right now.
Speaker 3 (07:49):
I mean this defense.
Speaker 4 (07:50):
The first day that I was here watching practice, I sat,
I took an all twenty two look behind the defensive
field and I just charted the entire thing.
Speaker 3 (07:59):
I position movements and drew arrows where all the players were.
Speaker 4 (08:04):
Moving and rotating and all of these pre snap and
post snap looks that they show. And it is terrifying.
I'll just say that objectively, but it is so much fun.
It's a beautiful thing to watch. How alive this defense is.
It is it has like a heartbeat collectively, and that's
something that's so important. And we talk about analytics, we
(08:25):
talk about stats, we talk about all these things technique
and scheme and all this, but having a defense that
is its own shared heartbeat, that play as players, like say,
play on a line together where you have so much
of this nonverbal communication that's necessary to actually make this
defense come to life. Veteran players and players who are
such fines, homegrown fines. I think of Josh Mattelis, who
(08:47):
is just the perfect do it all player for this
defense and was just sort of biding his time and
waiting for his opportunity within this own the same roster.
And it's a beautiful thing when you have a mix
of play who believe in what they're doing. And oh,
by the way, it is terrifying watching these guys come
(09:08):
off the line of scrimmage. I mean, the pass rush
was already good. I mean, okay, let's just add more people.
How about that?
Speaker 3 (09:14):
Like so they just keep letting them do it? You know, yes,
they do so.
Speaker 1 (09:17):
I guess with that being said, what are your expectations
for this Minnesota Vikings team?
Speaker 2 (09:22):
What can they accomplish this year?
Speaker 3 (09:24):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (09:24):
I think that because the nature of a young quarterback
who's developing, you're gonna see the defense have to lead
the way I think right away in these early months,
you're gonna have to see them tone set and you
want that if you're this culture that they've built together
under Kevin and Brian Flores as a collaboration. You want
to be able to lean on that group as the
ones who are going to tone set your.
Speaker 3 (09:45):
Start out of the gate.
Speaker 4 (09:46):
And as you get settled, as you're the young quarterback,
and as you understand what it is like to play
in real NFL games that count for something over the
course of time, and you settle into your habits and
you settle into your workflow, that's when I think you're
gonna start to see the wind come out into the
sales of the offense a little bit.
Speaker 3 (10:01):
I don't think that they will be bad out of
the gate.
Speaker 4 (10:05):
I think that their floor is very very high, certainly
on both sides of the ball. But this offense, even
with the unknown at quarterbacks, still extremely high floor for them.
But you are going to see I think a JJ
McCarthy who's going to start feeling more confident, who's going
to start to have a little bit of that gamer
come out of him as time passes, because that's what
the culture is here. And I think that's important to
(10:25):
be patient. If you're a fan with reasonable expectation, this
is still going to be a very good offense right away,
but to understand that once the collective comes together, once
the offense and the defense meet each other during that
time of year, this is going to be one of
the best teams in football.
Speaker 3 (10:39):
I have no doubt about that.
Speaker 1 (10:40):
Well, thank you so much, love the optimism, and thanks
for coming to visit us here. We really enjoyed it.
You can look for more of her work at the
Athletic dot com. Jordan Rodger, thank you again.
Speaker 3 (10:49):
Thank you for having me. It's a pleasure.
Speaker 1 (10:51):
We've got to take a quick break here on MVP,
but we've got Patriots writer Evan Lazar after the BREAKO
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Speaker 2 (11:11):
There's a spalon close to you.
Speaker 1 (11:13):
Visit online at spelon dot com. Thanks for listening to MVP.
Up next, we have our second guest of the episode.
Patriots reporter and analyst Evan Lazard, checks in with us
from Trading Camp. Well, Evan, thank you so much for
joining us today.
Speaker 5 (11:30):
Happy to be here.
Speaker 2 (11:30):
I know, you've had a long day so far.
Speaker 1 (11:33):
You wake up, you walk the short walk from the
Omni Hotel over here to the facility. Yeah, what were
your first impressions of TCO twin Cy's Orthopedics Performance Center
and the Viking setup that we got going on?
Speaker 5 (11:47):
This is impressive. It's really impressive.
Speaker 6 (11:50):
And we had heard about how impressive it was from
the player surveys and things like that, so we knew
we were coming to a cool facility and we were
all wondering compare it to the Raiders and the Dolphins
also have great facilities.
Speaker 5 (12:03):
You guys might have the number one spot. This is
a great setup.
Speaker 2 (12:06):
He hasn't seen it all yet, no, but it is.
It is really really fun.
Speaker 1 (12:11):
I think to see how other players, excuse me, how
their teams, you know, run their practice, how they how
they're set up, where the players go, and it's it's
from your point of view. The ability for your team,
the Patriots, to uproot everything they've been doing at camp
and bring it on the road here.
Speaker 2 (12:30):
That must have been a really big lift.
Speaker 5 (12:32):
Oh yeah, one hundred percent.
Speaker 6 (12:33):
I mean we took two plans to get here, so
there was a lot of us and a lot of equipment,
and I will just say that our equipment stuff is
just incredible, and we do a lot of really great
work trying to amplify that and show them behind the
scenes with our video team and stuff like that. And
it's fascinating to watch them work and at the long
(12:54):
hours in the season that they put in. Sometimes you're
not going home, like during regular season weeks and stuff
like that. So it's incredible to see how they uproot everything.
And I'm sure they I think they ship a lot
of stuff ahead of time to try to get ahead
of it. But over at the OMNI, they have rooms
for each position group and then everybody's got a hotel
(13:14):
room obviously, so there's a whole setup. Now we kind
of took over the hotel for the week, so it's cool.
Speaker 3 (13:21):
That is really cool.
Speaker 1 (13:21):
At least it's convenient, Yes, exactly, not too far, it's great.
So your first observations of camp as far as like Erthio's,
everyone seemed to be gelling well, not too many moments
where you were a little worried it would get too overheated.
Speaker 2 (13:38):
Things like that. Everything seemed to be pretty well.
Speaker 5 (13:40):
What were your thoughts on it?
Speaker 6 (13:41):
Yeah, yeah, it was a really good competitive practice, and
I think from a Patriots perspective, it's refreshing to be
able to say that there was a back and forth,
because frankly, the last couple of years, there hasn't been
as much of that in some of these joint practices
and the practice that we all go back to last year,
the Eagles came to Foxborough for a joint practice and
they took it to us pretty good, and it was
(14:04):
very clear that one team was about to win the
Super Bowl and one team was about to pick in
the top five. So the fact that these practices last
week with the Commanders and then today with Minnesota have
been competitive and the Patriots have made some plays and
the Vikings certainly made some plays today, that's a good
sign of progress for Mike Rabel, who's also been fantastic
(14:24):
and has just been a ton of fun. So in general,
I would say the team's mood, everything around the team
is very very positive right now. But as Rabel has
said in the past, we haven't played any games yet,
haven't lost any games yet, so we'll see how it goes.
Speaker 1 (14:38):
It's funny I covered the Titans for three years when
Mike Rabel was with the team. So I feel like
a lot of his isms are still the same. The
humor is still there. If you watch his press conference,
the humor is still there.
Speaker 4 (14:50):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (14:50):
And I love that he.
Speaker 1 (14:51):
Was asked about Kevin O'Connell and their time on the
Patriots together and he's like, well, yeah, I'll tell you
what I said about Cliff Kingsbury. He's no Tom Brady.
But it is kind of interesting to see these guys
that have been in the league former coaches become head coaches.
And obviously it's worked before, and I wanted to kind
of get your perspective on the way that the Patriots
(15:15):
have changed from obviously Belichick to Girod Mayo to now
Mike Rabel, Like how that transition has been for you guys.
Speaker 6 (15:22):
Yeah, I would say that obviously Mayo and Rabel are
cut from the same cloth as Belichick, so they have
some elements about them that are very much like Bill.
But the bad thing I with Rabel that we have
noticed is just his knowledge of every single aspect of
the organization, not just x's and o's or you know,
(15:42):
being able to motivate guys, but also just how to
run a ship. You know, how to steer the ship
in the right direction, and that stabilization has been felt
around the entire team, which has been really good. He
does like to bust chops, which is fun for us.
Sometimes you got to be on your toes. But I
would say that is the number one thing that stands
(16:03):
out is that he's got his hand in everything, and
he's got that ability a lot like Belichick did to
really be a CEO of the football team. And you know,
he's a great excess in O his mine too, But
that's a thing from a head coach perspective. And then
I would also just say, you know, one of his
non negotiables the day that he got hired and was introduced,
(16:25):
one of the things that he said was that he
wants the team to play with great effort and finish.
Those are two buzzwords that they're right up on in
the meeting rooms and things like that at Jillette Stadium.
So going and seeing you know, them put it a
pretty good performance together against Washington in the first preseason game,
and then today the effort that they put, you know,
against the Vikings that is rubbing off on the players
(16:46):
and you can sort of see the team starting to
take on his identity effort in finish.
Speaker 1 (16:51):
That's something that I think this administration here at the
Vikings also really really emphasizes. Could be from the whole
coaching background of to O'Connell's time in New England, but
I do think it's really appropriate or appropriate that you
bring that up as far as how it applied to
today's practices, because no matter what if it looked like
(17:11):
it was gonna be a tackle, there was no contact.
They allowed players to finish all the way to the end,
which provided some exciting moments. Mac Collins with the touchdown
and the ball punting.
Speaker 5 (17:22):
Yes.
Speaker 1 (17:23):
And then I was on the far side, so I
was looking more at the Vikings offense. But then all
of a sudden, I see j Ward with an interception
and he punted the ball too, So it was like
paying back. I guess to each other, what were your observations?
I saw you watching the Patriots offense against the Vikings
number one defense. What are your observations from that side
of the field.
Speaker 6 (17:41):
Yeah, so I actually my partner in crime, Mike do So.
He's a big defense guy and I'm a big offense guy.
Speaker 5 (17:47):
So it works.
Speaker 6 (17:48):
He goes and watches the defense and I watched the
offense and then we come together and compare notes at
the end. But in terms of the Vikings defense, he
can't talk about this practice in my opinion, and not
talk about the pressure that was on Drake May. The
Vikings really did put a lot of pressure on him.
It's always difficult in practice. Was it a sack what
you have gotten out of there? You know, those types
(18:08):
of things. But there were four or five times where
it seemed like Drake May was in the grasp of
a Viking defender. You know, you guys know the names
Greenherd and Hargrave and Dallas Turner and all those guys.
Brian Flores obviously schemes up a great defense and that
was a big challenge the Patriots. On Monday during their
practice back home, they actually did some in game in
(18:30):
season scripting to game plan Brian Flores's defense, and we asked,
you know, Vrabel about it this morning, and he said
he thought it would be unfair for it to be
the first time that the offense was looking at this
type of defense to be here and joint practices on
Wednesday and Thursday, so they actually did some scout team
work on Monday It was the first time they had
(18:52):
done that all training camp to try to get ready
for Brian Flores because they knew how exotic and how
different the scheme was going to be. That tells you
right there how much respect the Patriots coaching staff has
for Brian Flores. So it was a challenge, absolutely a challenge.
Speaker 1 (19:06):
Yeah, just one of the many names for the crossovers
between the Vikings and the Patriots right now. So I
think I'd be remiss if I didn't mention Stefan Diggs
And you said, you're an offensive guy. So what's it
been like with Digs, who obviously is mister Minneapolis miracle himself. Yeah.
Speaker 6 (19:23):
Absolutely, he's pretty loved around here, I would assume, which
for a good reason. So he's been obviously on this
little bit of a plan with the ACL and coming
back from the ASL. But I have just been wowed
by how quickly he has recovered from the injury. I
thought that there was no chance he would be practicing
in full in training camp, and he was out there,
(19:45):
no pup list, nothing, day one a training camp and
he was healthy and ready to go, which is incredible.
We went through this with Kendrick boorran ourselves a year ago,
and it took Kendrick a long time to get back
on the field, and he missed most of training camp,
and the injuries happened right around the same time in
October of this previous season. So to put those against
(20:05):
one another and see how quickly Digs his bounce back
has been incredible.
Speaker 5 (20:10):
There are times where.
Speaker 6 (20:11):
I feel like practice he's he's Stefon Diggs and he
knows that he'll be ready to go when the games
actually start, the count and things like that. But then
all of a sudden, he'll turn it on and for
a period, you know, a series of plays or one
on ones or seven on sevens like he did today,
and you start to see that old Steph Diggs come out,
and he's just the best player on the field, you know,
(20:32):
in those moments. As a Patriots reporter and you know, fan,
it's pretty cool to have the Patriots with the receiver
of his caliber, because it's been a while since we
could say that, yeah, and it's it's nice to see.
I would say he's probably the best receiver of the
Patriots have had since Julian Edelman retired and Julian Edelman
retired in twenty twenty, so it's been that long. Yeah,
(20:56):
so it's been a while. He's actually going into our
team Hall of Fame next month. That's how long it's been. No,
not that second perfect.
Speaker 5 (21:03):
Yeah. Yeah, so it's cool.
Speaker 1 (21:05):
Well, that's so interesting you say that because you obviously
take Drake May in the first round of the draft
last year, and you want to be able to put
a quarterback in a manageable situation and set them up
for success. It's something that Kevin O'Connell really has emphasized
for us this offseason because he says so much of
(21:26):
the pieces they added on the line and they have
so many weapons, and so really that quarterback position like
manage the game, do your job, do what's necessary for
you because you have all these veteran pieces around you.
Speaker 2 (21:38):
Whereas Drake May didn't really.
Speaker 1 (21:40):
Have that situation as much, but now he has to
find digs right. However, he really had a fantastic rookie
campaign even given that situation. How have you seen him mature?
I guess in this camp, especially now that maybe he'll
have a little bit more of a weapon out there.
Speaker 4 (21:58):
Yeah.
Speaker 6 (21:59):
Yeah, it's a great question. And then it's cool to see.
Last week we had Daniels in town, Jade and Daniels's training.
This week we're going up against JJ. So it's like
the twenty twenty four rookie class up against one another
every single week. And so that's been cool to see
what the progress and where everybody.
Speaker 2 (22:16):
Is and yeah, that's a stack, yeah.
Speaker 6 (22:18):
Right, And I think it's similar to what I've heard about,
you know, JJ McCarthy, where it's not the development is
not linear, right, It's not like Drake May's arrow is
always pointed upwards and every single day is great or
the other way, you know, hopefully not as well. But
it's not like that. It's there are some peaks and
valleys to his development. But with Josh McDaniels now back
(22:40):
with the Patriots, I think there's a lot of optimism
of Josh's ability to develop a quarterback and work with
quarterbacks and things like that. So the difference I was
between Drake this year and last year's there's a lot
more on his plate at the line of scrimmage in
this offense than the old offense that he was in
as a rookie. As a rookie under Alex Van Pelt,
(23:00):
the center controlled the line of scrimmage and the center
was making all the calls and changing all the protections
and the mic points and all that stuff. Now that's
on the quarterback, So that's all on Drake May. So
it's a situation where we're all interested to see how
he handles that, because, honestly, Tom Brady was Tom Brady,
and the fact that he could get up there and
(23:20):
he could be that field general and get everybody pointed
in the right direction was an elite trade of his.
So to put that on a second year quarterback who's
a different player and just a different guy is a
question mark. I think for the Patriots moving forward, how
much do they want to put on his plate. They'll
have to balance that. But he's had some moments, just
like he had his rookie season where you see that
(23:42):
franchise quarterback potential. Consistency is the name of the game,
and he talks about it all the time. Can they
be consistent down to down because he can make throws
that are rare, you know, that are top five, top
ten quarterback in the league type of throws, but he
needs to be more consistent.
Speaker 1 (24:00):
New center. I mean, that's the same one. It's a
name that Vikings fans will find very familiar. Garrett Bradberry
is the starting center right now on the Patriots depth chart.
How have you seen their relationship blossom?
Speaker 6 (24:12):
Yeah, I really enjoyed getting to cover Garrett Bradberry. He's
been a really good quote and just a cool guy
to be fun. Yeah, And he's he's been really a
pros pro since he got to New England. And I
think he's taking a lot of pride in the fact
that he knows that there's a young quarterback back there
and trying to help Drake May along here and all
those types of things. And I also think that way
(24:34):
it ended here like Garrett Bradbury has something to prove
himself about that he still belongs in this league and
that he's still a starting caliber player in the league.
So there's a little bit of, you know, both those
buckets for Garrett Bradbury right now. But I've seen him
really try his best to take Drake May under his wing.
And in some ways, as I was talking about the
(24:54):
way that the scheme works in terms of the setup,
I do think Garrett Bradbury's had to pull back a
little bit because it's not his responsibility necessarily to have
that final say so, that's been a fun conversation with him,
where he's like, this is the least amount of pre
snap responsibility I've ever had, you know, and trying to
balance that with what he's done in the past.
Speaker 3 (25:14):
Well that's pretty cool.
Speaker 2 (25:15):
Yeah, he was such a great guy.
Speaker 3 (25:16):
I love the guys.
Speaker 1 (25:18):
Got to see him today, which is Wednesday, we're taping this.
Got to see a lot of I think he made
his rounds and spoke to the media as well today,
said hello to everyone.
Speaker 2 (25:28):
Let's look ahead to Saturday.
Speaker 1 (25:31):
Is there a name that or a position metal that
people on the Vikings, you know, camp should have their
eye on when they're watching the preseason game.
Speaker 6 (25:39):
So wide receiver is always going to be a question
for the Patriots or an area of You can write
a piece about wide receivers and it will click better
than any piece if any position, because people in New
England are just starving for them to have good receivers.
Speaker 5 (25:52):
Again.
Speaker 6 (25:53):
Obviously Diggs is a big part of that, but Demario
Douglas has had a really nice camp too, and he
fits right into that Josh McDaniel's slot receiver role that
we've seen Edelman and Welker and Troy Brown going all
the way back. So that's been a role that's been
a high volume role and one that's been really productive.
And you see Pop's ability on those quick hitters. We
(26:13):
even saw it a little bit today where he can
get open quickly off the line of scrimmage and give
Drake May those fast completions off the line, and that's
the Josh McDaniels offense, and that's what they're trying to do.
Speaker 5 (26:24):
So in general, that.
Speaker 6 (26:25):
Depth chart, you know digs Pop Kaishawn Boody, Matt Collins,
and then there's a lot of conversations in New England
about who are the fifth and sixth guys gonna be
in that room. They have an undrafted rookie named Efton
Chisholm who is a clone of Julian Edelman and Danny A. Mendola,
so he's kind of got that thing going on. Javon Baker,
(26:46):
who's probably saw a little bit of today. He's trying
to compete and make the roster as a fourth round
pick last year. So that's a I hesitated to say
a deep room because I think we're still questioning how
much talent is truly in that room based off of
how things have gone. But there's a lot of numbers
in that room and trying to figure out the five
or six guys that are going to keep is difficult.
Speaker 1 (27:08):
Well, I hope that you enjoy your time here in
Minnesota Thursday. Let's hope for another you know, fun, lively environment,
some good weather for you on Friday, because you're going
to be here absolutely in Minnesota and Rex with a
whole day to do.
Speaker 2 (27:21):
I mean, yeah, you gotta. I'll give you some restaurants
or something that you guys gotta got to hit up.
Speaker 1 (27:26):
But yeah, and we are really excited about Saturday noon
kick so then you guys look get home at a
decent hour.
Speaker 6 (27:33):
Yeah, it sounds like it, which is rare for a
preseason usually their night games. So it's a good, good,
all around fun week and then a good early kickoff.
Speaker 5 (27:42):
So I'll take it.
Speaker 1 (27:43):
Well, thank you Evan so much for your time. Really
appreciate it and enjoy your visit in Minnesota.
Speaker 5 (27:47):
Thank you, thanks for having me.
Speaker 1 (27:48):
That will wrap up today's episode of MVP, but a
big thank you to our guests as well as a
big thank you to you all of the fans who
made it out to the twenty twenty five Vikings training camp.
It was a wild ride and we've had so much
fun hosting you.
Speaker 2 (28:03):
Here in Egan.
Speaker 1 (28:05):
Now it's time to look forward to Saturday's preseason game
number two kickoffs at for noon right here at US
Bank Stadium. You can't make it, you can watch it
live on Fox nine or listen to the Vikings Radio
Network on KFN.
Speaker 2 (28:17):
Thanks for tuning in and we'll see you guys next week.
Speaker 1 (28:23):
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elite laser hair removal, body contouring, botox, cosmetic filler, and
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(28:44):
com backslash Vikings for exclusive offers to Vikings fans
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