November 27, 2020 • 20 mins
Listen to the audio version of 'Xs and Os with Mike Zimmer,' which airs on KFAN and the Vikings Radio Network each Wednesday night, with this week featuring GM Rick Spielman filling in for Coach Zimmer to talk with PA about facing Teddy Bridgewater this Sunday, the on-going battle across the NFL with COVID-19, Adam Thielen's highly-successful season so far, what makes Dalvin Cook so special and more.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
We're very happy to be joined by Minnesota Vikings general
manager Rick Spielman joining us again this week. And Rick,
first of all, and early happy Thanksgiving to you and
your family. And secondly, has this been a more difficult
week than usual for you guys due to COVID and
how things are over there? Yeah, No, we're dealing with
(00:23):
COVID on an almost on a daily basis. Now. I
know the league just send new updated protocol. It's going
to even get more restrictive here in the building. You know,
we had a tier system that we're at. One hundred
people were allowed in the building, where you have to
cut that down to seventy. Now most of that will
be coaches, all the football operations. But more importantly, Bob
(00:47):
Hagan's been in here and really hammering on how many
PR people that we need for this, for this COVID
protocol and to still get out great content that we
do to our fans. Yeah, people will understand if if
Hagen blurts out time for no more when it comes
to like people in the building. Look, I told him
(01:07):
that when we asked for twenty PR people, twenty well
where I thought it was twenty six only cow but anyway,
you aren't on the list, Pa, Yeah, that's okay, that's fine.
Obviously you didn't go alphabetically and last time I was
on the list. We want a playoff game, but we digress.
Masks mandatory in the bench area unless you're set to
(01:30):
enter game. So the NFL and you guys have done
such wonderful work Rick to safely push through this. Is
it becoming more difficult with the changes in the weather. Yeah,
I think you just see it across the country, just
the rise in the COVID cases, especially up in our
area of the country and the surrounding states around us.
(01:52):
So we're doing everything we can from a precautionary standpoint
to try to keep everybody and their families as safe
as possible. So I know the NFL mandated mask wearing
on the sidelines. The other thing that's going to change
this week is in the past, whether you're traveler or
at home, you always had your entire practice squad available
(02:14):
that if you did get a COVID outbreak or a
coast contact that was deemed ineligible to play, you were
able to replace him with one of your practice sixteen
practice squad players. That's a total of sixty nine and
they're going to cut that down to sixty two. So
every Saturday we have to submit our sixty two players
(02:35):
that are going to be potentially eligible to play for
the first time in the history of exosnos. We have
a couple of questions that have come in. The first
is from a Jay Nelson Egan, Minnesota, and Jay wants
to know, Rick, is this a day by day sweat
for you guys? I mean it's every single day. How
(02:55):
do you combat it? I mean, prayer, deep breath, sleep,
How do you combat the day to day sweat? Well,
you know, you just come in. I think the NFL
and the NFLPA has done a great job as far
as putting protocol in place, and it's just a matter
of doing the right thing, and not only here in
(03:16):
the building, but even when you're outside the building. Is
just you know, wearing your masks, social distancing, washing your hands,
all the things that can help alleviate some of its
pressure that is putting on our hospitals and all those
great people that are trying to take care of us.
So if we can do the things in this building
(03:36):
and even outside of this building to help alleviate some
of that hopefully, you know, when these vaccines start coming
through and we can get through this pandemic. I know
everybody is COVID exhausted to say the least, but excited
that hopefully down the road here we'll be able to
get back to some kind of normal And Vaughan Saint Paul, Minnesota, Paul,
(04:00):
are you're ever going to talk to the GM about Jeddy?
I can do that. Here comes Jeddy Bridgewater. You trade
it up to get him in Zimmer's first year, won
a division with him in the second year. That August
Tuesday in twenty sixteen, when he went down at Winter Park.
I mean that that's one that you'll never forget, right, No,
(04:20):
that's that's one that was devastating, not only for Teddy
but for us as an organization, and not only what
type of football player that Teddy is, but what he
stands for off the field, his leadership. It was just
devastating for our ball club and for him. But it's
(04:40):
great to see Teddy playing again. You know, I've got
an opportunity to watch some tape on him this week.
He's moving around in a pocket. Well, he does a
great job getting the ball out of his hands. They
do a great job with their quick rhythm passing game,
you know, and they you know, they got a lot
of great receivers. They got some young receivers there that
(05:03):
are able to catch the ball and they do a
great job getting an upfield and they're one of the
probably more challenging group of receivers as far as being
able to get extra yards after the catch. Rick with
Teddy specifically that year you won the division? Is it
fair to say with Teddy like he's never going to
be the three fifty and three guy every single week,
(05:26):
but he's also probably never he's not gonna dagger games
with dumb mistakes week after week. Is that there? Yeah,
I would say it's a fair assessment. Teddy's a very
smart football player. He reads defenses very well, he gets
the ball out of his hands, and he's doing a
good job for him down there in Carolina. How you know,
(05:47):
I know you hate losing. The Dallas loss was a
spine tingler. You know, then you've had a rough COVID
week or either there around the NFL off. That Dallas game,
it was the bounce back quickly for you. Now well
that those games are hard because I think we're in
three games this year where you had the leads in
the fourth quarter, and you know, we just gotta and
(06:09):
co Zimmer of emphasize we just gotta finish games because
we're right there to finish these games. And I think
that's part of us growing as a football team. And
I know that's a point of emphasis this week. But
Carolina coming in, you know, they're going to be a
tough opponent. Like I said, they're very fishing on offense.
They got a couple of young athletic players on defense
(06:30):
that they've drafted. So it's going to be a challenge
and we have to play our best game of the
season going into the Rick Spielman, general manager for the
Minnesota Vikings. This is x's and O's on the KFA
and Minnesota Vikings radio network and Vikings fans. Purchase any
twenty ounce Pepsi branded product from Quick Trip with your
rewards card enter the Vikings Opening Drive sweepstakes. No purchase necessary.
(06:53):
See store for details. Adam Dealing, Adam Dealing, Holy Cow
eleven touchdowns tops in the NFL for receivers. You watch
all the snaps, Rick, what has been especially good with
Adam this year? Well, I think that the more mature
he's gotten in the older he's gotten. He does a
great job setting up defensive backs. He's a great route runner.
(07:18):
He may not be the fastest or the strongest, but
he knows how to set up a dB. He knows
how to get into and out of his cuts. And
you're seeing even the touchdown the one hand and catch
in the back of the end zone last week. His
concentration and his ability to catch the ball, especially in
contested situation is second to none. And that's why, not
only is he able to do that on the field,
(07:42):
but it's all the work ethic, it's everything that he
puts in to make him the best player he can be,
and that's showing up every Sunday for us. How how
is having Justin helped Adam this year? Well, I think
Adam's kind of taking that leadership role just and brings
a little bit different dynamic. You know, Justin's averaging i
(08:04):
think almost nineteen twenty yards a catch. He's showing ability
to make some spectacular type plays. He's got great ball
range as far as being able to go up and
get the ball. And the one thing that Justin does
is he's great after the catch. For a longer guy.
He has ability to make people miss in space, and
(08:26):
I think he's seen in a couple of these games
when he gets hit, he's always going forward, and he's
got a lot of power even though he's a linear
type athlete, and he's got explosive playmaking ability. Yeah, it's
you know, certainly not speaking for you, but it was
my thought calling the game. Tough to get mad adjustin
at the end of that Dallas game, he dropped a
pass that he needs to catch. But he's so good
(08:48):
and so young, it's tough tough to get mad at him.
Is that there? Well, yeah, that's part of the game.
I mean, I'm sure there's a lot of great players
in here that had a fumble with a certain point
in the game, or through an interest after a certain
point in the game, or how to drop That's just
that's football. You, by the way, are the first who
told me, I believe before the combine the twenty twenty
(09:11):
wide receiver draft looks like maybe the greatest in the
history of the NFL. And now they played ten games,
ten to eleven whatever. Games. Holy gal, seriously, I mean
it's so deep, isn't it. Yeah, we knew coming out
just how deep this class was going to be. And
it's great to see all these guys having success. And
(09:32):
you know, Clay Polver and Pittsburgher has had a great year.
So there's been all these young guys here that come
in were explosive playmakers coming out of college, and you're
hoping to see that transition into the NFL. The thing
that you were a little hesitant on was because they
missed all the offseason program. We didn't have any OTAs
(09:54):
we came into training camp, we didn't have any preseason games,
so you didn't know for sure. But now after the
first three, four or five ball games, which technically in
that early part of the season is their preseason because
they're just figuring out what the NFL is about. But
now you're seeing all these guys starting to blossom and
become the players that everybody anticipated and anticipated that they
(10:17):
would be. Vikings in Carolina Sunday noon from US Bank
Stadium and the pregame is at ten am. Rick Spielman,
general manager for the Minnesota Vikings, kind enough to join
us for this week's XS and ohs. And you know
when it comes to Dalvin Cook, Seriously, when Dalvin is healthy.
I mean you just plug him in and just like
(10:39):
watch him go right. Yeah. No, he's a great player.
And what makes him so great is not only he's
not one dimensional when he gets the ball in his hands,
whether it is running the ball, when you see him
on some of the toss sweeps that we do to
get him and to use his athletic ability in speed
and space, you see him make explosive plays in the
(10:59):
past game and even a part that probably gets overlooked
a little bit of people do not notice as what
he does in pass protection when he has to stay in.
So he is definitely one of those complete backs that's
a three down back as we describe him, that can
really have an impact on the game in all three
of those phases. And you st weekend and week out. Rick,
(11:21):
dear friend, good buddy, old pal. Do you believe in Jinxes?
I believe in just putting your head down and keep
moving forward. Well, I mean, if you had, if you
believe in Jinxes, or anybody listening or watching does now,
I do believe. I owe you an apology. It was
pre game, before the Dallas game. I love Jeff Kladney.
(11:42):
This was a theme on exes and ohs for me
was Zimmer early in the season when he was making
mistake after a mistake, And I like Chris Boyd a
lot you and I remember you guys last year he's
on the scout team. You're just loving what he's doing
at the end of the season. So I'm in on
both those guys. On the pregame show up to the
Dallas game, I decided to put together a little celebratory
(12:02):
segment for Chris Boyd mentioning two hundred and twenty one snaps,
zero penalties. That's very well done. That was into the game,
so I think just the correct I think all his penalties,
both as penalties came on special teams, so they weren't
on defense. Yeah. I just wanted to clear my mind
with that. I like Chris, I love Jeff and so
(12:25):
now we've got that clear into the holidays. That's all good.
I'm sorry. Rick Pieman, general manager for the Vikings special teams,
help me with this place. The long snapper Andrew de Paula,
he hadn't snapped in twenty six months and was perfect.
Is that amazing or like and snapped in twenty six months?
(12:46):
He was perfect during the game amazing or expected from
that position, no matter the layoff. Yeah, no, I think
everybody takes that position for granted because as long as
everything's going, the only thing time you notice him if
there's mistakes, just like sometimes on the offensive line. But
(13:07):
with the protocol, he was actually here for a week.
We had to test him. We weren't able to work
him out till Saturday. We had an early morning workout
Saturday once he completed all the pre entry protocol to
get into the building, and then Saturday afternoon was the
first time that he actually worked with Dan Bailey in Britain.
(13:30):
So and then going into the game Sunday was basically,
you know, you don't know what to expect because one
they've never really worked together. But we thought he came
in and did a great job. Maybe Austin just needs
a little mental break, right, I mean, you drafted him.
I know he had a great season last year, didn't he. Yeah,
And he was snapping very well in the beginning of
the season and he's going through a little bit of
(13:53):
the yips is right now. But we're working continue to
work with him and we have very high expectations of
him going forward. Kyle Rudolph at the stage of his career.
When you watch back these games, Rick, does he have
a little extra pop in his game right now? It's
like when he catches it, he's turning so quick and
getting up the field nicely. Yeah. Now he's done a
great job with his run after catch. Even the older
(14:17):
he gets, the smarter he gets in he knows where
he's most efficient at and he has like no one
questions about his catching radius in his hands and everything.
But he's really made and not a lot of nice
plays for us, especially getting an up field after the catching,
which is so important because when he does that, it
keeps the chains moving. Most of those are turning into
(14:40):
first downs and we get another set of downs to
move forward. You know, I watch back these games and
I'm like, can Eric Wilson do anything else for this team? Seriously?
Block punt, these sacks, for the two fumble recoveries, the interceptions,
I mean, that is it natural with him or like,
like why is that working out so well? He's he's
just a good football player, and he's one of those
(15:02):
type of players that has a nose for the ball
and for whatever reason, he knows how to put himself
in position, probably because he's such an instinctual player, similar
to Eric Kendricks in the interception that you saw this
week that Eric Kendricks made is something that was, you know,
off the charts, and not a lot of players in
the NFL, especially at that position, can make that type
(15:24):
of play. But Eric got his opportunity, you know, when
we unfortunately lost Anthony Barr. But when he got his opportunity,
he has taken full advantage of that and showed you
what type of player and what type of player maker
he is on our defense. What when when he was
at Cincinnati and you got Eric Wilson undrafted, Like, what
(15:46):
did you like about him then? That you have seen
develop over the years all the way back to twenty fifteen,
twenty seven. Yeah, I think it's it's as you know,
the game starts evolving a little bit and you're seeing
more and more these athletic type linebackers that are a
little bit smaller. But you're seeing a lot of these
guys in college that can run, that they can cover,
(16:09):
and Eric was cut one of those guys that fit
the athletic traits we were looking for. Although he may
not have had the ideal height, but He's a two
hundred and thirty pound guy, and you can see his
athletic skill set, but where he really pop for us,
And what we talked about to think on the last
show was that these young guys when they start showing
(16:30):
up on special teams and they have to break down
and make tackles in the open field or do they
have to block. It's almost like pass blocking in open
field on punt return and kickoff return. When you see
their ability to drop their hips to redirect and then
they start making plays with all that space that they
have available to him, that tells you they're going to
(16:52):
have a chance to be a pretty good football player
once they get their opportunity either on offense or defense.
A lot of these guys have not played special teams
in college because they've been, you know, the starter or
playing a lot of the significant time on offense or defense.
So they may have started out like that in college,
but when they come in they already have a lot
(17:15):
of times they have to start from square one again
to understand how important special teams are. And when you
only have you know, right now, we're able to have
forty eight men up on the game day, one has
to be extra one has to be the eighth offensive lineman.
But you have to go out there and if you're
not playing a lot on offense and defense, you have
to help us won games on special teams. If you're
(17:36):
going to be up rick you well, you get to
any college games these days? Or is that a complete no? No? No?
The only just because I cannot miss any testing sequence.
We have to test every day, seven days a week.
I did have an opportunity to go to the Gopher
game versus Iowa two fridays ago and got opportunity to
(17:57):
do a little scouting there. So a lot of our
scouting right now that I'm doing. We have a lot
of game tape in so I'm doing a lot of
studying of the film, you know, just in house this
year because you can't get out and see see these kids.
Last one, speaking of game tape, and I've never asked
you this, and I've known you a decade and a half.
With Zimmer or any coach Monday morning, five five thirty, six,
(18:22):
six thirty, what's it like breaking down a game with Zimmer? Uh?
If we win, it's very pleasant. If we lose, it's
very unpleasant. I mean jokingly, it can be like, why'd
you draft this guy? Well, why'd you run this? Now?
It's something there that's very productive, you know, And it
(18:42):
gives me an opportunity to listen to him talk through
what happened during the game, you know, because I don't
understand or you know, what was called or why it
was called. So he really talks through and it gives
him a chance to go back and reflect on the
game and the things that we did really well, and
also as us, a chance to talk personnel and what
(19:02):
guys are developing, what guys you know, as we start
game planning and looking forward into the future. We talk
personnel every week and that's a great chance for me
and him at five thirty in the morning to sit
and talk through a lot of football. You're awesome man,
Thank you very much. Happy Thanksgiving to you and your family. Okay,
you know, I would bet, pa, happy Thanksgiving to you
(19:25):
and your family that if you took twenty six months
off whatever that stat was, and you came back on
a radio, you'd be just as good as you are today. Wow.
Thank you very much, Rick, and I bet and that's
my Thanksgiving present to you, and I bet if you
took twenty six months off and came into a draft.
You'd hit on all the picks and find all the
(19:45):
Eric Wilsons in college free agency, than I would be
on a beach enjoying my retirement. Can I get some
of that money? All right? See a letter? Thanks,
We're very happy to be joined by Minnesota Vikings general
manager Rick Spielman joining us again this week. And Rick,
first of all, and early happy Thanksgiving to you and
your family. And secondly, has this been a more difficult
week than usual for you guys due to COVID and
how things are over there? Yeah, No, we're dealing with
(00:23):
COVID on an almost on a daily basis. Now. I
know the league just send new updated protocol. It's going
to even get more restrictive here in the building. You know,
we had a tier system that we're at. One hundred
people were allowed in the building, where you have to
cut that down to seventy. Now most of that will
be coaches, all the football operations. But more importantly, Bob
(00:47):
Hagan's been in here and really hammering on how many
PR people that we need for this, for this COVID
protocol and to still get out great content that we
do to our fans. Yeah, people will understand if if
Hagen blurts out time for no more when it comes
to like people in the building. Look, I told him
(01:07):
that when we asked for twenty PR people, twenty well
where I thought it was twenty six only cow but anyway,
you aren't on the list, Pa, Yeah, that's okay, that's fine.
Obviously you didn't go alphabetically and last time I was
on the list. We want a playoff game, but we digress.
Masks mandatory in the bench area unless you're set to
(01:30):
enter game. So the NFL and you guys have done
such wonderful work Rick to safely push through this. Is
it becoming more difficult with the changes in the weather. Yeah,
I think you just see it across the country, just
the rise in the COVID cases, especially up in our
area of the country and the surrounding states around us.
(01:52):
So we're doing everything we can from a precautionary standpoint
to try to keep everybody and their families as safe
as possible. So I know the NFL mandated mask wearing
on the sidelines. The other thing that's going to change
this week is in the past, whether you're traveler or
at home, you always had your entire practice squad available
(02:14):
that if you did get a COVID outbreak or a
coast contact that was deemed ineligible to play, you were
able to replace him with one of your practice sixteen
practice squad players. That's a total of sixty nine and
they're going to cut that down to sixty two. So
every Saturday we have to submit our sixty two players
(02:35):
that are going to be potentially eligible to play for
the first time in the history of exosnos. We have
a couple of questions that have come in. The first
is from a Jay Nelson Egan, Minnesota, and Jay wants
to know, Rick, is this a day by day sweat
for you guys? I mean it's every single day. How
(02:55):
do you combat it? I mean, prayer, deep breath, sleep,
How do you combat the day to day sweat? Well,
you know, you just come in. I think the NFL
and the NFLPA has done a great job as far
as putting protocol in place, and it's just a matter
of doing the right thing, and not only here in
(03:16):
the building, but even when you're outside the building. Is
just you know, wearing your masks, social distancing, washing your hands,
all the things that can help alleviate some of its
pressure that is putting on our hospitals and all those
great people that are trying to take care of us.
So if we can do the things in this building
(03:36):
and even outside of this building to help alleviate some
of that hopefully, you know, when these vaccines start coming
through and we can get through this pandemic. I know
everybody is COVID exhausted to say the least, but excited
that hopefully down the road here we'll be able to
get back to some kind of normal And Vaughan Saint Paul, Minnesota, Paul,
(04:00):
are you're ever going to talk to the GM about Jeddy?
I can do that. Here comes Jeddy Bridgewater. You trade
it up to get him in Zimmer's first year, won
a division with him in the second year. That August
Tuesday in twenty sixteen, when he went down at Winter Park.
I mean that that's one that you'll never forget, right, No,
(04:20):
that's that's one that was devastating, not only for Teddy
but for us as an organization, and not only what
type of football player that Teddy is, but what he
stands for off the field, his leadership. It was just
devastating for our ball club and for him. But it's
(04:40):
great to see Teddy playing again. You know, I've got
an opportunity to watch some tape on him this week.
He's moving around in a pocket. Well, he does a
great job getting the ball out of his hands. They
do a great job with their quick rhythm passing game,
you know, and they you know, they got a lot
of great receivers. They got some young receivers there that
(05:03):
are able to catch the ball and they do a
great job getting an upfield and they're one of the
probably more challenging group of receivers as far as being
able to get extra yards after the catch. Rick with
Teddy specifically that year you won the division? Is it
fair to say with Teddy like he's never going to
be the three fifty and three guy every single week,
(05:26):
but he's also probably never he's not gonna dagger games
with dumb mistakes week after week. Is that there? Yeah,
I would say it's a fair assessment. Teddy's a very
smart football player. He reads defenses very well, he gets
the ball out of his hands, and he's doing a
good job for him down there in Carolina. How you know,
(05:47):
I know you hate losing. The Dallas loss was a
spine tingler. You know, then you've had a rough COVID
week or either there around the NFL off. That Dallas game,
it was the bounce back quickly for you. Now well
that those games are hard because I think we're in
three games this year where you had the leads in
the fourth quarter, and you know, we just gotta and
(06:09):
co Zimmer of emphasize we just gotta finish games because
we're right there to finish these games. And I think
that's part of us growing as a football team. And
I know that's a point of emphasis this week. But
Carolina coming in, you know, they're going to be a
tough opponent. Like I said, they're very fishing on offense.
They got a couple of young athletic players on defense
(06:30):
that they've drafted. So it's going to be a challenge
and we have to play our best game of the
season going into the Rick Spielman, general manager for the
Minnesota Vikings. This is x's and O's on the KFA
and Minnesota Vikings radio network and Vikings fans. Purchase any
twenty ounce Pepsi branded product from Quick Trip with your
rewards card enter the Vikings Opening Drive sweepstakes. No purchase necessary.
(06:53):
See store for details. Adam Dealing, Adam Dealing, Holy Cow
eleven touchdowns tops in the NFL for receivers. You watch
all the snaps, Rick, what has been especially good with
Adam this year? Well, I think that the more mature
he's gotten in the older he's gotten. He does a
great job setting up defensive backs. He's a great route runner.
(07:18):
He may not be the fastest or the strongest, but
he knows how to set up a dB. He knows
how to get into and out of his cuts. And
you're seeing even the touchdown the one hand and catch
in the back of the end zone last week. His
concentration and his ability to catch the ball, especially in
contested situation is second to none. And that's why, not
only is he able to do that on the field,
(07:42):
but it's all the work ethic, it's everything that he
puts in to make him the best player he can be,
and that's showing up every Sunday for us. How how
is having Justin helped Adam this year? Well, I think
Adam's kind of taking that leadership role just and brings
a little bit different dynamic. You know, Justin's averaging i
(08:04):
think almost nineteen twenty yards a catch. He's showing ability
to make some spectacular type plays. He's got great ball
range as far as being able to go up and
get the ball. And the one thing that Justin does
is he's great after the catch. For a longer guy.
He has ability to make people miss in space, and
(08:26):
I think he's seen in a couple of these games
when he gets hit, he's always going forward, and he's
got a lot of power even though he's a linear
type athlete, and he's got explosive playmaking ability. Yeah, it's
you know, certainly not speaking for you, but it was
my thought calling the game. Tough to get mad adjustin
at the end of that Dallas game, he dropped a
pass that he needs to catch. But he's so good
(08:48):
and so young, it's tough tough to get mad at him.
Is that there? Well, yeah, that's part of the game.
I mean, I'm sure there's a lot of great players
in here that had a fumble with a certain point
in the game, or through an interest after a certain
point in the game, or how to drop That's just
that's football. You, by the way, are the first who
told me, I believe before the combine the twenty twenty
(09:11):
wide receiver draft looks like maybe the greatest in the
history of the NFL. And now they played ten games,
ten to eleven whatever. Games. Holy gal, seriously, I mean
it's so deep, isn't it. Yeah, we knew coming out
just how deep this class was going to be. And
it's great to see all these guys having success. And
(09:32):
you know, Clay Polver and Pittsburgher has had a great year.
So there's been all these young guys here that come
in were explosive playmakers coming out of college, and you're
hoping to see that transition into the NFL. The thing
that you were a little hesitant on was because they
missed all the offseason program. We didn't have any OTAs
(09:54):
we came into training camp, we didn't have any preseason games,
so you didn't know for sure. But now after the
first three, four or five ball games, which technically in
that early part of the season is their preseason because
they're just figuring out what the NFL is about. But
now you're seeing all these guys starting to blossom and
become the players that everybody anticipated and anticipated that they
(10:17):
would be. Vikings in Carolina Sunday noon from US Bank
Stadium and the pregame is at ten am. Rick Spielman,
general manager for the Minnesota Vikings, kind enough to join
us for this week's XS and ohs. And you know
when it comes to Dalvin Cook, Seriously, when Dalvin is healthy.
I mean you just plug him in and just like
(10:39):
watch him go right. Yeah. No, he's a great player.
And what makes him so great is not only he's
not one dimensional when he gets the ball in his hands,
whether it is running the ball, when you see him
on some of the toss sweeps that we do to
get him and to use his athletic ability in speed
and space, you see him make explosive plays in the
(10:59):
past game and even a part that probably gets overlooked
a little bit of people do not notice as what
he does in pass protection when he has to stay in.
So he is definitely one of those complete backs that's
a three down back as we describe him, that can
really have an impact on the game in all three
of those phases. And you st weekend and week out. Rick,
(11:21):
dear friend, good buddy, old pal. Do you believe in Jinxes?
I believe in just putting your head down and keep
moving forward. Well, I mean, if you had, if you
believe in Jinxes, or anybody listening or watching does now,
I do believe. I owe you an apology. It was
pre game, before the Dallas game. I love Jeff Kladney.
(11:42):
This was a theme on exes and ohs for me
was Zimmer early in the season when he was making
mistake after a mistake, And I like Chris Boyd a
lot you and I remember you guys last year he's
on the scout team. You're just loving what he's doing
at the end of the season. So I'm in on
both those guys. On the pregame show up to the
Dallas game, I decided to put together a little celebratory
(12:02):
segment for Chris Boyd mentioning two hundred and twenty one snaps,
zero penalties. That's very well done. That was into the game,
so I think just the correct I think all his penalties,
both as penalties came on special teams, so they weren't
on defense. Yeah. I just wanted to clear my mind
with that. I like Chris, I love Jeff and so
(12:25):
now we've got that clear into the holidays. That's all good.
I'm sorry. Rick Pieman, general manager for the Vikings special teams,
help me with this place. The long snapper Andrew de Paula,
he hadn't snapped in twenty six months and was perfect.
Is that amazing or like and snapped in twenty six months?
(12:46):
He was perfect during the game amazing or expected from
that position, no matter the layoff. Yeah, no, I think
everybody takes that position for granted because as long as
everything's going, the only thing time you notice him if
there's mistakes, just like sometimes on the offensive line. But
(13:07):
with the protocol, he was actually here for a week.
We had to test him. We weren't able to work
him out till Saturday. We had an early morning workout
Saturday once he completed all the pre entry protocol to
get into the building, and then Saturday afternoon was the
first time that he actually worked with Dan Bailey in Britain.
(13:30):
So and then going into the game Sunday was basically,
you know, you don't know what to expect because one
they've never really worked together. But we thought he came
in and did a great job. Maybe Austin just needs
a little mental break, right, I mean, you drafted him.
I know he had a great season last year, didn't he. Yeah,
And he was snapping very well in the beginning of
the season and he's going through a little bit of
(13:53):
the yips is right now. But we're working continue to
work with him and we have very high expectations of
him going forward. Kyle Rudolph at the stage of his career.
When you watch back these games, Rick, does he have
a little extra pop in his game right now? It's
like when he catches it, he's turning so quick and
getting up the field nicely. Yeah. Now he's done a
great job with his run after catch. Even the older
(14:17):
he gets, the smarter he gets in he knows where
he's most efficient at and he has like no one
questions about his catching radius in his hands and everything.
But he's really made and not a lot of nice
plays for us, especially getting an up field after the catching,
which is so important because when he does that, it
keeps the chains moving. Most of those are turning into
(14:40):
first downs and we get another set of downs to
move forward. You know, I watch back these games and
I'm like, can Eric Wilson do anything else for this team? Seriously?
Block punt, these sacks, for the two fumble recoveries, the interceptions,
I mean, that is it natural with him or like,
like why is that working out so well? He's he's
just a good football player, and he's one of those
(15:02):
type of players that has a nose for the ball
and for whatever reason, he knows how to put himself
in position, probably because he's such an instinctual player, similar
to Eric Kendricks in the interception that you saw this
week that Eric Kendricks made is something that was, you know,
off the charts, and not a lot of players in
the NFL, especially at that position, can make that type
(15:24):
of play. But Eric got his opportunity, you know, when
we unfortunately lost Anthony Barr. But when he got his opportunity,
he has taken full advantage of that and showed you
what type of player and what type of player maker
he is on our defense. What when when he was
at Cincinnati and you got Eric Wilson undrafted, Like, what
(15:46):
did you like about him then? That you have seen
develop over the years all the way back to twenty fifteen,
twenty seven. Yeah, I think it's it's as you know,
the game starts evolving a little bit and you're seeing
more and more these athletic type linebackers that are a
little bit smaller. But you're seeing a lot of these
guys in college that can run, that they can cover,
(16:09):
and Eric was cut one of those guys that fit
the athletic traits we were looking for. Although he may
not have had the ideal height, but He's a two
hundred and thirty pound guy, and you can see his
athletic skill set, but where he really pop for us,
And what we talked about to think on the last
show was that these young guys when they start showing
(16:30):
up on special teams and they have to break down
and make tackles in the open field or do they
have to block. It's almost like pass blocking in open
field on punt return and kickoff return. When you see
their ability to drop their hips to redirect and then
they start making plays with all that space that they
have available to him, that tells you they're going to
(16:52):
have a chance to be a pretty good football player
once they get their opportunity either on offense or defense.
A lot of these guys have not played special teams
in college because they've been, you know, the starter or
playing a lot of the significant time on offense or defense.
So they may have started out like that in college,
but when they come in they already have a lot
(17:15):
of times they have to start from square one again
to understand how important special teams are. And when you
only have you know, right now, we're able to have
forty eight men up on the game day, one has
to be extra one has to be the eighth offensive lineman.
But you have to go out there and if you're
not playing a lot on offense and defense, you have
to help us won games on special teams. If you're
(17:36):
going to be up rick you well, you get to
any college games these days? Or is that a complete no? No? No?
The only just because I cannot miss any testing sequence.
We have to test every day, seven days a week.
I did have an opportunity to go to the Gopher
game versus Iowa two fridays ago and got opportunity to
(17:57):
do a little scouting there. So a lot of our
scouting right now that I'm doing. We have a lot
of game tape in so I'm doing a lot of
studying of the film, you know, just in house this
year because you can't get out and see see these kids.
Last one, speaking of game tape, and I've never asked
you this, and I've known you a decade and a half.
With Zimmer or any coach Monday morning, five five thirty, six,
(18:22):
six thirty, what's it like breaking down a game with Zimmer? Uh?
If we win, it's very pleasant. If we lose, it's
very unpleasant. I mean jokingly, it can be like, why'd
you draft this guy? Well, why'd you run this? Now?
It's something there that's very productive, you know, And it
(18:42):
gives me an opportunity to listen to him talk through
what happened during the game, you know, because I don't
understand or you know, what was called or why it
was called. So he really talks through and it gives
him a chance to go back and reflect on the
game and the things that we did really well, and
also as us, a chance to talk personnel and what
(19:02):
guys are developing, what guys you know, as we start
game planning and looking forward into the future. We talk
personnel every week and that's a great chance for me
and him at five thirty in the morning to sit
and talk through a lot of football. You're awesome man,
Thank you very much. Happy Thanksgiving to you and your family. Okay,
you know, I would bet, pa, happy Thanksgiving to you
(19:25):
and your family that if you took twenty six months
off whatever that stat was, and you came back on
a radio, you'd be just as good as you are today. Wow.
Thank you very much, Rick, and I bet and that's
my Thanksgiving present to you, and I bet if you
took twenty six months off and came into a draft.
You'd hit on all the picks and find all the
(19:45):
Eric Wilsons in college free agency, than I would be
on a beach enjoying my retirement. Can I get some
of that money? All right? See a letter? Thanks,
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