#92Noon! 10a Hour 9/5 - Ben Goessling

Star Tribune's Ben Goessling is in studio on Vikings intel and opinions as we get closer to week 1 Vikings/Bucs!

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Send Minneapolis fan, do you rememberwhen there comes the scribe, A wonderful

(00:27):
scribe. Ben Gasoline covers the MinnesotaVikings for the Star Tribune app. Ben
Gasoline via Twitter, please follow himas nine to Noon does, and you'll
hear him later in the week withBumper to Bumper with Barrero early in the
week. So with nine to Noonand before we get into the to the
over archers and or the details ofthe season opener for the Minnesota Vikings and

(00:51):
all the outstanding coverage at with theStar Tribune and via the app and Star
Tribune dot com and everything, whatwas this morning? Like? I mean,
when when my daughter's twenty two,daughter's twenty Yeah, so when I'm
texting with you or talking to youabout yeah, I definitely will be there.
Ten O'clock's a good time, Paul, because I'm taking my kids to

(01:14):
school for the very first day,and that that always is an emotional and
wonderful, wonderful time. Yeah,it was. So my oldest daughter starts
in middle school today, so thishad a little bit of a different feel
to it. It might. Yeah, my kids have been in the same
building for the last few years,and it's the first day that they're not,
and then you're doing separate drop offsand all this stuff. So it

(01:34):
does have that feel of like,Okay, this is a this is a
step forward. And they're both greatkids and super proud of them and all
of the things that they've done andjust believe that there are great things in
store for them. And I toldmy daughter this morning, like, I'm
I'm confident you can do anything youwant and you're gifted and blessed and all

(01:55):
these things. It's going to begreat. But yeah, it's it's got
a little bit of an emotional feelto it. Certain when you get to
that point if okay, we're we'retaking another step here, and I think
parents, they have all been throughthis and everybody anybody that's had kids in
school kind of feel that. Butyeah, it was It was a little
bit of a bittersweet morning for sure. Okay, so you say, and

(02:15):
and I've met your daughters, yousay that you know, either one of
them or specifically the middle schooler,you can do whatever you want, just
just shoot high and dream big.Would it would any of those jobs include
like racetrack announced at Canterbury Park afterthe unbelievably good microphone work they did from

(02:36):
the Winter Circle just a couple ofsundays ago. They would like, I
said, my oldest daughter, especiallya captive audience and an open microphone.
She is going to take those twothings whenever she gets a chance for them.
So yeah, quite possibly it could. She got a show Ben Gasoline
at Ben guestlinge via Twitter. Pleasefollow up Ben Guestling and the Vikings and

(02:57):
Bucks do battle this Sunday at noon. Let's art here with a centerpiece story.
I really enjoyed it and and sharefor those who missed it. It's
called art and a soul. Yeah, Vike ink, it's about it's about
tattoos. Yes, yeah. Sothis was actually Carlos Gonzalez, our photographer
who's outstanding, came up with thisidea. He typically does portraits of players

(03:23):
before the season PREVIOUW stuff. Weend up shooting all these different portraits for
our preview week stuff, and hedid a lot of those, I think
in probably June, did a lotof just got a lot of them done
early. And he got this ideaof shooting photos of players tattoos with an
infrared camera. Wow, because like, what's different? Well, so the

(03:45):
thing is with normal cameras, especiallywith players with darker skin black players.
Black ink on black skin doesn't showup terribly well in photos. It's just
hard to see what it is.So he shot these with an infrared camera
so that the designs really pop.And then and so we ran all these
and basically black and white on theinfrared camera, and then he gave me
printouts. I showed these two playersand said, hey, remember we did

(04:06):
this thing a couple of months agowith you guys working on a story.
I want to just have you tellme about what they mean, why they're
important to you. And the thingI found is, like I suppose it
mean, it makes sense that anytimeyou get something tattooed on your skin that
you're going to wear for the restof your life, it's going to be
something that means a lot to you. So it was a really interesting sort
of window into players and some ofthe backstories with their families, backstories of

(04:31):
how they got to where they are, kind of hopes and dreams for them.
I mean, it was I thinkthe longest conversation I've ever had with
Alexander Madison was about his tattoos,and we just kind of got into a
lot of his life stories. Soit was really fun to put together and
use that as a window. Iwas not really expecting that. I thought,
Okay, it's a cool idea.Carlos kind of brought it to me.
But it was a really interesting wayto get to know people on a

(04:56):
different level that I hadn't really thoughtof. So he gets a lot of
the credit for that. But yeah, very fun to put that together in
a cool print display of it todaytoo. Lows And and Jerry Holt,
Yes said their lead. I've knownthem multiple decades. They're very dedicated,
very good at what they do,very crafty, very creative, including with
an idea like this, was therea story or something via the ink?

(05:17):
Yeah, a story that resonated withyou where it's like dam it, just
that immediately comes to your mind.Yeah. I mean Madison is probably the
one that pops the most. Hetalked a lot about and so he's got
this kind of different collage of thingson his arm and he had butterflies at
the top of it, and hestarted to use that a lot as part

(05:40):
of his the I Am Gifted brandthat he talks a lot about. And
he said that has sort of becomea thing that he identifies with he's had.
He talked about I've had a lotof mental health struggles, and he
said he almost ended up quitting footballat Boise State because there was an injury
he had I think had a caraccident that or a car got damaged to

(06:02):
the point where you know the billwas going to be too much to cover,
and some things going on in school. It was almost like I'm gonna
be done playing football, but hada team chaplain of boys the state that
helped him kind of pull out ofthat. And he talked about that,
I think there was a quarterback atWashington State around that same time that committed
suicide, and he kind of lookedat it like, well, as low
as I was, I can't imaginegetting to that point, but there are

(06:24):
people who do. So a lotof his mission to help people deal with
mental health struggles and try to findways through it and find hope at the
end of all of this came outof his own experience and then seeing that
this happened. So a lot ofwhat he has on his arm is related
to that, and that's we endedup writing kind of a couple paragraphs of

(06:45):
piece on different players. So therealmost wasn't enough room to get into it
at that depth, But those area lot of that's some of the backstory
of some of the things on hisarm or what they mean. So there
are a lot of things like thatthat I was not expecting to hear that
level of depth. But like Isay, if you're getting something tattooed on
your body, it probably something prettypersonal to you. So it was an
interesting window into players lives in alot of ways. Your teammate, your

(07:08):
cohort and Drew Kramer wrote about ByronMurphy Junior and having not watched Byron super
closely with Arizona, it's you know, you're reliant unless you go back and
watch all the plays on all twentytwo. You're relying on those in whom
you trust to kind of set youup. At least I am for like

(07:29):
what they got into player like this, undersize scrappy, scrappy guy, very
good tackler, can play inside,can play outside. Everything that we all
heard into the training camp and thenthe joint practices. This is you know,
we were going to play the fullspeed regular season games. The fan
has learned beginning beginning this Sunday,and he'll be checking Chris Godwin and Mike

(07:53):
Evans and Trey Palmer. And youknow, Baker ain't the greatest in the
world, but he knows how tothrow the football. The point here being
Buyer Murphy Junior is better than atleast my But he's better than I thought.
Yeah, and watching him more soin practice than the joints. Yep.
One on one with DeAndre Hopkins,a former teammates, probably a little
juice there on one with some ofthese Cardinals former colors. So again,

(08:16):
beginning with this Bucks game, I'mexcited to watch. The corners are more
athletic than what they had last.Yeah, they're certainly not his seasoned,
but they're more athletics. So thatwas a very good job by Kramer.
Yeah, what do you think ofBuyer Murphy Jr. Yeah, it's gonna
be I mean you mentioned more athletic. They're gonna have to be, I

(08:37):
think in this defense because they're goingto get put in one on one situations
in man coverage, probably a lotmore. And yeah, he had I
think a more impressive camp. Ididn't know a ton about him before this,
but played a lot in the slot. I think you're going to see
him a lot in the slot onSunday, and you know a guy that's
you know, five eleven six footbut is able to handle slot receivers,

(09:00):
which is a tough job because theycan come either way at you, and
there's just a lot of different things, especially as teams put bigger receivers in
the slot. I mean the Vikingsdo this with Justin Jefferson. It's not
just like the five nine shifty guyanymore. There's a lot of different matchups
you're going to get in that spot. You don't have the sideline to help
you in man coverage. It isa tough job, and they certainly think

(09:20):
he's the best one they have forit. I think one of the things
that stuck out to them when they'relooking at him. Kevin O'Connell knew him
fairly well from having a game planagainst him when he was the Rams offensive
coordinators, So I think some ofthose things stuck in his mind. Some
of the plays he made against theRams had I think a number of nice
games and nice plays in those yearsagainst the Rams that stuck in O'Connell's mind.

(09:43):
So some of that impression he madein Arizona against guys like Cooper cup
is certainly I think part of whatled him here, and they're counting on
him for a lot. He's goingto have to be an awfully good piece
of this defense, off the importantparts of this defense for them to go
where they want to go. Butyeah, certainly a guy that's very much
worth watching to see how all thatplays out on Sunday now, BG,

(10:05):
Ben Gasling, Koc, Kevin O'Connell, the the the centerpiece. I think
the most recent centerpiece you had itmight have been the penultimate, but nevertheless,
year two, first of four,this is a this is there's that
was the first. There are twomoving forward? Yes, yeah, so
I get into the ink yep,and then I've got two more coming later
this week. So it's a busyweek. Well, the moving forward piece

(10:28):
with Kevin O'Connell. Any anything differentabout Koc that you noticed when when you
have the elongated sit down chat inhis office, Anything different about him into
his second year as a head coach. Yeah, it was interesting to hear
sort of his process of that Giant'sgame because I hadn't really talked to him
a ton in detail about that lossand how he took it, and you

(10:52):
know, he's I think typically thetype that says, well, let's let's
move on, move forward. Upbeatguy for the most part. But he
said that really stuck with me fora while. And he kind of goes
through this self evaluation every year anyway, and I think that was planned.
But the stuff about should I havedone more to make my vision for the

(11:13):
defense clearer earlier? I thought wasreally interesting that he said I probably could
have helped more by telling everybody thisis exactly what I want. And I
think that's always a difficult thing withcoaches. I remember this with Leslie Frasier,
where it was even on his ownside of the ball. With I
think Allen Williams was the defensive coordinatorLeslie's last year, and there were a

(11:33):
couple of times where you could tellhe was fighting this idea of do I
step in or do I just kindof let my coordinator have his ability to
do it the way he wants todo it. So you have that even
on the same side of the ball, as I think it's even different when
it's the opposite side of the ballfrom where your expertise is. But he
talked about could I have done moreof this? He said, it's not
fair to do it during the game. That's not the time for me to

(11:54):
do it. But do I needto be more vocal about that during the
week during the offseason to make sureeverybody knows exactly how I want it done.
Yeah. So I thought it wasinteresting to hear him get into all
of that. I don't know thatthat will be as big of a question
with Brian Flores, because I thinkthere's a little more philosophical agreement in terms
of the aggressiveness that they both want. But I think he learned a lot

(12:16):
about how to manage his coaches andcoach his coaches in year one. I
think that was one of my bigtakeaways of things that you're just gonna learn
as you get more experience in thatjob. Yeah. I caught your tweet
yesterday too. I think you werethe first talking about the outside linebackers coach
taking a leave. Yeah. MikePetton, the associate head coach, well

(12:37):
quite familiar manning outside linebackers. Yes, so he'll handle that until Mike Smith
comes back. But I would Iwould assume that Smith absolutely will do this
job on the side, not Smithof Petton will do this job on the
sideline. YEA which will pull himfrom the bird's eye view in the coach's
boys, where he was all yearlast year, And I just I just

(13:00):
wonder if, like what he woulddo overseeing a lot with certain things and
a little with everything. Yeah,with those eyes of experience in multiple decades,
I wonder what they're they're going tolose, if anything, pulling him
out of that role. Yeah,because I think he was one of the
guys I think that was I meanRyan Cordell, the game management coordinator,

(13:22):
is involved in a lot of thisas well, but in terms of making
some of those decisions on situational calls, I believe Petton has had some involvement
with that, and Cordell is veryvery good at it. And here's the
guy that is on the Mike O'Connelltrusts him, gets a lot of info,
kind of works ahead so that it'snot this, oh, we have
fifteen seconds to make a decision,what are we going to do? What

(13:43):
are the percentages say? It's he'strying to work ahead of it a little
bit by a player two. Hey, if you decide to go for it,
here here's what the percentages would say. And then he has that information
ahead of time. That's a vitalpiece of what they do. But I
think Mike Petton is involved. It'sa lot of those game strategy decisions,
challenges, fourth downs, all ofthose types of things. Has been a

(14:07):
place where he's been involved in gameday as well, And yeah, you
may lose a little something there,but it's an adjustment you have to make
for the time being because they haveto have somebody to coach that group,
and he certainly has the experienced todo it. And the first patent report
coming up about seven, eight,nine, ten minutes from now to staying
with the outside linebackers or the edgerushers. Yeah, Marcus Davenport with Marcus

(14:31):
and if you were to prognosticate gasspeculator or whatever on what like his stats
would be this year. Yeah,because it's it's you know, from the
from organized team activities when I justkind of started seeing you know who who
starts way over here, then heends up in the A gap and he's
faking, he's feigning, he's faking, he's feigning, and then he drops

(14:54):
back. Just starting to get aholdof these tricks. It just appears to
me that they're going to be myriadplayers with five sacks or more. Yeah,
and and Davenport absolutely should be oneof them. I didn't realize how
strong he was until, you know, I got a chance to see him
day after day after day, andholding the point of attack and being strong

(15:16):
like that is absolutely his calling card. If you if you were to if
you were to speculate on like,say he plays all the games or close
to all the games, yep,what would end acceptable sacks number B or
like where should he be with tackles? Stuff like, Yeah, I think
sax wise probably you know, sevenor eight would be if he did that.
I think you'd be awfully happy withit. But I'm with you.

(15:37):
I think a lot of it's goingto be a lot of this thing where
you have a number of players getfive or six, because you're going to
have guys coming on blitzes. You'regonna have different things where a simulated pressure
may create a free rush lane forsomebody. But we saw that on the
blitz they ran against the Cardinals wherejay Ward gets home free because you have
two guys that basically tag a blockand then dropping a coverage to occupy the

(16:02):
blocker and long enough that they can'tget over, So then you have a
safety coming off the side and thenhe gets a free rush lane. So
you're going to see things like that, I think a little bit more often.
That's going to lead to a numberof players probably getting three, four
or five sacks. I think Davenportby virtue of how much he's gonna be
rushing the quarterback not dropping into coverageas much. Yeah, I think if
he got to seven or eight,you'd be awfuitely happy, and I think

(16:25):
he would too. He had anumber of quite a few pressures last year,
but just wasn't finishing. I thinkhe ended up with a half stack
for the year. Certainly he wasn'thappy with that, certainly felt like he
should have had a better year thanhe did. But I think he's gonna
get put in situations where he canget near the quarterback. Then it's just
a matter of finishing. Who doyou think finishes the season with more touchdowns?
And why? T J. Hawkinsonor Justin Jefferson. That's an interesting

(16:51):
question. I would say I thinkHawkinson because of the red zone stuff right
and Jefferson. I think it's goingto be a bigger part of the red
own game, especially with Adam thielandnot here. But Hockinson, with the
size that he has those you know, throw a fade, throw it to
the back of the end zone whereit's ours or nobody's high and in the

(17:11):
back. That is a lot ofhis game, I think, And I
think it's probably you know, nineto seven or something like that. But
yeah, I would probably put Hockinsonat the top of my list there.
What from what you've seen heard orif you were if you were to prognosticate
the play action, Yeah, withAlexander Madison and or ty Chandler. And

(17:32):
I'm going to bring this up withKevin O'Connell later today when we takee at
twelve forty five for x As andOs tomorrow night. I believe that's a
six thirty on k F A N. But the play action with one of
those two and not Dalvin, Imean it's there is going to be a
transition, yep, with the waydefenses respect or don't the play action to

(17:55):
Madison or ty Chandler. And this, I mean, we'll see how it
works early in the season, especiallyagainst tough, speedy Buccaneers defense. But
what do you think, Yeah,it will be interesting because a lot of
the and this is always kind ofan ongoing debate. I mean, coaches
will say, yes, it matterswho's back there in terms of how much
you're going to respect it. Alot of the analytics would say it doesn't
matter where if you run play action, teams are going to bring linebackers up

(18:18):
to respect the action, even ifit's not a guy that you think is
a home run hitting type running backor a guy that you have to worry
about all the time. That hasbeen the data over the years has said
you can run play action even ifyou don't have a great running game,
and it will open things up becauseteams will have to honor it from under
center, not play action shotgun.Yeah, I think that's probably more of

(18:41):
it. I haven't broken it donequite on the shotgun versus under center level,
but yeah, I think the undercenter stuff certainly would make more sense
there. But I think coaches wouldsay it does change when it's somebody that
is a home run hitter and thatyou expect it is going to be the
type of a back. I knowthey are more confident then probably a lot

(19:02):
of people just kind of going offof what Alexander Madison has done. I
think they're more confident in his abilityto break some things. I think they're
more confident in his ability to justget five or six yards at a time
when you need it. Then probablya lot of us would assume, and
that may just be them kind oftalking at this point. We'll have to
see if that plays out that way, but I think they feel like there's

(19:26):
going to be enough that he bringsto the table when he gets the ball
that teams will start to honor thatthey weren't like a super heavy play action
team last year, at least notto the degree that they were probably in
those first couple of years with KevinStefanski Gary Kubiak. But that is a
big part of the offense for KirkCousins because it's something Cousins does really well.
He's really good off play action,especially when he gets a chance to

(19:48):
go down field off of it.So I think it's part of the offense
and it will be interesting to seeif he gets played, if defense is
played any differently now that it's notDalvin Cook back there and it's somebody else,
you'd think you think kJ plays morethan Jordan Addison, say the first
half of the season, Yeah,let's go first half the first eight ish
nine ish games. You think kJplays more than number three. Yeah,

(20:08):
I think so. I think inthe first half probably he does. And
part of that is he's experienced inthe offense. He has Kirk Cousins trust.
He's also probably a little bit moreof a sturdy run blocker, which
is a big part of this offense, especially when you want to put those
receivers and tight splits along the line. That is something that we have seen

(20:29):
this offense use to great effect fora long time, going back to Cooper
Cup with the Rams. Yeah,that is a big part of what they
want their receivers to do. AndOsbourne I think is probably ahead of Addison
both in terms of just he's abigger guy and more experienced at doing it,
so I think that will buy himsometime. I do think Jordan Addison
is going to have a big rolein this offense, and I think you'll

(20:49):
see that probably play out more asthe season goes on. But I mean,
I'm very bullish on Addison in termsof what he's going to mean in
the offense. But I think especiallyearly, Osborne will have probably more playing
time than more opportunities as a result. BG ain't no jive talking. It's
been guestling, the scribe covering theMinnesota Vikings for the Star Tribune. Will

(21:10):
continue our chat with Ben around thecorner, but to the debut of the
Petton Report takes place shortly. You'relistening to nine to known time now for
the Vikings Report, a fan presentedby the Minnesota Lottery. Vikings assistant coach
Mike Petton joins PA after this fromthe Minnesota Lottery story. I'm in alrighty,

(21:30):
Coach Petton, into your twenty secondyear coaching in the NFL, have
have you ever wondered what life mighthave been like with another career? You
know, I've never really given itmuch thought, just because it's for me
growing up with it and with mydad being a coach for his whole career,
a high school teacher and coach.I mean, it was to me

(21:52):
it was the family business. SoI think I was destined to get into
it, whether whether I knew itor not. So I've never given it
much thought. I've been asked thatquestion before. I mean, I really
really give it some thought. IMean, I've always been an outdoors type,
so I'm sure my career would besomething something along those lines of fishing

(22:14):
guide or a park ranger something likethat. A phishing guide that sounds so
peaceful outside of the time you haveto talk and actually guide. I mean,
that sounds so peaceful, doesn't it. It does, and being a
coach, you know it did.I don't know if peaceful would actually be
a perfect way to describe it specificallywith the regular season upon us. And

(22:36):
I know you'll be handling outside linebackersfor a little bit, but but you
have such an extensive history coordinating andcoaching defense, Mike, in what ways
do you help the offensive staff becauseI know you had your hands in that
last year. Yeah. I thinkit's always good to whichever side of the
ball you're on that you can gainperspective of who you're going against. And

(23:03):
I think that's a very common thingin NFL buildings, And it always struck
me as as why do the twosides of the ball we're literally in the
same building, We're down the hallwayfrom each other, and there's not a
lot of interaction and asking, hey, you know, what does this present
a problem to you? Or whatdo you think of this? And and

(23:25):
I just always thought that, youknow, that always struck me as odd
that that. Uh, you know, I've compared it before to being independent
subcontractors that the offense was, youknow, they were doing the HVAC and
we were doing the plumbing, andwe never really never really dealt with each
other. So I think it's helpful, uh to the offensive guy to be
able to give that perspective for themto bounce things off, and just I

(23:49):
can be in the role of kindof reverse engineering the other team's defenses.
I have a pretty good feel fora lot of the systems in the league
kind of what puts stress on them. There are some things the offense things
that will stress a defense that doesn't, and there are other things that I
point out to them that's real simplefor them to do that causes a lot
of stress. So I just thinkit's good, you know, for them

(24:11):
to have that resource. And it'salways it's always fun for me. I'm
a frustrated offensive guy from it wasa quarterback way back in the day,
so it's always nice to be ableto get to get it leads the fan.
Any idea with asasi Atomo Wap theformer gover, I mean it just

(24:48):
it just seems from Afar like somethingwent on a precipitous slide yea and very
quickly. Yeah. I couldn't findhim in the Arizona pre game, the
Arizona preseason game, I mean likeon the sideline, so you know,
I haven't even read up on likewhether he was there, there was a
problem or whatever. Do you happento know if he was there for that

(25:08):
game? I don't remember off thetop of my head. I think I
want to say that he was,just because I think we were kind of
trying to scan and see who wedidn't see, and he didn't. Here's
the reason I ask is when wedo the those simulcasts in preseason radio and
TV, we will designate free playersthat they're going to cut to for the

(25:29):
super special open sure and says Heetomowawas one, and then producer Steve Johnson,
you know, gets in my earabout thirty five minutes before the game.
We can't find ninety. I mean, so I'm like, I'm like
all over it with my binocular findninety either. So then I didn't look
that he didn't play, but Ididn't look that closely during on the sideline
or anything. Then all of asudden, he's gone, right, he's

(25:52):
not on the practice squad and he'son the Jacksonville Jaguars active roster I believe
with the lost blacklock. Yeah,that is that is a little little bit
interesting that I mean because especially aguy that was a draft pick, right,
you typically think it's gonna have onthe practice squad. So yeah,
that is, uh, that's oneto the extent that we, you know,
spare the time getting to the bottomof practice squad things, that is

(26:14):
kind of an interesting Uh you wantto kind of file away and keep your
hands sent up about well. Andand what makes it intriguing for me is
I mean he is an interior.He's a defensive line yep. He's an
interior guy who can play some nosetackle if you're really stretching. But he
can play he can play defensive end. And you know, as of right

(26:37):
now, unless things change, theirnose tackle is Kiras Tonga. Ye to
start, I'm not mad at that. Defensive ends Harrison Phillips and Dean Lowry
yep. Then then like the immediatebackup is Jonathan Bullard, Jacquel and Roy
if he's active, he'd back upTonga. See what I'm saying here,
And it's not am I missing somebodyhere, there's no I don't I don't
think so, right, I meanit's pretty thin. So it seemed like

(26:59):
you was land of opportunity for thedraft pick and now the draft picks with
the Jags. Yes, yeah,it is that group as a whole,
I think is uh. I meanthey're counting on a lot of guys.
Whether it's Tonga playing a larger role, or Harrison Phelps moving back out to
the end, or some of theseguys are going to have to factor into
the rotation. Yeah, there's certainlya lot of players that have a lot

(27:22):
to prove in that group, andthey're going to need somebody to come through
and be just whether that person thatgets some push or the person that can
occupy two blockers so these linebackers canrun. That is one of the questions
that's worth watching in that front seven, no doubt, How how deep and
then how tricky do you think they'llget with the safeties. I mean for
the game calling chart, hit Manbuying them and Metellus, those three are

(27:45):
on there. I think after somepractice this week or chatting with the coach,
I'll figure out whether they're scene andor award need to jump on this
thing yep. But but for Lewisscene, you know, it's it's if
we're just looking at practices, trainingcamp practices, the joint practices than the
preseason games. I mean, notonly did jay Wardou play yep, jay

(28:06):
Wardole played him on special teams.Yes, And that's the biggest key right
there. So I mean the firstround status, that's yesterday's news yep.
After getting beat for the job andtraining camp twenty twenty two and then the
broken leg yep. So the firstrounds now, it's just how can you
help? When can you help?And where are you in the pecking or

(28:26):
Yeah, I think that's right.I don't think he is getting any differential
treatment at this point because of wherehe was drafted, and I think they've
wanted to see can you pick everythingup? Are you going to be able
to read and react fast enough tobe an asset in this group? Because
that's the thing you hear everybody sayabout joshma Tellis is he knows the defense
well enough that he could teach it, and that is a big part of

(28:47):
the reason he has surpassed me thinkabout a late round draft pick from the
previous regime. So not somebody thatwould come in with a lot of sort
of equity built in because it's notsomebody the current GM drafted, and it's
not somebody they spent a high pick. On the fact that he has surpassed
the first the first player that QuasiATLFA Mensa drafted tells you that they are

(29:11):
not going to just hand out jobs. They're not going to just hand scholarships
to people. It's going to haveto be you show that you can help
on this defense, or somebody elseis going to take that spot. And
Jay war you're right. I mean, Kevin O'Connell talked about this that Jay
Ward was one of those players thatthey just said, we have to have
him on the roster. It's reallyhard to envision a scenario where he doesn't

(29:33):
make it because of how good hewas in training camp and especially I think
at the end of the preseason oncehe get healthy, some of the things
he did, he really showed up, and I think you see guys like
that start to come through. Lewisscene is going to have to show that
he can stay ahead of players likethat as well. So yeah, very
much up for grabs. I thinkin terms of how all those things play

(29:53):
out, but you have to begood on special teams. There are roles
I think to have because they likethe idea of three safeties and the ways
that that may make offenses have tochange run blocking and some of the protection
stuff they do. Just if isthis guy a linebacker? Is he a
safety? How does all of thisfit? There's some deception stuff that they
like about having three safeties in thefield, so there will be opportunities there.

(30:17):
But he's gonna have to show thathe can be trusted and excel with
one of those if he gets one. So Hawkinson gets his deal, justin
Jefferson, I mean, do youthink he'll get a deal or this deal
before the season, because I wouldI would keep an eye out for that.
Yes, all right. And andit's not you know, it's it's
it's not earth shattering. But somebodylike that gets paid. When he gets
paid, I'm just flummixed, man, I'm just perplexed. I'm just I

(30:41):
mean, it's just very confusing tome. To sign your catchers before your
thrower, Yeah, to sign youryou know your your your catcher before you
sign Hey, we got this aplus catcher. We got Benito Santiago but
we haven't focused on the starting five. Yep, you know it's I mean,
that's a stretch of an example,but you know what I mean.
I was a kid in San Diegowith some of those Padres teams and they

(31:03):
did not have great pitching stats.So the analogy sort of tracks Santiago from
his knees to first or second.Kidding me, he was terrific, Holy
calah, but it's I've never heard, been next to, or seen anything
like this where you give that kindof money to your best two pass catchers,
and honestly, I mean they cansay like, well, okay,
we're gonna open the store for you, Paul, and here's what the plan

(31:26):
is for twenty twenty four. Okay, Well, the the a topic is
the one you have here. Who'sgood is set to be unrestricted? Right,
You're not going to be bad enoughto get USC guy or North Carolina
guy. And I watched them boththis weekend and the USC guys unbelievable.
Yes, the North Carolina guys unbelieving. Yeah, they're both fantastic. Okay,

(31:48):
so weighing it to get one ofthem unless we're given up asset after
asset after assets. So then youcan say to me, all right,
see these three names, Well,they're going to be in the teens or
the twenties, Jim McCarthy, thosetypes, and we love this guy.
That's really risky man. Yeah,And I just I think their approach has
been, whether it was this yearor whether it would be next year,

(32:10):
is if you're going to take onein the first round, it has to
be somebody that you love and Ithink can be the guy because they are
very aware of when you take onein the first round, that comes with
expectations, that comes with sort ofthis, we are planting our flag on
this player, and this is theway we are going for the foreseeable future.
So it's not going to be justanybody. I mean, that's part
of the reason you didn't see HendonHooker or Will Levis in here, because

(32:36):
they knew if you take one inthe first round, that comes with expectations
that this is the next guy andhe's coming into succeed Kirk Cousins in a
year. So they're not going totake one just to take one, I
don't think. So that leaves youin a couple of spots. Do you
bring Cousins back or do you takethe get the bridge quarterback next year and
try to make that work. Butwhen you've spent the money that you spent

(32:57):
on Hokinson, who's now the secondhighest pay ten end of the league,
I expect Justin Jefferson by the weekendwill be the highest paid receiver in the
league, if not the highest paidnon quarterback in league history. I mean,
you're going to have two guys thatare locked and loaded for the rest
of their primes at top of marketsalaries, not knowing at least in the

(33:20):
immediate term, who the quarterback is. It is an interesting way to go
about it, and I wonder howmuch that's come up in negotiations. I
think you figure, you know,you get it figured out, but it's
not a guarantee that you're going togo get somebody in the draft that is
a slam dunk. I know theywould certainly if you got a chance next
year to get Williams or May theywould love to do it. I mean,

(33:43):
I think everybody would. If youhave a guy that's twenty two years
old that you think is going tobe the franchise for the next decade,
who wouldn't want that? But it'sgoing to be really hard to get those
players. I think the thing tokeep in mind, it was just playing
around with this yesterday after kind ofdoing the salary cap stuff, they could
sign Cousins to a competitive deal nextyear that does not make his cap number

(34:07):
go up that much, because it'sworth remembering he has like a twenty eight
and a half million dollars figure onnext year's cap, even if he's not
here because of the void money.If you sign him those void years turned
back into regular years, it doesn'tall hit the cap at once. So
there would be a way to signhim next year, have his cap number
be like twenty five twenty seven milliondollars or something like that. You structure

(34:30):
the JJ deal in a way thatworks out. It's not financially impossible to
do it. The question is goingto be for how long do you do
that and what happens afterwards. Idon't I wouldn't rule out the Cousins return
by any means, but there's alot to figure out there, no question
about it. My ma'am. Fantasticwork with all these stories up to the

(34:52):
season. We look forward to thenext two centerpiece centerpiece stories from Ben Guestling,
speaking of Kirk cousins getting us readyfor the twenty twenty three season.
And we'll listen to you later thisweek with bomb. Thank you very much,
Thank you. That's Ben Guesline atBen Guesline via Twitter covers the Minnesota
Vikings for the stray to you bythe casino at Canterbury Park. Canterbury Park

(35:19):
dot com for info on the lastfew remaining live racing days in the twenty
twenty three season. But how youcan get in there field the Felt Poker,
blackjack table games all year round CanterburyPark dot com. And we'll start,
well, we'll get to the baseballteam momentarily, but the Colorado Buffalo's
PA, and we talked about himduring the state Fair, and by all

(35:43):
accounts, this was supposed to bea tough, difficult and overall a bad
season for the Buff's football program.New coach Coach Prime, tons of new
players, the evolution not only ofthe players in that mix, but so
many new freshmen and just untested players. Will they go out and of course
beat TCU forty five forty two,seventeenth ranked overall at the Horned Frogs.

(36:06):
He got Shdoor Sanders going for fiveten. I think it's a school record
through the air for TDS. Theyhave this Travis Hunter cat that played every
single snap about that as the teamsand I meet on both sides as the
team's best wide receiver one hundred nineteenthrough the air, had a nearly a
handful of tackles as their top corneras well. But then Dion, he

(36:27):
kind of he got loose on themedia afterwards for real. Shdor Sanders from
my HBCU, the one that playedthe Jackson last year, the one that
you asked me, why would Igive him the Dorn job? But like
that, No, not you.I got received. I know who they
are, yet you baby, yougotta say it. I would never do

(36:50):
that. What's up? All?Would you believe that you will hollo?
Hold on hold do you believe thathuh? Oh no, no no,
I ran through that junk you wrotethat I ran through that. I sipped
it through all it. Oh no, come on. So that's that was
part of a much longer conversation ormore or less Dion just fitting after members

(37:15):
of the assembled press first quote unquotehating and doubting bull junk that they wrote
about him and his team. Butthey went out and proved themselves, Pa.
It was an incredible game on Saturdaywe aired I believe almost all of
it right here on the fan.But the Buffalo has proven everybody wrong.
They're want to know they host Nebraskathis weekend. Well, TCU is I

(37:37):
mean if that team finishes ranked inthe top twenty five without that quarterback who
left, Max Duck and I believehis name is x Duggan. Yeah,
good luck to him. I justdidn't think they were very good. And
when Colorado went down the field andscored on the first possession, I mean
you could tell by looking at thecoaches on the TCU sideline it's like,
you better better strap these things upnow because we are in for a long

(38:00):
battle. A couple of things,One with Dion and the way he was
speaking after the game. You heardthat about the receipts. Jenny Taft,
a guest of hours an hour andchange ago, she got one of those,
you know, and we kept thereceipts post game on Fox. That
I firmly believe that absolutely will temperwith Dion Sanders. I mean it's always

(38:23):
going to be part of his personalitybecause thus Prime, thus coach Prime,
thus prime time. I mean thatthat's kind of who he has been all
of his all of his career.But he so therefore I'm not one to
like demand change when it comes towho he is. But absolutely, that's

(38:44):
the first game, first game periodcoaching that team. That team was awful
last year, and so he's alittle overly excitable, all right, so
I think that'll be pulled back.Secondly, Texas Christian University quickly learned that
the offensive coordinator for the Colorado Buffalosis Pat Shermer. And when an NFL

(39:05):
guy who has seen markedly more thana majority at the amateur level needs points,
the NFL guy gets points. Imean su the creativity and the vast
and expanding nature of that playbook growingduring the game, that was phenomenal.
I mean, Shermer does did anawesome, awesome job coordinating the Buffalo's offense.

(39:30):
That could be a problem for opposingdefenses during the course of the run
everything if everything goes according to plan, going beat Nebraska your home opener,
and then suddenly coach Primes team istwo and oh, I think they won
two games or something like that lastyear, so they're ready to go.
So were the Minnesota Twins yesterday.Twenty hits twenty runs. They obliterate Lucas

(39:51):
Giolito and the Guardians on Labor Daysix home runs, including a grand slam
by Royce Lewis. That's his thirdin eight games. You hit it too
when we were talking about earlier.It is nineteen RBI in his last eight
games. Polanco, Correa, Gallo, Farmer, Walner also hit home runs.
Giolito gave up nine over three innings. Eventually they did the sacrificial position

(40:13):
player bit David Fry backup catcher.He pitched the final four innings, gave
up seven. Game, just wouldn'tend, still less than three hours though
thankfully six game leading the division forthe Twins. Today we get a rematch
from last week. It's Sonny Grayand Tanner. Bibby and Bibby gave up
two over five when they met lastweek. Sonny Gray had a three hit
shutout, threw seven with five k. If you remember this, Pa just

(40:37):
eighty one pitches. People were pissedoff that Baldelli pulled Sonny Gray. Griffin
Jacks gives up a run, bullpengot loose. Pagan struggles in the tenth
it was Thunderburke. Cool name,but He also gave up a three run
home run that secured a five twovictory for the Guardians. So Sonny Gray
hopefully a repeat performance from him TannerBibby, but an opportunity to stretch that

(40:58):
lead out to seven for the Minnesotawins. Yep, this is a baseball
covenant. S got the Techian Studioabout ten minutes from now to offer some
coaching opinions. Last thing for youhere justin Jefferson's contract on the table.
It's been kind of that push.It was mentioned in terms of your conversation
with Ben Guessling that you still feellike this is the week. While I

(41:21):
was reading this online, it's beenreported JJ's contracts on the table, Joe
Burrows contracts on the table. Sothe Bengals hoping to lock up their stud
but Nick Bosa and Chris Jones reportedlyhave record deals sitting in front of them
with their respective teams and Niners andChiefs. Both have refused to play until
they find that right dollar amount.You think if you're mister Veitch in Kansas

(41:45):
City with Chris Jones, or ifyou're John Lynch in the Bay with the
Niners and Nick Bosa, but you'restarting to sweat a little bit as you
look forward to week one and you'reworried about your game changers not being there,
right, And the first one isThursday. I mean, it's two
days away. It's it's the kiddiesat the Champs. It Kansas City,

(42:05):
I mean Kansas City. I don'tbelieve can or will win the Super Bowl
without Chris Jones. So I justfirmly believe that MB three needs that that
part of the three certainly well.I mean to say every bit as much
as Mahomes and Kelsey. That mightbe a stretch, but two of them
play offense, and Jones disrupts somuch defensively. Will he played Thursday,

(42:30):
I don't know. If they geta deal done today, then he absolutely
can play Thursday. But Patrick Mahomesnever has played a road playoff game.
And I mean, there are justso many amazing things that are in front
of Kansas City this year when itcomes to start staking them stacking chips as
the kids would say, with immortalityrelated stuff. But I can't say they're

(42:52):
going to go on the road inthe postseason this year. But if they
don't have Chris Jones, it's gonnabe a lot different than the previous years.
News Denard It's Canterbury the Casino atCanterbury Park. A play some Blackjack
when some money, Have some SIPsat Chips Canterbury Park dot com. And
Friday Randy Howser performs at Canterbury Park. If you enjoy Randy's music. It's

(43:13):
the final of our concert series andSaturday is our signature day. It's called
Festival of Champions Day, Minnesotan's onlyand well over a half million dollars in
our first money. That begins atfour o'clock. Get information on our final
hand full of days live racing wiseat Canterbury Park dot com. Here comes

(43:37):
the techie break up the twins whoknew that's next? Nine to noon