#92Noon! 9a Hour 4/17 - Dane Moore/Florio

First, Dane Moore joins for a segment of opinions on the Wolves/Suns series, which kicks off Saturday afternoon! Later, Mike Florio makes his weekly pit-stop on Vikings draft and NFL-wide topics. 

Episode Transcript

(00:22):
Thanks, so we began. Yeahyeah, yeah, yeah yeah. We're

(01:33):
here on a Wednesday, kind ofa gloomy Wednesday weather wise in the Twin
Cities. And welcome to nine toNoon at k m A n all right,

(01:53):
let's begin festivities. Nor to producesand yours truly is Paul Allen,
and we're very happy to be byDane Moore. At Dane Moore NBA covers
the Minnesota Timberwolves and also has awonderful podcast called the Dane Moore Podcast,
and you can learn more about thatvia his Twitter spot. It is at
Dane Moore n B. A andDane, welcome back to the Love Covenant.

(02:15):
Thank you very much for helping notonly now but all season. Uh,
it's been great. And here comethe postseason, Here come the playoffs.
We had some play and stuff yesterdayand more today stream the NBA mind
please and and and let's start.Uh. Let let's start with the a
topic. How after getting swept bythe Suns this season, how can the

(02:37):
Timberwolves beat the Suns in this series? And good morning, oh man,
that's that's that's loaded. Good morningto you. There's lots of wolves have
to do, uh in this seriesto win. If you watch the three
games against Phoenix SOS far this season, Uh, they struggled. It's not
it's not a good matchup for them. But I think it's gotten a little

(03:00):
like out of hand in you know, you and I were texting about this
the other day, in the ideathat Phoenix is some sort of heavy favorite.
I think we went into the playoffsobviously, given how good of a
season the Wolves had, assume inthe first round matchup would kind of be
a walk, right. They weregoing to get through the first round,
They're gonna be the one or twoseed, and as long as they took

(03:21):
care of business, played normal,they'd move on with Phoenix. I think
it's kind of fifty to fifty rightnow, even though the Wolves have home
court here and to me and wecan get into it, I think so
much of it starts up with theway that they match up Karl Anthony Towns,
who he guards, and the waysin which they use him on the

(03:44):
other side of the floor to bean advantage in the ways that he's guarded.
And obviously he's coming back from anextended injury. Hasn't looked great in
his first two games back, butit's the first two games back. I
think a lot of it starts withCat in that he helped open up ant
and then it's about those two guys'ability to play really smart, meticulous basketball,

(04:04):
not just who you got to thinkthis series to be able to win
it. That was a wonderful answer. Absolutely agree with you on the Karl
Anthony Towns portion of the equation withthe Suns. Let me hit you with
this, Why is Grayson Allen gettingso lost by the Wolves defense and basically
killing the Wolves each team each game? Well, you got to give a

(04:29):
lot of attention to Bradley Beal,Devin Booker, and of course Kevin Durant,
Right, And you know Kats guardedGrayson Allen or he guarded Grayson Allen
on Sunday, and I think wecan kind of ascertain that that's probably how
they'll initially match up in this one. First, it's Kat's natural inclination to
sink right. He played center forseven eight seasons and didn't chase many shooters.

(04:55):
Grayson Allen of the league in threepoint percentage this season. He's good
at finding that space, and youknow Kat is inclined to go towards the
basket, but also has a responsibilityto be a gap helper to take away
those Bradley deal driving lanes. MikeConley needs some help Garden Bradley beal right,
he's got to be ready for DevinBooker, maybe on a switch for

(05:17):
Kevin Durant, like Grayson Allen is. You know, he's probably number four,
number five on the Importance Totem pollthere. But this dude led the
league in three point shooting percentage.And also I don't think he's a a
one skilled player. He can pumpand go. He could take it to
the basket. Two weeks ago heled the Suns and scoring against the Wolves,

(05:39):
and then on Sunday he had twenty. Again like that dude can play.
And if the Wolves don't care abouthim in addition to the Big three,
that he's gonna hurt them too,right, And I agree with you,
you know, but if he's sokey, I mean, and you
nailed it with Booker, Durant andBeale, but if you look at the
last four losses for the Phoenix Suns, well there is a common threat.

(06:01):
I mean, you know, likeone of the games Booker might have twelve,
or another game be might you know, shoot about twenty five percent,
so you know, the muzzling oneof that MB three. I mean,
that's the low hanging fruit imperative.But in those four losses, I mean,
Grayson Allen shooting thirty percent and he'slike four of twenty nine from three

(06:21):
point range. So it's it's Imean, he he. I find him
to be such a wild card factorin this thing. And you know when
when when you mentioned, you know, Carl Anthony Towns is checking him and
he's more apt to sync towards thebasket, which is which is absolutely true.
But I mean, you know,switches picks the whole thing. Carl

(06:42):
Anthony Towns guarding Grayson Allen just likelaying it out like that just doesn't add
up to me. Yeah, sowhat do you what do you think?
Do you think they should put caton KD? Because this is the this
is the conversation right now, rightis people are like, okay, yeah,
like who do you put cat on? And I think it's what do
you think? Like, well,you want to put them on KD?
That's the straight up matchup. Imean therefore, yeah, there are two

(07:04):
things to say in KFA in likefashion. The first would be what I
look like James Naismith. I alwayslove that one. Secondly, it would
be manipulating lineups. So I'm nottalking about starter changes, but I mean,
you know, like like Anthony Edwardswith a week to rest those legs.
I mean it feels like he's goingto play forty forty one minutes minimum

(07:27):
each game if he's not in foultrouble. So then manipulating minutes to get
somebody, somebody more fleet to foot, maybe Alexander Walkers or or somebody to
play a little more to combat whatwe're talking about right now. What do
you think, No, I thinkit makes a lot of sense to go
with Alexander Walker with that group,probably in place of Cat. It's at

(07:53):
times during the game I think it'sa bold move right to not start Cat
and and you know, because he'syour super Max player and all those sort
of things, But the way Phoenixpresents like it would help to have four
wings or guards out on the floorin this matchup at one big whether it's
Rudy your Cat, I just Ithink what's crazy is you wrestle with the

(08:16):
starter thing and you almost sign yourselfup for a bad start to the game.
If we all agree that that doublebig look is bad against Phoenix's starters,
and what's been happening for the lastmonth. The team's had terrible starts.
Two games ago there were down fifteento nothing, you know, to
Phoenix, and even against the crappyteams, they've been getting punched in the

(08:37):
face in the first quarter. SoI think the start of the game is
huge. It's just against the Phoenixstarters. The Wolf starters don't make as
much sense. I don't know.I'm really curious to see. I know,
to your point, Finch is gonnado that at times during the game,
you know, manipulate the lineup.But do you do that from the
jumps? That's the question. Andyou know of Cat or somebody else needs

(09:01):
to kind of swallow their pride todeal with that. That would be that
would be a story too, rightand and excellent point, Dane. The
team's been outscored by forty points inthe first quarter this season by the Suns.
I'm sure you know that. Solike I'm thinking, all right,
you know, you got time off, you can scheme, you can craft,
you can develop things, but thestarting lineup is going to be the

(09:22):
starting lineup I mean I'd be I'dbe flabbergasted if if Finch you made a
bold move with with a with abig time player like Karl Anthony Towns.
But so let's say the lineup wewe we know best is the lineup to
start the game. Well that Imean that that makes it markedly more difficult
to say that it's probable off thesebad starts this year, that the Wolves

(09:46):
come out hot and they jump Phoenix, and you know the opening period is
at least closer because of the wayyou lay it out with Cat and Grayson
Allen. And is this you know, with those two bigs, whether it
whether it's go Bear and Cat orCad and Nas or go bearn Nas,
is this the series where like thosebig lineups hinder the Timberwolves. So for

(10:09):
the record, I'd be flabbergaccid tooif Finch, you know, mixed up
the starting lineup. I would besurprised if we see the starting lineups announced
and Karl Anthony Towns is not init. And also I agree with that.
I think overall, my kind ofopinion on this series is you gotta
rely on Kat, you gotta trusthim. I think the trust is the

(10:31):
word and I know a lot ofpeople don't trust him, but like,
you really lower your ceiling in thisseries if you if you don't choose to
trust him, I think, andI think Phoenix is worthy enough of an
opponent that you got to be thinkingabout that upside to be able to play
with them. And then to thatend, like you got to play the

(10:52):
two big look too, and yougot to punish it. And I know
Sunday is recently in people's minds,but yeah, I was watching the first
matchup against Phoenix on November fifteenth yesterday. I was watching it back. You
know who had the first, likeeight of the first ten points in that
game, Karl Anthony town Right goingat the basket attacking Kevin Durant pre injury.
Remember it was that game happened rightat the night after the Rudy had

(11:15):
Black game in Golden State. RememberKat was rolling at that time of year
too. So I know we allhave this kind of cat arthritis, but
it sometimes leads us to forget thatthere's really profitable things that Kat can do.
Particularly, I was kind of surprisedwhen I turned that on. I
was like, damn, you know, like Kat's cooking here at the beginning.

(11:37):
So I don't think if you dojust start your starting lineup, you're
signing up to be down sixteen tofour necessarily, even though that happened in
the last Yeah. Yeah, Dane'splaying very fast right now as he's want
to do. He's Dane Moore atDane Moore NBA, Dane Moore Podcast.
Learn more via his Twitter at DanemoreNBA. And with the Bigs that you

(11:58):
brought up and with Karl Anthony Towns. The trust factor in the hashtag faith
with me minimally involves offense. It'sdefense. Man. It's like if it's
a long rebound or or if acall doesn't go his way or Edward's way
and they go to barking a littlebit. I mean that that's when the
Suns with that MV three and AllenWell, that's when they play five on

(12:20):
three and then all of a sudden, it's it's eight two, and it's
twelve four and it's sixteen six.So it's more so the getting back on
defense is the road I travel downwhen thinking about a calling card for this
team, the Bigs. One percent, I get it, and I think

(12:41):
if we look on paper, you'reconcerned about that, right, You're concerned
about two centers being able to getback and transition defense, and you're concerned
about caps ability to play pick androll coverage right like as a as a
four. The thing is those weresuper warranted concerns entering the season. Wolves
got in transition last year when Katand Rudy were on the floor together.

(13:03):
You know what happened this year.Hired Corlis Williamson. That was his job,
that and defensive rebounding, and theyreally addressed that issue of transition defense.
Pick and roll is Carl and thoselike size twenty fours or whatever he
wears ever going to be a greatpick and roll defender is the big no.
But remember the year before Rudy gothere, Remember that blitzing scheme of

(13:24):
defense. They're flying all over theplace, Pat bev Vanderbilt whatever, you
know what who that was on locktime with Kat a willingness to play up
in coverage and be the blitzer there. Well, in this series against Phoenix,
that's what you're being asked to do, right, We're not dropping back
in pick and roll. Kevin Durant'sgonna come in and hit that mid range
shot. Booker will beal where willKat can play up and coverage? We

(13:45):
saw him do it for an entireseason two years ago. He's it looked
a little sloppy on Sunday. I'mnot gonna lie. He looked a little
foretic, chaotic. But it's notlike Kat hasn't done that before. It's
not like he hasn't been able toplay this way against this team. And
honestly, the transition stuff, yeah, they make it burnt a couple of
times, but they really rectified thatissue this season, all right. Lastly

(14:07):
with with Dane and and of coursehe's going to remember this. I believe
he was the first first one whotweeted about it, and you know then
I talked about it the next dayNine to Noon brought it up with Chris
bench At a year and a halfago when Devin Booker he indicated he believes
the Wolves iso too much, don'tshare enough, and are soft. How
much validity is there with that,uh, with that contention of Booker heading

(14:35):
into the even now this playoff series, well, he said it. I
remember he was. He yelled atthe bench, like you know, we
played team basketball at at at thatWolves bench. That was a different Wolves
bench. Too, right. Imean, like, don't we think the
Wolves now play team basketball? Probably? You know, I think there was

(14:56):
that was that was a team aniteration to go with D'Angel Russell instead of
Mike Conley. It was it wasthe worst team that didn't play team basketball.
Booker was right, that team didn'tplay team basketball, and it was
a little soft, right, Butwe've seen eighty two games this season that
indicates the Wolves do play team basketballand that they aren't very soft, you
know, so like Booker is goingto talk to his stuff those deal obviously

(15:20):
we saw that on Sunday, Like, you know, they're gonna play that
game their vets. That's what they'regonna do. Be the Wolves, like
just take care of business, continuebeing yourself, and don't be soft,
you know, like don't give themammo. Like play be physical, push
back, punch back like yeah,you're the big team here, enforce that

(15:41):
right, right, And and butoff that, you know, and and
and we're just wondering what your yourbasketball mind felt about the validity of what
Booker said a year and a halfago, and and and that contention being
a common thread to where we arenow. And the reason I bring it
up is because you know, II when Chris Finch post game win or

(16:02):
lose, you knows, as acommon thread this season, talks about the
ball got sticky, the ball gotsticky, the ball got sticky, things
got sticky. I mean that that'sbeen uttered myriad times this year, which
which would would lead me to believe, at least in that instance, he
didn't believe there was sharing and andit was antithetical to team basketball, which

(16:23):
which means it's I mean, itjust it happened last Sunday. It's you
know, they're they're yeah, that'sfair. Yeah they're down sixteen, and
not just Edwards, but you gotthose trying to go one on five.
I mean, if that happens,you're going to get blown out again every
single game, right, Yeah.And I think that's where I pushed back
to a because the ball did getsticky many times this season, particularly when

(16:47):
Cats and Ants were both on thefloor together. Right. I guess I'm
going off of broadly the the lastsix weeks broadly where the Wolves did move
the ball. You know, theykind of like they replaced Cat in the
starting lineup with Nas, right,but who replacing Nas off the bench?
Monte Morris, it was Jordan McLaughlin. They played that like they played two
point guards all the time. Theywere moving the ball. They did play

(17:08):
team basketball in that group. Andso the ultimate hope I think in this
series is that more of that styleof ball movement that they played with for
the last five weeks where their offensehas finally been good for the first time
this season or above average for thefirst time this season. Hopefully some of
that thing's in it. It hasto, you know, in this series,
particularly particularly given the way that Phoenixis guarding ant Man. I've never

(17:33):
not never, but they are sofocused on Ant If there is a guy
in the ball on him, andthere's a guy in the right gap and
there's a guy in the left gap, every single time there is a wall
for Ant but treating him like Giannis, like, so, what do you
have to do there? You haveto move the ball and you have to
move your bodies like Phoenix is likesomebody else beat us first and then and

(17:56):
then will adjust and once they adjust, then can go. So it needs
to be a team game in thesense that you got to move the ball,
but it's got to be a teamgame in the sense that different guys
got to go at different times andthey need to trust each other, you
know, to be able to openthings up, which has not happened at
all in these Phoenix teams. Thatwas outstanding. You're terrific. Thank you

(18:17):
very much for the time. Enjoythe games and probably we'll tap on you
next week if you have time.Okay, yes, sir, thank you
for having me. Yeah, forsure, see you. Dane Moore at
Dane Moore NBA via the X Machineand holy cow, many that that was
fantastic. I mean, if you'reinto not only the how, but the
NBA and the way he laid thingsout and the deduction with Karl Anthony Towns

(18:37):
absolutely being the a topic in thisseries for the Minnesota Timberwolves, A Grace
and Allen has some a topic tohim for the Phoenix Suns, and you
know that that that's how it alwaysworks where Okay, Anthony Edwards, Yes,
we know what you can do,and we're going to send forces and
masks to stop you. Devin,Kevin Durant, Bradley Beal, we know

(19:00):
what you can do. So wegot to do ABC, D, E,
F and G to slow that thing. And then Grays and Allen his
five threes, Carl Ampman, KarlAnthony Towns is so big in this series
when it comes to advancing to thesecond round. And Nine to Noon can't
wait. It commences Saturday at twothirty at Target Center, Football around the

(19:22):
Corner with Bikes Bytes. That's guidedby not only the great Ship Love Covenant,
but the captain of Bikes Bites,the producer of Nine to Noon,
Eric Nordquist, and I'm Paul Allen. After that Florio with Pro Football Talk
dot Com and we welcome you toa Wednesday in the Love Covenant at f
M one hundred point three kfa NGood Morning the Fan. Along with big

(19:47):
Deck dot com. They want togive you a chance to put a grain
in your hand with the National CashContest. Go to kfaan dot com.
Use the keyword happy. One inone thousand dollars would make you happy.
The keyword is happy. kN DadFikes Bikes Welcome back. And you you

(20:18):
heard that promotion there. Thanks toPep's Draft House Pizza, we are doing
tickets for talkbacks all local coverage broughtto you by PEPs. But between now
and next Thursday's Draft a week fromtomorrow, we're giving away tickets to the
Miller Lite Vikings draft party. Sousing the talkback feature, hit that microphone,
give us up to your best thirtyseconds and we will play them select

(20:41):
a winner later in the show.And they're getting a pair of passes to
go see what the Vikings may do. Are they trading up? Well,
that's what we're going to talk abouthere nine to noon, And I want
to start with this PA Pro FootballFocus Sam Munson. Now again, you
you mentioned you don't watch, youdon't pay attention to a lot of mock
drafts. That all good, butI want to run through this with you

(21:02):
because it's kind of a it's it'senterprising, it's out of the box.
We've we've had many angles, haven'tseen this one yet. Well, quickly
off that Peter Schrager at NFL dotcom. Yeah, he he has one
that I follow yearly because I knowPeter. I know a lot of people
with whom he chats about draft scenarios, and he waits until the week before

(21:25):
the draft, yep, to puthis mock out. So NFL dot Com,
I mean, ain't tripping over hitsweb hits. Peter ain't tripping over
being the first to say, well, I said that in January, so
I get all the credit. No, he compiles information and he waits,
and you know, like everybody else, he doesn't hit on everything, or

(21:45):
sometimes not even a majority of things. But when you read it and has
projected trades and stuff like that,Peter is dialed in and and you know,
one of one of his takes makesnine to noon today when we get
to the eight takes, talkers ofTedium and Triumph. Eight days in front
of the NFL Draft, So checkthat out. Whether it's Peter Schreger's mock,

(22:07):
he has the Vikings selecting two individualsin the first round. Go b
Nicks. The keyword is two here, but it's a different vibe. So
according to Pro Football Focus, Bearsand Commanders, they take Caleb one,
and then JJ McCarthy goes two tothe Commanders. Okay, that's a little
outside of the box. And thenit's the Broncos of all teams who get
their way up to three and theyjust love them some Jade and Daniels.

(22:32):
Okay, So that sends Drake Mayfalling down the board of the draft.
Pro Football Focus hits us with aprojected trade. The Vikings get picked nine
from the Bears, so they flipnine and eleven intro intra division trading.
Quacy's tricky like that, They selectDrake May ninth overall. Okay, so

(22:53):
draft party goes wild. We gotDrake May. Now here's what they do
later in the first round. Becausethey did not give up pick twenty three
just to move up two spots PA, they still have picked twenty three in
the first round. Everyone's exciting,we got lights, everyone's having beverages.
It's like nine thirty and the Vikingstrade out into day two. So now,

(23:15):
okay, at least we got ourQB super cool with that. Hey,
this is unbelievable what you're doing rightnow. Because I didn't send you
the eight Takes and Talkers of Tediumand Triumph eight days in front of the
NFL Draft. You've already hit ona Broncos bit that I'm going to unfurrow.
What was the most recent when yousaid, oh yeah, what was

(23:37):
last thing in intra division trading?Okay, QWAC trading with the Bears.
Drake May falling right, But you'vehit on you you'll see an hour from
now looking forward to it and maybe, but I bet you your eight takes
eight days from now will not includethis. So they trade out of the
first round again. This is accordingto a Pro Football Focus two round mocked.

(24:00):
Yes, Eric, So we're excitedwe have Drake. We're sad we
waited so long at us Bank Stadiumwithout another selection. We go home the
next day. I mean it's daytwo, dude. You know that.
Sauce and I are doing the DraftNight show Friday night after Bump because we're
breaking down. Okay, it's daytwo. They trade out of the first

(24:21):
round and get picks thirty four andsixty eight. They're picking third on day
two. Wow, so we're pumpedbecause it's okay, what corners are left?
Right? Is Braden Fistcat on theinterior D line? Maybe it's Darius
Robinson on the edge. What ifwe get a guard with pick thirty four?
Right, you just hit number Youjust hit number six without laying the

(24:41):
name out about it starts this isI think ten o'clock number six con wants
a guard. So we went snippingand came up with isn't it? This
is great? Is it? ChristianMahogany, No, No, we're in
unison. We have unity. Wehave harmony. We're playing fast, so
we're waiting for them to pick thirtyfourth, and according to this mock draft

(25:02):
from Pro Football Focus, we getDrake May ninth overall, and because Quasio
del fa Mensa has a finance background, which means he's into diversifying and hedging,
the Vikings take Michael pennox O fourthoverall average. That's one thing you
haven't considered, Pa. Now thedraft needs to get here, and it
needs to be here. You havegot considered the idea that the Vikings select

(25:27):
two quarterbacks. Well, well,no, no, actually I have.
I have. It's number nine inthe eighth from age. It is,
yes, and it's somebody whose namenever has been mentioned anywhere in the history
of anywhere. You got left onthe cutting room floor. But I also
think I lay out a premise forif the sniping of all sniping ever to
snipe takes place, and Bossburg GregSweedburg, I'm second in command here and

(25:52):
they and National Football League Draft lovingRube. Yeah, the reason I almost
rolled in late for the Dane Moorebit. What was going back and forth
with Bosburg about two defensive players inthe first round. Okay, what happens
starting the conversation from if it's afailure trading up and you're wrong about the

(26:15):
quarterback, here's what happens. Itwas an avalanche of doom, didn't it
was Boom talking to doom. Nowdid he hit you with any offensive lineman
names that he's or has he changed? Is he on the defensive side of
things right now? I haven't talkedhardcore draft with Swedburgh lately. Right,
how many tackles are we going tocome out of the draft with? Well,

(26:37):
the answer is no, because asa common red nine to noon,
the last X amount of days,maybe weeks has involved a certain thing Ricky
Rubio said years ago about we haveto change our face, change your face,
changing our faces with Karl Anthony Townsand defense and trust and not clomping.
When the person who falls more thanany seven footer I've ever seen in
my life, he's on the groundand you know, now all of a

(26:59):
sudden they're the NB three and facechanges with defensive approaches. If you get
sniped, it's wow. The draftjust needs to get here, the con
it just needs to be here rightnow. So there is precedence now,
not first and second round. Yeah, in twenty twelve, the Redskins took
RG three and then in the fourthround one O two overall, whould they

(27:21):
take? Wow? What a greatexample Kirk Cousins. Right, So one
in two that's different, that's unique, that's trailblazing, that's definitely hedging bets.
So, but it's not completely unreasonablethe idea that a team would take
two qbs. Oh I'm in thesame draft. No, I'm in on
two qbs. And and here's why. And this is not part of the

(27:42):
super special eight from eight. Butnow that you bring it up, so
just in your heart of hearts,off steam, just just everything from like
last season through now with the proclamationby the right people that this let's get
the most ever just deep quarterbacks draft, super deep, high in quality.

(28:04):
Right, And what nine to Noonshares frequently is there will be potentially a
handful of players taken on Saturday whogets second contracts as like Cousins, as
starters are high in backups. Okay, So twenty twenty probably the deepest wide
receiver draft either ever JJ kJ jjkjOKAYKJ fifth I believe justin first round Drake

(28:32):
made JJ McCarthy first round. Waittill Saturday, Number eight hanging me quarterback,
Hey Mamy, deep in the draftintrigues me. And here's why I
can't wait. I know you're excitingso much. Oh wow, bikes byes
Man. We might have to playthe so I can get caught up on
faith and goal with Jason Romano today. We might need to play Matelli's twice.

(28:56):
We will play in ten eleven.I mean, seriously, Oh wait,
cow are the are the It's notgreasing the wheels of a noisy bad
dream. It's not a bad dream, but it's a grindy wheel that just
keeps going around with dolls on theGiants are a thing and and Pro Football

(29:17):
Focus and Schrager has us taking bonenicks. I mean, come on a
couple of things for you here towrap before we get to Florio. Let's
say the Vikings take their QB,they move eleven and twenty three, they
move up. I would still favorthem taking a swing and trying to take
a swing on Thursday night for theirguy. I'm all in on the swing.

(29:37):
I'm all in on the swing aswell. So with that said,
they have seven selections, all ofthem being on Saturday, so I posted
a nine to noon poll. Asidefrom QB, what position are you most
focused on for the Vikes to improvevia the draft? K K fan one
zero zero three indeed sweet, Morethan half of those that responded so far
have said interior, D line andor edge. Help. Is there a

(29:57):
particular position if if we get awayfrom the QBS and it's may or it's
JJ and all of that is there? Is there even just hey, on
a Saturday, you got seven selections? Can you find an earlier, an
early contributor at this spot? Imean we're seeing news, you know,
Shaquille Griffin. I forgot he wason the team until I heard what jersey

(30:18):
number he was wearing. Cornerback spot. You know, what does that look
like again? Fat guy in themiddle next to Harrison Phillips. How vital
is that? Is that a Saturdayvibe in which you can find somebody?
How deep is that aspect of thedraft? Is there a certain position where
it's like, man, you know, Blake Brandell, you got paid,
really really would like to have somecompetition at the guard spots? What do

(30:41):
you think? Well? Number seven, the last six drafts, three guards
have been selected on average in thefourth round, most of any round.
Oh, so that's in there.There it is as is a defensive player
with a name and a school thatwon't be Saturday, but he ain't gonna

(31:03):
be Thursday, So finagling your wayto Friday. So Nordo and the Saucy
have something to talk about. Well, that's number six. No, that's
con wants a guard. That's numberfour. I mean, it's I'm just
astounded right now. How we didn'tchat about what's coming up at I think
it's ten o'clock. No, wedid, and it's going to set up
the NFL draft talkbacks for the ticketsto The Life Changer a week from tomorrow.

(31:29):
And I mean we were sending eachother screenshots and ring doorbell videos,
but we weren't talking about this.Hi, I'm Paul. Did you steal
my computer? I mean you hiton in a roundabout way, six of
these bits that I'm going to winBerlin twenty five minutes. Very well done,
that was great. Those are vikesbites Northern a clear cutting up.

(31:53):
Who provides it? Yeah, it'sThousand Hills lifetime grazed grass fed beef.
Awesome product that you can pick upyour local co op or Coburn's location next
it's time for Florio to come outand play a in the nine to Noon
stable on KFA N the ft MyGlorio. It's Paul Allen and the nine

(32:21):
to Noon is greatly appreciated for yourtime a days in front of the draft.
How are you? I'm doing great, Paul. How are you?
Paul? Pretty well? My brother? How did the the one day splash
sale the ninety nine cents for Fatherof Mine or however you properly explain that
go yesterday? Well, first ofall, it wasn't one day. A
full week. You get it forninety nine cents the ebook. That's the

(32:43):
maximum time I was allowed to dropthe price to nine to nine cents,
so you can still get it untilMonday morning, eight am Eastern seven am
Cornfields ninety nine cents. It isselling briskly. If it was an actual
tangible product, I'd say we mightrun out. But the beauty of the
e book is you never run out. There's an endless supply the Digital inc.

(33:06):
And Michael, for those who mayhave missed it, your latest book,
Father of Mine? How over aminute, how can you explain what
it is? It's actually not mylatest book. My latest book is the
Christmas book On Our Way Home,which you charitably helped me promote back in
December, and we'll bring it backthis December. Father of Mine is a

(33:27):
mob story set in nineteen seventy three. Most mob stories are based in bigger
cities New York, Chicago, etc. This is set in my hometown of
Wheeling, West Virginia, sixty milessouthwest of Pittsburgh, where the mob was
very prevalent, like it was inmost small towns at the time, rampant
and all the mob activities that youare used to reading about and watching,

(33:52):
and these were real. Now nameshave been changed to protect the innocent and
me, but some of the specificcrimes that I became aware of that this
group was involved in, and mydad was connected to it as a bookie.
Over time, I've learned some things. I knew some things at the
time, I've learned more things sincethen, and that became the background for

(34:13):
the story. It still has tobe a compelling story with drama and conflict
and decisions and development of characters andall of that crap. But if you
like the mob genre, there's thefour hundred page book you can get for
ninety nine cents I defy you tofind anything you can buy for ninety nine
cents. I don't think you canget a Snickers bar for ninety nine cents

(34:34):
anymore. I think it's anywhere froma dollar to a buck thirty five for
one candy bar that has gone intwenty five seconds. This stays forever on
your cell phone device or wherever youread your electronic books. Correct, I'm
that ebook father of mine in youhere. Pat Shermer, former Vikings offensive

(34:59):
coordinator, coach at the Giants andstuff, now the offensive coordinator for Dion
Colorado Boulder. Pat has a mobbent to him. In fact, he
reads a lot of mob related books. So I'm going to send him a
text after the segment and then pointhim in the direction of father of him,
because I think he would enjoy it. And Pro football Talk dot com

(35:20):
is where you can learn more aboutthat and the National Football League rapt because
I've got a Pat Shermer's story thatis probably not suited for air, Okay,
and I'm not one hundred percent sureit actually happens, so it's probably
not suited. Fat It's nothing bad. It's nothing bad. It's not that
it would be nothing defamatory. Idon't have the suggestion that it's something bad.
It's just kind of a funny storyfrom when he was coach of the
Giants. But we don't have timeto get into it, as I just

(35:42):
waste thirty seconds of everyone's time pointingout I have a story that I won't
tell. Does an involved former generalmanager David Gettlman, No, okay,
then we have different stories. Eightdays to the life changer. This thing
just needs to get here any daynow. I mean, specifically from a
Viking standpoint, with those two pays, the potential of using one next year
and getting up and getting the quarterbackand Pro Football Talk dot Com yesterday with

(36:07):
if you assigned Jefferson now or tradehim and everything that went into that that
we're going to get into momentarily.But do you have any steam, like
any steam percolating about anybody trading up, picking somebody or whatever. Here's something
interesting that we just posted about DrakeMay and one of the bets that makes
me the most nervous about the potentialfor an NFL scandal and inside information,

(36:30):
etc. This idea of when aguy is going to get drafted because people
know the answer to that question DraftKingshas actually taken off the board any of
the bets linking Drake May, theNorth Carolina quarterback to any specific teams starting
with the Commanders and any other teamoff the board completely. But you can
still bet on the spot where he'llgo. He's the favorite at three,

(36:52):
he's the runaway favorite at five.And I look at that and I think,
well, somebody thinks somebody's trading upwith the Chargers to take Drake May
at number five, and maybe it'sthe Vikings, but I don't know who
else it would be, Frankly,but you can bet on him going at
five. He is minus two thousand, the clear favor to go fifth overall.

(37:12):
And obviously the Chargers aren't taking himat five. They're the ones who
hold that pick. So when youtry to read the lines, the tea
leaves whatever as it relates to whatthe betting markets might or might not tell
us. That one's very intriguing tome that currently minus two thousand and May
at five, which means somebody's tradingup to get May at five. Okay,

(37:35):
off that any chance, Jim HarbobHarbor's so much, you'll will towards
the Minnesota Vikings for not getting hired. He makes edict with the Chargers we
are not trading with Minnesota under anycircumstances. You know, I was riffing
about that on Friday, and theydon't want to overstate it. I just
think it's an interesting complication to thewhole thing. I think, at the
end of the day, Jim Harbaughis not going to cut off his nose

(37:59):
to spite his face. But JimHarball seems like a kind of a guy
who will hold a grudge for along time, and he's probably pissed that
he showed up in Minnesota to interviewfor a job that he thought he was
going to get and he didn't getit. So he's going to have to
get past that before he would dohis business with the Vikings on terms that
you know would be a win win. I mean, hey, if they

(38:21):
want to overpay for it, fine, but otherwise we're going to stay put.
We're going to take a receiver hereat number five. So I don't
think it would be a deal breaker. But when you know the way Jim
Harball is kind of wired. Hell, yes he's going to think about that.
How yes he would think about that, But I don't think it would
ultimately keep him from making the moveif he thinks it's the right thing for
the Chargers. Chef d tweeted hethinks Drake May is the preference of the

(38:45):
Vikings. Your thoughts, well,I I haven't heard anything to contradict it.
I haven't heard anything to confirm it. I've gotten some obscure text messages
from people who like they were makinga typo, but it really wasn't a
typo suggesting May as the guy.But I don't want to get into that.

(39:06):
But yeah, Hey, the connectionback to Josh McCown, who coached
him when he was in high school, is obvious. And I look at
it this way. McCown is goingto have an opinion one way or the
other. He's either going to saythis is our guy or run and hide.
So you know, you've got alevel of insight information as to his

(39:27):
character the Commanders, and I thinkthis is just kind of goofy and dysfunctional,
bringing four guys in it, onceMay and Daniels and who else,
Pennix and Nis. I think,is it Nix or McCarthy, not Nix
McCarthy, four of them at thesame time. What the hell does that
prove all? We want to seehow they interact with each other? Why

(39:49):
when are they going to be interactingwith each other? What is the point
of that? And my point ishow do you get a window into who
the kid really is? Well,if you have a guy who coached him
in high school when he wasn't thinking, gee, I better be careful how
i am right now because it mightaffect where I'm drafted. Later, you're
going to get a good look atwho the kid really is. Dude,
do you think in any way theNew England Patriots could be an immovable object

(40:13):
when it comes to moving from numberthree? Because I don't. I don't
think they're immovable. The question iswho do they want? And it gets
back to the point I made yesterdayabout Justin Jefferson. You even got to
pay him or trade him to someonewho'll pay him. There's no reason to
not have this deal done. Andevery passing day makes the deal potentially more
expensive. Davonte Smith gets three years, seventy five million on an extension,

(40:37):
that's going to make it more expensivefor Justin Jefferson. Because if this guy's
getting twenty five million per year onan extension, good Lord, what is
Justin Jefferson work no offense to DeVontaSmith? But Justin Jefferson is a completely
different stratosphere than Deavonte Smith. It'snever going to get cheaper, It's only
going to get more expensive. Soeither do it or trade him. And
I say that, because why wouldn'tyou try to go all the way ap
to number two? Call the commanders, Hey, how about Justin Jefferson plus

(41:00):
eleven? You can still get aquarterback who slips through the cracks to eleven
and Vikings go up and take JaydenDaniels and they get their friend tarkined for
the next ten to fifteen years ifthey like Jayden Daniels. A lot of
people do. One of the thingsthat strikes me about Jayden Daniels when we're
at the combine, I think I'vetold you this before, but I can't
remember, so maybe you can't either, and presumably anyone who is listening then

(41:22):
doesn't remember either. When we weretalking to players on the defensive side of
the ball who played in the SEC, every time we asked them, who's
the toughest opponent you ever faced incollege? Jayden Daniels was the guy that
they set So if the belief isthe Vikings and Jefferson were close to closing

(41:42):
on a deal, and if thebelief, whether reported or not, and
it plays into what you're saying,is that Justin and his representation want to
wait for the salary cap to continueto go up because it's going to provide
more bottom line money. I justI like, like I is right now,
and like not in a few monthsin front of the season so important.

(42:05):
Why don't you want him in therefor the offseason program? I mean,
just get it done. If you'regoing to do it, just do
it. Defer the signing bonus fora few months, if that's what you
need to do. If there's acash flow issue that's behind all this,
I just think that it's a questionof the Vikings. I don't want to
say playing games, but it kindof feels like they are. I also
don't know who's in charge here,who's really running this. Is it a

(42:30):
quasi call? Is it a Wilfcall? Who's making the decisions? I
don't even remember the name of theguy that took over for Kevin Warren.
Who is that person? How doeshe factor into all of this? Who's
making these decisions? Who's setting thebudget, who's determining how much they're going
to offer, who's going to determinethe structure. They need to guarantee fully
three years of the deal to getthis done. And at some point in

(42:52):
the not too distant past, Quacymentioned that Justin Jefferson is one of the
top non quarterbacks in the entire league. Well, you know that means that
you forget about the receiver market,which has a bunch of deals with Fugeesi
back ends on them anyway, andyou start looking at pass Rusher deals,
you start looking at Bosa's deal.I mean, if you want to keep

(43:14):
this guy, that's what you haveto do. And if you're not willing
to do it, just trade himto a team that will. It's very
simple. You either want him oryou don't. And if you want him,
why not sign him now because itain't going to get cheaper tomorrow or
the next day or the day afterand so on. Florio, Viking's defensive
coordinator, Brian Flores, says there'sno way to know if his lawsuit against

(43:37):
the NFL is keeping him from headcoaching jobs. I mean, shoot,
he didn't get a sniff this offseason, so did. Do you believe said
litigation is keeping him from even achance at sniffing one of those jobs.
I'll put it this way. There'sno way to prove. And I think
you know, if you have commonsense and you understand how these businesses work,

(43:58):
how the oligarchs operate, how dareyou challenge us? How dare you
sue us? How dare you comeafter us and cause us to number one,
spend a lot of money on legalfees? Number two have to answer
to anyone. We answer to noone. You answer to us. That's
the attitude that these folks have alot of them, most of them,
maybe all of them. So onceyou do that, and he sued the

(44:22):
league, the Dolphins, the Giants, the Broncos, and the Texans,
that's a big deal. I'm impressedthat the Vikings hired him to be defensive
coordinator because at some level, you'reprobably getting a little side eye if you're
either Mark or Ziggy Wilf from someof these other owners, especially the owners
of the Dolphins, the Giants,the Broncos, and the Texans. Because

(44:45):
I've lived in that world where somebodysues an employer, especially when they're still
employed by the company. It's very, very acrimonious. It's personal, it's
awkward, it's tense. So Igive the Wilf's a ton of credit for

(45:05):
hiring him as the kinds of coordinator. And the wisdom of that move is
this, they don't have to worryabout him leaving what domin nobodys going to
hire him be a head coach?Wow? Wow? But my assessment is,
and prove me that I'm wrong,Prove me that you aren't who I
think you are. Just like youknow, when the NFL wasn't going to
play football on Christmas, I said, booll crap. I almost said the
other word, bull crap. Theyare playing on Christmas because they are who

(45:25):
we think they are, right,and if they don't hire Brian Flores,
they are who we think they are. How about how about this sucker at
Pro Football Talk dot com drop fortyfive minutes ago Patriots den i ESPN report
that Robert Kraft told Arthur Blake notto trust Bill Belichick, written by Mike
Florio our guest right now, forthose who haven't read it, which would
include me, I just saw it. What does it include? Well?

(45:49):
To quote Aaron Rodgers, don't wasteyour time reading that crap. So I'll
go ahead and explain to you whathe actually said that It's been seven years,
but I really do want that onmy tombstone. I want actually a
solar powered screen on my tombstone thathas that clip of Aaron Rodgers specifically calling
me out and saying, don't wasteyour time reading crap like that, just
perpetually right over and over again.I think by the time I die,

(46:13):
hopefully the technology will exist. Ithink it already does. That doesn't mean
I want to die now. Butanyway, when we're talking about, oh,
Belichick and ESPN thing, this isamazing to me because the ESPN Long
Read and some of these things willpop up, like three or four of
them a year. ESPN has thistwenty thousand word article that ultimately has and

(46:35):
I've got a list here of likesix different items that I could take and
post focusing on unique discrete angles ofthe story. This issue of Robert Kraft
contacting Arthur Blank, or Blank actuallycontacting Kraft to do his due diligence when
he was considering hiring Bill Belichick.The claim that Craft said to Blank he

(46:58):
can't trust Belichick. That comes fromand the way it's worded is a source
who spoke to a source and anothersource. Like it's not even secondhand,
it's secondhand third hand. I wouldget killed if I pushed something that big
based upon such tenuous sourcing. Andto their credit, ESPN contacted the Patriots

(47:22):
who denied this. But it reallyfeels like flimsy reporting to say conclusively that
Kraft told Blank you can't trust Belichick. And you know one of the other
things reported Kraft owes Belichick twenty fivemillion dollars this year, And if Blank

(47:43):
had hired Belichick dollar for dollar offsetfor the twenty five million, why would
Kraft try to torpedo Belichick getting ajob. So there's a lot of interesting
stuff in there, But man,that that idea that they it's a source
who has a source, who hasa source. I mean for something that
significant, that's a tough tough reportto tie together based on two three levels

(48:08):
away from the actual conversation. It'sflimsy now. Now assist to the producer.
Eric norquis mad producer. It's notseven years ago, it's not a
Rodge but two years ago, Brucearians Florio, you can write what you
want. It's okay, I meangetting the laugh and everything, so that

(48:28):
there's kind of a common thread.There's not a Rodge, but it was
Bruce. Well, that's good.Listen. It's funny because I thought about
that just yesterday. You know,your haters hear something like that and they're
like, oh, you got roasted. It's like, dude, what was
the saying last year from Robert salif you go, if you ain't got
haters, you ain't popping, orsomething like that, like who else is
the guy calling out by name?They pay attention to what we say,

(48:52):
and of course they're not going tolike the things we say that they don't
like. I had strong opinions aboutTom Brady retiring and then unretur hiring,
and oh, a couple of weekslater, Bruce Arians retires. Hmm,
Tom to Tom Brady say the Bucks, I'll come back, but we need
a different head coach of the teamthis year. I mean, that was
that was where that all came from. I was pushing back against the handcrafted

(49:15):
narrative that just out of the blue, Bruce Arians decides in late March he's
going to retire, which I didn'tbelieve then and I don't believe now you're
playing so fast right now you shouldwrite another book today, or at least
start one. Thank you very muchfor the time. You're fantastic. Call
you soon. Bye, Mike FlorioPro Football Talk dot Com. It's pft
Y, you know we Florio.You can write what you want. It's okay.