#92Noon! 9a Hour 7/25 - Vikings first day of camp!

Thoughts on the opening day of camp, including the reported ACL injury to Mekhi Blackmon, followed by Titan vox Mike Keith for adversary intel! Vikes Bites to finish the hour!

Episode Transcript

(00:04):
Welcome back to the show nine tonoon. Just listen, double point.

(00:26):
I gotta be careful with Johnny Pecker. You hommer get a thank you,

(01:14):
JJ Hey, what's up? KFantas eighty four man, y'all stay tuned
live for the Hottest man in theWorld. PA Paul Allen, Yes,
uh, good morning. Today's Friendon Foes is Mike Keith, the longtime
play by play voice of the TennesseeTitans. I think my man sneaking up

(01:36):
on like thirty years boxing the TennesseeTitans. He's definitely at a quarter century.
I think it's twenty six, whichis a fat number. Well done.
The Minnesota Vikings hook the Nashville pieceweek eleven. Down there the box
graces the airwaves. Next segment,Friends on Foes Mike Keith on the Tennessee

(01:57):
Titans, and then Lieber is instudio with us around ten and a young
Alec around eleven am. A fewof today's operative words include unfortunate, ominous,
foreboding, and harbinger. All right, three to two. A few

(02:23):
of today's operative words include unfortunate,ominous, foreboding, and harbinger. And
it goes little something like this forthe Minnesota Vikings. Yesterday's report second year
corner Mackay Black meantor is acl isunfortunate and the start to this thing has

(02:47):
been ominous given the death of KyrieJackson, the Addison piece of immaturity and
now the black Men use which absolutelycan before voting, and the hope here
in the nine to noon stable.All of this is not a harbinger.

(03:07):
All of this is ominous and antitheticalto joy. The bad news can just
go ahead and stop any day nowunder the cover of darkness, the darkness
of unpredictability. Sam Darnold is goingto light up the league, but it's
impossible to hone in on that givenall of the ominous news the team keeps

(03:35):
facing. I mean, shoot,think about this. Defensive coordinator Brian Flores
caught a stray yesterday, I meanout of nowhere pft pops the story about
the Steelers, Flor's tenure there truncatedas it was, and lawsuits something like
as Florio wrote, quote, thebad news for Flores came after the fact.

(04:00):
The NFL and multiple teams have arguedthat his contract with the Pittsburgh Football
Steelers, where he was there allof one year before joining this covenant forces
his pre existing legal claims into arbitration. I got no idea what any of
that means, but I know withunfortunate things transpiring for favorite football team,

(04:28):
and it's been bang bang bang.I mean, Flores, who was a
very cool cat, wakes up excitedfor the first day of training camp pads
go on Monday, starts reading someNFL stuff, and out of nowhere,
Bam catches astray via p f Tunfortunate, not ominous and with all the

(05:00):
other sad and negative news of lateagain nine to noon. Really, really
really is hoping. What's blowing inthe wind over Twin Cities Orthopedics Performance Center
is in no way a harbinger forthe twenty twenty four Now the first practice

(05:23):
yesterday, it was cool. Evenif they've yet to don the full armor
of the gridiron. It still wascool being out there on the exclusive Vikings
Radio Network perch overlooking for perfectly manicuredfields, and one of them would include
the Mike Cues Memorial field. Wehave an AJ Green third playing corner,

(05:46):
and while he looked quite athletic ona couple of plays, it is important
to note he is of no relationto Adriel Jeremiah Green, the stud wide
receiver who managed ten thousand, fivehundred yards and seventy touchdowns for the Bengals
and the Cards. But we havean A. J. Green rolling around
there. My man's kind of athletic. I low key liked Jalen Williams,

(06:12):
a corner from Indiana last year,but I can't exactly remember why, but
I know I liked him for aminute. He, however, was dashing
around yesterday almost like a prophet whoknew Blackman was going to go down,
and this is the chance for meto slide into the dms of fat paychecks,

(06:34):
per diems, and swanky lifestyles.The fifty from Darnold to Jefferson brought
joy to the Covenant, but themellow found harsh when Makai Blackman went down.
How does that factor into the pickleat the nickel and cornerback equation for

(06:59):
the twenty twenty four Minnesota Vikings.Plenty of show to hammer on that,
with our elite football minds joining thefray hoping to not catch a stray,
quite unfortunate for the young man.Makai Blackman. Ain't no doubt about that,
man, I felt terrible for himand speaking of unfortunate, all right,
three to two and speaking of unfortunate, too bad all cannot watch a

(07:24):
pretty cool story developing San Sannah tolift center field and deep Pucket goes deep,
it goes near the wall, andit's missed by marsh He missed it.
Hey, what run stores? Herecomes couple of heading homeies stores and
we're tired of the Carlos Santana toowell to run double Carlos Santana. Minnesota

(07:45):
Twins are winning. They're winning theirwinning Santana though, But if they play
the Phillies, we hope they don'tlose again. Sure, sure would have
loved to have seen that yesterday andevery day, night and everything in between

(08:07):
for the entire season. But youknow, rum, pull up the middle,
this is gonna work, This isgonna win it. Kettler put it
in play. Lord of Stores.Twits when twits, when that's win's walking
off? I guess the Phillies fivefour Corey provis Ballely's That was cool to
watch. I wouldn't mind seeing Corey'sversion of the Lord of Scores. How

(08:41):
why still, how seriously still unfortunateshoe size contest contest impacting many around the
country. It's not just us herein this covenant. We just want to
turn on a TV and watch thesquad, a squad that beat a quality
Phillies bunch and meat Loaf, thosePhilly fanatics new schoolers, meat Loaf,

(09:07):
older older act. I had asong called two out of three ain't bad.
Quite popular if you hear it now, still sounds pretty good. So
it stands the test of time andbeating the Philly fanatics two out of three
that ain't bad indeed. So here'sthe deal. Thanks to timber Tech and
timber tech dot com, here's what'son deck nine to now. The Titans

(09:28):
voxes next, followed by Vikes,Bites, Nacho News, Donord and Alec
Lewis, who covers the Minnesota Vikingsfor the Athletic. Alec had a tweet
yesterday that was just so beautiful andjust so so identifiable with the radio image

(09:50):
of young Alec. I don't haveit in front of me now, but
it basically was Darnold just hit Jeffersonon a play action for fifty right down
the middle and justin went to skippingafter the play We're back. I always
love that one. We're back.I have it right here. Sam Darnold

(10:11):
just drilled Justin Jefferson on deep playaction over the top, fifty plus in
the air, beautiful ball. Justincaught it and skipped around. We're back,
I mean amplifying the identity for profiton kfam now with the box around

(10:35):
the corner plenty into which we'll diefor the week eleven opponent down Smashville Way
Will Levis though Will Levis no,Derrick Henry and Jeffrey Simmons left tackle from
Alabama and the world continues to rotate. That's next my Keith Box for the
Tennessee Titans. He's a friend andthey're a foe. I'm Paul Allen nor

(10:56):
Do has some money to deliver andgood morning half of nine to noon.
Yes, indeed, the Fan alongwith big deck dot Com want to give
you a chance to put a grandin your hand with the National Cash Contest.
Just go to kfan dot com andenter the keyword bonus. You might
win one thousand dollars with the keywordbonus. That's a kfan dot Com big

(11:18):
boy and used to be hitting attwelve. Yeah, that was weird man
second ago at the three Levis lookingthrowing God takes sex rather had six puts
down. Titans Levs to the livinglegend Diandre Hopkins, and the game is

(11:41):
noted at twenty five. That's thevoice of Mike Keith. He's entering his
twenty six year his voice of theTennessee Titans. Your Minnesota Vikings travel to
Nashville to contest the Titans in weeknumber eleven of the two zero two four
and here comes the Here comes thevox. Yo, what's going on?

(12:03):
Mike? How you been morning?Pa? This so so from Matt Taylor
with the Indianapolis Colts, through FrankFrangie with the Jaguars, and Mark vandermir
with the Texans, and now thevox of all boxes ever, the Vox
Mike Keith, heading past this quartercentury of calling Titans games. Uh,

(12:24):
we're we're putting a bow on theAFC South And And when I was putting
this together, it caused me tothink back to the NFL combine from earlier
this year, when all four ofyou got together at your Titans table and
you did a podcast or or youdid something that just looked really really cool.

(12:45):
Man. We enjoyed doing it,and we give it to each of
the four and so they air itin the way they want to. I
think Vandermir edited it to make melook bad, but that's a story anyway.
I really like those guys. Frankand I have been friends for over
thirty years, known Mark for overtwenty. Matt is somebody who's really special

(13:11):
to me because he's a younger guywho's taken an opportunity and I'm really proud
of what he's been able to do. He came in in some kind of
unusual circumstances and he's really handled itwell and become beloved in that community.
And you know, we're lucky todo what we do, Pa I mean,
and so yeah, I want tobeat their butts twice a year each.

(13:33):
They want to do that to usas well. But at the same
time, the fellowship of being ableto do this great job, to have
some fun right ragging one another,and to realize how fortunate we are,
and just some sort of fellowship inthat special way. It's kind of a
good thing, and that is oneof my favorite things that we do.

(13:56):
And I can't speak for the Jags, the Texans or the Cold fans,
but our fans really enjoyed that podcast. They they like how that one goes
because they it kind of pulls backthe curtain of what we do a little
bit. And uh, I thinkthey also liked that I dogged the other
three guys well. I tried topill for the idea and get Dan Miller,

(14:20):
Lions, Jeff, Jonyac, Bears, Wayne, Lara, v Packers,
you know, all together at theViking slash KFA n table and Dan
Miller said, oh baby. Thenjony X said, now that idea,
we should fade it to black.And then Wayne said, so we have

(14:41):
yet to inferl the NFC North versionof the AFC South Masterpiece. And speaking
of the AFC South, you know, I was thinking about this yesterday when
I was scrafting these for you,Mike will and I'm sure you're down the
road on it because you have tobe, but will not call. We
will not have being Derrick Henry ingames. Is that going to be strange

(15:03):
to call? Sure? I mean, he's he's been a fixture here,
He's he's on our Mount rushmore ofour time in Tennessee. For sure.
He means so much to this partof the country, because this is still
very much sec country and always willbe. And he played at Alabama.

(15:26):
He's a Heisman Trophy winner. SoDerek was a star here the minute he
walked in because he's the all timeleading rusher in high school. He's Alabama's
Heisman Trophy winner. And so hewalks in here, and then he becomes
an NFL superstar too, So hechecks all the boxes, PA, and

(15:48):
then for what we do as wellas announcers, the guys who give us
spectacular are our favorites. We Imean, let's face it, I mean,
if you give us a great story, you make our job easy.
And week by week throughout the courseof especially his last five years, he
gave us great material every single week. Even if it was just a stiff

(16:14):
arm on a play that didn't count, he would do something that certainly got
your attention and allowed you to passthat on to the lister in kind of
a fun way. Now, havingcalled Titans games for twenty six years or
into your twenty six so a quartercentury or whatever it is, you know
what I mean. When you dropa Derrick Henry Is on the Titans Mount

(16:37):
Rushmore, that's a big statement.And I mean, I'm not going to
argue with you on it, man, you know a thousand times more about
it than me. But the firstso putting that Mount Rushmore together just top
of the head for me, Iwould imagine Bruce Matthews and Steve McNair absolutely
are half correct. Bruce Matthews knowwho from this well for this reason.

(17:02):
Remember he only played here three yearsand he was very much at the tail
end of a great career. He'sdiscussed as an organizational when you include the
oilers, I mean, when youinclude the the Yeah, when you include
the oilers, he's certainly an organizationalconsideration. But at the end of his
time here, you know, hejust played here ninety nine, two thousand

(17:26):
and two thousand and one, soand was not the type of player at
the end of his career that hecertainly was ten years earlier. So under
those disrespect to him, just talkingabout the time print, McNair's at the
top of the list. And letme let me just say this about Steve.
With the Mount Rushmore of just theTitans, part of the organization's history

(17:48):
will change throughout the next fifty years. There will be more stars. Maybe
Will Levis is on there. Youknow, who knows what players may be
on there going forward worth after youand I are long gone, Steve McNair
will still be on there then,right, what about it? What about
Eddie George? I think Eddie istoo, And I think Eddie is from

(18:11):
the standpoint that not only was hea great player for our organization, but
when we lost Steve Paul, hebecame the spokesperson for all Titans, and
he took that very much as aresponsibility. He knew that he became that

(18:34):
bridge to the past. And sohe's there not only for his play,
which I think is Hall of Fameworthy, but at the same time he
is that person who is that anothergreat college football player, Heisman Trophy winner.
He was a big name when hegot here, and he has chosen

(18:55):
to re embrace the franchise in away that he didn't even when he was
a player. He is always therefor us at every single moment to this
day, and I think it's inlarge part the sense of responsibility that he
has felt over the last fifteen yearssince we lost Steve. So he's certainly
there. Yes, beautifully and eloquentlylaid out thank you for that. It's

(19:17):
Mike Keith, a voice of theTennessee Titans. Vikings Titans down there week
number eleven. Brian Callahan is thenew coach of the Titans, former offensive
coordinator for the Bengals. What areyou liking at this stage of the equation.
I think the thing that I likemost about Brian pa is that he

(19:38):
totally gets what being the head coachis. And I have been around in
a multiple array of sports, firsttime head coaches, and you see them
go through. They think coaching thefootball team and standing up in front of

(19:59):
the team and me is the newpart of the job. They think they
know what is going to go on. The reality is they're all these little
things that they don't know, andsometimes it annoys them, it overwhelms them,
but it certainly forces them to addressa lot of things that they had
never considered. Brian Callahan had consideredall of it because his father was an

(20:23):
NFL head coach. His father wasthe head coach in Nebraska. He's been
around at his entire life. Ihave never been around a first time head
coach in Eastport who was more readyto be head coach than Brian Callahan.
And so from our standpoint, youknow, we'd had Mike Rabel for six

(20:45):
years. So your anticipation is,oh, we're going to have another offseason
where we know how everything's going togo boom, new head coach. Oh,
well everything's going to change. Wellguess what. Everything didn't change.
And I think the players have sensedthat as well, and some of the
things that we had going well,he's able to just keep doing. He

(21:10):
hasn't blown the whole thing up,Paul, and he hasn't blown up everything
in our building that we do ona daily basis. People aren't walking around
here on eggshells because they're scared ofthe new head coach and all his many
rules. And no, I mean, Brian's like your professional football team.
Your owner decided to make a change. But it's not like you were terribly

(21:33):
broken. We weren't. This isnot a complete reboot, and he gets
it. I think that cool andthat maturity carries over into everything we're doing
right now and gives us a realchance to be better in twenty twenty four.
And there's no doubt, and Ilove how you laid that out.

(21:55):
But it has been a splashy offseason for the Tennessee Titans. We got
the new coach and a bunch ofname brand a stock. So let's begin
with running back Tony Pollard, whoin spurts with Dallas was terrific pre injury.
What done? What are the expectations? Keep doing the same thing,
right and put him with Tajay Spearsand you know you don't have to.

(22:18):
I mean, we're not asking himfor four hundred carries, We're not asking
him for seventy five snaps a game. What we're asking for is what he
did in Dallas back to back thousandyard seasons. Good pass catcher, you
know, that's what he was atthe University of Memphis. He's from Memphis,
so people in Nashville and all TennesseeTitans fans are excited to have another

(22:40):
home state guy on the team.Taja had over eight hundred scrimmage yards last
year, which is hard to believewhen you were playing with Derrick Henry he
could do that. And they aredifferent types of people, but they are
similar types of backs. And youare going to have those one A,
one B type weapons in your backfield, and you're also going to be able

(23:03):
to line them up together because Paulthey come out of the same seven on
seven high school era that we're innow where these backs are asked to play
three downs. They know how topass, protect, they know how to
catch, they know how to runroutes, they know how to run the
football. They're not as big,you know. They're not the old I

(23:26):
formation style back like Eddie George andDerrick Henry were, but they are backs
of today. And as we convertthis offense to three wides away from regularly
being two tight ends, that's thetype of bacu meque wide receiver. Calvin

(23:47):
Ridley speaking of splashy and you pluckedhim from a division foone? What do
you like us that we ruin thatfor Jacksonville? Sorry about that, Frank.
Yeah, you didn't bring that upin the combine comfab, did you,
because you didn't know what had happenedyet. But it would it would
have come up, that's for sure. O jeez, Yeah, hit him

(24:07):
book ending DeAndre. That's gonna bepretty nice, isn't it. Yeah?
And getting Tyler Boyd to play slotafter he had been Brian Callahan slot receiver
in Cincinnati and taking some pressure offTreylon Burke's who we really felt like was
on a great arc last off seasonuntil we were with you, yep,
at joint practices and he hurt thatknee. And you know, the day

(24:32):
he hurt the knee, we werefearful he was gone for the year.
It was a significant injury. Itcost him a lot of time. And
when young players don't get to practice, they regress, and that's what happened.
So now Treylon gets to learn fromall these veterans and he would have
a chance to step up as well. So you take Calvin with the speed

(24:53):
and the route running, DeAndre doingeverything DeAndre does, Boyd being that se
he's pro, and Traylon Burke's withthe size and explosion. I think all
those things excite you. That everybody'sleaping on the Titans. I mean,
it's a you know, I'm notgoing Nashville Homer Radio on this right now,
but you're making some really, reallygood points. Houston is allegedly the

(25:18):
cream of the crop and prohibitively favoredto win the division. I understand that
Jacksonville without one in five at theend of the season. People can't forget
that. The Colts get richardson backand at Taylor and Pittman and the whole
thing. But man, you guysare sneaky with these moves and so defensively,
how much is Jamal Adams in themix of safety? He's in the

(25:40):
mix. I mean he had hehad a good first day. The reason
Jamal Adams is here, and thereason that Jamal Adams comes at such a
rate that he did in terms ofcontract, is that he's got to prove
he can still do it. Youknow. He his injury was incredibly significant

(26:02):
in twenty twenty two. He torehis quad and I'm not going to get
the medical term right, but basicallyfor your audience, he tore his squad
away from his knee and they hadto go back and reattach it. I
mean, he was in a castfor six months and fought his way back
to play last year a year afterthat injury, and he was okay.

(26:23):
I admire the fact that he foughthis way back, But was he the
highest paid safety in the game caliberplayer? No, he was not,
and so he's he's got to proveit. And I think he knows Dinnard
Wilson, our defensive coordinators so well, that was the guy he credits for

(26:44):
making him a pro bowler with theJets, and he's here to show that
he can still do it, andlike I said, day one, moving
around very very well. Some ofthe people who questioned the signing and maybe
don't quite know the history of thatinjury, watched him yesterday and said,
wow, he's pretty good. Butyou know, sometimes an injury like that

(27:08):
takes two years. And the Titansare hoping maybe they struck gold with that
signing, but much more to prove. What with the quarterback box will Levis
into a second year? What improvementis expected. A system that is more
quarterback friendly, the receivers that youjust mentioned, giving him easy throws in

(27:33):
terms of decision making, so everythingis not terribly complicated. The ability with
an improved offensive line to stay outof third and sixteen on a regular basis,
and so many hits. And thenhis off season has been what we
thought it would be, and thatis very much a player who wants to

(27:56):
be a really good NFL quarterback.And I'll go ahead that part of it
is the fact of him that Ilike so much. He has an unusual
intensity for a young man of thisgeneration, and that is to me a
very positive thing. Now you youmentioned the offensive line, and I love

(28:19):
the Callahan take about the spread formationsand passing more and just different concepts.
I like that a lot, especiallyif the play action off Pollard is working
now. But offensive line wise,I mean, boy, that JC Latham,
I mean that that's a monster ofa man. Holy cow, six
two at least. And yeah,the seventh pick of the twenty twenty four

(28:41):
draft. It's going to be excitingwhen you guys go to pads to see
how he handles the heat. Right, Yeah, he's pretty good. I
mean he's a talking about a kidwho's lived on his own since he was
fifteen. He left Wisconsin to goto IMG Academy. He picked Alabama because

(29:02):
he wanted to be coach hard andbecause he wanted to play in the Southeastern
Conference. And so he's twenty oneyears old and it feels like he's thirty
one years old. Listen, He'sgoing to have bad days, Paul,
I mean, he's going to getbeat sometimes, but he sure is heck
better than you know what we've beenable to do at that position for a
long time. And to put himwith Peter Skarnski now hit his second year

(29:27):
of playing guard, and then tosign Lloyd Cushion Berry, who was he
was the number one free agent onour board. You know, everybody's like,
oh, I guess you went afterCalvin Ridley first, or you know
this guy or that guy said Nope, we went after Lloyd cushion Berry first,
first, before we spent any ofthe eighty million dollars. We wanted

(29:48):
to hire him because he gives youleft tackle size at the center position.
And then we've gone out and alsoadded better talent on the right side of
the offensive line, and I thinkit sort of mirrors the overall theme for
this team, Paul. The Titansare better talent wise right now than they

(30:10):
were at any point last year,and better players make for better coaches and
hopefully better results. That's why Ithink some people are sleeping on this team.
The offensive line coming together is agreat overall theme for what this team
will be, which is how quicklydoes this ball club all come together?

(30:33):
And that will determine if the winsand losses are improved. The offensive line
will be the point that people watchmost directly in that sort of argument that
time for two more, that MountRushmore bit that you've presented. McNair is
there forever his immortality, all right, But there are three spots that potentially
could be open for shuffling over thenext fifty years. And if Jeffrey Simmons

(30:59):
can and used to be Jeffrey Simmons, that monster the Jeffrey Simmons is.
I mean, it might be along shot, but he might be able
to sneak up into that rush moreright. Yes, he has that type
of ability, and now we're readyto see him go to that next monster
level. He's been outstanding. He'sbeen one of the five best guys at

(31:22):
his position. With Aaron Donald nowretired, there is that opening for who
is that guy as an interior defensivelineman. Who it was Aaron Donald?
Everybody knew it was Aaron Donald.Nobody even argued about that. And yet
there's a moment now where somebody canis it Chris Jones, you know,
is it Jeffrey Simmons? Is itone of another of other candidates? And

(31:48):
can jeff be that? Can heelevate to double digit sacks? Can he
play in all seventeen games? Canhe be the monster in this defense which
is really set up for him todo well? Can he become the force
that you know, to talk aboutspinal tap takes it up to eleven.

(32:10):
You know, let's be honest,that's what you're looking for from this kind
of player. He's a nine pointeight right now. If we get that
for the rest of his career,he's a massive success. He's a massive
success already. But does he elevateto an all timer? That's what everybody's
waiting to see from Big Jeff.Mmmmm, all right, last one,

(32:31):
mister Mike Keith box for the Titans. Vandermeer's team, as we mentioned earlier,
heavily favored to win the division.So I mean, are the Texans
a cinch? I mean Diggs andDaniil and CJ and the whole thing.
I mean, they're heavily favored towin that division. Should they absolutely win
the AFC South, No, Ithink the real favorite should be Jacksonville.

(32:57):
Jacksonville had things fall upon heard onhim last year. They come off the
year where they win their last fivegames and take the division away from us
in twenty twenty two. They fellapart down the stretch last year when they
were clearly the best team in thedivision. They have improved themselves in many
ways, and they got a reallygood coach in Doug Peterson. I think

(33:21):
they ought to be the favorite.Now Houston should be right there with them.
Remember this, though, Indianapolis hasa great or at least potentially has
a great defense, and if theyget anything out of Anthony Richardson towards what
they hope, they may be adangerous team. This is to me,

(33:42):
this division has the makings of theheavyweight division in professional boxing in the nineteen
seventies, where not only did youhave Muhammad Ali and you had Joe Frasier,
but you had the acorn Erdie Shavers, and you had Ken Norton,
and you had Jerry Quary and youhad you know, all these great fighters.
I mean, ten might win thisdivision again. I think it's probably

(34:06):
eleven, but ten might win itagain. Because all of the AFC South
matchups are going to be physical.I think we are becoming the new AFC
North. You know, it's alwaysbeen Pittsburgh and Cincinnati and Cleveland and Baltimore.
They bloodied each other's nose every singleweek, regardless of record. I

(34:28):
think that's what the South looks likeright now. So for everybody to be
crowning Houston, I understand why.From the publicity standpoint, they're the defending
champions, I get that. Ithink you've got to start with Jacksonville though,
based on what they were when theywere really good last year and what

(34:50):
they should be through the course ofthis year. Other trip for Houston two
PA, and you know this,for as long as you've done it,
Houston's not playing a fourth place schedulethis year. They're not right. And
when you're not playing a fourth placeschedule and you don't have fifteen noon games,
you know you're playing on a Thursdayand you're doing this and you're on

(35:12):
national TV, that's what you want. You want a Chiefs type of schedule.
But that doesn't that doesn't mean it'sgoing to be easier. It's going
to be harder. It's made tobe harder. My man. You're absolutely
fantastic, and thank you very muchfor amplifying the radio show today. I'll
be seeing you in several months,but let's text end or talk before that.

(35:34):
Okay, Love your brother, Thanks, love you too. See Mike
Keith, the twenty five year voxfor the Tennessee Titans Nordwell, hey quickly,
yes, can you because you're fasterof this stuff than main Sure Tennessee
Titans season wins total Courtesy of fandulI have it here momentarily. Did you

(35:57):
hear the vox The Tennessee Titans areone hundred fifty to one to win the
Super Bowl? So did you hearthe vox? Uh, he's feeling good
and they might be sleeping. Theymight be sleeping on the voxes team.
Well, here's here's what I thinksometimes is when you hear when you hear
Mike Keith talk about the Titans,it's okay. I bet you. That's
what some people think when they hearus talking about the Vikings. If somebody

(36:20):
asks me, if Detroit is favoredto win the NFC North, will Detroit
win the NFC North? I wouldsay yes. I hit him with a
heavier favorite, the Houston Texans inthat first place schedule. He's like,
no, that they're not a sinsto win this division. Yeah, Tennessee
Titans over under six and a half, six and a half, six and
a half wins. Mau ma,So am good. Why don't you give

(36:45):
me half the money you were gonnabend. Then we'll go out there.
I'll kick you in the nuts andwe'll call it a day. Welcome back,

(37:08):
nine to noon. It is VikesBites be where we cover it all
positive or negative vikes. Bites isbrought to you by a Thousand Hills Lifetime
Grazed grass fed Beef. Go toThousand Hills Lifetime Grazed dot com. I
know our next guest at ten am. Ben Lieber knows all about Thousand Hills,

(37:29):
Matt and everybody at Clearwater, Minnesotabased company and Elite Beef. You
can get it sent to your doorsteponline. You can go to Coburn's,
you can go to local co ops. Love me some Thousand Hills, and
I do want to start where westarted early on in the show, Pa
Makai Blackman, who was reported yesterdaysecond year player, of course mistakes made

(37:50):
during rookie season, but still inthe land of opportunities, specifically in the
secondary, very big on the hopeand the promise of year two. It
was announced yesterday and reported that hehas torn his ACL and so from the
certainly the more serious and tragic newsof Kyrie Jackson weeks ago, now we

(38:10):
have in the same positional group.We have Makai Blackman. From a purely
football perspective, a season is lostfor McKay and depth becomes a significant issue,
and as it already was with thecornerback spots. You got Byron Murphy,
you got Shack Griffin, you gota Caleb Evans. Weshustin reports yesterday
didn't really do much with the ones. He was kind of in the second

(38:32):
and third related groups. Andrew BooJr. Duke, Shelley Duke, the
Duke, the Duke is on fire, undrafted rookie, Dwight mclothern. And
then there's an aj Green the thirdthat you mentioned in the open, Jalen
Williams. You mentioned him, Indianakid Najie Thompson's on the pup. I
can't really tell you in terms ofperception wise how they become significant factors in

(38:54):
this conversation. We are, we'rein trouble. The pickle at the nickel
is is quite a tough one.Yeah, not can't play corner so so,
like I said with Jalen Williams,something caught my eye with him last
year, and I you know,I'm not putting him on the active roster
or certainly saying he'll play X amountof plays during the course of a game.

(39:14):
That there there was a wild cardin the equation yesterday and it didn't
develop off what I saw early whenI saw Murphy and Shaq Griffin with DB's
coach Deronte Jones, and then camBinam was waved over. And this was
early in practice, and cam Binama former corner at the University of California.

(39:37):
He was doing some work with theCorners yesterday. That was pre black
Man l and Harry the hit Manalso eventually was over there. So it's
probably not a thing. But thisthis news it, I mean, Andrew
Booth Junior is I just don't Ijust don't know what to expect. I

(40:00):
mean, I'm not a make orbreak kind of guy when when it comes
to analyzing other people's lots in life. But this is a pretty big year
for Andrew Booth Junior, who isgifted, he's fast, He's gotten himself
bigger this year. But something justhas not worked. It was injury and
inconsistency early. But like you said, this is the land of ten thousand

(40:22):
openings and the land of opportunity withthe pickle at the nickel and the corners
for the Viking. So may Godbe with them all bites bites more.
In terms of land of opportunity,Lewis scene from camp yesterday. That is
huge. It's huge for me.On a personal note, I think I
really got to show out and balland you know, I prove why I

(40:46):
should be here and why I deserveto be playing in the NFL. And
we done. I was going toframe it up prior to the Makai Blackman
injury, but kind of the ideawe were running through the second and just
looking at spots and Shack Griffin thisand Biron Murphy that, and it kind
of just just have Andrew Booth Juniorand Lewis seen become just a guy right

(41:09):
that the JAG related cliche or connotationassociated with them, and he's mentioned it.
He needs to. This is hischance to prove that he still belongs
here, that he can still doit. And I'm just curious what your
thoughts are on that, because nowat the safety spot, can he be

(41:29):
contributing on special teams? Snaps ondefense expected to be incredibly low, if
non existent in some respects all thingshealthy? What do you think about Lewis
scene now entering year three after whatwe've seen well with Lewis, you know,
if there is PTSD from what transpiredto Tottenham Hotspur last year or whenever

(41:53):
it happened. Yeah, two yearsago, Yeah, two years ago,
thank you. It wouldn't surprise meif he had to push through some mental
things from he saw what he felt. Well, I still remember it vividly
on the in house screen as itwas saus Corey Rosen and I sitting in
the stands, and they played iton the in house monitors in front of
us about thirty times consecutively replaying it. What I mean, I mean,

(42:16):
it's you know where the bone is. So it was a compound fraction and
it bent in a way that wasn'tsupposed to bet I mean it was.
It was absolutely disgusted. Not tobe hyperbolic, I almost, but I
can still I'm not PTSD. Ican still remember it vividly from two years
ago. It was disgusting. Itwas as gruesome as it got, the

(42:37):
turf under that fresh grass. ItTattenham as a joke. It's as bad
as the old like astro turf ofsorts where it's just carpet on cement.
It was terrible. So I couldimagine if you're mentioning the idea of still
a lack of comfort in that regard, it would make sense well it the
Lewis scene with whom I chatted lastyear did not sound like the Lewis scene

(43:00):
we just heard in that bite okayokay, and and it was that there
was a pop in his voice.There was some happiness, and there also
was elite self awareness. Because whenyou know, if you're a former first
round pick, which no longer countsfor Lewis scene, it it you know

(43:20):
you you'll have those who either passive, aggressively, low key, or with
some subterfuge will make questions like thatsound like that. They they live in
martyrdom, like, well, heknows what I can do. He knows
what I can do. They knowwhat I can do? Well, why
aren't you doing it right? Imean, like game after game Lewis wasn't

(43:43):
like that. I mean that biteyou blaye was terrific. I mean Lewis
came in there with a pop andhe's like, I gotta show it.
I got it. I have toshow I belong. So we put the
onus on him now that that thatpickle at the nickel which involves safety with
him Man and cam Bynam and JoshMattelis, Jay Ward. I'm missing any
prominent names they don't think so.I don't think so. But that right

(44:06):
there. Okay, So how manythe the numbers game with the Vikings last
year with Flora's defensive coordinator there,there there were some surprises as we headed
into the regular season, just theway the numbers shook out. Can't remember
how the safety bit went. AndMettellis, I mean, he's a safety
by name, but he's not.You know, he plays so many multiple

(44:27):
positions. Where does Lewis fit inwith that? And and you know with
Quasia doofha Mensa and certainly Kevin O'Connell. It's when there have been general managers
forever who have drafted players they've hadbig opinions on and it hasn't worked,
but then they just keep trying themyear after a year after year. We

(44:51):
had a safety here, very niceyoung man named Tyrell Johnson, you know,
I mean it's they just held ontohim too long. You know,
someone say Asher Allen, former cornerfrom Georgia, would be like that where
pride goes before the fall and ifseen is not seen in a way that
he absolutely can help, then thatmight be it for his run with the

(45:13):
Minnesota Vikings. Viikes bites this willprobably demand a bit more conversation, whether
it's with Lieber around the corner orwith Alec Lewis at eleven. But I'm
going to poach this from Alec Lewis'snotes that he put on the Athletic yesterday
the Athletic dot Com after the firstpractice. Blake Brandell, This is from
Alec took some first team reps andleft guard while Dalton Reisner mixed in at

(45:36):
right guard with the second unit.O'Connell fixated on Brandell when talking about the
interior of the offensive line. Allsigns are that he's the preferred candidate for
the job, but that he's goingto have to play play well. Excuse
me during padded practices. Well whatBrandell is? He's big and it's clear
with Brandell and Ingram. Now addyou know for the faults and or successes,

(46:02):
it's I've been told. One thingEd consistently does well is fire off
the line of scrimmage, fires offthe line of scrimmage, gets to his
guy and it's a stalemate or Edwins. Now, there are other things
on where Ed needs improvement. Ain'tno doubt about that. Reisner is I

(46:22):
mean, he's not nearly as bigas either one of them, and Dalton,
you know, whether you graded outvia the analytics, Pro Football Focus
or whatever, high end pass protector, low end run blocker. So it's
you know, it goes back tothe day we were on the perch and
you know, we're watching the superspecial Kubiak spread and there's Dalvin, I

(46:44):
mean, just weaving his way.I mean it just looked beautiful, you
know, And then I said toyou, I mean, this is this
is fine and dandy and everything,but like how you're going to block Eddie
Goldman and a team Hicks on thirdand short. I always love that one
when you absolutely have to have it. And that's been a four year conversation.
Well, Brandell, I firmly believe, because of his size and his

(47:06):
tenacity is in that spot. AndIngram, you know, I think it's
Ingram v Reisner. Okay, AndI have no idea who's going to win
final Vikebite for you. Quickly,I'm going to play some audio justin Jefferson
talking about Sam Darnold. Yeah,he definitely have a strong arm, just
seeing the deep throws he threw today, just with touching and good spiral.

(47:29):
So I definitely, definitely liked thatgoing into camp. Is he spinning at
PA? Was he spinning it yesterday? And egan Sam Darnold. I of
all the Darnald practices I've watched,so let's say a handful of organized team
activities, mini camp, and thenyesterday. Yeah, he he looks mostly

(47:49):
really good every single time. Itgoes back to the when he got the
one in ten it you know,it was the the Okay, well,
when Cousins was in there, here'swhat we see, and then with Dobbs
and Hall, here's what we saw. And then Mullins comes in and here's
what we saw. Because Nick knowshow to connect the first down dots of

(48:09):
divinity. Whether he's throwing a gameaway at the end, you know,
but he knows how to run theoffense. Sure, somebody who has a
skill set that is good enough toget them to this level at that position,
if you follow the plan, theplan's going to work. Now.
You know, with higher end quarterbacks, it may work to a higher level.

(48:32):
With lower end quarterbacks, you gotto change things because they take off
and run and do things like thator throw hospital balls. But when you
get to Donald, Donald's very smartand he knows how to run the plan.
So think of Jordan Love in thatplayoff game against the San Francisco forty
nine ers. I mean, JayLove, you can't run the plan any

(48:54):
better. I mean, he wasfantastic, executing exactly what matt Lefloor wants
until the last play when Jordan decidedhe wanted to do what he wanted and
the season ended. So if Samfollows the plan with that nice arm and
that sneaky athletic ability, nobody identifiesSam Darnold as a quarterback who's gonna run

(49:16):
repeatedly for first downs. But heis that guy. Every time I've seen
him, I'm not gonna say he'slooked fantastic. He just looks like he
belongs. And that was the situationyesterday. It's ten o'clock. Good morning,