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Transcript
I want to have a quick like sidebar on the Vikings as we get to them at pick number 18.
Um, I had a really interesting conversation with David Hellman, um, who does Robert Mays.
He does the athletic Football show, former Cowboys guy.
He was great.
He was with me on another show that I do called Heed the Call yesterday, and Arif Hassan, who's who's covered the Vikings for a long time, and there was this idea of Hubris when it comes to the Minnesota Vikings.
And I think that, you know, if you are, you know, it's just like, oh, just give Kevin O'Connell any quarterback and he's going to figure it out.
Well, we found the limitations of that.
I think that this draft is about preventing that.
On the defensive side of the ball, right?
Because as good as Brian Flores is, I mean, we saw a lot of attrition for the Vikings defense.
Now.
It's been a steady stream of guys on the way out.
We don't know what's going on with Harrison Smith, and I'm not setting the stage for you to pick a defensive player, but I feel like if we keep taking pieces from Brian Flores, it's hard for Brian Flores to be Brian Flores, just like it was hard for Kevin O'Connor to be Kevin O'Connor last year.
I don't know.
So, I mean, like some of this, like to me, um.
I, I like, I'm with you, you know what I mean?
Like, and so like, I, I, I see like the I see like, The potential that you could take Hakeem Mezador here, um, because of like the uncertainty with Gernard, and do you want to offload Gernard eventually, um, I just think Dylan Thieman is too good a fit for replacement.
That was my guy.
Yeah, I, I, I just think like when you look at a guy like now the, the, the, he's a great athlete, the questions with him are like , is he just a straight line guy?
Maybe you don't wanna have him in man coverage as much, but what I, what I've heard on him, um, is just a battleship commander back there as a safety, like a guy can get everybody lined up and if you're talking about replacing.
Harrison Smith, who is, I mean, like we talked about this with, um, with Caleb Downs, right?
Like in the potential that maybe he could be a giant, um, and how important the safety, um, the, you know, having that, like, you know, that, that real like traffic controller at safety is for the Ravens style of defense.
Well, I look at it as Like, it's similar with, with Brian Flores's defense.
He wants like to have a guy back there who can command it, and he's had that in Harrison Smith, um, you know, I think, I think Flo himself would tell you like he had that guy in New England, um, you know, and, and, and Patrick Chung, and Uh, so I, I, I think Dylan Tieneman is a guy who projects to be that, you know, and so, Tieneman makes a ton of sense for me there.
Um, you know, again, it's a safety in the first round, so like there's, there's questions about that, but, um, I, I feel really good about like based on what's there about Tieneman being the pick.
So, you know, I think the Panthers are interesting here because They can go anywhere.
We saw what they did and , and, you know, offensive line is certainly in the cards.
I don't think that's out of the realm of possibility there.
Um, But I have Hakeem Mezador, you know, and, and, and despite the fact that he's older, Albert, I think that this, that might be a good thing for this defense because they need guys who can come in and play right away.
You just spent all that money on Jalen Phillips.
You team him up with another Miami Hurricanes, and like Everone needs.
Like he needs some ingredients here, you know, like, uh, that I think we've gotten the offense to the point where it's at least sustainable to some degree .
That defense is, is what needs the most help, and they've been layering talent this offseason.
I think this is like your final centerpiece to be like, OK, we're now a little bit.
More of a cohesive front.
So, and then like you got the two kids you drafted last year.
Nick scored and looks like he's gonna be a good player.
He got up.
So now like that edge position becomes a strength for you.
I could see that.
And you can mix up the fronts now.
I mean, because again, I, I, I know that that's a lot of edge for the Panthers over the last couple of years because it was, it was what, the, the 2nd round and the 3rd.
Around last year plus Phillips, but this is what we're moving to anyway, right?
I mean, we need like maybe 3 or 4 guys that can stand up.
We need guys who can play multiple positions.
Scoring is a really great run defense like, you know, I, I, I, I, I like your like how versatile they can be here.
The one I thought about here a little bit was, um.
Was Caden Proctor from Alabama and this would be early for him I think you know I don't think he's gonna go this high, but I was sort of thinking about 58 pounds holy God, yeah, so some people project him as a guard and the reason I would think about him here is, so you've got Iki Awanu coming back from like what's a really bad injury, right?
Like he had the, he's got the patella tendon which is I mean, that is a really freaking difficult one for a big man to come back from.
Ozzie Traillo is dealing with the same thing in Chicago.
So, like, and then he's gonna be up, right?
So Iki Awana is gonna be up.
And then you have Rasheed Walker who comes over from Green Bay on a one-year deal.
And so, do you look at it like, if we draft Caden Proctor, he can come on, come in and play guard for us.
And then we'll see whether or not he's kind of in that, that bucket with Owanu and with uh with Rasheed Walker as guys who maybe they'll be the long-term left tackle or maybe he winds up being Taylor Moten who's getting older, um, maybe he winds up being Taylor Moten's replacement at right tackle or maybe he winds up just being a guard.
Um, I think it's an interesting, it's an interesting, it would be an interesting guy to throw into the mix because I mean athletically, I mean you saw it last year.
I mean they were throwing screen passes to this guy, which is terrifying to think about having a back on him, you know what I mean, but, but, but it's, it's no joke.
Kaylin Deboer legitimately threw screen passes to the first guy so like I think like there's, there's at least some, um, I'd say there's at least some argument for doing that.
So that brings us to number 20 the Cowboys and I Here, let's take a brief reset here, Albert, because, you know, so I can hear some people screaming.
Uh, through, um, like we have Emmanuel McNeil Warren who's on the board.
Omar Cooper is on the board.
Um, who else is on the board that Jordan Tyson is on the board, um, so receiver thing doesn't really work for you if you're Dallas unless it's like you're looking at it like we're picking is gonna play the tag and he's gonna be gone, then it would make some sense to do that , um.
I think You know, uh, from a need standpoint, like if you took care of edge with your first pick, would you be looking more at corner here, um, and like, but then are you reaching on like a Terrell or a Hood?
You're one of those guys, you know, because obviously at this point we've got Dwayne and McCoy long gone.
Um , I just like the the the big safety, you know what I mean, from Toledo.
Um, does that make sense for Christian Parker in, in his defense?
This is tough.
And you figure offensive line is taken care of for the most part.
I'm gonna take I'm gonna take Avian Terrell, I think, from Clemson.
Nice.
People who don't know that's AJ Terrell's little brother.
Yes, I, I.
I'm just looking at it and You know, you could look at a Colton Hood there too, um.
I I, I think the question with Terrell is like size , right, um, and is he just a nickel, but we've seen how important the nickel position is in that defense, um, you know, the role that Cooper Dejean plays, so, um, I'll go with Avion Terrell there.
All right, I like this.
I mean, listen, but I think like what we, what, what, what, what this exercise is doing for me now, Connor, is like sort of crystallizing the unpredictability of it because I could have looked like a million different guys here, you know what I mean?
I'm like, oh my God, it feels like you're, I'm glad I could provide that for you.
No, but it feels like, but, but, but it does feel like, like once you get past like 14 or 15, it's like, wait, like I'm kind of Like, what do I do now, you know what I mean?
So I do think that there's that element of it that's gonna be really unpredictable, on the first night of the draft, and I don't think we generally have that.
Like you get into the 20s, then all of a sudden you get some like, whoa, picks, you know, um, generally in the top 20, we have a really solid idea of who's gonna go in what range, and I think, you know, because of the dynamic we talked about off the top, which is you don't have the prototypes of premium positions.
There's a ton of volatility.
Um, and a lot earlier than, than you would normally have it.
